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Jackie Robinson, the great Brooklyn Dodgers player who integrated baseball, is the subject of Ken Burns’ latest PBS documentary.(Photo: Hutton Archive, Getty Images) A Ken Burns film about Jackie Robinson might seem inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful — or any less welcome. Spend just a few minutes with Jackie Robinson (PBS, Monday and Tuesday at 9 ET/PT, *** 1/2 out of four), a four-hour, two-part film from Burns,…

By instinct, honed reflex and general contrarianism, I root for all “flashy” “showboats” who are “disgraces to the game.” It has been this way since I left Boston at age 10 to move to North Carolina, a state with no notable baseball team save the minor-league Durham Bulls, who, at least when I was growing up, seemed more a Hollywood relic than a ball club. Freed from having to like…

This week, ESPN revealed the jaw-dropping story behind a sports nickname so stupid its own team cast the lone dissenting vote against its approval: The New Jersey Swamp Dragons, today known as the Brooklyn Nets, who were looking for an extreme makeover in the 1990s. After reading through Zach Lowe’s delightful oral history of this name — which could only be taken seriously in a decade of ridiculous, toyetic handles…

Former Mets closer Ron Taylor, whose fastball helped the Miracle Mets win the 1969 World Series, says he’s been thinking recently about the New York team Gil Hodges put together 47 years ago. “I keep looking at my scrapbook. We had an unusual team, a lot of young players,” says Taylor, 78, who closed down the Orioles in Game 2 of that series. “I was kind of…

RELATED: Full race results | Updated driver standings STORE: Shop for winning driver gear   FORT WORTH, Texas — Opportunistic Kyle Busch sped away from the rest of the field after a restart with 33 laps left in Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway and collected his second straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory. What’s more, Busch won his fourth straight NASCAR national series race, having swept last week’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and…

RELATED: Find FS1 in your area All times ET Monday, April 11 8:30 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Duck Commander 500 (re-air), FS1 5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1 5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN Tuesday, April 12 4 a.m., NASCAR Sprint Cup Series: Duck Commander 500 (re-air), FS1 7 a.m., NASCAR America (re-air), NBCSN 9:30 a.m., NASCAR XFINITY Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 (re-air), FS1 5 p.m., NASCAR America, NBCSN 5 p.m., NASCAR Race Hub, FS1 6 p.m., 100,000…

Austin Dillon triggered a Texas-sized wreck during Saturday night’s rain-delayed Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway after his No. 3 went spinning across the track at Lap 293 while running in the top 10. Denny Hamlin‘s No. 11 Toyota got the No. 3 loose, causing the multi-car melee off Turn 2 that affected 13 cars total: Jimmie Johnson, Brian Vickers, Paul Menard, Michael Annett, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Regan Smith, Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer, Matt Kenseth, Trevor Bayne, Brian Scott and David Ragan. The wreck was particularly unfortunate for…

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Buy Photo Rocky Mountain High School baseball coach Scott Bullock, center, along with assistants Roy Tripi and Glen Schwab have maintained state-wide success through the years with five titles.(Photo: Austin Humphreys/The Coloradoan)Buy Photo A group of unexpected guests intently watched the Rocky Mountain High School baseball team’s senior day ceremonies at the end of last season. The Lobos had just beat Evergreen 4-2, but instead of heading straight for the…

Reds send Pirates to first loss this year Eugenio Suarez drove in three runs, with a single and a homer, to help Cincinnati hand visiting Pittsburgh its first loss, 5-1 on Saturday. Pittsburgh’s 4-0 start was its best since 2003. Suarez had an RBI single in the first and a two-run homer in the seventh, his team-leading third of the season. He also scored three times. At…

Even steady showers couldn’t dampen the sunny smiles surrounding opening day of the new Miracle League of Stanislaus County. The baseball league for children with physical and mental disabilities held the unveiling of its new specialized field Saturday morning amid persistent rainfall. The downpour meant the teams couldn’t play, but they could still show off their jerseys and celebrate the accomplishment eight years in the making together. The nonprofit group…

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There was something different about the crowd noise in the Copper Box and it took me a while to work out what it was. About 10 minutes into the first quarter of the game, I realised: it was the octave level. The netball match was a sell-out – a high-stakes encounter between Hertfordshire Mavericks and Surrey Storm – and the 6,000-capacity arena thrummed, as it’s designed to do, with the…

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Unapologetic bigot Phil Robertson delivered the invocation before tonight’s NASCAR race in Texas, and it didn’t disappoint—if you were looking forward to the duck call industrialist to pray for “A Jesus man” to be elected president in November. That automatically excluded Hillary Clinton (who is not a man) and Bernie Sanders (who is not Christian) from consideration. (Robertson has endorsed Ted Cruz; NASCAR is pretty solidly pro-Trump.) Following the invocation,…

MORE: Live weather updates from Texas   FORT WORTH — Light rain in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has postponed the start of Saturday night’s Duck Commander 500 (green flag originally scheduled for 7:46 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, Sirius XM NASCAR radio) at Texas Motor Speedway.   NASCAR Air Titans were turning laps drying the 1.5-mile track and officials were optimistic to get the race in shortly.   Jimmie Johnson, the defending winner of the race,…

Arizona State’s baseball team earned a come-from-behind 6-3 victory over visiting Washington on Saturday at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Huskies starter Joe De­Mers (2-2) allowed four runs on 12 hits in six innings. First baseman John Naff went 2 for 4 with a run scored and two runs batted in for Washington (15-11, 6-5 Pac-12). The win allowed Arizona State (17-11, 4-7) to even the three-game series at a game apiece….