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Ask Thea Hanscom why she plays baseball and you get a simple answer: “Baseball’s what I grew up doing,” she said. “So I enjoy doing it.” Since the rising ninth-grader started playing T-ball at age 6, she’s been a minority in a game traditionally played by boys. There have been other girls on her teams, but she’s the only one who has continued to play. “Mostly the girls quit (playing),”…

LONDON (AP) — Summer Olympic sports federations said on Tuesday they are ready to deal with “individual cases” of Russian doping, rather than endorse a total ban on the Russian team for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, which represents the 28 sports in the games, said it recognized the “gravity and extent of the doping activities in Russia” as detailed in Monday’s report…

It’s hard work for a country to get turfed out of the Olympics. You must seriously dedicate yourself to the task. It’s not enough to have a brutal, devious autocracy that flagrantly intimidates its domestic critics and is author of miseries all over the world. It’s not even enough to dope your athletes until they virtually glow in the dark. You really need to get caught in the act so…

Photo credit: Michael Steele/Getty Images The hubris and planet-sized egos of lunatic sports owners is a core Deadspin beat, from Joe Lacob’s horniness for the Larry O’Brien trophy, to Stan Kroenke’s dead raccoon hair, to Dan Gilbert’s simpering evil. When the Panthers’ owner gets a dang statue of himself with two actual panthers built out front of his stadium, you should expect us to make fun of him. However, Tinkoff…

Sports Authority is scrambling to close the doors on most or all of its stores by the end of the month, according to multiple store employees and managers, an abrupt move that comes amid a fight over cash between lenders and suppliers. Managers have been instructed on procedures for wiping the computers, locking up and walking away, as the dying athletic gear seller prepares for the final stage of its…

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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…

Experts are questioning a recent pledge of allegiance to ISIS by a purported group of extremists in Brazil in what may be an attempt to rattle the international community before the Rio Olympics. A group calling itself Ansar al-Khilafah Brazil on Sunday pledged its loyalty to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on the messaging app Telegram and promised to “wage jihad against the enemy of Allah.” The group also posted…

For the first time in 135 years, Manchester United and Manchester City will be meeting outside England. Way outside: On July 25, the two soccer teams will kick off at the National Stadium in Beijing. The match is part of the International Champions Cup, a three-year-old series of global exhibition games that has become a high-profile way for clubs to woo fans in more places. Three ICC games will be…

The second half of baseball’s season has opened and we’re set for a heck of a stretch run. A total of 18 teams sit at or above the .500 mark heading into Tuesday night’s action, which means a ton of teams have a shot at reaching the postseason and making a run at a World Series title. With that in mind, here is a look at those contenders and the…

Christopher Newport University’s baseball team has picked up a pair of Division I arms this offseason. Nate Matheson and Drew Moyer are transferring from Old Dominion to CNU. Matheson, a junior from Kecoughtan High, has two seasons of eligibility remaining. Moyer, a sophomore from Woodside, has three. Both are eligible to play immediately. “It’s huge from the standpoint of their experience level,” CNU coach John Harvell said. “Usually, you get…

Since he was old enough to play organized sports, Zach Schwartzenberger has bounced back and forth between baseball and football as his top athletic priority. The Saline senior is preparing to make that transition one last time this fall after announcing his commitment to play college baseball in 2017 at the University of Toledo. “I thought about waiting to see how my senior football season goes to see if I…

Look: None of this means to diminish the otherworldly talent of young Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper, who enjoyed a historic offensive season at age 21 in 2015 and certainly ranks among contemporary baseball’s best and most charismatic players. But even Harper — a fan and student of the game — probably thinks this is absurd: In its list of the All-Time Top 100 MLB players, ESPN put Harper at No. 85….

(Photo: The Associated Press) The Latest on the Russian doping case (all times local to Rio de Janeiro): 2:30 p.m. Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko says he welcomes the International Olympic Committee’s decision to open investigations into allegations of Russian doping. A day after a World Anti-Doping Agency report accused Russia — and its sports ministry — of covering up hundreds of doping cases, the IOC opened investigations into top…

(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….

Alongside a two-lane highway by the quarry just outside of the small town of Cool, California, Ronnie is dying in a ditch. An hour earlier, I had been driving with Katherine, taking a lazy Saturday away from studying or making wine to go see the foothills of the Sierra Nevada’s. It was a simple enough thing to do on an April day. Yet, on the way home, as I…

Stacking can be a controversial topic in many daily fantasy sports, but you can count baseball as a glaring exception. Here, it’s universal. Using multiple players on the same team on a given day presents you with the opportunity to double dip. If one of your players hits an RBI double, there’s a good chance he drove in another one of your guys. When you get the points for both…