Dodgers, pitcher Zack Greinke finalize $147 million contract | Baseball

The Los Angeles Dodgers finalized a $147 million, six-year deal with right-hander Zack Greinke, a former Los Angeles Angel who was considered the top pitcher on the free-agent market..

Zack Greinke

Baseball
Dodgers finalize Greinke deal
The Los Angeles Dodgers finalized a $147 million, six-year deal with Zack Greinke on Monday.
Greinke, 29, was considered the top free-agent pitcher on the market and his contract is the richest of all time for a right-handed pitcher. He ended last season with the Los Angeles Angels.
Greinke, who won the 2009 AL Cy Young Award with Kansas City, joins a staff that includes 2011 NL Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw.
"We were definitely hoping for Zack," said NBA legend Magic Johnson, a partner in Guggenheim Baseball Management, which bought the Dodgers for $2.15 billion last spring. "Zack is a proven winner. When you put him together with Clayton, man, we feel really good."
The Dodgers introduced South Korean left-hander Ryu Hyun-jin, who has a $36 million, six-year deal, at a news conference. Ryu will be the first player to go directly from the Korean league to the North American major leagues.
Ichiro might return to Yankees
Ichiro, 39, and the New York Yankees are making progress toward a one-year contract, according to numerous media reports.
Ex-Mariners outfielder Ichiro was traded to the Yankees in July and batted .322 in 67 games for New York.
White Sox sign Keppinger
Infielder Jeff Keppinger, a 32-year-old who hit a career-high .325 for Tampa Bay last season, signed a $12 million, three-year contract with the Chicago White Sox.
Meanwhile, reliever Jason Grilli, 36, re-signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates for two years and $6.75 million.
High-school pitcher Shohei Otani, 18, has decided to stay at home in Japan instead of immediately pursuing a career in the major leagues.
The right-hander's fastball has been clocked at close to 100 mph. He announced plans to compete for the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan.
NHL
League cancels more games
As the NHL and the players' union struggle to reach a new labor agreement, the lockout continues to eat away at the 2012-13 season.
League officials canceled all games through Dec. 30, bringing the total of regular-season games lost to 527 — 43 percent of the season.
The Jan. 1 Winter Classic, where Detroit and Toronto were to play outdoors in Ann Arbor, Mich., was canceled last month, as was All-Star Weekend in Columbus, Ohio.
The league and union have held informal discussions about resuming negotiations this week.
Commissioner Gary Bettman is believed to be about a month away from a "drop-dead" date for canceling the season, according to The New York Times.
During the 2004-05 lockout, Bettman canceled the season Feb. 16, but it is believed he would not wait as long in this, his third lockout.
"When it gets to the point where we can't play a season with integrity, with a representative schedule, then we'll be done," Bettman said Thursday, adding he "can't imagine" each team playing fewer than 48 games.
That is how long the season was after Bettman's first lockout, in 1994-95. That season, he set a cancellation date of Jan. 10, but an agreement was announced Jan. 11. That settlement was not finalized, and details were still being worked out after play had resumed.
NHL officials are believed not to want to resume play this time until all details are codified and an agreement signed.
College basketball
Zags drop to 14th in polls
Gonzaga (9-1) dropped from 10th to 14th in the Associated Press media and USA Today/ESPN coaches polls released Monday.
The Zags, listed as 12-point favorites, lost at home 85-74 to then-No. 13 Illinois on Saturday. The Illini are 10th in both polls this week.
The top four men's teams in both polls, in order, are No. 1 Indiana, Duke, Michigan and Syracuse.
Stanford, which had time off for exams, continues to lead the AP women's poll and Connecticut remains second.
Elsewhere
• The PGA Tour's event in Mexico will anchor a six-tournament schedule next fall. For the first time since 1970, the schedule will not include a stop at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla.
The Tour next year goes to a wraparound season and will offer FedEx Cup points for the six tournaments that will kick off the 2013-14 season. That season will start with the Open in San Martin, Calif., from Oct. 10 to 13 and conclude with the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Mexico from Nov. 14 to 17.
After about a two-month break, the 2013-14 Tour schedule will resume in Hawaii with the Tournament of Champions.
Disney tournament officials lost their title sponsor when the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals did not renew.
• Shoe and apparel giant Nike Inc. plans to expand its operations in Oregon and hire hundreds of workers but wants the state government to promise tax rules won't change, prompting a special session of the Legislature.
Gov. John Kitzhaber said he will call lawmakers together Friday in Salem to create a new law authorizing him to grant Nike's wish, and legislative leaders indicated they will go along with the plan.
• Arturo Gatti, a world champion in two weight classes, will be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and Museum in Canastota, N.Y., on June 9.
Gatti retired in 2007 with a record of 40-9 and was selected in his first year of eligibility. Gatti died in July 2009 in Brazil at age 37 under mysterious circumstances.
Other boxers selected were Virgil Hill and South Korean Myung-Woo Yuh from modern times; Wesley Ramey and Jeff Smith in the old-timer (posthumous) category and Ireland native Joe Coburn in the pioneer category.
Other inductees: referee Mills Lane, ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr., manager Arturo "Cuyo" Hernandez of Mexico, cartoonist Ted Carroll and British journalist Colin Hart.