U.S./World Sports category, Page 346

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Bob Baffert is feeling the pressure now. The five-time Kentucky Derby winner finds himself with new favorite Game Winner since Omaha Beach was scratched with a breathing problem. “Oh boy. Here we go,” the white-haired trainer said Thursday to a throng outside his Churchill Downs barn. “I...

BOSTON — Boston Celtics president Danny Ainge had a mild heart attack and is expected to fully recover. The 60-year-old executive received immediate medical attention Tuesday night in Milwaukee, the team said in a statement Thursday. The Celtics were facing the Bucks in the second round of the playoffs. Ainge,...

Former Penn State players Ali Krieger and Alyssa Naeher were among the 23 players named to the U.S. soccer roster that will compete in the Women’s World Cup this summer in France. Krieger, a 34-year-old right back, will be playing in her third World Cup and helped the 2015 team...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR abandoned its yearslong bid to add excitement to qualifying and announced Wednesday it will return to single-car laps after the current format became a laughingstock. All three national series will make the change at all oval tracks, starting this weekend at Dover. NASCAR for more than...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Suddenly, the Kentucky Derby is wide open. Favorite Omaha Beach was scratched because of a breathing problem Wednesday night, leaving a pair of Hall of Famers on the sideline: trainer Richard Mandella and jockey Mike Smith. Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia revised the morning line to make...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The pain of seeing Cavonnier get beat by a nose in his first Kentucky Derby nearly kept trainer Bob Baffert from returning to Churchill Downs. He figured he would never again have a horse good enough to win on the first Saturday in May. A year later,...

No, the runners did not have to eat them, but they could. The golf ball-sized pouches made from seaweed and filled with a sports drink were handed out to thousands of runners for the London marathon on April 28. The marathon offered “race organizers and company officials a mass experiment...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Harold Varner III worked up the courage to ask a favor of Tiger Woods for a close friend with colon cancer. The timing made it surreal. Woods made a videotaped message for Daniel Meggs on the Wednesday before the Masters, encouraging the former Wake Forest golfer to...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Knowing their favored horses won’t start the Kentucky Derby on the rail left Richard Mandella and Bob Baffert more relieved than happy. What matters for the Hall of Fame trainers is turning workable starting spots into victory and a long-sought celebration for Mandella. Omaha Beach is the...

The Masters in his rearview mirror, Justin Rose is excited about what he calls the next stage of the golf year. Except in this case, objects might be closer than they appear. Because while the next major is in two weeks, the first one ended only two weeks ago. Still...

The price tag on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics is now $6.88 billion, a $1.36 billion increase that comes mainly because of accounting measures designed to better reflect inflation over the long lead-up to those games. Most key numbers the organizing committee released Tuesday are essentially the same as those...

CARLSBAD, N.M. — A softball pitcher and baseball pitcher from the same New Mexico high school threw a perfect game and no-hitter, respectively, within 90 minutes of each other. The Carlsbad Current-Argus reports Carlsbad High School softball pitcher Ashley Hernandez and baseball pitcher T.J. Ruiz tossed their gems on April...

Linda Gaudet can’t watch the replays. Even after 47 years in horse racing, she turns away from any video showing one of the 23 fatalities over three months at Santa Anita Park. “It was just devastating,” Gaudet said. “I still can’t stomach it.” Neither can many others around horse racing....

DALLAS — A former Texas A&M football player has arrived in court to be tried for the killing of jogger who was hacked to death with a machete in 2015. Thomas Johnson’s murder trial began Monday after years of litigation over whether the 25-year old is mentally competent to be...

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Chase Elliott won the Cup Series race Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, giving Chevrolet its first victory of the season. Elliott took the lead shortly after a restart with four laps to go and worked with three other Chevy drivers to hold off the rest of the field....

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Austin Dillon will start on the pole at Talladega Superspeedway. What happens from there is anybody’s guess. Even by Talladega standards, there’s an element of mystery and potential for chaos heading into Sunday’s Cup series race, which often is marked by big wrecks and late dramatics. “I...

For 15 NFL seasons in eight major media markets, Gus Frerotte endured incessant questions from waves of reporters. Now, it’s his turn to fire back. In his new venture, he not only will ask the tough questions, he plans to inform and educate. Frerotte, who grew up in Ford City...

BOSTON — John Havlicek’s legacy was built over 16 years with the Boston Celtics, eight of them as NBA champions, making him among the best to ever play the game. One play immortalized him forever. “Havlicek stole the ball! “Havlicek stole the ball!” Celtics radio announcer Johnny Most screamed, a...

NEW YORK — The player widely projected to be the NBA Draft’s top overall pick came up at a college basketball corruption trial Thursday as jurors heard a recording of a Clemson coach who seemed eager for help from an aspiring agent. The charismatic Zion Williamson played a year at...

The Sacramento Kings and the NBA began a joint investigation Thursday into allegations that coach Luke Walton sexually assaulted a woman. The Kings and the league said they will be looking into the accusations from a lawsuit filed earlier in this week in Los Angeles by former sportscaster Kelli Tennant....