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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,…

10:12 AM ET print New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick was part of the keynote address at the 2016 Salesforce World Tour event on Thursday, sharing his opinion that quarterback Tom Brady is the “greatest quarterback of all time.” He was also asked about what it’s like being part of the region with such a rich tradition in professional sports. “It’s pretty special. I grew up in Maryland but went…

Leicester has long been a trying name that travels badly. An overelaborate spelling of “Lester” for Americans. A tongue-twisting “Less-es-tur” or “Lie-chest-er” for continental Europeans. So thank you Jamie Vardy and Co. for putting us on the map. When trying to enlighten the confused, being able to say “you know, the team doing incredible things in the Premier League …” is so much more effective than “the motorway town in…

The inferior results aren’t an indictment on Kilts, who enjoyed success elsewhere, including as the head football coach at Snow College. Ben Lomond has struggled to generate competitive relevance for many years. “I certainly heard things about Ben Lomond,” said football coach Eric Alder. “People saying, ‘You shouldn’t go there.’ “ Since Kilts assumed his role in 2008, the major team sports — football (11-64), boys’ basketball…

An Orlando Solar Bears fan is $100,000 richer thanks to his victorious shot attempt at an ECHL game on Thursday. During intermission, the fan had one attempt to make a shot from the blue line, 115 feet away from the goal. There was only one four-inch hole the three-inch puck could slide into, and he nailed it. That feeling when you take a shot for $100,000….and…

RELATED: Get the full lineup   Carl Edwards claimed his first Coors Light Pole Award of the season on Friday at Texas Motor Speedway, posting a final-round speed of 194.609 mph. Edwards is the sixth different pole winner in seven races this season.   Edwards has won at Texas Motor Speedway three times, though his last trip to Victory Lane in the Sprint Cup Series came in 2008.   Joining Edwards on the front row is…

Ahmed Khazaal, 12, shows his Barcelona team jersey, left, and the Real Madrid jersey of his brother, Mohaned Khazaal, 10, who was killed by a teenage suicide bomber in a village south of Baghdad. (Ahmad Mousa Qasem/For The Washington Post) ASRIYA, Iraq — The suicide bomber who blew up a youth soccer match late last month left barely a dent in the hard, dry earth, a faint scorch on a…

Note: Don’t whiff on this special FanDuel offer. Win your first contest or get your money back (up to $10) to keep playing. Try FanDuel now! Trevor Story is unbelievable. And by that, I mean he’s doing things you can’t and shouldn’t believe. No other player in baseball history has begun his career by homering in each of his first three games, much less hitting four during that stretch. But…

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Documentarian extraordinaire Ken Burns‘ latest profile examines the multi-faceted life of pioneer baseball great Jack Roosevelt Robinson, more commonly known as Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to break the color barrier in major league baseball. The first of a two-part, four-hour documentary entitled “Jackie Robinson” premieres Monday, April 11 at 9p.m. on PBS.  Part Two airs Tuesday, April 12 at 9 p.m. “Jackie Robinson,” directed and produced…

The crack of bat against ball. The roar of the crowd. The smell of freshly cut grass. Another baseball season, full of hope, arrived earlier in the week. But both of our teams were out of town and so you did the next best thing and headed to the nearest tavern TV. “Hey, another season,” said a friendly face, sitting at the bar. “Let me buy you a beer?” “No,…

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…