2012 June at LinesMaker

Judge Allows Sandusky to Put on Disorder Testimony

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (CFB/Newsfeed) — Jerry San­dusky won a court rul­ing Fri­day that will let him have an expert tes­tify about a psy­chi­atric con­di­tion that his lawyer says helps explain let­ters he wrote to his accusers and other actions being con­strued as him groom­ing victims. Judge John Cle­land granted a motion that sought to put evi­dence of “histri­onic per­son­al­ity dis­or­der” before jurors in Sandusky’s child sex­ual abuse case. Cleland’s order also said the for­mer Penn State assis­tant foot­ball coach must make him­self avail­able for pros­e­cu­tors... 

Red Sox May Have Ross Back Next Week

CHICAGO (MLB/Newsfeed) — Red Sox out­fielder Cody Ross, who has been side­lined since May 19 with a frac­tured nav­ic­u­lar bone in his left foot, will start a rehab assign­ment for Triple-A Paw­tucket in Buf­falo on Sun­day. Ross will then travel to Syra­cuse with the Paw­Sox for Mon­day and Tuesday’s games. Ross could return to the Red Sox by the mid­dle of next week if all goes well. Ross was with the club in Miami ear­lier this week and clearly looked antsy to get back to work. “Yeah, base­ball is his life,” said Red Sox man­ager Bobby Valen­tine. “He loves it.... 

Former Lakers Coach Phil Jackson Hints at a Return

NEW YORK (NBA/Newsfeed) — Phil Jack­son says “there might be” an NBA job that would lure him out of retirement. The 11-time NBA cham­pion coach tells HBO’s “Real Sports” that the Knicks and Magic open­ings this off­sea­son were not the posi­tions to bring him back to the bench. In an inter­view sched­uled to air Tues­day night, Jack­son con­firms that New York, where he started his play­ing career, didn’t con­tact him before remov­ing the interim tag from Mike Woodson’s title, but “I wasn’t going to take the job, that’s for sure.” Jack­son calls the Knicks’... 

The Diaz vs. Miller Blueprint

East Ruther­ford, NJ (UFC/Newsfeed) — Michael DiSanto breaks down Saturday’s UFC on FOX 3 main event between Nate Diaz and Jim Miller… Very few things are cer­tain when it comes to the UFC light­weight division. Ben­son Hen­der­son is the cham­pion. Bar­ring injury, he will make the first defense of his crown later this year against the man he snatched it from, Frankie Edgar. Beyond that, lit­tle is cut in stone. For exam­ple, it is nearly impos­si­ble to state with cer­tainty who sits in the num­ber one con­tender spot. Is it Anthony Pet­tis, the last man to defeat Hen­der­son?... 

Second-Round Pick Kelly Hits at Busch Stadium

ST. LOUIS (MLB/Newsfeed) — Car­di­nals man­ager Mike Math­eny said that usu­ally when a young prospect takes his first swings in Major League bat­ting prac­tice, the club’s coach­ing staff will make a bet. How many times will the kid hit it into the top of the cage his first time out? Car­son Kelly, the Car­di­nals’ second-round pick in the 2012 First-Year Player Draft, made the trip to Busch Sta­dium from his home in Port­land, Ore., on Fri­day to offi­cially become a mem­ber of the organization. After pass­ing a phys­i­cal and agree­ing to a sign­ing bonus of $... 

Hornets Sale to Saints Owner Benson Official

NEW ORLEANS (NBA/Newsfeed) - Saints owner Tom Ben­son has offi­cially gained con­trol of the New Orleans Hor­nets from the NBA. The com­ple­tion Fri­day of the $ 338 mil­lion sale of the NBA club comes two days after the league’s board of gov­er­nors approved the deci­sion to sell to Ben­son. As part of the deal, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jin­dal has approved the Hor­nets’ lease exten­sion at the state-owned New Orleans Arena, which runs through 2024 and pro­vides for $ 50 mil­lion in improvements. Ben­son agreed in April to buy the Hor­nets. The team had been owned by the... 

NFLPA: Saints Employees Fear Retribution for ‘bounty’ Testimony

NEW ORLEANS (NFL/Wyche) — As lawyers for the four sus­pended New Orleans Saints play­ers await evi­dence from the NFL on Fri­day that will — at the least — out­line the league’s posi­tion head­ing into Monday’s appeals hear­ings, the NFL Play­ers Asso­ci­a­tion sent a let­ter to the league Thurs­day claim­ing cur­rent, for­mer or sus­pended Saints employ­ees fear “ret­ri­bu­tion” from the NFL if they pro­vide truth­ful tes­ti­mony into the “bounty” scandal. Those wit­nesses’ fears could be alle­vi­ated should the NFL com­pel them to attend the appeal... 

Late-Bloomer Khaira Exceled in BCHL

Prince George, B.C. (NHL/Kimelman) — Jujhar Khaira is proof that not all hockey play­ers blos­som at the same time. Play­ing minor-midget hockey, the Cloverdale, B.C., native went undrafted by the West­ern Hockey League. How­ever, a scout from the Prince George Spruce Kings of the British Colum­bia Hockey League saw some­thing in him, and over the last two sea­sons, the rela­tion­ship has been ben­e­fi­cial to both sides. In his sec­ond sea­son with Prince George, Khaira — a left wing who now mea­sures in at 6-foot-2 and 182 pounds — fin­ished 10th in the BCHL with 79 points... 

Pague Looks to Make It Two Wins in Two Weeks

Atlantic City (UFC/Newsfeed) — Dustin Pague will step inside the Octa­gon look­ing for back-to-back wins in a two-week span as he replaces the injured Fran­cisco Rivera against Ken Stone at the UFC on FX event in Atlantic City on June 22nd. Pague and Stone made quick work of their last oppo­nents, fin­ish­ing with the same choke in the first round — Pague’s vic­tory came last Fri­day at UFC on FX 3. Pague is Stone’s third oppo­nent in short order — his orig­i­nal oppo­nent, Edwin Figueroa was injured and replaced just weeks ago by Rivera. Both ban­tamweights ver­bally... 

Murray State Football Player Dies

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (CFB/Newsfeed) — A Mur­ray State foot­ball player has died in Eliz­a­beth­town, where he had returned after his first year. Eliz­a­beth­town police Sgt. David Neary con­firmed Fri­day that Jeff Richard died Thurs­day but gave no fur­ther details. The Hardin County coroner’s office didn’t imme­di­ately return a call Friday. The uni­ver­sity said Richard, a defen­sive end, appeared in all 11 games last year, start­ing in the final three games of the sea­son and fin­ish­ing with 21 tack­les, includ­ing five tack­les for loss and a sack. High­lights...