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BAYONNE — To the delight of parents and children alike, Mr. Met visited a special-needs baseball program this morning. The official mascot of the New York Mets came to 11th Street Park to support the Buddy Baseball League, which was started last year for mentally and physically challenged city residents ages 4 to 21. Earlier this year, SportsNet New York, the TV home of the New York Mets, awarded the league a…

Looking for daily fantasy baseball picks, strategy and advice? This is the DFS MLB Playbook for Saturday, featuring all the MLB DFS info you need to know from Sporting News partners FantasyAlarm.com. At the time of this writing, the two games that may have rain in play are Marlins-Nationals and Twins-Indians. The rain should hold off until later in the day in Washington, so in reality, the main game that’s in trouble there is…

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Despite a surge of doping cases over the last four years, and an increasingly dysfunctional and now suspended drug-testing agency, Kenya’s athletes were cleared to compete at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics by the IAAF. The International Olympic Committee, which has the final call on whether Kenya’s famed distance runners will run in Rio in August, also is unlikely to stop the country sending a team….

Saracens are the first English champions of Europe since Wasps nearly a decade ago Saracens became champions of Europe for the first time as they ground out victory in the rain against Racing 92 in the Champions Cup final in Lyon. Parisians Racing had Dan Carter at 10, but he was unable to take kicks at goal and went off injured after 42 minutes. Saracens’ Owen Farrell landed four first-half…

CLEVELAND (AP) — Like so many kids growing up in Ohio, Andy Billman learned to love Cleveland’s sports teams. And to have his heart broken. But true to the passion of a proud city whose long-suffering fans haven’t celebrated a major professional championship since 1964, the director of an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary chronicling Cleveland’s half-century of sports misery has undying hope a title will come. One day. “It’s…

Murray will return to number two in the world rankings on Monday, even if he loses the Rome final British number one Andy Murray reached his first Italian Open final with a straight-set victory over unseeded Frenchman Lucas Pouille. Murray, seeded second, won 6-2 6-1 in a rain-interrupted semi-final at Rome’s Foro Italico. The Scot will next face either Novak Djokovic, who beat him in last week’s Madrid Open final,…

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The XXXI Olympiad begins in less than three months and the host country is facing a devastating recession, a Zika epidemic and more political turbulence now that the president has been suspended and replaced by a right-wing government. Brazil has a lot to resolve before it puts on the competition it promised the world back in 2009, when the booming country beat out President Obama-backed Chicago to host the games…

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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Despite a surge of doping cases over the last four years, and an increasingly dysfunctional and now suspended drug-testing agency, Kenya’s athletes were cleared to compete at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics by the IAAF. The International Olympic Committee, which has the final call on whether Kenya’s famed distance runners will run in Rio in August, also is unlikely to stop the country sending a team….

CLEVELAND (AP) — Like so many kids growing up in Ohio, Andy Billman learned to love Cleveland’s sports teams. And to have his heart broken. But true to the passion of a proud city whose long-suffering fans haven’t celebrated a major professional championship since 1964, the director of an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary chronicling Cleveland’s half-century of sports misery has undying hope a title will come. One day. “It’s…

Rafael Benitez is believed to have a break clause in the three-year contract he signed with Newcastle Rafael Benitez says he could continue as Newcastle manager after holding “positive” discussions with the relegated Premier League club. The Magpies’ second relegation to the Championship in seven years was confirmed on Wednesday. Benitez, 56, succeeded the sacked Steve McClaren in March, winning two of his nine league games in charge. “If I’m…

Our daily fantasy baseball picks continue with starting pitcher rankings and advice for Saturday’s MLB slate. Before we get into today’s rankings, we should point out that as of Friday night, the Nationals official website says Stephen Strasburg, not Tanner Roark, is pitching the first game of Saturday’s Marlins-Nats doubleheader. Both FanDuel and DraftKings have Roark listed among the early starters, so hopefully the Nats’ site is wrong and DFS players…

Elevator ↑Mooresville baseball: Seeded No. 21 in the N.C. 4A West playoffs, the Blue Devils upset No. 5 seed Hough 6-2 Friday. ↑Charlotte Country Day baseball: No. 5 seed Bucs (19-12) beat No. 4 Charlotte Christian (23-12) 5-4 to advance to next week’s semifinals against Wesleyan Christian or Wake Christian. ↑Lake Norman Charter baseball: beat R-S Central 2-1 to advance to third round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association…

Jake Stone had a two-run homer and a two-run triple to back Ricky Tyler Thomas’ strong pitching and lead Fresno State to a 9-1 win over UNLV in a Mountain West baseball game Friday at Wilson Stadium. Stone’s two-run triple was one of four straight hits in a five-run fifth inning by the Bulldogs (34-17, 20-8), the final of which was a two-run homer by Aaron Arruda, who also had…

Welcome to The Walk Off, the nightly MLB recap from Big League Stew. Here we’ll look at the top performers of the night, show you a must-see highlight and rundown the scoreboard. First, we start with a game you need to know about.  With Clayton Kershaw off to a historic start for the Dodgers and Jake Arrieta picking up where he left off as last season’s NL Cy Young winner,…

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CLEVELAND (AP) — Like so many kids growing up in Ohio, Andy Billman learned to love Cleveland’s sports teams. And to have his heart broken. But true to the passion of a proud city whose long-suffering fans haven’t celebrated a major professional championship since 1964, the director of an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary chronicling Cleveland’s half-century of sports misery has undying hope a title will come. One day. “It’s…

The world’s most populous country is turning its attention to the world’s most popular sport. And if China can follow through on an ambitious plan pushed by President Xi Jinping, the nation could someday become a soccer superpower. Last spring Xi, a fervent soccer fan, signed off on the most sweeping reforms in the history of modern Chinese sport — ones that apply only to soccer. In a dramatic break…