Sport Scores

Relay the Way, the 9.49-mile baseball toss set for the Royals’ opening day, is already a success — and it’s about to get even better. It took less than three days to sign up the 2,500 people needed to throw the ball, about 20 feet each, from Union Station to Kauffman Stadium, where it will be used Sunday for the first pitch of the world champions’ 2016 season. And everyone…

Baseball sure loves a manufactured controversy, especially if the terms “respect,” “class,” or “the right way” are involved. No team attempts to uphold the unwritten rules of the game quite like the Kansas City Royals. Last year, the Royals cleared benches six times — five times in April alone — and despite ending the season as World Series champions, the Royals are keen to clear the benches again to start 2016. You…

The “Is David Ortiz washed up?’ stories are an annual tradition. Because Ortiz’s career peak came relatively late and his game is exclusively predicated on the ability to hit the ball hard, we’re constantly on the lookout for the end, and have been for years. Every 0-for-4 performance in April brings about an avalanche of “IS DAVID ORTIZ WASHED UP” histrionics, and every year, he just keeps hitting. I fell…

When veteran pitcher Bronson Arroyo heard the news, he texted Baker, “Hey, back at it again.” Baker replied: “Yeah, one last album.” Baker’s last album could be his final chance to win the championship that has evaded him. The challenge for the old-school baseball lifer is to guide the stacked Nationals — led by Bryce Harper, Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Ryan Zimmerman and Jonathan Papelbon —…

Baseball sure loves a manufactured controversy, especially if the terms “respect,” “class,” or “the right way” are involved. No team attempts to uphold the unwritten rules of the game quite like the Kansas City Royals. Last year, the Royals cleared benches six times — five times in April alone — and despite ending the season as World Series champions, the Royals are keen to clear the benches again to start 2016. You…

Texas baseball signee Kyle Muller struck out the first 18 hitters he faced Monday and finished with 21 strikeouts in eight innings as Jesuit beat Irving 3-0.   By striking out 18 in a row to start Monday’s game, then getting the first out in the bottom of the seventh on a strikeout after allowing a single, Muller had recorded 36 outs in a row on strikeouts over three games. The streak…

Mitch Gaspard knew this day was coming. Schedules aligned for a while, but with his Alabama baseball team hitting the road for the next few weekends, they’re going to be without outfielder Keith Holcombe. He’s got a linebacker job to win. The two-sport juggle will take a break in the final three weeks of Alabama’s spring football practice. The Tide baseball team will play Auburn at 7 p.m. Tuesday in…

JERSEY CITY — You’d think Jersey City could keep the politics out of youth baseball. You’d be wrong. Tensions are flaring between two groups vying to oversee youth baseball at Pershing Field, with one group accusing the other of attempting to hijack baseball leagues for political gain, and the second group saying the first is fighting to keep men with criminal histories coaching baseball. The battle has moved from the baseball…

BRADENTON, Fla. — Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage sat on a folding chair directly behind catcher Francisco Cervelli, watching right-hander Ryan Vogelsong throw in the bullpen. Actually, the word “watching” does not sufficiently describe what Searage was doing on Monday, about 90 minutes before the Pirates hosted the Twins in a Grapefruit League game at McKechnie Field. Searage wore a catcher’s mask, leaning so far forward that the chair lifted…

Justine Siegal talks with A’s Manager Bob Geren before pitching batting practice in 2011 (Photo: David Wallace, The Arizona Republic) Last year, Justine Siegal became the first woman to serve as a coach for a Major League Baseball organization, serving as a guest instructor for the Oakland Athletics’ instructional league. That followed throwing batting practice for six teams, including the A’s, during spring training in 2011. In 2009, she was the…

BRADENTON, Fla. — Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage sat on a folding chair directly behind catcher Francisco Cervelli, watching right-hander Ryan Vogelsong throw in the bullpen. Actually, the word “watching” does not sufficiently describe what Searage was doing on Monday, about 90 minutes before the Pirates hosted the Twins in a Grapefruit League game at McKechnie Field. Searage wore a catcher’s mask, leaning so far forward that the chair lifted…

Buy Photo The 2016 ALL-USA Central Indiana Preseason Baseball team.(Photo: IndyStar)Buy Photo With Indiana a flat-out baseball hotbed, it’s not easy winnowing down a list of the talented Indianapolis-area players to come up with the best at their respective positions. So consider this a primer of players to watch, as we present this year’s American Family Insurance Preseason All-USA Central Indiana high school baseball team. INDYSTAR 2016 PRESEASON ALL-AREA BASEBALL…

To many baseball observers, the hiring of Dave Roberts by the L.A. Dodgers came as a surprise. Credit PHOTOGRAPH BY ROB TRINGALI / GETTY Farhan Zaidi, a thirty-nine-year-old who was born in Canada to Pakistani parents and grew up mostly in the Philippines, holds a Ph.D. in behavioral economics from the University of California at Berkeley. While he was working on that degree, he read Michael Lewis’s book “Moneyball,” published…

print Often, the best approach in a mock draft can be one you don’t think will work. Tristan H. Cockcroft has been looking to use the “Modified Labadini” approach in an ESPN Fantasy staff mock draft for a month now, but has been blocked from getting the integral piece of the puzzle by just a pick or two on several occasions. “Pretty much, it’s Kershaw, 14 hitters and 10 pitchers,…

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