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Prepare yourself for the greatest staring contest in the history of sports. A boy attending a baseball game for the College World Series can’t resist the draw of the cameras. SEE ALSO: Sassy little girl keeps it honest for preschool yearbook shoot As soon as he sees himself on the screen, he immediately starts connecting with his newfound audience.  Be careful. His piercing stare might see into your soul. You…

Previously Mentioned Guys (Add Right Now if Not Too Late) Justin Bour, 1B, Miami Marlins A.J. Reed, 1B, Houston Astros Devon Travis, 2B, Toronto Blue Jays Trevor Bauer, SP, Cleveland Indians Seung Hwan Oh, RP, St. Louis Cardinals   Mixed Leagues Mark Teixeira, 1B, New York Yankees Cheslor Cuthbert, 3B, Kansas City Royals Max Kepler, OF, Minnesota Twins Brandon Nimmo, OF, New York Mets Daniel Norris, SP, Detroit Tigers  Lucas…

You’ll often hear a lot in the first few months of the season about “The Super Two Deadline,” but that’s kind of a misnomer. There is no deadline. There is no one date after which teams can just call players up without worrying about losing a year of cost-control, which is why there isn’t one day when we are inundated by a deluge of callups. Instead, it’s usually a trick;…

On Sunday, the sports world woke up to the awful news that the health of legendary women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt had become dire and that her family was “preparing for the worst.” The news came five years after Summitt announced she had early onset Alzheimer’s disease and a few months after she had been placed in a retirement center. Since then, support for the winningest coach in Division I…

Your teams. Your favorite writers. Wherever you want them. Personalize SI with our new App. Install on iOS (iOS or Android) On Sunday, the U.S. Olympic swimming Trials began in Omaha, where six Olympians were named to Team USA, a well-known veteran didn’t qualify in his first event and an American record was broken. Here are five thoughts from the the first night: 1. Ryan Lochte turns heads by finishing third,…

Blake Shelton performs as Clint Bowyer adds some air guitar during the opening of NBC’s new video for NASCAR coverage.(Photo: Photo courtesy Rick Kern, NBC) Clint Bowyer knew friend Blake Shelton would be relentless as soon as Bowyer read the script. “He makes fun of me terribly bad over air guitar,” the Sprint Cup driver told USA TODAY Sports. “We were sitting in the bus looking at the schedule and it was…

by Johnny Harris on June 27, 2016

Maya DiRado competes in the 400-meter individual medley at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming at CenturyLink Center on June 26, 2016 in Omaha, Neb. OMAHA, Neb. — Coming into the final 100 meters of the 400-meter individual medley at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials…

Lawmakers in Salt Lake City recently approved giving the city’s NBA team, the Utah Jazz, $22.7 million in tax revenue collected from businesses in the basketball arena’s zoning district. The subsidy will be doled out over the next 25 years. The “reimbursement,” as lawmakers on the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City termed the gift, is expected to be used to help pay for the planned construction and renovation of…

Six days before Americans gathered to celebrate the nation’s bicentennial, attention was drawn to Detroit where 18 million viewers watching ABC’s “Monday Night Baseball” were first introduced to Tigers rookie pitcher Mark (The Bird) Fidrych when he faced the first-place New York Yankees. Though the game — Tuesday marks 40 years ago to the day — was blacked out in Detroit, 48,000 fans who packed into Tiger Stadium were treated…

Media playback is not supported on this device Lionel Messi scores sublime Argentina goal Lionel Messi announced his retirement from international duty after missing in a penalty shootout as Argentina lost a fourth major final in nine years. “It’s not meant for me. For me the national team is over. I’ve done all I can, it hurts not to be a champion,” the 29-year-old said after defeat by Chile at…

Venus Williams is far more than a legendary tennis champion. The 7-time Grand Slam singles title holder spent years in her sport rallying for equal pay among both the men and women. And guess what, Williams, through her collaboration with the Women’s Tennis Association, a 2006 Op-Ed titled “Venus Williams On Equal Pay at Wimbledon,” and her famed play on the court, she got tennis’ biggest tournament to erase the…

A general view as competitors in heat 4 dive into the pool for the start of the men’s 400 freestyle June 26.(Photo: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports) OMAHA — It is one of the most agonizing rituals not just in the Olympic world, but in all of sports. Time and again this week at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, in race after race, someone will touch the wall first, securing a spot…

RELATED: Results | Standings | Chase Grid SONOMA, Calif. — An hour after all the Victory Lane photographs, congratulatory pats on the back from competitors, all the smiles and toasts, Tony Stewart conceded that while leading the field with eight laps remaining in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350, he also did get a little emotional while steering his Chevrolet around the twisting Sonoma Raceway road course. “With about eight to go it was…

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State’s men’s soccer coach says one of his players drowned while swimming with some of his teammates at a lake outside Columbus. Nineteen-year-old Fikayo Idowu died Friday. He was from Madison, Mississippi, and had been on the Ohio State soccer team since 2014. He was a defender and majoring in health and rehabilitation sciences, He wanted to attend medical school. He also was a two-time Ohio…

After a lifetime pursuing the world’s greatest swimmer day after day, Chase Kalisz no longer stood behind anyone Sunday evening at Olympic Trials. Using a dominant breaststroke leg, Kalisz won the 400-meter individual medley to earn a spot on the U.S. Olympic team and make good on his quest to succeed his friend and training partner, Michael Phelps. “Honestly, the whole thing went by so fast, and I feel like…

  It has been said that one of the greatest things about baseball in comparison to other major team sports is that there is no clock. You can’t take a knee, dribble out the clock or chip the puck down the ice to preserve a lead. You need 27 outs, and until you get them the team that is trailing still has hope. This is a beautiful aspect of baseball…

The book was called “How Dogs are Better than Cats.” The reasoning was sound — dogs will save you from a fire, or alert you to burglars in your home. Cats will cower under a couch. And in the dream weeks that followed this month’s Major League Baseball draft, the author’s proud father has shown it to a few close friends as he accepted their congratulations. He flipped to the…