By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
PHOENIX — The ballpark was quiet, and so the man's derision was easily heard. "M-V-P-E-D!" he chanted. "M-V-P-E-D!"
Ryan Braun was stepping into the batter's box and into the little world he has created, that of a disgraced user of performance-enhancing drugs.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SURPRISE, Ariz. — Such an appropriately named community for what happened to Prince Fielder in November.
Fielder was the centerpiece of a blockbuster trade that had the Tigers sending him to the Rangers. Both teams share a training complex with the Royals each spring in this western suburb of Phoenix.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to the Times
She went back to where it all started, to the wall in Sochi. Maria Sharapova, out of boredom really, as a child began smacking a tennis ball while her father played his weekly game a few feet away.
"My career started in Sochi," Sharapova said Wednesday, reviewing her trip home and to the Winter Olympics.
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
GLENDALE, Ariz. — The man has been walked 1,246 times, but his walk Sunday night will be considerably different.
No wide ones from a pitcher. Rather, a stroll on a red carpet in Hollywood.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
GLENDALE, Ariz. — He agreed to come back for a final year, a farewell tour if you will, which Paul Konerko definitely deserves.
The Chicago White Sox were thinking about their future when they signed Cuban defector Jose Abreu for $68 million to play first base.
Copyright © 2014 Newsday. All rights reserved.
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