Sports briefs
Horse goes for racing milestone
Foiled Again, harness racing’s richest horse, goes for his 100th career win Saturday night at Yonkers Raceway.
The 14-year-old gelding will be driven by George Brennan in the $20,000 race at Empire City Casino’s half-mile harness oval. He will start from the outside post in the opening race.
Foiled Again has won more than $7.5 million in purses. Victory No. 99 came last Saturday night in his season debut of what will be his last year of racing.
Foiled Again would become the 18th standardbred to reach the 100-win milestone. The leader at 137 is Niffit, who raced from 1977 to 1989.
Stanford’s Love to return for final year
Heisman Trophy runner-up and Doak Walker Award winner Bryce Love is returning to Stanford for his senior season.
Love released a statement through the school Tuesday saying he will be back next year while continuing to work on his degree in human biology.
Love set a Stanford record with 2,118 yards rushing this season, set an FBS record with 13 runs of at least 50 yards and topped the 100-yard mark 12 times despite being hampered by a sprained ankle the second half of the season and a hand injury in Stanford’s 37-35 Alamo Bowl loss to TCU.
Earnhardt Jr. joins NBC Sports
Dale Earnhardt Jr. barely had time to ease into retirement before NBC Sports gave him a full workload.
Earnhardt will be part of the network’s pregame show before the Super Bowl, then head to South Korea for NBC Sports’ coverage of next month’s Olympics. Earnhardt retired from driving in November and signed on to be a racing analyst for NBC Sports’ beginning later this year.
But the network plans to use NASCAR’s most popular driver in various roles to both introduce him to new adventures and draw attention to racing before Earnhardt becomes a full-time broadcaster.
Yankees sign LeBlanc
Left-hander Wade LeBlanc has agreed to a minor league contract with the New York Yankees and will report to major league spring training.
The 33-year-old LeBlanc was 5-2 with a 4.50 ERA in 50 relief appearances last year for Pittsburgh, which declined his $1.25 million option for 2018.
LeBlanc is 30-35 in nine seasons with a 4.40 ERA in 79 starts and 97 relief appearances for San Diego (2008-11), Miami (2012-13), Houston (2013), the Yankees (2014), Los Angeles Angels (2014), Seattle (2016) and Pittsburgh.
WVU-Kentucky basketball time set
The Big 12 Conference and ESPN announced that West Virginia’s basketball game against Kentucky Jan. 27 will begin at 7 p.m. at the WVU Coliseum.
WVU has hosted Kentucky only twice before. The Mountaineers bested the Wildcats 56-43 Jan. 11, 1941, marking their only home win in the series. Kentucky was last in Morgantown Dec. 7, 1970, and defeated the Mountaineers 106-100.
ESPN will televise the game, and the university says no tickets remain for the game.
Reed to Twins
Right-handed reliever Addison Reed and Minnesota have finalized a $16.75 million, two-year contract, putting another pitcher with closing experience in the back of the Twins’ bullpen.
The deal, agreed to over the weekend, was announced Monday and calls for salaries of $8.25 million this year and $8.5 million in 2019. The Twins agreed to a deal with right-hander Fernando Rodney in the offseason.