Griffey sixth player to hit 600 homers
MIAMI, June 9 (UPI) -- Cincinnati's Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 600th career home run Monday to become the sixth player in Major League Baseball history to reach the milestone.
Griffey, 38, hit a first-inning, down-and-in breaking pitch deep into the right-field seats off Florida left-hander Mark Hendrickson for a two-run homer.
The home run was Griffey's seventh of the season. He had been sitting on No. 599 since May 31.
Griffey is first among active players with 600 homers, with home-run king Barry Bonds (762) and Sammy Sosa (609) not currently a part of a major league roster.
The next active player behind Griffey on the all-time list is Alex Rodriguez (528).
Griffey is in his ninth season with Cincinnati after 11 seasons in Seattle. His top seasons were back-to-back 56-home-run efforts in 1997-98.
Report: Maple Leafs to name Wilson coach
TORONTO, June 9 (UPI) -- The Toronto Maple Leafs will name Ron Wilson the club's new head coach Tuesday, TSN of Canada reported Monday.
The report said Maple Leafs interim General Manager Cliff Fletcher and Wilson verbally agreed to terms on a four-year contract over the weekend.
Wilson, 53, was fired by San Jose after the Dallas Stars eliminated the Sharks in the NHL Western Conference semifinals. After four-plus seasons at the Sharks' helm, Wilson compiled the most wins (206) and playoff games coached (52) in franchise history and ranked second in regular-season games coached.
Wilson has a 518-446-127 record in 1,091 games with Anaheim, Washington and San Jose.
The Toronto head coaching slot has been vacant since Paul Maurice was fired following two campaigns during which the Maple Leafs failed to make the playoffs.
Verdasco, Hewitt first-round winners
LONDON, June 9 (UPI) -- Spaniard Fernando Verdasco and four-time champion Lleyton Hewitt were among Monday's opening-round winners at the $1.12 million Artois Championships.
Verdasco was leading Hyung-Taik Lee 5-3 when the Korean retired. Hewitt -- a former world No. 1 who won this tennis tournament from 2000 through 2002 and again in 2006 -- defeated Joshua Goodall of Britain 6-4, 6-4 Monday.
Also, 13th-seeded Serbian Janko Tipsarevic beat Spaniard Ivan Navarro 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.
Swedish veteran Jonas Bjorkman beat Russian Igor Kunitsyn 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 6-4 and next plays top-seeded four-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal.
The No. 2 seed this week is Serbian Novak Djokovic, the reigning Australian Open champion and U.S. Open runner-up.
Parmentier, Zakopalova win in Barcelona
BARCELONA, Spain, June 9 (UPI) -- Frenchwoman Pauline Parmentier and Czech Klara Zakopalova were among Monday's opening-round tennis winners at the Barcelona KIA.
The fifth-seeded Parmentier defeated Croat Sanda Mamic 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, and the seventh-seeded Zakopalova defeated Croat Karolina Sprem 2-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.
Top-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel was tied with Spaniard Nuria Llagostera Vives 5-5 when their match was suspended due to darkness.
American Meghann Shaughnessy, who is injured and not playing this week, beat Romanian Edina Gallovits in last year's finale.
