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Right now, there are more great power-hitting third basemen in baseball than maybe ever before. Kris Bryant, Nolan Arenado, and reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson have all swatted 20+ homers already this season, plus Evan Longoria and Manny Machado are not too far behind with 18 each. Also in that mix is one of baseball’s most unheralded great young players, Diamondbacks third baseman Jake Lamb. Lamb, who is in his…

It looks like someone crashed the Marlins-Braves game at Fort Bragg on Sunday night, and it’s causing quite the uproar. Self-proclaimed baseball collector Zack Hample tweeted an image of a baseball he obtained during the special event, sparking a significant amount of criticism on Twitter. Fort Bragg commemorative baseballs? Oh yes! Martin Prado just tossed this to me after the 3rd inning. pic.twitter.com/OQoGJfExbR — Zack Hample (@zack_hample) July 4, 2016…

Guards search fans bags’ at security check points before entering the fan zone prior to the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.(Photo: Reinhold Matay, USA TODAY Sports) Corrections & clarifications: A previous version of this story referred to the shooting in Orlando as the Paris nightclub shooting. The reference was intended to be to the Pulse nightclub shooting. DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The sign of the times was impossible to…

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Caption Close The homeless crowd at Union Square is going to look radically different for one full weekend this month, and the tourists, shopkeepers and usual strollers-by are probably going to want to stop and stare. In a good way. These homeless folks are going to be wearing soccer gear and playing for the annual Bay Area championship of what is called Street Soccer USA. The program runs soccer programs…

Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama said Sunday he was pulling out of the Olympics because of the Zika virus, making him the seventh golfer to cite the mosquito-borne virus for sitting out golf’s return to the Olympics after 112 years. Matsuyama, who won the Phoenix Open earlier this year in a playoff for his second PGA Tour victory, told Japanese reporters of his decision after he finished the Bridgestone Invitational. He…

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Marquise Goodwin‘s 2016 Olympic dreams did not come into fruition on Sunday. Goodwin finished seventh in the men’s long jump at the U.S.A. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, with a mark of 8.25m (27 feet, 3/4 inches). The top three finishers qualified for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August. The dual-sport athlete had been vying for his second trip to the Olympics since Buffalo’s…

Right now, there are more great power-hitting third basemen in baseball than maybe ever before. Kris Bryant, Nolan Arenado, and reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson have all swatted 20+ homers already this season, plus Evan Longoria and Manny Machado are not too far behind with 18 each. Also in that mix is one of baseball’s most unheralded great young players, Diamondbacks third baseman Jake Lamb. Lamb, who is in his…

Hubert Edwards lived at Fort Bragg before he deployed in 1942 to serve in World War II in Europe, where his love for baseball grew while he listened to parts of games on grainy radio broadcasts that provided equal parts joy and fear. The joy was easy enough to understand. Those broadcasts soothed American troops with familiar sounds of home during the war. Edwards, now 97, his voice still strong,…

There are two new trends in the world of sports betting that you might have missed: Entity betting and eSports gambling. Reports this week on both trends highlight the changing nature of the field. First, if you don’t know what “eSports” is, you’re not alone—it’s the latest in video games. And betting on the activity, which is basically placing bets on other people gaming, has grown to $8 billion in…

Joe Jares set out in the early 1970s to write a book about pro wrestling, relying on both his reporting skills and his childhood memories. His father was Frank Jares Sr., a villain in the sport’s early, black-and-white television heyday who fought as Brother Frank, the Mormon Mauler from Provo, Utah, and the Thing, among other aliases. Jares spent a college summer traveling the postwar wrestling circuit, assisting his father…

The Associated Press on Thursday announced that it is now covering Minor League Baseball games nationally using artificial intelligence and software from Automated Insights, and data from MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), the official statistics provider for Minor League Baseball. Automatically generated stories cover games that AP Sports’ human writers weren’t reporting on or traveling to anyway, including: Triple-A, Double-A and Class A games, across 142 MLB-affiliated teams and 13 leagues….

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On the day last year when Brock Lesnar announced that he was officiailly retiring from mixed martial arts and instead signing a new long term contract with the WWE, he almost immediately regretted that decision It wasn’t any ill will towards the WWE or his life as a professional wrestler, but instead Lesnar’s own fighting spirit just wouldn’t allow him to walk away from the sport where he was champion…

Michael Phelps is still the best swimmer of his generation but he’ll need to be better in Rio. To a casual observer, Phelps accomplished exactly what he needed to in Omaha, Neb., qualifying for a fifth Olympics in his three individual events. Where several of his contemporaries failed to make the U.S. team at all, Phelps handled his business. He also enjoyed an emotionally gratifying week, celebrating his climb back…

In China’s eastern city of Hangzhou, Mr Li could barely watch as Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo lined up a penalty kick in a finely-balanced Euro 2016 group match against Austria. Li had reason to be nervous: He had bet tens of thousands of yuan on Portugal to win. With 10 minutes to go in the game in Paris, Real Madrid star Ronaldo hit the post, the game ended in a…

Brad Keselowski’s victory in Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 was kind of a big deal for Team Penske, as it was the squad’s 100th NASCAR Premier Series triumph.  Penske won its first NASCAR race way back on Jan. 21, 1973, when Mark Donohue drove an ungainly AMC Matador to a victory back on the old Riverside International Raceway road course.  With the win, Penske joins Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush…

When they were students at Emerson College, Sam Mathius, Peter Karl and Petar Medjarac bonded through a mutual love of soccer. Now graduated, the group is once again tied together through the game, this time in a series of videos produced after a wide ranging tour of Central and South America. Known as the “American Futbol Project,” the group (joined also by fellow Emerson alum Austin Ahlborg) traveled more than 7,000 miles in 2014,…

Mario Gomez was substituted shortly after helping Mesut Ozil score against Italy Germany forward Mario Gomez will miss the rest of the European Championship with a hamstring injury. Scans conducted after Saturday’s quarter-final win over Italy showed a torn muscle for the 30-year-old, who has scored two goals in four games. A German Football Association (DFB) statement said: “Another appearance for the striker is not an option.” Midfielders Sami Khedira…

Here’s this week’s look around the baseball blogosphere: Chin Music Baseball heaps praise on Cardinals infielder Matt Carpenter, a potential National League MVP candidate. SaberBallBlog breaks down which teams are the best at using their bullpens. Big Three Sports regards Ichiro Suzuki, not Pete Rose, as baseball’s true hit king. Baseball Hot Corner submits a few Red Sox trade ideas. The Point Of Pittsburgh (1, 2) runs down some trade…