Sports in 2 Minutes

From The Associated Press

Falcons hold off on suspending Vick until NFL completes probe
ATLANTA—Horrified by the dogfighting allegations against their star player, the Atlanta Falcons planned to suspend quarterback Michael Vick for four games until the NFL asked them to hold off while it conducted its own investigation.

What remains unclear: Has Vick played his final game for the Falcons?

“This sort of behavior is really horrific,” Falcons owner Arthur Blank said Tuesday, the team’s first public comment since Vick was indicted last week. “But these are charges. We have to let the legal process play out.”

Blank said he would encourage Vick, indicted on federal charges of sponsoring a dogfighting operation, not to worry about playing football at all in 2007 while the case is pending.

With training camp beginning Thursday, the same day Vick is scheduled to be arraigned in Richmond, Va., the Falcons felt they had to make a decision on the player who led them to the NFC championship game during the 2004 season and last year became the first quarterback in league history to rush for 1,000 yards.

For now, Joey Harrington is Atlanta’s starting quarterback.

Teams are allowed to impose disciplinary suspensions of up to four games, while the league can hand out harsher penalties.

“Prior to this, we were pursuing the maximum discipline, which is a four-game suspension,” Blank said. “We had gone so far as to draft the letter. But the commissioner asked us not to take action until they completed their review.”

Biggio to retire at end of season
HOUSTON—Houston Astros infielder Craig Biggio plans to retire at the end of the season after a 20-year career in which he joined the elite 3,000-hit club.

“I get to go out on top. The 3,000th hit night was the best. I’ll never forget that,” Biggio said at a news conference Tuesday. “I’m in a good place. I think I’ve done everything I could on a baseball field.”

The 41-year-old got his 3,000th hit on June 28.

“I just can’t believe it’s over. It’s gone by fast,” he said. “I have no regrets. I played the game the right way.”

Biggio is batting .247 with 24 doubles, five homers and 31 RBIs. He began Tuesday with 3,014 hits, six shy of tying Rafael Palmeiro for 23rd place.

Biggio has played his entire major league career with the Astros, becoming the longest-tenured player in franchise history.

A teary-eyed Biggio said he will miss putting on his uniform every day and also will miss the fans.

Along with teammate and friend Jeff Bagwell, who retired before the start of this season, Biggio led the Astros to four division titles, the team’s first NL pennant and trip to the World Series in 2005.

Biggio’s 3,000th hit came one day shy of the 19th anniversary of his first career hit, a single off Orel Hershiser on June 29, 1988.

Biggio is the only player in major league history with 600 doubles, 250 homers, 3,000 hits and 400 steals. Biggio is a career .282 hitter. He has already been inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.

Vinokourov tests positive for banned transfusion
PAU, France—Tour de France rider Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for a banned blood transfusion after winning last weekend’s time trial, prompting his Astana team to pull out of the race Tuesday and police to raid the team hotel.

Despite the latest heavy blow to a sport reeling from doping scandals, Tour de France organizers said the race would go on.

The Kazakh rider, a one-time favorite to win cycling’s premier event, was tested after his victory in the 13th stage time trial on Saturday.

“Vino has tested positive having to do with a blood transfusion and the team is leaving the Tour,” team spokeswoman Corinne Druey said, using the rider’s nickname.

Astana team manager Marc Biver said Vinokourov was sent home. His backup B-sample test results are expected by the end of the week.

“Alexandre denies having manipulated his blood,” Biver said, adding that the rider believes that “blood anomalies in his body” may have resulted from a crash he was involved in last week.

About 30 police officers, some in plain clothes, descended on Astana’s La Palmeraie hotel in Pau and sealed it off, preventing more members of the team from leaving.

The case brought back memories of some of cycling’s darkest days. In 1998, police raids turned up a stash of performance-enhancing drugs in a Festina team car, plunging the Tour in crisis.

Vinokourov, a pre-race favorite, also won Monday’s 15th stage. He was 23rd in the overall race standings. The Tour finishes in Paris on Sunday.

Boston jury finds against Weis in lawsuit
BOSTON—A jury found against Notre Dame football coach Charlie Weis on Tuesday in his malpractice lawsuit against two doctors he claimed botched his care after he had gastric bypass surgery five years ago.

The jury deliberated for less than half a day before finding Massachusetts General Hospital surgeons Charles Ferguson and Richard Hodin were not negligent.

Weis, 51, who won three Super Bowls as the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots, accused the surgeons of negligence, saying they allowed him to bleed internally for 30 hours before performing a second surgery to correct the complication.

Weis nearly died after the 2002 surgery. He testified that he still has numbness and pain in his feet and sometimes has to use a motorized cart.

Weis was stoic as the verdict was read and left the courtroom without comment. His lawyer, Michael Mone, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The doctors declined to comment as they left the courtroom, referring questions to their attorney, William Dailey Jr.

“They and all of the staff down at the Mass. General wished Coach Weis well,” Dailey said.

Could Teixeira be in final week as a Ranger?
ARLINGTON, Texas—For now, Mark Teixeira is still with the Texas Rangers. That could easily change before next week’s trade deadline.

There appears to be plenty of interest from potential contenders for Teixeira, the 27-year-old switch-hitting slugger who has won two Gold Gloves at first base.

Rangers general manager Jon Daniels has repeatedly refused to discuss specifics of potential deals for Teixeira or any other players. But Daniels said there have been conversations with several clubs and that the frequency of phone calls has increased with a week remaining before the non-waiver trade deadline next Tuesday.

Teixeira, who will be eligible for salary arbitration after making $9 million this season, has refused to talk about the possibility of being traded.

“I’m done talking about it,” Teixeira said Tuesday before the Rangers played a doubleheader against Seattle, repeating what has become a daily response.

At the start of the eight-game homestand Thursday, when Teixeira played in Arlington for the first time since going on the disabled list June 9, he said he was focused on the game.

“I know there is a business side of baseball. There is a playing side of baseball, and that is what I’m going to concentrate on the last two months of the season,” he said last week. “Until someone tells me otherwise, I’m a Ranger. I love playing here.”

Ginn absent when Dolphins rookies begin workouts
DAVIE, Fla.—The Miami Dolphins’ plan was to roll out the passing tandem of the future Tuesday, with John Beck throwing to Ted Ginn Jr.

The result: incomplete.

The newly signed Beck took part in both workouts as the rookies began training camp, but first-round draft pick Ginn was absent—the only Miami player yet to sign among the 87 on the roster.

New coach Cam Cameron reported progress in negotiations.

“I know they’re getting close,” he said.

Owner Wayne Huizenga, displeased that the Dolphins’ top picks held out in 2005 and 2006, warned in March he had no patience for a repeat.

“If you don’t report, you’re sitting out, baby. We’re not playing you,” Huizenga said then.

The following month, Miami took Ohio State receiver-returner Ginn with the ninth pick in the draft.

The Dolphins stand by Huizenga’s comment, Cameron said, but consider Ginn’s deadline to be Friday, the day the full squad reports.

Ginn’s agent didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.

Beckham sets ESPN high for game with MLS team
NEW YORK—David Beckham’s brief appearance in his first game with the Los Angeles Galaxy was enough to draw a record ESPN audience for a game involving a Major League Soccer team.

Saturday night’s exhibition match between the Galaxy and Chelsea on ESPN earned a 1.0 rating and was watched by about 1,468,000 people. MLS’s debut game between D.C. United and the San Jose Clash in 1996 also drew a 1.0 rating. It was watched by about 1,092,000 people.

Beckham, hobbled by an ankle injury, played the final 12 minutes plus four minutes of stoppage time in the Galaxy’s 1-0 loss.

The rating means that approximately 1 percent of homes with ESPN tuned in to the game.