but Ill be even happier if at the end of this conference a movement

TORONTO -- Yankees slugger Mark Teixeira had a night to remember in his final road game before retirement.Teixeira hit a tying homer in the ninth inning, adding an uncharacteristic bat flip, and Aaron Hicks added a game-winning blast as the New York Yankees avoided a four-game sweep, beating the Toronto Blue Jays 7-5 on Monday night in a testy game that saw two benches-clearing incidents.Leading 3-2 heading to the ninth, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons called on Jason Grilli (7-6) to close it out because Roberto Osuna was unavailable after pitching the previous two days.Teixeira tied it 3-all with a one-out homer. After pausing to admire his second-deck drive and casually flipping his bat, Teixeira yelled Blown save! at Grilli after returning to the dugout.Our team has been fighting all year, Teixeira said. Were probably not going to make the playoffs. Were just going to enjoy ourselves the rest of the year and keep fighting.Didi Gregorius singled and Hicks followed with a two-run homer.New York scored five runs in a bat-around ninth, matching their total from the 35 previous innings in the series.Teixeiras homer was his 408th, passing Duke Snider to take over 54th on baseballs all-time list. No better time to bat-flip, right?(The Blue Jays) do it all the time, Teixeira said. They have fun with it. Its the first time Ive ever done it, so Ill have fun with it too.Chase Headley called the Blue Jays The Kings of Fun for their emotional reactions to home runs and strikeouts.Youve got to take some of your medicine, Headley said. They certainly have no shortage of emotion and, if you play like that, youve got to expect to get some it back.The Yankees were still steamed at Toronto after four New York players and coaches were ejected following two benches-clearing incidents in the first two innings.New York starter Luis Severino was ejected in the second after hitting Justin Smoak, sparking the second melee.The scrap came after Toronto left-hander J.A. Happ threw consecutive inside pitches to Headley in the top of the inning, hitting him with the second. That led to a warning from plate umpire Todd Tichenor.If they feel like they need to protect their guys, I respect that, Headley said. But if you do that, youre accepting the consequences.Yankees manager Joe Girardi was ejected for arguing the warning. New York pitching coach Larry Rothschild and bench coach Rob Thomson were ejected along with Severino following the second melee.I was mad because Happ hit him on purpose and he had one shot, Girardi said. You throw it behind the guy and you miss, I mean, hes got to be tossed. Thats terrible, its terrible.Donaldson, hit on the elbow by a pitch from Severino in the bottom of the first, walked in from his position and exchanged words with the New York dugout after Headley was hit.Both benches and bullpens cleared that time, too, but no punches were thrown.Some teams have been taking pot shots at us all year long and some guys just got tired of it, Gibbons said.After Dellin Betances loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, Tommy Layne, the eighth Yankees pitcher of the game, came on and got Donaldson to fly out. Edwin Encarnacion walked to drive in a run and pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro delivered a bloop single, making it 7-5. Layne forced Darwin Barney out at home plate on Russell Martins grounder, then wrapped up his first save by getting Troy Tulowitzki to foul out.Unbelievable job by Tommy, Girardi said.Adam Warren (7-4) worked two innings for the win.Toronto still leads the AL wild card race, one game ahead of Baltimore. The Orioles were off Monday.Making his first start since Aug. 14 in place of injured right-hander Masahiro Tanaka (right forearm), Severino was on a limit of 50 pitches. Instead, he was ejected after throwing his 34th. Severino allowed one run and one hit, walked two and struck out one.New Yorks late rally denied Happ his 21st win. Happ allowed two runs and six hits in 7 1/3 innings.BIRD BACK IN ACTIONWith New York managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner in attendance, Yankees 1B Greg Bird (right labrum surgery) played for the first time in a year in an Instructional League intrasquad game Monday in Tampa, Florida. Bird hit infield pop-ups in both of his at-bats. I felt like I was seeing the ball well, Bird said. Now its just about getting at-bats. It felt pretty good considering the circumstances.POWER DISPLAYMinor league OF Clint Frazier, acquired by the Yankees in the trade that sent closer Andrew Miller to Cleveland, has joined the Instructional League team and hit several homers in batting practice over a 30-foot high screen in center field.TRAINERS ROOMYankees: After sitting out the past seven games with a sore right hamstring, 2B Starlin Castro pinch hit for Ronald Torreyes in the eighth. Donovan Solano replaced Castro in the field. ... Tanaka will be examined by team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad when the Yankees return home Monday. Tanaka has not thrown in the past five days.UP NEXTYankees: LHP Luis Cessa (4-3, 4.30) starts against Red Sox LHP David Price (17-8, 3.91) as New York begins its final homestand of the season. Cessa has lost his past three starts and is winless since Aug. 26.Blue Jays: RHP Aaron Sanchez (13-2, 3.12) starts Tuesday as Toronto opens a pivotal three-game series against wild card rival Baltimore. RHP Kevin Gausman (8-11, 3.57) starts for the Orioles. Sanchez has not received a decision in any of his past three starts, with Toronto losing all three. Enrique Hernandez Womens Jersey . Scott Kazmir allowed four hits in seven shutout innings, Michael Brantley hit a two-run homer in a three-run first inning and the Indians maintained their hold on an AL wild-card spot with a 4-1 win over the Houston Astros on Saturday night. Jackie Robinson Youth Jersey . Bryant, who signed a five-year, $34 million contract as a free agent with Cleveland in March, reported symptoms on Monday morning, a team spokesman said. http://www.ladodgersprostore.us/Julio-Urias-dodgers-jersey/ . Each of Houstons starters scored in double figures as the Rockets improved to 2-0 against the Spurs this season, with both victories coming on the road. They also moved within 3 1/2 games of San Antonio (22-7) for the lead the Southwest Division. Julio Urias Dodgers Jersey . After taking two big hits this week -- losing at home and dropping back-to-back games for the first time all season -- Indiana struck back by playing its most complete game of the year. Russell Martin Womens Jersey . Kyle Denbrook, a soccer player from Saint Marys University, took the CIS male athlete of the week honour. Stanley, a fourth-year business administration student from Charlottetown, scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Dalhousie on Friday and tallied again in a 1-0 win over Saint Marys on Sunday. VATICAN CITY -- One in four IOC members are women, but only three are on the 14-member IOC executive board.Two out of 211 soccer federation presidents are female, and women are allotted only six quota seats on the 37-member FIFA council.A mere one of 17 are on UEFAs executive committee.When female sports pioneer Val Ackerman looks at the numbers of women in leadership roles in world sports organizations, she cringes.Having been in the business now nearly three decades, I can see some movement, but its slow, said the founding president of the Womens National Basketball Association and current commissioner of the Big East collegiate athletics conference.To me anything less than 30 is not good, and 50-50 is the ideal. So the hope is that over the next 15 years we can get closer to equality, Ackerman said at this weeks first global conference on faith and sport at the Vatican, called Sport at the Service of Humanity. Thats the endgame and how we get there requires the input of many and thats part of what this conference is about, figuring out action steps.The paradox, of course, is that the Catholic Church in general -- and the Vatican in particular -- have few if any women in leadership positions. Pope Francis has strongly upheld the ban on womens ordination but has said women should be more involved in church decision-making, including heading a Vatican office.Still, Francis named an archbishop to head the new Vatican secretariat for family and laity -- a job that some thought should have gone to a woman.As of 2014, only 18 percent of Holy See employees were women -- most in low-ranking positions.By contrast, womens sports have exploded at the high school and collegiate levels in the United States since Title IX was introduced in 1972. The federal statute bans discrimination at schools that receive federal funding.At the recently concluded Rio de Janeiro Olympics, the U.S. team included more female than male athletes -- 294-264 -- for only the second time in history. Meanwhile, about 45 percent of all athletes in Rio were female.The force of federal law doesnt exist in other places and without that Im sure we wouldnt be as far along in the U.S. as we are, Ackerman told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the conference, which concluded Friday.Nine of the 10 schools in the Big East -- such as defending NCAA mens basketball champion Villanova, Georgetown, St. Johns and Seton Hall -- are Catholic institutions.So for them the fact that Im here is important, Ackerman said. Our hope is that we can carry forward some of the principles (discussed) here within the conference.The Vatican conference has provided Ackerman with an audience full of world sports leaders to listen to her message -- from IOC president Thomas Bach to Arsenal soccer club CEO Ivan Gazidis to New York Giants co-owner John Mara.Mel Young, the co-founder of the Homeless World Cup; Loretta Claiborne of the Special Olympics and IInternational Paralympic Committee president Philip Craven were also in attendance.ddddddddddddThe inspiration came from Pope Francis, explained Monsignor Melchor Sanchez De Toca Y Alameda of the Pontifical Council for Culture. While hes not an athlete himself, he understands perfectly that sports provide a venue for people to grow up in -- a world in which diverse people find a common element to understand each other and do something together. It has an enormous educational potential.Kirsty Coventry, the recently retired swimmer from Zimbabwe and the most decorated African Olympian with seven medals, is working to promote women in her continent.We are one of those regions where girls and women are not encouraged to take leadership roles or play sport, said Coventry, who is a member of the IOCs athletes commission.So one of my biggest goals is to figure out how we can talk to people and tell good stories of amazing women who have broken through and achieved those things and broken through those glass ceilings, Coventry added. How do we figure out how to best get that message across?A variety of religions were represented at the conference, including Judaism and Islam.At the elite football level, if youre excluding any group of people you cant be elite because you will give an advantage to your competitors, said Gazidis, the Arsenal CEO. So its actually a marvelous test tube where you have to challenge your own prejudices and make sure that you break them down. It becomes setting an example out of the values of the club. But its also a competitive imperative.Gazidis described it as an incredibly powerful moment when Muslim players Mesut Ozil and Shkodran Mustafi pray before each Arsenal match.These are people, human beings that our fans know. They know their characters, they know their skills and abilities and they know them as people, Gazidis said. So seeing them in prayer like that breaks down the mythologies and the ignorance about Islam and says, `There are good people here. These are people just like us.Its a very powerful and very visible tool for breaking down prejudice, Gazidis added. Football, while it has its own problems and we need to continue to work on them, its overall influence has been good in terms of unifying people and making us understand that we can all work together toward a common goal.For the Vatican, the goals are just beginning.Im pleased by this participation begins, Monsignor Sanchez said. Thats the aim of the conference. Im hoping this is only