Free Republic

The MLB player poll done by The Athletic's MLB Staff certainly didn't help the San Francisco Giants. Blake Snell was named one of the most overrated players in baseball, and another poll response might be the worst one yet. For many reasons, the Giants have failed to sign superstar free agents in recent seasons. Aaron Judge decided to return to the New York Yankees after there were thoughts of him coming back home. They attempted to land Shohei Ohtani, but that didn't go well, either. It's not easy to land two of the best players in baseball, but the history...

Who's picking up the tab for the new Tampa Bay Rays's $1.3 billion ballpark, where’s that funding is coming from, and other lingering questions were answered this week during a seven-hour-long discussion. On Wednesday morning, St. Pete City Councilmembers, Mayor Ken Welch, and Rays executives hashed out the details of the stadium agreement during a Committee of the Whole workshop meeting. On Thursday, St. Petersburg City Council preliminarily voted 5-3 to approve a development agreement for the new Rays stadium. The opposing votes came from Councilmembers Lisset Hanewicz, John Muhammad, and Richie Floyd. Also passed were ordinances that will rezone...

PARIS (AP) — Water in the Seine River had unsafe elevated levels of E. coli less than two months before swimming competitions are scheduled to take place in it during the Paris Olympics, according to test results published Friday. Contamination levels in the first eight days of June, after persistent heavy rain in Paris, showed bacteria such as E. coli and enterococci beyond limits judged safe for athletes. The report was published by monitoring group Eau de Paris one day after a senior International Olympic Committee executive said there were “no reasons to doubt” races will go ahead as scheduled...

After the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) made a shocking ruling on Thursday that Lia Thomas, a man, would not be allowed to compete on the U.S. women's Olympic team, Thomas requested further clarification on whether he might be allowed to still just hang out naked in the women's locker room on occasion or something like that. "That's fine if I can't compete, but can I, maybe, I dunno, just hang out naked in the women's locker room?" said Thomas to the committee, according to sources. "I can, you know, help with the swimming gear and towels and whatnot....

Amid a rise in both positive and negative discourse surrounding the WNBA, Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark addressed recent comments regarding her name being used for racism and misogyny. The remarks may have been prompted from a Thursday afternoon post by Connecticut Sun guard DiJonai Carrington, who responded to Clark's previous comments that she is strictly focused on basketball. Later on, following the Fever's practice, she responded to the recent backlash. "It's disappointing. I think everyone in our world deserves the same amount of respect," Clark said. "The women around our league deserve the same amount of respect. People should...

Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar is suing a media company he alleges forced him to make a ceremonial bet that lost him his job on the team's pregame show last year, according to court documents. Kosar was pulled off the Browns' pregame radio show in January 2023 for betting on their season finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers, which the team said was a violation of the NFL's gambling policy. Team employees are prohibited from placing bets. Kosar said on his radio show that he bet $19,000 on the Browns and would be giving the winnings to charity. Kosar wore...

The proposed deal with a Luxembourg-based firm would bring a massive influx of cash to the league Big 12 members are considering a first-of-its kind private equity investment to ensure the league's long-term financial and competitive security, multiple sources tell CBS Sports. On the table is a possible cash infusion of $800 million to $1 billion from Luxembourg-based CVC Capital Partners in exchange for a 15% to 20% stake in the league, those sources said. A portion of the money would go directly to the 16 conference members, and the partnership would give the conference access to CVC's investment services...

Does popularity overshadow merit in sports? This question has gained attention recently. Take Olivia Dunne, for instance. With 8 million followers on TikTok, surpassing even Beyonce, and 5.1 million on Instagram, she’s undeniably the most famous college gymnast, boasting a NIL value of $3.9 million. But is that enough for her to go to the Paris Olympics? Most people would say no. Then why are people backing the WNBA sensation, Caitlin Clark? While she has pushed women’s basketball to the forefront, her popularity didn’t result in her selection for the Paris Olympics roster. Some supporters believe Dunne deserves a spot...

Jerry West, who was selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame three times in a storied career as a player and executive and whose silhouette is considered to be the basis of the NBA logo, died Wednesday morning, the Los Angeles Clippers announced. He was 86. West, nicknamed “Mr. Clutch” for his late-game exploits as a player, went into the Hall of Fame as a player in 1980 and again as a member of the 1960 U.S. Olympic Team in 2010. He will be enshrined for a third time later this year as a contributor. President Donald Trump gives the...

Starring: Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo, Yuki Tsunoda, Kevin Magnussen, Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg, Oscar Piastri and George Russell

Jerry West, who was selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame three times in a storied career as a player and executive and whose silhouette is considered to be the basis of the NBA logo, died Wednesday morning at the age of 86, the LA Clippers announced.West was the third player in NBA history to reach 25,000 points, was an All-Star every year of his career and led the Los Angeles Lakers to the NBA Finals nine times, winning one title in 1971-72. He was also a 12-time All-NBA selection, an NBA Finals MVP as part of a losing team...

I started playing golf after my father’s elder brother introduced me to the game during the summer of 1985, when I turned 14. Like millions of others, however, I started watching golf only because of Tiger Woods. Uncle Larry was a military veteran who lived in suburban Washington, which gave him access to the nearby Andrews Air Force Base, where your tax dollars maintain two spectacular 18-hole championship golf courses frequented by service men and women, federal workers, presidents and in my case lucky nephews. In the 1980s and 1990s, golf was perceived mainly as a diversion for country club...

AFlorida resident was awed by the sight of a bear fighting with two alligators when he was out kayaking. Tyler Futrell was sailing along St Johns River when he caught sight of a bear crossing the water. After pulling out his phone to film the animal, he realized that the bear was swimming into the path of two alligators. In the video, the black bear approaches the reptiles before lashing out, while still in the water. All three creatures survived the encounter. Speaking to Fox News about the event, Futrell said: "I was thinking I was getting ready to see...

Asif Kapadia and Joe Sabia's film started life as a home-video tribute to the last days of Federer's tennis career, and that's still how it feels.When it comes to the Big Three who have dominated men’s tennis for the past two decades, I’ve always favored Roger Federer over rivals Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. Federer’s game had a multi-surface brilliance and beauty that rarely got obscured by anything extraneous — off-court drama, on-court excesses. You could marvel at the reliable wizardry of a Federer performance and just assume that, in his utterly wholesome boringness, he wouldn’t let you down as...

The gatekeepers and women of the WNBA share an obvious, deeply rooted disdain for Caitlin Clark. See how they treat, speak of, and undermine her. Clark, a straight white woman, is the main protagonist in a league most proud of its elevation of black lesbians. However, it's not just Clark's identity that stirs animus from other players. It's also her lack of self-guilt. Let us explain: Women in the WNBA suffer from a variant of white derangement syndrome (WDS). How does WDS work? Former ESPN host Bomani Jones, who long fell chronically ill to the mind virus, explained last year....

Josh Maravich, the son of the Hall of Famer "Pistol" Pete, died last week. He was 42. Josh, like his father, played basketball at LSU – he didn't quite have his father's stardom, playing in only 13 games. However, it was a childhood dream for him to play at the arena that bears his father's name. "I wanted to come here for my dad to make him proud," Josh said in a 2005 article in the LSU school paper, The Daily Reveille, per the university's site. "I knew I wasn’t going to be a star player, but for me being...

Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark will reportedly not make the final 12-player USA women's basketball team for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, according to USA Today's Christine Brennan and The Athletic. Here is what the expected roster will look like, which will be led by Cheryl Reeve, Minnesota Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations. Kahleah Copper Chelsea Gray A'ja Wilson Breanna Stewart Diana Taurasi Brittney Griner Alyssa Thomas Napheesa Collier Jewell Loyd Kelsey Plum Jackie Young Sabrina Ionescu The final Olympic roster isn't only Reeves' call. A committee that includes three women's college basketball coaches — Dawn...

Over the past two weeks, one of the biggest culture war conversations in America has had absolutely nothing to do with Donald Trump, Joe Biden or the 2024 elections. Instead, it’s centered on, of all things, the WNBA. The discourse around Caitlin Clark, the Iowa phenom who won rookie of the month in May, has run the gamut of everything wrong with how we argue today — injecting racism, sexism, talk of “pretty privilege” and allegations of “assault” for hard fouls. Most non-sports commentators writing and discussing Clark’s controversial entry into the pros have never had an opinion about basketball...

Recent reports have shown that WNBA star Caitlin Clark has had a massive effect on the league's television viewership, coupled with the fact that she more than doubled the rest of the league's average attendance in a weekend. According to a report by Outkick, through the first weekend of June 2024, WNBA games that featured Clark had an average of 1.099 million viewers. On the flip side, games without Clark averaged only 414,000 viewers. The report noted that the 2023 WNBA season averaged 301,000 viewers per game. It was only in mid-May 2024 that Clark played in the most watched...

on Thursday, the Kansas City Chiefs halted all team activities after defensive lineman BJ Thompson suffered a seizure and soon after went into cardiac arrest during a special teams meeting. In a statement on Thursday night, Thompson’s agent Chris Turnage said, “BJ is still unconscious at this point, but he’s stable, and his vitals are good.” “His family asks for your continued prayers,” added Turnage. Despite canceling all activities on Thursday, the Chiefs are expected to resume practice on Friday.