Sports briefs
Wild Things sign TL record holder
The Washington Wild Things have signed experienced third baseman Randy Cesar.
The Santo Domingo native signed with the Houston Astros back in 2012 as a 17-year-old. He had a breakout season in 2018 with the Corpus Christi Hooks of the Class AA Texas League when he hit safely in 42 consecutive games, breaking the league’s 49-year0old record. He is the most recent player to have a 40-game hitting streak in the minor leagues.
Ceasar batted .296 with 10 home runs that season and signed with the Minnesota Twins organization for 2019. He played in 45 games at the Class AAA level and seven more in Class AA before being released. He has a .269 career batting average in eight minor league seasons.
“Randy is a corner defender who has shown great development as a hitter,” Wild Things general manager Tony Buccilli said. “We greatly value his consistent run production and the level of competition he has faced. We expect Randy to provide that daily threat in the middle of our lineup. He is eager to approach this opportunity and be a dynamic player in Washington.”
Baylor up to No. 2
Good luck finding any college basketball team in the country that notches a better pair of road wins in the same week than Baylor, which followed up a victory at Texas Tech by invading Allen Fieldhouse and thumping Kansas on its home floor.
As a result? The Bears leapfrogged the Jayhawks and Duke into the second spot in the Associated Press men’s college basketball poll on Monday. They finished with 1,567 points in voting by 65 media members who regularly cover the game, just seven back of top-ranked Gonzaga – even though Baylor had 31 first-place votes and the Bulldogs had 30.
Duke fell to third in the AP poll, followed by unbeaten Auburn and Butler. The Jayhawks were next with another unbeaten, San Diego State, staying at No. 7. Oregon, Florida State and Kentucky rounded out the top 10.
The biggest climb came from Wichita State, which jumped seven spots to No. 16 after soundly beating new No. 22 Memphis and turning back Connecticut in double overtime. The Shockers’ only loss came against No. 12 West Virginia in the championship game of the Cancun Classic in late November.
Browns hire Stefanski
Kevin Stefanski is getting a turn at fixing the busted Cleveland Browns.
The Vikings’ offensive coordinator was officially hired by Cleveland on Monday as the 18th full-time coach in franchise history and 10th since the Browns’ 1999 expansion return, which to this point has been a resounding two-decade debacle.
The 37-year-old Stefanski, who spent 14 seasons as an assistant in Minnesota and has never been a head coach at any level, signed a five-year contract.
Parading out a new coach is an annual or semi-annual exercise with the Browns, who haven’t been to the playoffs since 2002 and have been in a perpetual search for a coach to help restore their damaged image. Owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam have hired five coaches, and the Browns are 33-94-1 since since they agreed to buy the team before the 2012 season.
In the NHL
Alex Ovechkin scored two first-period goals and Ilya Samsonov stopped 23 shots for his first career shutout as the Washington Capitals beat the Carolina Hurricanes 2-0 on Monday night.
The win broke the Capitals’ two-game skid and the Hurricanes’ three-game winning streak. Carolina posted shutouts in its previous two games.