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Tag: Sports officiating

  • Florida or LSU? Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin’s coaching decision will be revealed after the Egg Bowl

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    OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin will announce his next move — likely Florida or LSU — after the Egg Bowl against Mississippi State.

    Athletic director Keith Carter released a statement Friday saying a decision on Kiffin’s future is expected Nov. 29, the day after the fifth-ranked Rebels play their in-state rival.

    It could be an agonizing wait for the Tigers, the Gators and the Rebels, although most outsiders believe Kiffin staying in Oxford for a seventh season is a long shot.

    “Coach Kiffin and I have had many pointed and positive conversations regarding his future at Ole Miss, including meeting (Friday) with Chancellor (Glenn) Boyce,” Carter said. “While we discuss next steps, we know we cannot lose sight of what is most important — our … team is poised to finish the regular season in historic fashion.”

    Carter said Kiffin remains focused, and the announcement timeline ensures the Rebels’ players and coaches “can concentrate fully on next Friday’s game.”

    “This team is on the cusp of an unprecedented season, and it’s imperative they feel the support of the Ole Miss family in the week ahead,” he said.

    Behind Kiffin’s next landing spot, the second-biggest question is whether Kiffin would stick around — or be allowed to stay — to coach Ole Miss through a potential College Football Playoff berth.

    The Rebels’ current standing in the CFP rankings has them poised to host a first-round game if they beat the Bulldogs. The selection committee, however, would be working within its guidelines if it factored the disruption of a coaching change into a team’s final seeding.

    Ole Miss (10-1, 6-1 Southeastern Conference, No. 6 CFP) does not play this weekend. The bye allowed Kiffin to meet with Florida and LSU officials.

    The Gators fired Billy Napier in mid-October and set their sights on Kiffin. LSU fired Brian Kelly a week later, creating a tug-of-war over a 50-year-old coach who is considered one of the top offensive minds in the game.

    Kiffin’s family members took scouting trips to Gainesville and Baton Rouge, and he met with administrators and fundraisers on several occasions. He even reportedly sat down with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who publicly slammed former LSU athletic director Scott Woodward for giving Kelly a 10-year contract worth about $100 million in 2022.

    Will he stay at the place he called “utopia” and turned into a perennial winner with his ex-wife and kids nearby? Will he move back to Florida, where his father became one of the most respected defensive coordinators in NFL history? Or will he land at LSU, where three of its last four coaches won national championships.

    Kiffin politely declined to talk about job openings this week. He sidestepped several questions about ongoing overtures from Florida, LSU and Ole Miss.

    “I’m going to stay on what I’ve done for six years, which isn’t talking about other jobs and that situation,” said Kiffin, who denied reports Tuesday that Ole Miss had given him an ultimatum. “I love it here, and it’s been amazing. And we’re in the season — the greatest run in the history of Ole Miss at this point (and) having never been at this point.

    “So I think it’s really exciting. … I’m just living in the moment — it’s amazing — and our players are, too. I see their joy about practice, season, where they’re at and have so much on the line. It’s just awesome to be a part of.”

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  • Ex-wife of Angels employee to face cross examination in trial over pitcher’s overdose death

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    SANTA ANA, Calif. — The ex-wife of a Los Angeles Angels employee at the center of the overdose death of one of the team’s star pitchers will face more cross examination Tuesday after testifying she saw players and clubhouse attendants passing pills and alcohol while partying on the team plane.

    Camela Kay told jurors in a Southern California courtroom on Monday she had traveled on the Angels team plane with her then-husband Eric Kay, who was convicted of providing drugs that led to the 2019 death of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs. She said she had seen players partying, playing card games, gambling and drinking.

    “They’re treated like kings,” Camela Kay said of her observations on the plane. “I had seen them passing out pills or drinking alcohol excessively.”

    The testimony came in a trial for a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Skaggs’ family contending the Angels should be held responsible for letting Eric Kay, then the team’s communications director, stay on the job and access players while he was addicted to and dealing drugs. The Angels have said team officials did not know Skaggs was taking drugs and that any drug activity involving him and Eric Kay happened on their own time and in the privacy of the player’s hotel room.

    Camela Kay testified she told an Angels employee that her then-husband may have been intending to sell drugs to Skaggs on at least one occasion. That was based on information Eric Kay told his sister during a hospital stay for a drug overdose, she said. Camela Kay said the sister then told her, and she told an Angels employee.

    Defense attorneys for the Angels began their cross examination of Camela Kay on Monday and questioned her direct knowledge of Eric Kay’s interactions with Skaggs.

    Camela Kay said she was concerned that her then-husband had a drug problem after observing his erratic behavior, and family members mounted an intervention with him in 2017. The next day, she said, two team officials came over to speak with him and one of them pulled a series of plastic baggies containing white pills from the bedroom, which fueled her concerns that Eric Kay was not only struggling with substance abuse but selling drugs to make money.

    “Him being in the clubhouse with the players, my guess would be he is supplying to them,” she said.

    Camela Kay also described how her then-husband was driven home by an Angels employee after he was dancing in his office, shirtless, at the stadium in 2019. After he got home, she found a bottle with blue pills inside and called police to press him to go to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed an overdose involving six different drugs, she said.

    He was hospitalized for three days and then went to rehab, which was communicated in text messages between Camela Kay and team officials shown to jurors.

    She said her sister-in-law told her after visiting Eric Kay in the hospital that he told her the pills were for Skaggs. She said she found text messages on his phone about him getting his “candy” at the stadium and relayed the information about both to Angels officials.

    She said she was concerned about Eric Kay heading on the road with the Angels after completing a six-week stint in rehab, adding he was still acting erratic and she suspected he was abusing a drug meant to treat opioid addiction.

    After Skaggs’ death, Camela Kay filed for divorce, according to Orange County court records.

    The trial comes more than six years after Skaggs, then 27, was found dead in the suburban Dallas hotel room where he was staying as the Angels were supposed to open a four-game series against the Texas Rangers. A coroner’s report said Skaggs choked to death on his vomit and a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was found in his system.

    Eric Kay was convicted in 2022 of providing Skaggs with a counterfeit oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl and sentenced to 22 years in prison. His federal criminal trial in Texas included testimony from five MLB players who said they received oxycodone from him at various times from 2017 to 2019, the years he was accused of obtaining pills and giving them to Angels players.

    Skaggs had been a regular in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016 and struggled with injuries repeatedly during that time. He previously played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

    Skaggs’ family is seeking $118 million in lost earnings, compensation for pain and suffering and punitive damages against the team.

    After Skaggs’ death, the MLB reached a deal with the players association to start testing for opioids and to refer those who test positive to the treatment board.

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  • NASCAR hoping must-win scenarios at Martinsville will avoid manipulation repeat

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    NASCAR has a buzzy slogan for the third-round finale of its Cup Series playoffs.

    With half of the remaining eight drivers desperate for a victory to reach the Championship 4 finale, Sunday is “Must-Win at Martinsville Speedway!”

    That certainly has a better ring to it than “Manipulation at Martinsville!” or “Martinsville’s Massive Scandal!”

    Those were the headlines written about what transpired last November at the 0.526-mile oval in southwest Virginia.

    A coordinated effort between multiple teams and manufacturers to engineer the results erupted in a controversial finish to the third-round finale. Officials took nearly 30 minutes to sort out that William Byron would advance over Christopher Bell to race for the title in the season finale at Phoenix Raceway.

    NASCAR issued a record $600,000 in fines and nine suspensions across three teams and added rulebook language in the offseason aimed at punishing race manipulation with a new penalty structure for manufacturers that engaged in nefarious behavior.

    Highly attuned to preventing another scandal, NASCAR executives already have warned drivers and crew chiefs during the 2025 playoffs about shenanigans motivated by the championship. A beefed-up staff of officials will be in place Sunday to scrutinize radio communications for foul play over 500 laps at Martinsville.

    “We’ll be on high alert this weekend,” NASCAR managing director of communications Mike Forde said on the “Hauler Talk” podcast. “Hopefully, it won’t matter.”

    It’s likely there won’t be a repeat of the embarrassing episode.

    With third-round winners Denny Hamlin ( at Las Vegas ) and Chase Briscoe ( Talladega ) having secured two of the berths in the Nov. 2 title race at Phoenix, the points breakdown is straightforward: The remaining six drivers are vying for the final two championship-eligible spots. Bell or Kyle Larson is virtually guaranteed to reach the Championship 4 based on the points standings, and both could advance without a victory.

    For Byron, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and Joey Logano, the overwhelmingly plausible way for the four drivers below the points cutline to make the title round is by taking the checkered flag.

    That’s why “Must-Win At Martinsville” should be a relief for NASCAR — because it greatly reduces the likelihood that Hendrick Motorsports, Team Penske and Joe Gibbs Racing, as well as manufacturers Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota, could be tempted to order drivers to run interference for teammates to help gain or protect positions that improve points totals to reach the title race.

    “I just don’t see those scenarios even presenting themselves to be possible or advantageous,” said Adam Stevens, the crew chief for Bell, who enters Martinsville ranked third in the standings and 37 points above the cutline.

    Bell is a point ahead of Larson, who is in the last provisional Championship 4 spot but still well ahead of Hendrick teammate Byron, who trails by 36 points — the largest gap to the cutline for a cutoff race in NASCAR playoff history.

    “We’re not worried about points or a race finish other than the win,” said Rudy Fugle, Byron’s crew chief.

    The largest cutline deficit overcome in a cutoff race is 22 points. If none of the four drivers below the cutline wins Sunday, Bell and Larson easily could clinch title berths with top-25 finishes.

    Data analytics firm Racing Insights lists each driver with an 81% probability of making the Championship 4, and the odds are much worse for Blaney (12.5%), Elliott (9.6%), Byron (8.5%) and Logano (6.1%). All six are former Martinsville winners.

    Though there are 37 cars in the field Sunday, Larson and Bell essentially are in a match race with a championship berth for whoever scores the most points.

    “You don’t want to spend too much focus on him. but the majority of it for sure revolves around Bell,” Larson said. “This year is a little bit simpler because there’s four guys that probably look at it as a must-win, and then me and Bell just look at it as we have to outpoint each other, and we’re in. You know what you have to do, but it’s just going out there and doing it is the tough part.”

    After winning three consecutive championships with Logano (last year and in 2022) and Blaney (’23), Team Penske could fail to place a driver in the Championship 4 for the first time in four years.

    Blaney has won the past two third-round cutoff races at Martinsville, and Penske’s strength has been on flat tracks such as Martinsville, Phoenix and New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where Blaney and Logano dominated last month. But the team has struggled in the playoffs with multiple tire failures while trying to maintain its edge.

    “That’s just trying to find that little bit more,” said Paul Wolfe, crew chief for Logano. “That’s what we’re down to, pushing those limits without going over them, and we’ve had our struggles there a little bit here in the playoffs with that.”

    The points fight between Bell and Larson will rekindle a longtime rivalry that dates back more than a decade to when they were teenage phenoms in dirt racing. Though they occasionally have feuded during six seasons of facing off in the Cup Series, Larson said he and Bell enjoy a healthy respect.

    “I hated seeing him beat me all the time on dirt,” Larson said. “But it pushed me to get better. Once he got to NASCAR, I always really like seeing him do well because I like to root on guys that come from the dirt background. I don’t get as upset as I did when he was winning dirt races. Having us battle for trying to make the final four this weekend, it’s cool and says a lot about the dirt-racing community.”

    Blaney (+350) is favored by BetMGM Sportsbook ahead of Hamlin (+425), who won March 30 at Martinsville, Elliott (+650), Larson (+675) and Bell (+675). … After victories at Las Vegas and Talladega, Toyota could become the first manufacturer to sweep the Round of 8 if a Camry wins at Martinsville. … Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske — the three teams representing the eight playoff drivers — have combined to win the past 14 races at Martinsville.

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    AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

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  • It’s called automated officiating. The NBA is utilizing it to get even more calls right

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    The play, in real time to the naked eye, might have looked very close to a violation. LeBron James leaped, got his right hand on the ball with a few tenths of the game’s final second remaining and tapped it through the basket to give the Los Angeles Lakers a buzzer-beating win last season.

    Referees on the floor called it correctly. Video replay backed up their call, and the Lakers got a victory over the Indiana Pacers.

    Turns out, it wasn’t close at all.

    The NBA has a relatively new tool called “automated officiating,” and the robotic eyes that are now tracking just about everything on basketball courts showed that James was nowhere near committing offensive basket interference on that play. It wasn’t needed to decide matters in that case — again, the humans got it right — but the NBA is tapping into technology more and more to ensure that plays like those get adjudicated correctly.

    “Turns out, computers are really good at this,” said Evan Wasch, an NBA executive vice president overseeing basketball strategy and analytics. “So, if we can invest in this technology to get more calls right on the objective ones, we do two things.

    “One, the accuracy on those calls, by definition, goes up. But we also free up the human referees to not have to focus on those calls and in turn allow them to focus more closely on the really difficult judgment plays that they’re so adept at and actually increase accuracy there, too. We think there’s what we call double bottom-line benefit to doing this from an accuracy perspective.”

    Basketball, of course, is not alone in veering toward higher-tech officiating.

    Robot umpires are getting called up to Major League Baseball next season; humans will still make the calls, but teams can challenge ball or strike calls and an automated system will determine if those challenges were successful. Many major tennis tournaments, even Wimbledon, have replaced line judges with electronic line-calling. Soccer has technology to tell referees if a ball fully crossed a goal line or if someone was offsides, calls that in real time might just be guesswork.

    It’s important to note that NBA referees are not being replaced. Technology is just helping; instead of six human eyes on a court, it’s now six human eyes and a whole lot of camera lenses that are there to collect as much data as the league can think of.

    “Let’s get it right,” Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers said. “And let’s get right quicker.”

    Those are the goals, the NBA insists. Using technology helps with game flow thanks to shorter review times, helps with the accuracy and also provides transparency in the ability to show fans and players computer-generated images to explain how calls were made.

    Cameras in arenas are helping to precisely make calls such as the ones along sidelines and baselines — who was a ball off, was it out of bounds, that sort of thing — as well as determining if blocked shots were good or was goaltending committed on those plays.

    “What we’re doing is tracking a bunch of objects in space with incredible precision,” Wasch said. “We are tracking a basketball, fingers, feet, heads, hands, all the parts of the body. We’re tracking them in space with cameras and sensors. And there’s an element of machine learning and artificial intelligence to build those algorithms on top of that to then know what in fact happened from a basketball perspective based on the movement of all those things.”

    The technology isn’t limited to calls or non-calls.

    Some referees have been wearing earpieces during this preseason as the league tinkers with ways for better communication methods. There’s been talk at the league of sending alerts to smartwatches about decisions on calls. And at summer league this year, there was even a sensor placed inside the ball to help collect data. The sensor weighs about the same as a raisin does. Hundreds of players used the ball, which typically weighs somewhere around 600 grams; nobody noticed that it was about a gram heavier than usual.

    In the end, it’s all about making the product better.

    “There’s actually been a ton of openness from the referees and the referee union on implementing this technology,” Wasch said. “It lets them focus on the things that they train for this job to do.”

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    AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

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  • WNBA suspends Lynx coach Reeve 1 game for behavior, comments in Mercury loss

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    The WNBA suspended Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve for one game for her behavior and comments

    “Her conduct and comments included aggressively pursuing and verbally abusing a game official on the court, failure to leave the court in a timely manner upon her ejection with 21.8 seconds to play in the fourth quarter, inappropriate comments made to fans when exiting the court, and remarks made in a post-game press conference,” the league said in a statement Saturday.

    Reeve, who was also fined, will serve the suspension on Sunday when the Lynx play the Mercury in Game 4 of the teams’ semifinals series in Phoenix. Minnesota trails the best-of-five series 2-1.

    It’s believed to be the first time in the history of the WNBA that a coach has been suspended for a playoff game.

    Minnesota assistant coaches Eric Thibault and Rebekkah Brunson also were fined by the league. Thibault was fined for his inappropriate interaction with an official on the court. Brunson was fined for an inappropriate social media comment directed at WNBA officials.

    In her postgame rant, Reeve called for the WNBA to make changes at the league level when it comes to officiating. Monty McCutchen is the head of WNBA officiating, and Sue Blauch is the head of referee performance and development for the league.

    Reeve, however, focused her anger on the three game officials from Friday night: Isaac Barnett, Randy Richardson and Jenna Reneau.

    “The officiating crew that we had tonight — for the leadership to deem those three people semifinals playoff worthy — is (expletive) malpractice,” Reeve said.

    The play that drew Reeve’s ire was Alyssa Thomas stealing the ball from Napheesa Collier near the 3-point line and going toward the other end of the court for the game-sealing layup.

    Collier injured her leg on the play and had to be helped to the locker room. Reeve said Collier “probably has a fracture,” though she didn’t elaborate on the injury.

    Though Collier crashed to the court after the players collided, the National Basketball Referees Association posted a highlight of the play on X with its description of why officials were correct to not blow their whistle.

    “This is NOT a foul,” the post said. “Thomas legally gets to the ball and knocks the ball loose prior to any contact. The leg to leg contact is incidental once the ball is clearly loose.”

    There have been several complaints about WNBA officiating this season. Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon has voiced her issues with the physicality in the playoffs.

    “You can bump and grab a wide receiver in the NFL for those first 5 yards, but you can do it in the W for the whole half court,” she said. “You put two hands on somebody, it should be an automatic foul. The freedom of movement? There’s no freedom. I’m not saying we’re not fouling, too. I’m not saying that. I’m saying it’s out of control.”

    WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert addressed the league’s officiating during All-Star Weekend in July.

    “As we go forward on the officiating, we hear the concerns. We take that employee input,” Engelbert said. “Every play is reviewed. We spend hours and hours and hours. Obviously, we use that then to follow up with officials’ training.

    “Consistency is important. I think some people observe our game versus other basketball formats (and think) there aren’t a ton of fouls called, but I realize consistency is the name of the game.”

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    AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

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  • Skiing’s governing body approves gender eligibility testing policy

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    GENEVA — Skiing’s governing body approved a gene testing policy for gender eligibility in women’s events Wednesday, but delayed a decision on letting some Russian athletes try to qualify with neutral status for next year’s Winter Olympics.

    The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) said it will work with national team officials on implementing the policy, which follows the lead taken by track and field’s World Athletics.

    “The eligibility conditions laid out in the policy are grounded on the presence or absence of the so-called SRY gene, the sex-determining gene present on humans’ Y chromosome,” FIS said in a statement.

    It was not clear to what extent athletes with the SRY gene have previously competed in women’s events in FIS disciplines, which include Alpine and cross-country skiing, ski jumping, snowboarding and freestyle skiing.

    Both FIS president Johan Eliasch and World Athletics leader Sebastian Coe campaigned as candidates in the International Olympic Committee election this year promising to protect the female category.

    “This policy is the cornerstone of our commitment to protect women’s sport,” Eliasch said Wednesday in a FIS statement, “and we are convinced that there is only one fair and transparent way to do that: by relying on science and biological facts.”

    The IOC now has its first female president, two-time Olympic champion swimmer Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, who has overseen creating a working group of experts to look at gender issues in sports.

    An issue for athletes in France and Norway, which are both strong in winter sports, is that both countries have national laws prohibiting gene testing for nonmedical reasons.

    Ahead of the track and field world championships in Tokyo this month, French and Norwegian athletes were tested after arriving in Japan.

    FIS did not publish a timetable for a testing program. The Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Games open Feb. 6.

    FIS barred Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions within days of the full military invasion of Ukraine starting in February 2022. The war began four days after the closing ceremony at the Beijing Winter Games, where Russian athletes won 32 medals, including five gold, and the Belarus team won two silvers.

    The FIS ruling council on Wednesday discussed but did not reach a decision on extending the ban or approving a neutral status policy for individual athletes ahead of the next Olympics. The council next meets Oct. 21.

    The IOC has barred Russia and Belarus from team sports at Summer Games and Winter Games. Governing bodies of Olympic sports were advised to look at giving some of the countries’ athletes neutral status — if they had not publicly supported the war, and were not linked to military and state security services.

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    AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics

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  • MLB will use robot umpires in 2026

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    NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Robot umpires are getting called up to the big leagues next season.

    Major League Baseball’s 11-man competition committee on Tuesday approved use of the Automated Ball/Strike System in the major leagues in 2026.

    Human plate umpires will still call balls and strikes, but teams can challenge two calls per game and get additional appeals in extra innings. Challenges must be made by a pitcher, catcher or batter — signaled by tapping their helmet or cap — and a team retains its challenge if successful. Reviews will be shown as digital graphics on outfield videoboards.

    New York Yankees outfielder Austin Slater, one of four players on the competition committee, said three voted in favor after getting support from 22 of the 30 teams. All six management reps voted in favor.

    “I think with any sort of technology, there’s not 100% certainty of the accurateness of the system,” Slater said. “I think the same can be said of umpires. So I think it’s just coming to grips with the impact that technology is going to have and whether or not we were willing to live with that error that was associated with the system, even if the error is very, very miniscule.”

    Big league umpires call roughly 94% of pitches correctly, according to UmpScorecards.

    Adding the robot umps is likely to cut down on ejections. MLB said 61.5% of ejections among players, managers and coaches last year were related to balls and strikes, as were 60.3% this season through Sunday. The figures include ejections for derogatory comments, throwing equipment while protesting calls and inappropriate conduct.

    Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who leads the American League in ejections for the fifth straight year, called the adoption “inevitable.”

    “Throughout the year, I’ve been a little not totally on board with it or exactly how it’s going to be implemented but it’s going to be here and hopefully that’s a good thing,” he said. “A lot of the things that Major League Baseball has done I think have been really successful in the changes they’ve made and hopefully this is another one of them.”

    Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said players will have to adjust.

    “You can like it, dislike it, it doesn’t matter,” Vogt said as Cleveland prepared to open a critical three-game series with Detroit. “It’s coming. It’s going to change the game. It’s going to change the game forever.”

    ABS, which utilizes Hawk-Eye cameras, has been tested in the minor leagues since 2019. The independent Atlantic League trialed the system at its 2019 All-Star Game and MLB installed the technology for that year’s Arizona Fall League of top prospects. The ABS was tried at eight of nine ballparks of the Low-A Southeast League in 2021, then moved up to Triple-A in 2022.

    At Triple-A at the start of the 2023 season, half the games used the robots for ball/strike calls and half had a human making decisions subject to appeals by teams to the ABS.

    MLB switched Triple-A to an all-challenge system on June 26, 2024, then used the challenge system this year at 13 spring training ballparks hosting 19 teams for a total of 288 exhibition games. Teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges (617 of 1,182).

    “I love it. I loved it in spring training,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “Not all of the players, but most of the players, if you ask them, they really liked it too. I think it keeps everybody accountable. It keeps everybody on their toes.”

    At Triple-A this season, the average challenges per game increased to 4.2 from 3.9 through Sunday and the success rate dropped to 49.5% from 50.6%. Defenses were successful in 53.7% of challenges this year and offenses in 45%.

    In the first test at the big league All-Star Game, four of five challenges of plate umpire Dan Iassogna’s calls were successful in July.

    Teams in Triple-A do not get additional challenges in extra innings. The proposal approved Tuesday included a provision granting teams one additional challenge each inning if they don’t have challenges remaining.

    MLB has experimented with different shapes and interpretations of the strike zone with ABS, including versions that were three-dimensional. Currently, it calls strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back. The top of the strike zone is 53.5% of batter height and the bottom 27%.

    “Throughout this process we have worked on deploying the system in a way that’s acceptable to players,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “The strong preference from players for the challenge format over using the technology to call every pitch was a key factor in determining the system we are announcing today.”

    This will be MLB’s first major rule change since sweeping adjustments in 2024. Those included a pitch clock, larger bases, and restrictions on defensive shifts and pitcher disengagements such as pickoff attempts.

    The challenge system introduces ABS without eliminating pitch framing, a subtle art where catchers use their body and glove to try making borderline pitches look like strikes. Framing has become a critical skill for big league catchers, and there was concern that full-blown ABS would make some strong defensive catchers obsolete.

    “Unless you have a really good eye … only getting two (challenges), I think a lot of the borderline ones are going to stay the same,” Rangers catcher Kyle Higashioka said. “So it keeps some of the human element in in the game.”

    In addition to Slater, the other players on the competition committee are Arizona’s Corbin Burnes and Zac Gallen and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, with the Chicago Cubs’ Ian Happ at Detroit’s Casey Mize as alternates. The union representatives make their decisions based on input from players on the 30 teams.

    Bill Miller is the umpire representative. The Major League Baseball Umpires Association declined to comment Tuesday, saying its members “are focused on the 2025 season and postseason.”

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    AP Baseball Writer Stephen Hawkins in Arlington, Texas, and AP freelance writers Larry Fleisher in New York, Anthony SanFilippo in Philadelphia and Tom Withers in Cleveland contributed to this report.

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    AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

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  • Robot umpires are coming to MLB. Here’s how they work

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    NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Robot umpires are coming to the big leagues in 2026 after Major League Baseball’s 11-man competition committee on Tuesday approved use of the Automated Ball/Strike System.

    ABS will be introduced in the form of a challenge system in which the human umpire makes each call, which can be appealed to the computer. Robot umpires have been tested in the minor leagues since 2019, with recent testing done at Triple-A since 2022, MLB spring training this year and at this summer’s All-Star Game in Atlanta.

    Here’s what to know about MLB’s robot umps.

    Stadiums are outfitted with cameras that track each pitch and judge whether it crossed home plate within the strike zone. In early testing, umpires wore ear buds and would hear “ball” or “strike,” then relay that to players and fans with traditional hand signals.

    The challenge system adds a wrinkle. Human umps call every pitch, but each team has the ability to challenge two calls per game. Teams that burn their challenges get one additional challenge in each extra inning. A team retains its challenge if successful, similar to the regulations for big league teams with video reviews, which were first used for home run calls in August 2008 and widely expanded to many calls for the 2014 season.

    Only a batter, pitcher or catcher may challenge a call, signaling with the tap of a helmet or cap; and assistance from the dugout is not allowed. A challenge must be made within 2 seconds, and the graphic of the pitch and strike zone is shown on the scoreboard and broadcast feed. The umpire then announces the updated count.

    MLB estimates the process averages 17 seconds.

    A Hawk-Eye pose-tracking system of cameras tracks pitches and whether they are within a strike zone based on the height of each batter, who is measured without shoes before a team’s first test game. MLB estimated the calibration process at less than one minute for each player.

    While the strike zone actually called by big league umpires tends to be oval in shape, the ABS strike zone is a rectangle, as in the rule book.

    Developing a consensus on what a computer strike zone should be has been an issue.

    MLB has changed the shape of the ABS strike zone several times.

    It started with a 19-inch width in 2022, then dropped it to 17 inches — matching the width of home plate. Narrowing the strike zone led to an increase in walks and only small changes in strikeout rates.

    The top of the strike zone was 51% of a batter’s height in 2022 and 2023, then raised to 53.5% in 2024 after pitchers complained. The bottom of the strike zone has been 27% since 2022 after initially being set at 28%. A batter’s stance is not taken into account.

    ABS makes the ball/strike decision at the midpoint of the plate, 8 1/2 inches from the front and 8 1/2 inches from the back. The contrasts with the rule book zone called by umpires, which says the zone is a cube and a strike is a pitch that crosses any part. Big league umpires call roughly 94% of pitches correctly, according to UmpScorecards.

    ABS, which utilizes Hawk-Eye cameras, has been tested in the minor leagues since 2019. The independent Atlantic League trialed the system at its 2019 All-Star Game and MLB installed the technology for that’s year Arizona Fall League of top prospects. The ABS was tried at eight of nine ballparks of the Low-A Southeast League in 2021, then moved up to Triple-A in 2022.

    At Triple-A at the start of the 2023 season, half the games used the robots for ball/strike calls and half had a human making decisions subject to appeals by teams to the ABS.

    MLB switched Triple-A to an all-challenge system on June 26, 2024, then used the challenge system this year at 13 spring training ballparks hosting 19 teams for a total of 288 exhibition games. Teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges (617 of 1,182) challenges.

    At this year’s MLB All-Star Game, four of five challenges of plate umpire Dan Iassogna’s calls were successful.

    Success rate have hovered around 50% in the minors. At Triple-A this season, the success rate dropped to 49.5% from 50.6%. Defenses — usually catchers — have been more successful, winning 53.7% of challenges compared to 45% by batters. Challenges increased to 4.2 from 3.9 per game through Sunday.

    in 2024 at Triple-A, just 1.6% of first pitches were challenges, but the figure increased to 3.9% for two-strike pitches, 5.2% for three-ball pitches and 8.2% for full counts.

    Challenge percentages were higher later in the game. While 1.9% of pitches were challenged in the first three innings, 2.5% were challenged from the fourth through the sixth, 2.8% in the seventh and eighth and 3.6% in the ninth.

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  • Robot umpires approved for MLB in 2026 as part of challenge system

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    NEW YORK — Robot umpires are getting called up to the big leagues next season.

    Major League Baseball’s 11-man competition committee on Tuesday approved use of the Automated Ball/Strike System in the major leagues in 2026.

    Human plate umpires will still call balls and strikes, but teams can challenge two calls per game and get additional appeals in extra innings. Challenges must be made by a pitcher, catcher or batter — signaled by tapping their helmet or cap — and a team retains its challenge if successful. Reviews will be shown as digital graphics on outfield videoboards.

    Adding the robot umps is likely to cut down on ejections. MLB said 61.5% of ejections among players, managers and coaches last year were related to balls and strikes, as were 60.3% this season through Sunday. The figures include ejections for derogatory comments, throwing equipment while protesting calls and inappropriate conduct.

    Big league umpires call roughly 94% of pitches correctly, according to UmpScorecards.

    ABS, which utilizes Hawk-Eye cameras, has been tested in the minor leagues since 2019. The independent Atlantic League trialed the system at its 2019 All-Star Game and MLB installed the technology for that’s year Arizona Fall League of top prospects. The ABS was tried at eight of nine ballparks of the Low-A Southeast League in 2021, then moved up to Triple-A in 2022.

    At Triple-A at the start of the 2023 season, half the games used the robots for ball/strike calls and half had a human making decisions subject to appeals by teams to the ABS.

    MLB switched Triple-A to an all-challenge system on June 26, 2024, then used the challenge system this year at 13 spring training ballparks hosting 19 teams for a total of 288 exhibition games. Teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges (617 of 1,182) challenges.

    At Triple-A this season, the average challenges per game increased to 4.2 from 3.9 through Sunday and the success rate dropped to 49.5% from 50.6%. Defenses were successful in 53.7% of challenges this year and offenses in 45%.

    In the first test at the big League All-Star Game, four of five challenges of plate umpire Dan Iassogna’s calls were successful in July.

    Teams in Triple-A do not get additional challenges in extra innings. The proposal approved Tuesday included a provision granting teams one additional challenge each inning if they don’t have challenges remaining.

    MLB has experimented with different shapes and interpretations of the strike zone with ABS, including versions that were three-dimensional. Currently, it calls strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back. The top of the strike zone is 53.5% of batter height and the bottom 27%.

    This will be MLB’s first major rule change since sweeping adjustments in 2024. Those included a pitch clock, restrictions on defensive shifts, pitcher disengagements such as pickoff attempts and larger bases.

    The challenge system introduces ABS without eliminating pitch framing, a subtle art where catchers use their body and glove to try making borderline pitches look like strikes. Framing has become a critical skill for big league catchers, and there was concern that full-blown ABS would make some strong defensive catchers obsolete. Not that everyone loves it.

    “The idea that people get paid for cheating, for stealing strikes, for moving a pitch that’s not a strike into the zone to fool the official and make it a strike is beyond my comprehension,” former manager Bobby Valentine said.

    Texas manager Bruce Bochy, a big league catcher from 1978-87, maintained old-school umpires such as Bruce Froemming and Billy Williams never would have accepted pitch framing. He said they would have told him: “’If you do that again, you’ll never get a strike.’ I’m cutting out some words.”

    Management officials on the competition committee include Seattle chairman John Stanton, St. Louis CEO Bill DeWitt Jr., San Francisco chairman Greg Johnson, Colorado CEO Dick Monfort, Toronto CEO Mark Shapiro and Boston chairman Tom Werner.

    Players include Arizona’s Corbin Burnes and Zac Gallen, Detroit’s Casey Mize, Seattle’s Cal Raleigh and the New York Yankees’ Austin Slater, with the Chicago Cubs’ Ian Happ at Detroit’s Casey Mize as alternates. The union representatives make their decisions based on input from players on the 30 teams.

    Bill Miller is the umpire representative.

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  • Three ejected in Giants-Rockies game, delaying Rafael Devers’ 30th home run trot of season

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    DENVER — Rafael Devers’ 30th home run of the season was a weird one.

    Colorado pitcher Kyle Freeland, along with San Francisco third baseman Matt Chapman and shortstop Willy Adames, were ejected from Tuesday night’s game following a benches-clearing incident that started after Devers hit a two-run homer in the first inning.

    Devers hammered a sweeper over the right field wall and then Freeland took exception with Devers’ celebration, shouting at him as he neared first base.

    That caused several players to charge toward the infield, where Chapman appeared to make contact with Freeland. Adames also was in the middle of the scrum.

    The umpires restored order before sorting out the situation and announcing the ejections. It did not appear that any punches were thrown.

    Devers — a three-time All-Star — waited at first base while the umpires were meeting and then trotted around the bases several minutes after he actually hit the homer.

    The Giants had to shuffle their defensive infield after the two ejections, moving Devers to third base for the first time since he was traded to the club from Boston in June. Christian Koss moved from second base to shortstop, Casey Schmitt entered the game at second base and Dominic Smith entered at first.

    Antonio Senzatela came in the game to pitch for the Rockies.

    Devers’ 30th homer also snapped a skid for the Giants — sort of. He’s the first San Francisco player to hit 30 homers in a season while wearing a Giants uniform since Barry Bonds in 2004, but he hit his first 15 longballs of the year with the Red Sox.

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  • New NFL season kicks off with permanent kickoff changes and more

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    A new NFL season is set to begin with last year’s experiment on the new kickoff becoming permanent with a new tweak and several other changes in rules and officiating.

    The league also will implement changes to the overtime rule for the regular season, expand replay assist, crack down on bad sportsmanship and use Hawk-Eye virtual measuring to replace the old-time chains to determine first downs.

    The league experimented with the so-called dynamic kickoff in 2024 in hopes of more returns while also making the play safer. Owners voted in April to make the change permanent while moving touchbacks on kicks that reach the end zone on the fly from the 30 to the 35, which is expected to lead to more kicks in play and more returns.

    There was no change in the tush push play that Philadelphia used so successfully on the way to winning the Super Bowl last season.

    Here’s an explanation of some of the new rules that will be in place.

    The league was mostly pleased with the experimental kickoff put in place for 2024 that led to the rate of kickoff returns increasing from a record-low 21.8% in 2023 to 32.8% last season, while reducing the rate of injuries on what had been the game’s most dangerous play.

    The rule made kickoffs more like scrimmage plays by placing the coverage players and blockers close together to eliminate the high-speed collisions that had contributed to so many injuries on the play. The league said the rate of concussions dropped 43% on returns, with a significant reduction as well in lower-body injuries.

    The problem last season was many teams still opted to kick the ball in the end zone because the touchback wasn’t punitive enough. The average starting field position on a touchback was only 2.4 yards further than the average starting position after returns, which was the 27.6-yard line.

    By moving the touchback to the 35, the league projects that the return rate will rise to somewhere between 60% and 70%, with a similar increase in long returns, adding more excitement to the game.

    The league also approved a small tweak to how blockers on the return team are allowed to line up in the setup zone that could lead to longer returns.

    Teams returned just over 76% of kicks in the preseason, up from 70% in the 2024 preseason. But that number typically drops in the regular season when teams don’t use kickoffs to evaluate players for spots at the end of the roster.

    Teams will still need to declare their intention to try an onside kick because of the different formation. But a new change will allow trailing teams to try one before the start of the fourth quarter after Kansas City had to kick deep while down 28 points in the final minute of the third quarter in the Super Bowl.

    Coverage players will also be allowed to line up one yard closer in hopes of increasing the rate of recovery from about 6% over the past three seasons to at least 10%.

    The league approved a proposal to make the regular season overtime more like the postseason, with both teams getting a chance at a possession, even if the team that gets the ball first scores a touchdown.

    The NFL added regular season overtime in 1974, adding a 15-minute sudden death period that ended on any score. In 2010, the rule was tweaked to a modified sudden death that required an opening possession touchdown to immediately end the game instead of only a field goal. That was in effect in both the regular season and the playoffs.

    Overtime then was shortened for the regular season to only 10 minutes in 2017. A rule change in 2022 for the playoffs only gave both teams the chance to score even with a touchdown on the opening possession.

    Now that will be the case in the regular season, after the improved field position on kickoffs made winning in OT on an opening possession TD easier.

    According to Sportradar, six of the 16 overtime games last season ended on an opening-drive TD for the most overtime games ended on the first drive since the rule change went into effect in 2010.

    In all, teams that won the overtime toss won 75% of the time last season, according to Sportradar, and have a .606 winning percentage in overtime since it was cut to 10 minutes.

    The league kept the 10-minute overtime period instead of expanding it back to 15 minutes like was originally proposed by Philadelphia, which could lead to teams opting to go for 2 and a win if they match an opening-drive TD with one of their own since there might not be time for another possession.

    The NFL expanded its replay assist system to overturn objective calls if there was “clear and obvious” evidence that a foul didn’t occur. The calls could include facemask penalties, whether there was forcible contact to the head or neck area, horse-collar tackles and tripping. Replay also would be able to overturn a roughing-the-kicker or running-into-the-kicker penalty if video showed the defender made contact with the ball.

    The league has been using replay assist in recent years to overturn obvious errors on aspects like whether a pass is caught or where the ball should be spotted without the referee needing to stop the game for a review.

    The Competition Committee says there’s no interest in allowing replay assists to call penalties on plays missed by officials on the field.

    Referees will no longer use the chains to determine first downs, opting instead for a virtual measuring system. This won’t eliminate the officials who manually spot the ball and use chains to mark the line to gain.

    The Hawk-Eye system consists of six 8K cameras for optical tracking of the position of the ball with the result shown on stadium scoreboards. The league estimates that measurements will take about 30 seconds — about 40 seconds fewer than the average with the chains — although it took longer at times in the preseason.

    The league is also emphasizing sportsmanship and cracking down on violent and sexually suggestive gestures this season.

    In April, the NFL expanded prohibited acts to include banning the “nose wipe” gesture that league executive Troy Vincent said is affiliated with gangs.

    The unsportsmanlike conduct rule now states: “any violent gesture, which shall include but not be limited to a throat slash, simulating firing or brandishing a gun, or using the ‘nose wipe’ gesture, or an act that is sexually suggestive or offensive.”

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  • Pawol breaks gender barrier, earns good reviews for her work behind the plate on historic weekend

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    ATLANTA (AP) — Jen Pawol breezed through Sunday’s Marlins-Braves game as if breaking a gender barrier was just another day on the job.

    Considering Pawol became the first female umpire to work behind the plate in the majors, making unprecedented history appear to be routine was especially impressive.

    “I think Jen did a really nice job,” Miami manager Clayton McCullough said after Atlanta’s 7-1 win over the Marlins.

    “I think she’s very composed back there. She handled and managed the game very well. And big day for her. Big day for Major League Baseball. I congratulated her again on that because it’s quite the accomplishment.”

    It was an impressive cap to a memorable weekend for Pawol. She made history in Saturday’s doubleheader as the first female umpire to work a regular-season game in the majors. She called the bases in the doubleheader before moving behind the plate on Sunday, placing her in the brightest spotlight for an umpire.

    Pawol never showed any indication of being affected by the attention, even while knowing every call would be closely watched. She called balls and strikes with 93% accuracy, according to Ump Scorecards.

    “Congrats to Jen, obviously,” said Braves left-hander Joey Wentz, who earned the win by allowing only one run in 5 1/3 innings.

    Asked about Pawol’s calls, Wentz said, “I try not to focus on the zone, to be honest with you. … I thought it was good though.”

    There were few opportunities for disputes as Wentz and Miami starting pitcher Cal Quantrill combined for only three strikeouts. The first called third strike came in the fifth inning, when Pawol used a fist pump when calling out Miami’s Kyle Stowers on a pitch that was close to the edge of the plate.

    McCullough was seen in the Marlins dugout with his palms held up as if asking about the pitch call. He said after the game it’s not unusual to question a close called strike.

    “Over the course of the game, there are a number of times that you just are going to be asking for clarity on one, if you aren’t sure,” McCullough said. “So it could have been that.”

    The 48-year-old Pawol was called up as a rover umpire, so her next assignment in the majors has not been announced.

    “I wish her the best moving forward as she continues to, I’m sure, hopefully one day be up full time, you know, a permanent big league umpire,” McCullough said.

    Pawol also received positive reviews from Braves manager Brian Snitker, who on Saturday said, “You can tell she knows what she does.”

    Pawol’s work in the minor leagues began in 2016 when she was assigned to the Gulf Coast League. She worked in the Triple-A championship game in 2023 and in spring training games in 2024 and again this year.

    “We certainly didn’t call her up from A ball, right?” Quantrill said. “So yeah, I’m sure she was well prepared. And like I said I think, you know, part of the game moving forward is that if this is normal then we’re going to treat it normal, too. So, you know, I thought it was fine. I think she did she did a quality job. … And yeah, I think she’d be very proud of herself. And, you know, it’s kind of a cool little thing to be part of.”

    Pawol spoke to reporters on Saturday when she said, “The dream actually came true today. I’m still living in it. I’m so grateful to my family and Major League Baseball for creating such an incredible work environment. … I’m just so thankful.”

    Pawol received cheers from fans on both days. On Sunday, some held up “Way to go Jen!” signs.

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  • Darnold, O’Connell not blaming missed face mask call as reason why Vikings lost to Rams

    Darnold, O’Connell not blaming missed face mask call as reason why Vikings lost to Rams

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    INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold didn’t blame the officials for a missed face mask call when he was sacked for a safety late in the fourth quarter of Thursday night’s 30-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.

    Instead, Darnold lamented the situation that pinned the Vikings deep in the first place.

    “The facemask — it is what it is,” Darnold said. “I thought we could’ve done a lot to not put ourselves in the situation that we were in. We just have to continue to play better and not put ourselves in that situation to begin with.”

    The Vikings got the ball at their own 5-yard line with 1:46 remaining after Rams punter Ethan Evans’ 41-yard kick landed out of bounds on the left sideline.

    Darnold missed connecting with Jordan Addison on first down. On second-and-10, Darnold got a couple clean seconds in the pocket before Byron Young barreled past left guard Blake Brandel and took down Darnold for a safety, putting the game out of reach.

    Referee Tra Blake said in a pool report that he and umpire Carl Paganelli — the two officials closest to the play — did not have a clear view.

    Blake said the officiating crew discussed the play after the Vikings brought up Young’s infraction, but no one was able to clearly see it.

    Face mask calls are not reviewable by instant replay.

    “The quarterback was facing the opposite direction from me so I did not have a good look at it. I did not have a look, and I did not see the facemask being pulled,” Blake said. “The umpire had players between him and the quarterback, so he did not get a look at it. He was blocked out as well. So that was the thing, we did not see it so we couldn’t call it. We couldn’t see it.”

    Coach Kevin O’Connell said “it looked like (Young) got a pretty good amount of facemask there,” but he wasn’t going to blame that for Minnesota’s second loss in five days.

    “I told our team, officiating and all that stuff, for us to talk about that and to seek comfort in that is not how we’re going to respond to this,” he said. “It looked like he got a piece of the facemask, but they didn’t think so, so they didn’t throw the flag.”

    If Young had been penalized, the Vikings would have had first-and-10 at their own 20. But they had no time outs and would have needed a touchdown and 2-point conversion to send the game into overtime.

    O’Connell’s bigger concern is about left tackle Christian Darrisaw, who suffered an injury to his left knee late in the first half.

    Darrisaw got hit from the side by Rams safety Jaylen McCollough while run blocking for Aaron Jones. McCollough lost his balance and went to the ground when he made a diving tackle attempt on Jones.

    David Quessenberry replaced Darrisaw at left tackle for the remainder of the game. Darrisaw was on crutches as he left the locker room after the game.

    “We’ll continue that evaluation here and Friday, and try to confirm what that is, keeping our fingers crossed that we get some positive news,” O’Connell said.

    After winning its first five games, Minnesota is reeling a bit with two straight losses, including a 31-29 defeat at Detroit last Sunday.

    The Lions (5-1) move into the lead in the hyper-competitive NFC North while Green Bay (5-2) and Chicago (4-2) are not far back.

    “Having the mini bye will allow us to get healthy and look ourselves in the mirror and do the little things right,” said Darnold, who was 18 of 25 for 240 yards and two touchdowns. “At the end of the day, I feel like we have to do the little things right and hash out the details. If we do that, I know we are going to be a real good offense and team. It is the little things we can control.”

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  • Mega Millions tickets will climb to $5, but officials promise bigger prizes and better odds

    Mega Millions tickets will climb to $5, but officials promise bigger prizes and better odds

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    DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The cost of buying a Mega Millions jackpot dream will soon more than double, but lottery officials said they’re confident players won’t mind paying more after changes that will lead to larger prizes and more frequent winners.

    Lottery officials announced Monday that it will cost $5 to play Mega Millions, beginning in April, up from the current $2 per ticket. The price increase will be one of many changes to Mega Millions that officials said will result in improved jackpot odds, more frequent giant prizes and even larger payouts.

    “Spending 5 bucks to become a millionaire or billionaire, that’s pretty good,” said Joshua Johnston, director of the Washington Lottery and lead director of the group that oversees Mega Millions.

    Mega Millions and its lottery compatriot Powerball are sold in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Powerball also is sold in Puerto Rico.

    Powerball officials said they have no plans to change that game’s odds or the $2 price for most tickets.

    Mega Millions’ hope is that by increasing ticket revenue and rejiggering the odds — now set at 1 in 302.6 million — to something less stratospheric, more people will win jackpots even as prizes grow extraordinarily high, which attracts more players. The goal is to increase revenue and provide more money to state lotteries, which in turn spend it on a variety of government services.

    Mega Millions will introduce changes at a time when fewer people are buying tickets and jackpots need to reach ever-higher figures before sporadic players notice and opt to buy a ticket or two. Whereas a $500 million jackpot once prompted lines out convenience store doors, top prizes of $1 billion now often draw more of a ho-hum response.

    Those much-hyped jackpot numbers also could take a hit as interest rates fall. That’s because on billboards or other advertisements, state lotteries emphasize the annuity payout for jackpots, distributed over decades from an investment fund. As interest rates have been high, the annuity jackpots have more than doubled the cash prizes that winners nearly always choose.

    With an expectation that interest rates will drop, those annuity jackpot figures will decline, so the advertised jackpot won’t seem quite so massive.

    Johnston said expected declines in interest rates were not a factor in the upcoming changes.

    The biggest motivation was to differentiate Mega Millions from Powerball and attract customers who might now pass on both games, Johnston said.

    More than doubling the ticket price is a big move, but Johnston said research shows people feel comfortable spending at least $5 when they buy scratch tickets or chances at the draw games, like Mega Millions. It is the second price increase since the game was created in 2002.

    “You pay 5 bucks for your Starbucks,” Johnston noted.

    Lottery officials will announce more specifics about the changes in the coming months, he said.

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  • First day called off in Afghanistan-New Zealand cricket test due to wet outfield

    First day called off in Afghanistan-New Zealand cricket test due to wet outfield

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    GREATER NOIDA, India (AP) — A wet outfield at the Greater Noida Sports Complex meant that day one of the solitary Afghanistan-New Zealand cricket test was abandoned without a ball being bowled on Monday.

    No toss took place at the venue, which is situated on the outskirts of Delhi, India’s capital. The region has received incessant rainfall over the past week.

    The umpires, Kumar Dharmasena of Sri Lanka and Sharfuddoula Saikat of Bangladesh, inspected the conditions twice in the first session and then once each in the remaining two sessions.

    Finally, at 4.30pm local time, they took the decision to call off play.

    Play will now begin 30 minutes early on each of the remaining four days to make up for lost time.

    This is Afghanistan’s third test of 2024, following one-off matches against Ireland and Sri Lanka. Star wrist spinner Rashid Khan is unavailable following back surgery.

    New Zealand is kicking off a three-month subcontinental tour that will also involve series against Sri Lanka and India.

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    Squads:

    Afghanistan (from): Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Riaz Hassan, Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Ikram Alikhil, Bahir Shah, Shahidullah Kamal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Qais Ahmad, Zahir Khan, Khalil Ahmed, Zia-ur-Rehman, Afsar Zazai, Nijat Masood, Shamsurrahman, Abdul Malik

    New Zealand (from): Devon Conway, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Will Young, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner, Ajaz Patel, Tim Southee (captain), Matt Henry, Tom Blundell, Rachin Ravindra, Ben Sears, William O’Rourke

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  • Coco Gauff loses an argument with the chair umpire and a match to Donna Vekic at the Paris Olympics

    Coco Gauff loses an argument with the chair umpire and a match to Donna Vekic at the Paris Olympics

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    PARIS — The scene felt all too familiar to Coco Gauff. An officiating decision she was sure was wrong. A chair umpire who wouldn’t listen. Tears streaming down her cheeks. And, most disappointing of all, a loss, this time at the Paris Olympics.

    Even the site was the same: Court Philippe Chatrier was where the reigning U.S. Open champion was eliminated in the third round at the Summer Games by Donna Vekic of Croatia 7-6 (7), 6-2 on Tuesday. That’s also the main stadium used annually for the French Open, where Gauff found herself in a nearly identical dispute over a call while being defeated by eventual champion Iga Swiatek in the semifinals last month.

    “There’s been multiple times this year where that’s happened to me — where I felt like I always have to be an advocate for myself on the court,” Gauff said afterward, renewing a call for video review to be used in tennis, as it is in many other professional sports.

    “I felt that he called it before I hit, and I don’t think the ref disagreed,” she said. “I think he just thought it didn’t affect my swing, which I felt like it did.”

    Gauff, a 20-year-old American who was seeded No. 2 at the Olympics in singles, already was trailing by a lot when the episode happened two games from the end of the match.

    She hit a serve and Vekic’s return landed near the baseline. A line judge initially called Vekic’s shot out; Gauff did not keep the ball in play. Chair umpire Jaume Campistol thought Vekic’s shot landed in and awarded her the point, giving her a service break and a 4-2 lead.

    Gauff walked over to talk to the official and play was delayed for several minutes.

    “I never argue these calls. But he called it out before I hit the ball,” Gauff said to Campistol. “It’s not even a perception; it’s the rules.”

    She easily won her first two singles matches, dropping a total of just five games. But her first Olympic singles tournament — she is still in women’s doubles and mixed doubles — ended with a performance that was hardly her best on the hottest day of the Summer Games so far, with the heat rising above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius).

    “These points are big deals. Usually afterward, they apologize. So it’s kind of frustrating. The ‘Sorry’ doesn’t help you once the match is over,” Gauff said. “I can’t say I would have won the match if I would have won that point.”

    Even before the trouble over the umpiring decision, Gauff could not sustain a good start against Vekic, who was a semifinalist at Wimbledon this month.

    The American led 4-1 and was a point from moving ahead 5-1 and serving for the opening set. But she didn’t close the deal, then wasted a couple of set points at 6-4 in the ensuing tiebreaker. Vekic surged to the end of that set, then maintained her level in the second.

    One measure of Vekic’s superiority on this afternoon: She finished with 33 winners to just nine for Gauff.

    “I’m not going to sit here and say one point affected the result today,” Gauff acknowledged, “because I was already on the losing side of things.”

    Still, the most memorable moment in the match was that second-set argument. Gauff even alluded to that Swiatek loss while talking to Campistol and a supervisor who joined the conversation on the court Tuesday.

    “It always happens here at the French Open to me. Every time,” Gauff said, holding a tennis ball in one hand and her racket in the other while pleading her case. “This is like the fourth, fifth time it’s happened this year.”

    Vekic did not get involved, staying at her end of the court and fiddling with her strings.

    When Gauff gave up and headed back on court to resume play, fans booed loudly — anger directed at the official.

    The first point of the next game went Gauff’s way, and spectators cheered wildly for her.

    But about 10 minutes later, the match was over.

    Gauff was scheduled to head back out on court with U.S. teammate Taylor Fritz for a first-round mixed doubles match later Tuesday. She also is competing in women’s doubles with Jessica Pegula at these Olympics.

    Over the weekend, Gauff spoke about aiming to leave with three medals — one from each of her events in Paris. That won’t happen now.

    “I want” Gauff said Tuesday, “to come home with something.”

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  • French Open chair umpire rescues a pigeon that landed on the court

    French Open chair umpire rescues a pigeon that landed on the court

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    PARIS — This one’s for the birds: A pigeon landed on the court during a French Open match Saturday, leading the chair umpire to use a towel to rescue the fallen fowl.

    The pigeon dropped to the red clay at Court Suzanne Lenglen — and remained on the ground — during a changeover in the fourth set of 2021 U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev’s third-round victory over Tomas Machac at Roland Garros.

    Chair umpire Damien Dumusois, um, flew into action, climbing down from his perch and grabbing a white towel. He approached the bird, which appeared injured and tried hopping away. Dumusois gave chase and eventually bent over, using the towel to grab the pigeon with both hands, earning cheers from spectators.

    The official then carried it toward a doorway and handed it off to someone else, who held the bird aloft, drawing more applause.

    Dumusois returned to his chair, got back up on his seat and announced that play would resume.

    The match continued with Medvedev ahead 4-3 in the final set, and the fifth-seeded Russian completed his 7-6 (4), 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 win about 10 minutes later.

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    AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

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  • 5-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey kills and guts a moose that got entangled with his dog team

    5-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey kills and guts a moose that got entangled with his dog team

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    ANCHORAGEW, Alaska — A veteran musher had to kill a moose after it injured his dog shortly after the start of this year’s Iditarod, race officials said Monday.

    Dallas Seavey informed the officials with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race early Monday morning that he was forced to shoot the moose with a handgun in self-defense.

    This came “after the moose became entangled with the dogs and the musher,” a statement from the race said.

    Seavey, who is tied for the most Iditarod wins ever at five, said he urged officials to get the moose off the trail.

    “It fell on my sled, it was sprawled on the trail,” Seavey told an Iditarod Insider television crew. “I gutted it the best I could, but it was ugly.”

    Seavey, who turned 37 years old on Monday, is not the first musher to have to kill a moose during an Iditarod. In 1985, the late Susan Butcher was leading the race when she used her axe and a parka to fend off a moose, but it killed two of her dogs and injured 13 others. Another musher came along and killed the moose.

    Butcher had to quit that race but went on to win four Iditarods. She died from leukemia in 2006 at the age of 51.

    This year’s race started Sunday afternoon in Willow, about 75 miles (121 kilometers) north of Anchorage. Seavey encountered the moose just before 2 a.m. Monday, 14 miles (22 kilometers) outside the race checkpoint in Swenta, en route to the next checkpoint 50 miles (80 kilometers) away in Finger Lake.

    Seavey arrived in Finger Lake later Monday, where he dropped a dog that was injured in the moose encounter. The dog was flown to Anchorage, where it was being evaluated by a veterinarian.

    Alaska State Troopers were informed of the dead moose, and race officials said every effort was being made to salvage the meat.

    Race rules state that if a big game animal like a moose, caribou or buffalo is killed in defense of life or property, the musher must gut the animal and report it to race officials at the next checkpoint. Mushers who follow must help gut the animal when possible, the rules states.

    New race marshal Warren Palfrey said he would continue to gather information about the encounter as it pertains to the rules, according to the Iditarod statement.

    Musher Paige Drobny confirmed to race officials the moose was dead and in the middle of the trial when she arrived in Finger Lake on Monday.

    “Yeah, like my team went up and over it, like it’s that ‘in the middle of the trail,’” she said.

    Seavey wasn’t the first musher to encounter a moose along that stretch of the race.

    Race leader Jessie Holmes, who is a cast member of the National Geographic reality TV show about life in rural Alaska called“Life Below Zero,” had his encounter between those two checkpoints, but it’s not clear if it was the same moose.

    “I had to punch a moose in the nose out there,” he told a camera crew, but didn’t offer other details.

    The 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race across Alaska will end sometime next week when the winning musher comes off the Bering Sea ice and crosses under the burled arch finish line in Nome.

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  • Iranian official says at least 73 people killed, 170 wounded in attack targeting ceremony for slain general

    Iranian official says at least 73 people killed, 170 wounded in attack targeting ceremony for slain general

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    Iranian official says at least 73 people killed, 170 wounded in attack targeting ceremony for slain general

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  • Turkish soccer matches to resume on Dec. 19 after suspension caused by attack on referee

    Turkish soccer matches to resume on Dec. 19 after suspension caused by attack on referee

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    ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish soccer league matches, suspended after a referee was attacked by the president of a top-flight club, will resume on Dec. 19, the head of the Turkish Football Federation said Wednesday.

    Mehmet Buyukeksi also told reporters that the federation’s disciplinary board would announce on Thursday the punitive measures to be imposed on MKE Ankaragucu and its president, Faruk Koca, who has since been arrested. Leading FIFA official and former top referee Pierluigi Collina has described the attack as an example of the “cancer” that threatens to kill soccer.

    Koca punched referee Halil Umut Meler in the face on the field after the final whistle of a 1-1 draw in a Super Lig home game against Caykur Rizespor on Monday. The referee, who fell to the ground, was also kicked in a melee as fans invaded the playing surface after Rizespor scored a last-minute equalizer.

    The attack led to the suspension of all league games in Turkey, which has been selected to co-host the 2032 European Championship with Italy.

    “All league games will restart on Tuesday, Dec. 19,” Buyukeksi announced after a federation meeting, adding that “zero tolerance” would be shown toward attacks on referees.

    “What happened during the Ankaragucu-Rizespor match is completely unacceptable,” he said. “We will not allow attacks or disproportionate pressure on our referees, who are an important part of the game.”

    Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc announced on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that the government was considering tightening laws designed to prevent violence in sports.

    “We will re-evaluate the penal provisions (of the law for the) Prevention of Violence and Disorder in Sports, in terms of (increasing) deterrence,” Tunc wrote. “We will all work together to turn the green (soccer) fields into areas for friendship and brotherhood.”

    Earlier on Wednesday, Meler was discharged from hospital after being treated for a fracture near his eye.

    He walked out of Ankara’s Acibadem Hospital and raised his hand to salute the assembled media before entering a vehicle. The state-run Anadolu Agency said Meler would travel to his home in Izmir, western Turkey, escorted by police for protection.

    The hospital’s chief physician Mehmet Yorubulut told reporters that the referee’s morale was high.

    “He has no problems other than the swelling in his eye,” Yorubulut said, adding that the fracture would heal in time.

    Buyukeksi dismissed reports that Meler was considering quitting, saying the referee was expected to officiate at the 2024 European Championship in Germany.

    “Halil Umut Meler is a highly respected referee by both UEFA and FIFA,” Buyukeksi said. “We expect him to take part in Euro 2024.”

    Koca and two other people have been placed under pre-trial detention, facing charges of causing injury to a public official.

    Koca is reported to have told prosecutors during questioning that he merely slapped Meler, accusing the referee of “wrongful decisions” and provocative actions.

    He later announced his resignation.

    “I apologize to the Turkish referee and sports community, to the Turkish people and especially to Mr. Meler and his family for the attitude I displayed toward Halil Umut Meler,” he said in a statement read by his lawyer late Tuesday.

    Media reports cited Meler as telling prosecutors that the club president shouted “I will kill you” during the attack and also threatened to “finish off” all the match officials on the field.

    Violence in soccer is commonplace in Turkey despite efforts to clamp down on it, although direct attacks on top-level referees are rare.

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    AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

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