Sports Briefs

BASEBALL

MLB is taking over Dodgers’ operations

LOS ANGELES | Major League Baseball said Wednesday it planned to take control of the day-to-day operations of the Los Angeles Dodgers because of mounting concern over the franchise’s financial plight.

Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, who is locked in a bitter divorce battle that many expect will result in that storied team’s sale, reportedly took a $30 million personal loan from Fox Broadcasting Co. - the team’s television partner - last week to cover the Dodgers’ payroll.

“I have taken this action because of my deep concerns regarding the finances and operations of the Dodgers and to protect the best interests of the club, its great fans and all of Major League Baseball,” commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement.

The Dodgers, winners of six World Series titles, have been one of baseball’s glamour franchises but they have been gripped by bitter in-fighting since McCourt’s wife, Jamie, filed for divorce in October 2009 after 30 years of marriage.

FOOTBALL

Goodelll: NFL ’planning to play a full season’

MINNEAPOLIS | NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday that the league is planning to start the 2011 season on time, even as the fourth day of court-ordered talks between the league and its players produced no progress and no plans to meet again until Mid—May.

“We’re planning to play a full season, and we’re going to negotiate as hard as we can to get that done,” Goodell told Giants season-ticket holders in a conference call during a break in the fourth day of mediation at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis.

It has been two weeks since U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson ordered the two sides back to the table. At the time, she also said she would take “a couple weeks” to decide on the players’ request for an injunction to immediately lift the lockout, which is the NFL’s first work stoppage since 1987.

BASKETBALL

Jalen Rose failed tests before arrest

DETROIT | Former Michigan and NBA player Jalen Rose told authorities he hadn’t been drinking and performed poorly on several tests to determine if he was intoxicated after rolling his Cadillac Escalade on a snowy Michigan road, according to a police report.

A West Bloomfield Township police report said Rose registered a 0.088 blood-alcohol level two hours after the March 11 crash. Michigan’s legal limit is 0.08.

Rose, 38, was arrested and charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. The basketball analyst for ESPN played in the NBA for 13 years, reaching the finals with Indiana in 2000. He also was part of Michigan’s famous Fab Five, which reached the NCAA title game in 1992 and 1993.

BOXING

Klitschko, Haye agree on site for bout

BERLIN | Wladimir Klitschko and David Haye agreed Wednesday to the final detail of their long-awaited heavyweight title bout, selecting Hamburger SV’s soccer stadium for the July 2 fight.

The Klitschko Management Group said that a deal was reached with the Bundesliga team to use its 57,000-seat Imtech Arena in Hamburg for the fight between IBF and WBO champion Klitschko and WBA title holder Haye.

Klitschko (55-3, 49 knockouts) and Haye (23-1, 23 KOs) originally were scheduled to fight in June 2009.

RADIO

Durham, voice of UNC, announces retirement

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. | North Carolina radio play-by-play announcer Woody Durham said the time is right for him to retire after 40 years.

Durham, whose retirement is effective at the end of June, said he has no health problems. He decided in December that the 2010-11 season would be his last.

Durham, who turns 70 in August, had been the “Voice of the Tar Heels” since 1971, calling more than 1,800 football and men’s basketball games. That included four NCAA men’s basketball championship victories.

SOCCER

Celtic manager targeted with explosive devices

GLASGOW, Scotland | The four parcel bombs sent to Celtic manager Neil Lennon and two prominent supporters of the Glasgow club were live devices that could have caused “significant harm,” police said Wednesday.

The devices were sent in the weeks after a tumultuous match between Celtic and fierce Glasgow rival Rangers, two clubs with a history of sectarian conflict. The packages were intercepted before reaching their targets and did not explode.