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Jerry Seinfeld had it about right. “Loyalty to any one sports team is pretty hard to justify,” began his monologue at the start of The Label Maker. “Because the players are always changing, the team can move to another city, you’re actually rooting for the clothes when you get right down to it. You know what I mean, you are standing and cheering and yelling for your clothes to beat…

Soccer is often characterized by endless rumors and record-breaking deals. It costs millions to buy players; clubs in England, Spain, Germany, France and Italy spent a record $2.4 billion in this year’s transfer period. It seems normal today. But these mega transfers were unheard of before 1995. Out-of-contract players weren’t allowed to move between clubs without a transfer fee, leaving many players trapped and powerless in unfavorable contracts given by…

Chelsea have sacked manager Jose Mourinho seven months after he led them to the Premier League title. The 52-year-old Portuguese had been in his second spell at the club, taking charge in June 2013. Chelsea finished eight points clear last season and won the League Cup, but have lost nine of their 16 league games so far and are 16th in the table,…

FOOTBALL GOSSIP Celtic are considering a move for 22-year-old Rijeka midfielder Ivan Mocinic, who made his Croatia debut last month. Daily Mail  Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson is backing calls for league reconstruction but not as an escape from the drop for the Tannadice club since he does not propose a change to the current set-up before the summer of 2017. (Various) …

It has been a long time since Pete Rose was banned from baseball, but apparently not long enough. Former baseball star Pete Rose keeps asking for reinstatement to Major League Baseball, and baseball commissioners keep saying no. The latest to do so is Commissioner Rob Manfred, who this week denied Rose’s request that the 26-year-old ban be lifted. Rose, a perennial All-Star and the manager…

(Photo: The Associated Press) HAVANA (AP) — Some of Major League Baseball’s biggest Cuban-born stars put dozens of boys through batting, pitching and catching drills in a sunny Havana ballpark, part of a three-day mission meant to warm relations between the U.S. league and this baseball-mad nation. Among the teachers at Wednesday’s baseball clinic were Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig, St. Louis Cardinals catcher Brayan Pena and Chicago White…

At least we had the Home Run Derby. What a perfect, amazing July night that was. I wrote the next day: Last night was a night this entire city will remember for a generation. My son and I sat together in our living room, watching Frazier battle his way to the Derby championship. In a season of letdowns, it was the moment of glory.  And Frazier was the man who…

The event took place in front of a gaudy giant chair constructed with real baseball bats surrounding an actual home plate, yet Pete Rose never actually sat in it, and the emptiness was palpable. “Throne of ‘Hit King’ #4256,” read the plaque. Rose showed up wearing a cap of the Cincinnati Reds, yet the cap was bright white and the Reds wear, well, red, making it seem like he bought…

HAVANA • The young infielder who could be the next best talent to emerge from Cuba caught sight of one of the best pitchers on the planet and tried to position himself for a meeting. A narrow, subterranean passageway behind home plate and carved under the seats at Estadio Latinoamericano created an impromptu and confined mix zone for the major-league players visiting Havana’s largest ballpark and the stars of Cuban…

Moreover, the number of social posts uploaded from the event jumped from 500,000 to 1.8 million. “It seems like you can’t attend a sports event without taking a picture now,” Papp said. Here are some other takeaways from StubHub’s research: The most popular North American pro sports team by Twitter followers is from the NBA. That would be the Los Angeles Lakers, which has about 4.5 million followers. The leading…

What do Tom Brady, Pete Rose, and Sepp Blatter have in common? Until this year, very little. But 2015 saw many names dragged through the mud. Allegations of corporate espionage, doping, and straight-up cheating dogged the sports world this year, tarnishing everything from baseball to boxing. And so, in no particular order, we present you with a brief and absolutely non-comprehensive list of this year’s sporting shame:

Tracey Crouch, the sports minister, has said Tyson Fury needs to remember that he is a role model, amid calls for the boxer to be kicked off the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year shortlist because of allegations of homophobia and sexism. Related: BBC rejects calls to remove Tyson Fury from Sports Personality shortlist Fury, who defeated Wladimir Klitschko to become WBA and WBO world heavyweight champion last month, has…

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Some of Major League Baseball’s biggest Cuban-born stars put dozens of boys through batting, pitching and catching drills in a sunny Havana ballpark, part of a three-day mission meant to warm relations between the U.S. league and this baseball-mad nation. Among the teachers at Wednesday’s baseball clinic were Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig, St. Louis Cardinals catcher Brayan Pena and Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu — defectors…

At least we had the Home Run Derby. What a perfect, amazing July night that was. I wrote the next day: Last night was a night this entire city will remember for a generation. My son and I sat together in our living room, watching Frazier battle his way to the Derby championship. In a season of letdowns, it was the moment of glory.  And Frazier was the man who…

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RELATED: Buy Darlington ticketsMORE: Darlington wins Myers Brothers Award | See the ’15 throwback schemes Darlington Raceway announced the theme of its award-winning throwback campaign on Wednesday for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 racing event on Labor Day weekend (Sept. 2-4. 2016). The track will focus on the 1975-84 era of the sport next year, a revolutionary time period when iconic drivers such as Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip left their imprints on stock…

At least we had the Home Run Derby. What a perfect, amazing July night that was. I wrote the next day: Last night was a night this entire city will remember for a generation. My son and I sat together in our living room, watching Frazier battle his way to the Derby championship. In a season of letdowns, it was the moment of glory.  And Frazier was the man who…

Dodgers OF Yasiel Puig greets young baseball players before a clinic in Havana, Cuba. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) HAVANA — More than 100 Cuban boys wearing the uniforms of local baseball teams stood in rows, smiling nervously Wednesday as they got tips and training from some of their major league idols — men who were born on the island…