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Discovery Communications boss David Zaslav has been going deep into the sports world, meeting sports federations around the globe and having chats with the International Olympics Committee. The Olympics arrive on Discovery’s Eurosport network in 2018. So no wonder his end-of-the summer bash was scheduled to be thick with sports stars. Slated to attend the Saturday night party in East Hampton were tennis legends Serena Williams, Henri Leconte and Mats…

If only it were as easy as it used to be. Back in the day, year after year, the Giants and the Dodgers would play each other 22 times a year, 11 times at the Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan and 11 times at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, and there was little doubt about this: They were each other’s greatest rivals. Period. That’s how it was in 1903 and 1923…

(UMD) (GU) Maryland and Georgetown added another chapter to a growing men’s soccer rivalry Friday night with a riveting match decided in the final minute before an overflow crowd in College Park. The seventh-ranked Terrapins prevailed, 2-1, when Gordon Wild, who shared the national scoring crown last year while at a small program in South Carolina, converted the rebound of his failed penalty kick with 44 seconds left. Wild, who drew…

Hope Solo warms up prior to a match against France at the Rio Olympics on Aug. 8. (Daniel Oliveira/EPA) Hope Solo doesn’t think her comments calling her Swedish opponents “cowards” during the Olympics are what made U.S. Soccer suspend her for six months and terminate her contract with the national team. The 35-year-old goalkeeper instead thinks she was punished because she’s been fighting for equal rights for women in the…

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protest has exposed a deep divide over something all too many Americans take as as a typical part of modern life. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL Media’s Steve Wyche. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be…

Serena Williams won her first Grand Slam singles match at the 1998 Australian Open Serena Williams powered to a record 307th Grand Slam match win to reach the fourth round of the US Open. The world number one moved ahead of Martina Navratilova for most match wins in a major by a woman, and tied Roger Federer’s mark for men with a 6-2 6-1 victory over Sweden’s Johanna Larsson. “That’s…

Mike Ashley and the board of Sports Direct face a showdown with shareholders this week over a host of problems – including treatment of its employees, corporate governance and ailing performance. Investors in the controversial firm, which has faced months of pressure over working conditions for staff, get their chance to quiz directors at Sports Direct’s annual meeting in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, on Wednesday. Ashley, who founded the company and still…

When NASCAR canceled qualifying on Saturday, Kevin Harvick’s season-long consistency put him on the pole for Sunday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Harvick holds the preferred starting spot on the tricky South Carolina track due to being ranked first in the standings, as NASCAR canceled qualifying and set the lineup based off owner points. He will share the front row with Brad Keselowski, with defending race winner Carl…

Baseball is prone to weirdness. We all know that — heck, some of us are fond of the weirdness. But in case you needed a reminder of how screwy things can get, just consider who leads each of the leagues in second-half home runs. It’s not Mark Trumbo or Edwin Encarnacion or Josh Donaldson in the American League; likewise, it’s not Kris Bryant or Nolan Arenado in the National League….

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The Italian Grand Prix is live on the BBC Sport website and 5 live on Sunday Jenson Button will not race in Formula 1 in 2017 but will remain with McLaren as an ambassador. The 2009 world champion will work with the team and could race again in 2018, having signed a two-year contract. Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne will be promoted from reserve driver to partner double world champion Fernando Alonso….

TENNIS NEW YORK (AP) — Before Jack Sock took on 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic in the third round, the 23-year-old American acknowledged that, as of a couple of years ago, simply making it that far would have made him, to use two of his words, ”satisfied” and ”excited.” Now Sock wants more. Sock overwhelmed No. 7-seeded Cilic 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a little more than 1 1/2 hours…

UK Athletics is to launch an inquiry into the classification of Paralympic track and field athletes following claims that some have been allowed to compete against those who are significantly more impaired, resulting in a boost to their medal chances. Tanni Grey-Thompson, Britain’s most decorated and best-known star of the Paralympics, is among those who have complained in recent months, expressing her concern that some athletes have obtained a competitive…

Schweinsteiger has been training alone, or with the Under-23 squad, since Mourinho took charge this summer Midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has been left out of Manchester United’s Europa League squad. The ex-Germany captain, who has trained alone or with the Under-23s under new boss Jose Mourinho, was named in their 25-man Premier League squad on Friday. The 32-year-old World Cup winner retired from international football this week after 24 goals and…

In the lead up to the Rio Olympics, there was a flurry of panic around whether the games might act as a super-spreading event for the Zika virus, flinging cases out of the hot zone (Brazil) and into the far corners of the earth. Some worried critics even called for the games to be postponed or moved. Some athletes dropped out in fear of the virus. But researchers studying…

Was there anything surprising about Friday’s news that Dale Earnhardt Jr. will miss the rest of the NASCAR season with concussion symptoms? Not really, at least not if you’ve been listening to what Earnhardt has been saying before and since he violently slammed into the wall at Michigan International Speedway that Sunday afternoon in June. The hit gave Earnhardt, 41, a concussion, his third in the past five seasons. He…

San Diego State sports historians couldn’t remember the last time the Aztecs beat a No. 1 team in any Division I sport, men’s or women’s. They won’t have to reach far into the memory banks any longer. The Aztecs shocked No. 1 Akron in men’s soccer Friday night, winning 1-0 on Travis Nicklaw’s 61st-minute penalty kick before an SRO crowd at the SDSU Sports Deck in what ranks among the…

3:45 PM ET Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email print comment Dale Earnhardt Jr. won’t race in 2016, and his continued absence will bring many questions about not only his own future but the future of his team. Dale Jr. shuts it down for ’16 after concussion Dale Earnhardt Jr. will miss the rest of the 2016 Sprint Cup season as he recovers from concussion symptoms. It doesn’t end there. The absence…

Irish poets learn your trade Sing whatever is well made. . . . — William Butler Yeats,“Under Ben Bulben” LOS ANGELES For 67 years, the son of Vincent and Bridget Scully, immigrants who came to New York City from County Cavan, Ireland, has been plying his trade. For eight years on the East Coast and 59 on the West Coast, on radio and television, he has strolled with Brooklyn Dodgers fans and…

For those who are unfamiliar with my thought process, I aim to add as many home run hitters as possible to my daily fantasy baseball lineups. One way of doing that is to look at a player’s isolated power numbers (ISO). The ISO statistic removes singles and provides a larger weight for each extra-base hit. I also use the weighted on-base average (wOBA) metric. This stat takes every positive outcome into consideration. Last year,…