baseball • Free agent Kevin Youkilis and the New York Yankees have reached agreement on a one-year deal, a source familiar with the deal said. The contract is worth $12 million and pending a physical.
Youkilis is expected to play third base while Alex Rodriguez recovers from hip surgery. A-Rod plans to have the surgery in mid-January and could be sidelined until the All-Star break or beyond.
Youkilis turns 34 in March. He played third base and first base last season for the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox.
Earnhardt Jr. raves about new car
auto racing • NASCAR spent almost the entire year developing its 2013 car in hopes the "Gen 6" model will dramatically improve the racing. After his first test drive Tuesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR's most popular driver approved of the car.
"This sport is going to be revolutionized again with this car," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said.
That's a ringing endorsement for NASCAR, which stumbled out of the gate with the launch of its 2007 "Car of Tomorrow" and never recovered. After Kyle Busch won the CoT's debut race at Bristol, he panned the car in his victory celebration on live television. He didn't let up in his post-race interviews, likening the car to driving a milk crate .
NASCAR has worked tirelessly this year on orders from chairman Brian France to develop a racier 2013 model, which will officially debut at the season-opening Daytona 500 in February. It's been tested some over the fall, but Charlotte Motor Speedway opened Tuesday for a two-day session attended by 16 drivers.
Sporting K.C. gets midfielder Feilhaber
media • The publisher and editor-in-chief of Sporting News say the magazine will become online-only at the start of the year. The magazine began in 1886 and has printed either weekly, biweekly or monthly editions since its inception. In a letter to readers Tuesday, Publisher Jeff Price and Editor-in-Chief Garry Howard said "neither our subscriber base nor the current advertising market for print would allow us to operate a profitable print business going forward."
The magazine, which switched from biweekly to monthly publication in October, says it will print six yearbooks in 2013, previewing major league baseball, the NFL and other sports.
Sporting K.C. gets midfielder Feilhaber
soccer • Sporting Kansas City has acquired midfielder Benny Feilhaber from the New England Revolution for allocation money along with the club's first-round draft pick this season and second-round draft pick next season. The 27-year-old Feilhaber, a veteran of the U.S. men's national team, made 52 appearances for the Revolution over the last two seasons with five goals and nine assists.
From wire report