First baseman Justin Morneau will be activated from the disabled list before the Minnesota Twins play Wednesday.
Morneau took another round of early batting practice Tuesday to test his sore left wrist and reported no problems. He told Twins manager Ron Gardenhire he wants to play first base, rather than be the designated hitter. In 20 games this season, Morneau is batting .230 with five doubles, four homers and nine RBIs. He spent the minimum 15 days on the DL.
To make room for Morneau, the Twins optioned first baseman Chris Parmelee to Triple-A Rochester. Parmelee is hitting .179 with 21 strikeouts in 84 at-bats.
Center fielder Denard Span wasn’t in the lineup Tuesday because of a sore right hamstring, and Gardenhire said Span is day to day.
Posted by Deb Smith

Major League Baseball is ready to pick off the much-maligned move, the fake-to-third, throw-to-first ploy that often succeeds only in getting the whole ballpark to shout ‘‘Balk!’’
The Playing Rules Committee has approved a proposal to make it a balk, too, with MLB executives and umpires in agreement. The players’ union vetoed the plan for this season to discuss it further.
Under the new wording, a pitcher could not fake to third unless he first steps off the rubber. If he stays on the rubber, it would be a balk.
Most every pitcher now makes the move the same way Soriano did.
Posted by Deb Smith

Baylor University All-American center Brittney Griner will not play for the United States Olympic team at the London games this summer.
Griner, 6-8, broke her right wrist in a longboard accident, according to Baylor head women’s coach Kim Mulkey.
The Baylor Bears turned in the first ever 40-win season in NCAA history and won a national championship. Griner was named the AP women’s college player of the year after averaging 23 points, 9 1/2 rebounds and 5 blocks a game. She was expected to join the US women’s Olympic basketball team this summer. The team is made up of mainly WNBA players.

Posted by Deb Smith

When Ipswich seventh-grader Macy Heinz re-wrote the school record books Friday during the 1,600-meter run at the USF Invite, she beat a literal Who’s Who in the process.
Past state champions in the race hailed from across the state, including Tamera Gorman and Emily Person of Rapid City Stevens, Karley Konkol of Custer, Alex Hess of Sioux Falls Roosevelt, Tia Carlson of Kadoka, Mindy Kraft of Wessington and Kahle Peterson of Sturgis.
Each of the above runners had a state championship in one of three classes in cross country or distance running, from 2008 to 2011.
For more about Macy’s accomplishments, see Thursday’s edition of the American News, By Shawn Werre

Nathan Browning of Mina came in 17th at the AX Lites Main Event during the 12th Annual Amateur National ArenaCross Championships Sunday.
Browning qualified for the national meet in January by winning races in Des Moines, Iowa, and was one of 20 racers from across the nation to compete. The top four riders from five regions across the United States were vying for a title.
South Dakota was represented by another rider as well, Isaac Geiger of Watertown, who came in tenth. By Shawn Werre