Chicago Cubs fire Sveum
Baseball: The Chicago Cubs have fired manager Dale Sveum after the team finished last in the N.L. Central for the first time in seven years.
The Cubs closed the campaign dropping 41 of their final 59 games, including six of their final seven. They finished 66-96 this season and Sveum went 127-197 in his two seasons at the helm. He has one year left on a three-year deal signed before the 2012 season.
Sveum’s dismissal has ramped up speculation surrounding the status of Yankees manager Joe Girardi, a Peoria, Ill., native who played college ball at nearby Northwestern.
• Mets extend Collins: The New York Mets and manager Terry Collins completed a two-year contract extension with a club option for 2016.
The 64-year-old Collins is 225-261 as manager of the rebuilding Mets.
• A-Rod hearing begins: The grievance to overturn Alex Rodriguez’s 211-game suspension began in New York before arbitrator Fredric Horowitz.
A three-time A.L. MVP, Rodriguez was suspended Aug. 5 for alleged violations of baseball’s drug agreement and labor contract. Because he’s a first offender under the drug program and the players’ association filed a grievance to force an appeal, a suspension can’t start until it is upheld by an arbitrator.
The union argues the discipline is without just cause and is excessive. If the case doesn’t settle, a decision by Horowitz is expected this winter.
Texas A.D. Dodds stepping down
Colleges: Longtime Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds will step down in August 2014 and move into a consulting role at the nation’s wealthiest college athletic program, a person with knowledge of the decision told the Associated Press.
Under the retirement plan, Dodds will remain in his current role through Aug. 31, 2014, and move into a consulting role through 2015.
Dodds is under contract at Texas through 2015 at $700,000 per year with a $1 million annuity if he’s employed at the end of August 2014.
Dodds, 76, came to Texas from Kansas State in 1981. During his tenure, the Texas men’s program has won 14 national championships and 107 conference titles.
Texas also modernized and expanded its stadiums and facilities and grew into a massive, money-making machine that brought in $163 million last year.
• Former Longhorn QB dies: Former Texas Longhorns quarterback James Street, who took over the team’s wishbone offense and led them to the national championship in 1969, died. He was 65.
Street died early Monday but no other details were immediately available, said Serena Fitchard of the James Street Group financial services company that bears his name.
• UConn parts with Pasqualoni: Connecticut offensive coordinator T.J. Weist will take over as interim head coach of the Huskies, following the firing of Paul Pasqualoni.
The 48-year-old Weist, who played at Alabama, came to Connecticut in the offseason from Cincinnati, where he served as wide receiver’s coach.
Ex-NBA player convicted of fraud
Men’s basketball: Tate George, a former NBA player best known for his 1990 tournament buzzer-beater for the University of Connecticut, was convicted in Trenton, N.J., of four counts of federal wire fraud in a Ponzi scheme that netted him $2 million.
Authorities said George carried out a profitable scheme that lined his pockets from 2005 to early 2011, even though his purported real estate development firm – The George Group – had virtually no income-generating operation.
• Oklahoma State legend dies: Former Oklahoma State basketball All-American Bob Kurland has died at his home in south Florida.
School spokesman Mike Noteware said that Kurland, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, died in his sleep Sunday following a lengthy illness. He was 88.
The 7-foot Kurland led what was then Oklahoma A&M to national championships in 1945 and 1946, and was a member of the 1948 and 1952 U.S. gold medal Olympic teams.
• Kings re-sign Cousins: The Sacramento Kings signed 23-year-old big man DeMarcus Cousins to a four-year maximum contract extension worth a reported $62 million.
Uchimura opens strong in Belgium
Gymnastics: Boosted by high points in the high bar and floor exercise, three-time defending champion and overwhelming favorite Kohei Uchimura, of Japan, finished with 91.924 points, compared to 89.532 for U.S. champion Sam Mikulak, to lead the standings in the all-around qualifying after three of the four sessions at the gymnastics world championships in Antwerp, Belgium. Lin Chaopan of China was in third place with 89.430.