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Climate change is making major league sluggers into even hotter hitters, sending an extra 50 or so home runs a year over the fences, a new study found. Hotter, thinner air that allows balls to fly farther contributed a tiny bit to a surge in home runs since 2010, according to a statistical analysis by Dartmouth College scientists published in Friday’s Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. They analyzed 100,000 major league games and more than 200,000 balls put into play in the last few years along with weather conditions, stadiums and other factors. “Global warming is juicing home runs...

Major League Baseball’s remarkable home run surge has led to countless records being broken this season. Now the biggest one has fallen. When Jonathan Villar of the Baltimore Orioles launched a three-run home run during Wednesday’s 7-3 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers, it was No. 6,106 hit across MLB this season. That breaks the previous record of 6,105 hit in 2017.

Heads turned. The ball bid the park adieu. With a single, violent swing of his bat, Barry Bonds made baseball history Saturday in Oakland, climbing one home run closer to the immortal Willie Mays. Six hundred sixteen home runs. It's a mind-numbing number, a body of work to rival Tupac's posthumous releases. Congratulations are in order. Wait. Hold up. You say Bonds actually has 714 career home runs? Er, no. Good one. But no. Sure, if you want to get all technical, there's no arguing that Bonds has forcefully redirected 714 pitches into home run territory over his 21 major-league...

Palace of Homer's hero rises out of the myths From John Carr in Athens ARCHAEOLOGISTS claim to have unearthed the remains of the 3,500-year-old palace of Ajax, the warrior-king who according to Homer’s Iliad was one of the most revered fighters in the Trojan War. Classicists hailed the discovery, made on a small Greek island, as evidence that the myths recounted by Homer in his epic poem were based on historical fact. The ruins include a large palace, measuring about 750sq m (8,000sq ft), and believed to have been at least four storeys high with more than thirty rooms. Yannos...

Search 'locates' Homer's Ithaca An amateur British archaeologist says he has located Ithaca, the homeland of Homer's legendary hero Odysseus. Robert Bittlestone - backed by two experts - claims the rocky island depicted in The Odyssey is part of Greek tourist destination Cephalonia. He used satellite imagery to match the area's landscape with descriptions in the poem about the return of the man behind the wooden horse of Troy. Many experts had stated Homer was referring to the island of Ithaki. They had explained geographical inconsistencies in The Odyssey by suggesting that Homer lived much later than the events portrayed...

NEW YORK - Baseball had a brownout this year, with home runs dropping to their lowest level in eight years. Is there a link between the power outage and tougher steroid testing? "A lot of guys who were hitting them haven't been hitting them," Florida's Lenny Harris said. "I think the drug policy had a lot to do with it. It changed a lot of guys' diets. There are too many people having off years." An average of 2.06 homers per game were hit through Sunday, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, down 8 1/2 percent from last season's final...

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Two former America West Airlines pilots surrendered Thursday on federal charges of being under the influence of alcohol while they were behind the controls of a passenger aircraft. Capt. Thomas Cloyd and co-pilot Christopher Hughes appeared Thursday afternoon before a U.S. magistrate and were released on $100,000 bond each. The federal grand jury indictment was unsealed Wednesday. If convicted, each man could be sentenced to as many as 15 years in prison and fined up to $250,000. Both men were declared indigent by the magistrate and were given public defenders. James Rubin, an attorney who...

Reds' Griffey Hits 500th Homer in Victory ) June 20, 2004 06:13 PM EDT ST. LOUIS - Ken Griffey Jr. trotted around the bases as if it were just another home run. It was anything but that - Griffey hit a 2-2 fastball from Matt Morris into the right-field stands to lead off the sixth inning Sunday, securing a spot in the record books as the 20th player with 500 homers. The star center fielder ended a frustrating stretch with the swing, which helped the Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-0. At 34, he became the sixth-youngest player...

Shippers file data they say proves work slowdown By Donna Littlejohn DAILY BREEZE Shipping companies filed productivity numbers Wednesday with the U.S. Justice Department that they say proves there is a “concerted, systematic work slowdown” by the longshore union. The Pacific Maritime Association, representing shipping companies in the ongoing contract dispute with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said it has documented significant declines in productivity. Container movements are down 9 percent in the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the PMA said, but the figures were higher at other West Coast ports: 34 percent in Oakland, 29 percent...