“THE SCOREBOARD” MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL SCOREBOARD TIGERS 4, ATHLETICS 1 RANGERS 7, ANGELS 6 BRAVES 10, PIRATES 5 RED SOX 2, WHITE SOX 1 METS 7, ROYALS 3 YANKEES 12, RAYS 4 ORIOLES 3, CUBS 2 GUARDIANS 5, TWINS 2 MARLINS 8, MARINERS 4 PHILLIES 1, REDS 0 BREWERS 8, CARDINALS 4 =========================== MINOR LEAGUE SCOREBOARD INDIANAPOLIS 6 TOLEDO 5 WEST MICHIGAN 8 FT. WAYNE 5 SOUTH BEND 9 CEDAR RAPIDS 1 =========================== WNBA SCOREBOARD FEVER 92 MERCURY 89 DREAM 89 STORM 78 ACES 88 FIRE 80 =========================== NBA SUMMER LEAGUE SCOREBOARD MINNESOTA 105 NEW ORLEANS 92 ATLANTA 93 SPURS 66 PHILADELPHIA 101 DETROIT 93 GOLDEN STATE 101 DALLAS 90 CHARLOTTE 86 ORLANDO 74 WASHINGTON 92 UTAH 88 SACRAMENTO 91 LA CLIPPERS 85 =========================== WORLD CUP SOCCER SCOREBOARD FRANCE 2 MOROCCO 0 =========================== INDIANA HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL CONFERENCE SCHEDULES https://scoreboard.homestead.com/football/teams.htm#load =========================== NFL TRAINING CAMP DATES TEAM SITE LOCATION ROOKIES VETERANS ARIZONA CARDINALS STATE FARM STADIUM GLENDALE, ARIZ. 7/22 7/22 ATLANTA FALCONS ATLANTA FALCONS TRAINING FACILITY FLOWERY BRANCH, GA. 7/24 7/28 BALTIMORE RAVENS UNDER ARMOUR PERFORMANCE CENTER OWINGS MILLS, MD. 7/24 7/28 BUFFALO BILLS ST. JOHN FISHER UNIVERSITY ROCHESTER, N.Y. 7/21 7/28 CAROLINA PANTHERS BANK OF AMERICA STADIUM CHARLOTTE, N.C. 7/21 7/22 CHICAGO BEARS HALAS HALL LAKE FOREST, ILL. 7/25 7/28 CINCINNATI BENGALS PAYCOR STADIUM CINCINNATI 7/25 7/28 CLEVELAND BROWNS CROSSCOUNTRY MORTGAGE CAMPUS BEREA, OHIO 7/23 7/28 DALLAS COWBOYS MARRIOTT RESIDENCE INN OXNARD, CALIF. 7/28 7/28 DENVER BRONCOS BRONCOS PARK POWERED BY COMMONSPIRIT ENGLEWOOD, COLO. 7/22 7/28 DETROIT LIONS MEIJER PERFORMANCE CENTER ALLEN PARK, MICH. 7/25 7/28 GREEN BAY PACKERS LAMBEAU FIELD GREEN BAY, WIS. 7/27 7/28 HOUSTON TEXANS HOUSTON METHODIST TRAINING CENTER HOUSTON 7/21 7/28 INDIANAPOLIS COLTS GRAND PARK WESTFIELD, IND. 7/27 7/28 JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS MILLER ELECTRIC CENTER JACKSONVILLE, FLA. 7/25 7/28 KANSAS CITY CHIEFS MISSOURI WESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY ST. JOSEPH, MO. 7/24 7/28 LAS VEGAS RAIDERS INTERMOUNTAIN HEALTH PERFORMANCE CENTER HENDERSON, NEV. 7/23 7/28 LOS ANGELES CHARGERS THE BOLT EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. 7/23 7/28 LOS ANGELES RAMS LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY LOS ANGELES 7/25 7/25 MIAMI DOLPHINS BAPTIST HEALTH TRAINING COMPLEX MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. 7/21 7/28 MINNESOTA VIKINGS TCO PERFORMANCE CENTER EAGAN, MINN. 7/26 7/28 NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS NEW BALANCE ATHLETICS CENTER FOXBOROUGH, MASS. 7/21 7/24 NEW ORLEANS SAINTS OCHSNER SPORTS PERFORMANCE CENTER METAIRIE, LA. 7/28 7/28 NEW YORK GIANTS QUEST DIAGNOSTICS TRAINING CENTER/THE GREENBRIER EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J./WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.V. 7/23 7/28 NEW YORK JETS ATLANTIC HEALTH JETS TRAINING CENTER FLORHAM PARK, N.J. 7/25 7/28 PHILADELPHIA EAGLES JEFFERSON HEALTH TRAINING COMPLEX PHILADELPHIA 7/28 7/28 PITTSBURGH STEELERS SAINT VINCENT COLLEGE LATROBE, PA. 7/28 7/28 SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS SAP PERFORMANCE FACILITY SANTA CLARA, CALIF. 7/18 7/25 SEATTLE SEAHAWKS VIRGINIA MASON ATHLETIC CENTER RENTON, WASH. 7/17 7/24 TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS ADVENTHEALTH TRAINING CENTER TAMPA, FLA. 7/27 7/28 TENNESSEE TITANS VANDERBILT HEALTH FOOTBALL CENTER NASHVILLE, TENN. 7/23 7/28 WASHINGTON COMMANDERS COMMANDERS PARK ASHBURN, VA. 7/24 7/28 ====== 2026 INDIANAPOLIS COLTS PRE-SEASON SCHEDULE WEEK DATE OPPONENT TV / TIME (ET) WEEK 1 THU, AUG 13 @ NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS LOCAL (7:30 PM) WEEK 2 SAT, AUG 22 VS. ATLANTA FALCONS LOCAL (1:00 PM) WEEK 3 SAT, AUG 29 VS. DETROIT LIONS LOCAL (1:00 PM) ===== 2026 INDIANAPOLIS COLTS REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE WEEK DATE OPPONENT TIME (ET) TV / STREAMING 1 SUN, SEPT 13 VS. BALTIMORE RAVENS 1:00 PM CBS 2 SUN, SEPT 20 @ KANSAS CITY CHIEFS 8:20 PM NBC 3 SUN, SEPT 27 VS. HOUSTON TEXANS 1:00 PM CBS 4 SUN, OCT 4 @ WASHINGTON COMMANDERS 9:30 AM NFL NET 5 SUN, OCT 11 @ PITTSBURGH STEELERS 1:00 PM CBS 6 SUN, OCT 18 VS. TENNESSEE TITANS 1:00 PM FOX 7 SUN, OCT 25 @ MINNESOTA VIKINGS 1:00 PM CBS 8 SUN, NOV 1 @ JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS 1:00 PM CBS 9 SUN, NOV 8 VS. DALLAS COWBOYS 1:00 PM FOX 10 SUN, NOV 15 VS. MIAMI DOLPHINS 1:00 PM CBS 11 THU, NOV 19 @ HOUSTON TEXANS 8:15 PM PRIME VIDEO 12 SUN, NOV 29 VS. NEW YORK GIANTS 1:00 PM FOX 13 BYE WEEK 14 SUN, DEC 13 @ PHILADELPHIA EAGLES 1:00 PM FOX 15 SUN, DEC 20 @ TENNESSEE TITANS 1:00 PM CBS 16 TBD – FLEX VS. CINCINNATI BENGALS TBD TBD 17 SUN, JAN 3 @ CLEVELAND BROWNS 1:00 PM FOX 18 TBD – FLEX GAME VS. JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS TBD TBD ======================================= NATIONAL SPORTS HEADLINES/RELERASES WORLD CUP NEWS US STAR CHRISTIAN PULISIC FRACTURED HIS LEG IN WORLD CUP LOSS TO BELGIUM U.S. star Christian Pulisic fractured his right leg during the Americans’ World Cup loss to Belgium and will be sidelined for several weeks. Pulisic has a bone bruise and a microfracture of his tibia and fibula, the U.S. Soccer Federation said Thursday. The diagnosis was made after an X-ray and MRI on Tuesday. He would not have been able to play during the remainder of the tournament had the U.S. advanced. Pulisic is expected to resume training before AC Milan’s Serie A opener at Torino on Aug. 23. Pulisic hit a leg of Belgium captain Youri Tielemans while attempting a shot in the 52nd minute of Monday’s 4-1 round-of-16 loss at Seattle. He remained in the game but was hobbling and Sebastian Berhalter replaced him in the 59th minute. Pulisic failed to score in the World Cup, missing one of the Americans’ five matches because of a calf injury and leaving two other games early. He has 30 goals in 90 international appearances. Pulisic, who turns 28 in September, is entering his fourth season with Milan. ===== KYLIAN MBAPPÉ HAS A GOAL AND AN ASSIST AS FRANCE BEATS MOROCCO 2-0 IN THE WORLD CUP QUARTERFINALS FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Kylian Mbappé had a goal and an assist after missing a first-half penalty kick, Ousmane Dembélé also scored and France beat Morocco 2-0 Thursday in the World Cup quarterfinals. Mbappé’s goal in the 60th minute was the 20th of his World Cup career and came in his 20th match at the tournament, moving him one behind Argentina captain Lionel Messi. Dembélé scored his fifth goal of the tournament in the 66th. Mbappé was taken down in the 76th minute and was taken off for a substitute a minute later. He was then shown sitting on the bench with an ice pack on his right ankle. After the match and with both shoes on, Mbappé ran and jumped in celebration with his teammates. France will face either Spain or Belgium in the semifinals in Dallas on Tuesday. France beat Morocco by the same score in the semifinals of the 2022 tournament in Qatar when the Atlas Lions became the first African team to make it that far. France now remains on track to become only the third nation to play in the final of three consecutive World Cups. Mbappé got his goal with a perfectly placed shot just inside the far post after Morocco failed to clear the ball. He received the ball just outside the area, took a couple steps forward and then sent his shot sailing into the net. He extended both arms and ran to the sideline to celebrate with his teammates. France’s second goal came after Mbappé took a pass and tapped it back for Dembélé. Mbappé kept running forward and took defenders with him, opening space for Dembélé’s shot. France held a 21-4 advantage in shots on goal and 8-1 edge in shots on target for the game. “We are very disappointed. We wanted to go on,” Morocco coach Mohamed Ouahbi said. “When we had ball possession, our transitions were not great and we had to run a little more. Their players were in their comfort zone.” Mbappé also had the first shot on goal of the game, just missing wide right in the fourth minute. Then, in the 25th, he was running up the left side when he was chopped down in the box by Morocco defender Noussair Mazraoui. Referee Facundo Tello quickly pointed to the penalty spot. Mbappé lined up waiting for his attempt but was held up by a lengthy video review. He was finally cleared to shoot in the 28th minute, but after a hesitation, Mbappé’s shot toward the right corner was corralled by goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, who guessed the direction of the shot correctly. Mbappé made his only other penalty attempt at this year’s World Cup in France’s 1-0 victory over Paraguay in the round of 16. Still, France was by far the more active team offensively in the first half, holding a 13-1 advantage in shots on goal. Morocco’s best opportunity came just before the halftime whistle when Achraf Hakimi sent a free kick from just outside the box past the right post. ======================================== NFL NEWS WASHINGTON COMMANDERS ARE RETIRING HALL OF FAMER JOHN RIGGINS’ NO. 44 ON NOV. 8 ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — The Washington Commanders are retiring John Riggins’ No. 44 during the upcoming NFL season, the team announced Thursday. The Hall of Fame running back will be honored in a ceremony at halftime of the team’s game against the Los Angeles Rams on Nov. 8. “There are certain players whose impact goes far beyond statistics, championships and accolades: They become woven into the identity of a franchise,” controlling owner Josh Harris said in a statement. “John Riggins is one of those players. …Our fans not only admired him, they identified with him. He is authentic, unapologetically himself and deeply connected to the people around him. John has meant so much to this franchise, our fans and the game of football.” Riggins is the organization’s all-time leading rusher with 7,472 yards and 79 touchdowns on 1,988 carries and helped the team win the Super Bowl in the 1982 season. The fan favorite nicknamed “Riggo” was the MVP of that Super Bowl for his performance best known for his memorable 43-yard TD run in the fourth quarter that put Washington ahead of the Miami Dolphins. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992. Riggins is the seventh player to have his number retired by the team, joining Sammy Baugh, Bobby Mitchell, Sean Taylor, Sonny Jurgensen, Darrell Green and Art Monk. Green, Monk and Riggins have all happened since Harris’ group took over from longtime owner Dan Snyder. =============================================== MLB NEWS MLB ROUNDUP: FRAMBER VALDEZ FANS 9 AS TIGERS WIN 5TH STRAIGHT Framber Valdez threw seven innings of one-run ball to lead the Detroit Tigers to a 4-1 win over the visiting Athletics on Thursday night. Valdez (5-6) retired the first 11 hitters he faced and allowed just three hits, struck out nine and issued no walks in a dominant performance. Jake Rogers, Zach McKinstry and Eduardo Valencia hit home runs for Detroit, which won its fifth consecutive game and completed a sweep of the A’s, who have dropped six straight contests. Valencia, called up to give Detroit cover at catcher as starter Dillon Dingler deals with a right-hand contusion, pinch hit for Kerry Carpenter in the seventh. The 26-year-old from Venezuela delivered a homer to center off Hogan Harris, becoming the 10th Tigers player to homer in his first career major league at-bat. Jacob Wilson was 2-for-4 for the Athletics, whose five hits were all singles. Jack Perkins (2-5) took the loss, serving as the bulk reliever on a scheduled bullpen day and allowing three runs in three innings. Rangers 7, Angels 6 Wyatt Langford singled in Alejandro Osuna with one out in the bottom of the ninth as Texas moved into first place in the American League West with a walk-off victory over visiting Los Angeles in the rubber match of their three-game series. Langford, activated off the injury list earlier in the day after missing time with a hamstring strain, lined a 1-1 fastball from Angels reliever Kirby Yates (0-4) over the head of left fielder Jose Siri to drive in Osuna. Brandon Nimmo went 2-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored, Justin Foscue homered and doubled with two RBIs and Ezequiel Duran also hit a two-run homer for Texas. Nolan Schanuel went 4-for-4 with two doubles, two RBIs and a run scored and Wade Meckler had two hits, two runs scored and an RBI for Los Angeles, which lost for the eighth time in the last nine games. Braves 10, Pirates 5 Mike Yastrzemski crashed his third career grand slam in the ninth to break open the game and clinch Atlanta’s first series win in Pittsburgh in four years. Rookie Jim Jarvis (3-for-5) contributed his first career homer and Matt Olson added a solo homer for the Braves. Dylan Dodd (2-0) tossed a perfect fifth after starter Bryce Elder surrendered four hits and four runs (three earned) in four innings. Jake Mangum stroked four hits, including a homer, and drove in three runs for the Pirates. Bryan Reynolds and Esmerlyn Valdez cracked back-to-back solo shots in the third. Starter Mitch Keller (6-7) gave up three runs and four hits in a season-low three innings. Red Sox 2, White Sox 1 Caleb Durbin cracked a two-run homer and Patrick Sandoval pitched effectively in his first major league outing in two years as Boston extended its winning streak to eight games while sweeping host Chicago. Sandoval, sidelined by Tommy John surgery and other injuries since June 21, 2024, scattered five hits and one run over 4 1/3 innings in his Red Sox debut. Tyron Guerrero (1-1) got five outs in relief and Aroldis Chapman earned his 19th save. The Red Sox had just four hits as Willson Contreras started to serve his five-game suspension. White Sox starter Anthony Kay (6-4) allowed two runs and four hits in 5 1/3 innings. Colson Montgomery posted two of the seven hits for the White Sox, who became the first MLB team this season to go without an extra-base hit in a three-game series. Mets 7, Royals 3 Rookie Carson Benge and Francisco Alvarez hit RBI singles in a five-run fifth inning, Sean Manaea pitched a season-high seven innings and host New York recorded a victory over Kansas City to win its first series since mid-June. Tyrone Taylor started the big inning with a tying homer to left field. Soto also homered and reached base three times for the Mets. Manaea (2-4) allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits and went seven innings for the first time since the 2024 NLDS against the Phillies. Lane Thomas hit a leadoff homer and Bobby Witt Jr. also homered for the Royals. Michael Wacha (5-7) allowed six runs on six hits in a season-worst 4 2/3 innings, dropping Kansas City to 4-10 in its last 14 games. Yankees 12, Rays 4 Ben Rice bashed two home runs and finished with five RBIs and three runs as New York walloped Tampa Bay to split a four-game series in St. Petersburg, Fla. Rice hit a two-run shot during the Yankees’ six-run third inning. Austin Wells had a solo home run and Ryan McMahon had two doubles and two RBIs as the Yankees scored at least six runs in a game for the first time in 21 contests. Rays slugger Junior Caminero homered for the 12th time in 16 games. Chandler Simpson lashed two triples, and Ben Williamson and Jonathan Aranda each had two hits. Orioles 3, Cubs 2 Jeremiah Jackson hit a pinch-hit, two-run double in the eighth inning to give Baltimore the lead, paving the way to a 3-2 defeat of Chicago to avoid a three-game series sweep. After entering in the seventh inning Wednesday and homering in both at-bats, Tyler O’Neill homered in the second to double his season total to six after going yard in three straight at-bats. Starter Trevor Rogers allowed one run on five hits over six innings. Seiya Suzuki had both of the Cubs’ RBIs, homering in the sixth and delivering a go-ahead double in the eighth. Nico Hoerner and Pete Crow-Armstrong rapped doubles for Chicago, which had nine hits to Baltimore’s three. David Peterson held Baltimore to one run on two hits for five innings before Tyler Ferguson (0-1) allowed two runs in a third of an inning. Guardians 5, Twins 2 Gavin Williams matched a season high with 11 strikeouts and Cleveland belted three solo homers in a victory over Minnesota in Minneapolis. Williams (10-4) allowed two runs on three hits over seven innings to halt a five-start winless skid. Gabriel Arias went deep in the second inning, rookie Chase DeLauter added the go-ahead blast in the sixth and Patrick Bailey homered in the ninth. Cleveland produced six hits in the game — three home runs and three doubles. Minnesota’s Royce Lewis scored on Tristan Gray’s RBI single in the fifth inning and led off the seventh with a homer. Lewis (2-for-3) had two of the Twins’ three hits. Marlins 8, Mariners 4 Janson Junk, pitching for the first time since May 25, threw five strong innings to lead streaking Miami to a win over visiting Seattle. The Marlins have earned six straight victories, matching their best streak of the season, and have also won 16 of their past 18 home games. Griffin Conine homered and had three hits as Miami gave Junk plenty of run support, as he allowed one earned run on three hits. The Mariners got homers from Randy Arozarena and Dominic Canzone but still lost their third straight game. Bryce Miller (4-3) took the loss as his ERA rose from 1.71 to 2.18. He allowed season highs across the board — nine hits, four walks, six runs, four earned — in five innings. Phillies 1, Reds 0 Justin Crawford drove home pinch runner Derek Hill for the game’s only run to support seven masterful innings from Jesus Luzardo as visiting Philadelphia claimed the rubber game with Cincinnati. Luzardo (8-4) outdueled Cincinnati starter Brady Singer (3-9) to improve to 6-0 in 11 road starts this season. Jonathan Bowlan pitched a perfect eighth and Jhoan Duran handled the ninth for his 23rd save in 24 chances this season. Luzardo was pulled after seven innings, allowing just two hits, striking out 11 and walking two. Luzardo now has a 1.38 ERA on the road. Singer allowed four hits and one walk, striking out five over a season-high 7 1/3 innings. Brewers 8, Cardinals 4 Jake Bauers and Brice Turang went deep for Milwaukee, who capped a long week in St. Louis by beating the Cardinals and taking four of the five games. Turang (2-for-5) and Bauers (2-for-4) were joined by Jackson Chourio (2-for-5), Sal Frelick (2-for-4) and Cooper Pratt (2-for-3) as part of an 11-hit attack. Bauers hit a three-run shot, his 17th, to cap a four-run third inning. Turang hit his 13th long ball to lead off the seventh as he drove in a pair. Jordan Walker homered for the Cardinals, who managed just five hits while falling for the fifth time in their last six games. Starter Andre Pallante (10-6) went five innings, giving up six runs on eight hits and two walks. ===== CARDINALS OF JORDAN WALKER ENTERS HR DERBY Cardinals outfielder Jordan Walker will take a swing at the Home Run Derby on Monday night in Philadelphia. A first-time All-Star, Walker entered Thursday with a career-high 21 home runs and led Major League Baseball with 70 RBIs in a breakout season in St. Louis. Walker, 24, is the first Cardinals player in the annual slugfest since Albert Pujols in 2022. Fans at Citizens Bank Ballpark on Monday night would be advised to take cover. Walker is averaging 94.2 mph exit velocity, tied for fifth among qualified hitters, per Statcast. He’ll participate alongside Rays third baseman Junior Caminero, Yankees first baseman Ben Rice, Royals outfielder Jac Caglianone and Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras. Three spots remain to fill the eight-player field. ===== ALAN PORTER TO UMPIRE BEHIND THE PLATE IN MLB ALL-STAR GAME AT PHILADELPHIA NEW YORK (AP) — Alan Porter will be the umpire crew chief and call balls and strikes for Tuesday night’s All-Star Game at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park. The 48-year-old made his major league debut in 2010, joined the major league staff in 2013 and became a crew chief in 2023. He was the right field umpire for the 2015 All-Star Game and worked the World Series in 2019, 2022 and 2025. Porter will be joined by Chris Conroy at first, Chad Whitson at second, Ryan Additon at third, Adam Beck in left and Edwin Moscoso in right. Vic Carapazza will be the video review umpire in New York. ===== WHO GOES NO. 1 IN THE DRAFT? HERE ARE THE ODDS AND THE CASE FOR EACH CANDIDATE The start of the 2026 MLB Draft is just days away. On Saturday, shortly after 1 p.m. ET, the White Sox will answer the question everyone has been waiting to have answered: Who will be the No. 1 pick? In these final days, the White Sox still have three players they are discussing for that first overall selection: Texas high school shortstop Grady Emerson, UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky and Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey. Those are the top three prospects, in order, on MLB Pipeline’s current Draft Top 250 prospects list. 2026 MLB DRAFT PRESENTED BY NIPPON EXPRESS Day 1: Saturday, July 11 (Rounds 1-4) • 1:00-2:30 p.m. ET – Picks 1-10 (NBC/Peacock) • 2:30-4:30 p.m. ET – Picks 11-40 (MLB Network, MLB.com, MLB.TV, MLB+) • 4:30-7:45 p.m. ET – Picks 41-135 (MLB.com, MLB.TV, MLB+) Day 2: Sunday, July 12 (Rounds 5-20) • 11:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. ET (MLB.com, MLB.TV, MLB+) They’re not on the same plane in terms of how likely they are to go in the top spot though. The general consensus is that it’s a two-man race, with Emerson and Cholowsky pretty much even with each other as the only true contenders. Lackey is on the outside looking in, still being discussed only as a contingency plan. 1. Chicago White Sox Pick: Grady Emerson, SS, Fort Worth Christian (TX) The top tier of this draft is generally seen as three players deep: Texas high school shortstop Grady Emerson, UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, and Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey. Teams picking behind the top three believe the most likely scenario is that those guys will come off the board in some order, with Roch and Emerson having been mentioned up top with Chicago, while Lackey has not been. The White Sox attempted to sign Cholowsky out of high school and no doubt like him, but everyone has the same question about Roch: Will his swing work in pro ball as well as it has so far? There really aren’t questions like that about Emerson. We might learn pretty quickly that Cholowsky is going to strike out more than we want him to, whereas that seems unlikely for Emerson. Conversely, Emerson might surprise us and get stronger than we expect, at which point he’d pretty clearly have the best ceiling of this trio, and you can’t really say that about the college guys, who can either meet our expectations or fall short of them. 2. Tampa Bay Rays Pick: Vahn Lackey, C, Georgia Tech This seems like a match made in heaven for both player and team. The Rays have been looking for their catcher of the future for a long time, and they value the things Lackey does well (like throw and play defense) as highly as any team. He’d move quickly and aid a perpetually competitive roster, and perhaps exorcise the Buster Posey/Tim Beckham demons. If the Rays want to cut an under-slot deal, Tyler Bell is the player I would both recommend and predict the Rays do it with given that they drafted him coming out of high school. 3. Minnesota Twins Pick: Roch Cholowsky, SS, UCLA The Twins seem likely to take whichever of the top three players remains, which in this scenario is Cholowsky. When the Giants traded for Cleveland’s comp pick in May as part of the Patrick Bailey deal, there was speculation that it might be with an eye toward buying one of the top three players back to the fourth pick. If that’s true and I’m Minnesota, I’m asking for forgiveness and not permission as I take that player. I’m turning in the name without having a conversation with the agent and daring them not to take slot here, especially if it’s a college player who remains. 4. San Francisco Giants Pick: Jackson Flora, RHP, UC Santa Barbara I’m cutting against the grain of my sources here, who have tended to put one of the next tier of high school hitters with San Francisco. That’s simply not what the Giants did last year under their current leadership; instead, they took safe college players. That hasn’t solely been their modus operandi since Michael Holmes became Amateur Director in 2022 (they drafted Bryce Eldridge and Walker Martin in 2023), but it mostly has been, Dakota Jordan aside. The other decision-makers (Posey and Zack Minasian) were inserted late in 2024. Maybe that means they’ve had an opportunity to get comfortable with this year’s high school class in a way that wasn’t true of last year’s group, putting high school outfielder Eric Booth Jr. and shortstop Jacob Lombard truly in play here. Teams picking behind the Giants certainly think so. No pitcher is “safe,” but Flora’s combination of ceiling, proximity, and polish (not to mention good vibes, which the Giants badly need) threads the needle for them and fits better with the way the team has actually behaved of late. I’d have Booth ahead of Lombard here if it turns out I’m wrong; there’s just a different degree of risk associated with the latter. 5. Pittsburgh Pirates Pick: Eric Booth Jr., OF, Oak Grove HS (MS) It makes sense for the Pirates to cut here because they have four top-51 selections and there’s a good chance they could buy back a top-30 player to at least one of those, but they simply haven’t operated like that lately. They’ve happily taken high schoolers for slot and still walked away from drafts with lots of exciting young talent without having to get creative. There’s industry speculation that the suddenly competitive Pirates will take a college player who can move quickly to help the big league cause, but as we’ve seen with Konnor Griffin, it doesn’t necessarily take long for the high schoolers to arrive when you draft the right one. 6. Kansas City Royals Pick: Jacob Lombard, SS, Gulliver Prep (FL) There is persistent industry buzz that the Royals are at least considering cutting a deal here, right on down to the amount they’d be looking to save (about $2 million), but logically, that’s contingent upon the players they like a lot being gone when they pick. I am not sure what they think of Lombard. Scouting Director Brian Bridges has had an appetite for hit tool risk before (Jac Caglianone, Sean Gamble and Josh Hammond were the tops picks in his two drafts as Royals’ Director) and he was with the Giants they drafted Eldridge, Martin, and Reggie Crawford. Lombard is in that category of player. If the Royals cut a deal, the names bandied about have been two-way high school player Jared Grindlinger, top high school pitcher Gio Rojas, and USC left-hander Mason Edwards. 7. Baltimore Orioles Pick: Tyler Bell, SS, Kentucky The Orioles have drafted toolsy hitters with strikeout issues, including some who feel like they have zero chance to hit (like Vance Honeycutt), and in that vein, folks are putting them with Lombard if he’s here. More broadly, the Orioles prioritize players who can access power and have positional value, and similar to Colton Cowser a few years ago, Bell is that guy. Of the college hitters who project to start coming off the board in this range, Bell, Alabama shortstop Justin Lebron, and Arkansas catcher Ryder Helfrick are the players who best fit that description, along with high school third baseman Bo Lowrance (who I have ranked in this range). 8. Athletics Pick: Christopher Hacopian, 2B, Texas A&M The A’s tend to be on college bats, including ones who have little to no defensive ability, especially when they have some elite data characteristics. That’s Hacopian to a tee. He has a 95-97% contact rate versus fastballs the last two seasons, including on Cape Cod, and performed this way despite fighting through injury. On the one hand, the injuries have limited his data sample and made it less reliable. On the other, it’s incredible what he’s done despite being dinged up. LSU center fielder Derek Curiel and Louisville outfielder Zion Rose (this is the earliest he’s been mentioned) are the other college hitters with a premium data trait (contact) in this range, and there are folks picking behind the A’s who think they might see Ryder Helfrick as a Sean Murphy reboot. 9. Atlanta Braves Pick: Derek Curiel, CF, LSU The Braves tend to prioritize up-the-middle players regardless of whether they’re high school or college players, and they’ve been willing to use top picks on high school pitching in recent years. It might be tempting for them to take Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress here. He’s a local kid, and they have first hand knowledge of the fact that small players can be great (Ozzie Albies). It’d be fun, but Burress isn’t a center field lock like Curiel is, and the Braves love to take speed/contact guys who they help to swing harder and unlock power. Curiel fits that bill. I’ve heard Christopher Hacopian’s name here, too. There’s speculation that Florida high school lefty Gio Rojas could be a fit here, but all the high school pitchers the Braves take have pretty deliveries, and Rojas does not. 10. Colorado Rockies Pick: Zion Rose, OF, Louisville When a team has turnover at the top of their front office, I tend to mock college players to them the following year because it’s much easier to get up to speed on the college class since the important high school activity has already happened when they’re hired. Rockies GM Josh Byrnes, who came from the Dodgers, has always seen lots of players throughout the amateur calendar, so I’m not sure that logic holds as true for him as the baseline. That said, Rose, who has homes from here to the mid-20s, does a lot of the stuff the Dodgers targeted in their drafts while Byrnes was there. He hits for contact, he’s fast, and he might have another offensive gear if his approach and swing can be tweaked so that he pulls the ball more. 11. Washington Nationals Pick: Drew Burress, OF, Georgia Tech The Nats brought in Justin Horowitz from the Pirates and Desmond McGowan from the Mets analytics department to help navigate the draft under Paul Toboni. Horowitz, of course, piloted high-upside drafts in Pittsburgh, while the Mets’ draftee traits have been measurable power and pitchers with big stuff, but relief risk. Burress has the measurable power piece and would be nice value here. Gio Rojas would be the upside/relief risk guy in this spot (arguably Florida righty Liam Peterson, too), but I don’t have team-specific dope to that end. Two-way California high schooler Jared Grindlinger has been mentioned here. 12. Los Angeles Angels Pick: Mason Edwards, LHP, USC Here’s a happy medium between what the Angels were doing under recently-fired GM Perry Minasian and what newly-hired John Mozeliak was doing in St. Louis. Edwards is a college lefty with knockout secondary stuff (especially his curveball) and a deceptive fastball that plays a little better than its velo, and he’s likely to move quickly. I’ve also heard the Angels with several of the college hitters who are already off the board in this scenario. 13. St. Louis Cardinals Pick: Jared Grindlinger, OF/LHP, Huntington Beach HS (CA) Grindlinger could go inside the top 10 on an under-slot deal, but he has homes from just before this pick running though the next several. The Cardinals’ approach has shifted from the command-oriented pitching prospects to guys with huge stuff and relief risk, which puts several of the next tier of college arms in play here. 14. Miami Marlins Pick: Gio Rojas, LHP, Stoneman Douglas HS (FL) The Marlins have targeted big upside in recent drafts, usually with power-hitting position players who have struggled to hit. A continuation of that strategy could lead them to Alabama shortstop Justin Lebron in this scenario. If they want to change course, well, most of the high-contact college hitters are off the board here. High school outfielder Trevor Condon is the prep version of that profile. This is late for the first prep arm to go and would be great value, with a cherry of positive optics on top because Rojas is local. 15. Arizona Diamondbacks Pick: Trevor Condon, CF, Etowah HS (GA) The D-backs like lefty bats and there are still several remaining here, though some of them have issues that would arguably make them feel like reaches. Mississippi State third baseman Ace Reese has huge power, but he strikes out a lot and can’t play defense, while Texas Tech and Virginia outfielders Logan Hughes and AJ Gracia are contact-oriented corner guys with modest power. I like third baseman Bo Lowrance enough to take him this high, but my sources have not connected him with Arizona. Condon is in their wheelhouse as a potential A.J. Ewing type of outfielder if he can add some pop as he gets stronger. 16. Texas Rangers Pick: Hunter Dietz, LHP, Arkansas There are lots of exciting college pitchers with some kind of injury history lurking in this portion of the draft, but Dietz’s issue (a stress fracture in his elbow) was a couple of years ago and he dominated the SEC this year. 17. Houston Astros Pick: Justin Lebron, SS, Alabama The Astros love toolsy, strikeout-prone college players, and they get an extreme version of that profile here with Lebron. Georgia catcher Daniel Jackson has also been mentioned with them, but it’s unclear if they’d have to take him here or if Jackson would make it to their next pick. High school third baseman Bo Lowrance’s range seems to start here. 18. Cincinnati Reds Pick: Liam Peterson, RHP, Florida The Reds have taken many players from Florida (the state and the university) over the years, and they aren’t obsessed with fastball shape (Peterson’s isn’t great), caring more about velocity and breaking ball quality, which Peterson has plenty of. Ryder Helfrick would be excellent value here, as he’s likely to be a good defensive catcher and get to power despite lots of strikeouts. There’s some Trevor Condon smoke if he gets here. 19. Cleveland Guardians Pick: Tyler Spangler, SS, De La Salle HS (CA) The Guardians tend to take someone who, four months ago, we’d have been shocked to learn had fallen so far. Sometimes that’s been Chase DeLauter and sometimes it’s Jace LaViolette. There are a number of players who either had down seasons or who felt like they plateaued in a disappointing way. Spangler looked like a top-15 pick coming out of last summer, then missed most of his senior year with injury and looked rusty at the Combine. Coastal Carolina righty Cameron Flukey is another faller. He entered the season as arguably the top pitcher in the class, but missed two months due to a stress fracture in his ribs and was wild when he returned. 20. Boston Red Sox Pick: Cameron Flukey, RHP, Coastal Carolina The Red Sox used high picks on nasty pitchers with relief risk last year, and there are several still around at this pick, including ASU lefty Cole Carlon, but Flukey’s strike-thrwoing track record with his fastball is much better, which is something last year’s Sox picks have struggled with. This is also a spot mentioned for an under-slot deal with a college bat. NC State and TCU center fielders Ty Head and Chase Brunson are Boston’s type. 21. San Diego Padres Pick: Bo Lowrance, 3B, Christ Church Episcopal (SC) Zion Rose would be in San Diego’s mix if he gets here, but I don’t think he’ll come close. Teams assume the Padres will be in play for whichever of the nasty lefties are still around (regardless of demo, though there are some who think they’ll just take another high schooler), but Lowrance does some of the things that Jackson Merril does, like cover the top of the strike zone with power, except he’s a huge-framed third baseman with the scout-y physical projection the Padres love. AJ Preller was at Notre Dame righty Jack Radel’s ACC Championship start, so perhaps he’s an under-slot option here. 22. Detroit Tigers Pick: Cole Carlon, LHP, Arizona State Carlon’s stuff would ordinarily come off the board in the middle of the first round, about where I’ve mocked Hunter Dietz, but he dealt with injury at the very end of the year (he was back for the Big 12 tournament and looked fine) and sometimes had trouble holding his velo deep into games. He has maybe the best breaking ball in the entire draft. 23. Chicago Cubs Pick: Aiden Robbins, OF, Texas The Cubs care a ton about Cape Cod performance, and Robbins, who has other homes toward the back of the first round, had a .936 OPS there in a huge sample. 24. Seattle Mariners Pick: Ryder Helfrick, C, Arkansas This would be a surprising tumble for Helfrick, and he could easily go up where I have the other strikeout-prone college hitters. There will probably be a few good college pitchers left here in real life. 25. Milwaukee Brewers Pick: Ace Reese, “3B”, Mississippi State Similar to Andrew Fischer, Reese has huge lefty power but is probably not a third baseman. Could the Brewers coax more power out of a better pure hitter, like AJ Gracia or Logan Hughes? 26. Atlanta Braves Pick: Carson Bolemon, LHP, Southside Christian (SC) Bolemon is the Braves’ type of high school pitcher, a well-built athlete with a graceful delivery, vertical fastball attack, and a power breaking ball. 27. New York Mets Pick: Tegan Kuhns, RHP, Tennessee Unlike some of the other relief risk pitchers the Mets have taken and developed of late (like Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat), Kuhns’ issues have to do with the quality of his secondary pitches. He’s a great athlete who throws strikes with an uphill fastball, and has some low-hanging developmental fruit (throw harder versions of his breaking balls). High school catcher Will Brick gets mentioned here as well. 28. Houston Astros Pick: Daniel Jackson, C, Georgia As mentioned above, the Astros like toolsy college guys, even when they have strikeout issues. Jackson’s were particularly bad once conference play began, though he went on to win the Golden Spikes. ================================================ NBA NEWS G JORDAN CLARKSON AGREES TO RETURN TO KNICKS ON 1-YEAR DEAL Free agent guard Jordan Clarkson agreed to a one-year, $3.9 million contract to return to the New York Knicks, his agent and Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul announced on Thursday. The deal is the veteran’s minimum for Clarkson, who is five years removed from being selected the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year. Clarkson, 34, averaged 8.6 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 72 games (one start) with the Knicks last season. A second-round draft pick of the Washington Wizards in 2014, Clarkson immediately was dealt to the Lakers. He played 3 1/2 seasons in Los Angeles, then parts of three seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers before he was traded to the Utah Jazz in December 2019. In 825 games (232 starts), Clarkson owns NBA averages of 15.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists. ===== RAPTORS AND CLIPPERS PUT TRADE FOR KAWHI LEONARD ON HOLD, PENDING END OF NBA INVESTIGATION Kawhi Leonard’s trade to the Toronto Raptors is on hold pending the outcome of the NBA’s investigation into whether the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented salary cap rules, the teams announced Thursday. It does not necessarily mean that the trade is off. The Raptors said they still want Leonard, and the Clippers, in a statement sent to multiple outlets including The Associated Press, again insisted that they are not guilty of any wrongdoing related to an endorsement contract between Leonard and a now-bankrupt California-based digital bank that touted itself as environmentally friendly. But the probe, as detailed by the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, could lead to penalties that include a substantial fine, the loss of draft capital — and, potentially, even the voiding of a player contract — if the league finds there was a deliberate circumvention of cap rules. “The NBA league office informed us that as a result of the ongoing investigation involving the Clippers, we would assume the risk of any potential outcome of the investigation impacting Kawhi,” the Raptors said. “In light of this, we will wait until the league’s investigation is complete.” There is no timetable for the conclusion of the NBA’s probe, which is being performed by outside counsel — Wachtell Lipton, a New York-based firm. Commissioner Adam Silver said in recent weeks that he’d like to see a conclusion. “My instruction to them is we can’t be investigating forever. At some point you have to wrap it up,” Silver said last month at the NBA Finals. “But at the same time, the most important thing is that we get it right.” Through a spokesman, the NBA said Thursday that it doesn’t “have a specific timeline for the conclusion of the investigation but expect the firm to finalize its work in the coming weeks” The NBA opened an investigation back in September into whether a $28 million endorsement contract between Leonard and Aspiration Fund Adviser LLC — a company that filed for bankruptcy in 2025 — broke league rules, following a report by journalist Pablo Torre. Last month, Aspiration co-founder Joseph Sanberg was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to defrauding investors and lenders of at least $248 million. “At the heart of this investigation are Joe Sanberg and Aspiration,” the Clippers said Thursday in a statement. “We did not funnel money to Kawhi Leonard through Aspiration. Like many sophisticated investors, financial institutions, and business partners, we were victims of a fraud initiated by Sanberg, who has been convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison. “We recognize the uncertainty this has created and the impact it has had on our team, our fans, the Raptors organization, their fans, and the players whose futures remain affected while this process continues. We remain confident that, when the facts are evaluated fairly and thoroughly, the NBA will confirm exactly what we have said from the beginning: We have not done what we are accused of doing.” For its part, Toronto reaffirmed that it still wants to acquire Leonard. “The Raptors remain eager to bring Kawhi back to Toronto and look forward to a swift resolution for our players, our organization, and our fans,” the Raptors said. The Raptors and Clippers struck a deal on June 30 on a trade that would send Leonard back to the city that helped win the 2019 NBA championship. The Raptors agreed to send Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, two first-round draft picks, two second-round picks and pick swaps to the Clippers for Leonard — who spent one season in Toronto, and that was the year the Raptors won their lone title. He turned 35 earlier this month but is coming off the highest-scoring season of his career, averaging 27.9 points for the Clippers in 65 games. Leonard is a seven-time All-Star, seven-time All-NBA selection, a two-time NBA champion (also winning in 2014 with San Antonio) and is generally considered one of the game’s top defensive players. He has said there was no wrongdoing. ============================================= COLLEGE BASKETBALL NEWS OHIO JUDGE GRANTS PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION FOR MEN’S, WOMEN’S HOOPS PLAYERS SUING NCAA FOR ELIGIBILITY CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio judge has granted a preliminary injunction for 24 men’s and women’s college basketball players suing the NCAA for eligibility, claiming the new age-based model unfairly shuts them out of further competition. Judge Christopher Wagner said Thursday the NCAA eligibility rules have been applied to 2022 high school graduates in an arbitrary and capricious manner, adding the plaintiffs would suffer “irreparable injury” without an injunction. “We hope the NCAA reconsiders its position and allows all other similarly situated athletes from the high school class of 2022 to compete for remaining roster spots in all sports,” attorney Ryan Downton said. Wagner’s ruling allows the athletes in the lawsuit an opportunity to enter the transfer portal. He scheduled a conference for Aug. 4 to prepare for a trial. “While we will seek to overturn this ruling, it is now apparent that Congress must act swiftly to restore stability, uniformity, and fair competition in college athletics,” the NCAA said in a statement. The Protect College Sports Act has moved forward with Senate committee approval in June. However, the Big Ten and Southeastern conferences oppose the bill designed to stabilize college sports and are seeking revisions. Downton has filed similar lawsuits against the NCAA on behalf of nearly 30 men’s and women’s basketball players. The lawsuit in Cincinnati was filed shortly after the NCAA Division I Cabinet approved a monumental change in eligibility rules last month. “When each plaintiff completed their fourth season of competition during the 2025-26 academic year, they had every reason to know it was the end of the line and time to make way for the next generation of college athletes,” the NCAA wrote in a filing. The plaintiffs are seeking to be eligible to play a fifth year during the upcoming season, representing athletes who graduated from high school in 2022 and began their college sports careers that autumn and never redshirted. “Each plaintiff was harmed each time he or she competed in a basketball game against a fifth or sixth-year player without being offered the same opportunity to compete in a fifth season themselves,” Downtown wrote in a filing. The NCAA now allows athletes five seasons of competition over a five-year period that begins with their full-time enrollment or the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs first. The move will all but eliminate waivers or redshirt years for extended eligibility except for religious missions, pregnancy or active-duty military service. Extensions will no longer be considered for athletes who are injured. Athletes whose eligibility expired by spring 2026 under the traditional model — four years of competition over five years — will not be allowed a fifth year of competition under the new rules that go into effect this fall. The Division I Cabinet has said in a statement posted on X that it was aware of legal action challenging its decision and that “we do not intend to change course.” Three basketball players, including Xavier forward Filip Borovicanin of Serbia, and three coaches, including Xavier coach Richard Pitino, along with an agent testified at a hearing in Cincinnati earlier this month, while the NCAA did not call any witnesses. Wagner appeared to be critical of the NCAA in his written ruling, saying the governing body resembles “a highly profitable professional sports league,” more than its argument of being a voluntary association. “The court finds, by clear and convincing evidence, that plaintiffs will suffer irreparable injury if the preliminary injunction is not granted,” Wagner said. The NCAA said the decision was wrong. “We will immediately seek all avenues for reversal, including a stay of the court’s order pending appeal,” the NCAA said. “The court disregarded over a century of precedent and substituted its own judgment, on a limited factual record, for the collective expertise of the nation’s leading higher education institutions.” ===== 5-STAR RECRUIT MARCUS SPEARS JR. RECLASSIFIES TO 2026, PICKS TEXAS Five-star basketball recruit Marcus Spears Jr. will reclassify and has committed to Texas for the 2026-27 college season, he informed ESPN on Thursday.Basketball The 17-year-old Spears, a native of Plano, Texas, is regarded as the nation’s No. 1 prospect. He elected to play for Texas and coach Sean Miller over Arizona, LSU and Kentucky. Spears is the son of former NFL defensive end Marcus Spears (Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens) and Aiysha (Smith) Spears, who played for two seasons (Washington Mystics) in the WNBA. Both of his parents attended LSU and Spears’ sister Cari plays for Texas’ volleyball team. The 6-foot-9 power forward averaged 15.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks per game as a junior at Dynamic Prep in Irving, Texas, in 2025-26. He earned a gold medal as a member of Team USA at the 2025 FIBA U16 Men’s AmeriCup. Spears led the team, averaging 14.0 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. “Texas basketball is becoming a big thing again, and I am excited to be part of it,” Spears told ESPN. “The Texas fans can expect a worker with a lot of energy. I will be trying to bring Texas a national championship.” Due to his age, Spears will not be eligible for the NBA draft until 2028.Games “Marcus Jr. grew up in Texas, and there’s nothing like playing for your home school and winning,” added the senior Spears. “I experienced that growing up in Louisiana at LSU. This is his decision and his future.” ======================================== NHL NEWS ANAHEIM DUCKS KEEP LEO CARLSSON, MATCHING FLYERS’ $90 MILLION OFFER SHEET FOR YOUNG CENTER ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — The Anaheim Ducks have matched the Philadelphia Flyers’ offer sheet for center Leo Carlsson, keeping their rising young star at an extraordinary cost. The Ducks announced their decision Thursday on the 21-year-old Carlsson, who is now the NHL’s highest-paid player under the five-year, $90 million deal extended by the Flyers one week ago. “It’s going to be a special feeling, having this pressure,” said Carlsson, who wasn’t told the Ducks were matching the offer sheet until shortly before the decision was made public. “I always wanted to be a Duck. It’s my home, too. I’m just super excited to be back.” Carlsson signed the Flyers’ offer sheet as a restricted free agent after a year of fruitless negotiations with Anaheim general manager Pat Verbeek, whose typical hardline approach in contract talks with his restricted free agents backfired tremendously this time. Carlsson’s new contract is worth much more than the league expected the Swedish youngster would get as a restricted free agent, and the $18 million average annual value is significantly more than he had already indicated he would accept. The deal surpasses the salary of Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov, who would have been the NHL’s highest-paid player at $17 million. Carlsson’s first significant contract negotiations landed him a huge payday — and it might have affected the NHL’s entire salary structure going forward, thanks to the Flyers’ boldness. He emerged from the experience with excitement about the Ducks’ future and no public qualms about the way everything went down. “It’s a lot of business in hockey,” Carlsson said. “I knew it, obviously, but it’s more business than I thought. (The details are) something for my agent to answer more on, but (the offer sheet) was just too good to pass on. I think everybody understands that. I talked to my teammates a lot, and everybody was just happy for me and super-supportive with the decision I made.” The Flyers failed to land their long-sought No. 1 center in unusual fashion by swiping Carlsson, but the attempt showed general manager Danny Briere’s determination to improve his roster at all costs. The Ducks would have received four first-round draft picks from Philadelphia if they hadn’t matched the offer sheet. Future negotiations will reveal whether Briere significantly skewed the NHL’s valuations of young talent by offering more than nearly all observers thought Carlsson could get. The structure of Philadelphia’s offer sheet also front-loaded Carlsson’s contract with costly signing bonuses in another departure from many NHL contracts. Fortunately for the Ducks, billionaire owner Henry Samueli didn’t hesitate to make that hefty financial commitment. “Matching the offer sheet was an easy decision, as Pat has intelligently left enough cap space to give us the ability to retain Leo,” Henry and Susan Samueli said in a statement. “We have extremely high expectations for Leo. We firmly believe he will continue his strong growth trajectory and become one of the truly elite centers in the league while continuing to make a strong impact in our community.” Although the Ducks retained their most important young player, Verbeek’s inability to get a deal done before he was forced into it by Philadelphia seems almost certain to compromise Anaheim’s roster-building efforts for years to come. The Ducks have had a rough summer after ending their seven-season playoff drought with a second-round run that stamped them as a near-future contender. After keeping the Ducks’ payroll well under the salary cap during his tenure, Verbeek will be spending Samueli’s money at the limit of the cap next season after signaling vulnerability to the league while he managed his crop of young talent. Verbeek still hasn’t signed 41-goal scorer Cutter Gauthier, a restricted free agent who is not eligible to receive an offer sheet. Anaheim signed defenseman Pavel Mintyukov to a five-year, $36 million deal last week, again going well over the expected market rate for a restricted free agent who isn’t on Carlsson’s level of talent, but was widely rumored to be on the verge of signing an offer sheet. Verbeek parted ways with four key defensemen from last season’s team — Jacob Trouba, captain Radko Gudas, Olen Zellweger and John Carlson — and hasn’t replaced them with any significant signings beyond journeyman Nick Jensen. Anaheim also traded Mason McTavish, a key component of its team for several seasons, to St. Louis for draft picks after the center regressed last season. This pricey deal for Carlsson is the latest chapter in Verbeek’s history of antagonistic negotiations with Anaheim’s free agents. Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale and McTavish all held out of training camp in recent years when they couldn’t get a deal done with Verbeek, who eventually signed all three — and later traded them all away. Verbeek did two of those deals with the Flyers, gaining praise for sending Drysdale in a package for Gauthier, but getting criticism from Ducks fans for giving up on the high-scoring Zegras last summer. Carlsson was the No. 2 choice in the 2023 draft behind Connor Bedard, and he has emerged as one of the NHL’s top young playmakers. Although he didn’t produce points at a rate commensurate with his new salary during his first three seasons, almost everyone believes Carlsson can become one of the best centers in hockey, so his deal might eventually look downright affordable. He scored 67 points in 70 games last season despite being limited for a lengthy stretch by a leg injury, and he added 11 points in 12 games during his first postseason experience. “I’m going to grow as a player, too,” Carlsson said. “I’ve done that every year so far. Trying to get away from these slumps I’ve been having during seasons. Trying to stay at the highest level I can all season long.” Carlsson is expected to be an unrestricted free agent when this contract ends in 2031, putting him in line for another massive payday at just 26 years old. ========================================== TENNIS NEWS KAROLINA MUCHOVA ENDS COCO GAUFF’S RUN AT WIMBLEDON IN DRAMA-FILLED TIEBREAKER TO REACH THE FINAL LONDON (AP) — Karolina Muchova ended Coco Gauff’s run at Wimbledon in a drama-filled tiebreaker to reach the final on Thursday. Gauff wasted a match point in the tiebreaker and so did Muchova before she finished it off 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (10). “It was such a big fight,” Muchova said. “It was a roller coaster.” Muchova will meet Linda Noskova in an all-Czech final on Saturday after Noskova beat Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-4, 6-4. Gauff had a match point at 9-8 in the tiebreaker when she fluffed an attackable forehand into the net to follow a powerful first serve. “I just panicked a little bit,” Gauff said, explaining that she was attempting a drop shot. Muchova then produced a lob winner to set up her first match point, which she lost when she slipped to the grass and a passing shot from Gauff sailed by her. But Muchova quickly set up another match point and produced a series of shots to the corners. Gauff, on the full run, reached the last ball but her forehand response landed in the net and Muchova covered her hands in disbelief. “You’re up and down in 10 seconds. You have a match point, then match point down. It’s no time to think, but very nerve-wracking,” Muchova said. “I’m really kind of shaking and trying to sink it in.” Earlier in the tiebreaker, Muchova produced a diving forehand volley winner at full stretch that brought back memories of the way three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker used to play. She ended up face down on the grass, her racket lying next to her, as the crowd roared. Anoter Czech champion guaranteed There will be a third Czech champion in four years after Marketa Vondrousova in 2023 and Barbora Krejcikova in 2024. It will be the ninth-ranked Muchova’s second Grand Slam final after losing to Iga Swiatek in the 2023 French Open championship match. The 21-year-old Noskova had never been past the fourth round at Wimbledon, having come that far last year. While Muchova has been slowed by injuries to both wrists over the past two years, she has now reached the semifinals or better at all four Grand Slams. Gauff’s Wimbledon history For Gauff, it was still her most successful Wimbledon. Previously, the seventh-ranked American had gone only as far as the fourth round three times – including during her breakthrough run as a 15-year-old in 2019. Gauff had had won six of her seven previous matches against Muchova. But Muchova has been nearly unbeatable on grass this year and extended her record this season on the surface to 11-1 after a title in Bad Homburg, Germany. Her only loss on grass this year came against Madison Keys in the Berlin Open round of 16. Muchova beat Gauff for the first time in April on clay in Stuttgart, Germany. It was another hot day in London with the temperature soaring to 91 degrees Fahreinheit (33 Celsius), prompting spectators to fan themselves in the stands in an attempt to keep cool. Muchova appeared to be struggling physically as the match wore on, bending over in exhaustion after one long rally and holding her abdomen in apparent pain during the final game. “I’m OK,” Muchova said. “I just was trying to catch a breath.” Muchova said she took a photo of Centre Court when she came to practice on the famed lawn ahead of her first career match on the most revered court in tennis. “There are so many of us tennis players and I don’t think many of us get to play on this court,” she said. “It’s just a nice moment to experience all of this and this court is beautiful.” The men’s semifinals on Friday feature top-ranked and defending champion Jannik Sinner against seven-time Wimbledon winner Novak Djokovic and French Open champion Alexander Zverev against British wild card Arthur Fery. ======================================== GOLF NEWS FIRESTONE TAMER JERRY KELLY CLAIMS LEAD AT KAULIG COMPANIES CHAMPIONSHIP Jerry Kelly took the first step toward his third title at the fabled Firestone Country Club with a 5-under-par 65 during Kaulig Companies Championship first-round action on Thursday in Akron, Ohio. Kelly tallied six birdies and one bogey negotiating his way around Firestone’s South Course to take a one-shot lead over Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke and Canada’s Mike Weir. Kelly, 59, collected both of his PGA Tour Champions majors at Firestone, where he won in 2020 and 2022 when the tournament was known as the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship. “Yeah, I love a tree-lined golf course,” Kelly said. “It’s what I grew up on in Wisconsin at Maple Bluff Country Club. It gives me a visual. That’s why I’ve always been able to shape it both ways because I’ve had to shape it with the size of the trees that we have out there. “So (this) is very similar to home, just a lot longer.” Clarke, like Kelly, had his lone bogey at No. 7. But Clarke, who played the back nine first, pulled within one of Kelly by capping his round with a birdie on No. 9. “Any time you shoot under par at Firestone is a pretty good day,” Clarke said. ” … Got to keep on swinging the way I am and hopefully give myself more chances.” Weir, 56, has just one top 10 to show for his last 18 months of PGA Tour Champions play, so he walked away from his five-birdie, one-bogey day feeling much better than normal. “I think I’ve kind of felt like a bit of a 10-handicapper who hits it well on the range but can’t bring it to the course,” Weir said. “I’ve been doing that a lot where I feel good on the range and that same guy doesn’t show up on the course. So I was able to bring it to the course today, so that felt good.” Zach Johnson, South Africa’s Ernie Els, Australia’s Cameron Percy, Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen and South Korea’s Y.E. Yang finished at 3 under to sit within two shots of the lead. Stewart Cink, who came up short in the final round of last week’s U.S. Senior Open, posted a 69 to join David Duval, Justin Leonard, South Africa’s Retief Goosen and three others in a tie for 15th. Padraig Harrington, who passed Cink on the final day for his second straight U.S. Senior Open title, is not at Firestone this week. He carded a 4-over 74 in the first round of the Scottish Open as he prepares for next week’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. ===== LUCAS GLOVER STAYS HOT, PART OF 4-WAY LEAD AT ISCO CHAMPIONSHIP Lucas Glover is back in contention on the PGA Tour after a near miss at the John Deere Classic last week. The 46-year-old Glover opened with a round of 63 for the second straight week, taking a share of the first-round lead at the ISCO Championship alongside Troy Merritt, Steven Fisk and Germany’s Stephan Jaeger on Thursday in Louisville, Ky. That quartet is 7 under par through one round at Hurstbourne Country Club, while Chan Kim and Sweden’s Pontus Nyholm are one back at 6-under 64. Glover had not shot a round better than 67 on tour all year until he went 63-65 to open the John Deere and take the lead. He finished last week tied for third, two shots back of winner Chris Gotterup. Glover is playing this week’s alternate event opposite the Genesis Scottish Open and brought his hot form with him to Kentucky. “Very similar to last week, the first couple days, hit it nice, made some putts and no bogeys,” Glover said. “Always a good way to start. First time here at this course. Absolutely love it.” Glover led the field in strokes gained on approach and hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation. Half his six career PGA Tour wins have come since 2021. Jaeger is among the other players at the ISCO trying to collect FedEx Cup points to stay afloat in the season-long race. He came into the week ranked 75th in the standings despite three top-10 showings. “It’s funny … It does feel it’s been a decent season. Then you look at my FedEx Cup ranking and it’s just not where I really wanted to be,” Jaeger said. “So it’s been a little frustrating on that end to maybe not get the points that I want to in some events that I was playing well at.” Fisk is 99th in the standings, and Merritt, who rolled in six birdies for a back-nine 29, is all the way back at 178th. Merritt made a 22 1/2-footer at the par-3 13th and three others longer than 11 feet to account for four of those birdies. Asked if he had a favorite putt of the day, he said, “Every single one of them that went in. “With how I battled the putter the past four years and how I battled my hands, I don’t even complain when they go in anymore, I just — I’m happy that they go in and I don’t mind what stroke is on ‘em,” he said. “The stroke felt very good, which is nice today.” Fan favorites Joel Dahmen and Max Homa — the latter of whom placed second to Gotterup last week — are among those tied at 3-under 67. Defending champion William Mouw opened with a 2-under 68. ===== AKI IWAI LEADS BY 2 AT EVIAN WITH NELLY KORDA 11 SHOTS BACK Japan’s Aki Iwai carded a bogey-free 63 in the first round Thursday to build a two-shot lead at the Evian Championship in Evian-les-Bains, France. Iwai, 24, teed off in the morning wave and birdied five of her last eight holes at the Evian Resort Golf Club to finish at 8-under-par. “I was able to have a good focus on my golf and stay committed. I prepared a lot around the green with chipping and putting. I was driving well, but honestly everything was good,” Iwai said. “I like driver, so if I’m good and consistent with my driver (it helps). I made the good score. I like this course, it’s similar to a course in Japan.” France’s Perrine Delacour fired a 6-under 65 and is alone in second place at the fourth of this season’s five majors. She started on the back nine and eagled the par-5 15th hole to go with six birdies and two bogeys. “I stayed patient all day long beside the heat. It was pretty hot out there, but I still stayed patient,” Delacour said. “Of course you’re going to make mistakes, but I bounced back really well, which I’m super proud of myself.” Five players are tied for third at 5-under, one shot ahead of a group of seven players. Nelly Korda, who won the year’s first two majors at the Chevron Championship and U.S. Women’s Open, is 11 shots behind the leader and tied for 102nd. Her round of 3-over 74 included two birdies, three bogeys and a double-bogey at the par-4 first hole, her 10th of the day after starting her round on the back nine. Korda will need to hustle to make the cut, which will include the top-65 players and ties at the end of Friday’s second round. A victory this week would be Korda’s fifth major and would also put the 27-year-old into the LPGA Hall of Fame. England’s Charley Hull, Sweden’s Maja Stark, Japan’s Mao Saigo and South Koreans Haeran Ryu and Jin Hee Im all are tied for third. Stark had a streak of birdies on Nos. 14-16 during her bogey-free round. “I felt very steady the whole round, I hit some good irons, better irons than usual and every tee shot here freaks me out. I just thought we have to go for it, so it was pretty stress-free,” Stark said. “I had good game in me, so I knew I was going to get more chances and some of putts felt like a couple of bonuses. Everyone has such different opinions about this place, but I love it because it really challenges me in things I need to be challenged in.”Games The group at 4-under includes Lottie Woad and Cara Gainer of England and Canada’s Brooke Henderson, who won the Evian Championship in 2022. “I played pretty solid,” Woad said. “I was in the fairway a lot and hit a lot of greens and was 5 under early on and then there are a few tricky holes on the front nine that I played, so I dropped a few there, but it was a nice finish with the eagle to get it back to 4 under.” ===== BRITISH OPEN ’26: SCHEFFLER GETS LAST SHOT AT A MAJOR IN 2026 AS BRITISH RETURNS TO ROYAL BIRKDALE The oldest championship in golf has become the last major on the calendar. The British Open has 166 years of history behind it, so it doesn’t need a catchy slogan — the PGA Championship was “Glory’s Last Shot” when it was last in the lineup — for Scottie Scheffler and everyone else to know it will be eight months before the next major. “We look forward to them so much, we build our schedules and the year around them, and then they’re over like that,” Justin Thomas said. “It sucks when they’re done.” And for the 153 players who have their last chance at winning a major this year? The pressure is not necessarily any greater, nor is there greater urgency to win one before the season is done. “But every year you don’t is another year you haven’t,” Thomas said. The 154th edition of The Open Championship returns to Royal Birkdale on July 16-19 along the Lancashire Coast in northwest England, an area rich with links golf — three British Open venues are about 60 miles (96 kilometers) apart. The Royal & Ancient is expecting upward of 300,000 fans. It will be the last chance for Scheffler to make it three years in a row winning a major. In the modern era of majors that dates to 1934, only seven other players have done that — Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka. Scheffler became the “Champion of the Year” at Royal Portrush last summer with another command performance on golf’s biggest stage. He is not one to look back on all the trophies he has won in the last five years, but the 30-year-old Texan has caught himself glancing at all the names engraved into the base of that silver claret jug. “The perfect size trophy — not too big, not too small and you get to drink out of it,” Scheffler said. “It will be very tough to hand it back on Tuesday, but I’ll be fighting like heck to get it back on Sunday.” Scheffler is the last of 10 names added to the base of golf’s oldest trophy since Rory McIlroy last took possession in 2014. McIlroy, the back-to-back Masters champion, is keen to get a seventh major and join Harry Vardon with the most majors by anyone from the Old World.English hopes lie with Tommy Fleetwood, who grew up a short walk from Birkdale, and Matt Fitzpatrick, whose three wins this year are more than Scheffler’s and McIlroy’s combined. McIlroy hasn’t seriously contended for the British Open since 2022 in St. Andrews. His lone appearance at Royal Birkdale was a tie for fourth in 2017, though he finished seven shots behind. But he loves the course and the challenge off the tee it presents, which typically is his strength. “The one thing that I like about Birkdale is there’s usually sets of bunkers on both sides of the fairway. So you’re always having to challenge one set of bunkers to get to where you want your ball to finish,” he said. McIlroy cited the 10th hole to illustrate. To play it safe and stay short of the bunkers doesn’t leave a good view of the green with a mid-iron. To challenge the bunker on the left, and stay short of the bunker on the right, allows for a good chance at birdie with a wedge in hand. “So there’s a lot of holes like that where … I know I’m hitting a club that could get me into trouble,” McIlroy said. “But to be in the best possible position for my second shot, that’s the shot that I need to play.” This is not exactly the same Royal Birkdale that last hosted the British Open in 2017 because of changes to some five holes. The most noticeable might be the par-4 fifth, shortened to 321 yards with more bunkers and the green shifted to the left to tempt players to drive the green. The most significant change is eliminating the par-3 14th hole where Jordan Spieth began his remarkable rally in 2017. Now the 14th is a par 5 that used to be No. 15, only it’s 60 yards longer (602 yards), has been shifted to the right and now has 12 bunkers. The 15th is a newly created hole that measures 241 yards. Adam Scott was asked to give a short assessment and replied, “too long.” McIlroy said he was “undecided,” which didn’t sound all that encouraging when he added, “I think it’s going to be a big talking point during the week.” It’s a beautiful links course set among dunes off the Irish Sea, one of only two on the British Open rotation where the ninth and 18th holes return to the clubhouse. And it has a rich heritage despite not hosting the Open until 1954. Of the nine previous champions (Thomson won twice) all but one are in the World Golf Hall of Fame or certain to be there when eligible. Those nine champions have combined to win 37 majors. Links golf on any course can produce some quirky bounces, when seemingly good shots turn bad and sometimes — though not as often — the other way around. “You can tell why golf was invented here,” Scheffler said. “You can hit a lot of clubs from off the green. It’s not the same club every time, and it gives you an option. You can get some funny bounces sometimes. But it’s also a pure and raw way to play golf. “The conditions change pretty quickly, and that could have an effect on tournament. But when you have similar conditions over four days, it’s a pretty true test of golf.” Harris English was the runner-up to Scheffler last year at Royal Portrush. He was asked what trait an Open champion needs to conquer links golf. “Super gritty,” he replied. “You’ve got to deal with playing in any weather, any conditions. You get some crap lies and bad breaks. You’re going to have a lot of stuff go against you in links golf,” English said. “You’ve got to figure it out. It’s pure golf. “Yeah, there’s luck involved,” he said. “But if you keep hitting good shots, luck will be in your favor.” And when it’s over, another name will be added to the base of the claret jug. And then golf’s best players will have to wait 263 days until the next major. ===== BRITISH OPEN ’26: FACTS AND FIGURES FOR GOLF’S OLDEST CHAMPIONSHIP SOUTHPORT, England (AP) — Facts and figures for the British Open golf championship: Event: 154th Open Championship. Dates: July 16-19. Site: Royal Birkdale GC. Length: 7,223. Par: 70. Field: 156 players. Playoff (if necessary): 3 holes, aggregate score. Prize money: TBA ($17 million in 2025). Winner’s share: TBA ($3.1 million in 2025). Defending champion: Scottie Scheffler. Last year: Scheffler stretched his lead to seven shots during the final round in another major runaway. He closed with a 3-under 68 at Royal Portrush for a four-shot victory, his second major of the year and the third leg of the career Grand Slam. Last time at Royal Birkdale: Jordan Spieth overcame a wild ride on the back nine with a birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie stretch to pull away for a three-shot victory over Matt Kuchar. Spieth had the third leg of the Grand Slam at age 23. British Open champions at Royal Birkdale: Jordan Spieth (2017), Padraig Harrington (2008), Mark O’Meara (1998), Ian Baker-Finch (1991), Tom Watson (1983), Johnny Miller (1976), Lee Trevino (1971), Arnold Palmer (1961), Peter Thomson (1954 and 1965). Major champions in 2026: Rory McIlroy (Masters), Aaron Rai (PGA Championship), Wyndham Clark (U.S. Open). American run: Americans have won the claret jug the last three years, their longest streak at the British Open in 20 years. Course changes: The reachable par-4 fifth hole was altered to eliminate the blind shot. The old par-5 15th hole now plays as the 14th hole, and a new par-3 15th hole was created to play at 241 yards. Key statistic: Rory McIlroy is the only player to win a major this year while being ranked in the top 10 in the world. Worth noting: The British Open has gone the longest without a back-to-back winner (2007-08) of the four majors. Worth quoting: “It’s pure golf. Yeah, there’s luck involved. But if you keep hitting good shots, luck will be in your favor.” — Harris English. Television (all times EDT): Thursday-Friday, 1:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. (Peacock), 4 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (USA Network); Saturday, 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. (USA Network), 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. (NBC); Sunday, 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. (USA Network), 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. (NBC). ===== BRITISH OPEN ’26: PLAYERS WHO CAN CONTEND AT ROYAL BIRKDALE A capsule look at 10 leading contenders for the British Open, the final major of the year to be held July 16-19 at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England (listed in predicted order of finish): SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER Age: 30. Country: United States. World Ranking: 1. Worldwide wins: 23. Majors: Masters (2022, 2024), PGA Championship (2025), British Open (2025). 2026 wins: The American Express. 2026 majors: Masters-2, PGA Championship-T14, U.S. Open-T4. British Open appearances: 5. British Open moment: Winning at Royal Portrush to claim the third leg of the career Grand Slam. Backspin: Scheffler won his first tournament of the year, and that remains his only win of the year. He has had a reasonable chance on Sunday at every major. TOMMY FLEETWOOD Age: 35. Country: England. World Ranking: 9. Worldwide wins: 9. Majors: None. 2026 wins: None. 2026 majors: Masters-T33, PGA Championship-Cut, U.S. Open-T11. British Open appearances: 11. British Open moment: Enormous crowd support when he played in the final group on Saturday at Royal Liverpool, about 45 minutes from his hometown. Backspin: This will be the second time Fleetwood plays a major in his hometown, and he is more equipped to handle that than he was in 2017. RORY MCILROY Age: 37. Country: Northern Ireland. World Ranking: 2. Worldwide wins: 42. Majors: Masters (2025, 2026), PGA Championship (2012, 2014), U.S. Open (2011), British Open (2014). 2026 wins: Masters. 2026 majors: Masters-Won, PGA Championship-T7, U.S. Open-T32. British Open appearances: 16. British Open moment: Winning at Royal Liverpool in 2014 with both parents there. Backspin: The Masters champion now emphasizes the biggest events on the calendar, and this is the last big one of the year. WYNDHAM CLARK Age: 32. Country: United States. World Ranking: 8. Worldwide wins: 5. Majors: U.S. Open (2023, 2026). 2026 wins: The CJ Cup Byron Nelson, U.S. Open. 2026 majors: Masters-T21, PGA Championship-Cut, U.S. Open-Won. British Open appearances: 4. British Open moment: A 66-65 weekend at Royal Portrush to tie for fourth, his first top 10 in the Open. Backspin: The U.S. Open champion has been on a heater since May. The question is how long it lasts. JON RAHM Age: 31. Country: Spain. World Ranking: 11. Worldwide wins: 24. Majors: Masters (2023), U.S. Open (2021). 2026 wins: LIV Golf-Hong Kong, LIV Golf-Mexico. 2026 majors: Masters-T38, PGA Championship-T2, U.S. Open-Cut. British Open appearances: 9. British Open moment: Playing in the final group at Royal Liverpool facing a six-shot deficit. Backspin: Rahm can be dangerous when he feels he has something to prove, and he is coming off a missed cut in the U.S. Open. JUSTIN ROSE Age: 45. Country: England. World Ranking: 10. Worldwide wins: 25. Majors: U.S. Open (2013). 2026 wins: Farmers Insurance Open. 2026 majors: Masters-T3, PGA Championship-T10, U.S. Open-T11. British Open appearances: 16. British Open moment: Chipping in on the 18th at Royal Birkdale to tie for fourth as a 17-year-old amateur. Backspin: The only player in his 40s in the top 10 in the world, he has not shown any signs of slowing, with nothing worse than a tie for 11th in the majors. CHRIS GOTTERUP Age: 26. Country: United States. World Ranking: 7. Worldwide wins: 5. Majors: None. 2026 wins: Sony Open, WM Phoenix Open, John Deere Classic. 2026 majors: Masters-T24, PGA Championship-T10, U.S. Open-T43. British Open appearances: 1. British Open moment: A 68-67 weekend at Royal Portrush in his Open debut to finish third. Backspin: He has as many wins as Scottie Scheffler over the last 12 months. The next step is serious contention in a major. XANDER SCHAUFFELE Age: 32. Country: United States. World Ranking: 14. Worldwide wins: 12. Majors: PGA Championship (2024), British Open (2024). 2026 wins: None. 2026 majors: Masters-T9, PGA Championship-T7, U.S. Open-T11. British Open appearances: 8. British Open moment: Winning the claret jug at Royal Troon in 2024. Backspin: For someone still trying to get on track following a rib injury last year, he’s at his best in the majors and has featured in all three of them. MATT FITZPATRICK Age: 31. Country: England. World Ranking: 4. Worldwide wins: 14. Majors: U.S. Open (2022). 2026 wins: Valspar Championship, RBC Heritage, Zurich Classic of New Orleans. 2026 majors: Masters T-18, PGA Championship T-14, U.S. Open-22. British Open appearances: 10. British Open moment: Finally cracking the top 10 for the first time in the Open last year in his 10th appearance. Backspin: He has had momentum on his side since March but has yet to convert it in the majors. JORDAN SPIETH Age: 32. Country: United States. World Ranking: 54. Worldwide wins: 16. Majors: Masters (2015), U.S. Open (2015), British Open (2017). 2026 wins: None. 2026 majors: Masters-T12, PGA Championship-T18, U.S. Open-T56. British Open appearances: 12. British Open moment: Making bogey from the driving range right of the 13th at Royal Birkdale and following with a birdie, eagle, birdie to win in 2017. Backspin: Returning to Royal Birkdale is a stark reminder it has been nine years since he last won a major. ======================================= INDIANA SPORTS HEADLINES/RELEASES INDIANA FEVER The Indiana Fever (13-9) earned a 92-89 late-game, come-from-behind victory over the Phoenix Mercury, closing out the second leg of a back-to-back with a win. With six made three pointers in the first quarter, the Fever took a 28-24 lead over the Mercury, led by 11 points from Kelsey Mitchell and eight from Aliyah Boston. The Mercury took a six-point lead in the second quarter, outscoring the Fever 29-19 in the period to lead 53-47 at halftime. Down by six points midway through the third quarter, Indiana forced four consecutive turnovers with four steals, going on a 13-0 run to retake the lead. Finding themselves with a 10-point deficit late in the fourth quarter, the Fever rallied with an 11-0 run over a two-minute period to take a one-point lead with 3:14 remaining. The two sides battled back-and-forth through the final three minutes, with Ty Harris scoring seven points of her 15 points over the span. The game was sealed with a Mitchell bucket with 10 seconds remaining, the go-ahead score, and a Fever defense that held off Mercury. Indiana Fever Notes: Scoring three three pointers, Mitchell now has 727 total three pointers made across her career, officially tying Katie Douglas (727) for the seventh most three pointers made in WNBA history. With three steals on the night, Mitchell brought her career total to 239, officially passing Ebony Hoffman (238) for the fifth most steals in Fever franchise history. Kelsey Mitchell earned her 37th consecutive double-digit scoring game, tying a franchise record held by Tamika Catchings, which she accomplished between June 24, 2003 and June 25, 2004. Mitchell’s 37-game double-digit scoring streak began on August 5, 2025, during which she has averaged 22.0 points per game. Scoring 21 points, Aliyah Boston earned her 34th career 20+ point scoring game, tying Caitlin Clark for the fourth most of such games in franchise history. Additionally, Mitchell’s 29 points marked her 123rd 20+ scoring game, extending her place as the second-most in franchise history, while closing in on Tamika Catchings’ record of 138 20+ scoring games. With her 29 points scored, Mitchell earned her fifth straight game scoring 25+ points, extending her franchise record, while tying the fourth-longest streak in WNBA franchise, only A’ja Wilson, Tina Charles, Maya Moore and Arike Ogunbowale have longer streaks. Making three of her five three-point attempts, Boston improved upon her league-leading three-point percentage, good for 46.4% (26-56) from beyond the arc. Mitchell led the team with eight assists, marking her seventh career game with eight or more assists, and her first of the season. Finishing the night with 92 points, the Fever maintain their league-leading points per game average at 93.3 points per game, just 0.5 points shy of the league record set by the Phoenix Mercury in 2010 (93.8). Indiana has never had a season in which they have averaged more than 90 points per game. The Fever’s six three pointers made in the first quarter are tied for the second most in a single quarter in franchise history. Tonight’s six three-pointers came from four different players, including Aliyah Boston (2), Ty Harris (2), Lexie Hull (1) and Kelsey Mitchell (1). ======================================= INDIANAPOLIS INDIANS INDIANAPOLIS – With the Indianapolis Indians and the Toledo Mud Hens tied for third place in the second-half International League standings, the Mud Hens pulled away with a 2-0 win over Indianapolis on Wednesday night at Victory Field. Veteran experience put a halt to the Indians’ growing momentum, as 34-year-old Carl Edwards Jr. (W, 4-6) hurled a gem and held Indianapolis (8-6, 39-50) scoreless over 5.2 innings with six punchouts. Edwards, who made his professional debut in 2012, pumped out his best outing of the year to stop the Indians in their tracks, a hot club that went 7-3 in their last 10 entering Wednesday night. Noah Davis (L, 1-8) allowed a leadoff single to Max Clark in the third inning and a leadoff triple in the fourth inning to Trei Cruz. Both runners eventually came around to score and gave Toledo (9-5, 43-45) a 2-0 lead. That was all the Mud Hens needed, and Tanner Rainey (S, 2) collected the last out of the ball game to seal their victory. Both teams will look to take a lead in the series on Thursday night at 7:05 PM. Reigning Indians June Player of the Month RHP José Urquidy (5-3, 3.92) will aim for his sixth straight win on the mound, facing Toledo’s RHP Ty Madden (2-0, 4.84). ==================================== FISHERS FREIGHT MOLINE- The Fishers Freight will head to Moline, Illinois to take on the Quad City Steamwheelers for the second time this season. These two teams kicked off the 2026 IFL season in Week 1 with a matchup in Fishers. The Freight claimed a 45-27 victory that night. LAST TIME OUT The last time these two teams met was the first game of the season when the Freight hosted the Steamwheelers and claimed a 45-27 victory over Quad City. While evenly matched going into that game, the Freight went on to go 7-7 while the Steamwheelers went 5-8 before this upcoming meeting. MUST WIN TO GET IN After Green Bay narrowly defeating the Orlando Pirates last weekend, the Freight’s playoff chances rest in their own hands as they face the Steamwheelers this weekend and the Pirates on July 26 to close out the regular season. If they win both games, the Freight will clinch their first playoff berth in franchise history. ============================================= NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Dick Corbett Head Football Coach Marcus Freeman has been named to the 2026 Dodd Trophy Watch List. The Dodd Trophy celebrates the head coach of a team who enjoys success on the gridiron, while also stressing the importance of scholarship, leadership and integrity – the three pillars of legendary coach Bobby Dodd’s coaching philosophy. Freeman won the Dodd Trophy in 2024 and is one of four coaches on this year’s watch list who have previously earned the honor, joining Curt Cignetti (2025), Willie Fritz (2022) and Kirk Ferentz (2015). Entering his fifth season as head coach of the Fighting Irish, Freeman owns a 43-12 career record, including a 5-2 mark in postseason play, and has led Notre Dame to three consecutive seasons with at least 10 wins. His 43 victories are the most by an Irish head coach through his first four seasons in Notre Dame football history. Freeman coached 2025 Heisman Trophy finalist running back Jeremiyah Love, who was also Notre Dame’s first Doak Walker Award winner. He had two players earn unanimous All-America honors in Love and junior cornerback Leonard Moore last year, as Notre Dame was one of just three programs in the country to produce multiple unanimous All-Americans in 2025. Notre Dame finished among the nation’s leaders in several statistical categories during the 2025 season, ranking second in scoring offense (41.8), fourth in interceptions (21), fourth in turnover margin (+1.08), fifth in net punting (43.32), eighth in yards per pass completion (14.11), eighth in sacks allowed per game (1.00), ninth in blocked punts (2) and ninth in passing efficiency defense (108.80). ============================================ NOTRE DAME SOFTBALL SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame softball team has added Mai Falcone to its 2026 signing class, head coach Kris Ganeff announced Thursday. Falcone, who plays both in the infield and the outfield, becomes the seventh member of the 2026 signing class, a class that is nationally ranked by D1 Softball and Softball America. “I am so excited to add Mai to the 2026 class,” Ganeff said. “We are adding a powerful bat combined with a high softball IQ. Mai will be a great addition to an already solid class. Welcome to the Irish Family!” A four-year starter at Amador Valley High School, Falcone was a three-time California All-State team member, while also being named the Amador Valley MVP all four years during her high school career. She was also a four-time East Bay Athletic All-League player and was named to the North Coast Section President’s List all four years of high school. She hit .411 during her career in 100 games played at Amador Valley High School, including a .469 average as a junior and a .468 average during her senior year. Falcone launched ten home runs during her senior season to go along with seven doubles and 21 RBI, according to MaxPreps. She also logged a .643 on base percentage and struck out just twice in 70 plate appearances. Falcone was ranked the 44th-best player in the country by Line Drive Media and 37th-best infielder in the nation by Extra Inning Extra Elite 100. She twice was in the Prep Softball 2026 National Class Top 100 and was tabbed the Extra Innings Softball “National Hitter of the Week” in October of 2024. ========================================== INDIANA STATE FOOTBALL TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Head Coach Curt Mallory, offensive lineman Drew Page, and linebacker Braxton Sampson will represent Indiana State football at the 2026 Missouri Valley Football Conference Media Day held over July 13-14 in Sioux Falls, S.D. at the Sanford Pentagon. It marks the second consecutive year the MVFC’s annual event will be held in person as all nine member institutions will congregate for meetings, interviews, and sessions held throughout the two-day period. Mallory enters his 10th season at the helm of the program heading into the 2026 season. The Sycamore head coach heads into the year looking to build off a 2025 campaign that featured the program’s first win over a top-five opponent since the 2012 season, while developing a roster that featured a Buck Buchanan Award finalist (Kimal Clark) and a Jerry Rice Award finalist (Nic Yatsko), while Clark and wide receiver/return specialist Rashad Rochelle were honored on a combined seven postseason All-American squads. Page enters his second season with the Sycamores as the 2025 team captain made his Sycamore debut last year after transferring in from Kent State. The Noblesville, Ind. native started all 12 games at center on his way to earning MVFC All-Newcomer honors, while blocking for an offense that averaged 322.4 yards per game, including six games with at least 100 rushing yards, while recording back-to-back 300-yard passing games to end the 2025 campaign. Sampson enters his fifth season with the Indiana State program as the 2025 team captain took over a starting role with the linebacker corps in the season. He finished third overall on the Sycamores with 73 total tackles on the year, while adding 6.0 tackles for loss and a sack. He highlighted his season with a 16-tackle, 1.0 TFL game against North Dakota State. The Brazil, Ind. native also excelled in the classroom earning MVFC All-Academic Second Team honors. The 2026 MVFC Football Media Day Broadcast will be produced by Midco and available to watch for free. Fans can tune in by downloading the Midco Sports Plus app or by watching through their web browser. No paid subscription is required to watch the broadcast. The link to the stream is included below and will be on the Indiana State Football social media channels. ================================================ EVANSVILLE TRACK AND CC EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Evansville Director of Athletics Dr. Ziggy Siegfried has announced that Dylan Anderson has accepted another coaching opportunity and has stepped down as head coach of the Evansville Cross Country and Track & Field program. Vice President of Sports Consulting at Mammoth (MMTH) Sports Consulting Dr. Kurt Patberg (Kurt.patberg@mmth.co) has been commissioned to assist in a national search for the next head coach. “We are grateful to Dylan for his commitment to our student-athletes and the Cross Country and Track & Field programs during his time at the University of Evansville,” said Siegfried. “We appreciate his dedication and wish him and his family continued success in the next chapter of their journey.” Anderson has helped the Aces to new heights over two seasons at the helm of the cross country and track & field programs. Throughout his tenure, Anderson has directed athletes to a multitude of MVC accolades including Cross Country Men’s Freshman of the Year, MVC Track & Field Women’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and All-MVC accolades in cross country and track. Evansville had a banner year in cross country this past fall under Anderson’s guidance, with the men finishing sixth at the MVC Championships, the program’s best finish at the event since 2011. Evansville junior Samuel Lea became the first Purple Aces men’s runner since 2006 to earn All-Conference honors, finishing eighth in the 8k at the MVC Championships on Friday morning. James Cruse also made history, finishing 21st for the top finish of all freshmen to earn Evansville’s first-ever MVC Freshman of the Year award. On the track, the Aces have rewritten the program record books over the last two years, highlighted by the program’s best Outdoor Championships score in the Missouri Valley Conference in 2025. In 2026, Taylor Johnson became the first-ever Evansville track & field athlete to be named the league’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year. At the MVC Outdoor Championships, Johnson placed second in the 400-meter hurdles at a program record time of 1:00.86, the best finish by a Purple Ace at the MVC Outdoor Championships since 2021. Related Stories and Videos Related Stories 11.14.25 Lea Breaks School 10k Record as Cross Country Wraps up Season at NCAA Regional 11.13.25 Six Aces Earn MVC Cross Country Scholar-Athlete Honors 11.13.25 Cross Country Readies for NCAA Great Lakes Regional at Angel Mounds 10.31 =============================================== INDIANA SMALL COLLEGE SPORTS WEB SITES UINDY ATHLETICS: https://athletics.uindy.edu/ MARIAN ATHLETICS: https://muknights.com/ INDIANA WESLEYAN ATHLETICS: https://iwuwildcats.com/ EARLHAM ATHLETICS: https://goearlham.com/ WABASH ATHLETICS: https://sports.wabash.edu/ FRANKLIN ATHLETICS: https://franklingrizzlies.com/ ROSE-HULMAN ATHLETICS: https://athletics.rose-hulman.edu/ ANDERSON ATHLETICS: https://athletics.anderson.edu/landing/index TRINE ATHLETICS: https://trinethunder.com/landing/index BETHEL ATHLETICS: https://bupilots.com/ DEPAUW ATHLETICS: https://depauwtigers.com/ HANOVER ATHLETICS: https://athletics.hanover.edu/ MANCHESTER ATHLETICS: https://muspartans.com/ HUNTINGTON ATHLETICS: https://www.huathletics.com/ OAKLAND CITY ATHLETICS: https://gomightyoaks.com/ ST. FRANCIS ATHLETICS: https://www.saintfranciscougars.com/landing/index IU KOKOMO ATHLETICS: https://iukcougars.com/ IU EAST ATHLETICS: https://www.iueredwolves.com/ IU SOUTH BEND ATHLETICS: https://iusbtitans.com/ PURDUE NORTHWEST ATHLETICS: https://pnwathletics.com/ INDIANA TECH ATHLETICS: https://indianatechwarriors.com/index.aspx GRACE COLLEGE ATHLETICS: https://gclancers.com/ ST. MARY OF THE WOODS ATHLETICS: https://smwcathletics.com/ GOSHEN COLLEGE ATHLETICS: https://goleafs.net/ HOLY CROSS ATHLETICS: https://www.hcsaints.com/index.php TAYLOR ATHLETICS: https://www.taylortrojans.com/ VINCENNES ATHLETICS: https://govutrailblazers.com/landing/index =================================================== TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY 1901: The Boston Nationals rap out 15 hits in 12 innings against Pittsburgh, but fail to score. The Pirates finally push over a run to win, 1 – 0. Boston sets a record for most hits, no runs. At a secret meeting, the National League Board of Directors votes to abrogate the National Agreement that has governed organized baseball, effective September 30th. 1908: The Red Sox purchase 1B Jake Stahl from the Highlanders. At Pittsburgh, the Giants (43-30) take a 4 – 0 lead, but the Pirates claw back on back-to-back triples by Honus Wagner and Fred Clarke. Tommy Leach wins it for the Bucs with a 9th-inning home run to deep center. 1911 – Sherry Magee, star OF for the Phillies, knocks out umpire Bill Finneran with one punch after being ejected for disputing a called third strike. He is suspended for the season, but upon appeal he will be reinstated after five weeks and 36 games. The Phils win, 4 – 2, behind Grover Cleveland Alexander, who strikes out nine. 1913 – Led by Ward Miller’s two-run triple, the Cubs stop the Giants, 3 – 2. The victory ends the New Yorkers’ win streak at 14 games and stops Christy Mathewson’s win streak at nine. Matty’s skein of consecutive innings without a free pass continues however, and stands at 52. 1914 – Detroit’s Billy Purtell and Marty Kavanagh combine to nab Eddie Collins with the hidden ball trick. It comes in the 9th inning and helps preserve an 8 – 8 tie with Philadelphia. 1916 – For the second time this season, White Sox pitchers toss shutouts in a doubleheader, this time against the Red Sox. Lefty Williams wins, 4 – 0, then Reb Russell follows with a 3 – 0 victory. With the temperature at Fenway Park in the 90s, this is the first of three consecutive doubleheaders for the two Sox. 1917 – Thanks to Ray Caldwell’s 9 2/3 innings of no-hit relief, the Yankees beat the Browns in St. Louis, 7 – 5 in a 17-inning game. 1919 – After PH Joe Harris triples with three on base to give Cleveland a 7 – 3 lead in the last of the 8th, reliever Elmer Myers gives up a run, then loads the bases on walks. In comes little-used lefty Fritz Coumbe. Up steps Babe Ruth who hits his second homer of the day for an 8 – 7 Red Sox win. Out goes Indians manager Lee Fohl, fired for the move. In comes CF Tris Speaker to manage the Tribe. He will bring them home in second place and stay as skipper for seven years. 1920 – After banging out 11 straight hits, Tris Speaker is stopped by Tom Zachary of Washington. It’s the American League record until Pinky Higgins of the Red Sox will rack up 12 in a row in 1938. Speaker will hit .388 for the season. 1923 – Cardinals rookie P Johnny Stuart hurls two complete game victories over Boston, winning by scores of 11 – 1 and 6 – 3. 1925 – Giants OF Hack Wilson is the seventh player to hit two home runs in one inning; he does it against the Pirates. 1928 – Washington P Milt Gaston surrenders 14 hits in a 9 – 0 shutout over Cleveland, setting an American League mark and tying the major-league standard. 1929 – The Pirates outslug the Phillies, 15 – 9, at the Baker Bowl. Pittsburgh hits five homers; the Phils, four, with one home run coming in each inning, a virtually insurmountable record. 1930 – Freddie Lindstrom of the Giants has five hits in a game against the Phillies. This is the third time he has accomplished this feat. 1932 – Indians flychaser Johnny Burnett collects a record nine hits in 11 at-bats in an 18-inning game in which the A’s outscore the Tribe, 18 – 17. Jimmie Foxx hits three home runs, and has 16 total bases and eight RBI for the A’s. After Philadelphia starter Lew Krausse is knocked out in the 1st inning, Eddie Rommel is forced to hurl 17 innings in relief as manager/owner Connie Mack, trying to save train fare, has brought only two pitchers; Rommel gives up a record 29 hits. 1934 – The second annual All-Star Game produces Carl Hubbell’s amazing feat of striking out five future Hall of Famers in a row. Off to a shaky start with two on base in the 1st inning, Hubbell uses his screwball to fan Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx. He adds Al Simmons and Joe Cronin to start the 2nd. After three scoreless innings he leaves with the National League ahead, 4 – 0. The American League rallies, scoring nine runs off Lon Warneke, Van Mungo and Dizzy Dean, while Mel Harder pitches five shutout innings in relief of Red Ruffing to hold the lead. Frankie Frisch and Joe Medwick hit homers. Earl Averill’s three RBI are decisive for the AL’s 9 – 7 victory. 1935: The Tigers’ win streak ends, despite a record-tying ten doubles in a 12 – 11 loss in Washington. Beating the Tulsa Oilers, 1 – 0, Galveston Buccaneers hurler Ed Cole throws the first perfect game in Texas League history. The decisive hit is an inside-the-park home run with two outs in the bottom of the 9th. Hal Schumacher wins his 11th consecutive game as the Giants beat the Pirates, 10 – 3. 1936: At Forbes Field, Chuck Klein hits four home runs in one game, including the tie-breaker in the 10th, helping the Phillies defeat the Pirates, 9 – 6. The Indianapolis, Indiana native barely misses hitting an additional homer in the 2nd when right fielder Paul Waner catches his drive against the wall. At 36, Klein is the oldest player ever to accomplish the feat, and the first National Leaguer in the 20th century to do so. Bobo Newsom pitches one-hit ball in blanking the Tigers, 5 – 0. The lone hit off the Washington pitcher is Jack Burns’ 3rd-inning grounder that both the first baseman and second baseman go after. 1B Joe Kuhel stops the ball but no one covers the bag. The Yankees roll to an easy victory over the Indians, as Red Ruffing takes the shutout, 18 – 0. Lloyd Brown, the first of three pitchers, is the loser. Lou Gehrig has a pair of homers to take over the American League lead with 23. 1943: Brooklyn scores ten runs in the 1st and 4th innings as they whip the visiting Pirates, 23 – 6. This follows a pre-game attempted strike by the players following Leo Durocher’s three-game suspension of P Bobo Newsom for insubordination. Minutes before the game, SS Arky Vaughan hands his uniform to Durocher and refuses to play. Durocher calls for volunteers to play, but by game time he has just a battery of Curt Davis and Bobby Bragan. Branch Rickey intervenes, and Vaughan and the others agree to play. Newsom, 9-4, will be traded to the Browns on July 15th. Homestead Grays owner Rufus “Sonnyman” Jackson is jailed after a confrontation with Mexicans trying to sign his players. Jackson will retain his players and win the Negro League World Championship. 1945 – The All-Star Game at Fenway Park is canceled because of travel restrictions. During the break in the schedule, seven inter-league exhibition games are played for war charity. Plans for a USO-sponsored all-star game in Europe do not materialize, although the war in Germany is over and fighting in the Pacific will be over in six weeks. 1947: In a rain-interrupted game before 47,871, Don Black of the Cleveland Indians pitches a no-hitter, beating the Philadelphia Athletics 3 – 0 in the first game of a doubleheader. It is the first no-hitter at Municipal Stadium. James Davis, 20-year-old OF of Ballinger (Longhorn League), dies as a result of being hit in the head by a pitched ball on July 3rd. He was hitting .333 with 19 HR in 48 games. 1948: After yielding a two-run homer to the A’s Hank Majeski to tie the score, reliever Satchel Paige gets his first major league win as Larry Doby hits a two-run homer and the Indians tack on another run in the 9th to beat Philadelphia, 8 – 5. For the sixth time this year, Vern Stephens and Bobby Doerr of the Red Sox hit back-to-back homers as Boston beats the second-place A’s, 4 – 0. Jack Kramer scatters nine hits in the shutout to win his seventh straight. Ted Williams sits out the game with a damaged ligament, the result of being hit in the ribs while playfully sparring with Sam Mele on the train down from Boston yesterday. 1950 – The Giants pick up P Jim Hearn on waivers from St. Louis. 1951: The Giants bring up 2B Davey Williams, hitting .280 at Minneapolis, as well as pitcher Al Corwin. Williams is expected to share 2B duties with Eddie Stanky. Using four home runs from Stan Musial, Bob Elliott, Ralph Kiner and Gil Hodges, the National League All-Stars defeat the American League, 8 – 3, at Detroit’s Briggs Stadium in the 1951 All-Star Game. Kiner hits a home run for the third year in a row. 1954: Bob Rush of the Cubs stops Cardinal 2B Red Schoendienst’s hitting streak at 28 games, the longest batting streak of the year. Andre Dawson – “The Hawk” – is born in Miami, FL. A graceful centerfielder with the Montreal Expos who will become a slugging rightfielder and owner of one of the most powerful throwing arms in baseball with the Chicago Cubs, Dawson will win the 1987 National League Most Valuable Player Award with the Cubs and gain election to the Hall of Fame in 2010. 1955 – Pittsburgh’s three-run 3rd is all Vernon Law needs to salvage a split in today’s twin bill with Philadelphia. But his six-hit, complete-game victory is something of an anticlimax to the Forbes Field faithful. The most exciting moment today comes in a losing cause in the opener, courtesy of Roberto Clemente, who produces one of his trademark tape-measure triples. “The only Pirate run in the first game was a gift,” maintains Les Biederman of the Pittsburgh Press. “Clemente tripled to the batting cage with none out in the 6th inning and the Phils gave up the run to throw out Dick Cole.” 1956 – In the 1956 All-Star Game, Ken Boyer of the Cardinals makes three sparkling plays at 3B and gets three hits as the National League defeats the American League, 7 – 3. Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams and Stan Musial all homer. Mays’s pinch-hit two-run home run off Whitey Ford is his seventh straight hit against the Yankee lefty. 1958 – P Lew Burdette of Milwaukee hits two homers and beats the Dodgers, 8 – 4. 1962 – At newly-opened D.C. Stadium, John F. Kennedy becomes the first president ever to throw the ceremonial first pitch at an All-Star Game. Thanks to the game’s MVP Maury Wills scoring two of the team’s three runs and Willie Mays’s amazing game-ending catch, the National League beats the Junior circuit, 3 – 1, in the first of two Mid-Summer Classics to be held this summer. Roberto Clemente has three hits. 1964 – Jesus Alou becomes the first Giant with six hits in a game in almost 40 years, as San Francisco beats the Cubs, 10 – 3. All six hits are against different pitchers. 1965 – San Francisco’s Juan Marichal’s 14th win of the year is his seventh shutout, as he two-hits the Phils, 7 – 0. 1966 – George Smith clouts a 10th-inning grand slam to give the Red Sox a 10 – 6 victory over the White Sox. 1968: Hank Bauer is fired as manager of the Orioles. He is replaced by Earl Weaver. The American League and National League reach an agreement on next year’s expansion format. The twelve teams in each league will be split into two divisions playing a best-of-five games League Championship Series to determine the pennant winner. 1969 – The Cubs score five runs in the 5th inning to beat the Mets, 6 – 2, behind Bill Hands. The win halts the Mets’ seven-game win streak and leaves the New Yorkers in second place by four games. 1970: The Padres launch four home runs in the 9th inning against Los Angeles, but the power display comes too late and the Dodgers win, 9 – 7. Wes Parker has two doubles and a triple for L.A. For the Padres, Ivan Murrell, Ed Spiezio and Dave Campbell hit solo homers off Bill Singer, and Cito Gaston connects for a two-run homer off Jose Pena. The barrage is one short of the record. Reds SS Woody Woodward goes deep for his first and only major league homer, off Ron Reed in Atlanta. It comes in his 684th game. It is too little as the Braves top the Reds, 11 – 9. The Reds take the nitecap, 3 – 1, scoring two runs when Pat Corrales hits a long drive that glances off the glove of Hank Aaron and over the fence for a home run. Pete Rose is 5 for 5, all singles. 1971 – The Pirates again top the Braves, 5 – 4, behind Willie Stargell’s 30th home run of the season and his tenth off Braves’ pitching. 1972 – Phillies GM Paul Owens takes over as field manager after firing Frank Lucchesi. 1977 – In the first game of a twinbill with the Brewers, the Red Sox strand a major league-record tying 20 runners, but still win, 8 – 5. 1979: Scoring four runs in the 13th after two are out, the Giants beat the Expos, 11 – 7. Losing pitcher Woodie Fryman balks in the last run. In the 4th inning, Expo RF Ellis Valentine picks up a line drive and his throw beats Darrell Evans at first base for a 9 – 3 putout. Philadelphia’s Del Unser homers in his third consecutive pinch-hitting appearance (the prior ones were on June 30th and July 5th) to tie the major-league record set by Lee Lacy in 1978. The Phillies beat the Padres, 6 – 5. 1982 – The Rangers’ Larry Parrish hits his third grand slam of the week in a 6 – 5 win over the Tigers, tying the major-league record set by Detroit’s Jim Northrup in 1968. Parrish also hit grand slams on July 4th against Oakland and July 7th against Boston. 1983: The Giants sweep a pair from the Cubs, winning 10 – 8 and 4 – 2. In the nitecap, Giants RF Jack Clark throws out Junior Kennedy at first base. It is the third time in two years Clark has done it: he did on July 30th to Reds P Charlie Puleo and on September 20, 1981 to Nolan Ryan. It takes Milwaukee 4 hours and 11 minutes to beat Chicago, 12 – 9, the slowest nine-inning game in American League history. 1984 – On the 50th anniversary of Carl Hubbell’s legendary five consecutive strikeouts in the 1934 All-Star Game, National League pitchers Fernando Valenzuela and Dwight Gooden combine to fan six batters in a row for a new All-Star Game record in the NL’s 3 – 1 triumph. After Valenzuela whiffs Dave Winfield, Reggie Jackson and George Brett in the 4th inning, Gooden, the youngest All-Star ever at age 19, fans Lance Parrish, Chet Lemon and Alvin Davis in the 5th. 1986 – Oil Can Boyd (11-6) flies into a rage after learning that he has been left off the American League All-Star team and storms out of Fenway Park prior to Boston’s game against the Angels. He will be suspended indefinitely by the Red Sox and eventually scuffle with local police before checking into a hospital for psychiatric testing. The weirdness continues into the game as the Angels score three in the 12th to take a 7 – 4 lead. Boston then scores three to tie and when Todd Fischer replaces Mike Cook, he balks in Dwight Evans with the winning run. 1990: At the half-way mark in the season, the Reds are leading the NL West by eight games, while Pittsburgh is a half game ahead in the East. In the American League, Boston leads by half a game and Oakland by one game. Six American League pitchers combine for a two-hitter and a 2 – 0 victory over the National League in a rain-delayed All-Star Game at Wrigley Field. Rangers 2B Julio Franco drives in both runs in the 7th inning and is named MVP. 1992 – The Pirates trade 3B Steve Buechele to the Cubs in exchange for P Danny Jackson. The swap opens up the Bucs’ 3B spot for Jeff King. 1997 – Hideki Irabu strikes out nine batters and gets the win in his major league debut as the Yankees defeat the Tigers, 10 – 3. 1998 – The Mets trade P Brian Bohanon to the Dodgers in exchange for P Greg McMichael. In the team’s game today, Benny Agbayani makes his major league debut, pinch-running in the 9th inning of an 8 – 8 game. He slips trying to steal and gets run down. Another Met runner is doubled off second base in the 10th and the Expos win, 9 – 8. 1999: For his fourth loss in a row, the Diamondbacks fail to score for Randy Johnson, this time falling, 2 – 0, to Tim Hudson and the Oakland A’s. The Tigers defeat the Brewers, 9 – 3, before 25,374 fans in Detroit. This enables the club to top the one million mark in attendance for the 35th consecutive season for the longest streak in American League history. The Dodgers hold the record of 55 consecutive years. Matt Franco’s two-out pinch-hit single off Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the 9th drives home two runs and gives the Mets a 9 – 8 win over the Yankees in a thrilling interleague battle. By doing so, the Mets end the Yankees’ streak of 124 consecutive victories when leading after eight innings. At Leland’s “Hero’s Auction’ of sports memorabilia held in New York, the ball batted by Carlton Fisk in the 12th inning of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series which hit the Fenway Park foul pole, ending one of the most dramatic games in World Series history, is sold for $113,273. George Foster, the Reds’ left fielder who retrieved and kept the historic home run ball, decided to sell the souvenir after realizing its potential value after Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball sold for almost $3 million. 2000 – Sammy Sosa wins the All-Star Game Home Run Derby by defeating defending champ Ken Griffey Jr. in the finals. 2001: The American League defeats the National League, 4 – 1, in the All-Star Game. Baltimore’s Cal Ripken Jr. thrills the crowd by hitting a home run and winning the MVP award at the affair. Derek Jeter and Magglio Ordonez also homer for the Junior Circuit. Hideki Matsui reaches base for the 51st straight game, a Central League record. 2002: Clemson SS Khalil Greene is named winner of the 2002 Golden Spikes Award as the nation’s top amateur baseball player. In an open letter, Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell, Ted Williams’ oldest daughter, urges former Senator John Glenn and President Bush to help in preventing her half-brother, John Henry, from freezing the body of their dad at a cryonics lab in Arizona. She believes it her father’s wish to be cremated and not frozen. 2007: In the 2007 All-Star Game, Ichiro Suzuki goes 3 for 3 with the first inside-the-park homer in All-Star Game history to win the MVP award. The American League wins for the tenth straight decision, the second-longest run in Midsummer Classic history. Josh Beckett gets the win and Chris Young the loss. The National League makes it 5 – 4 in the 9th and loads the bases with two away but Francisco Rodriguez retires Aaron Rowand to end the contest. Norichika Aoki is the fastest in Nippon Pro Baseball history to reach 500 career hits, taking 373 games. It beats the old record pace by 13 games and is 30 fewer than Ichiro Suzuki took. 2008: Wei-Lun Pan of the President Lions comes closer than anyone else in Chinese Professional Baseball League history until then to a perfect game. Pan throws the sixth no-hitter in league annals and walks none but a Kuo-Ching Kao error at first base costs him the perfecto. He beats the Chinatrust Whales, 7 – 0. No one in the CPBL had ever gone a game without allowing a hit or walk. Justin Morneau goes 5 for 5 and ends his day with a game-winning homer in the 11th inning as the Twins beat the Tigers. Denard Span chips in a 4 for 4 performance. 2009: Jonathan Sanchez of the San Francisco Giants pitches the first major league no-hitter this season, blanking the San Diego Padres, 8 – 0. The Padres muster only one baserunner, on an error by 3B Juan Uribe. There are six shutouts pitched today, including Sanchez’s gem. Dan Haren of the D-Backs, Jeff Niemann of the Rays and Bronson Arroyo of the Reds all pitch complete game shutouts, while Jon Lester pitches eight scoreless innings in Boston’s 1 – 0 win over Kansas City and Brett Cecil of Toronto goes six in a blanking of the Orioles. The New York Mets deal Ryan Church to Atlanta for Jeff Francoeur in a trade of starting right fielders whose recent struggles have landed them on the bench. The Seattle Mariners deal shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt and cash to the Kansas City Royals for pitchers Daniel Cortes and Derrick Saito. 2010: A day before Spain wins the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the Spanish Division Honor baseball season ends. CB Sant Boi beats FC Barcelona, 5 – 1, for their second title. Junior Guerra fans 13 and goes the distance to improve to 11-1, while Daniel Sanchez doubles twice, scores and drives in a run. Cliff Lee makes his first start for the Texas Rangers, hours after being acquired in a trade with Seattle for a bevy of prospects, but he is rocked for three homers and six runs in a 6 – 1 loss to the Orioles. He still manages to pitch a complete game, but loses to Chris Tillman. In his third big league start and matched up against the Phillies’ Roy Halladay, rookie Travis Wood of the Reds takes a perfect game into the 9th inning but fails to get even a win. The Phillies win the game, 1 – 0, in the 11th, on Carlos Ruiz’s double and Jimmy Rollins’ single. Ruiz breaks up the perfect game bid with a single in the 9th, and Wood is lifted for a pinch-hitter in the 10th after pitching nine scoreless innings. The Reds fail to score in spite of loading the bases that inning to set up the Phillies’ winning drive an inning later. 2011: The United States team beats the World team, 6 – 4, in the 2011 Futures Game held in Phoenix, AZ. Jason Kipnis leads off the bottom of the 1st inning with a homer off Julio Teheran, but the game is decided in the 8th when Grant Green opens the inning with a double, then scores the tying run on Tim Beckham’s single. Austin Romine follows with another hit to put the U.S. ahead and Nolan Arenado adds an insurance run with a double. Green is the recipient of the Larry Doby Award as the game’s MVP. The Phillies put a cap on a great first half by crushing the Braves, 14 – 1, managing 20 hits in the process. Cole Hamels is the beneficiary of the offensive outburst, led by Raul Ibanez who has a homer and six RBI; John Mayberry Jr. pitches in with three doubles and four RBI. The Phillies are 57-34 at the All-Star break, the best mark in the majors, which also ties the team record for wins in the first half, established in 1993. CC Sabathia wins his 13th game of the year for the Yankees, as they eke out a 1 – 0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. The only run scores on a couple of miscues, after Robinson Cano starts the 7th inning with a single off James Shields. B.J. Upton makes a nice catch on Jorge Posada’s fly ball to center, but his throw to first to double Cano sails into the first base dugout. Cano moves to third on the play, then scores when Shields’ pick-off attempt is above 3B Sean Rodriguez’s head. The game takes only 2:11, tied for quickest this year. 2012 – The National League romps past the American League, 8 – 0, in the 2012 All-Star Game, for its third straight All-Star Game win. Eleven pitchers combine on a six-hitter, with starter Matt Cain getting the win. Melky Cabrera hits a two-run homer and is named the game’s MVP, while a third member of the Giants, Pablo Sandoval, cracks a three-run triple in the 1st. AL starter Justin Verlander is shellacked for five runs in that opening frame. 2013 – David Ortiz of the Red Sox becomes the all-time hit leader as a designated hitter when his 2nd-inning double gives him 1,689 safeties, breaking the mark held by Harold Baines. Big Papi then adds a two-run homer in the 3rd, his eighth hit in nine at-bats, giving further evidence that he will add plenty more hits to the record before he’s done. Boston defeats Seattle, 11 – 4. 2014: Chicago wins the All-Star Game’s Final Man Vote as P Chris Sale of the White Sox is the top vote-getter in the American League, and 1B Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs does the same in the National League. The Cardinals record a very rare putout in the 6th inning of their game against the Pirates. With two men on and P Edinson Volquez attempting a bunt, the Cardinals defend the play by having their two corner infielders rush towards the batter, while the SS covers third base and the 2B goes to first base. However, when Volquez pops up the ball towards the third base line and does not immediately run, 3B Matt Carpenter sees an opening for a potential double play and lets the ball drop, then throws to second base, forgetting that it is uncovered. But a heads-up play by CF Jon Jay results in a 5-8 putout at second, as he picks up the throw, then runs to the second base bag ahead of the runner for the out. However, the Pirates still manage to score five runs in the inning, on their way to a 9 – 1 win. 2015 – Brian Dozier hits a three-run homer to cap a seven-run 9th inning and lead the Twins to an 8 – 6 win over the Tigers. The Twins are held to one run over the first eight innings by Justin Verlander, who is still winless on the year, but explode against relievers Joakim Soria and Bruce Rondon. 2016: The World Team wins the 2016 Futures Game, 11 – 3, snapping a streak of six straight wins by the US Team. Yoan Moncada hits a two-run homer off Anthony Banda in the 8th to put the World Team ahead and win the Larry Doby Award as the game’s MVP. Eloy Jimenez adds a three-run shot in a seven-run 9th inning. Madison Bumgarner pitches a one-hitter while striking out 14 on the last day of games before the All-Star break to lead the Giants to a 4 – 0 win over Arizona. Jake Lamb’s 8th-inning single is the only safety for the Diamondbacks. 2017 – Aaron Judge adds another flourish to his outstanding rookie season as he wins the Home Run Derby, staged at Marlins Park on the eve of the 2017 All-Star Game, with a total of 47 homers, including four measured at over 500 feet. He defeats Miguel Sano for the title as local favorite and defending champion Giancarlo Stanton is eliminated in the first round. 2018: The Astros get a walk-off win on a ball that barely travels two feet. With runners on first and second and one out in the 11th after the Astros have just tied the score at 5-all against the Athletics, Alex Bregman taps a ball that bounces off home plate, briefly rolls foul, before returning to fair territory. C Jonathan Lucroy picks it up and attempts to tag Bregman, who has not moved yet, but he somehow drops the ball. He then throws to 1B but his relay glances off Bregman’s helmet and past 1B Mark Canha, allowing Kyle Tucker to score the winning run from second base. “I think it was the softest ball anyone’s ever hit,” Bregman reflects after the bizarre play. Not to be outdone, the Indians lose a game on a strange 9th-inning managerial gaffe. They lead the Reds, 4 – 0, coming into the top of the 9th, after a brilliant start by Trevor Bauer, but closer Cody Allen gives up four runs and loads the bases with two outs, prompting manager Terry Francona to call in lefty Oliver Perez to face Joey Votto. Trouble is, its not Perez who’s been warming up, but righty Dan Otero, the result of a miscommunication with pitching coach Carl Willis: Francona asked to get “OP” warmed up, whereas Willis understood “OT” (Otero’s nickname). Given a favorable match-up, Votto lines a 3-2 pitch into right-center field to clear the bases and send Cincinnati on its way to a 7 – 4 win. 2019: Jim Bouton, an excellent pitcher as a young man turned knuckleballer after arm injuries cost him his fastball, but better known as the author of Ball Four, one of the best books ever written about baseball, dies at 80. Blackballed by baseball’s establishment after his book was published in 1970, he dabbled in acting and sports journalism before making a comeback in 1978 and writing a number of other books, including one on his quixotic fight to preserve a historic ballpark in Pittsfield, MA. He had been suffering from dementia for the past few years. The independent Atlantic League introduces a “robot umpire” to call balls and strikes at its annual All-Star Game played in York, PA. The Automated Ball System is being introduced as part of an agreement with Major League Baseball to test some potential rule changes that may be used in Organized Baseball in future years, and will also be featured in the circuit’s regular season games during the second half of the season. 2020 – C Buster Posey of the Giants is the latest player to announce he will opt out of the upcoming abbreviated season. He and his wife having just adopted two twin daughters, born prematurely, he prefers not to play in order to minimize the risk of exposing them to COVID-19 at a time when their health is very fragile. 2021: In the penultimate day of games before the All-Star break, the Braves suffer a devastating injury as OF Ronald Acuña tears his ACL vainly trying to corral a fly ball off the bat of Jazz Chisholm of the Marlins, which turns into an inside-the-park homer. Acuña, who is leading the NL with 74 runs scored and was voted a starter in the All-Star Game, will need to undergo season-ending surgery. The Dodgers bang two grand slams, by Justin Turner and Mookie Betts, on a night when they collect eight homers and 21 hits in defeating the hapless Diamondbacks, 22 – 1. They are the first team to have two games with two slams in the same season, having previously accomplished the rare feat on May 2nd, when A.J. Pollock and Matt Beaty connected in a 16 – 4 win against the Brewers. 2022 – In the 8th inning of their game against the White Sox, Tigers outfielder Robbie Grossman drops a routine fly ball hit by Luis Robert and is charged with his first error since June 13, 2018, ending the longest errorless streak by any player at any position in major league history after 440 games. Worse, the error proves costly as Robert later comes around to score the winning run in a 4 – 2 ChiSox win. 2023 – Vladimir Guerrero Jr. wins the annual Home Run Derby, held this year at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, WA, by defeating Randy Arozarena in the final round. His father, Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero, had won the event in 2007, and Vladito had finished runner-up in his first participation as a rookie in 2019. Births[edit] 1855 – Jim Hart, manager (d. 1919) 1859 – Ed Dundon, pitcher (d. 1893) 1864 – Ed Conley, pitcher (d. 1894) 1864 – Jimmy McAleer, outfielder, manager (d. 1931) 1865 – Bobby Lowe, infielder, manager (d. 1951) 1867 – Bob Allen, infielder, manager (d. 1943) 1869 – Harry Colgan, umpire (d. 1924) 1869 – John Heydler, executive (d. 1956) 1874 – Gus Dundon, infielder (d. 1940) 1882 – Dutch Rudolph, outfielder (d. 1967) 1887 – Harry Spratt, infielder (d. 1969) 1888 – Harry Geisel, umpire (b. 1966) 1888 – Graham McNamee, broadcaster (d. 1942) 1893 – Frank Tobin, minor league catcher and manager (d. 1976) 1894 – Tokuro Konishi, NPB manager; Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame (d. 1977) 1894 – Jim Walsh, pitcher (d. 1967) 1896 – Bill Schindler, catcher (d. 1979) 1897 – Bull Connor, announcer (d. 1973) 1898 – Dick Lundy, infielder, manager; All-Star (d. 1962) 1898 – Katsuo Tanaka, college coach; Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame (d. 1995) 1899 – Wally Kopf, infielder (d. 1979) 1903 – Johnny Niggeling, pitcher (d. 1963) 1903 – Francisco Torrijos, minor league outfielder (d. ????) 1906 – Ad Liska, pitcher (d. 1998) 1906 – Hal McKain, pitcher (d. 1970) 1907 – John Michaels, pitcher (d. 1996) 1910 – Jelly Taylor, infielder, manager; All-Star (d. 1976) 1911 – Minoru Nomura, NPB infielder 1914 – Wayne Blackburn, scout (d. 2000) 1914 – [[Yoshio Ueda], NPB infielder (d. 1986) 1915 – George Dickey, catcher (d. 1976) 1917 – Hugh Alexander, outfielder (d. 2000) 1917 – Natsuo Ichida, NPB pitcher (d. ????) 1917 – Henry Meyer, minor league outfielder (d. 2015) 1918 – Bonnie Baker, AAGPBL catcher and manager (d. 2003) 1918 – Chuck Stevens, infielder (d. 2018) 1919 – Dain Clay, outfielder (d. 1994) 1919 – Daisy Junor, AAGPBL outfielder (d. 2012) 1923 – Bob Dant, minor league catcher and manager (d. 1988) 1926 – Harry Macpherson, pitcher (d. 2017) 1927 – Leroy Williams, infielder (d. 1994) 1927 – Paul Pryor, umpire (d. 1995) 1928 – John Glenn, outfielder (d. 2023) 1928 – Matt Pliszka, minor league catcher (d. 2014) 1930 – Tadashi Ishiguro, NPB pitcher 1930 – Hiroyuki Kawase, NPB pitcher 1930 – Hiroshi Nonomura, NPB infielder 1931 – Frank Calacurcio, minor league infielder (d. 2004) 1931 – Masatoshi Mifune, NPB pitcher (d. 2012) 1931 – Hirozo Ishida, NPB outfielder (d. 2023) 1932 – Willie Honicutt, Negro League player (d. 2015) 1934 – Kenichi Kimino, NPB infielder 1936 – Terumoto Wako, NPB pitcher 1937 – Larry Burright, infielder (d. 2025) 1938 – Mike Brumley, catcher (d. 2016) 1939 – Hatsuo Ota, NPB infielder 1940 – Gene Alley, infielder; All-Star 1940 – Pete Craig, pitcher 1941 – Takayuki Iwao, NPB infielder (d. 1993) 1944 – Hiroshi Tsuchiya, NPB pitcher 1945 – Hal McRae, designated hitter, manager; All-Star 1945 – Tamon Yamamoto, NPB outfielder 1947 – Braudilio Vinent, Cuban league pitcher 1948 – Naoki Enomoto, NPB pitcher 1948 – Rich Hand, pitcher 1949 – Phil Alexander, Australian national team outfielder; Baseball Australia Hall of Fame 1949 – Ke-Wu Kao, Taiwan national team catcher 1951 – Bob Bailor, infielder 1954 – Andre Dawson, outfielder; All-Star, Hall of Famer 1954 – Hideyuki Hirata, NPB pitcher (d. 2013) 1956 – Vance McHenry, infielder 1956 – Hiroshi Okawa, NPB pitcher 1960 – Frank Castro, minor league catcher 1961 – Takeshi Ishii, NPB pitcher 1961 – Junki Kono, NPB infielder 1964 – Ryujiro Matsutani, NPB pitcher 1964 – Urban Meyer, minor league infielder 1964 – Masahiro Takahashi, NPB infielder 1965 – Buddy Groom, pitcher 1966 – Willie Magallanes, minor league outfielder 1967 – Lee Stevens, infielder 1969 – Marty Cordova, outfielder 1969 – Jay Kirkpatrick, minor league infielder 1969 – Jung-hyun Park, KBO pitcher 1971 – Shintaro Takeshita, NPB pitcher 1973 – Julio Manon, pitcher 1975 – Rich Gregory, college coach 1977 – Nate Frese, minor league infielder 1977 – Brian Jones, minor league catcher 1977 – Travis Wilson, minor league infielder 1978 – Sam Marsonek, pitcher 1978 – Masaru Takeda, NPB pitcher 1979 – Tyrell Godwin, pinch hitter 1980 – Luis Borges, minor league infielder and manager 1980 – Jesse Foppert, pitcher 1980 – Taek-keun Lee, KBO outfielder 1981 – Radek Němec, Extraliga infielder 1982 – Jackson Paz, minor league pitcher 1983 – Justin Fuller, minor league infielder 1984 – Yuki Shichijo, NPB pitcher 1984 – Erik Stiller, minor league player 1985 – Henry Mabee, minor league pitcher 1986 – Takehiro Ishikawa, NPB infielder 1986 – Byung-ho Park, infielder 1986 – Tony Thomas, minor league infielder 1987 – Jermaine Curtis, infielder 1987 – Johnny Giavotella, infielder 1987 – Gregory Infante, pitcher 1987 – Yusuke Matsui, NPB outfielder 1987 – Angel Rodriguez, minor league outfielder 1988 – Keaton Hayenga, minor league pitcher 1988 – Elisaul Pimentel, minor league pitcher 1988 – Ryan Wheeler, infielder 1989 – Scott Alexander, pitcher 1989 – Kyle Putnam, minor league pitcher 1989 – Will Smith, pitcher; All-Star 1989 – Hitoshi Yamamoto, NPB pitcher 1990 – John Lamb, pitcher 1991 – Benni Salzmann, Extraliga infielder 1992 – Natanael Mejia, minor league catcher and manager 1992 – Mohamad Haikal Asyraf Norazmi, Malaysian national team infielder 1993 – Jalen Beeks, pitcher 1993 – David Hess, pitcher 1993 – Jorge Pérez, minor league pitcher 1993 – Andrey Shevchenko, Russian national team outfielder 1993 – Chad Sobotka, pitcher 1994 – Masaki Iwami, NPB outfielder 1994 – Shane Muna, Guam national team infielder 1994 – Josh Rogers, pitcher 1995 – Phil Bickford, pitcher 1995 – Daniel Linder, Elitserien pitcher-infielder 1995 – Eric Páez, Serie A1 pitcher 1996 – Sergio Alcántara, infielder 1996 – Rubén Castro, minor league catcher 1996 – Taylor Walls, infielder 1998 – Jonny DeLuca, outfielder 1998 – Ryosuke Kodama, NPB infielder 1999 – Wei-Cheng Lu, CPBL pitcher 2000 – Lawrence Butler, outfielder 2001 – Anthony Nunez, pitcher 2002 – Jaïr van Borkulo, Hoofdklasse utility man 2002 – Tripp Haddad, Palestinian national team infielder 2004 – Keito Mombetsu, NPB pitcher Deaths[edit] 1897 – Kid Baldwin, catcher (b. 1864) 1922 – Harvey Bailey, pitcher (b. 1876) 1923 – Joe Stabell, outfielder (b. 1864) 1925 – James Morris, pitcher/outfielder (b. 1860) 1935 – Paul Hines, outfielder (b. 1852) 1944 – Tom Walker, pitcher (b. 1881) 1945 – Bill Barnes, outfielder (b. 1858) 1945 – Frank Butler, outfielder (b. 1866) 1945 – Bill Farnsworth, writer (b. 1885) 1947 – James Davis, minor league outfielder (b. 1927) 1949 – Red Downey, outfielder (b. 1889) 1950 – John L. Smith, owner (b. 1889) 1951 – Bobby Messenger, outfielder (b. 1884) 1952 – Gus Greenlee, Negro League owner (b. 1895) 1956 – Joe Giard, pitcher (b. 1898) 1960 – Harry Redmond, infielder (b. 1887) 1967 – Skinny Graham, outfielder (b. 1909) 1968 – Allie Moulton, infielder (b. 1886) 1974 – Claude Miller, pitcher (b. 1914) 1981 – Henry Richardson, pitcher (b. 1917) 1986 – Harl Maggert, outfielder (b. 1914) 1988 – Ernie Nevel, pitcher (b. 1918) 1990 – Henry Coppola, pitcher (b. 1912) 1992 – Walt Masters, pitcher (b. 1907) 1997 – Dwight Lowry, catcher (b. 1957) 1998 – Ray Neil, infielder; All-Star (b. 1920) 2001 – Tony Criscola, outfielder (b. 1915) 2001 – Al Lary, pitcher (b. 1928) 2002 – Kohei Matsuda, owner; Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame (b. 1922) 2006 – Angel Fleitas, infielder (b. 1914) 2008 – Steve Mingori, pitcher (b. 1944) 2008 – Wayne Weinheimer, minor league infielder (b. 1969) 2008 – Bob Zuber, college coach (b. 1928) 2010 – Tom D’Armi, college coach (b. 1935) 2010 – Red Gaskill, scout (b. ~1921) 2010 – Ed Palmquist, pitcher (b. 1933) 2010 – Johnny Van Cuyk, pitcher (b. 1921) 2010 – Janet Wiley, AAGPBL infielder (b. 1933) 2014 – Gloria Schweigerdt, AAGPBL pitcher (b. 1934) 2019 – Jim Bouton, pitcher; All-Star (b. 1939) 2021 – Dick Tidrow, pitcher (b. 1947) ============================================= TV SPORTS TODAY Friday, July 10 GOLF 6 a.m. GOLF — LPGA Tour: The Amundi Evian Championship, Second Round, Evian Resort Golf Club, Evian-les-Bains, France 11 a.m. GOLF — DP World/PGA Tour: Genesis Scottish Open, Second Round, The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland 2 p.m. GOLF — PGA Tour Champions: Kaulig Companies Championship, Second Round, Firestone CC, Akron, Ohio 4 p.m. GOLF — DP World/PGA Tour: ISCO Championship, Second Round, Hurstbourne Country Club, Louisville, Ky. 4 a.m. (Saturday) GOLF — LPGA Tour: The Amundi Evian Championship, Third Round, Evian Resort Golf Club, Evian-les-Bains, France LACROSSE (MEN’S) 9 p.m. ESPN2 — PLL: Utah vs. New York, Chicago MLB BASEBALL 7 p.m. MLBN — 2026 HBCU Swingman Classic: A.L. vs. N.L., Philadelphia 7:10 p.m. APPLE TV — Boston at N.Y. Mets 8:15 p.m. APPLE TV — Atlanta at St. Louis 10 p.m. MLBN — Regional Coverage: Toronto at San Diego (joined in progress) (9:40 p.m.) OR Colorado at San Francisco (10:15 p.m.) NBA BASKETBALL 4 p.m. PRIME VIDEO — Summer League: Milwaukee vs. Miami, Las Vegas 4:30 p.m. ESPN2 — Summer League: Cleveland vs. Indiana, Las Vegas 6 p.m. PRIME VIDEO — Summer League: Brooklyn vs. New York, Las Vegas 6:30 p.m. ESPN2 — Summer League: Houston vs. Denver, Las Vegas 8 p.m. PRIME VIDEO — Summer League: Chicago vs. Memphis, Las Vegas 9 p.m. ESPN — Summer League: Boston vs. Toronto, Las Vegas 10 p.m. PRIME VIDEO — Summer League: Oklahoma City vs. L.A. Lakers, Las Vegas 11 p.m. ESPNU — Summer League: Portland vs. Phoenix, Las Vegas SOCCER (MEN’S) 4 p.m. FOX — FIFA World Cup Knockout Stage: TBD, Quarterfinal, Inglewood, Calif. SOFTBALL 7 p.m. ESPNU — Athletes Unlimited: Blaze at Volts 9:30 p.m. CBSSN — Athletes Unlimited: Bandits at Cascade TENNIS 8 a.m. ESPN — ATP: Wimbledon, Semifinals, London WNBA BASKETBALL 7:30 p.m. ION — TBA 10 p.m. ION — Chicago at Los Angeles _____ Saturday, July 11 AUTO RACING 1 p.m. FS1 — NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series: LiUNA 150, Lime Rock Park, Lakeville, Conn. 7 p.m. CW — NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series: Focused Health 250, EchoPark Speedway, Hampton, Ga. CYCLING 8 a.m. NBC — UCI: Tour de France GOLF 4 a.m. GOLF — LPGA Tour: The Amundi Evian Championship, Third Round, Evian Resort Golf Club, Evian-les-Bains, France 10 a.m. GOLF — DP World/PGA Tour: Genesis Scottish Open, Third Round, The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland Noon CBS — DP World/PGA Tour: Genesis Scottish Open, Third Round, The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland GOLF — PGA Tour Champions: Kaulig Companies Championship, Third Round, Firestone CC, Akron, Ohio 4 p.m. GOLF — DP World/PGA Tour: ISCO Championship, Third Round, Hurstbourne Country Club, Louisville, Ky. 4 a.m. (Sunday) GOLF — LPGA Tour: The Amundi Evian Championship, Final Round, Evian Resort Golf Club, Evian-les-Bains, France HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL (GIRL’S) Noon ESPN2 — Run 4 Roses Classic: TBD, Portland, Ore. 2 p.m. ESPN2 — Run 4 Roses Classic: TBD, Portland, Ore. MLB BASEBALL 2:30 p.m. MLBN — 2026 MLB Draft: First Round, Philadelphia 4 p.m. FS1 — Boston at N.Y. Mets (4:10 p.m.) 7 p.m. MLBN — Regional Coverage: Atlanta at St. Louis (7:15 p.m.) OR Kansas City at Baltimore (7:05 p.m.) 10 p.m. MLBN — Arizona at at L.A. Dodgers (joined in progress) (9:10 p.m.) NBA BASKETBALL 3:30 p.m. PRIME VIDEO — Summer League: Miami vs. Orlando, Las Vegas 4 p.m. ESPN — Summer League: New Orleans vs. Charlotte, Las Vegas 5:30 p.m. PRIME VIDEO — Summer League: Indiana vs. Philadelphia, Las Vegas 6 p.m. ESPN — Summer League: New York vs. San Antonio, Las Vegas 7:30 p.m. PRIME VIDEO — Summer League: Denver vs. Minnesota, Las Vegas 8 p.m. ESPN — Summer League: Atlanta vs. Brooklyn, Las Vegas 9:30 p.m. PRIME VIDEO — Summer League: Houston vs. Toronto, Las Vegas 10 p.m. ESPN — Summer League: L.A. Lakers vs. Dallas, Las Vegas SOCCER (MEN’S) 5 p.m. FOX — FIFA World Cup Knockout Stage: TBD, Quarterfinal, Miami Gardens, Fla. 9 p.m. ESPN2 — USL Cup Group Stage: Chattanooga at San Antonio, Group C FOX — FIFA World Cup Knockout Stage: TBD, Quarterfinal, Kansas City, Mo. SOFTBALL 2 p.m. ESPN — Athletes Unlimited: Blaze at Volts 5 p.m. CBSSN — Athletes Unlimited: Bandits at Cascade TENNIS 8 a.m. ESPN — ATP: Wimbledon, Doubles Championship, London 11 a.m. ESPN — WTA: Wimbledon, Championship, London 3 p.m. ABC — WTA: Wimbledon, Championship, London (taped) WNBA BASKETBALL 1 p.m. ABC — New York at Minnesota 4 p.m. CBS — Portland at Atlanta 6 p.m. NBCSN — Phoenix at Los Angeles PEACOCK — Phoenix at Los Angeles _____ Sunday, July 12 AUTO RACING 7 p.m. TNT — NASCAR Cup Series: Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart, In-Season Challenge – Round 3, EchoPark Speedway, Hampton, Ga. TRUTV — NASCAR Cup Series: Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart, In-Season Challenge – Round 3, EchoPark Speedway, Hampton, Ga. BIG3 BASKETBALL 4 p.m. CBS — Week 4: Miami 305 vs. Houston Rig Hands, LA Riot vs.. Detroit Amps, DMV Trilogy vs. Dallas Power, Chicago Triplets vs. Boston Ball Hogs, Los Angeles GOLF 4 a.m. GOLF — LPGA Tour: The Amundi Evian Championship, Final Round, Evian Resort Golf Club, Evian-les-Bains, France 10 a.m. GOLF — DP World/PGA Tour: Genesis Scottish Open, Final Round, The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland Noon CBS — DP World/PGA Tour: Genesis Scottish Open, Final Round, The Renaissance Club, North Berwick, Scotland GOLF — PGA Tour Champions: Kaulig Companies Championship, Final Round, Firestone CC, Akron, Ohio 4 p.m. GOLF — DP World/PGA Tour: ISCO Championship, Final Round, Hurstbourne Country Club, Louisville, Ky. MLB BASEBALL Noon NBC — 2026 MLB All-Star Futures Games: A.L. vs. N.L., Philadelphia 12:15 p.m. PEACOCK — Milwaukee at Pittsburgh 4 p.m. MLBN — Toronto at San Diego (4:10 p.m.) NBA BASKETBALL 3 p.m. ESPN2 — Summer League: Phoenix vs. New Orleans, Las Vegas 4 p.m. PRIME VIDEO — Summer League: Cleveland vs. Detroit, Las Vegas 5 p.m. ESPN2 — Summer League: Charlotte vs. Boston, Las Vegas 6 p.m. PRIME VIDEO — Summer League: Oklahoma City vs. Golden State, Las Vegas 7 p.m. ESPNU — Summer League: Orlando vs. Portland, Las Vegas 8 p.m. PRIME VIDEO — Summer League: Sacramento vs. Washington, Las Vegas 9 p.m. ESPN — Summer League: San Antonio vs. Milwaukee, Las Vegas 10 p.m. PRIME VIDEO — Summer League: L.A. Clippers vs Utah, Las Vegas SOCCER (WOMEN’S) 4 p.m. ESPN — NWSL: Portland at Seattle SOFTBALL 3 p.m. ESPN2 — Athletes Unlimited: Bandits at Cascade 8 p.m. MLBN — Athletes Unlimited: Talons at Spark TENNIS 8 a.m. ESPN — WTA: Wimbledon, Doubles Championship, London 11 a.m. ESPN — ATP: Wimbledon, Championship, London 3 p.m. ABC — ATP: Wimbledon, Championship, London (taped) WNBA BASKETBALL 3 p.m. NBATV — New York at Toronto 7 p.m. ESPN — Chicago at Dallas 9 p.m. NBC — Indiana at Las Vegas PEACOCK — Indiana at Las Vegas About The Author troyderengowski61@gmail.com See author's posts Post navigation THE INDIANA SRN “SPORTSPAGE” THURSDAY JULY 9, 2026
