Baseball, Mlb | featured news

A person familiar with the negotiations tells The Associated Press that the Philadelphia Phillies and closer Jonathan Papelbon have agreed to a $50 million, four-year contract.

The government sent top investigators Thursday to hunt for Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos, whose abduction has shaken Venezuela's elite athletes and focused attention on the nation's sharp rise in kidnappings for ransom....

Venezuelan federal authorities on Thursday dispatched their "best investigators" to track the kidnappers of Major League Baseball catcher Wilson Ramos, the country's justice minister said.

Frank McCourt has agreed to sell the Dodgers, abruptly surrendering the team after fighting to retain it over two years and in two courts.

Clayton Kershaw, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier became the first trio of Los Angeles Dodgers to win NL Gold Gloves in the same year, and Adrian Gonzalez, Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury became the first three Red Sox in 32 seasons to win the AL honor together.

For CC Sabathia, there's no better place to pitch than Yankee Stadium. The big left-hander decided to stay with New York rather than test the free-agent market, agreeing Monday to a new deal that adds $30 million and one season to his existing contract, giving him a package that pays $122 million over the next five years.

Tony La Russa, the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, announced Monday he is retiring after 33 seasons as a manager in professional baseball. The Cardinals capped an improbable comeback last week by defeating the Texas Rangers to win the World Series.

David Freese homered to lead off the bottom of the 11th inning, and the St. Louis Cardinals forced the World Series to a Game 7 by rallying from two-run deficits against the Texas Rangers in the 9th and 10th on Thursday night.

MLB announced that tonight’s scheduled Game 6 of the World Series has been postponed because of expected rain in St. Louis. Cardinals and Rangers officials learned of the early postponement during an afternoon conference call with MLB. Light rain has been falling throughout the day in St. Louis and various weather reports peg the chances of rain tonight at 75-90 percent. Rather than attempt to play through the bad weather and perhaps get stuck having to delay the game after several innings they’ll push Game 6 to Thursday night and schedule a potential Game 7 for Friday night.

The Texas Rangers moved one win from their first World Series title with a victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 5. The deafening chants of “Nap-O-Li! Nap-O-Li!” rang out from the 51,549 fans before and after the key eighth-inning at-bat, sounding like the Sunday afternoon cheers for the Italian soccer team.