football
Ravens star center decides to retire
• Six-time Pro Bowl center Matt Birk, 34, says he will retire after 15 seasons in the NFL, the last winning a Super Bowl title with the Baltimore Ravens. A sixth-round draft selection in 1998, Birk played 11 seasons in Minnesota before going to Baltimore.
• The Tennessee Titans agreed to terms with safety George Wilson. The 6-foot, 212-pound Wilson was released by Buffalo on Feb. 11.
• Don Shula, the NFL’s career leader in coaching victories, will be honored with the Lamar Hunt Award given annually to an individual who helped to shape professional football. Shula will be honored on March 2 in Kansas City.
baseball
White Sox pick up Gillaspie in trade
• The San Francisco Giants traded third baseman Conor Gillaspie to the Chicago White Sox for minor-league pitcher Jeff Soptic. Gillaspie, 25, spent parts of three seasons with the Giants, hitting .205 with a home run and four RBI in 29 games and 44 at-bats. Soptic, a 21-year-old right-handed reliever, was 3-2 with an ERA of 5.40 with Class A Kannapolis last year.
• Johan Santana’s first spring training appearance of the year for the New York Mets has been pushed back until mid-March. The left-hander does not have any structural damage in his throwing shoulder, but needs more time to build up strength.
Winter SPORTS
Recovering Vonn vents at officials
• Lindsey Vonn’s right knee is healing quicker than her feelings over a world championship race she says should have been called off. The four-time overall World Cup champion remains unhappy about how she sustained a season-ending injury — two shredded ligaments and a broken bone — at the world championships in Schladming, Austria. She believes organizers should have postponed the super-G race on Feb. 5 because of deteriorating course conditions.
• American teenager Sarah Hendrickson won the women’s ski jumping title in Val di Fiemme, Italy, defeating Sara Takanashi of Japan at the Nordic skiing world championships. Hendrickson, 18, had a 347-foot, 9-inch effort on the first jump and scored a total of 253.7 points after two jumps.
other SPORTS
Kvitova knocks off Wozniacki in Dubai
• Former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final of the Dubai Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She’ll play Sara Errani of Italy, who defeated Roberta Vinci 6-3, 6-3.
• Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton overcame wet weather and a cold to record the fastest time of the final day of Formula One preseason testing in Barcelona, Spain. Hamilton clocked 1 minute, 23.282 seconds on the Catalunya Circuit.
• Columbus Blue Jackets center Artem Anisimov was released from a Detroit hospital after a scary hit in a game with the Red Wings on Thursday night. Team spokesman Todd Sharrock confirmed on Friday that Anisimov is flying home to Columbus along with assistant athletic trainer Nates Goto.
• Simon Yates of Britain won the last sprint to claim the points race at the track cycling world championships in Minsk, Belarus. Teammate Jason Kenny took gold in the kierin final. Kenny, a three-time Olympic champion, edged Maximilian Levy of Germany by 0.047 of a second to claim his second world title. Katarzyna Pawlowska of Poland retained her title in the women’s scratch race, winning ahead of Sofia Arreola Navarro of Mexico.
• Mario Pino, Marlyand’s all-time leading rider, won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in voting by his fellow riders. He beat out finalists Javier Castellano, Perry Compton, David Flores and Rodney Prescott.
— From wire reports
Correction
• The coach of the Highland girls basketball team is Bernard Bohla. He was misidentified in a story in the Friday edition. A reporter erred.
