SPORTS DIGEST | YSU’s Hardaway, Boateng resign

YSU’s Hardaway, Boateng resign

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State has two coaching vacancies to fill.

Volleyball coach Mark Hardaway stepped down on Nov. 6, the school announced on Tuesday. Women’s soccer coach Fabio Boateng resigned a day after Hardaway.

Hardaway was 8-20 in his final season with with the Penguins, who had to play their final two matches without him.

Hardaway coached the Penguins for six seasons, going a combined 74-106. His first three seasons were winning years and the last three were not. Team spokesman John Vogel said he didn’t know why Hardaway left.

Boateng is out after two seasons. His teams went 7-25-2.

“He made the decision to step down,” athletic spokesman Jamie Hall said. “He decided it was in the best interest of the program and himself.”

Red Sox great

Bobby Doerr dies at 99

BOSTON

Bobby Doerr, a Hall of Fame second baseman who was dubbed the “Silent Captain” by longtime Boston Red Sox teammate and life-long friend Ted Williams, has died. He was 99.

A sweet-fielding, hard-hitting player, Doerr was signed on the same scouting trip that brought Williams to Fenway Park, where the latter established himself as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history.

Doerr played 14 seasons with the Red Sox from 1937 to 1951, posting a .288 career average with 2,042 hits, 223 home runs, and 1,247 RBIs. He had six 100-RBI seasons — an accomplishment that was not matched by a second baseman for 25 years.

Forced to retire by a bad back in 1951, Doerr lived out his retirement in Oregon. He returned to the Red Sox as a coach from 1967-69 and was a batting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1980.

Doerr and Williams remained friends and fishing buddies after their careers were over.

Outfielder ‘Jungle Jim’ Rivera dies at age 96

CHICAGO

“Jungle Jim” Rivera, an outfielder on the 1959 “Go-Go” White Sox pennant-winning team, has died.

He was 96. The team says he died Monday night in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The AL leader in triples in 1953 and steals two years later, “Jungle Jim” played for the White Sox from 1952 to 1961. He was part of the 1959 team that — led by Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio and Early Wynn — captured the franchise’s first pennant since 1919.

Rivera batted .256 in a career that included short stints with the St. Louis Browns and Kansas City Athletics.

Ex-Auburn basketball coach pleads not guilty

NEW YORK

A prosecutor says the government has 16 hours of telephone conversations by fired Auburn associate head basketball coach Chuck Person to use against him.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Boone in New York made the disclosure as Person pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges in a college basketball bribery scandal. Indictments were returned last week against eight people, including four coaches.

Person declined to comment as he left the courtroom. The plea was a procedural step in a process leading to trial.

Boone told Judge Loretta Preska that the government captured conversations relevant to the case by tapping two of Person’s phones.

Skier Poisson may have hit tree in fatal crash

PARIS

The French Ski Federation says an investigation into the death of David Poisson suggests the safety netting failed and he hit a tree.

The 35-year-old Poisson died on Monday while training at the Canadian resort of Nakiska, which staged Alpine skiing races of the 1988 Olympics.

The federation said in a statement on Tuesday that Poisson lost a ski then fell heavily, and “might have hit a tree after going through the safety netting.”

Poisson was training for World Cup races in North America.

From staff and wire reports