BASEBALL
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The Minnesota Twins hired Rays assistant coach Rocco Baldelli as their new manager, seeking a young voice to help revive a struggling team.
The 37-year-old Baldelli replaces Paul Molitor, who was fired after four seasons with a 305-343 record . Baldelli will be the youngest manager in the major leagues, the first skipper ever born in the 1980s.
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Baldelli spent the last four years on the staff of Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash. For four seasons prior to that, he was a special assistant in the front office of the team that drafted him sixth overall in 2000 out of high school in Rhode Island. Baldelli debuted with the Rays at age 21 in 2003, finishing third in the American League Rookie of the Year award voting after batting .289 with 51 extra-base hits and 27 stolen bases.
Injuries hounded him for most of his career, however, and a rare disorder that caused muscle fatigue ultimately forced him to retire after the 2010 season. The only year as a professional he spent apart from the Rays was 2009, when he played in 62 games for the Boston Red Sox.
TORONTO (AP) - Charlie Montoyo, a bench coach for the Tampa Bay Rays this season, was hired as manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. He succeeds John Gibbons, who was let go after the team finished 73-89.
Montoyo has a three-year contract with a club option for 2022. He is to be introduced at a news conference Monday.
Montoyo is a 53-year-old Puerto Rican who worked as the bench coach for the Tampa Bay Rays this season. Before that, he was their third-base coach for three years.
Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said in a statement that Montoyo is “a highly regarded leader” with “a superior ability to connect and relate.”
SOCCER
KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) - FIFA President Gianni Infantino says he is pushing for support of new competitions despite Europe’s opposition because it is his duty to protect the “relevance of football.”
On the eve of the soccer governing body’s council meeting, Infantino revealed other investors are interested in backing a revamped Club World Cup and a new worldwide Nations League. So far, only a consortium featuring Japan’s SoftBank that has offered $25 billion in guaranteed revenue has been identified.
But European soccer’s federation remains a thorn in the side of Infantino, who wants council members on Friday to agree in principle to replace competitions that lack commercial appeal. UEFA clubs are opposed to adding more games to their schedule, especially any that threaten the popular Champions League.
ROME (AP) - Juventus president Andrea Agnelli is standing by Cristiano Ronaldo as the soccer superstar faces an accusation of rape in the United States.
Agnelli, the son of former Fiat CEO Umberto Agnelli and a member of the Italian car maker’s board, spoke Thursday at a club shareholders meeting in Turin.
“When there are problems I tend to look people in the eyes, ask them the questions directly and them judge them myself,” Agnelli said. “I’m very calm, having spoken to him directly as soon as the case emerged, on his position. And his behavior in the days and weeks that followed only confirm my initial feeling.”
Kathryn Mayorga filed a civil lawsuit last month in Nevada claiming Ronaldo raped her in his Las Vegas hotel room in 2009. Police also reopened an investigation into the allegation at her request.
Ronaldo defended himself against the accusation at a news conference ahead of a Champions League match this week. His attorney, Peter S. Christiansen, issued a statement on Oct. 10 denying wrongdoing by his client.
COLLEGE BASEBALL
NEW YORK (AP) - The lawyer for former Louisville coach Rick Pitino says the convictions in a federal trial alleging corruption in college basketball supports his client’s assertion he was unaware of a scheme to bribe the family of a Cardinals recruit.
Attorney Marc Mukasey said in a statement the government argued that former Adidas executive James Gatto, business manager Christian Dawkins and amateur league director Merl Code “needed to conceal” the scheme from schools and “no one with any degree of credibility implicated Pitino.”
A federal jury on Wednesday found the three men guilty of fraud in the case. Louisville fired Pitino last October soon after the investigation was announced, but the coach was not mentioned in the federal complaint. Pitino has maintained he was not involved in or aware of a scheme to pay the family of former Cardinal player Brian Bowen Jr.
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