Baseball

The manager of the Indios de Mayagüez, Carlos Baerga, who will represent Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Series in Venezuela, expressed his admiration for the players of the Cuban team of Villa Clara.

Baerga, former rookie mentor last year with the Cangrejeros de Santurce and selected Coach of the Year who won the championship with the Indios de Mayagüez, confessed his admiration for the Cuban players who will attending the Caribbean Series for the first time after half century.

"I have always respected and much loved both Cuban people and its baseball; therefore, to beat Cuba would mean to beat one of the best baseball teams in the world... we will have an experienced and renewed team with national and foreign figures concentrated on getting the title and erase the streak defeats of the past 14 years," said the famous coach to Cuba's Prensa Latina news agency.

Puerto Rico will travel on Friday to Margarita Island in Venezuela where it will debut on February 1st against Dominican Republic.

Winter Olympics

The UN General Assembly called today on its 193 member countries to respect a truce called for the duration of the 22nd Winter Olympics and 11th Paralympic Winter Games to be held in Sochi, Russia.

The call to cease hostilities was made by the President of the Assembly, John Ashe, at a plenary dedicated to promoting sports as a tool for peace and development as well as to stop all world conflicts, in advance of the opening of the Games, scheduled for February 7th.

The initiative responds to the tradition in ancient Greece to request a ceasefire in ongoing battles as a guarantee for the safety of athletes, traveling to and participating in their own games.

Since 1993, the General Assembly adopted a resolution that urges countries to respect the Olympic truce 7 days before the installation of every major sporting event, and a week after the closure.

Last November 6th, the plenary of 193 nations adopted the resolution previous to the upcoming events in Russia.

After the 22nd Olympic Winter Games will run from February 7th to 13th, while the 11th Paralympics will take place from March 7th to the 16th in Sochi, located on the shores of the Black Sea.

Soccer

The famous Uruguayan soccer player Diego Forlán signed a contract with Cerezo Osaka Japanese club for an annual salary of $5.8 million USD, a record in the national soccer championship.

Forlán, who is 34 years old, played last season with the International Brazilian team of Porto Alegre, and scored 22 goals in 55 games.

According to the official website for the Japanese sports organization, the agreement will take effect starting next season, which begins in March and ends in December.

The Uruguayan forward star, holder of 36 goals in 107 international matches with the Celeste team, previously played with prestigious teams such as the British Manchester United, the Italian Inter-Milan, and Spanish Villarreal and Atletico Madrid, among others.

It is important to point out that the Brazilian-born Japanese Marcus Tulio Tanaka, also of Nagoya, was the highest paid player in the championship to date, with a salary of 160 million yen.

Uruguay will play the World Cup in Brazil-2014, June 12th to July 13th, as top seed in Group D, along with Costa Rica, England and Italy.