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A St. Paul-based youth soccer foundation has been selected to lead a two-year athletic exchange between Minnesota and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Sanneh Foundation is one of 10 organizations across the world that will run international exchanges on behalf of the U.S. Department of State’s SportsUnited program. A $250,000 federal grant will cover about a third of the cost of the exchange. Sanneh will work with 108 young people between the…

BY GREG WYSHYNSKI AND DAVID M. SINGER (Puck Daddy presents its annual look back at the year in hockey. Check back every day through the New Year for our many lists and hot takes.)  Yes, there’s still fighting in hockey. No, it’s not necessarily found in the National Hockey League anymore.  Once again we called upon our friend David Singer of HockeyFights.com for guidance on what fights rung the bell…

Oakwood soccer player Lily Behnke suffered a concussion in the first high school match of the season in late August. She wasn’t cleared to return to action until two weeks ago. “I took an elbow to the back of the head and remember hitting the ground. I got up and knew I wasn’t OK,” Behnke said. “I went on for another two minutes and started almost dry-heaving. After that, I…

American Pharoah’s sweep of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes for horse racing’s first Triple Crown since 1978 was selected the sports story of the year Thursday in an annual vote conducted by The Associated Press. Eighty-two ballots were submitted from U.S. editors and news directors. Voters were asked to rank the top five sports stories of the year, with the first-place story receiving five points, the second-place story…

The power of pro sports, in all forms, may reach its peak during the gift-giving holidays. Not just season tickets or big-screen televisions to watch games. Not just Red Zone packages or the latest Madden video game. Not just the jerseys of hometown stars or online subscriptions for fantasy league tips. Not just game-worn memorabilia or a framed photo of the ballpark where you want your ashes scattered someday. How…

It began late Sunday afternoon. I still have it. Symptoms include bloating, gas, depression. Could be a case of Sepp Blatter. The depression is the worst part. It never has been more depressing to be a sports fan than it is now. Whatever specks of sport were left still seem to have been eradicated by Sunday’s Panthers-Giants game, the latest new-low disgrace — and the latest inevitability. If that “game”…

According to my end-of-the-year self-scouting — sort of an annual exercise in which I look back at whom and what has been written about and whom and what has been overlooked, with the goal of not repeating the same mistakes in the new year — here’s one conclusion I’ve come to: Far too many words were spent in this space reacting to the antics of those in the sports media…

American Pharoah’s sweep of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes for horse racing’s first Triple Crown since 1978 was selected the sports story of the year Thursday in an annual vote conducted by The Associated Press. Eighty-two ballots were submitted from U.S. editors and news directors. Voters were asked to rank the top five sports stories of the year, with the first-place story receiving five points, the second-place story…

The power of pro sports, in all forms, may reach its peak during the gift-giving holidays. Not just season tickets or big-screen televisions to watch games. Not just Red Zone packages or the latest Madden video game. Not just the jerseys of hometown stars or online subscriptions for fantasy league tips. Not just game-worn memorabilia or a framed photo of the ballpark where you want your ashes scattered someday. How…

(Reuters Health) – There is greater awareness of the dangers of hazing, but hazing itself is still common in U.S. youth and collegiate sports, and many involved may not recognize hazing actions when they see them, according to a research review. Hazing, or any humiliating or dangerous activity expected of a student who belongs to a group, regardless of his or her willingness to participate, is remarkably common in sports,…

Prince Harry and Prince William play soccer at their annual Christmas Eve charity match near Sandringham. (Photo: EPA) The tradition continues, as it would when you’re talking about Britain and talking about royals. So no surprise that Prince William,33, and Prince Harry, 31, would spend more than a hour playing soccer in wretchedly windy and wet conditions Thursday, because it’s their annual tradition to play a Christmas Eve soccer match for…

Sports by Samantha Page Dec 24, 2015 11:34 am CREDIT: AP Photo/Christine Cotter Texas Rangers Leonys Martin, from Cuba, in the dugout during a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, Calif., on Tuesday, April 23, 2013. As relations between Cuba and the United States warm up, Major League Baseball is hoping to avoid human trafficking of potential players by dealing directly with the communist government. MLB has…

Buy Photo Nolan Simon waits for his turn at bat during a community Christmas-Eve baseball game at Callahan Park Thursday morning. Temperatures were climbing over 60 degrees as players took the field, many wearing shorts and T-shirts. (Photo: RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS)Buy Photo By 9:30 a.m. on the day before Christmas, children began to arrive in Burlington’s Callahan Park toting bats and gloves that had been stowed away and forgotten for the winter. Parents raked…

The basepaths are still 90 feet in length. The baseball still weighs 5.25 ounces. It’s still three strikes and you’re out. Baseball is baseball, no matter where it is played. But Joe Vavra and his sons Tanner and Treysen can admit, it sure is nice having the sun hit you on a 90-degree day before a December game. There aren’t many 90-degree days near the Vavra family home in Menomonie…

The World Series will have new voices in 2016. Fox confirmed on Tuesday that Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci (who is a senior baseball writer for Sports Illustrated) will no longer serve as the lead analysts on its baseball broadcast package, which includes the All-Star Game MLB postseason and World Series. The new team will consist of longtime play-by-play announcer Joe Buck and Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz. Andy…

Jason Heyward recently said that he signed with the Cubs, in part, because Chicago’s core players are younger than the Wainwright-Molina-Holliday core in St. Louis and that he was worried about the state of the team three or four years from now. Which, when you’re signing a long-term deal, seems significant. In the wake of that, however, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny bristled, seemingly thinking that Heyward was making some sort of…

American Pharoah’s sweep of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes for horse racing’s first Triple Crown since 1978 was selected the sports story of the year Thursday in an annual vote conducted by The Associated Press. Eighty-two ballots were submitted from U.S. editors and news directors. Voters were asked to rank the top five sports stories of the year, with the first-place story receiving five points, the second-place story…

If you’ve been to the movies recently, you’ve probably seen a preview for Will Smith’s film, Concussion. In the movie, Smith portrays Dr. Bennet Omalu, the neuropathologist who first identified chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in a retired star player for the National Football League. In social media, on the news, and now in a major motion picture, more people are talking about concussion and its long-term impact on professional athletes,…

Christmas is nearly here, which means it’s time to rip through the wrapping paper and … generally feel underwhelmed, but fake it really well to your loved ones.  Some of these presents may contain toys. Some of these presents may contain hockey toys! There have been a few phases of hockey toys through the years. We’ve had Startling Lineup dolls that eventually begot McFarlane toys. We’ve had Nintendo hockey games…

As I’ve done in the past when revealing my ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame, I’ll begin with my email address: sbuckley@bostonherald.com. That’s not bravado. That’s a genuine interest in wanting to know your opinions, for the simple reason that it was an impassioned email from a reader, several years back, that inspired me to dig a little deeper . . . and then add Jack Morris to my ballot. Morris…