July 19, 2024 4:28 am
TROON, Scotland (AP) — Daniel Brown delivered the biggest surprise of them all at the British Open. The wind changed direction at Royal Troon and seemed to fool everyone except Shane Lowry. He played the links a few weeks ago and knew how to handle the wind from the opposite direction. Lowry had a 66 for his best start ever in a major. And then came Brown, a 29-year-old from England. Playing in the second-to-last group, he birdied two of the last three holes for a 65 to lead in his major championship debut. Tiger Woods had a 79. Rory McIlroy shot 78.
July 19, 2024 4:32 am
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A key city council vote is paving the way to give the Tampa Bay Rays a new 30,000-seat ballpark as part of a $6.5 billion redevelopment project in St. Petersburg, Florida. The new park would guarantee the team stays for at least 30 years. Supporters say the overall project would transform an 86-acre tract in the city’s downtown to include a Black history museum, affordable housing, a hotel, green space, entertainment venues, and office and retail space. The site, where the Rays’ domed Tropicana Field now sits, was once a thriving Black community driven out by construction of the ballpark and an interstate highway. The plan still requires approval from the Pinellas County Commission.
July 19, 2024 4:30 am
EA Sports College Football 25, among the most highly anticipated sports video games of all time, has flooded the market. The game officially launched Friday, with EA Sports increasing its server capacity during early access to handle the crush of players. EA Sports has said its goal for the game was “to feel like a love letter to college football and its fans.” Gamers waited more than a decade for the franchise’s next installment after it was halted in 2013 amid questions about compensating athletes depicted in the game.
July 18, 2024 4:27 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Paul Skenes, Shohei Ohtani, Jarren Duran and the rest of this year’s All-Stars drew 7,443,000 viewers on Fox, up 6% from the 2023 game but the second lowest for the event. The American League’s 5-3 victory at Arlington, Texas, on Tuesday night saw an increase from the 7,006,000 viewers for the National League’s 3-2 win last year at Seattle. The 2022 game is Los Angeles was watched by 7.51 million. An additional 116,000 viewers watched Spanish-language coverage on Fox Deportes, up 36% from 85,000 last year.
July 18, 2024 4:31 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh and men’s basketball coach Jeff Capel have agreed to a contract extension that runs through at least the 2029-30 season. Capel has a 97-92 record in six years with the Panthers, leading the program to the NCAA tournament in 2023. Athletic director Heather Lyke praised Capel for rebuilding Pitt “brick by brick” since taking over in 2018. The Panthers have gone 46-23 over the last two seasons.
July 18, 2024 4:24 am
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Indiana rookie Caitlin Clark broke the WNBA record for assists in a game Wednesday night, finishing with 19 in the Fever’s 101-93 loss to the Dallas Wings. The previous record was 18 by Courtney Vandersloot for Chicago on Aug. 31, 2020. Vandersloot also had 18 in a playoff game on Sept. 28, 2021. And the league’s previous record for assists by a rookie was 16, set by Ticha Penicheiro for Sacramento on July 29, 1998. The record-breaker for Clark came on a play where she set Kelsey Mitchell up for a 3-pointer with 2:22 remaining. That tied it at 93, but Dallas closed with an 8-0 run. Clark entered the game as the WNBA’s assists-per-game leader this season. She added 24 points on 10-for-19 shooting.
July 18, 2024 4:26 am
TROON, Scotland (AP) — Rory McIlroy takes his first big step toward moving past a major championship collapse. It comes in the last major of the year. McIlroy is among the early starters at Royal Troon as the 152nd British Open gets under way. This is the 10th time at Royal Troon. McIlroy last month was poised to end a decade without a major until missing a pair of 3-foot putts in the U.S. Open to finish one behind Bryson DeChambeau. McIlroy is optimistic about the state of his game. Now he has to handle the wind and bunkers of Royal Troon.
July 17, 2024 4:27 am
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Paul Skenes became the fifth rookie to start an All-Star Game, retiring Steven Kwan, Gunnar Henderson and Aaron Judge for the National League in a hitless first inning. The 22-year-old right-hander, who has just 11 big league appearances, started Kwan with a 98.2 mph four-seamer and retired the major league batting leader on a 99.9 mph pitch with an 0-2 count that Kwan popped up. Henderson hit a weak comebacker on a 93.5 mph sinker and Juan Soto worked out a seven-pitch walk. Aaron Judge grounded into a forceout on the next pitch. The American League went on to a 5-3 win over the National League.
July 17, 2024 4:30 am
CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Bears have locked in their top two rookies, agreeing to four-year contracts with No. 1 overall draft pick Caleb Williams and No. 9 selection Rome Odunze and avoiding any training camp drama with their prized quarterback and receiver. A person familiar with the deal confirmed the agreement with Williams to The Associated Press. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the contract. Williams gets a slotted $39.49 million fully guaranteed deal with a $25.5 million signing bonus. The Bears announced Odunze signed. The club has options for 2028 on both players. The Bears are banking on Williams to become the sort of franchise quarterback Chicago has craved for decades.
July 17, 2024 4:31 am
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The NBA’s Board of Governors approved the league’s next media rights deals with Disney, NBC and Amazon Prime Video at its meeting Tuesday, moving the league one giant step closer to finalizing the 11-year agreements that will be worth about $76 billion. Now comes the next, and possibly final, step: seeing if Warner Bros. Discovery will match one of the deals in an effort to extend a relationship with the NBA that dates to the late 1980s. WBD has five days to match, that clock starting to run when it receives the contracts from the league.
