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Friday morning, hundreds of mourners and admirers gathered at an Ali memorial outside the Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville. They added wreaths and banners and signs to a pile of others that had accumulated over the past week. Louisville resident Vanessa Moore and her daughter, 26-year-old Marcela, stood shoulder to shoulder and stared at the photos and drawings of the city’s hero. ‘We just can’t tear ourselves away,’ Vanessa…

In one corner, the House of Thani; in the other, Waffle House. As you might imagine, what rocks the socks off of Hattiesburg doesn’t necessarily translate in Doha. Or even London, much to John Duff’s chagrin. “When I was selling it internationally and on the discussion (phase) of it, I had to first start at the beginning and explain what college sports was,” Duff, the director of business development and…

Immediate gratification is now possible for baseball card collectors thanks to the Topps Company. They’ve given an update to the old-school classics for this year’s season with its new initiative, Topps Now. The company originally started selling baseball cards 65 years ago as a way to increase candy sales. Topps would place a few cards in a pack along with a slab of bubblegum. The candy would leave a sugary…

The 2016 NCAA Baseball Tournament’s first weekend featured 101 games in the round of 64. The field has now been whittled down to 16 teams paired off into eight super regional sites, where they’ll play a best of three head-to-head series for the right to go to Omaha for the College World Series proper. Opening weekend saw a handful of upsets send some powerhouses packing. No. 7 national seed Clemson…

Thought last weekend’s ugly regional sweep meant you could stop stressing about Rebel baseball until next February? Think again. The MLB Draft, which runs Thursday through Saturday, will have a major say in whether Ole Miss can improve its postseason performance in 2017. Depending on how high they’re selected, draft-eligible guys like J.B. Woodman, Errol Robinson and Brady Bramlett will be deciding whether to turn pro or come back to…

Matt Manning was planning to play baseball and basketball in college after excelling in both sports for Sheldon High School in Sacramento, Calif. But the Detroit Tigers expect Manning’s long-term future to be on the baseball field despite the fact he committed to play both sports at Loyola Marymount. The Tigers selected the hard-throwing right-handed pitcher with the ninth pick in the first round of Thursday’s Major League Baseball draft…

One by one, chronicled by no less a chronicler than The New York Times, the baseball cards of my youth are dying.   Back in December, it was former Boston Red Sox third baseman Frank Malzone. More recently, it was former Detroit Tiger second baseman Dick McAuliffe. Even more recently, it was Jim Ray Hart, who many years ago made something of a name for himself as a solid, if…

Some 340,000 more people got active in the last 12 months – exercising one or more a week. And 75 per cent of that increase has come from women, in particular women over 40. That huge surge – equivalent to over 260,000 women and girls – actually means women are now as active as they were just after the London 2012 Olympic Games.  But we don’t just report the numbers. We spend a…

Fox Sports Florida’s sideline reporter for Tampa Bay Rays and Orlando Magic broadcasts, Emily Austen, went on Barstool Sports’s daily Rundown show on Thursday, and proceeded to make a number of racist and anti-Semitic jokes. The Rundown, which was broadcast live on Facebook Live instead of being recorded like normal, then disappeared from Barstool’s Facebook page. On the 35-minute long broadcast, Austen said a number of terrible things that you…

Gordie Howe, the most legendary name in the history of professional hockey, died on Friday morning. He was 88.  Known simply as “Mr. Hockey,” Howe played 26 seasons in the NHL and six seasons in the World Hockey Association. He’s the all-time leader in games played in the NHL with 1,767. He’s second in career goals (801) and fourth in career points (1,850). He won four Stanley Cups with the…

Cape Town – A man who vented on Facebook after the announcement that sport teams that failed to transform were banned from bidding for or hosting major events, will now do community service to come to grips with challenges in disadvantaged communities. Capetonian Matthew Theunissen will do community service for sports development in a disadvantaged part of Cape Town as part of a settlement agreement, the SA Human Rights Commission…

Mexico can win the Copa America Centenario.  No, scratch that. Mexico should win the Copa America Centenario. Striker Javier Hernandez is in form and has the right players around him. Fans are behind the team. And if that isn’t enough, well, let’s just say the soccer gods have been extremely generous to Mexico recently in its adopted homeland. The latest gifts from the heavens came Thursday in a 2-0 victory…

Last week, on the eve of this year’s European Cup championship, one of soccer’s most prolific scorers, Karim Benzema — a French citizen born to Algerian immigrants — galvanized France. Not with a spectacular goal for Les Bleus, the French national team hosting Euro 2016, but rather with an observation he made in a Spanish newspaper, affirming that there is, in fact, “a racist part of France.” The events leading…

This month’s gay pride celebrations coincide with two of the world’s most high-profile sports tournaments: Copa America — hosted for the first time by the United States — and Euro 2016. Yet while the NFL and NBA have passed the milestone of having openly gay athletes in their top professional leagues, not a single soccer player in either competition has come out as gay. It leaves the “beautiful game” without…

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Matt Manning was planning to play baseball and basketball in college after excelling in both sports for Sheldon High School in Sacramento, Calif. But the Detroit Tigers expect Manning’s long-term future to be on the baseball field despite the fact he committed to play both sports at Loyola Marymount. The Tigers selected the hard-throwing right-handed pitcher with the ninth pick in the first round of Thursday’s Major League Baseball draft…

A capsule look at the top 10 picks in the Major League Baseball draft on Thursday night: — 1. PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES MICKEY MONIAK, OF, La Costa Canyon H.S. (California), 6-foot-2, 190 pounds. First high school outfielder to be selected No. 1 since Tampa Bay drafted Delmon Young in 2003. Tremendous athlete considered five-tool talent whose stock rose throughout senior season. Left-handed hitter is consistent to all fields with solid power…

by Kendall Fisher | <!– –>