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The bullpen interview prank isn’t a new invention. South Carolina did it, Mississippi State also participated — but North Carolina pulled out all the stops on Monday night when pitcher Zac Gallen got the call in a dugout. It started simply enough with the old “bubblegum on the cap” trick, then it escalated. There were banana phones and cup goggles. Dancing. And even a mid-game meal….

The Cubs would have scored the Jake Arrieta trade as a major victory even if Jake Arrieta never threw a pitch in a Cubs uniform and kept bouncing to the next Triple-A affiliate, teasing a different organization with his potential. Pedro Strop has been that good. Arrieta eclipsed Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw in last year’s National League Cy Young Award voting, overshadows the $155 million lefty (Jon Lester) in…

If you took my daily fantasy baseball lineup advice last Tuesday, you received three home runs from Lorenzo Cain and Kevin Gausman’s nine Ks. As long as you didn’t fill in the rest of your roster with zeroes, you should’ve been able to cash in either FanDuel or DraftKings contests. On the flip side, if you listened to my warning and avoided Gregory Polanco all week, you dodged his miserable 14 at-bats which produced just three…

ENLARGE Sports media giant ESPN is rolling out a new advertising product that allows marketers to deliver banner ads tailored to the interests of sports fans by using data the company has collected on visitors to its website. The offering, called Live Connect, lets marketers serve ads on ESPN.com that can reflect a visitor’s favorite team or player. The ad can also reflect the outcome of a particular game. For…

This is Strength in Numbers, a new column exploring the science of sports and athleticism. As this feature takes shape, I welcome your feedback, suggestions and news tips. Email me, leave suggestions in the comments section or tweet to me @CragCrest. When concussions make the news, it’s usually about football. But head injuries happen in other sports too, and not just to men. During a congressional hearing on concussions in…

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ENLARGE Dozens of athletes who competed in the Beijing Olympics are facing doping bans to prevent their participation in this summer’s Games in Rio de Janeiro, after samples from 2008 were recently retested, according to the International Olympic Committee. The IOC said it would move to take immediate action against up to 31 athletes who competed in six sports in Beijing after retesting 454 doping samples from those Games. The…

print GENEVA — The World Health Organization’s chief says the agency is increasingly concerned about the Zika virus, even though it does not recommend canceling or postponing the Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics in hard-hit Brazil. “The more we learn about Zika, the more worried we get about it,” Dr. Margaret Chan said in a briefing Tuesday in Geneva, saying she herself would be going to the Rio Games. Chan…

Motorists should be on the lookout for NASCAR drivers in Center City on Tuesday afternoon. Race car drivers will be hitting the streets near City Hall starting at noon to promote the upcoming XFINITY Series race at Pocono Raceway. The drivers – who include Ty Dillon, Brandon Jones, Darrell “Bubba” Wallace, Ryan Reed and Brennan…

The bullpen interview prank isn’t a new invention. South Carolina did it, Mississippi State also participated — but North Carolina pulled out all the stops on Monday night when pitcher Zac Gallen got the call in a dugout. It started simply enough with the old “bubblegum on the cap” trick, then it escalated. There were banana phones and cup goggles. Dancing. And even a mid-game meal….

The Cubs would have scored the Jake Arrieta trade as a major victory even if Jake Arrieta never threw a pitch in a Cubs uniform and kept bouncing to the next Triple-A affiliate, teasing a different organization with his potential. Pedro Strop has been that good. Arrieta eclipsed Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw in last year’s National League Cy Young Award voting, overshadows the $155 million lefty (Jon Lester) in…

Getty / Youtube The phrase “bench clearing brawl” is a bit of a misnomer in that most baseball skirmishes consist of little more than a few shoves and a collection of players standing around staring at each other. But occasionally the sports gods confuse baseball with hockey and we all get to see a few hard punches. The one doled out by Texas Rangers infielder Rougned Odor to Toronto Blue…

Chipper Jones knows a thing or two about baseball’s “unwritten rules.” A 19-year MLB veteran, Jones spent the majority of his storied career playing under legendary Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox, whose traditionalist views on the sport did not include much patience for boisterous home run celebrations. Continue Reading Below Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista and Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper are leaders among baseball’s new school –…

Welcome to today’s daily fantasy post! Remember that you can find our posts on the new DFS home page, as well as the fantasy page. Bookmark those sites now! Let’s get to today’s interesting facts, using DraftKings prices. All 15 games are included in the night slate. Please note that much of the information in this post is being published several hours prior to game times, so check MLB lineups later to…

ENLARGE Sports media giant ESPN is rolling out a new advertising product that allows marketers to deliver banner ads tailored to the interests of sports fans by using data the company has collected on visitors to its website. The offering, called Live Connect, lets marketers serve ads on ESPN.com that can reflect a visitor’s favorite team or player. The ad can also reflect the outcome of a particular game. For…

It’s been a rough month for the women of the Seattle City Council. They’ve gotten vicious online abuse from trolls inviting “those BITCHES” to “BURN IN HELL,” or speculating that their “cycles must have synced up.” What did they do to deserve this, asked Samantha Bee on Monday night’s Full Frontal? They dared to vote down a proposal for a new sports arena in Seattle. The vote against…

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – The IOC issued a stern statement on Tuesday promising to step up the fight against sports doping after a series of damning reports exposed systematic and mass cheating by Russian athletes. The Olympics organizers said 31 athletes in six sports have tested positive in reanalysis of their doping samples from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The International Olympic Committee said it has opened disciplinary proceedings against the unidentified…

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