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0 Shares print LOS ANGELES — Matt Harvey knew what was coming. He fully expected David Wright to spray champagne on him and for Michael Cuddyer to pour it over his head while Harvey attempted to do an interview inside the visiting clubhouse at Dodger Stadium last week after the New York Mets advanced to the National League Championship Series. Following their NL East title party last month in Cincinnati,…

Mississippi State pitching coach Butch Thompson has recruited and developed 22 Division I All-America selections and 29 all-conference honorees in his coaching career. (Photo: Mississippi State athletics) AUBURN – Butch Thompson is the new head baseball coach at Auburn University. Multiple sources close to the situation confirmed to the Montgomery Advertiser Thursday morning that the Mississippi State pitching coach and Auburn athletics director Jay Jacobs came to a verbal agreement late Wednesday evening….

0 Shares print Our experts weigh in on four of the biggest questions in NASCAR this week: Turn 1: Was that Joey Logano dump of Matt Kenseth “quintessential NASCAR,” as Brian France said it was? Ricky Craven, ESPN NASCAR analyst: Fact is, it’s great. I hope it is the primary reason paying customers come to the track, to see two drivers square off, rub, beat, bang one another in the…

0 Shares print LOS ANGELES — Matt Harvey knew what was coming. He fully expected David Wright to spray champagne on him and for Michael Cuddyer to pour it over his head while Harvey attempted to do an interview inside the visiting clubhouse at Dodger Stadium last week after the New York Mets advanced to the National League Championship Series. Following their NL East title party last month in Cincinnati,…

Mississippi State pitching coach Butch Thompson has recruited and developed 22 Division I All-America selections and 29 all-conference honorees in his coaching career. (Photo: Mississippi State athletics) AUBURN – Butch Thompson has agreed in principle to become the next head baseball coach at Auburn University. Multiple sources close to the situation confirmed to the Montgomery Advertiser Thursday morning that the Mississippi State pitching coach and Auburn athletics director Jay Jacobs came to a…

Dan Haren thanked baseball on his way out, making his retirement official shortly after the Chicago Cubs were swept out of the NLCS by the New York Mets on Wednesday night. Haren had revealed his decision after winning his final start of the regular season, saying he’d stay ready in case the Cubs needed him in the playoffs. Now that they are out, he has time for more trivial pursuits…

For a list of all the latest deals, check out the transfers page. Chelsea and Belgium forward Eden Hazard, 24, is seeking a move away from Stamford Bridge to join Real Madrid. (Independent via L’Equipe)  Belgium coach Marc Wilmots is increasingly concerned about Hazard burning out at Chelsea and would welcome him moving to the Bernabeu. (Daily Mirror)  …

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A gambling scandal has hit Japanese professional baseball at the worst possible time. Just days before Japan’s version of the World Series begins and as baseball is vying to get back in the Olympics, the sport has been hit by an ugly incident involving the most popular team. Nippon Professional Baseball announced on Wednesday that two more pitchers from the Yomiuri Giants had bet on professional baseball games. The announcement…

CHICAGO — You wait a whole baseball lifetime to simply get to a World Series — all the games and years and indignities — and then you are winning 6-0 early in a pennant clincher. “What you feel is, ‘Why the hell is it only the third inning? Let’s hurry up and get to the ninth,’ ” Joe Torre said. Few men on the planet understood what Terry Collins was…

This story appears in the Oct. 26, 2015, issue of Sports Illustrated. To subscribe, click here. A waning gibbous moon hung like a medallion over Charlestown, N.H., on the first clear night after a three-day nor’easter. A light wind rustled the lindens and oaks along Main Street. The bells of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church suddenly began clanging at the strange hour of 1:07 a.m. Such an intrusion on the dead…

The Royals’ 14-2 dissection of Toronto on Tuesday was punctuated by the wacky appearance of Blue Jays infielder Cliff Pennington. In a cameo role, he became the first strictly positional player ever to pitch in a major league baseball postseason game. That was a slapstick form of surrender in a meeting in which the Royals became just the fourth team in MLB postseason history to amass 15 hits or more…

NASCAR handed out warnings to teams Wednesday afternoon for issues discovered in technical inspection last weekend at Kansas Speedway, where the Sprint Cup Series competed in Race No. 2 of three in the Chase Contender Round. Of the four teams issued a warning, only one — the Hendrick Motorsports team of driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. — is in the Chase. Earnhardt’s No. 88 group received its warning for twice failing…

0 Shares print For Kenny Wallace, the value of the struggle was validated in a heavy splash of Absolut vodka spun through a glass of Five Alive orange juice cocktail. The sweet concoction was Dale Earnhardt’s drink of choice, unique and self-made, just like he was. And he didn’t fix one for just anybody. But on Oct. 15, 2000, as dusk crept toward dark, that’s what Big E poured with…

One day in 1993, Anita Stech decided to take her three daughters to play hockey in their hometown of Duluth, Minnesota. “I observed there were girls on many of the boys teams,” Stech recalled. “I said, ‘Why don’t we invite all of these girls to play on an afternoon?’” About 36 girls came together that day and watched an adult women’s team play. Then they all…

In a Country of Runners, Kenyan Cycling Team Faces Uphill Climb Playlist MP3 – 128.0kb/s – 3.7MB wav – 1.4Mb/s – 41.0MB MP3 – 64.0kb/s – 1.9MB In East Africa, the sport of cycling has been growing in popularity in recent years. There are plenty of hills for cyclists to climb and a mild climate – not too hot, but…

Now that it’s Chase time, NASCAR penalties and warnings are more important than ever. Here’s a list of all the infractions NASCAR has acted on since the playoffs commenced for Sprint Cup Series teams last month at Chicagoland Speedway. Sept. 23 NASCAR announced penalties on Wednesday afternoon to two Sprint Cup Series teams stemming from last weekend’s Chase for the Sprint Cup opener at Chicagoland Speedway. And one of them…

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This story appears in the Oct. 26, 2015, issue of Sports Illustrated. To subscribe, click here. A waning gibbous moon hung like a medallion over Charlestown, N.H., on the first clear night after a three-day nor’easter. A light wind rustled the lindens and oaks along Main Street. The bells of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church suddenly began clanging at the strange hour of 1:07 a.m. Such an intrusion on the dead…