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According to a report by Motorsport.com’s Jim Utter, Monster Energy is one of the finalists to replace Sprint as NASCAR’s Premier Series title sponsor next year and beyond. Yesterday morning, I asked a NASCAR official about Monster and got a polite “no comment,” which is normal when negotiations are ongoing and a number of companies could potentially be in the mix. There have been plenty of companies rumored to be…

At the conclusion of the Can-Am 500 at Phoenix International Raceway today, we will be one race away from the retirement of Tony Stewart from the Sprint Cup Series. As the season has progressed and the news of Stewart’s retirement has been known throughout, his teammate Kevin Harvick doesn’t feel that the tracks and people around NASCAR have done enough to properly honor the three-time Premier Series champion. “It’s not…

The legend of Shohei Otani continues to grow. Otani, the best baseball player in the world outside MLB, managed to crush a baseball that got lodged in the panels of the Tokyo Dome roof Sunday. Japan was playing the Netherlands in a World Baseball Classic exhibition game. To the action footage: Alas, the ball was not ruled a home run. It was deemed a ground-rule double. It surely would have…

NEW YORK – UFC 205 will be remembered mostly for what happened in the cage. Conor McGregor made history with a brilliant performance against Eddie Alvarez, winning the lightweight title with a second-round knockout before a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden. That made McGregor, who entered the bout holding the featherweight title, the first man in UFC history to hold two belts simultaneously. But it should be remembered for…

RELATED: Race results | Chase Grid   AVONDALE, Ariz. — It was just another routine Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway for Kyle Busch. But nothing else in the Ticket Galaxy 200 was at all ordinary.   All the drama unfolded behind Busch, as eight drivers scrambled for four positions in the NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase’s Championship 4 Round at Homestead-Miami Speedway.   Busch led 190 of 200 laps on the…

When you get right down to it, sports is pretty terrific. OK, maybe that isn’t much of a bombshell to drop here, in the middle of reams of pages of sports stories. If you’ve come this far in the section, or on our website, it probably is because you already think sports is pretty terrific. But here’s the thing: We can do better. Sports can do better. Every once in…

What we too often expect from people we wouldn’t — couldn’t — expect from ourselves. Take the running back on a sweep toward either sideline (now called “the edges”) late in a game, his team winning and eager to keep the clock moving. A force of defenders forces him out of bounds, stopping the clock. Almost invariably, the TV and radio commentators then scold him for “not staying inbounds.” Really?…

UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor tries to make UFC history Saturday against lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez when he tries to become the promotion’s first ever simultaneous two-weight champion. McGregor is coming off a majority decision win over Nate Diaz at UFC 196 and is eager to add yet another record to his long list of accomplishments in the UFC. He’ll take on lightweight Eddie Alvarez, who won the belt from…

RELATED: Chase Grid | Chase Bubble Watch Practice 3 recap | Results | Best consecutive 10-lap average Kyle Busch led final practice in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on Saturday at Phoenix International Raceway. Busch turned a fast lap of 136.358 mph in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota on the 1-mile track where Sunday’s Can-Am 500 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) will determine the final two…

Gunmen attacked a bus carrying players and officials of one of South Sudan’s top-flight soccer clubs, killing the driver and injuring six others. The Confederation of African Football says the Young Stars team was traveling from the capital Juba back to their hometown of Torit when the attack happened. CAF says the club chairman was among the injured. It says the gunmen were unidentified. The Young Stars…

Olympic legend Usain Bolt is considering a post-running career in soccer, according to The Guardian. The 30-year-old Jamaican is a big Manchester United fan and said he has been talking with people about playing soccer, also saying that he will train with Borussia Dortmund. He is set to spend two days training with the Bundesliga club in the coming weeks, and will “see what happens.” Bolt is one of the…

Last night, the Mexican men’s national soccer team defeated the United States in a World Cup qualifying match with a dramatic late-game header by Rafael Márquez. It was the US men’s team’s first home loss in a World Cup qualifier in 15 years (the match was played in Columbus, Ohio). And it was the US’s first loss to Mexico in such a match since 1972. But the match was not…

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Fenway Park, the legendary home to the Boston Red Sox, is packed tightly into Kenmore Square in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with Wrigley Field, it is one of only two “classic parks” still in use, referring to the era of ballparks built at the turn of the 20th century. Erected in 1912, the stadium is the oldest in Major League Baseball, and is the cornerstone of Boston’s century-old love story with…

I wish I had more stolen bases. That’s what was running through the mind of every owner in the middle rounds of this draft. The obvious response would be to draft a base-stealer, but by that point, they were nowhere to be found. Some saw it coming. Specialist du jour Billy Hamilton went in Round 5 — a concession that still feels icky to me, even after enduring the shortage…

It started on a frozen and snowy April morning this year. Our flight from New York was desperately late. Our friend met us at the airport, engine running. She gunned the car down the freeway. My son and I had just 20 minutes to make it to PNC Park for opening day. We made it to our seats as the early afternoon sun at last…

By Craig HoltCorrespondent WORCESTER — Though Central Mass. players have benefited Worcester Academy baseball, it could also be said that Worcester Academy has been beneficial for Central Mass. baseball players. The good relationship between Worcester Academy and Central Mass. on the diamond was confirmed Friday when three Hilltopper baseball players with local ties joined three others in a National Letter of Intent signing ceremony at Worcester…

Since Indiana’s unexpected defensive resurgence last January coincided with James Blackmon’s season-ending knee injury, the 6-foot-4 guard became a scapegoat for the team’s inability to generate enough early-season stops. There was even a misguided school of thought that the Hoosiers were better off without their second-leading scorer. You won’t find any Indiana fans making that argument this season after Blackmon’s brilliant performance during the 11th-ranked Hoosiers 103-99 overtime victory over third-ranked Kansas on Friday night in…

Electric cars are the future. Thanks to emissions restrictions and fuel efficiency requirements, plus the ease of using renewable energy to power an electric car means nearly every manufacturer will need to embrace it sooner or later. One of those manufacturers is Porsche, which is working on the Mission E electric sports sedan. And that means the company’s engineers have an interesting problem. Porsche makes sports cars (or sports SUVs),…

Seldom in sports is there such a perfect storm as Conor McGregor right now. Such a perfect, wild, surreal storm. Ireland’s McGregor headlines the first UFC show to take place at the hallowed fight sport halls of Madison Square Garden on Saturday, after New York finally legalised mixed martial arts. It comes at a time when Conor is aiming to make history as the company’s first fighter to hold two…