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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…

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 —…

TORONTO — This round of baseball’s playoffs has displayed an almost strange jumble of executive movement across the game with a strong Red Sox influence. “Certainly in the front office there (in Chicago),” Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer said yesterday. “You have Theo (Epstein) and me and Jason (McLeod), and (scouting directors) Jared Porter and Matt Dorey, all Red Sox guys. I think from the front-office standpoint, you know, in…

Tim Tebow recorded his first hit in the Arizona Fall League Tuesday for the Scottsdale Scorpions, snapping an 0-for-13 drought against some of the top MLB pitching prospects. The feat was mildly celebrated by Tebow’s fans, and harshly mocked by just as many. Tim Tebow is one of the most complex figures in American sports, and the reaction to his attempt to play professional baseball has been nothing short of…

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;…

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;…

10 years since this picture, which is interesting in oh so many ways. — D.J. Short (@djshort) October 19, 2016 What you’re looking at here is a photo of Donald Trump taken a few seconds after Carlos Beltran watched a dematerializing Adam Wainwright breaking pitch cross the plate for the last out of the 2006 National League Championship Series. Or, more accurately, it’s more a photo of a bunch of…

AJ Styles has the Royal Rumble circled on his calendar. The Rumble returns to the Alamodome in Texas, and Styles wants to defend the WWE championship against the “Heartbreak Kid”— Texas native Shawn Michaels. “I would love the opportunity to wrestle him,” said Styles. “I’d love to learn from him, but who’s to say if that’s going to happen. Right now, it’s all speculation and rumors that I’m…

Here are the hot topics, trending news and key story lines to get you ready for this weekend’s races at Talladega Superspeedway. WEATHER Can you say “Chamber of Commerce weather?” That’s what you’ll get at Talladega. It’ll be sunny all weekend, with a high of 70 on Friday and a high of 68 on Saturday, with the temperature nosing up to 77 degrees on Sunday, according to the National Weather…

Earlier this month, Paul and Lois McCarty packed up their truck and drove 10 hours down from Columbus, Ohio, for the Bank of America 500 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway – something they’ve been doing for the last 10 years. Both 66, the duo has been following NASCAR for most of their adult lives, though Paul points to the 1970s as the height of his fan experience. One reason? There…

Statesville, N.C. — Eighteen-year-old NASCAR Next alumnus Gray Gaulding will take the next step in his career by making his debut in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS). Gaulding will drive the No. 30 Feed the Children Chevrolet for The Motorsports Group (TMG) at Martinsville Speedway on Oct. 30. “It’s exciting bringing a new partner into the series and to be making my NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut at a track…

Giuseppi “Joey” Barone recalled that when he moved from Italy to Grand Rapids at age 12, he gave up playing soccer for a while because, well, nobody really played soccer. “About four years, I didn’t play,” he lamented of his teenage years in the 1980s. That’s kind of funny to think about now since Barone’s name is synonymous with the sport around West Michigan and extending all the way to…

In what might possibly be most Canadian heist of all-time, a couple of thieves hauled away approximately $150,000 (CAD) worth of hockey sticks after rappelling into a Montreal store this week. It would only have been more Canadian had they left behind an apology note written on a Tim Hortons napkin. CTV reports that a man rappelled in through the roof of the MonkeySports hockey store in Montreal before stealing…

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Tim Tebow recorded his first hit in the Arizona Fall League Tuesday for the Scottsdale Scorpions, snapping an 0-for-13 drought against some of the top MLB pitching prospects. The feat was mildly celebrated by Tebow’s fans, and harshly mocked by just as many. Tim Tebow is one of the most complex figures in American sports, and the reaction to his attempt to play professional baseball has been nothing short of…

Play Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed autoplay autoplay Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the loss of Justice Antonin Scalia still weighs heavily on the high court, even if she remembers sometimes wanting to hit him with a baseball bat. “We sparred and we laughed together but so does everybody on the court,” Sotomayor told the audience at the University of Minnesota. “We get angry with each other. There…

Earlier this month, Paul and Lois McCarty packed up their truck and drove 10 hours down from Columbus, Ohio, for the Bank of America 500 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway – something they’ve been doing for the last 10 years. Both 66, the duo has been following NASCAR for most of their adult lives, though Paul points to the 1970s as the height of his fan experience. One reason? There…

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Play Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed autoplay autoplay Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the loss of Justice Antonin Scalia still weighs heavily on the high court, even if she remembers sometimes wanting to hit him with a baseball bat. “We sparred and we laughed together but so does everybody on the court,” Sotomayor told the audience at the University of Minnesota. “We get angry with each other. There…