Fast Break
Soccer
MLS players bent about Beckham?
David Beckham will receive more than double what any other player in MLS is getting this year and more than 50 times the average salary, according to data released by the league’s players’ union.
Beckham, the former English captain who joins the Los Angeles Galaxy this summer, has $6.5 million in guaranteed income that includes a $5.5 million base salary this year, the union said. That’s 10 times more than what any player is getting outside the top six.
Thirty-two players earn the league minimum of $30,000, and developmental players get even less: 35 make $17,700 and 56 get $12,900. The top six players in the league have salaries above the major league baseball minimum of $380,000.
The average guaranteed salary for the 356 players listed is $115,478 and the median – the point at which an equal amount make above and below – is $52,965. Seventy four percent have base salaries of $100,000 or less.
Associated Press
College basketball
Daugherty fills spot on staff
Washington State University women’s coach June Daugherty has hired Brian Holsinger to fill one of the assistant coaching positions.
Holsinger, a Federal Way (Wash.) High graduate, has been women’s coach at Montana Tech the past two seasons.
Holsinger is a 1999 graduate of Western Washington University. He attended Pacific University and played basketball as a freshman for the Boxers in 1994-95 before transferring to WWU after his freshman year.
Baseball
Cards ban alcohol in wake of death
The St. Louis Cardinals banned alcohol from the clubhouse, five days after the alcohol-related fatal accident of pitcher Josh Hancock.
Manager Tony La Russa said general manager Walt Jocketty did not consult players before making the decision before the team’s first home game since Hancock’s death. La Russa said it was a largely symbolic move since players don’t drink much in the clubhouse anyway.
Hancock was drunk and talking on his cell phone at the time of his fatal accident early Sunday on Interstate 64 in St. Louis. His blood-alcohol level was 0.157, nearly twice Missouri’s legal limit of 0.08, the medical examiner said.
Associated Press