Lightning send Tortorella packing
John Tortorella was fired Tuesday as coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, four years after leading the team to its only Stanley Cup championship. He had one season remaining on his contract.
The Lightning were 239-222-36-38 and made the playoffs four times in 61/2 seasons under Tortorella. The firing came as no surprise. There has already been speculation about television analyst and former Los Angeles Kings coach Barry Melrose possibly replacing Tortorella.
Melrose is a friend of Oren Kroules, who is leading a group that is trying to buy the Lightning.
•Philadelphia Flyers right wing Sami Kapanen, 34, retired from the NHL and plans to return to Finland and play for a team he owns there.
Baseball
Finalists announced
Five college players expected to go in the top of the major league baseball draft were chosen as finalists for the Golden Spikes award, which goes to the nation’s best amateur player.
The five are Gordon Beckham, a shortstop from Georgia; pitchers Aaron Crow of Missouri and Brian Matusz of San Diego; catcher Buster Posey of Florida State and third baseman Brett Wallace of Arizona State.
The winner will be named July 16.
•University of Washington assistant coach Donny Harrel has been hired as the head coach at Seattle University, which is bringing back baseball as a varsity sport.
Basketball
Bush honors champs
In a Rose Garden ceremony and an Oval Office tour, President Bush honored the University of Kansas as the 2008 NCAA basketball champions. With a remarkable flourish in the final game, KU pulled out the title for the first time since 1988.
“You brought new glory to one of our nation’s most storied basketball programs, and you gave your fans all across America one more reason to chant: Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!” Bush said.
•Sacramento Kings assistant coach Chuck Person is set to have a second interview with the Chicago Bulls for their vacant head coaching job.
Person joined the Kings last year after spending the previous two as an assistant with Indiana, where he played six of his 13 NBA seasons.
Miscellany
Mexico hires Eriksson
Former England soccer coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, 60, was hired to lead Mexico. Eriksson spent last season as coach of Manchester City in the Premier League.
•Brian Keith Patch, a 36-year-old skateboarder who starred at the X Games, will be arraigned today in Westminster, Calif., on a charge of having sex with a 15-year-old girl.
•American Antonio Pettigrew agreed to return the Olympic relay gold medal he won in 2000 in Sydney after admitting to doping.
•Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, fresh off setting the world record of 9.72 seconds in the 100-meter dash last weekend, backed off his earlier guarantees that he’ll run the 100 at the Olympics in August. He specializes in the 200 and set the record in only his fifth race in the 100.