June 19, 2026 4:30 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball owners proposed banning high school players from signing with major league teams, raising the age for international amateurs and slashing the money spent on signing bonuses in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement Thursday. The amateur draft for players residing in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico would be cut from 20 rounds to 12 beginning in 2027 under the proposal Major League Baseball made during a bargaining session with the players’ association. An identical 12-round draft would be started for international prospects, a proposal the union has rejected in the past.
June 19, 2026 4:28 am
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) — The USGA set up a different course at Shinnecock Hills to handle strong wind Thursday. When the wind subsided later, Wyndham Clark seemed to play a different U.S. Open. He took advantage of the gentler conditions, pulling away to reach 6-under par through 16 holes. He left in darkness with a four-shot lead over seven players, including Ryder Cowan and Dustin Johnson. Rory McIlroy thought he did well to shoot 69 in gusts over 30 mph. Scottie Scheffler battled all day, relying on his short game to salvage a 72. Clark will return Friday morning to complete the round.
June 18, 2026 4:21 am
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Ryan O’Hearn homered, doubled and singled to finish with a career-high six RBIs as the Pittsburgh Pirates romped to a 12-4 victory over the Athletics. Marcell Ozuna also went deep for the Pirates, who racked up 16 hits. They scored at least 10 runs for the seventh time this season, matching their 2025 total. Braxton Ashcraft struck out seven in six innings for the win. He allowed two runs, one earned, and four hits. Pittsburgh’s first four batters reached safely, and a two-run double by O’Hearn made it 3-0. He added a two-run homer in the fourth to stretch the margin to 7-0. Jacob Wilson’s two-run single trimmed it to 7-2 in the sixth before the Pirates tacked on five more in the seventh, including O’Hearn’s two-run single.
June 18, 2026 4:25 am
Major League Baseball is facing challenges with LGBTQ+ inclusivity as some players resist participating in Pride events. During the San Francisco Giants’ Pride Night, several players added Bible verses to their caps or chose not to wear the themed caps. MLB issued a warning, stating that writing on caps violates league policy, saying the issue wasn’t with the messages themselves. This has sparked reactions from Republican politicians like Vice President JD Vance and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley. Similar incidents have occurred on other teams, and MLB is unique in having regular-season games during Pride Month. Other leagues have also faced issues with Pride events.
June 18, 2026 4:29 am
NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA is expanding its schedule to 50 games per team next season — the most in the league’s 30-year history. The new collective bargaining agreement that was ratified earlier this year allows the league to play up to 50 games for the next two seasons. There can be up to 52 regular-season games in 2029 and for the rest of the CBA. The league is playing 44 games again this season. Over the next few seasons the WNBA is adding three new teams through expansion. Cleveland is joining in 2028, Detroit in 2029 and Philadelphia in 2030. Connecticut is moving to Houston next year.
June 17, 2026 4:30 am
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Brandon Lowe hit a tiebreaking homer in the ninth inning, Bryan Reynolds went deep from both sides of the plate and the Pittsburgh Pirates rallied from an early four-run deficit to beat the Athletics 6-5. Reynolds finished with four hits, three RBIs and three runs scored. Ryan O’Hearn also had three hits for the Pirates, who had lost eight of 10. Zack Gelof went 3 for 3 with a homer and two RBIs for the A’s, extending his hitting streak to 20 games — the longest active run in the majors.
June 17, 2026 2:17 am
The Pittsburgh Steelers have signed wide receiver Levi Wentz to a one-year contract. Wentz originally signed with the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free agent following the 2026 NFL Draft. Wentz was waived by Seattle on June 8 in a corresponding roster move after the team signed veteran offensive tackle Bobby Hart. Wentz played at three different schools in college — Old Dominion, Albany and Kansas. At Kansas in 2025, he recorded 16 receptions for 258 yards and two touchdowns in 12 games. That was his lone season with the Jayhawks. He transferred from Albany, where he appeared in 24 games and had 53 receptions with two touchdowns. Wentz played at Old Dominion from 2021 to 2022 before transferring to Albany.
June 17, 2026 4:32 am
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Lionel Messi delivered his first World Cup hat trick and matched Miroslav Klose’s career scoring record before thousands of Argentina fans packed into Arrowhead Stadium for a match against Algeria on Tuesday night. The defending champions went on to win 3-0. Messi scored his first goal in the opening minutes, the second early in the second half, and the third just before subbing out. The performance came 20 years after his World Cup debut, when Messi also scored. Messi now has 16 goals in six World Cup appearances. The hat trick upstaged stars like Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland, each of whom also scored twice in their matches earlier Tuesday.
June 16, 2026 4:32 am
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Nick Kurtz hit two homers and drove in five runs, Jeff McNeil also went deep and knocked in four, and the Athletics beat the scuffling Pittsburgh Pirates 11-2. J.T. Ginn pitched six strong innings for the A’s. McNeil went 3 for 4 and snapped an 0-for-20 slump with an RBI single in the second. Kurtz followed with an opposite-field homer to left for a 3-0 lead and finished 3 for 5. McNeil hit his third homer to make it 5-1 in the fourth and added an RBI single in the seventh before Kurtz followed with a three-run shot to left. Eight of Kurtz’s 18 home runs have come in June. Pittsburgh has lost eight of 10 to fall a game under .500.
June 16, 2026 4:36 am
Transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby will not play for Texas Tech this fall. He is instead planning to enter the NFL supplemental draft. That will end an unprecedented legal fight over the college eligibility of a player who had acknowledged betting on college and pro sports, including some wagers on his own team while a freshman at Indiana four years ago. The decision by Sorsby came exactly one week before the deadline to apply for the NFL supplemental draft. It was also on the same day the NCAA and Big 12 Conference had filings in different courts challenging a temporary injunction that cleared the way for Sorsby to play despite being declared ineligible after he acknowledged making thousands of bets worth at least $90,000 while in college.
