George Steinbrenner, the long-time owner of the New York Yankees, has died at the age of 80 following a heart attack.

Sport is rarely short of a hard luck story but there can have been few to match that of Armando Galarraga, a journeyman pitcher from the Detroit Tigers who had his moment of moments snatched from him by an official's grievous error. The perfect game is achieved by few – just 20 in 135 years of Major League history, although oddly two have been thrown this season already – and Galarraga was on the verge of adding his name to the list when Jim Joyce, the first-base umpire, denied the 28-year-old Venezuelan the all-important final out.

Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui hit solo homers off familiar foe Pedro Martinez to give the New York Yankees a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies and tie the World Series at 1-1 last night.

In this World Series, all eyes will be on the four men in blue who run it. A run of glaringly bad calls by umpires during the 2009 play-offs could see Major League Baseball finally joining cricket, tennis and many other sports and allowing instant replays of contested decisions.

The New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez has admitted that his cousin repeatedly injected him with a substance from the Dominican Republic. Joined at a press conference by the Yankees general manager, Brian Cashman, and manager, Joe Girardi, Rodriguez again apologised for taking banned drugs from 2001-2003 while he was with the Texas Rangers and blamed his 2003 positive doping test on being young and naive.