7:00 AM ET We’ve been heading in this direction over the past decade, but it’s now official: The Most Valuable Player Award has become, to the delight of analytics aficionados across baseball land, the best player in the league award. Traditionally, the writers based MVP honors on some sort of undefined fusion of on-field performance
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7:40 AM ET In addition to being a fine golfer who is expected to contend for more major titles as well as challenge for the No. 1 ranking, Justin Thomas has provided an excellent public service by giving some optimistic yet cautious updates on the status of Tiger Woods, his friend and neighbor. The latest
12:03 PM ET Whoever says the international break isn’t up to much clearly hasn’t been paying attention to the action over the past four days. In CONCACAF, the U.S. racked up a massive win over Mexico, but in Europe, there’s been A LOT to digest. Take the stunning struggles of Portugal, or the web of
9:41 PM GMT There was barely any danger of the Wallabies’ hoodoo ending at Twickenham on Saturday. If Australia losing to Eddie Jones’ England felt familiar before, the visitors will leave London thinking it is almost grimly inevitable. As victories go, this was straightforward for England in a slippery match where errors from both sides
7:51 AM ET WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford will get the signature fight he’s wanted when he faces former champ Shawn Porter on Nov. 20 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs), 33, of Omaha, Nebraska, hasn’t fought since a fourth-round TKO victory over Kell Brook in November
7:20 PM ET Jeff Wagenheim The conventional thinking is that a fighter who has been defeated twice by the champion in his or her weight class is stuck in limbo, never to get a third glimpse of the belt unless it’s being worn by a different champion. That way of thinking does open up opportunities
5:35 PM ET Associated Press GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Anett Kontaveit stretched her winning streak to 12 matches by beating Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 6-0 on Friday to secure a spot in the semifinals at the WTA Finals. The 25-year-old Estonian now has won 28 of her last 30 matches, including her title run at Ostrava. Kontaveit,
1:54 AM ET ESPN News Services SALT LAKE CITY — Four players were ejected after Rudy Gobert and Myles Turner got into a scuffle late in the Indiana Pacers‘ 111-110 victory over the Utah Jazz on Thursday night. The tussle began after Gobert appeared to pull Turner down to the ground with him after Turner
10:26 PM ET Marcel Louis-JacquesESPN MIAMI — Despite not starting Thursday night against the Baltimore Ravens, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa entered the game in relief of Jacoby Brissett midway through the third quarter of Miami’s 22-10 win. On the Dolphins’ opening drive of the second half, Brissett took a sack on third down and needed
2:00 PM ET Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. — All samples collected from horses competing in the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar have tested clear. The Kenneth L. Maddy Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory at UC Davis announced the results Thursday. All horses competing in the world championships last weekend were tested for total carbon dioxide levels
6:00 AM ET Going back to their Mighty Mite football days as kids, Anthony Tedesco knew there was something different about his pal Kenny Pickett. They grew up about five minutes from the New Jersey shore, and if they weren’t splashing around in the surf during the summers at Loch Arbour or Allenhurst beaches, they
9:48 AM ET Associated Press The nascent Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority on Thursday released a draft of proposed anti-doping and medication control rules designed to bring uniformity to a sport that has operated for years under patchwork regulations in 38 racing states. Since July, HISA has been working with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to
4:44 PM ET ESPN News Services CARLSBAD, Calif. — Baseball’s most influential agent said the sport was the victim of a “competitive cancer” caused by teams unloading veterans to accumulate draft picks, and that the Atlanta Braves‘ World Series title was a direct result of tanking. In an outdoor news conference in front of a
7:00 AM ET Into the second week of the second month of the 2021-22 NHL season, two Western Canadian teams have continued their climb up the power rankings, making homes in the Top 5 this week. Plus, which players are the most underrated for each team? We’ve identified one for all 32 clubs here. How
7:21 AM ET Justin Thomas pointed to the positives after his third-place finish at World Wide Technologies Championship, a tournament where he was in contention through three rounds but could not close the gap on Sunday and finished 5 shots behind winner Viktor Hovland. That has — save for the Players Championship — been the
1:27 PM ET Yunus Musah had only heard about it. The fire. The intensity. The bags of urine flying from the stands like gross, golden grenades. Tall tales, you know? Lore. Musah had heard stories, but it wasn’t until this summer that he finally saw a sliver of it with his own eyes. It wasn’t
9:41 AM GMT England coach Eddie Jones has told young fly-half Marcus Smith to be wary of the “flood of distractions” that could come his way as the “next big thing” and referred to the attention U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu has received since winning her first Grand Slam. Jones said Raducanu “hasn’t done so
7:11 PM ET Associated Press AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kyle Larson won. That was the expected result of NASCAR’s season-ending championship race, right? Larson closed his comeback season in NASCAR with his first championship Sunday, where he capped his return from a nearly yearlong suspension with a title-winning victory at Phoenix Raceway. “I can’t believe it,”
11:58 PM ET It is notoriously difficult to see a truly great race car driver ever show us a lot of real, raw emotion. Not anger. We’ve all seen that plenty. Not celebratory joy. That’s what we see most, when the driver who has just pulled into Victory Lane finally shows us their face after
1:46 AM ET The night ended with Kamaru Usman outlasting Colby Covington in another epic five-round fight, but there was no shortage of action throughout UFC 268. Rose Namajunas successfully defended her strawweight title, Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler did not disappoint and Marlon Vera finished Frankie Edgar with a highlight-reel kick that may have