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Creepy clowns have been reportedly menacing residents in Germany with weapons that include chainsaws and a baseball bat, authorities said. The mass hysteria surrounding frightening jesters has made its way to parts of northern and western Germany after consuming most of the U.S. and spreading to other parts of Europe. Rostock police on Friday said they’ve taken down two reports of clowns attacking with baseball bats, though it’s unclear if…

Carlos Santana of the Cleveland Indians celebrates after catching a foul ball, ending a win over Toronto, sending his team to the World Series. Photo via MLB.TV You football and hockey fans are going to want to stop reading right here because you’ve shown in the past you can’t handle this truth: There’s no better sport than baseball. The Cleveland Indians are going to the World Series and those of…

Buy Photo Drew Sharp has been a columnist and has been at the paper since 1983.(Photo: ED HAUN, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo Drew Sharp, a Detroit Free Press columnist since 1999, died this morning at his home in Bloomfield Hills. He was 56. Sharp, a Detroit native who graduated from Detroit Catholic Central in 1978 and the University of Michigan in 1982, joined the Free Press in 1983. Initially, he had…

Whether it be as an athlete, a coach or a member of backroom staff, there is no shortage of career options in sport. But the industry is also one of the most competitive in the world. So if events such as Euro 2016 or the Rio Olympics have inspired you to work in a sector worth £20bn a year in the UK alone, what can you do to stand out…

Baby boomers are starting to outgrow their midlife crisis years, and that’s bad news for automakers who want to sell sports cars. It was a sign of things to come this month when Ford Motor Co. idled its Mustang plant for a week as sales for the year fell 9 percent. Other sports cars have faded at a similar rate, and even stalwarts like the Chevrolet Corvette and most Porsche…

reader comments 15 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is known for cutting-edge engineers, and Lamborghini is known for super cars. Just this week, the two paired up to ponder the future of an ultra-light, strong, and innovative automotive brand. On Wednesday at the EmTech conference at MIT in Boston, Lamborghini Chairman and CEO Stefano Domenicali sat down with leaders from the university, other Italian companies, and the Italian Trade Agency. He was there…

It’s BBC Sport and A Question of Sport’s weekly quiz – have you been paying attention to what’s been going on in the world of sport in the past week? If you missed last week’s sports quiz, try it here. Picture credits: Getty

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The Olympics are clearly in a mire. So few cities wanted to host the 2022 Winter Games that they’re going to be in Beijing—which is 55 and 100 miles from its two mountain venues, respectively, both of which barely have any snow. There are only three bidders left for 2024, the lowest number since 1984, when problems like shootings, terrorist attacks, and boycotts at previous Games had so tainted the…

MELBOURNE Australian pro cycling team Orica-BikeExchange believes Team Sky’s stranglehold over the Tour de France may be loosened by the unconventional 2017 route and are relishing the prospect of a battle of “aggression” on the road. The course unveiled this week, which starts in Duesseldorf on July 1 and ends in Paris on July 23, is peppered with a number of steep climbs occurring early in stages. Organizers hope it…

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At a baseball diamond on the outskirts of Johannesburg, 17-year-old Koketso Manamela steps up to the plate. He looks out at the pitcher, who kicks his leg and delivers a pitch. Manamela swings his bat and, with a crack, drives the ball deep into the outfield. He sprints around the bases, which are spread across the grassy infield of a converted cricket ground. This story is based on a radio…

Nearly a century since being banned from baseball after being implicated in the Black Sox scandal, “Shoeless Joe” Jackson, who died in 1951, continues to captivate fans of America’s pastime. That’s why anything associated with the legendary slugger attracts top dollar in the sports memorabilia market. One of Jackson’s bats fetched $583,500 Thursday at a Christie’s auction despite having what the auction house described as a “substantial” crack. And a signed…

LOS ANGELES — To say Pedro Baez works at a snail’s pace would be unfair to snails, unless you’re referring to the entire lifespan of a snail or the amount time it took snails to evolve their shells. Snails get bored watching Pedro Baez pitch. Baez, the Dodgers’ 28-year-old reliever, pitches at a slower pace than anyone else in baseball, and it’s not terribly close. Where Major League pitchers averaged 22.7…

WASHINGTON — With the Cubs in the playoffs and the presidential election soon, it’s time to recount Hillary Clinton’s tortured explanations about being a die-hard Cubs fan — and how she’s also for the Yankees. Clinton’s reputation for taking the politically expedient route when it comes to her baseball loyalties is well deserved. Let’s throw in basketball, too, since she drifted from the Bulls to the Knicks. The transition —…

After torching Dodgers pitching en route to a 10–2 win in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday, the Chicago Cubs carried their impressive offensive output over to Thursday, taking a 3–2 series lead with a commanding 8–4 victory in Game 5. Jon Lester was brilliant through seven innings for the Cubs, who used a five-run eighth to break the game open. They’ll head back home to…

In the long history of NCAA enforcement – the first case dates back to 1953 – there’s never been a paragraph written like the one released Thursday from its case against the University of Louisville men’s basketball program. “[An assistant coach] provided impermissible inducements, offers and/or extra benefits in the form of adult entertainment, sex acts and/or cash at Billy Minardi Hall, a campus dormitory, or Louisville, Kentucky, hotels to…

The USA TODAY Sports Board of Coaches is made up of 32 head coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The board for the 2016-17 season: Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s; Jim Boeheim, Syracuse; Tad Boyle, Colorado; Todd Bozeman, Morgan State; Glenn Braica, St. Francis Brooklyn; Scott Cherry, High Point; Tim Cluess, Iona; Jon Coffman, IP-Fort Wayne; Mick Cronin, Cincinnati; Keith Dambrot, Akron;…

CHESTERFIELD • The city has given preliminary approval to a deal that could add a monumental domed sports facility in the fast-growing retail hub paralleling Highway 40. St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny and nonprofit executive Dan Buck head the investment group proposing the construction of the “Chesterfield Dome Complex” on 30 acres along North Outer 40 Road. “They want to create the largest indoor sports facility…

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