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On Thursday afternoon, in the overpriced and stratified city that I now call home, the San Francisco Giants will play their home opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Giants are among the favorites to win the World Series, which, if it happens, would be their fourth title in seven seasons. The Giants also play in what is widely regarded as baseball’s most picturesque stadium, a placid pitchers’ ballpark named…

Lauren Magiera Lauren Magiera, a native Chicago sports fan who most recently co-hosted the Green Bay Packers pre-game show, has been hired as a sports anchor and reporter at Tribune Media WGN-Channel 9. Starting later this month, she will succeed Chicago sportscasting veteran Rich King, who last January announced plans to retire June 15. Magiera is the first woman ever hired to report sports for “Chicago’s Very Own,” according…

If you are not familiar with March Madness (because I guess you live under a rock — or don’t live in the U.S.), it’s a single-elimination college basketball tournament played each spring, featuring 68 teams competing for one championship title. It’s one of the most anticipated events in college sports and as we head into tonight’s championship game it’s clear that viewership in person, on TV and online only increased. In 2015, March…

What does the average women’s soccer fan look like? That probably depends on who you ask and where you are. But in the long-term, should everyone have the same answer? It’s a debate that has existed since the first US women’s league started 16 years ago and it has yet to be settled: should clubs target a family-friendly crowd of youth soccer players, or is an adult-oriented supporters’ culture the…

Just in time for the start of baseball season, Apple has beefed up Siri’s knowledge of baseball stats, scores, and trivia. Siri can now do things like tell you Babe Ruth’s career batting average, the lineup of the 2008 World Series winning Phillies, or even who won the World Series in 1934. Siri has also learned how to do league-level queries from 29 different baseball leagues, ranging from the Cape Cod…

His girlfriend told him. Tyler White had given up checking his phone — his battery was going dead. He had just finished college and was on the road helping his father coach an AAU baseball team. Then his girlfriend, Macey Bright, sent him a text message. He had been drafted. By the Astros. In the 33rd round. Tyler White, a third baseman who had no Division I scholarship offers before walking on at Western Carolina, was going to be a professional baseball…

RELATED: Complete race results | Updated series standingsSHOP: ‘Rowdy’ Busch gear   MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Kyle Busch came to Martinsville Speedway this weekend with no grandfather clock trophies, the traditional award for winning at the shortest and tightest of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series short tracks. He left with two such clocks after completing an unprecedented Martinsville sweep in Sunday’s STP 500, and, appropriately, coyly radioed a single question to his crew after his…

Members of the U.S. women’s ice hockey team celebrate winning their semifinal over Russia at the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship on April 3, 2016 in Kamloops, British Columbia. The United States women’s ice hockey team defeated Russia 9-0 Sunday evening in semifinal play at…

Get all of Michael Beller’s columns as soon as they’re published. Download the new Sports Illustrated app (iOS or Android) and personalize your experience by following your favorite teams and SI writers. The baseball season may just be starting, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to hate your fantasy team. It’s entirely possible you made some missteps in your draft or auction that you need to rectify as soon as…

Photo via Getty At last, the death-gods have released their cold, icy grip on the United States; the trees are green, the birds are singing, and our greatest sport has returned. While there’s just too much to keep track of in terms of who’s where and what’s what and who’s going to do what and such—FiveThirtyEight, Fangraphs, Sports on Earth, and SI are good places to check in if you…

Get all of Michael Beller’s columns as soon as they’re published. Download the new Sports Illustrated app (iOS or Android) and personalize your experience by following your favorite teams and SI writers. The baseball season may just be starting, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to hate your fantasy team. It’s entirely possible you made some missteps in your draft or auction that you need to rectify as soon as…

  Meanwhile, Stevens was banned from competition for 21 months instead of two years after a Ukad case summary documented that he had provide “valuable anti-doping information”. The cyclist, whose ban expired in November, told The Telegraph on Sunday night: “I’m sorry, I can’t talk about this.” Bonar, 38, who is based at a private London clinic,  allegedly told undercover Sunday Times reporters that he had a network of secret “clients” included an…

CHICAGO – Fans have been waiting 108 years for expectations like this. Now the Cubs have to go out and live up to their lofty expectations which history proves is not as easy to as one might think. Meanwhile the White Sox enter a season with a hint of potential yet the fear of underperforming that led to the downfall of the team in 2015. Longtime Chicago radio host Harry…

Rugby might be losing popularity, but Richie McCaw is still the nation’s favourite sportsperson. Kiwis are ditching the rugby boots for running shoes as the nation moves away from traditional team sports. A Nielsen survey of New Zealand’s exercise habits has found we’re losing interest in rugby and instead walking, running and going to the gym are favourites. Nielsen’s Sports, Arts and Entertainment Report examined how Kiwis’ interest in various sports have…

CLEVELAND (AP) — The playoffs are close, just around the corner. LeBron James can’t wait for them to begin. James scored 31 points, J.R. Smith matched a season high with 27 and the Cleveland Cavaliers knocked down 16 3-pointers while playing without an injured Kyrie Irving in a 112-103 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday. James, who has jacked his game up to another level lately, added 12 assists…