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WEST HARTFORD — Eighteen young, local baseball ambassadors started their long journey to Holguin, Cuba, early Saturday morning, with nearly half a ton of school supplies, baseball equipment and musical instruments in tow to be donated to locals. “I’m really excited for the kids and this opportunity that they have,” said Tim Brennan, assistant coach and one of the program leaders. “They will be building new relationships, and our countries…

The debate on Europe quintessentially echoes the tugging forces of the human condition. The current divisions on Europe are not new and the view from this side of the Channel has tended to pinball between boarding the train to an unknown destination and not wanting to be left alone on the platform. While the big political beasts of the jungle joust to convince us of their vision of Britain’s place…

Andy Carroll became the first Premier League player to score a hat-trick against Arsenal since Wayne Rooney in 2011 Andy Carroll’s hat-trick dealt another blow to Arsenal’s already slim Premier League title hopes, despite the Gunners fighting back to draw at West Ham. Arsenal are 10 points behind leaders Leicester with six games to play. Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez converted Alex Iwobi passes to put Arsenal 2-0 up but…

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Michael Jordan has his own line of shoes. Tiger Woods has his own line of golf apparel. And now Ruqsana Begum, a Muslim muay Thai fighter, has her own line of sports hijabs. “I’m fighting for a world title and launching my product at the same time, so this is huge for me now,” said Begum, the British champion of female Atomweight muay Thai boxing. As…

Local athletes, coaches, trainers, students and fitness fans who attended the international Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) Symposium, held recently at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, have cited the event as a success. Over 150 participants who pre-registered for the symposium themed ‘The Science and Practice of Running’, were engaged in discussions on sports nutrition and exercise science by local and international experts. The topics, aimed at helping attendees…

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MOSCOW (AP) — No one will face criminal charges over the worst doping scandal in Russia’s history, the country’s sports minister said. A report in November by a World Anti-Doping Agency commission alleged systematic, state-sponsored drug use in Russian track and field and a widespread cover-up of doping. The former head of the Russian track federation was also accused of a role in extorting 450,000 euros ($500,000) from a marathon…

RELATED: Race results FORT WORTH, Texas — Kyle Busch broke his NASCAR XFINITY Series “losing streak” on Friday night and in the process moved into rarefied air in the Lone Star State. With a dominating victory from the pole in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway, Busch won for the fourth time in five XFINITY starts this year. His only loss in that stretch was a second-place run after a late blown tire…

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Programming note: If you were to get three curmudgeons in a studio to talk about baseball, we could have a field day with something like this: Merry Christmas! pic.twitter.com/H0jEHJf48c — Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) April 8, 2016 Plenty of great seats still available for outdoor baseball this afternoon. Currently. (📷: @MLBastian) pic.twitter.com/nBGGsXFZOY — Cleveland Indians (@Indians) April 8, 2016 There’ve already been several rainouts and postponements because baseball insists on having…

NASCAR racing is a unique sport in terms of the athlete-fan relationship, something that can and does drastically change over a driver’s career. For years, Jeff Gordon was vilified for having the temerity to win so often and in the process defeat Dale Earnhardt, the man who unquestionably was the sport’s biggest hero of his era and maybe ever. When Gordon did his victory burnout after winning at Talladega in…

RELATED: See every car in the field | Get the full lineup FORT WORTH, Tex. – Carl Edwards didn’t run a perfect lap in Friday’s final round of knockout qualifying, but he had plenty of car to compensate.   “I made a little mistake, and I thought that was going to cost us,” said Edwards, who earned the top starting spot for Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 (on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR…

The Charleston Battery take on the Houston Dynami. (Photo credit: Rainier Ehrhardt/Getty) The Charleston Battery are a soccer team that play in the United Soccer League—the third tier of American soccer, below MLS and the NASL—and average about 4,000 fans a game. You would think they’d be happy with any media coverage they could get, especially from South Carolina’s most-read newspaper. You would think wrong. The Charleston Post and Courier…

RELATED: Final practice results | See the starting lineup Martin Truex Jr. zipped to the top of the leaderboard in the final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice Friday evening at Texas Motor Speedway. Truex piloted the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota to a fast lap of 192.390 mph around the 1.5-mile Fort Worth track. He’ll start third in Saturday night’s main event, the Duck Commander 500 (7:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM). Carl Edwards, who claimed the Coors Light Pole…

While David Beckham’s Miami stadium struggles continue, a group of Italian investors jump ahead of Beckham dream project to launch their very own professional soccer club right here in Miami. International media magnate Riccardo Silva and former Italian soccer star, Paolo Maldini have joined forces and are set to launch Miami FC next April 9 at FIU Stadium. “As Miami moves forward in the world of business and arts, we…

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Nearly 25 years later, Rob Butler still can’t believe it. “I was only 5-foot-9, the smallest player on every team I ever played on. I just somehow managed to grind my way up to the big leagues,” Butler remembers during a phone call from the baseball facility he operates in Ajax, Ont., just outside of Toronto. Toronto youth baseball leagues a hit with kids Butler’s career was brief (he managed 200-plus at-bats spread over…

Norway’s Andreas Mikkelsen cuts through the Sweet Lamb spectator stage. He once killed a spectator in a crash. Photo Credit: Raphael Orlove I met him on a short hill overlooking the road, some macho Welsh local covered in rain and dirt, pulling a beer from his poncho and waiting for the next car to wail past. I asked him why he had trekked into the woods, soaked through his boots,…