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“You are Baseball Czar and have the power to change any one thing on the field or off. What would you do?” Sandy Alderson, Mets GM “I would require a pitcher to throw to three hitters. One, it would speed up the game. Two, and more important, it would change the dynamics of the game in the late innings. Today, we have too few lead changes late in games, in…

With 22 Class A games under his belt, how do Tim Tebow’s minor league numbers stack up against other cross-sport stars like Michael Jordan and Russell Wilson?  Welcome to Baseball Week. As training camp approaches and baseball takes a break for its mid-summer classic, The MMQB presents a week of stories on the crossover between hardball and football. Deion Sanders is dancing. Not down the sideline, balletically high-stepping…

As Major League Baseball emerges from the All-Star break,the finish line is starting to come into view. The four-day break affords a chance to reset starting rotations, and in places such as Washington, Los Angeles and Houston, it isn’t too early to start counting in five-day chunks to line up your Game 1 starter. Elsewhere, the wild-card standings become an essential part of each morning. The next few weeks will…

At the 2017 MLB Amateur Draft, the Hawkeyes had four guys drafted from what turned out to be one of their best and most exciting teams in a long time. With the addition of Jake Adams, Mason McCoy, Ryan Erickson, and Nick Gallagher to the squad of former Iowa players in the minors, the Hawkeyes now have thirteen players trying to work their way to the show. At about the…

Many fans turn their attention to sports such as archery, luge, diving and biathlon only when the Olympic Games come around. Starting this weekend, a new broadcast channel will try to bridge that gap with year-round coverage of the Olympic movement. “Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA” is an Americanized version of the global channel the International Olympic Committee launched last year. A joint effort by the IOC, U.S. Olympic…

Robert Kinsler started United Fray in 2009. He was working as a real estate broker in Washington when he saw an article about leagues for Skee-Ball, the arcade game, in New York. He started his own league, charging $20 a person. At the start of the following year, several hundred people had signed up. He quit his job to focus on the league full time. Last year, United Fray had…

Mike Stobe/Getty Images It came nearly a half hour into his press conference, but Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe eventually landed on the perfect metaphor. He was asked why anyone should believe Conor McGregor has a chance to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. This is a fair question. Mayweather is 49-0 and one of the best defensive boxers in history. Conor McGregor will be in his first professional boxing match in…

Hoping to attract a younger buyer to its sensible but staid Accord, and persuade car shoppers to consider a sedan over an SUV, Honda has given its bestselling mid-sized car a sporty, sexy makeover. Unwrapped at twin events held in Detroit and Torrance on Friday morning, the new vehicle looks and acts more like a sports car. It sits wider and lower to the ground, has sleeker body lines and…

x Embed x Share CLOSE A look at which NBA players have signed new contracts during this year’s free agency period. USA TODAY Sports Pro sports leagues in the U.S. are flush with cash, but for how long?(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto) Get those cartoonish contracts while you can, because the clock is ticking. While even run-of-the-mill NBA free agents figure out how to spend their new largesse — $23 million for J.J. Redick, really?…

Even before he was born, Jacob Roger Poulin was destined to play hockey. His grandfather got him skates while he was “still in the belly,” and he held a hockey stick as soon as he could. He seemingly had natural athletic talent, on skates at 18 months old, even before he began walking a month later. By age 3, he was swinging across monkey bars. His father, Steve Poulin described…

I must confess, I missed the great exodus of baseball fans. I must have mistaken as an illusion all those heads I see buried every single night during the summer, scouring scores, firing up the MLB package to watch games on their cell phones that aren’t being shown on the saloon TV. I must have missed all those empty seats at the ballpa … Wait, what’s that you say? There…

BASEBALL CHICAGO (AP) The Chicago Cubs found the pitching help they were looking for just a few miles from Wrigley Field. They hope it will give the scuffling team the kick it needs. The defending World Series champions acquired left-handed ace Jose Quintana from the White Sox in a major trade between crosstown rivals that could shake up the NL Central race. By landing the 2016 All-Star, the Cubs made…

NBA superstar LeBron James, approximating the trajectory for the use of sports analytics. Gregory Shamus / Getty Images There’s a fortune to be made crunching stats in a post-Moneyball world, and the potential for profit extends far beyond baseball, into everything from soccer to basketball. At the core of the story is what makes anything sports-related intriguing to so many people: an undying competitive spirit that has franchises — even…

Why Romelu? Who won with Venus Williams? And who is not a Belieber? • Test your knowledge on previous quizzes

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored 28 goals for Manchester United last season Both Los Angeles-based Major League Soccer clubs are interested in signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic if the Swede decides to end his career outside Europe. Free agent Ibrahimovic is currently recovering from knee surgery at Manchester United’s training ground. United have not ruled out signing the 35-year-old on a short-term contract once he is fit, but LA Galaxy and Los Angeles FC…

When the IOC approved 3-on-3 basketball as an official Olympic sport last month, BIG3 co-founder Jeff Kwatinetz wasn’t surprised. The Olympic approval came five months after Kwatinetz and media mogul Ice Cube announced their endeavor of a halfcourt league featuring retired NBA stars such as Allen Iverson, Mike Bibby, Chauncey Billups, and Rashard Lewis. BIG3 CEO Amy…

Chuck Blazer died Wednesday at the age of 72. (Bernd Kammerer/ AP file) In 2009, Guardian journalist David Conn first encountered Chuck Blazer at a luxury hotel in Abu Dhabi, where Blazer was overseeing that year’s Club World Cup as a member of FIFA’s executive committee. Somewhat stunned by the sight of a fantastically obese man in a motorized mobility scooter barking orders at nearly everyone in sight, Conn eventually…

I must confess, I missed the great exodus of baseball fans. I must have mistaken as an illusion all those heads I see buried every single night during the summer, scouring scores, firing up the MLB package to watch games on their cell phones that aren’t being shown on the saloon TV. I must have missed all those empty seats at the ballpa … Wait, what’s that you say? There…

BASEBALL CHICAGO (AP) The Chicago Cubs found the pitching help they were looking for just a few miles from Wrigley Field. They hope it will give the scuffling team the kick it needs. The defending World Series champions acquired left-handed ace Jose Quintana from the White Sox in a major trade between crosstown rivals that could shake up the NL Central race. By landing the 2016 All-Star, the Cubs made…