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reader comments 53 A former executive for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, Christopher Correa, was sentenced Monday to 46 months in prison. In 2013, he successfully guessed a password to access an online database for confidential data held by another baseball team, the Houston Astros. Correa pleaded guilty earlier this year to five counts under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a notorious 1980s-era hacking statute. “You have made it harder…

On 4 July 2007, Vladimir Putin arrived by private jet in Guatemala City ready for the 119th session of the International Olympic Committee. Russia was one of three nations bidding to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, along with Austria and South Korea. The bookmakers had Sochi down a distant second in the betting, way behind Pyeongchang. Russia had failed to even make the IOC’s shortlist to host the 2002 Games…

Cities is supported by Rockefeller Foundation The run-up to every Olympics is marked by anxiety and controversy, but Rio de Janeiro has arguably outdone all of its predecessors on this score. Against a backdrop of economic recession, the impeachment of Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff, a Zika epidemic, resurgent crime and water pollution, the city’s officials are not only having to fight off accusations of corruption, incompetence and unbalanced priorities, they…

x Embed x Share A mile from the site of the Rio Olympics opening ceremony hides a drug-riddled apocalypse. USA TODAY Sports’ Martin Rogers reports on the Cracklands of Rio de Janeiro. USA TODAY Sports “Joao” smokes crack on a street in Rio de Janeiro, less than a mile from Maracana Stadium, where the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics will take place on Aug. 5.(Photo: Sandy Hooper, USA TODAY Sports)…

(CBS) It’s no secret across baseball that the Yankees are leaning toward selling at the fast-approaching trade deadline and that they also are enamored with Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber, who’s out for the season with a knee injury. So naturally, speculation has ensued as to whether the Cubs — in need of bullpen help — would entertain the thought of parting with Schwarber to acquire lights-out lefty reliever Andrew Miller from the Yankees….

reader comments 30 A former executive for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, Christopher Correa, was sentenced Monday to 46 months in prison. In 2013, he successfully guessed a password to access an online database for confidential data held by another baseball team, the Houston Astros. Correa pleaded guilty earlier this year to five counts under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a notorious 1980s-era hacking statute. “You have made it harder…

Almost 10 months after his final Major League game, Tim Hudson is returning to baseball. The former prep star at Glenwood and collegiate standout at Auburn is on the roster of the Kansas Stars, a team of former big-leaguers that plans to play in the 82nd National Baseball Congress World Series, scheduled for July 29 through Aug. 13 at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita, Kansas. The NABC World Series field is mainly composed of…

Russian government officials engineered the drug-fueled corruption of nearly 30 Olympic sports, an investigator found, prompting the World Anti-Doping Agency to call for a ban of the country’s entire team from the Rio de Janeiro Games. The scheme lasted at least four years, covered 28 Olympic sports — both summer and winter — and involved at least 312 positive tests that went unreported at the behest of higher-ups in the…

The Sports Authority, a 28-year-old retailer, is shutting its doors in August. Getty Images The Sports Authority is shutting down its more than 400 stores by the end of August, so NinthDecimal ran a study to figure out which retailers may benefit from the 28-year-old sports gear brand’s absence. The measurement player said it tracked 135 million shoppers recently and learned that—based on their behavior—Big…

x Embed x Share An investigation by the World Anti-Doping Agency released Monday says Russian engaged in a state-directed cheating program that resulted in at least 312 falsified results from 2011 though at least last year’s world swimming championships. AP An Olympic Games flag and a Russian flag waving during the closing ceremony of the Sochi Olympics.(Photo: Kirill Kudryatstev, AFP/Getty Images) We now know it’s not just Russian track and field….

RELATED: Latest updates, timeline on Dale Jr. Dale Earnhardt Jr. said problems with balance and nausea prevented him from driving in Sunday’s New Hampshire 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and he is encouraged by concussion test results that match his baseline test.   Earnhardt Jr. spoke for about three minutes in “The Dale Jr. Download” on his weekly audio update on Dirty Mo Radio, providing his first comments on…

reader comments 19 A former executive for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, Christopher Correa, was sentenced Monday to 46 months in prison. In 2013, he successfully guessed a password to access an online database for confidential data held by another baseball team, the Houston Astros. Correa pleaded guilty earlier this year to five counts under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a notorious 1980s-era hacking statute. “You have made it harder…

(CBS) It’s no secret across baseball that the Yankees are leaning toward selling at the fast-approaching trade deadline and that they also are enamored with Cubs slugger Kyle Schwarber, who’s out for the season with a knee injury. So naturally, speculation has ensued as to whether the Cubs — in need of bullpen help — would entertain the thought of parting with Schwarber to acquire lights-out lefty reliever Andrew Miller from the Yankees….

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The Sports Authority, a 28-year-old retailer, is shutting its doors in August. Getty Images The Sports Authority is shutting down its more than 400 stores by the end of August, so NinthDecimal ran a study to figure out which retailers may benefit from the 28-year-old sports gear brand’s absence. The measurement player said it tracked 135 million shoppers recently and learned that—based on their behavior—Big…

x Embed x Share An investigation by the World Anti-Doping Agency released Monday says Russian engaged in a state-directed cheating program that resulted in at least 312 falsified results from 2011 though at least last year’s world swimming championships. AP An Olympic Games flag and a Russian flag waving during the closing ceremony of the Sochi Olympics.(Photo: Kirill Kudryatstev, AFP/Getty Images) We now know it’s not just Russian track and field….

To save articles or get newsletters, alerts or recommendations – all free. Don’t have an account yet?Create an account » Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?Learn more » Need to connect your Home Delivery subscription to NYTimes.com?Link your subscription »

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,…

Baseball is too healthy. You can see the problem with that, what with all the money rolling in and the steady attendance. It’s like a fault line, continually building pressure, just waiting for that one little slip. Where’s the drama? Where’s the tension? Are we going to be engulfed in an 8.4 dramaquake after this unprecedented stability? Probably not anytime soon, but the Collective Bargaining Agreement is up after…