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On Friday night, at Albert Park, in San Rafael, California, the Sonoma Stompers ran on to the pitching mound, hugged one another, laughed, and sprayed champagne. Jose Flores, their six-foot-four closer, had just sailed a fastball by the San Rafael Pacifics slugger Brent Gillespie, leaving the bases loaded and preserving the team’s 5–4 victory. With it, the Stompers claimed the Pacific Association title. Five hundred and ninety-two fans were on…

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Joe Gibbs is a legend in two top American sports. He coached the Washington Redskins to four Super Bowls, winning three of them, in a 12-year Hall of Fame career before retiring to oversee the NASCAR team he founded. Continue Reading Below While the Redskins did coax him out of retirement for four more years (which included two playoffs during 2004-’07), Gibbs is no longer affiliated with the team…

Believe it or not, competitive hockey is almost back. Training camps for all eight of the World Cup of Hockey participants open Sept. 5. Soon after that, the pre-tournament exhibitions — all of which will be available via television or live stream — will be played in rinks around the world. With that in mind, we’re kicking off our tournament preview coverage with four big questions facing the 2016 World…

One of the joys of this summer has been watching my four-year-old twins learn to swim: from as water-resistant as cats to as playful as porpoises in six weeks. They are fortunate because their granny is a swimming teacher. And she’s got time on her hands – having just been made redundant. She lost her job because her school couldn’t afford to repair its pool. Parents at another local primary…

The once-in-a-generation talent was always apparent. Regularly Kyle Larson exhibited why so many people often compared him to Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, former open-wheel sprint car standouts who evolved into NASCAR greats. Yet unlike Gordon and Stewart, the 24-year-old Larson didn’t have immediate, transcendent success when he jumped into NASCAR’s top division in 2014. Oh there were moments, flashes where Larson looked just as Gordon and Stewart once…

With guest host John Harwood. A  real life “Field of Dreams” story of the small town baseball coach who inspired Major League careers. The A’s of Clarinda, Iowa, after winning the National Baseball Congress title in 1981. (Nodaway Valley Historical Museum Archives/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) In a tiny heartland town, Merl Eberly built his Field of Dreams – and they came. College baseball players hoping to make it big, including a skinny…

Cue the theme from “The Natural,”  though, OK, maybe “Mission: Impossible” is more appropriate. Former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback turned ESPN personality Tim Tebow, 29, will work out this week in Southern California for up to two-thirds of MLB teams, in hopes of landing a baseball contract. Here’s what you need to know.  MORE: Sporting News ranks the MLB managers, 1-30 When and where is the workout? Tebow is scheduled…

No successful sports league publicly apologizes for its play as often as Major League Baseball. Almost weekly, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred reaffirms his commitment to trimming the fat from the game: less time between pitches, less time between innings, and fewer pitching changes; maybe not fewer innings, but fine, fewer games. Baseball is the big eater who’s living large but perpetually promising that a diet is about to begin. Many…

Focusing only on one sport, year-round, can increase kids’ risk of injury and burnout, according to a clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Authors of the guidance document, Dr. Joel S. Brenner and the AAP Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness, advise pediatricians and parents to keep in mind that the primary focus of sports for young athletes should be to have fun and learn lifelong…

  One would think that the nation’s sports media and fans might be intrigued, even grateful, for San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick on Monday. Kaepernick, a less-than-perfect football player in the California region that gave America both the Black Lives Matter movement and the mess that is O.J. Simpson, decided (as most readers by now know) to sit during the national anthem at a Friday 49ers game. Kaepernick remained seated, he said,…

It’s Skip Bayless’ job to be polarizing. You love him, hate him or share both feelings within the same window of his two-hour sports debate show.   Bayless, 64, makes no secret of his intention to resume the same type of combative discussion on Fox Sports 1’s new “Skip and Shannon Undisputed” with co-host Shannon Sharpe that he did with partner Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s “First Take.” “Skip and…

A lawyer who is one of Mike Ashley’s closest confidants was involved in setting up the obscure company that organises international deliveries for Sports Direct and is owned by the billionaire retailer’s brother. The Financial Reporting Council, the City regulator, is looking into the agreement between Barlin Delivery Ltd and Sports Direct, which was revealed last week. Shareholders have said the arrangement casts further doubt on corporate governance at the…

Joe Gibbs is a legend in two top American sports. He coached the Washington Redskins to four Super Bowls, winning three of them, in a 12-year Hall of Fame career before retiring to oversee the NASCAR team he founded. Continue Reading Below While the Redskins did coax him out of retirement for four more years (which included two playoffs during 2004-’07), Gibbs is no longer affiliated with the team…

One month on from a precipitous collapse in Donald Trump’s poll ratings, many Republicans are no longer asking whether he can win the White House, but how badly he will lose. Election models put Hillary Clinton’s chances of victory in November’s presidential election at over 80% – in the words of the New York Times, “about the same as the probability that an NFL kicker misses a field goal from…

Phillies bench coach Larry Bowa has never been shy to share his opinion—especially when it has to do with right and wrong in the game of baseball. So when broached about the idea of Tim Tebow working out for major league teams—including the one Bowa currently works for—the former manager didn’t mince words, per The Boston Globe: “Whoever’s idea it is, they don’t respect the game of baseball,” Bowa said. “It’s…

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,…

Whenever Mike Ferguson posts new content, you’ll get an email delivered to your inbox with a link. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.

Disneyland isn’t the only place in Anaheim where dreams come true. A young fan got the chance to meet his favorite baseball player, Mike Trout, just before the Angels-Tigers game on Sunday. Trout signed a baseball for the boy, who couldn’t believe the moment was really happening The fan appears to tell Trout “I love you man, you’re my favorite player ever,” before running back…

If you didn’t know that the U.S. has a women’s national baseball team, join the club. Plenty of people in this country don’t even know that women play baseball; softball, it’s believed, is the equivalent sport for women. But enough women play that last week, the team held tryouts. On Thursday, they announced the 20-player roster for the upcoming Women’s Baseball World Cup in South Korea, which will take place…