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9:00 AM ET Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email print comment On the second Tuesday of July, the stars will sparkle in the San Diego sky. But enough about astronomy. It’s the stars sparkling below, on the glimmering grass of Petco Park, that we’re here to talk about. If the All-Star Game is a time to celebrate star power, let’s just come out and say it. You know where you find the…

The U.S. women’s soccer team has named its official Olympic roster for the 2016 Rio Games.  The team is led by co-captains Carli Lloyd and Becky Sauerbrunn. Lloyd will be appearing in her third Olympics, while Sauerbrunn will be making her second appearance. Of the 18 players on the roster, 11 will be making their Olympic debut.  The biggest storyline around the team’s roster selection is the inclusion of Megan Rapinoe. When…

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 »

9:00 AM ET Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email print comment On the second Tuesday of July, the stars will sparkle in the San Diego sky. But enough about astronomy. It’s the stars sparkling below, on the glimmering grass of Petco Park, that we’re here to talk about. If the All-Star Game is a time to celebrate star power, let’s just come out and say it. You know where you find the…

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email print comment Some teams and players just can’t deal with prosperity. They reach the brink of success and then implode spectacularly. And when it happens, it becomes a part of sports lore, unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. We asked a panel of ESPN.com experts to determine which flameouts were the most excruciating, taking into account the magnitude of the event, the size of the blown…

Minneapolis start-up Sport Ngin has been sold to NBC Sports Group, capping years of rapid growth and plentiful financing for the software company. Sport Ngin is the nation’s largest provider of web software and mobile applications to manage youth, amateur and professional sports. More than 500,000 sports teams, leagues, clubs and associations use the platform. CEO and co-founder Justin Kaufenberg said NBC Sports is “the most visible company” within the…

7:24 AM ET Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email print comment Major League Baseball will play its annual All-Star Game on Tuesday night, and chances are that few — if any — NFL players could have made it. You have to love baseball to be great at it, as with most endeavors. And if you love baseball, why wouldn’t you pursue its longer careers, fully guaranteed contracts and healthier futures? Joe Mauer,…

Every year, MLB’s All-Star game brings together the best players from each league to form two superteams. For one game, we get to see Jose Fernandez as a reliever against lineups in which Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera hit back to back. But unlike the NBA’s fantasy rosters made real, we never get to glimpse how dominant such a talent-laden squad would be against normal MLB competition. So with a…

9:00 AM ET Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email print comment On the second Tuesday of July, the stars will sparkle in the San Diego sky. But enough about astronomy. It’s the stars sparkling below, on the glimmering grass of Petco Park, that we’re here to talk about. If the All-Star Game is a time to celebrate star power, let’s just come out and say it. You know where you find the…

It’s the MLB All-Star break, and one story that continues to resonate across the sport of baseball is the play of both the Washington Nationals and their star Bryce Harper. The Nats entered the break with a six-game lead in the NL East and the second-best record in the NL, and Harper has continued to rip the cover off the ball with 19 home runs and 52 RBI heading into…

SAN DIEGO —€” Even before Monday’s Home Run Derby began, Marlins reliever A.J. Ramos was extolling the legend of Giancarlo Stanton and warning anyone who dared sit near the left-field bleachers to reconsider. Every one of Stanton’s Marlins teammates has a favorite story about the 26-year-old outfielder. They speak of him as if he’s a Greek god sent down from baseball’s Mount Olympus to hit towering homers. In 2016, Bunyan-esque…

Amazon Prime Day is here! The magical time of the year where already ludicrously cheap prices get even cheaper. Wading through the hundreds upon hundreds of deals can be a real chore — so we’ve assembled the 12 best items you should consider today. Not all sports fans are created equal. We know that some of you want to just sit on the couch and watch the game, while other…

PRO BASKETBALL SAN ANTONIO (AP) San Antonio Spurs star Tim Duncan is finally calling it a career. Duncan announced his retirement after 19 seasons, five championships, two MVP awards and 15 All-Star appearances. It marks the end of an era for the Spurs and the NBA. Duncan was the No. 1 overall pick out of Wake Forest in 1997 and teamed with Gregg Popovich, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili to…

Fifteen years ago, mixed martial arts league Ultimate Fighting Championship sold for $2 million. Back then, the sport featured bone-crushing, blood-smearing action that was dismissed as “human cockfighting” by Sen. John McCain. Now, the UFC is changing hands for $4 billion. Hollywood mega-talent agency WME/IMG’s acquisition of the league is a major bet on the power of live sporting events in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. And the deal is viewed by sports business experts…

Paul Christesen, Dartmouth College “The Olympic Games in Rio are an unnatural disaster,” The New York Times recently declared. As someone who has spent two decades studying and writing about the ancient and modern Olympics, I’m not surprised by the pronouncement. It simply fulfills a prophecy many foretold in the months (and years) leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games. While Rio has its own particular challenges, such as the…

Russia’s only athlete allowed to participate in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics has been branded a traitor on social media and told to compete for Ukraine instead. The country’s track and field athletes were banned from competing in the upcoming Olympics in Brazil over allegations of mass doping. Long jumper Darya Klishina was granted permission by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to compete, as they announced she met…

BERGISCH-GLADBACH, Germany (AP) — In the retro-looking gym that serves as the talent-honing center for Germany’s potential Olympian gymnasts, girls aged six and seven in leotards execute their somersaults and back flips under watchful trainers. From a distance, it is difficult to distinguish Oksana Chusovitina from the kids. However, she has a son who is about three times the age of the young aspiring gymnasts. Only when she approaches, do…

Every year, MLB’s All-Star game brings together the best players from each league to form two superteams. For one game, we get to see Jose Fernandez as a reliever against lineups in which Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera hit back to back. But unlike the NBA’s fantasy rosters made real, we never get to glimpse how dominant such a talent-laden squad would be against normal MLB competition. So with a…

It’s the MLB All-Star break, and one story that continues to resonate across the sport of baseball is the play of both the Washington Nationals and their star Bryce Harper. The Nats entered the break with a six-game lead in the NL East and the second-best record in the NL, and Harper has continued to rip the cover off the ball with 19 home runs and 52 RBI heading into…