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American soccer star Landon Donovan remembers his professional career in the United States nearly being over before it had barely begun. Donovan was a rookie in 2001 playing for San Jose of Major League Soccer, and the rumors were that if the Earthquakes, who were averaging a league-low 9,000 fans per game, didn’t beat the L.A. Galaxy in the championship game, the franchise would fold. The Earthquakes won the title,…

When it comes to measuring the many-splendored things that happen on a baseball field, we’re mostly on extremely solid footing these days. If there’s an exception, though, then it’s probably in the realm of quantifying defensive contributions. To be sure, advanced fielding metrics like Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) and Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) make a noble and high-level effort. However, it takes a long time for data samples to become…

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has made it no secret that reducing game times is one of his biggest goals. He’s even managed to make some strides in that area. Since Manfred took over, clocks have reduced between-innings breaks, batters are encouraged to stay in the batter’s box and pitch clocks have been implemented in the minors. While some of those solutions have been viewed as radical, particularly considering his predecessor…

8:58 PM ET Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print comment President Donald Trump’s executive order that bans entry into the United States from seven majority Muslim countries — Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Syria — for 90 days has produced concern in the sports world. The order’s specific provisions, the language in it and its legal basis raise questions and issues for international athletes, sports entities and…

Los Angeles isn’t the only city whose bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics has recently bumped up against politics. While the global debate over President Trump’s travel ban has heightened concerns that International Olympic Committee members might turn away from L.A., problems have arisen in Budapest. Bid leaders in the Hungarian capital announced over the weekend that they will delay the final stage of their campaign while a political youth…

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has made it no secret that reducing game times is one of his biggest goals. He’s even managed to make some strides in that area. Since Manfred took over, clocks have reduced between-innings breaks, batters are encouraged to stay in the batter’s box and pitch clocks have been implemented in the minors. While some of those solutions have been viewed as radical, particularly considering his predecessor…

Former front-office analyst and now stats professor at Smith College Ben Baumer has a paper out, with cowriters Michael J. Lopez of Skidmore College and Gregory J. Matthews of Loyola University Chicago, that hopes to answer a question we’ve all thought about when our favorite team loses: how often does the best team win in a given sport? How much of our pain can we explain away with luck?…

8:58 PM ET Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print comment President Donald Trump’s executive order that bans entry into the United States from seven majority Muslim countries — Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Syria — for 90 days has produced concern in the sports world. The order’s specific provisions, the language in it and its legal basis raise questions and issues for international athletes, sports entities and…

The project, sponsored by XFINITY Series entitlement partner DC Solar, is expected to be completed in November of 2018. Lesa France Kennedy, CEO of ISC, described the announcement as “a huge day for our company … as well as motorsports overall.” Kennedy said the project “brings us full circle with Phoenix Raceway. “The track itself has a very long and successful history with motorsports with NASCAR and IndyCar. Since we…

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has made it no secret that reducing game times is one of his biggest goals. He’s even managed to make some strides in that area. Since Manfred took over, clocks have reduced between-innings breaks, batters are encouraged to stay in the batter’s box and pitch clocks have been implemented in the minors. While some of those solutions have been viewed as radical, particularly considering his predecessor…

6:40 PM ET Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print comment President Donald Trump’s executive order that bans entry into the United States from seven majority Muslim countries — Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Syria — for 90 days has produced concern in the sports world. The order’s specific provisions, the language in it and its legal basis raise questions and issues for international athletes, sports entities and…

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RELATED: Full schedule for Daytona Speedweeks   ThorSport Racing’s 2016 campaign will be remembered as a season of recovery, overcoming the trials of a mid-June fire at its Sandusky, Ohio, headquarters. The blaze sparked a gutsy fight through the balance of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule, with the four-team operation scrapping and improvising to fulfill its full-season mandate.   Little more than seven months have passed since the…

The U.S. soccer community is diverse and well-traveled, engaged with the world and fluent in language and culture. So amid the chaos and furor of President Trump’s executive order banning entry of refugees, migrants and green-card holders from seven mostly-Muslim countries, it was hardly surprising to hear Americans who have traveled the world playing the world’s game speak out. Michael Bradley, the U.S. men’s national team captain with a well-stamped…

Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print comment Welcome to the Great Baseball Skills Competition, a week-long breakdown and ranking of baseball’s elite and unique talents. Each of the next four days, we’ll take an aspect of the game and profile the players who best demonstrate specific skills, such as hitting a fastball, snapping off a nasty breaking ball, dashing around the bases or taking away a home run. Which…

With an official MLB license under its uniform belt, R.B.I. Baseball 17 offers more than 1,000 real-life players and all 30 stadiums. R.B.I Baseball is back in 2017 — and it’s more licensed than ever. Compared to the original games from the NES and SNES era, today’s versions are much more affiliated. With an official Major League Baseball license under its belt, R.B.I. Baseball 17 comes with players, stadiums and teams taken straight from the real…

Vanderbilt’s Kyle Wright offers more projection than other college arms due to his body and clean arm (Photo by Cliff Welch) SEE ALSO: College Preview IndexEvery year Baseball America surveys scouting directors and national crosscheckers asking them to vote on our Preseason College All-America team. This year 17 of the 30 teams participated, giving a solid cross-section of how scouts view the college talent heading into the 2017 season. As…

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Jack Graney chapter of the Society of American Baseball Research will hold its winter meeting Saturday, Feb. 4. The SABR meeting, open to the public, is at the Baseball Heritage Museum visitors center at League Park, 6601 Lexington Ave., Cleveland. Cost is $5. Itinerary 9-9:30 a.m. – Introductions. 9:30-10 a.m. – “Memorable moments from League Park,” Joe Gazzo. 10-10:30 – Jeremy Feador, the Cleveland Indians curator, will speak…

President Donald Trump signing an executive order barring refugees from entering the US on January 27, 2017. (Reuters / Carlos Barria) Donald Trump’s racist “Muslim ban” comes after a year that represented a triumph of visibility for Muslim athletes. There was Mo Farah, the British distance runner born in Somalia who won two Olympic gold medals in Rio. There was saber fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first Muslim-American woman to wear…