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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — State lawmakers have given Texas Motor Speedway a big helping hand if the state’s premier stock-car track wants to lobby for NASCAR’s All-Star race and season-ending championship. The Texas Legislature approved a bill Thursday that makes those two races eligible for the state’s Major Events Reimbursement Program, the same fund that’s used to help attract big events such as the Super Bowl, the NCAA Tournament’s Final…

Post to Facebook Posted! A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. 1 of 15 2 of 15 3 of 15 4 of 15 5 of 15 6 of 15 7 of 15 8 of 15 9 of 15 10 of 15 11 of 15 12 of 15 13 of 15 14 of 15 15 of 15 Last SlideNext Slide Buy Photo U of L’s Brendan McKay (38) runs…

HAVANA Yubis Zapata had to stop playing baseball when he lost his eyesight during military service due to an explosion, so for him, it is a miracle to be able to play once more, in Cuba’s growing league for the blind. Baseball has long been a national passion. The Communist-run country quickly adopted this version after it was developed in the 1990s in Italy, but it has only really caught…

David Papineau is an eminent philosopher and a passionate lover of sport. For much of his life, he has kept the two spheres separate, fearing that to mix them would produce a double diminishment: philosophy robbed of its seriousness and sport of its excitement. Then, in 2012, a colleague invited him to contribute to a lecture series titled “Philosophy and Sport”, organised to coincide with that year’s Olympics. “I couldn’t…

Oscar De La Hoya has penned a letter to boxing fans, urging them to turn their backs on the possible Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Conor McGregor boxing match. As former 10-time champion De La Hoya works to promote the Sept. 16 middleweight title bout between unbeaten, three-belt champion Gennady Golovkin and Mexico’s most popular fighter, former two-division champion Canelo Alvarez, his cause has been distracted by attention on Mayweather-McGregor. That…

As the NBA’s great G.O.A.T. debate rages on, LeBron James has passed Michael Jordan in one regard. With a long 3-pointer late in the third quarter of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers star passed Jordan as the NBA’s all-time leading playoff scorer. James entered Thursday needing 28 points to eclipse the Chicago Bulls legend’s 5,987 career playoff points. He finished with 35 in a 135-102 win over the Boston…

Legislation that would end the federal government’s ban on sports betting and allow states the option of legalizing online gambling was introduced by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday, ESPN.com reported. Fantasy sports would be treated as a form of sports betting under the potential new law. The bill, titled the Gaming Accountability and Modernization Enhancement Act or GAME Act, would repeal the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection…

BEIJING/SHANGHAI Chinese tech conglomerate LeEco’s sports unit said it completed a new round of funding that valued it at 24 billion yuan ($3.50 billion) and that its investors will form a new committee to supervise its finances. LeEco is currently tackling a cash crunch, caused by its aggressive expansion, by restructuring its operations and cutting jobs. The unit, LeSports, a sports content platform, did not disclose the amount of funding…

NASCAR pit crew members come in all shapes and sizes, but they must be consistent in two crucial ways: Long on persistence and short on memory. It’s an odd part-time job: Train throughout the week for a series of 12-second procedures that would rival emergency rooms for urgency. Jack up the car, change tires, fine-tune the handling and fill that gas tank. If even one of these six crewmen misses…

When he was a kid, Marcus Smith would get out of school early on the Thursday before the 600-mile NASCAR race held at the racetrack his family owns in Concord. He and his brothers went to watch not only the qualifying races, but the boxing matches staged near the front stretch grandstands. “Those were my favorite,” said Smith, now the CEO of Speedway Motorsports, the company that owns Charlotte Motor…

Oscar De La Hoya has penned a letter to boxing fans, urging them to turn their backs on the possible Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Conor McGregor boxing match. As former 10-time champion De La Hoya works to promote the Sept. 16 middleweight title bout between unbeaten, three-belt champion Gennady Golovkin and Mexico’s most popular fighter, former two-division champion Canelo Alvarez, his cause has been distracted by attention on Mayweather-McGregor. That…

CONCORD, N.C. — With the majority of teams based in North Carolina, drivers often consider the races at Charlotte Motor Speedway “home” races. But Dale Earnhardt Jr. is one of the few drivers left in the sport who can truly call the 1.5-mile speedway his “home track.” Hailing from Kannapolis, North Carolina — which sits approximately 14 miles northeast of the track — Earnhardt recalls attending the Charlotte races early…

A former Union City soccer coach was arrested Thursday on suspicion of molesting an 11-year-old girl, police said. Victor Jaime Juarez, 44, was arrested at his home in Union City and taken to jail on suspicion of lewd acts with a minor child and annoying or molesting a minor child, Union City police Sgt. Steven Mendez said. Juarez worked as a private girl’s youth soccer coach in Union City for…

Duke came into the ACC Baseball Tournament as the No. 9 seed, but the Blue Devils are headed to the semifinals at Louisville Slugger Field. The Blue Devils won Pool D with a 4-3 victory over Virginia on Thursday. Duke beat Clemson in its other pool game on Tuesday. Chris Proctor, the No. 9 hitter, had a two-out, two-run single on a full count in the bottom of the sixth…

I’m listening to “Tessie” by the Dropkick Murphys as I rack my brain for a time I was young, free of worry, and hitting baseballs up ramps with Jon Dowd because MVP Baseball 2005 was life. I’m not here to make the case that the baseball game with Manny Ramirez on the cover was the best sports game ever, because that’s a waste of time. Of course it was the…

CLOSE x Embed x Share The Section 1 baseball finals are set after the semifinals on Wednesday, May 24, 2017. Wochit With all four Section 1 baseball finals scheduled for Saturday at Dutchess Stadium, Journal News/lohud beat writer Vin Mercogliano breaks down each matchup and offers his predictions.  PODCAST: Vin previews the Section 1 finals and suggests for the playoff format SCHEDULE: For the entire Section 1 tournament Mike Attonito of…

Maryland baseball coach John Szefc got ejected during a tie game in the eighth inning today after getting pretty heated when one of his players, outfielder Marty Costes, was struck by a pitch. As Costes turned to jog to first, however, the ump called him back—saying that he hadn’t made enough effort to get out of the way of the ball and wouldn’t be awarded the base. Szefc thought otherwise…

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The Boilermakers’ unlikely season came to an end late Thursday night in an elimination game at the Big Ten Tournament. But the loss — fourth-seeded Maryland beat eight-seed Purdue 5-2, going ahead on a three-run double in the eighth — does little to diminish the Boilermakers’ accomplishments. In Mark Wasikowski’s first season at Purdue, the Boilermakers finished 29-27, 19 victories better than last year. “There was some…

FRIDAY ON TV COLLEGE BASEBALL 1:30 p.m. BIG TEN — Big Ten Tournament, Indiana vs. Minnesota/Northwestern, from Bloomington 3 p.m. FOX SOUTH — ACC Tournament pool play: Louisville vs. Florida State, from Louisville MLB BASEBALL 7:05 p.m. FOX OHIO — Cincinnati at Philadelphia 7:10 p.m. MLB — Seattle at Boston 10:10 p.m. MLB — Chicago Cubs at L.A. Dodgers SOCCER 7 a.m. FS1 — FIFA U-20 World Cup, group play,…