PARIS - Michael Schumacher is showing "small, encouraging signs" that he may awake from his coma, his agent said Wednesday, more than two months after a ski crash left the Formula One champion with severe head injuries. Updates since Schumachers accident have offered few details and limited optimism for the man who once drove the worlds fastest cars and motorcycles but was critically injured on a familiar ski slope during a family outing. Wednesdays statement was little different, describing "an extremely intimate and fragile situation" for his family. "It is very hard to comprehend for all of us that Michael, who had overcome a lot of precarious situations in the past, has been hurt so terribly in such a banal situation," Sabine Kehm, a family representative, wrote in a statement. "We are and remain confident that Michael will pull through and will wake up. There sometimes are small, encouraging signs, but we also know that this is the time to be very patient." Small signs that physicians are watching for could include fluttering eyelids, or efforts to breathe without a ventilator. "This doesnt change ones opinion of Schumachers situation in general. Its still very difficult to predict what his long-term recovery will be like and if he does wake up and comes off the ventilator," said Dr. Tipu Aziz, professor of neurosurgery at Oxford University. "In all likelihood he will be severely disabled," said Aziz, who has not been involved in treating Schumacher. Schumacher, known affectionately as Schumi, was hospitalized with severe head injuries after the Dec. 29 ski accident, which split his helmet as he crashed into rocks on the slope at the Meribel ski station in the French Alps. Doctors put him into a coma to rest his brain and decrease swelling, and they operated to remove blood clots, but some were too deeply embedded. Neurologists not involved in his treatment say full recovery appears increasingly unlikely, given the comas duration and the extent of his injuries. "Every brain injury is different and no two routes to recovery will be the same," said Luke Griggs, a spokesman for Headway, a British brain injury charity. "It is fair to suggest that any patient waking from a three month-long coma will face the prospect of a long and challenging road to recovery, with the eventual outcome uncertain." AP medical writer Maria Cheng contributed from London. Jesper Fast Jersey .C. - NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick headlines this years electees into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. Pavel Buchnevich Jersey .C. -- Theyll remember the OT from the first Syracuse-Duke game -- and the Ts that decided Round 2. http://www.rangershockeyonlineshop.com/eddie-giacomin-hockey-jersey/ .One day after winning her record 63rd World Cup race, Vonn posted to her Facebook account Tuesday that she was happy Woods surprised her by coming to the race, and that she felt terrible that his tooth got knocked out. Brian Leetch Rangers Jersey . But back-up Peter Budaj has put up two wins and an overtime loss while starting three games in four nights since Price went down with a suspected groin injury. Brady Skjei Jersey . Jovanovski, the 2012 champ seeded fifth, will meet surprise Japanese qualifier Misa Eguchi on Friday. Eguchi, ranked 183rd, qualified for her first WTA main draw this week, then beat No.ATLANTA - John Schuerholz completed what he called the best negotiation of my entire career by convincing his longtime friend John Hart to accept the role of president of baseball operations.With Hart taking the newly created title on Thursday, the Braves arent looking for a general manager. The 66-year-old Hart agreed to a three-year contract that will continue through the teams first season at its new stadium in Cobb County.Hart became interim general manager Sept. 22. The team had sought a full-time replacement for Frank Wren, who was fired last month after a 79-83 finish this season.Hart, Schuerholz and former Braves manager Bobby Cox formed the GM search committee. Hart said last month his only interest was in the interim job, but Schuerholz, the team president, wouldnt accept that as a final answer.We met as transition team quite a number of times and when we were at the meetings invariably Id pull out my list and Id say OK, are we going to talk about the GMs? Hart said. At some point John would get up, hed take a phone call, hed go to the bathroom. ... I think all along I did feel and know that John clearly wanted me to take this job.Hart, the former GM for the Rangers and Indians, joined the Braves last year as a senior adviser.Schuerholz described Hart as a man who has demonstrated great ability in constructing winning baseball organizations, winning baseball teams, creating staffs of very capable people empowered to doo great jobs in each of the organizations he has run.ddddddddddddHart said he has turned down similar opportunities with other teams that lacked the personal component he has with Schuerholz.Schuerholz, who was the Royals GM before taking over as the Braves GM in 1990, returned to Kansas City for Game 1 of the World Series this week. He said he was asked by owners and executives why he hadnt convinced Hart to take the full-time role in Atlanta.Schuerholz said he was told it would be great to have Hart back in baseball.So I was motivated by that and came back and had my last and final conversation with my dear friend, Schuerholz said. I was able to persuade him this was the place to be and this was the organization he could have so much of an impact on in a very positive and energetic way and get us to where we want to be, and thats at the very top, the gold standard baseball organization that we have always been regarded as.Schuerholz said assistant GM John Coppolella will be Harts right-hand man.Coppy was a big part of the reason I took this job, Hart said. I think you will see Coppy is a young man who is going to develop and grow.Schuerholz sat with Kansas City GM Dayton Moore at the World Series. Moore was a former assistant under Schuerholz with the Braves, but Schuerholz said he never approached Moore about the Braves position.It would be disrespectful for me to even talk to him about that, Schuerholz said. ' ' '