THE INDIANA SRN “SPORTSPAGE” WEDNESDAY JUNE 19, 2024 (2024)

“THE SCOREBOARD”

NHL PLAYOFFS

2024 STANLEY CUP FINAL

FLORIDA PANTHERS (1A) VS. EDMONTON OILERS (2P)

GAME 1: FLORIDA 3 EDMONTON 0

GAME 2: FLORIDA 1 EDMONTON 1

GAME 3: FLORIDA 4 EDMONTON 3

GAME 4: EDMONTON 8 FLORIDA 1

+GAME 5: EDMONTON 5 FLORIDA 3

+GAME 6: PANTHERS AT OILERS — JUNE 21, 8 P.M. (ABC, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS)

+GAME 7: OILERS AT PANTHERS — JUNE 24, 8 P.M. (ABC, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS)

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

MIAMI 9 ST. LOUIS 8 (10)

SEATTLE 8 CLEVELAND 5

PHILADELPHIA 4 SAN DIEGO 3

CINCINNATI 2 PITTSBURGH 1

ARIZONA 5 WASHINGTON 0

NY YANKEES 4 BALTIMORE 2

BOSTON 4 TORONTO 3

ATLANTA 2 DETROIT 1

MINNESOTA 7 TAMPA BAY 6

NY METS 7 TEXAS 6

CHICAGO CUBS 5 SAN FRANCISCO 2

CHICAGO WHITE SOX 2 HOUSTON 0

LA DODGERS 11 COLORADO 9

MILWAUKEE 6 LA ANGELS 3

OAKLAND 7 KANSAS CITY 5

MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL SCORES

INDIANAPOLIS 4 IOWA 2

LAKE COUNTY 8 SOUTH BEND 4

WISCONSIN 4 FT. WAYNE 1

COLLEGE BASEBALL-NCAA TOURNAMENT WORLD SERIES

FLORIDA STATE 9 NORTH CAROLINA 5

WNBA SCORES

CONNECTICUT 79 LOS ANGELES 70

PHOENIX 99 NEW YORK 93

MLS

NO GAMES SCHEDULED

TOP NATIONAL SPORTS HEADLINES

NHL NEWS

PANTHERS SEE ANOTHER CHANCE AT CUP SLIP AWAY, FALL TO OILERS 5-3 IN GAME 5

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — A slow start. Some bad decisions. A frantic but futile finish. A postgame vow that things will get better. The Florida Panthers have waited forever to call themselves champions, a wait that will now last at least a few more days.

And another long flight to Alberta awaits — with this Stanley Cup Final suddenly looking very tight.

The Panthers gave up two power-play goals and a shorthanded score, got into a 3-0 hole before trying to rally and wound up falling 5-3 to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 5 of the title series on Tuesday night. It was the second consecutive time Florida was thwarted in a chance to win the Cup, after an 8-1 embarrassment in Edmonton over the weekend.

Game 6 is there on Friday night.

“I’m not pumping tires. I’m not rubbing backs. I don’t think we need that at all,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Everybody feels probably exactly the way I do right now. I’m not feeling deflated. Neither’s the hockey team. They’re not feeling deflated. Little grumpy.”

Maybe a lot grumpy.

“We’re going to turn the page,” forward Evan Rodrigues said. “We’re going to learn from this one.”

Rodrigues and Matthew Tkachuk each had a goal and an assist for Florida, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson also scored for the Panthers. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 shots for Florida, which will see its 30-years-and-counting wait for the franchise’s first Stanley Cup title last at least three more days.

“We get another crack at it on Friday,” Tkachuk said.

Connor McDavid had two goals and two assists to become the first player in NHL history to have back-to-back four-point games in the Stanley Cup Final, and Evan Bouchard added three assists for Edmonton. Connor Brown, Zach Hyman and Corey Perry also had goals for the Oilers while Stuart Skinner stopped 29 shots.

McDavid said it was a total team effort. It was, but it was also another superhuman effort from McDavid, the game’s best player who is doing things never before done in the title series.

The four points gave McDavid 42 in these playoffs, the fourth-most in a single postseason in NHL history. The only players ahead of him are the ones everyone would expect: Wayne Gretzky had 47 points in 1985, Mario Lemieux had 44 in 1991 and Gretzky had 43 in 1988.

McDavid will have at least one — and, he hopes, two — games to add to that total. If there is a Game 7, it’ll be in Sunrise on Monday night.

“Anytime you’re in the same realm as those two, it’s always a good thing,” McDavid said.

It was the first time in Panthers history that they played a home game with a chance to win the Cup. Another sellout crowd came, some of the paying more than $1,000 apiece for tickets on the secondary market — the crowd pushing Florida’s total attendance for the season over 1 million for the first time.

They came to see the trophy.

The Oilers just wouldn’t let it happen. And when it was over, Tkachuk was asked if the Panthers feel the pressure.

“No. No. No,” Tkachuk said. “It’s not an elimination game for us. We’re going up there, we have a 3-2 series lead, just got to take care of business like we did in Game 3.”

Edmonton came into the night having scored 10 of the series’ last 11 goals — a 2-0 third period in its Game 3 loss, then the 8-1 romp in Game 4.

And the Oilers picked up right where they left off, with an absolute clinic of special-teams hockey.

Game 5 started just as Game 4 did, with Edmonton getting a short-handed goal. Brown assisted it on Saturday night; he scored it unassisted in this one, and the Oilers were on their way. Florida took a penalty — interference by Niko Mikkola — as time expired in the first and it proved costly.

Hyman made it 2-0 with two seconds left in the second-period-opening power play, and McDavid pushed Edmonton’s lead to 3-0 from a ridiculously tough angle that he made look easy three minutes later.

The three-goal lead has been infallible in the Stanley Cup Final for almost two decades; no team had lost after leading by three in a title-series game since Edmonton against Carolina in 2006. Every team since then, 39-0 in such games.

Make it 40-0. But the Panthers made it interesting.

It was 4-2 by the end of the second, Tkachuk and Rodrigues sandwiching goals around Perry’s first of the playoffs — set up by a brilliant pass from McDavid. Ekman-Larsson scored early in the third, but the equalizer never came.

“Never want to put yourself behind the 8-ball,” Rodrigues said. “We’ve got to win one game. Simple as that. Go up there, got to win one game. That’s our mindset. That’s what we’re going to go do.”

NEW YORK RANGERS PUT DEPTH FORWARD BARCLAY GOODROW ON WAIVERS

The New York Rangers put Barclay Goodrow on waivers Tuesday, the first step of an offseason plan to clear salary cap space and prime for another deep playoff run.

Goodrow is signed for three more seasons at an annual cap hit of $3.6 million. That comes off the books if one of the NHL’s other 31 teams claims him.

If Goodrow clears waivers, the Rangers have options to trade him or buy out the final three years of his contract. A buyout would save them $3.9 million next season, $2.6 million in 2025-26 and $139,000 in 2026-27 before costing an extra $1.1 million the following three seasons through 2030.

Goodrow, 31, has been a valuable depth center on several long playoff runs going back to San Jose’s trip to the Western Conference final in 2019. He played a key role in Tampa Bay’s back-to-back Stanley Cup-winning teams in 2020 and ’21 and helped New York reach the Eastern Conference final in ’22 and this postseason before losing to Florida.

The Toronto native has 169 points in 572 regular-season games and 24 more in 97 games in the playoffs since making his debut in the league in 2014.

BASKETBALL NEWS

FOR DOMINICANS, CELTICS STAR AL HORFORD IS A NATIONAL TREASURE AFTER NBA CHAMPIONSHIP VICTORY

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Al Horford is being celebrated in the Dominican Republic after the Boston Celtics center became the first player from the country to win an NBA title on Monday.

Horford — whose full name is Alfred Joel Horford Reynoso — has been congratulated by the president of the Dominican Republic, international bachata stars and others after finally winning a championship in his 17th NBA season.

“Al Horford has made history as the first Dominican to win an NBA Finals series,” President Luis Abinader said on X. “What great pride for our country! Congratulations on your incredible achievement.” The tweet included an emoji of the Dominican flag and the hashtag #OrgulloDominicano, or #DominicanPride.

The Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 to win the franchise’s 18th championship, breaking a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most in league history.

“I feel proud to represent all the Dominicans, no just over there, but in the world because I know they’re in different places in Europe and here in the United States,” said Horford, who had a Dominican flag tucked in his waistband while posing for photos with the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Horford, from Puerto Plata, joins a short list of Latino players to win an NBA title: Manu Ginóbili and Fabricio Oberto from Argentina, Butch Lee and J.J. Barea from Puerto Rico, Carl Herrera from Venezuela, Leandro Barbosa from Brazil, and Juan Toscano-Anderson from Mexico.

Dominican maestro Juan Luis Guerra also congratulated the 38-year-old Celtics star with an Instagram post of the basketball team and a caption that read “Glory to God!!.”

The Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Sports posted a picture on X with text reading “Dominican Pride.”

Horford earned his first ring in his 15th playoff appearance. The 38-year-old has played in the Finals twice. He is the son of Tito Horford, a retired Dominican basketball star who played in the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Horford moved to Michigan from the Dominican Republic with his family before heading to Florida to play college basketball for the Gators.

KYRIE IRVING SOUNDS READY TO KEEP CHASING TITLES IN DALLAS AFTER NBA FINALS LOSS TO BOSTON

DALLAS (AP) — Kyrie Irving is a year away from having the option to leave the Dallas Mavericks, and at that point would be closing in on his longest stint anywhere since asking out of Cleveland, where he was drafted, in 2017.

Yet the mercurial guard sounded as if Dallas could be his basketball home well beyond 2025 after losing the NBA Finals in five games to the Boston Celtics in his first full season with co-star Luka Doncic.

“I see an opportunity for us to really build our future in a positive manner where this is almost like a regular thing for us, and we’re competing for championships,” Irving said after Dallas’ 106-88 loss in Game 5.

Irving jilted Boston in free agency in 2019 and has been steadfastly booed by Celtics fans since then. His 3 1/2 seasons in Brooklyn were filled with mostly self-inflicted drama, to the point that he finally asked for a trade after doing the same to break away from LeBron James and the Cavaliers.

When the Mavs acquired the eight-time All-Star at the deadline last year, Irving’s reputation around the league was in tatters. Things have changed in 16 months.

“From a spiritual standpoint, I think I enjoyed this journey more than any other season, just because of the redemption arc and being able to learn as much as I did about myself and my teammates and the organization and the people that I’m around,” Irving said. “It’s a lot of good people here, so it makes coming to work a lot of fun.”

Doncic’s player option is a year after Irving’s, following the 2025-26 season. And every other rotation player in the playoffs except for guard Derrick Jones Jr. is under contract next season.

The Mavericks don’t have much room to maneuver under the salary cap, but they will have the nagging question of whether a more dangerous third scoring option is the missing piece.

The 25-year-old Doncic is entering his prime in a difficult Western Conference, with two trips at least to the West finals in the past three seasons.

But Dallas was a surprise team both times, and couldn’t stick around past five games. The next level would be getting this far without being a surprise, perhaps as the favorite to win the title.

Such progress might be required to keep Irving and Doncic together beyond 2025-26, or to keep Doncic in Dallas as long as retired star Dirk Nowitzki stayed — a record 21 seasons with the same franchise.

“When you have one of the best players in the world,” coach Jason Kidd said, “you should be always fighting for a championship.”

While Irving and Doncic had a full season, the Mavs like to talk about having just five months together. That’s when trade-deadline additions Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington arrived and helped give Dallas a defensive mindset that became crucial to the deep playoff run.

Last fall, the talk was the full reset for Doncic and Irving. In 3 1/2 months, the talk will be of Gafford, Washington and budding 7-foot-1 star Dereck Lively II, Dallas’ rookie first-round pick, having their first training camp together.

“We did some great moves,” said Doncic, who won his first scoring title. “I would say we’ve been together for five months. We didn’t win the finals, but we did have a hell of a season.”

If the Mavs don’t add a starter in the offseason, the 32-year-old Irving figures to be the only player older than 26 in the lineup. Lively won’t be 21 until February.

Maxi Kleber, a 32-year-old with seven seasons of NBA experience, is the other 30-something who might be in the rotation. Tim Hardaway Jr. is the same age, but he fell out of the rotation late in the season, leaving his role in doubt with one year remaining on his contract.

“We’re a young team, and so this isn’t a team when you look at do we have to replace some of the older players,” Kidd said. “We have a core, a young core at that, and so this is an exciting time to be a Mavs fan and to also be a coach for the Mavs.”

The “old guy” — Irving — sounds as if he doesn’t want to be replaced in Dallas anytime soon.

“When you really love something, you really want to win and it doesn’t happen, how do you respond from that?” Irving asked. “I think I could tell you I’m pretty confident that we’ll be back in the gym pretty soon and getting ready for next year.”

IT’S ALREADY NEXT SEASON IN THE NBA, WHERE THE OFFSEASON IS ALMOST NONEXISTENT

In the NBA, it’s already next season.

The offseason, technically, might have lasted for only about an hour. The Boston Celtics won the NBA Finals on Monday night, and when the clock rolled over to Tuesday morning, teams — in many cases — could start talking to their own free agents.

The on-court games are over, for now. Let the off-court games begin.

“This is a business,” Miami Heat President Pat Riley said when his team’s season ended last month, “as much as it is anything else.”

The champion Celtics and Jayson Tatum can agree on an extension that will be worth a record $315 million, though that record is probably going to get smashed annually over the next few years. There’s an Olympics that will have tons of NBA representation. The Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers still need to hire head coaches. LeBron James, who plays (for now at least) for the Lakers and used to play for the Cavs, can be a free agent. Bronny James — his oldest son — may be about to enter the league as a rookie, there’s a draft that starts on June 26, and the Atlanta Hawks hold the No. 1 selection in what will be one of countless dominoes to fall this summer.

“I really enjoy our process that we’ve built out and the people that we’ve done it with,” Hawks general manager Landry Fields said. “At the end of the day, you all will be the judge of whether that was the right pick or not. For me, it’s more looking at where are we at, what was our process, how are we assessing this current player and just rolling with it.”

The new rule, part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, saying that teams can talk to their own free agents before the June 30 start of free agency means that some deals can be agreed to — but not announced — even earlier than usual. Deals cannot be signed until July 6, in most cases. The penalties for rule-breakers on those fronts will be severe: fines of up to $2 million, forfeiting of draft picks and suspension of team personnel involved in violations are among the NBA’s options.

Some players will get a few million this summer. Some will get many millions. The creativity of teams and their salary-cap gurus will be tested this summer, as always.

“You have to put a pencil to the bottom line,” Riley said. “And then also you have to pencil in what the cost is going to be in the collateral damage of going over the first apron, the second apron and then the repeater tax.”

Meanwhile, the NBA is going to secure billions before long. Billions and billions. The biggest deal — series of deals, really — in league history is likely about to close, that being the new media rights packages that the league has been negotiating for some time.

The current deals with ABC-ESPN and Turner Sports expire after next season and the NBA has been talking with NBC, ESPN and Amazon, among other networks and platforms, about what comes next. The numbers are staggering: 11 years and more than $70 billion is the expectation, both dwarfing the current nine-year, $24 billion deal.

“The global nature definitely factors into the discussions,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. “As all of the media companies, even the traditional ones, move towards streaming and have whether primary or adjacent streaming platforms, those platforms are increasingly global. And their ability to reach our fans around the world is a critical component of these discussions.”

It’s a mix of everything right now, some contracts that will extend for a decade, some that won’t last past the end of Summer League in Las Vegas next month. There are big questions — will Golden State keep its core together, will San Antonio take a big swing to place more talent around rookie of the year Victor Wembanyama, where will James go, will Miami give Jimmy Butler the extension he seeks, will Donovan Mitchell stay in Cleveland, and on and on and on.

The only real certainties are these: There are 29 teams chasing the Celtics, and everyone is looking to get better. It starts with the draft, then free agency, and plenty of people around the NBA think this will be a summer filled with trades as well.

“Good players are really hard to find, like super hard to find,” Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti said. “Guys that can play consistently in the NBA and be in the NBA for more than three years … that’s actually harder than it sounds.”

Welcome to next season, already in progress.

BASEBALL NEWS

HALL OF FAMER, GIANTS LEGEND WILLIE MAYS DIES AT 93

Willie Mays, the electrifying “Say Hey Kid” whose singular combination of talent, drive and exuberance made him one of baseball’s greatest and most beloved players, has died. He was 93.

Mays’ family and the San Francisco Giants jointly announced Tuesday night he had died earlier in the afternoon.

“My father has passed away peacefully and among loved ones,” son Michael Mays said in a statement released by the club. “I want to thank you all from the bottom of my broken heart for the unwavering love you have shown him over the years. You have been his life’s blood.”

The center fielder was baseball’s oldest living Hall of Famer. His signature basket catch and his dashes around the bases with his cap flying off personified the joy of the game. His over-the shoulder catch of a long drive in the 1954 World Series is baseball’s most celebrated defensive feat.

Mays died two days before a game between the Giants and St. Louis Cardinals to honor the Negro Leagues at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama.

“All of Major League Baseball is in mourning today as we are gathered at the very ballpark where a career and a legacy like no other began,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “Willie Mays took his all-around brilliance from the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League to the historic Giants franchise. From coast to coast in New York and San Francisco, Willie inspired generations of players and fans as the game grew and truly earned its place as our National Pastime. … We will never forget this true Giant on and off the field.”

Few were so blessed with each of the five essential qualities for a superstar — hitting for average, hitting for power, speed, fielding and throwing. Fewer so joyously exerted those qualities — whether launching home runs; dashing around the bases, loose-fitting cap flying off his head; or chasing down fly balls in center field and finishing the job with his trademark basket catch.

“When I played ball, I tried to make sure everybody enjoyed what I was doing,” Mays told NPR in 2010. “I made the clubhouse guy fit me a cap that when I ran, the wind gets up in the bottom and it flies right off. People love that kind of stuff.”

Over 22 MLB seasons, virtually all with the New York/San Francisco Giants, Mays batted .301, hit 660 home runs, totaled 3,293 hits, scored more than 2,000 runs and won 12 Gold Glove. He was Rookie of the Year in 1951, twice was named the Most Valuable Player and finished in the top 10 for the MVP 10 other times. His lightning sprint and over-the-shoulder grab of an apparent extra base hit in the 1954 World Series remains the most celebrated defensive play in baseball history.

He was voted into the Hall in 1979, his first year of eligibility, and in 1999 followed only Babe Ruth on The Sporting News’ list of the game’s top stars. (Statistician Bill James ranked him third, behind Ruth and Honus Wagner). The Giants retired his uniform number, 24, and set their AT&T Park in San Francisco on Willie Mays Plaza.

For millions in the 1950s and ’60s and after, the smiling ball player with the friendly, high-pitched voice was a signature athlete and showman during an era when baseball was still the signature pastime. Awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2015, Mays left his fans with countless memories. But a single feat served to capture his magic — one so untoppable it was simply called “The Catch.”

In Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, the then-New York Giants hosted the Cleveland Indians, who had won 111 games in the regular season and were strong favorites in the postseason. The score was 2-2 in the top of the eighth inning. Cleveland’s Vic Wertz faced reliever Don Liddle with none out, Larry Doby on second and Al Rosen on first.

With the count 1-2, Wertz smashed a fastball to deep center field. In an average park, with an average center fielder, Wertz would have homered, or at least had an easy triple. But the center field wall in the eccentrically shaped Polo Grounds was more than 450 feet away. And there was nothing close to average about the skills of Willie Mays.

Decades of taped replays have not diminished the astonishment of watching Mays race toward the wall, his back to home plate; reach out his glove and haul in the drive. What followed was also extraordinary: Mays managed to turn around while still moving forward, heave the ball to the infield and prevent Doby from scoring even as Mays spun to the ground. Mays himself would proudly point out that “the throw” was as important as “the catch.”

Decades of taped replays have not diminished the astonishment of watching Mays race toward the wall, his back to home plate; reach out his glove and haul in the drive. What followed was also extraordinary: Mays managed to turn around while still moving forward, heave the ball to the infield and prevent Doby from scoring even as Mays spun to the ground. Mays himself would proudly point out that “the throw” was as important as “the catch.”

“Soon as it got hit, I knew I’d catch the ball,” Mays told biographer James S. Hirsch, whose book came out in 2010.

“All the time I’m running back, I’m thinking, ‘Willie, you’ve got to get this ball back to the infield.’”

“The Catch” was seen and heard by millions through radio and the then-emerging medium of television, and Mays became one of the first Black athletes with mass media appeal. He was a guest star on “The Donna Reed Show,” “Bewitched” and other sitcoms. He inspired a handful of songs and was named first in Terry Cashman’s 1980s novelty hit, “Talkin’ Baseball (Willie, Mickey & The Duke),” a tribute in part to the brief era when New York had three future Hall of Famers in center: Mays, Mantle of the Yankees and Snider of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The Giants went on to sweep the Indians, with many citing Mays’ play as the turning point. The impact was so powerful that 63 years later, in 2017, baseball named the World Series Most Valuable Player after him even though it was his only moment of postseason greatness. He appeared in three other World Series, in 1951 and 1962 for the Giants and 1973 for the Mets, batting just .239 with no home runs in the four series. (His one postseason homer was in the 1971 National League playoffs, when the Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates).

But “The Catch” and his achievements during the regular season were greatness enough. Yankees and Dodgers fans may have fiercely challenged Mays’ eminence, but Mantle and Snider did not. At a 1995 baseball writers dinner in Manhattan, with all three at the dais, Mantle raised the eternal question: Which of the three was better?

“We don’t mean being second, do we, Duke?” he added.

Between 1954 and 1966, Mays drove in 100 or more runs 10 times, scored 100 or more 12 times, hit 40 or more homers six times, more than 50 homers twice and led the league in stolen bases four times. His numbers might have been bigger. He missed most of 1952 and all of 1953 because of military service, quite possibly costing him the chance to overtake Ruth’s career home run record of 714, an honor that first went to Henry Aaron; then Mays’ godson, Barry Bonds. He likely would have won more Gold Gloves if the award had been established before 1956. He insisted he would have led the league in steals more often had he tried.

Mays was fortunate in escaping serious injury and avoiding major scandal, but he endured personal and professional troubles. His first marriage, to Marghuerite Wendell, ended in divorce. He was often short of money in the pre-free agent era, and he received less for endorsem*nts than did Mantle and other white athletes. He was subject to racist insults and his insistence that he was an entertainer, not a spokesman, led to his being chastised by Jackie Robinson and others for not contributing more to the civil rights movement. He didn’t care for some of his managers and didn’t always appreciate a fellow idol, notably Aaron, his greatest contemporary.

“When Henry began to soar up the home-run chart, Willie was loathe to give even a partial nod to Henry’s ability, choosing instead to blame his own performance on his home turf, (San Francisco’s) Candlestick Park, saying it was a lousy park in which to hit homers and this was the reason for Henry’s onrush,” Aaron biographer Howard Bryant wrote in 2010.

Admirers of Aaron, who died in 2021, would contend that only his quiet demeanor and geographical distance from major media centers — Aaron played in Atlanta and Milwaukee — kept him from being ranked the same as, or even better than Mays. But much of the baseball world placed Mays above all. He was the game’s highest-paid player for 11 seasons (according to the Society for American Baseball Research) and often batted first in All-Star games, because he was Willie Mays. From center field, he called pitches and positioned other fielders. He boasted that he relied on his own instincts, not those of any coach, when deciding whether to try for an extra base.

Sports writer Barney Kremenko has often been credited with nicknaming him “The Say Hey Kid,” referring to Mays’ spirited way of greeting his teammates. Moments on and off the field sealed the public’s affection. In 1965, Mays defused a horrifying brawl after teammate Juan Marichal clubbed Los Angeles Dodgers catcher John Roseboro with a bat. Mays led a bloodied Roseboro away and sat with him on the clubhouse bench of the Dodgers, the Giants’ hated rivals.

Years earlier, when living in Manhattan, he endeared himself to young fans by playing in neighborhood stickball games.

“I used to have maybe 10 kids come to my window,” he said in 2011 while visiting the area of the old Polo Grounds. “Every morning, they’d come at 9 o’clock. They’d knock on my window, get me up. And I had to be out at 9:30. So they’d give me a chance to go shower. They’d give me a chance to eat breakfast. But I had to be out there at 9:30, because that’s when they wanted to play. So I played with them for about maybe an hour.”

He was born in Westfield, Alabama, in 1931, the son of a Negro League player who wanted Willie to do the same, playing catch with him and letting him sit in the dugout. Young Mays was so gifted an athlete that childhood friends swore that basketball, not baseball, was his best sport.

By high school he was playing for the Birmingham Black Barons, and late in life would receive an additional 10 hits to his career total, 3,293, when Negro League statistics were recognized in 2024 by Major League Baseball. With Robinson breaking the major league’s color barrier in 1947, Mays’ ascension became inevitable. The Giants signed him after he graduated from high school (he had to skip his senior prom) and sent him to its minor league affiliate in Trenton, New Jersey. He began the 1951 season with Minneapolis, a Triple-A club. After 35 games, he was batting a head-turning .477 and was labeled by one scout as “the best prospect in America.” Giants Manager Leo Durocher saw no reason to wait and demanded that Mays, barely 20 at the time, join his team’s starting lineup.

Durocher managed Mays from 1951-55 and became a father figure — the surly but astute leader who nurtured and sometimes pampered the young phenom. As Durocher liked to tell it, and Mays never disputed, Mays struggled in his first few games and was ready to go back to the minors.

“In the minors I’m hitting .477, killing everybody. And I came to the majors, I couldn’t hit. I was playing the outfield very, very well, throwing out everybody, but I just couldn’t get a hit,” Mays told the Academy of Achievement, a Washington-based leadership center, in 1996. “And I started crying, and Leo came to me and he says, ‘You’re my center fielder; it doesn’t make any difference what you do. You just go home, come back and play tomorrow.’ I think that really, really turned me around.”

Mays finished 1951 batting .272 with 20 home runs, good enough to be named the league’s top rookie. He might have been a legend that first season. The Giants were 13 games behind Brooklyn on Aug. 11, but rallied and tied the Dodgers, then won a best-of-3 playoff series with one of baseball’s most storied homers: Bobby Thomson’s shot in the bottom of the ninth off Ralph Branca.

Mays was the on-deck batter.

“I was concentrating on Branca, what he was throwing, what he might throw me,” Mays told The New York Times in 2010. “When he hit the home run, I didn’t even move.

“I remember all the guys running by me, running to home plate, and I’m saying, ‘What’s going on here?’ I was thinking, ‘I got to hit!‘”

His military service the next two years stalled his career, but not his development. Mays was assigned as a batting instructor for his unit’s baseball team and, at the suggestion of one pupil, began catching fly balls by holding out his glove face up, around his belly, like a basket. Mays adopted the new approach in part because it enabled him to throw more quickly.

He returned full time in 1954, hit 41 homers and a league-leading .345. He was only 34 when he hit his 500th career homer, in 1965, but managed just 160 over the next eight years. Early in the 1972 season, with Mays struggling and the Giants looking to cut costs, the team stunned Mays and others by trading its marquee player to the New York Mets, returning him to the city where he had started out in the majors.

Mays’ debut with his new team could not have been better scripted: He hit a go-ahead home run in the fifth inning against the visiting Giants, and helped the Mets win 5-4. But he deteriorated badly over the next two seasons, even falling down on occasion in the field. Many cited him as example of a star who stayed too long.

In retirement, he mentored Bonds and defended him against allegations of using steroids. Mays himself was in trouble when Commissioner Bowie Kuhn banned him from the game, in 1979, for doing promotional work at the Bally’s Park Place Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (Kuhn’s successor, Peter Ueberroth, reinstated Mays and fellow casino promoter Mantle in 1985).

But tributes were more common and they came from everywhere — show business, sports, the White House. In the 1979 movie “Manhattan,” Woody Allen’s character cites Mays as among his reasons for living. When Obama learned he was a distant cousin of political rival and former Vice President Dick Cheney, he lamented that he wasn’t related to someone “cool,” like Mays.

Asked about career highlights, Mays inevitably mentioned “The Catch,” but also cherished hitting four home runs in a game against the Braves; falling over a canvas fence to make a catch in the minors; and running into a fence in Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field while chasing a bases-loaded drive, knocking himself out, but still holding on to the ball.

Most of the time, he was happy just being on the field, especially when the sun went down.

“I mean, you had the lights out there and all you do is go out there, and you’re out there by yourself in center field,” he told the achievement academy. “And, I just felt that it was such a beautiful game that I just wanted to play it forever, you know.”

MLB ROUNDUP: DOWN 5 IN 9TH, DODGERS

Teoscar Hernandez followed Jason Heyward’s grand slam with a three-run homer in a seven-run ninth inning as the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied to beat the Colorado Rockies 11-9 on Tuesday in Denver.

It was the first time the Dodgers rallied from a five-run deficit in the ninth to win since July 18, 1957, when Brooklyn defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 10-9 in 11 innings.

The Rockies led 9-4 entering the ninth, but Colorado reliever Tyler Kinley loaded the bases with one out on two walks and a single. Heyward, pinch-hitting for Chris Taylor, homered off the foul pole in right to cut the deficit to one.

There were two runners on and two out when Hernandez homered to put Los Angeles ahead. Earlier, Ohtani socked a 476-foot homer, the longest hit in the majors this season.

Reds 2, Pirates 1

Santiago Espinal hit a two-run homer and Nick Lodolo tossed seven strong innings to win his fifth consecutive start as Cincinnati won at Pittsburgh.

Lodolo (8-2) allowed one run on four hits with no walks and eight strikeouts. Jonathan India and Luke Maile had two hits apiece for Cincinnati, which snapped a three-game losing streak and avenged a 4-1 loss on Monday in the opener of the three-game series.

Lodolo outdueled Pirates starter Bailey Falter (3-5), who yielded two runs on seven hits over seven innings. He walked two and struck out three. Bryan Reynolds singled and doubled for Pittsburgh to extend his hitting streak to 16 games, which is the longest active streak in the majors.

Mets 7, Rangers 6

Pete Alonso drilled a tiebreaking double in the ninth inning and New York stretched its winning streak to a season-high seven games with a comeback victory in Arlington, Texas.

Francisco Alvarez had three hits, including a tying two-run double, as New York recovered from a four-run deficit. Mark Vientos homered among three hits and Brandon Nimmo also went deep as the Mets won for the 13th time in their past 17 games.

Josh Smith hit a three-run homer and Wyatt Langford added a solo shot for Texas, which has lost five straight games and 10 of its past 14. Corey Seager drove in two runs for the Rangers.

Red Sox 4, Blue Jays 3

Ceddanne Rafaela had three hits, including a go-ahead, two-out RBI single in the eighth inning, and visiting Boston defeated Toronto.

Tyler O’Neill’s home run to center leading off the eighth tied the game for the Red Sox, who have won the first two games of the three-game series and four straight overall. Zack Kelly (1-1) got the win with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Toronto starter Chris Bassitt allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings. Brendon Little (0-1) took the loss, and Ernie Clement had two RBIs for Toronto.

Twins 7, Rays 6

Carlos Santana delivered a pinch-hit, walk-off single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift Minnesota to a win over Tampa Bay in Minneapolis.

Santana’s two-out hit drove in Manuel Margot, who led off the inning with a single and advanced to second base on a single by Carlos Correa. Willi Castro finished 2-for-4 with two doubles and three RBIs for the Twins, who won their sixth straight game.

Randy Arozarena hit a three-run homer to lead the Rays. Brandon Lowe and Josh Lowe added one solo home run apiece. Twins right-hander Jhoan Duran (3-2) earned the victory with a scoreless inning of relief.

Marlins 9, Cardinals 8 (10 innings)

Pinch hitter Vidal Brujan hit a walk-off single in the 10th inning as host Miami overcame four deficits to defeat St. Louis.

Jesus Sanchez went 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBIs for the Marlins, who ended a six-game losing streak.

Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan and Paul Goldschmidt each homered for the Cardinals, who had won five of six.

Mariners 8, Guardians 5

J.P. Crawford homered and drove in three runs and Dylan Moore also went deep to go along with three runs, fueling Seattle over host Cleveland.

Luke Raley added a solo shot while Mitch Garver drove in two runs to propel the Mariners to their fourth win in a row and their 17th in the past 22 games. The power surge was more than enough for right-hander Bryce Miller (6-5), who allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits in 5 2/3 innings to improve to 3-0 in his past five starts.

Will Brennan had an RBI single among his three hits and Jose Ramirez added a run-scoring single for the Guardians, who have lost three straight games for the second time this season. They also dropped three straight from May 9-11.

Phillies 4, Padres 3

Nick Castellanos’ fourth hit of the night was a walk-off double in the ninth inning, giving Philadelphia a come-from-behind victory over visiting San Diego.

Castellanos doubled twice, Kyle Schwarber added a home run and single and Brandon Marsh contributed two hits and an RBI for the Phillies, who strung together four straight hits in the ninth to erase a 3-2 deficit.

Luis Campusano hit a two-run homer for the Padres, who have dropped five straight.

Diamondbacks 5, Nationals 0

Ketel Marte hit a two-run homer and drove in three runs, Slade Cecconi tossed six strong innings and visiting Arizona beat Washington.

Joc Pederson had three hits for Arizona, which has won four of five.

Nationals starter Jake Irvin (5-6) allowed four runs on eight hits over five innings. He walked four, struck out two and was helped by his defense, which turned four double plays during his stint.

Yankees 4, Orioles 2

Aaron Judge scored on a base hit by Giancarlo Stanton in the third inning and exited an inning later with an injured left hand as host New York beat Baltimore in the opener of a three-game series between the top two teams in the American League.

Judge was hit on the left hand near his pinky and knuckle on a 1-2 fastball by Baltimore starter Albert Suarez (3-1) in the third. He stayed in the game after being briefly checked out, slid into third base on a base hit by Alex Verdugo and scored the Yankees’ second run on Stanton’s base hit. After the game, Judge said X-rays and a CT scan revealed no damage.

The Orioles avoided getting blanked for the third time this season thanks to a two-run homer by Anthony Santander in the ninth. Baltimore also lost Jordan Westburg to left hip discomfort after the top of the second inning.

Cubs 5, Giants 2

Dansby Swanson hit a two-run homer and Chicago scored three runs in the eighth to beat visiting San Francisco.

Ian Happ had two hits and two runs for the Cubs, while Michael Busch and Cody Bellinger each had two hits and one run in the middle game of the three-game series. Bellinger and Happ also drove in one run apiece for Chicago, which had lost two straight and four of its past five.

Curt Casali had a two-run double for the Giants. San Francisco starter Logan Webb allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings. He struck out five and walked one on 101 pitches.

Braves 2, Tigers 1

Rookie Spencer Schwellenbach threw six strong innings to earn his first major league win as Atlanta beat visiting Detroit for the second straight game.

Schwellenbach, a second-round draft pick in 2021, grew up in Saginaw, Mich., as a Tigers fan. The 24-year-old opened the outing with five scoreless innings before surrendering his lone run in the sixth. He allowed three hits and two walks and posted a career-best seven strikeouts.

The Braves have won five of their last six games, while the Tigers have lost three straight and dropped nine of their last 12. Detroit starter Casey Mize threw 87 pitches in four innings and allowed two runs on five hits, with no walks and three strikeouts.

White Sox 2, Astros 0

Rookie right-hander Jonathan Cannon pitched 8 2/3 shutout innings for his first career major league victory to lift host Chicago over Houston.

Cannon scattered seven hits and one walk with four strikeouts while reaching a career high in innings. Cannon (1-1) yielded consecutive soft singles with two outs in the ninth before yielding to John Brebbia, who retired Victor Caratini for the final out to earn the save.

Alex Bregman and Trey Cabbage had two hits each for the Astros. Houston starter Framber Valdez fell to 5-5 after allowing two runs and two hits in six innings. Valdez had five walks and five strikeouts.

Athletics 7, Royals 5

Zack Gelof homered, JJ Bleday collected three doubles and Oakland snapped a nine-game losing streak with a win over visiting Kansas City in the opener of a three-game series.

Gelof finished with two hits and two runs to complement his three RBIs for the A’s, who outhit the Royals 11-7. Miguel Andujar also had two hits, while Max Schuemann also scored twice.

Salvador Perez had a pair of singles for the Royals, who lost for the seventh time in their past nine games.

Brewers 6, Angels 3

Tobias Myers threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings, but Milwaukee needed a game-saving catch by center fielder Sal Frelick in the bottom of the ninth to hold onto the victory over Los Angeles at Anaheim, Calif.

Behind Myers’ performance, the Brewers took a 6-0 lead into the ninth. The Angels chipped away within 6-3, forcing Brewers manager Pat Murphy to summon closer Trevor Megill with two on and two outs.

Megill then yielded a drive to right-center by Taylor Ward. Frelick leaped and reached above the yellow line to make the catch, robbing Ward of what would have been a game-tying homer. Megill got his 14th save.

GUARDIANS 3B JOSÉ RAMÍREZ ACTIVATED FROM PATERNITY LIST, ROOKIE KYLE MANZARDO SENT BACK TO MINORS

CLEVELAND (AP) — Guardians third baseman José Ramírez was activated from the paternity list Tuesday before AL Central-leading Cleveland opened a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners.

Ramírez, who leads All-Star voting at his position, missed the final two games of the Guardians’ weekend series in Toronto while his third child was born.

The 31-year-old Ramírez is batting .269 with a team-leading 18 homers and 62 RBIs for the Guardians, who have a five-game lead over second-place Kansas City.

To make room for Ramírez, the Guardians optioned rookie first baseman/DH Kyle Manzardo to Triple-A Columbus. Manzardo showed some positive signs in his first stint with Cleveland, but like so many young hitters, he struggled with consistency.

Manzardo batted just .207 with seven RBIs in 30 games. He struck out 23 times in 82 at-bats.

The Guardians remain high on the 23-year-old, who was acquired last year at the trading deadline from Tampa Bay for starter Aaron Civale.

MLB SETTLES ON AUTOMATED BALL-STRIKE CHALLENGES IN TRIPLE-A

The automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system will be used in all Triple-A games effective June 25, Major League Baseball said on Tuesday in a memo.

The move comes after Triple-A has recently used two variations of the ABS system.

The full ABS system, which communicates every ball-strike call to the home plate umpire through an earpiece, has been used during Tuesday-Thursday games.

Under the challenge system, used in Friday-Sunday games, home plate umpires call balls and strikes as normal. However, each team can appeal calls made by the umpire. For each challenge, the umpire is quickly relayed the correct call through an earpiece.

Calls can be challenged by a batter, pitcher or catcher. A team is ineligible to challenge after their third unsuccessful appeal.

According to ESPN, surveys revealed that players and fans prefer at least some human element to ball-strike calls.

About half of fans and 60 percent of team personnel favor the challenge system, while roughly 30 percent of both team personnel and fans want technology-free umpiring. Nine in 10 team personnel are opposed to full ABS, as are about three-quarters of fans.

An automated ball-strike system is unlikely to reach the major league level by the 2025 season, commissioner Rob Manfred said last month.

Should a system reach the majors, Manfred suggested it may incorporate human umpires instead of fully relying on technology.

“There’s a growing consensus in large part based on what we’re hearing from players that the challenge form should be the form of ABS, if and when we bring it to the big leagues, at least as a starting point,” Manfred said.

The commissioner said that “technical issues in terms of the operation of the system” have delayed the potential installment of a system in MLB to at least 2026.

COLLEGE BASEBALL

FLORIDA ST. ELIMINATES NORTH CAROLINA FROM MCWS TO SET UP VOLS REMATCH

Jaxson West and Max Williams hit back-to-back home runs in the ninth inning to cap off No. 8 seed Florida State’s 9-5 victory over No. 4 North Carolina in a Men’s College World Series elimination game on Tuesday in Omaha, Neb.

Florida State advanced to a rematch against top-seeded Tennessee that will begin Wednesday. The Seminoles must beat the Volunteers twice to advance to the MCWS finals. Tennessee beat Florida State 12-11 in their opening-round game.

Williams, West and Daniel Cantu all drove in two runs for the Seminoles (49-16), who eliminated another Atlantic Coast Conference opponent after doing the same to Virginia on Sunday.

Florida State led 7-1 after a four-run fifth inning that featured RBI singles by Cantu, Alex Lodise, West and Williams.

The Tar Heels (48-16) responded with a four-run fifth of their own, as Vance Honeycutt bashed a three-run home run to left and Jackson Van De Brake added an RBI hit. Then came West’s and Williams’ insurance homers for the Seminoles.

Connor Hults (3-1) pitched the final 4 1/3 innings for Florida State, limiting North Carolina to no runs, two hits and one walk with two strikeouts.

North Carolina starter Aidan Haugh (4-3) took the loss after yielding three runs on two hits and three walks over 2 1/3 frames. He struck out three.

FOOTBALL NEWS

GRAMBLING STATE TO VISIT OHIO STATE IN HISTORIC 2025 MATCHUP

Grambling State is scheduled for a first in 2025 when the Tigers travel to play Ohio State at the Horseshoe in Columbus.

The game set for Sept. 6 will be Grambling State’s first against a Big Ten team.

“This is another example of us being able to showcase our brand to a national audience,” Dr. Trayvean Scott, Grambling State Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics, said in a statement.

“We are thrilled that our players and fans will get to experience a matchup between two of the most storied football programs in the country. When you think of college football, Grambling State and Ohio State are two of the names that many think of immediately. This contest will allow our both fan bases to experience the cultural and athletic excellence of both institutions,” Scott said in the statement.

The matchup is possible on relatively short notice because of a change to Ohio State’s schedule involving UConn. The Buckeyes and Huskies were scheduled to play in October 2025. The adjustment allowed Ohio State to stack a nonconference slate early in the season and remove UConn from a run of games against conference opponents.

Grambling State played LSU in the 2023 season opener.

Ohio State opens the 2025 season against Texas on Aug. 30.

OSU has played against an FCS opponent four previous times and has one game in its history against an HBCU program.

MICHIGAN ADDS 4-STAR QB BRADY HART TO 2026 CLASS

Four-star quarterback Brady Hart committed to Michigan’s 2026 recruiting class on Tuesday.

The 6-foot-5 signal-caller from Cocoa (Fla.) High School is ranked as the No. 7 QB and No. 92 overall by the 247 Sports composite.

Hart made his commitment following an unofficial visit last weekend to Ann Arbor, Mich. He chose first-year coach Sherrone Moore’s Wolverines over Ohio State, LSU, Miami, Florida and Clemson.

Hart guided Cocoa to a 14-1 record and the Florida Class 2A state championship last fall, throwing 41 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

BYU LANDS FOUR-STAR SF KANON CATCHINGS

Four-star small forward Kanon Catchings, the No. 38 recruit in the 2024 class per 247 Sports and a projected 2025 NBA lottery pick, committed to BYU on Tuesday.

Catchings, who committed to Purdue after his sophom*ore year but was released from his letter of intent on June 6, also visited NC State and Florida State before a recent trip to Provo, Utah, led him to join the Cougars.

“My family and I met with (BYU) coach (Kevin) Young and the coaching staff last week and we immediately clicked,” Catchings told ESPN. “I knew right away this was the best fit for me.”

Young took over the reins after Mark Pope left for Kentucky in April.

Catchings has strong basketball bloodlines as the nephew of Hall of Famer Tamika Catchings, the 2011 WNBA MVP, a 10-time All-Star and four-time Olympic gold medalist. His mother, Tauja, played at Illinois and was drafted by the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury in 2000, while his grandfather, Harvey, had an 11-season NBA career.

A 6-foot-8, 185-pound small forward, Catchings averaged 15.3 points and 6.2 rebounds per game last season with Overtime Elite in Atlanta. Current BYU assistant Tim Fanning coached him at Overtime Elite and helped recruit him for the Cougars.

BYU will return three starters — Trevin Knell, Dallin Hall and Fousseyni Traore — from an NCAA Tournament team in its first Big 12 season. Along with backups Dawson Baker and Richie Saunders returning to the fold, the Cougars reeled in a pair of Power 5 transfers in Rutgers’ Mawot Mag and Utah’s Keba Keita from the portal.

Catchings is also joining international star Egor Demin, a projected 2025 first-round pick who committed to BYU last month.

WNBA NEWS

MERCURY RALLY IN 4TH TO END LIBERTY’S WINNING STREAK

Diana Taurasi had 19 points, nine rebounds and five assists and Brittney Griner also scored 19 points as the Phoenix Mercury recorded a 99-93 victory over the visiting New York Liberty on Tuesday night.

Kahleah Copper and Rebecca Allen added 17 points apiece as Phoenix halted New York’s eight-game winning streak. Sophie Cunningham added 13 points and Natasha Cloud had 11 for the Mercury (8-7), who won for the fourth time in five games.

Breanna Stewart had 28 points, five assists and five steals and Sabrina Ionescu added 19 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for New York (12-3). Jonquel Jones had 17 points, seven assists and six rebounds for the Liberty, who matched the WNBA record of 18 3-pointers (out of 42 attempts).

New York shot 42.1 percent overall. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton had 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists, and Kayla Thornton added 12 points.

Stewart hit all four of her 3-point attempts while Thornton was 4 of 6. Ionescu was 4 of 14.

For Phoenix, Allen made 5 of 7 from 3-point range, Taurasi was 4 of 7 and Cunningham hit 3 of 4. The Mercury made 15 of 30 from 3-point range while shooting 55.1 percent overall.

Phoenix trailed by seven entering the fourth quarter but used an 11-3 burst to take the lead. Allen’s 3-pointer capped the run for an 80-79 edge with 7:43 remaining in the game.

New York pulled within 86-85 on Laney-Hamilton’s 3-pointer with 4:53 left.

A basket by Griner gave the Mercury a 92-89 lead with 3:03 left, but Phoenix committed turnovers on its ensuing three possessions. Taurasi then connected from 3-point range with 1:33 left to give Phoenix a 95-91 lead.

Laney-Hamilton hit a 15-foot turnaround with 48.8 seconds left to bring New York within two. However, Griner connected on a layup with 29.4 seconds to go and added two free throws with 7.3 seconds left as Phoenix closed it out.

Taurasi scored 12 first-half points to help Phoenix hold a 50-46 advantage. Stewart and Jones had 12 points apiece in the half for New York.

New York opened the third quarter with consecutive 3-pointers from Thornton, Ionescu and Laney-Hamilton. Later, Stewart canned three treys in a span of 91 seconds as the Liberty took a 69-57 lead with 4:05 left in the period.

Jones buried a 3-pointer with three seconds remaining in the third and New York led 76-69 entering the final stanza.

SUN IMPROVE TO 13-1 WHILE SPARKS LOSE CAMERON BRINK TO INJURY

DeWanna Bonner led five Connecticut starters in double figures with 16 points as the Sun beat the visiting Los Angeles Sparks 79-70 for their fourth straight win on Tuesday night in Uncasville, Conn.

Bonner shot 6-of-12 from the floor and also grabbed seven rebounds for the Sun, who improved their WNBA-leading record to 13-1. Tyasha Harris added 14 points, Brionna Jones chipped in 13, DiJonai Carrington scored 12 and Alyssa Thomas piled up 11 points, seven assists and seven rebounds.

Aari McDonald paced the Sparks (4-11) with 14 points, while rookie Rickea Jackson tallied 10 points and seven rebounds and Li Yueru scored 11 points off the bench.

Los Angeles lost a key contributor early in the game as Cameron Brink had to be helped off the floor after suffering what appeared to be a knee injury after playing just four minutes. Brink, the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s WNBA draft out of Stanford, had been averaging 8.1 points and 5.7 rebounds, and her 2.5 blocks per game ranked third in the league. Brink, who never returned to the game, had just been named to Team USA’s 3×3 team for the Summer Olympics last week.

The Sun went on a 12-4 run early in the second quarter to build a 10-point lead over the Sparks. Carrington had four points and an assist in that stretch in addition to some stellar defending.

By halftime, Connecticut led by 11 and had turned Los Angeles over 15 times while also allowing the Sparks to make just 1 of 6 3-point attempts.

Sparks leading scorer Dearica Hamby was held to zero points in the first half as she attempted just one field goal in 16 minutes. She finished the night with eight points and three assists after seeing an offensive uptick in the second half.

Still, that wasn’t enough for the Sparks to close the gap with the Sun. Connecticut led wire-to-wire and went on to take an advantage by as many as 19 points.

The Sun outscored the Sparks 50-32 in the paint, and Connecticut scored 30 points off 24 Los Angeles turnovers.

OLYMPIC SWIM TRIALS

REGAN SMITH RETAKES WORLD RECORD IN 100 BACKSTROKE AT U.S. TRIALS

Getting to the Olympics was the easy part for Regan Smith. Following up her performance Tuesday night once she’s in Paris may be the real challenge.

After missing out on a spot in the Olympics by a tenth of a second on Sunday, Smith left no doubt in the women’s 100-meter backstroke final at the U.S. Olympic Team Swimming Trials in Indianapolis on Tuesday, setting a world record to clinch her place in the Summer Olympics in Paris in July.

Smith, who finished in third in the women’s 100 butterfly final two days ago, touched the wall in 57.13 in the backstroke final, beating Australian Kaylee McKeown’s world record by two-tenths of a second. McKeown set the record in October 2023.

Smith set the world record once before in 2019 before McKeown took it in 2021.

“It was part of the plan,” Smith told NBC Sports when asked about recapturing the world record at the trials. “I’m so proud of myself. Backstroke is hard for me sometimes. To fight back like this and get that back, it means a lot.”

The 22-year-old won two silvers and a bronze — that latter in the 100 backstroke — in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Katherine Berkoff finished second at 57.91 to take the other Olympic spot in the event.

In the day’s other final, current American record holder Robert Finke won the men’s 800 freestyle by nearly a full second with a time of 7:44.22.

Luke Whitlock finished second at 7:45.19 — more than four seconds clear of third-place Daniel Matheson.

Finke dominated from the start, leading at every split. The 24-year-old will defend his gold medal in Paris. He won gold in the 800 free and 1,500 free in Tokyo.

The trials run through Sunday. For each event other than the 100 and 200 freestyles, the winner locks in a spot in the Olympics and the runner-up most likely earns a spot once the entire Team USA is filled at the end of the trials. The third- through sixth-place finishers in the 100 and 200 freestyle races can also make Olympic relay teams.

Five finals take place on Wednesday:
–Women’s 100-meter freestyle
–Men’s 200 butterfly
–Women’s 1,500 freestyle
–Men’s 200 breaststroke
–Men’s 100 freestyle

GOLF NEWS

PGA TOUR GIVES TIGER WOODS ‘LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT’ EXEMPTION

Tiger Woods will be able to gain entry to all PGA Tour signature events moving forward after the circuit’s policy board voted Tuesday to grant him a special exemption due to “exceptional lifetime achievement.”

The move will give Woods access to the tour’s eight signature tournaments, all of which award large prize money and extra points in the FedEx Cup standings despite possessing smaller fields than standard events.

The exemption was approved when the policy board met alongside the PGA Tour Enterprises board in Hartford, Conn., according to ESPN.

The tour’s memo on the decision read, per ESPN, “An additional sponsor exemption will be created to recognize Tiger Woods in his own category as a player who has reached an exceptional lifetime achievement threshold of 80-plus career wins.”

Woods owns 82 victories overall, tied with Sam Snead for the most in PGA Tour history, and 15 wins in major events, the second-best total ever behind Jack Nicklaus’ 18.

Woods, 48, has played few tournaments since a car crash in February 2021 that caused major leg injuries.

Last year, he tied for 45th at the Genesis Invitational — where he is the host — and withdrew after making the cut at the Masters in his only two starts of the season.

Woods has played just four times this year. He withdrew in the middle of the Genesis Invitational and missed the cut at the PGA Championship and last week’s U.S. Open. In the one event he completed, he finished 60th at the Masters. He is scheduled to tee it up at the Open Championship in Scotland in mid-July.

The last of the year’s eight signature events on the PGA Tour, the Travelers Championship, is scheduled for this week in Cromwell, Conn. The others are The Sentry, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, The Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational, RBC Heritage, Wells Fargo Championship and the Memorial.

The Genesis, Arnold Palmer Invitational and Memorial feature 36-hole cuts, while the other signature events don’t. However, ESPN reported that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said at the Tuesday meeting that discussions are underway about possibly implementing cuts at each of the signature tournaments.

GOLF GLANCE: PGA’S FINAL SIGNATURE EVENT; LPGA MAJOR TIME; BRYSON BACK AT LIV

Field Level Media’s Golf Glance provides weekly news and storylines from each of the major North American golf tours.

PGA TOUR
LAST TOURNAMENT: 124th U.S. Open (Bryson DeChambeau)
THIS WEEK: Travelers Championship, Cromwell, Conn., June 20-23
Course: TPC River Highlands (Par 70, 6,835 Yards)
Purse: $20M (Winner: $3.6M)
Defending Champion: Keegan Bradley
FedEx Cup Leader: Scottie Scheffler
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday: 3-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday: 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (CBS)
Streaming (ESPN+): Thursday-Friday: 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m.
X: @TravelersChamp
NOTES: This is the final of eight signature events this year, featuring a $20 million purse and 700 FedEx Cup points to the winner. … Rory McIlroy withdrew on Monday after finishing second at the U.S. Open. He is the only winner of a signature event this year (Wells Fargo Championship) not in the field. He is also the only player in the top 30 of the FedEx Cup points standings and the only player in the top eight of the Official World Golf Ranking not playing this week. … TPC River Highlands underwent “course enhancements” since last year that included narrowing the fairways of four holes. … There are four sponsors exemptions in the field: Billy Horschel, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson and former Stanford star Michael Thorbjornsen. Thorbjornsen earned his PGA Tour card by finishing first in PGA Tour University. … There is no 36-hole cut.
BEST BETS: Scottie Scheffler (+360 at DraftKings) is the first player since Justin Thomas in 2016-17 to win at least five times during a single season on tour. His wins have come at The Players Championship, the Masters and three signature events. … Xander Schauffele (+750) is coming off a T7 at the U.S. Open and has seven top-10s in his past eight individual starts. … Collin Morikawa (+1200) has only made the cut in one of three previous appearances but does have three top-5s in his past four starts. … Ludvig Aberg (+1400) is coming off a T11 at Pinehurst, where he led after 36 holes. He also finished T5 at the Memorial in his previous start.
NEXT TOURNAMENT: Rocket Mortgage Classic, Detroit, June 27-30

LPGA Tour
LAST TOURNAMENT: Meijer LPGA Classic (Lilia Vu)
THIS WEEK: KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Sammamish, Wash., June 20-23
Course: Sahalee Country Club (Par 72, 6,731 yards)
Purse: $10M
Defending Champion: Ruoning Yin
Race to the CME Globe leader: Nelly Korda
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday, 4-6 p.m. ET (Peaco*ck), 6-10 p.m. (Golf Channel, Peaco*ck); Saturday, 1-2 p.m. (Peaco*ck), 3-6 p.m. (NBC, Peaco*ck), 6-8 p.m. (GC, Peaco*ck); Sunday, 12-3 p.m. (Peaco*ck), 3-7 p.m. (NBC, Peaco*ck)
X: @KPMGWomensPGA
NOTES: The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is the third of five majors in 2024 and is the second-oldest LPGA major, having first been contested in 1955. … Brooke Henderson won the last time the Women’s PGA was held at Sahalee in 2016. Sahalee has also played host to the 1998 PGA Championship. … All 10 winners on tour this season are in the field, while 28 players will be making their Women’s PGA Championship debuts.
NEXT TOURNAMENT: Dow Championship, Midland, Mich., June 27-30

PGA Tour Champions
LAST TOURNAMENT: American Family Insurance Championship (Ernie Els)
THIS WEEK: Dick’s Open, Endicott, N.Y., June 21-23
Course: En-Joie Golf Course (Par 72, 6,994 yards)
Purse: $2.1M (Winner: $315,000)
Defending Champion: Padraig Harrington
Charles Schwab Cup leader: Stephen Ames
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Friday, 12-2 p.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday, 3-6 p.m. (All times Golf Channel)
X: @DicksOpenGolf
NOTES: En-Joie Golf Course played host to the B.C. Open on the PGA Tour from 1971-2006. … Harrington, recently inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, is the two-time defending champion. … Els is attempting to become the 10th player in Champions tour history and the first since Steve Stricker last year to win three consecutive starts. … Lonnie Nielsen holds the 54-hole record of 195 set in 2009.
NEXT TOURNAMENT: U.S. Senior Open Championship, Newport, R.I., June 27-30

LIV Golf League
LAST TOURNAMENT: Houston (Individual: Carlos Ortiz; Team: Cleeks GC)
THIS WEEK: Nashville, June 21-23
Course: The Grove (Par 71, 7,297 yards)
Purse: Individual, $20M (Winner: $5M); Team, $4M (Winner: $3M)
Defending Champion: Inaugural Event
2024 Leaders: Players, Joaquin Niemann; Team, Crushers GC
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Friday, 1 p.m. ET (The CW App, LIV Golf Plus, Caffeine); Saturday-Sunday, 1 p.m. (The CW, The CW App, LIV Golf Plus)
X: @livgolf_league
NOTES: Bryson DeChambeau is coming off his second U.S. Open victory, becoming the second LIV Golf member to claim a major title (Brooks Koepka, 2023 PGA Championship). … This is the ninth of 13 events on the 2024 schedule, which will be followed by the Team Championship in Dallas Sept. 20-22. … Thirteen four-player teams and two wild-card players will compete in a 54-hole event with daily shotgun starts.
NEXT TOURNAMENT: Andalucia, Spain, July 12-14

GOLF UPDATES SCORECARD RULE BY ALLOWING EXTRA 15 MINUTES TO FIX ERRORS AND AVOID DISQUALIFICATION

PINEHURST, N.C. (AP) — The temptation would be to refer to a change in the scorecard procedure as the “Jordan Rule,” only because Jordan Spieth was the most recent example. Players now have an additional 15 minutes to correct their scorecard before it is deemed to have been returned.

Players were informed at the U.S. Open of the change. The USGA adopted the amended definition of when a card is “returned” at the U.S. Women’s Open two weeks earlier. It now goes into effect on most major tours this week.

The PGA Tour said the goal was “minimizing penalties or disqualifications related to scorecard errors.”

Spieth was at Pinehurst No. 2 on the Sunday before the U.S. Open. He said Scott Langley, the USGA’s director of player relations, approached him and said: “This isn’t because of you. But this is what we’re doing here.”

The scorecard previously was considered “returned” when the player left the scoring area.

Spieth was battling stomach issues at Riviera when he made double bogey on the last hole for a 73, rushed up the hill to scoring, signed his card and hustled off to the bathroom. He inadvertently wrote down a 3 instead of a 4 on the par-3 fourth hole, and therefore signed for an incorrect score and was disqualified.

Under the new rule, he would have had 15 minutes to fix the mistake or for an official to find him and alert him to the error.

“For an honest mistake that I guess could be the difference in the tournament, I think it’s great,” Spieth said. “I don’t think it’s a skill of the game, especially at the professional level. If somebody plugged in a wrong score, they can go back and re-plug it in.”

As for the 15 minutes, there is a time stamp when a card is accepted, and the 15 minutes is not down to the second. It doesn’t happen very often, especially on the PGA Tour where scores are checked against a computer.

And there are exceptions. If a player stays in scoring for 15 minutes (Phil Mickelson was known to linger there), the scorecard would be considered returned when that player leaves the area. Also, the 15-minute rule could be affected by a playoff, or by tee times having to be posted immediately after a cut.

U.S. Open alternate Manke spends week getting Canada status

R.J. Manke moved up to the first alternate at the U.S. Open after Jon Rahm had to withdraw with a foot infection. In most cases, players have to wait around until the final tee time on Thursday before packing their bags and leaving.

Manke had been through that before.

He was the first alternate from the main allotment list at Torrey Pines in 2021, waited three days and no one withdrew. Oddly enough, his best chance that week was Rahm, who had to pass a COVID-19 test to be cleared to play. Rahm passed the test and won the U.S. Open.

This time, Manke wasn’t even at Pinehurst. He was 3,100 miles away in British Columbia playing a Q-school tournament for PGA Tour Americas with hopes of getting full status for the second half of the season in Canada.

“I had a number of flights to head out there at the last minute,” Manke said. “I was following the alternate closely.”

No one withdrew. Manke stuck with his plan to play in Canada.

He said if he had known he was the first alternate, it would made for an “interesting decision.” But a misunderstanding led to him actually being the first alternate.

“Once the entire reallotment came out, I was No. 7,” he said.

Manke knew the USGA was holding six spots for anyone who would have become exempt at the last minute through the world ranking. Two ranking spots went to Robert MacIntyre and Adam Scott, and four spots were distributed to alternates.

Scott, if he had not made it through the ranking, would have been ahead of Manke on that alternate list.

But when the updated list was sent to Manke on Monday, one alternate who already had been added to the U.S. Open field was still listed. That would explain why Manke thought he was the second alternate when Rahm withdrew.

It ended well for Manke, who had been playing mini-tours. He made it through the Q-school tournament and now has a place to play for the rest of the PGA Tour Americas season.

Olympic qualifying

This week’s Women’s PGA Championship is the final chance for women to earn a spot in the Olympics this summer in Paris. The Americans and South Koreans are not assured of having the representation they had the previous two times.

In the most glaring example of how much South Korea has fallen off in women’s golf, only two players are likely to make it to Paris.

Countries can get a maximum of four players if they are among the top 15 in the women’s world ranking. Jin Young Ko (No. 7) and Hyo Joo Kim (No. 12) have locked up spots. But the next South Koreans are Jiyai Shin (24) and Amy Yang (25). They would need a top finish at the Women’s PGA to move into the top 15.

The Americans had four players for the Tokyo Games held in 2021. They have three among the top 15 — Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu are Nos. 1 and 2, and Rose Zhang is at No. 9.

Megan Khang is at No. 16, a fraction behind Lydia Ko of New Zealand at No. 15. The Americans also have more possibilities with Alison Lee (18) and Ally Ewing (19).

Memorial moving back

Jack Nicklaus agreed to work with the PGA Tour on its new schedule, which meant moving the Memorial Tournament off Memorial Day — that’s what it was named for — and a week before the U.S. Open.

Now it’s going back.

Nicklaus announced Monday that next year’s tournament would start on Memorial Day (May 26) and end on June 1, two weeks before the U.S. Open at Oakmont. That leaves U.S. Open qualifying after the Memorial, not before.

“We were willing to work with them and move the 2024 date to a week before the U.S. Open,” Nicklaus said. He said after several conversations, they determined it was best for the Memorial to move back.

Hideki to Boston

In a move that might finally dampen speculation about Hideki Matsuyama going to LIV Golf, the Japanese star is joining the tech-infused TGL indoor league that debuts in January.

The former Masters champion has joined Boston Common Golf, the four-man team that includes Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott. He replaces Tyrrell Hatton, whom the PGA Tour suspended for joining LIV earlier this year.

Fenway Sports Group owns the Boston team, also known as the Ballfrogs.

“Together, I hope we can push the boundaries of golf and create an unforgettable new experience for fans around the world,” Matsuyama said in a statement.

Divots

Angel Cabrera won the Paul Lawrie Match Play on the European Legends Tour last week, his first victory since being released from prison in Argentina last summer for gender violence. … A week after the PGA of America hired caddie-turned-NBC reporter John Wood as a Ryder Cup manager for the U.S. team, Europe added former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley as “strategic adviser” for the 2025 matches at Bethpage Black. … Bryson DeChambeau and Xander Schauffele are the only players with top 10s at all three majors this year. … Adam Schenk was the only player to miss the cut in all three signature events that had a 36-hole cut.

Stat of the week

The last six majors have been won by six different Americans. That’s the longest streak of American winners since Jack Nicklaus at the 1975 PGA Championship through Hubert Green at the 1977 U.S. Open.

Final word

“They say every five years somebody’s life changes and it couldn’t be more true. I’m a completely different person than I was back at Winged Foot. There’s remnants. I’ve still got a lot of the same cells, but I’m definitely different in the brain for sure.” — Bryson DeChambeau going into the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2.

AUTO RACING

ARROW MCLAREN MAKES ANOTHER INDYCAR DRIVER CHANGE, SIGNS 19-YEAR-OLD NOLAN SIEGEL TO MULTIYEAR DEAL

Arrow McLaren made yet another driver change Tuesday when it signed 19-year-old Nolan Siegel to drive the remainder of the IndyCar season. He will be the third driver to race the No. 6 this year.

Siegel will replace F2 champion Theo Pourchaire beginning this weekend at Laguna Seca in California. Pourchaire on Monday posted on social media: “Man I can’t believe I’m gonna race on the legendary Laguna Seca this weekend.”

McLaren had other plans, particularly after Siegel was part of the LMP2 class-winning team Sunday at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a car co-owned by McLaren CEO Zak Brown. The team already had its eye on the young Californian, who had been running in the Indy NXT feeder series with occasional IndyCar starts.

Siegel will be the youngest driver on the grid. He was born one month after Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Kyffin Simpson.

“I’m looking forward to jumping right in with the Arrow McLaren team this week and confirming my place in the IndyCar Series in papaya moving forward,” Siegel said. “This is an unexpected jump, but I’m thrilled to be in this position. I am looking forward to this new journey and learning alongside the entire team starting this weekend in my home state.”

Siegel had hoped to remain eligible for IndyCar rookie of the year as early as next season, but two weeks ago at Road America he was plucked by Juncos Hollinger Racing to be an emergency replacement for Agustín Canapino. Siegel then decided to skip the Indy NXT race, which took him out of contention for that championship this season and ultimately changed the trajectory of his career.

Once he was out of Indy NXT championship contention, McLaren sporting director Tony Kanaan wanted Siegel driving for McLaren on a multi-year deal. Kanaan worked closely with Siegel on qualifying weekend for the Indianapolis 500, when two crashes kept Siegel out of the 33-car field.

It was on bump day that Kanaan became convinced the young driver is one of IndyCar’s future stars.

“I wasn’t that mature when I was 19,” Kanaan said.

Arrow McLaren team principal Gavin Ward called Siegel “one of the hottest prospects on the upcoming side for IndyCar and the North American racing scene.”

“I’d be lying if I said we haven’t been looking at him for a while,” Ward said. “At the time we put Theo in the car, Nolan was committed to his Indy NXT season. With the clashes there, a full season didn’t look like it was in the cards. Road America brought this forward in a hurry.

“We were looking for a 2025 commitment. It became pretty clear that the logical thing to do, although maybe not the easiest decision, was to fast-forward and get him the car as soon as possible. We can hit next year, hit the ground running.”

Siegel in Indy NXT drove for HMD Motorsports, the team owned by the father of David Malukas, who was supposed to be the driver of the No. 6 this season. Malukas was hired last September when two-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou breached his contract with McLaren and decided not to join the team.

But Malukas broke his wrist in a mountain biking accident a month before the season opener and McLaren had a clause in his contract to release Malukas after he missed his fourth race of the season. McLaren instead had used a combination of Pourchaire and Callum Ilott for the first eight events of the season before deciding Pourchaire would finish the year in the car.

Ward thanked Pourchaire and Kanaan said the team would assist the Frenchman any way it can in helping him land another ride. Pourchaire is a Formula 1 reserve driver for Sauber, but could decide to try to race IndyCar instead.

“Stability and sustained growth are key to our long-term game plan here, and this is a significant step in that mission,” Ward said. “We’ve been working through musical chairs all season, and ultimately, making this change to Nolan now that he’s available gives us the chance to build a foundation for the future. He is a young, talented driver with an immense amount of experience at this stage of his career and we’re excited to continue on the upward journey together.”

TOP INDIANA SPORTS RELEASES

INDIANAPOLIS INDIANS

GORSKI CRANKS ANOTHER HOMER AS INDIANS WIN SERIES OPENER, 4-2

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indianapolis Indians relied on timely hitting and a solid outing from Domingo Germán to defeat the Iowa Cubs, 4-2, on Tuesday evening in the series opener at Victory Field.

With the game knotted at 2-2 following a two-run triple by Hayden Cantrelle in the I-Cubs (31-39) half of the fifth inning, Indianapolis responded immediately to take the lead. The first three batters of the inning reached base safely, with a leadoff walk to Andrés Alvarez coming around to score the go-ahead run on a Canaan Smith-Njgba sacrifice fly. In the sixth, back-to-back doubles by Alvarez and Matt Fraizer plated an insurance run.

Matt Gorski kickstarted the Indians (30-38) offense with his 14th home run of the season in the second inning. Pirates rehabber Alika Williams then extended the lead to 2-0 in the third with a single to score Fraizer, who roped his first double of the contest to lead off the frame.

Germán (W, 1-4) cruised through a season-high 6.0 innings with five strikeouts. After exiting the game, Geronimo Franzua and Brent Honeywell (S, 5) combined for three strikeouts in three innings pitched to limit Iowa’s offense. Across his last 10 appearances, Honeywell owns a 1.88 ERA (3er/14.1ip) and 10 strikeouts, a stretch which includes three scoreless appearances (4.0ip) against Iowa.

Thomas Pannone (L, 4-6) pitched 4.0 innings, giving up eight hits and three earned runs to take his third loss of the season against Indianapolis.

Liover Peguero singled four times in the victory and swiped two bases to lead the team in both categories. Fraizer joined in on the hit parade, going 3-for-4 with two doubles and two runs. Williams was also at the center of the offense, going 3-for-5 with an RBI.

The Indians and I-Cubs continue their six-game set at Victory Field at 7:05 PM ET on Tuesday night. RHP Braxton Ashcraft (1-0, 1.50) – Pittsburgh’s No. 6 prospect according to MLB Pipeline – is scheduled to make his home debut against RHP Kyle McGowin (0-0, 9.00).

INDY ELEVEN WOMEN

DEWEY, ROGERS SCORE FOR INDY; REASON SECURES THE SHUTOUT

LEXINGTON, Kentucky (Tuesday, June 18, 2024) –Indy Eleven went on the road and defeated Lexington SC, 2-0, in its first of three road matches to close the 2024 regular season.

Indy moves to 7-0-1 with the victory and sits atop the USL W League Valley Division with 22 points and a plus-29 goal differential with only two matches to play. Overall, Indy is riding a 15-match unbeaten streak dating back to June 18, 2023.The first half belonged to the visitors as Sam Dewey got Indy Eleven on the board just five minutes into the match. A Grace Bahr corner found its way off the inside of the far post and a deflected off a Lexington defender, which left the ball at the feet of Dewy for the early lead. The goal was Dewey’s second of the season in three matches played.The Girls in Blue have now scored first in seven of eight games this season.

INDIANA FEVER

ALIYAH BOSTON NAMED WNBA EASTERN CONFERENCE PLAYER OF THE WEEK

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana Fever center Aliyah Boston was named the WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the week of June 10-16, the league announced today. This is the second time Boston has received Player of the Week honors in her career.

In Indiana’s three games last week, Boston recorded three double-doubles and averaged 20.0 points, 13.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.0 blocks per game. Boston also moved into a tie for fifth in franchise history for all-time double-doubles recorded with 15.

Against the Connecticut Sun last Monday, Boston finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, one block and one steal. In Indiana’s 91-84 win against the Dream in Indianapolis on Wednesday, Boston tied a career-high 27 points while also pulling down a game-high 13 rebounds. In Sunday’s 91-83 win against the Sky,

Boston tallied 19 points, a season-high 14 rebounds, a career-high five blocks and distributed four assists.

Boston enters this week averaging 12.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.2 blocks per contest through 15 games played in 2024. Across the WNBA, Boston is 10th in blocks per game and 12th in rebounds per game.

The Fever will conclude its three game homestand at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Wednesday at 7 p.m ET on Bally Sports Indiana.

GAME PREVIEW: FEVER CLOSE OUT THREE-GAME HOME STRETCH AGAINST MYSTICS

Indiana Fever vs. Washington Mystics
Wednesday, June 19
Gainbridge Fieldhouse | 7 p.m. ET

Probable Starters

Indiana Fever (5-10)

Guard – Kelsey Mitchell (15.5 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 2.0 apg)
Guard – Caitlin Clark (16.1 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 6.2 apg)
Center – Aliyah Boston (12.3 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 2.7 apg)
Guard – Kristy Wallace (5.4 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 2.3 apg)
Forward – NaLyssa Smith (11.2 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 1.2 apg)

Washington Mystics (2-12)

Guard – Ariel Atkins (14.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 3.4 apg)
Guard – Julie Vanloo (8.1 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 5.4 apg)
Guard – Karlie Samuelson (8.8 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 2.1 apg)
Forward – Aaliyah Edwards (9.1 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 1.1 apg)
Center – Stefanie Dolson (8.0 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 2.4 apg)

Game Status Report

Indiana: Temi fa*gbenle – OUT (Left Foot)

Washington: Shakira Austin – OUT (Hip), Brittney Skyes – OUT (Left Foot)

GAME PREVIEW:

The Indiana Fever (5-10) look to extend its three-game home winning streak in the second of four regular season matchups against the Washington Mystics. Indiana has won its last two games following a 91-84 win against the Atlanta Dream on Thursday and a 91-83 win against the Chicago Sky on Sunday. The Washington Mystics (2-12) also enter Wednesday night on a two-game winning streak with victories against Chicago and Atlanta after starting the season off 0-12.

A win on Wednesday night for Indiana would be the first four-game home winning streak for the Fever since winning eight straight games from July 2 to August 23 during the 2015 season.

A major factor in the Fever winning streak has been the production from center Aliyah Boston, who was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week on Tuesday. Boston averaged 20.0 points, 13.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.0 blocks per contest in three games from June 10-16 for her second career Player of the Week recognition. Boston also tied a career-high 27 points against the Dream and recorded a season high 14 rebounds against the Sky.

The last game between the Fever and Mystics was at Capital One Arena on June 7 when Indiana won, 85-83. Fever rookie guard Caitlin Clark tied a career-high with 30 points and tied the most made 3-point field goals by a rookie in franchise history with seven. As a team, the Fever set a franchise record for most made 3-point field goals (16) in the first meeting. On Washington’s side, center Stefanie Dolson led the Mystics in scoring with 19 points and Mystics guard Ariel Atkins followed with 16 points, with both Dolson and Atkins pulling down six rebounds each. Rookie forward Aaliyah Edwards posted a 10-point, 12-rebound double-double in the loss. Indiana outscored the Mystics in fast-break points, 16-3, but Washington outscored Indiana in paint points, 30-24.

In Washington’s 87-68 win against Atlanta last Tuesday, Mystics guards Brittney Sykes and Atkins scored 18 points apiece. During Washington’s 83-81 win against Chicago, Atkins led in scoring again with 29 points followed by Edwards with 16 points.

Clark and Edwards top many of the rookie categories entering Wednesday, as Clark ranks first among rookies in scoring with an average of 16.1 points per game and Edwards ranks fourth with an average of 9.1 ppg. In rebounds, Edwards ranks second with 6.4 rpg and Clark follows in fifth averaging 5.1 rpg. Clark and Washington rookie guard Julie Vanloo rank first and second, respectively, in assists per game, with 6.2 apg and 5.4 apg.

INDIANA DIVING

PARRATTO PUNCHES TICKET TO PARIS, THIRD OLYMPICS

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – 2020 Olympic silver medalist Jessica Parratto earned a trip to her third Olympics on Tuesday (June 18) at the U.S. Olympic Diving Trials inside the Allan Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Parratto and partner Delaney Schnell won the women’s synchronized 10-meter – the event they earned a silver medal in at the 2020 Tokyo Games – with a score of 607.14 points.

Parratto enters the 2024 Paris Games a three-time Olympian, adding to an elite list of IU women to reach three Olympics in diving. She joins Ingeborg Pertmayer (1964, 1968, 1972) and Cynthia Potter (1972, 1976, 1980).

The Indiana swimming and diving program has now produced an Olympic diver in every Summer Games since 1964.

Indiana’s 2024 Olympian count improves to six. Parratto and swimmers Lilly King and Mariah Denigan will represent Team USA. Tomer Frankel (Israel), Rafael Miroslaw (Germany) and Kai van Westering (Netherlands) have each qualified internationally in swimming.

INDIANA TRACK

INDIANA TRACK AND FIELD ATHLETES SET TO COMPETE AT U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS

HOOSIERS AT TRIALS (All Times ET)

Men

Camden Marshall: 800 meters

Antonio Laidler: 100 meters

Ben Veatch: 5000 meters

Scott Houston: Pole Vault

Women

Bailey Hertenstein: 5000 meters

Jessica Mercier: Pole Vault

Monique Riddick: Shot Put

Khayla Dawson: Shot Put

SCHEDULE (All Times Eastern)

Friday, June 21

Women’s 5000m – Qualifying (9:22 p.m.)

Saturday, June 22

Men’s 100m – Round One (9:22 p.m.)

Sunday, June 23

Men’s Pole Vault – Final (8:00 p.m.)

Men’s 100m – Semifinal (8:48 p.m.)

Men’s 100m – Final (10:49 p.m.)

Monday, June 24

Women’s 5000m – Final (10:09 p.m.)

Tuesday, June 25

Practice Day

Wednesday, June 26

Practice Day

Thursday, June 27

Men’s 800m – Round One (7:30 p.m.)

Men’s 5000m – Round One (11:03 p.m.)

Friday, June 28

Women’s Pole Vault – Quarterfinals (8:55 p.m.)

Men’s 800m – Semifinal (9:44 p.m.)

Women’s Shot Put – Quarterfinals (10:15 p.m.)

Saturday, June 29

Women’s Shot Put – Finals (8:50 p.m.)

Sunday, June 30

Women’s Pole Vault – Finals (6:15 p.m.)

Men’s 5000m – Finals (7:30 p.m.)

Men’s 800m – Finals (7:51 p.m.)

PURDUE DIVING

DUNCAN TEAMS WITH DOWNS TO CLAIM OLYMPIC BID IN 3M SYNCHRO

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Purdue alumnus Greg Duncan teamed with Olympian Tyler Downs to win synchronized 3-meter diving together Tuesday at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, clinching a trip to Paris for the Olympic Games.

Duncan was a Big Ten champion and four-year All-American for the Boilermakers from 2019-22 and Tuesday he became an Olympian for the first time at the age of 25. He continues to train under Purdue coaches Adam Soldati and David Boudia at the Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center.

Downs was USA Diving’s youngest Olympic qualifier (on 3-meter) three years ago at 17 and is now a two-time Olympian before his 21st birthday next month. He was an NCAA champion on platform for the Boilermakers in 2022, but opted to forgo the remainder of his college career to focus on national and international events with USA Diving.

With the synchronized events at the Olympics dating back to 2000, Duncan becomes the first Boilermaker to be an Olympian in 3-meter synchro. Previously, Boudia (2008, 2012, 2016), Mary Beth Dunnichay (2008) and Steele Johnson (2016) qualified in 10-meter synchro.

Duncan joins Maycey Vieta (10-meter for Puerto Rico) as Boilermakers to qualify for 2024 Olympic Games. Purdue will have male and female Olympians in diving in the same year for just the second time (2008).

Duncan & Downs finished with 811.41 points (404.10 prelim, 407.31 final) over two lists of dives to edge Indiana University’s Andrew Capobianco and Quinn Henninger (809.04) by just 2.37 points. Duncan & Downs had a 20-point lead going into the final round when Capobianco & Henninger ripped their final dive (forward 4 ½) for a big score of 95.7. But Duncan & Downs’ consistency held up and a host of 8s or better on the final dive (forward 3 ½ pike) of the event led to a score of 78.12 that was just enough to win seal the victory.

Duncan & Downs overcame Capobianco & Henninger’s advantage in degree of difficulty (18.5-17.4), which was on the dive sheets over the final two rounds. They made up for it with their consistency, winning the afternoon prelim by 0.15 points to earn the right to dive last in the final. Duncan & Downs then extended that lead to 16.47 points over the first three rounds of the final. And for the day, they did not score fewer than 70 points on any of their dives with a DD of at least 3.0 (rounds 3-6 of the prelim and final).

“As best as I could, I was just trying to focus on the practice cues that we have been working on every single day for the past 8-10 years and keeping myself as calm and composed as possible because it’s an emotional atmosphere,” Duncan said.

Downs added, “I was just doing my thing. Obviously, hearing the crowd let us know if we were doing well or not, but I didn’t look at the scoreboard, so I didn’t know where we were or what we needed.”

Purdue’s Max Miller and Zach Welsh also competed in Tuesday’s 3-meter synchro. Miller placed fourth with teammate Luke Sitz and Welsh finished fifth with his twin brother Jacob. Both tandems were pairings of teenagers.

Duncan & Downs had won USA Diving national titles together in 3-meter synchro at the 2022 Winter Nationals and 2023 National Championships, earning the right to compete at the 2023 World Aquatic Championships. It was at Worlds in Japan last summer that they finished fourth to earn USA Diving its Olympic bid after host France (auto-bid) placed third. But Capobianco & Henninger were victorious at the 2023 Winter Nationals in December, earning the right to represent the U.S. at the most recent World Aquatics Championships in February.

Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook (3-meter) along with Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell (10-meter) were the women’s winners of the synchronized events this week to earn Team USA’s Olympic bids. The U.S. men did not qualify for the 2024 Olympics in synchronized 10-meter so the event was not contested.

Wednesday is a training day at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at the University of Tennessee’s Allan Jones Aquatic Center. Individual events begin Thursday with women’s 3-meter and men’s 10-meter. Duncan and Downs compete again Friday when the men’s individual 3-meter event begins. Not including Downs, there are 11 Boilermakers competing in Knoxville this week.

IU-INDY WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SIGNS WESTERN CAROLINA TRANSFER

INDIANAPOLIS – The IU Indy women’s basketball team welcomed transfer Tamori Plantin to the 2024-25 roster. Plantin spent the past two seasons with the Western Carolina.

“Tamori will give us depth and experience in the post,” said head coach Kate Bruce. “She has great size and strength and her ability to defend and rebound will be a huge asset for our team’s success. Tamori is a very good student and person and we are excited for her to be a part of our Jaguars family.”

The 6’1″ post from Buford, Georgia will join the Jaguars after spending her freshman and sophom*ore seasons with the Catamount. During her sophom*ore season she saw action in 19 games with a start against nationally-ranked North Carolina. Plantin averaged 2.1 points and 1.6 rebounds in 6.5 minutes per game.

During her high school career with Buford High School, she was named All-Region Team, Atlanta Tip-Off Mid-Season Watch List and Atlanta Tip-Off Preseason Watch List.

Plantin will join the Jaguars prior to the 2024-25 season.

INDIANA STATE BASEBALL

MAGILL HONORED AS 2024 ABCA/RAWLINGS GOLD GLOVE FINALIST

ABCA.org – Indiana State catcher Grant Magill was honored among the finalists for the 2024 American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings NCAA Division I Gold Gove team as announced by the organizations on Tuesday afternoon.

Magill receives the nominee nod for the second consecutive season and is the reigning 2023 ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove winner after claiming the recognition. The Highlands Ranch, Colo. native was just the second Sycamore in program history to receive the prestigious honor joining alum Ryan Stausborger (outfielder) who received the award from the ABCA in 2010.

Magill was voted the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive season becoming Indiana State’s first two-time recipient of the award. He was just the second player in Valley history to win the award multiple times joining Ryan Cermak (Illinois State – 2021 & 2022) to achieve the feat.

The Sycamore backstop went mostly unchallenged in another dominant campaign behind the plate in the 2024 season. Magill threw out 16 attempted base stealers in the 2024 season and added three additional pickoffs to keep opponents moving from station to station around the base paths.

In conference play, opponents attempted to steal just 12 bases against the Sycamores this season with Magill nabbing six runners. Overall, he allowed a Valley-low 18 stolen bases over 30 attempts with just one passed ball in conference play.

Teams only attempted seven stolen bases over the final 20 games of the regular season with Magill throwing out five runners, including two against Belmont on May 4. He had a four-game stretch spanning February 25-March 2 against Marshall, Vanderbilt, and Southern Miss where he threw out at least one runner per game.

Magill was even better in the postseason as teams attempted to challenge the redshirt senior early. He threw out two runners in an elimination game against UIC and added two more runners caught stealing against both Illinois and Western Michigan in the Lexington Regional over the first two games in the NCAA Tournament. His prowess behind the plate cautioned both Illinois and Kentucky from attempting to steal over ISU’s final two games of the season.

Magill wrapped up his ISU playing career as a three-time All-Defensive selection at catcher and headlined an ISU defense that led the MVC in conference play with a 0.986 fielding percentage in 2024.

The American Baseball Coaches Association and Rawlings Sporting Goods are proud to announce the finalists for the 2024 ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Div. I Gold Glove team. The 2024 NCAA Div. I Gold Glove finalists were voted on and selected by the ABCA NCAA Div. I All-America & Coach of the Year Committee.

In all divisions, the ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove winners will be announced on Wednesday, June 19 via social media by Rawlings Sporting Goods.

The ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove teams were first recognized in 2007 and are presented annually to the top defensive players from each division of collegiate and high school baseball.

PURDUE FT. WAYNE WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL 2024 SLATE UNVEILED

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The 2024 Purdue Fort Wayne women’s volleyball schedule has been announced.

The slate for Steve Florio’s 11th season as head coach features 31 regular season matches, including 18 Horizon League contests. The Mastodons are at home for 12 matches, on the road for 13 true road games, and have six more matches for neutral site games in tournaments. The Horizon League schedule is revamped this year, mimicking the format of the spring 2021 season, as league teams will play two matches against each of the others, with only the travel partners playing home and home. Every other team will play the same team on back-to-back days in one location with a return trip next season.

The season begins with an exhibition at Xavier on August 24. The regular season begins in Boston on August 30 at Stonehill’s tournament, where the Mastodons will play the Skyhawks, Siena and Holy Cross. The following week, the Mastodons will visit an old rival at Western Illinois to play a smattering of old league foes. The ‘Dons will face off against former Horizon League foe UIC and former Summit League opponents Western Illinois and South Dakota State. On September 13-14, the Mastodons will play against Cornell, Miami (OH) and Valparaiso in the Beacons’ tournament.

The final road trip of the non-league season is a standalone match at Michigan State on September 17.

The Mastodons will host the Purdue Fort Wayne Invitational presented by Hyatt Place on September 20-21 and will be the first chance for fans to see the team on the Arnie Ball Court. The ‘Dons will welcome Saint Francis (Pa.), Indiana State and Eastern Michigan to the Gates Sports Center for the six-match tournament.

Horizon League play opens at Robert Morris (Sept. 27-28) before the ‘Dons welcome IU Indianapolis (Oct. 1) for the first time under the Jaguars’ new monicker. A visit to Green Bay (Oct. 4-5) precedes a home pairing against Oakland (Oct. 11-12) and a road trip to Cleveland State (Oct. 18-19). Long-time rival Northern Kentucky visits the historic Gates Sports Center on October 25-26 before the ‘Dons make the return trip to IU Indianapolis on October 29. The ‘Dons host Milwaukee (Nov. 1-2), visit Wright State (Nov. 8-9) and welcome Youngstown State (Nov. 15-16) to wrap up the regular season.

The Horizon League Championship will be on November 22-24. The top six seeds will play at the No. 1 overall seed.

VALPO FOOTBALL

VALPO FOOTBALL WELCOMES ADDITIONS TO COACHING STAFF

Valparaiso University head football coach Landon Fox has announced five additions to his coaching staff including a pair of individuals who have played in the National Football League.

Gibran Hamdan has been named the team’s wide receivers coach, Stanford Routt will coach the team’s cornerbacks, Dayven Coleman joins the staff as nickelbacks coach, Justin Bosch will serve as running backs coach and Evan Matthes will remain at his alma mater to handle special teams quality control.

Hamdan played quarterback in the NFL from 2003-2010, playing for the Washington Redskins, Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers, Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills. He was selected in the seventh round of the 2003 NFL Draft by Washington after playing his college football at Indiana, where he was a two-sport athlete who also played baseball. He passed for 2,115 yards and nine touchdowns during his senior season for the Hoosiers.

“I am incredibly honored and excited to join the Valparaiso University football program as the wide receivers coach,” Hamdan said. “Valparaiso’s rich tradition of excellence and commitment to developing student-athletes both on and off the field aligns perfectly with my coaching philosophy. I look forward to working with this talented group of players and coaches and contributing to the continued success of the program.”

Hamdan also played in NFL Europe in Amsterdam, Netherlands during the summers of 2004, 2005 and 2006. He was a two-time captain, twice leading his team to NFL Europe World Bowl Championship game appearances. He was the 2006 NFL Europe MVP and finished with the highest passer rating in NFL Europe history.

Following his NFL career, Hamdan has built his well-versed portfolio as a one-on-one quarterback coach, a digital creator and a small business owner and operator in addition to providing strategic consulting services to Division-I NCAA football programs. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in marketing in May 2002 and was the president of Student-Athlete Advisory Committee during his college years.

“Gibran decided he wanted to get back into college football to give back,” Fox said. “That resonated with me that he wanted to help other people versus the business side of things. You can see that in the way that he interacts with the coaching staff and players. That’s important for player development. Winning is very important to him as well. He played at a high level and is an unbelievable person and outside-the-box thinker.”

Routt was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the second round of the 2005 NFL Draft out of the University of Houston and played for the Raiders for seven seasons from 2005-2011. He also played for the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans during the 2012 season and was part of the Baltimore Ravens organization in 2013.

“I’ve always been fond of midwestern football,” Routt said. “I’m beyond excited to be a Beacon.”

Routt played in 119 NFL games and made 60 starts including three different seasons where he started almost every game for the Raiders. He had 12 career interceptions, two forced fumbles, 265 tackles and one defensive touchdown. After his playing career, Routt went the sports broadcasting route, working for NFL Network from 2006-2011 before time at Sirius XM, KTBU Houston, CBS Sports Radio, Yahoo Sports Radio, iHeart Media Radio, ESPN, Fox Sports and more.

Routt began his coaching career at St. Thomas High School in Houston from 2017-2021 before serving as an assistant defensive backs coach at the University of Houston in 2022 and 2023. He helped his alma mater to a Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl championship and 8-5 record in 2022.

Like Hamdan, Routt was a multi-sport athlete in college. He was an NCAA Outdoor All-American in track & field after placing third in the 200-meter dash at the 2003 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. He holds a degree in kinesiology and sports administration from Houston. He had a 40-yard dash time of 4.27 seconds at the 2005 NFL Scouting Combine, which at the time was a record.

“Stanford was one of the best corners in the NFL and has done sports broadcasting at the highest level, which will help him in recruiting when it comes to talking with people,” Fox said. “He could be doing a lot of different things, but he wants to coach college football. With his experience, that says a lot about who he is and what he wants to do. He wants to give back.”

Bosch served as the wide receivers coach at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y. during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. He spent time as the wide receivers coach at Kenyon College from March to August 2022 after getting his coaching start as the wide receivers coach at Coral Gables Senior High School in 2020.

“I decided to come to Valpo because, as a competitor, I wanted to learn from a great staff while competing and winning games at the highest level possible for me,” Bosch said. “Valpo gave me that opportunity.”

Bosch was a captain and leadership council member while playing at Kenyon College from 2017-2021. He participated in the NCAA Career in Sports Forum in June 2020 and the NCAA Student-Athlete Leadership Forum in April 2019. He was the Men of Color Chief of Public Relations and Secretary during his time at Kenyon.

“Justin comes to us from Rochester, which is a high academic, Division-III engineering school,” Fox said. “He understands what kind of fit we’re looking for at a strong academic school like ours. He understands how to attract really good football players who are also really good students. He is from Florida and has some recruiting ties in that state.”

Coleman joins the Valpo staff after serving as a defensive line assistant at UNLV during the spring of 2024. He was a linebackers graduate assistant and transfer portal coordinator at Austin Peay State University during the 2023 campaign. Coleman’s past experience also includes time at SMU as a recruiting assistant in spring 2023.

“I chose Valpo based on the coaching staff, a great mixture of younger and older coaches who all have the same common goal, which is to win,” Coleman said.

Coleman played linebacker and safety at the University of Arizona in 2018 and 2019 and linebacker at Stephen F. Austin in 2020. The Dallas native earned a degree in human sciences / human development and family from Stephen F. Austin.

“Dayven was a very good football player at Arizona and is a young guy who wants to get into coaching,” Fox said. “He has FCS experience at Austin Peay and FBS experience at UNLV. He’s seen it done at our level and a higher level. He can bring different thoughts and ideas to our program. He’s hungry and is excited about the opportunity to get on the field and coach.”

Matthes punted for Valpo in 2022 and 2023 after beginning his collegiate playing career at West Virginia from 2018-2021. He was named to the 2023 FCS Bowl, was an FCS Punter of the Year Semifinalist and was a member of the All-PFL First Team after ranking third in program history with a single-season punting average of 43.2, which led the PFL.

“I’m excited to be able to start my career in coaching at a school I also played for and with my former teammates because I still have a great understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish as a team,” Matthes said. “I understand the culture of the team and what the expectation is for each of our players.”

Matthes earned his master’s in sports administration from Valpo after graduating from West Virginia with a degree in sport and exercise psychology.

“We’re excited to keep Evan on board,” Fox said. “He’s provides a lot of value in terms of understanding kicking and punting. It’s huge for our program to have someone who has played that position. He’s an unbelievable person, and it says a lot about how he feels about our program that he wanted to stay around as part of our staff.”

RJ Ghilarducci has been elevated to assistant head coach. He will instruct the defensive line this season and will continue to serve as co-defensive coordinator. Jack Jarnigan will serve as recruiting coordinator in addition to his role as tight ends coach. Offensive line coach Michael Brewster joins Routt and Hamdan to make it three former NFL players on Valpo’s 2024 coaching staff.

What They’re Saying About Coach Hamdan

Alex Van Pelt, New England Patriots Offensive Coordinator: “Gibran has an outstanding football mind. He understands offensive football from the QB’s perspective. His ability to teach and communicate will make him an excellent football coach.”

Ryan Fitzpatrick, Former NFL Quarterback: “Gibran has the unique ability to make those around him better. The players will benefit from his on-field leadership and knowledge of the game, but more importantly, he will make them better men.”

Lofa Tatupu, Former NFL Linebacker: “Gibran is someone who any staff would be lucky to have. He was an incredible multi-sport athlete in his day, which gives him great perspective and the tools to sharpen any player’s skills. My favorite quality about Gibran is his ability to create. He thinks differently, and I believe he will be an innovator of something special.”

What They’re Saying About Coach Routt

Thomas McCaughey, Tampa Bay Buccaneers Special Teams Coordinator: “Stanford is a true student of the game. He has outstanding communication skills coupled with a strong desire to be the best and to get the best out of his players. He will truly add value to the staff at Valpo.”

Archie McDaniel, University of Illinois Linebackers Coach: “His passion to help student-athletes become better in every aspect of their lives is second to none. He has a very special ability to turn something that’s good into something that’s great and something that’s great into something that’s excellent.”

What They’re Saying About Coach Coleman

Van Malone, Kansas State University Assistant Head Coach: “I have known Coach Coleman since he was a high school athlete. I have followed his career. He has always been an impressive communicator and shown a passion for coaching the game of football. He will be a dynamic teacher and represent Valpo in a first-class way.”

Lanear Sampson, San Diego State Wide Receivers Coach: “Dayven is an extremely hard-working young coach who is in it for the right reasons. The way he relates and pours into the kids is unmatched. He lives in the growing business and will strive for greatness daily. He’s a good coach, but an even better human being. I’m excited to see him work this season.”

What They’re Saying About Coach Bosch

Keith Jones, VMI Running Backs Coach: “Coach Bosch is a young, energetic coach who has a bright future in this profession. His work ethic as a football player is clearly transferring over to his career as a football coach. It’s exciting to see his career progress this fast.”

Chris Monfiletto, Wake Forest Special Teams Analyst: “Justin has consistently maximized his ability to outperform expectations through his work ethic and positivity. He knows how to lead under adverse conditions, and he has a magnetic personality that pulls people collectively in a productive direction. His energy and love of the game is evident to anyone who he interacts with.”

Corey Headley, Western Carolina Director of Player Personnel: “Bosch is a guy who gets it. He understands football and players’ personalities. Everyone who comes in contact with him will be better on and off the field.”

Dylan Berardelli, Stonehill Offensive Line Coach: “Justin was a pleasure to coach as a student-athlete because of his competitive and high-energy approach to the game. I have no doubt that his high academic background coupled with his love of the game of football and care for the well-being of others will make him a valuable addition to the program, both as a teacher and recruiter.”

Adam Griggs, Rhode Island Tight Ends Coach: “Justin is a great young coach. He is dedicated to his players and has an ability to connect with all of his guys. I think his players feel that and are willing to run through a wall for him.”

Chad Martinovich, Rochester Head Coach: “Justin is a young coach who has worked to improve the players at his position and himself each year. I’m excited to watch his growth with this next step.”

VINCENNES VOLLEYBALL

VUVB’S AUDREY BUIS SIGNS TO PLAY AT IU-SOUTH BEND

VINCENNES, Ind. – Vincennes University sophom*ore Audrey Buis (Franklin, Ind.) announced earlier this week her plans to continue playing volleyball at the next level by signing with NAIA Indiana University-South Bend.

“After having an amazing call with Coach Cali, I went on my visit and immediately fell in love with the campus and the girls I toured with,” Buis said. “I’m very excited to become a Titan!”

Buis closed out an outstanding playing career at Vincennes University this past season, putting together a stellar sophom*ore campaign with 272 kills, 268 digs, 36 blocks, 36 aces and 331 points.

Buis finished her two years in the VU Blue and Gold with 552 total kills, 421 digs, 81 blocks, 38 aces and 639.5 total points.

Buis was a key member of an outstanding Trailblazer offensive attack which helped guide the Blazers to their most successful season at the NJCAA Division I level.

This past season, Buis helped the Blazers to a 32-7 final record, while capturing the third straight undefeated Region 24 Championship, reaching the NJCAA Division I Midwest District Tournament Championship game for the first time in school history and earning the highest National ranking in Division I program history after being ranked No. 18 in the country.

“My favorite memory at Vincennes would have to be winning the Region 24 Championship back to back,” Buis added. “Along with supporting other sports teams with my friends.”

Buis is the third VUVB sophom*ore to sign to continue playing at the next level, joining Morgan Netcott (Montague, Mich.) (U. of Montevallo) and Paige Parlanti (Las Vegas, Nev.) (Bowling Green State University).

Buis is set to join a Titans squad led by a familiar face in newly hired Head Coach and VUVB alum Cali Topolski.

Buis and Topolski are each joining an IU-South Bend program coming off of a 5-23 record last season, including a 5-9 record in Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) play.

“Audrey is the first homeschooled student that I’ve had the opportunity to coach,” VUVB Head Coach Gary Sien said. “Not that it was any different than normal, but that was a whole new experience for me as a coach and it was definitely a whole new experience for her. It’s going to be a lot different after you’ve spent a number of years being homeschooled then moving away from home at obviously a much bigger school than you are used to. Talking about the non-volleyball side for Audrey, over these last two years it seems like she has grown quite a bit as a person and as a leader.”

“One thing that I saw right away from Audrey was that leadership ability,” Sien added. “So I really encouraged her to really bring that out, especially this past season as a sophom*ore. Last year she was a bit more comfortable as a leader and she and the other sophom*ores did an excellent job of leading. I’ve said before that if it weren’t for their leadership and their initiative, it would have been a much more difficult for me to coach.”

“Audrey is a very hard worker,” Sien said. “She, along with Morgan and Paige would always do extra sessions either before or after practice. They not only did that for their own benefit, because they all want to keep getting better and that was such a great example to the rest of our team. That contributed a lot to our success on the court. Those three being the example, allowed others to also want to join in and get some extra work in. When you talk about success as a team, it’s not about doing just enough, it’s about doing more than enough because you don’t just want to be good, you want to be great. Those are the types of athletes that I definitely do appreciate and more often than not, those that do the extra work are going to go on to great success not only on the volleyball court, but in life.”

“With Audrey and Paige, I felt like we had the best two outside hitter combination in the Region,” Sien added. “It was something that every team we faced had to contend with, whether inside or outside of the Region. Not only just with their ability to hit but also their blocking.”

“I’m just really happy that Audrey has this opportunity to play at the next level,” Sien said. “She’s going to play for Cali Topolski, who played at VU from 2016 to 2018, then transferred to IU East early, played two years there and then went to Bournemouth University in England and played a fifth year before COVID. Cali was able to get a good education here at Vincennes, IU East and then in England. I think sometimes the 2016 and 2017 teams get overlooked. It was our first two years at Division I and because we weren’t in the Region yet, we didn’t get any individual recognition.”

“Cali was the first player I saw as a Coach at Vincennes University,” Sien added. “I saw her at a tournament in Chicago and as soon as I saw her, I knew we were going to have some good setting here. She had committed to VU before I had come onboard. How cool is it that now Cali just started this new position a couple of months ago and Audrey is her first signee. You can’t make this up. So as a coach, I’m just so thrilled for this opportunity for the two of them.”

“Athletically, Vincennes Volleyball prepared me to be more confident in my leadership, to be more encouraging and less critical and to be more thankful for the opportunities and memories you are given,” Buis said. “Academically, Vincennes University has taught me more things than I can count. Some of the things that stick out to me are how independent I have become over these past two years. I learned how to deal with procrastination and create better study habits. The small class sizes and personable professors really made a huge impact on my education.”

“I am excited to add Audrey to our program for a few reasons,” Coach Topolski said. “She s an experienced, well-rounded player who has contributed to the success of past season at Vincennes. I am excited for her to help guide our younger players. Being a VU volleyball alum, I am very excited to have another alumni in my first recruiting class at IU South Bend.”

The Vincennes University Athletic Department would like to congratulate Audrey Buis on her signing with Indiana University – South Bend and wishes her good luck as she continues her volleyball career in the fall.

INDIANA SMALL COLLEGE WEB SITES

INDIANA WESLEYAN ATHLETICS:https://iwuwildcats.com/

EARLHAM ATHLETICS:https://goearlham.com/

WABASH ATHLETICS:https://sports.wabash.edu/

FRANKLIN ATHLETICS:https://franklingrizzlies.com/

ROSE-HULMAN ATHLETICS:https://athletics.rose-hulman.edu/

ANDERSON ATHLETICS:https://athletics.anderson.edu/landing/index

TRINE ATHLETICS:https://trinethunder.com/landing/index

BETHEL ATHLETICS:https://bupilots.com/

DEPAUW ATHLETICS:https://depauwtigers.com/

HANOVER ATHLETICS:https://athletics.hanover.edu/

MANCHESTER ATHLETICS:https://muspartans.com/

HUNTINGTON ATHLETICS:https://www.huathletics.com/

OAKLAND CITY ATHLETICS:https://gomightyoaks.com/index.aspx

ST. FRANCIS ATHLETICS:https://www.saintfranciscougars.com/landing/index

IU KOKOMO ATHLETICS:https://iukcougars.com/

IU EAST ATHLETICS:https://www.iueredwolves.com/

IU SOUTH BENDATHLETICS:https://iusbtitans.com/

PURDUE NORTHWEST ATHLETICS:https://pnwathletics.com/

INDIANA TECH ATHLETICS:https://indianatechwarriors.com/index.aspx

GRACE COLLEGE ATHLETICS:https://gclancers.com/

ST. MARY OFTHE WOODS ATHLETICS:https://smwcathletics.com/

GOSHEN COLLEGE ATHLETICS:https://goleafs.net/

HOY CROSS ATHLETICS:https://www.hcsaints.com/index.php

TAYLOR ATHLETICS:https://www.taylortrojans.com/

VINCENNES ATHLETICS:https://govutrailblazers.com/landing/index

NUMBERS IN SPORTS

11 – 17

June 19, 1846 – The First officially recognized baseball game was played in Hoboken, New Jersey. The contest was played under the Knickerbocker Rules which are also known as Cartwright Rules after the then seated President of the Knickerbocker Club, Alexander J. Cartright in September of 1845. There is not much clarity on the contest but it appears that the Knicks played and lost to a team by the name of the New York Nines or NY Gothams by the score of 23 to 1.

June 19, 1938 – Pittsburgh Pirates legend Paul Waner, wearing Number 11 crushed a homer off of Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Pete Sivess to carry the Pirates to an 8-0 victory over their cross state rivals.

June 19, 1942 – That same Paul Waner earned his 3000th hit becoming only the seventh player at the time to reach such a lofty MLB milestone.

June 19, 1943 – The Steelers and Eagles merge agreement officially ended. Yes I guess you could say the Steagle had landed.

June 19, 1952 – The Brooklyn Dodger’s Carl Erskine, Number 17 in the program that day, tossed a no-no against the Chicago Cubs, in a 5-0 victory for Dodger Blue.

FOOTBALL HISTORY

June 19, 1943 – The Boston Yanks franchise starts operations and plays from 1944 through the 1948 season. According to the American Football Fandom webpages the team played its home games at Fenway Park. Games that conflicted with the Boston Red Sox schedule were held at the Manning Bowl in Lynn, Massachusetts. Team owner Ted Collins, who managed singer Kate Smith, picked the name “Yanks” because he originally wanted to run a team that played at New York City’s Yankee Stadium. Unfortunately, the Yanks could only manage a 2-8 record during its first regular season. A player shortage caused by World War II, forced the Yanks to merged with the Brooklyn Tigers for the 1945 season, and stay branded as the Boston Yanks. The merged team played four home games in Boston and one in New York. But fans from neither city cared as they finished with a 3-6-1 record. A season later when Brooklyn Tigers owner Dan Topping announced his intentions to join the All-America Football Conference in 1946, his NFL team was revoked and all of its players were reassigned to the Yanks. They tried a stint in the Big Apple but to no avail and they folded shop in 1948.

June 19, 1943 – The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles merge to form the war time “Steagles” team.

Nineteen Added to Football’s Hall of Fame

This article was about a June 19, 1963 event in Toronto, Ontario where the Charter members of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame were chosen and announced. The first class of the new Hall were: Al Ritchie, John DeGruchy, Seppie Demoulin, Billy Foulds, Frank Hannibal, Harry Batstone, Jack Jacobs, Fritz Hanson, Dr. Smirle Lawson, Frank “Pep Leadley, Tim Reeve, Dave Sprague, Ormond Beach, Lionel Conacher, Ernie Cox, Eddie “Dynamite” James, Norm Perry, Jeff Russel and Earl Grey the former Governor-General of Canada who donated the Grey Cup, a symbol of Canadian football to the League. These names were joined with Wes Brown, Joe Breen and Brian Timmis who were announced at the 1962 Grey Cup game. The CFL Hall of Fame is located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League. It includes displays about the CFL, Canadian university football and Canadian junior football history.

June 19, 2020 – NFL Commissioner Roger Godell shuts all NFL and team facilities/operations in respect of Juneteenth Day.

Hall of Fame Birthdays for June 19

June 19, 1906 – Jackson, Michigan – Merle Gulick, the University of Toledo and also Hobart quarterback, arrived into life. The FootballFoundation.org states that Merle enrolled at the University of Toledo and lettered in four sports, football, basketball, baseball and track. He transferred to Hobart College in Geneva, New York; and became famous as the “Hobart Hurricane.” Gulick lettered in football at Toledo in 1924 – 1925, and at Hobart in 1927, 1928, 1929. In 1928 he scored 18 touchdowns; his longest runs were 98 yards against Alfred and 85 against Kenyon. Merle Gulick received the great honor of being selected for inclusion into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1965.

June 19, 1924 – Lucca, Tuscany, Italy – Leo Nomellini the stalwart University of Minnesota tackle that played for the Gophers from 1946 to 1949 was born. Leo came to America at the age of four with his parents and quickly acclimated to the American way of life and sports. According to an account of the NFF Leo during World War II he saw active duty with the marines in the invasion of Saipan and Okinawa. After his service was completed, Nomellini enrolled at the University of Minnesota as a 22-year old freshman in 1946. The superior athlete excelled there as he played both offense and defense at tackle and was consensus All-American in 1948 and 1949. He also wrestled at Minnesota and won the Big 10 heavyweight championship. He was on the Minnesota track team as a shot putter and anchor man on the 440-yard relay team. He was big, quick, fast, aggressive, and was given a nickname; “the Lion”. Leo Nomellini’s collegiate football records are celebrated in the College Football Hall of Fame after his induction in 1977. Leo Nomellini is also a Pro Football Hall of Fame member being enshrined in 1969. He played Tackle and Defensive Tackle for the San Francisco 49ers and was selected to play in the Pro Bowl 11 times and was an 1st Team All-Pro 6 times and it is thought to be that he never missed a game during the span of his Pro career.

June 19, 1967 – Winfield, West Virginia – Mike Barber who was Marshall’s stud wide receiver from 1985 to 1988, arrived into this life. The National Football Foundation’s web bio on Barber says he may very well be one of the greatest players ever to wear a Marshall University uniform. Barber was selected twice for First Team All-America honors, three times for First Team All-Southern Conference, and in 1988, was selected as the National Player of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association. Barber led the nation in receiving while setting single-season conference records with 106 receptions and 1,757 yards in 1987. He ended his collegiate career with 4,262 yards receiving as well as 249 receptions. Mike Barber’s collegiate football records are celebrated in the College Football Hall of Fame after his induction in 2005. Barber was taken in the fourth round of the 1989 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers and played in the league for five seasons.

TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

June 19

1927 — Jack Scott of the Philadelphia Phillies pitched two complete games in a doubleheader. Scott beat the Cincinnati Reds 3-1 and lost 3-0 in the second game. Scott was the last pitcher in major league history to complete two games on the same day.

1938 – Cincinnati pitcher Johnny Vander Meer coming off two straight no-hitters, extended his string of hitless innings to 21 2/3 against the Boston Bees. Vander Meer gave up a single to Debs Garms in the fourth inning. The Red won 14-1 behind Vander Meer’s four-hitter.

1941 — En route to 56, Joe DiMaggio hit in his 32nd consecutive game, going 3-for-3, including a home run, against the Chicago White Sox.

1942 — Paul Waner got hit number 3,000 — a single off Rip Sewell — but the Boston Braves lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-6.

1952 — Brooklyn Dodger Carl Erskine pitched a 5-0 no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs at Ebbets Field.

1961 — Roger Maris’ ninth-inning homer off Kansas City’s Jim Archer was his 25th of the year, putting him seven games ahead of Babe Ruth’s pace in 1927.

1973 — Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds and Willie Davis of the Los Angeles Dodgers both collect their 2,000th hits. It is a single for Rose against the San Francisco Giants and a home run for Davis against the Atlanta Braves.

1974 — Steve Busby of the Kansas City Royals hurled his second no-hitter in 14 months and gave up just one walk in beating the Brewers 2-0 at Milwaukee.

1977 — The Boston Red Sox hit five home runs in an 11-1 triumph over the New York Yankees. The five homers gave the Red Sox a major league record 16 in three games. Boston hit six homers on the 17th and five on the 18th, also against the Yankees. In the series the Yankees had no homers.

1990 — Gary Carter plays in his 1,862nd career game as a catcher to break the National League mark set by Al Lopez.

1994 — John Smoltz became the 14th major league pitcher to give up four homers in an inning when he was tagged by Cincinnati. The Reds set a team record for home runs in an inning, connecting four times in the first inning. Hal Morris, Kevin Mitchell, Jeff Branson and Eddie Taubensee homered. Smoltz allowed 20 total bases in the first inning, the most given up in the NL since 1900.

2015 — Alex Rodriguez homered for his 3,000th career hit as the New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers 7-2.

2017 — Dodgers rookie Cody Bellinger launched two more home runs, setting a major league record with his powerful start, and Clayton Kershaw became the first 10-game winner in the National League despite giving up a career-high four long balls as Los Angeles held on for a 10-6 victory over the New York Mets. Bellinger reached 21 homers in 51 career games — faster than any other player in big league history.

2019 — One day after fouling a bunted ball in his face during batting practice and breaking his nose, Max Scherzer takes the mound for the Nationals against the Phillies sporting a prominent black eye. He still stymies the opposition with 7 scoreless innings in a 2 – 0 win. “Trust me, this thing looks a lot worse than it actually feels,” he explains to journalists.

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June 20

1912 — The New York Giants outslugged the Boston Braves 21-12 with the teams scoring a total of 17 runs in the ninth inning. The Giants scored seven runs to take a 21-2 lead and the Braves scored 10 runs in the ninth.

1932 — Philadelphia’s Doc Cramer hit six singles in six at-bats and Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx and Mule Haas each drove in four runs in the Athletics’ 18-11 win over the Chicago White Sox. Haas hit a grand slam in the sixth inning to put the A’s up 12-6.

1956 — Mickey Mantle hit two home runs into the right centerfield bleachers at Detroit’s Briggs Stadium. Mantle hit both blasts off Billy Hoeft in the 7-4 win. He became the first player to reach the bleachers since they were were built in the late 1930s.

1973 — San Francisco’s Bobby Bonds broke Lou Brock’s National League record for leadoff home runs. Bonds’ 22nd career leadoff home run came off Don Gullet in a 7-5 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

1973 — Chicago’s Cy Acosta becomes the first American League pitcher to bat since the designated hitter rule went into effect. Acosta strikes out in the eighth inning, and still gets the win in the White Sox’ 8-3 win over California.

1980 — Freddie Patek, one of baseball’s smallest players at 5-foot-5, hit three home runs and a double to lead the California Angels in a 20-2 rout of the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park.

1992 — Kelly Saunders became the second woman to serve as a public address announcer at a major league game when she filled in for Rex Barney in Baltimore.

1994 — The Detroit Tigers’ string of 25 straight games hitting a home run ended in a 7-1 loss to Cleveland. The streak matched the major league mark set by the 1941 New York Yankees.

2004 — Ken Griffey Jr. hit the 500th home run of his career, off Matt Morris, to help the Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-0.

2007 — Sammy Sosa hit his 600th home run, making him the fifth player to reach the milestone. Sosa, playing for the Texas Rangers following a year out of baseball, hit a solo homer off Jason Marquis. It came in the fifth inning against the Chicago Cubs, the team he played for from 1992-2004.

2009 — Two games ended on wild pitches in extra innings. Nate Schierholtz scored the winning run for San Francisco on a wild pitch by Jason Jennings with two outs in the 11th inning and the Giants beat the Texas Rangers 2-1. Earlier, the Chicago Cubs beat Cleveland 6-5 in 13 innings when Andres Blanco came home on Kerry Wood’s gaffe.

2011 — The Florida Marlins named Jack McKeon interim manager. The 80-year-old McKeon became the second-oldest manager in major league history. Connie Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics in a suit, tie and straw hat until 1950, when he was 87.

2015 — Max Scherzer pitched a no-hitter, losing his perfect game with two outs in the ninth inning when he hit a batter in the Washington Nationals’ 6-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Scherzer dominated in retiring the first 26 batters and was one strike from throwing the 22nd perfect game in major league history since 1900. Pinch-hitter Jose Tabata fouled off a pair of 2-2 pitches before Scherzer clipped him on the elbow with a breaking ball. Scherzer then retired Josh Harrison on a deep fly to left.

2016 — Colorado beat Miami 5-3 where eight solo homers accounted for all the runs in the game and set a major league record. Mark Reynolds hit two homers and Trevor Story, Nick Hundley and Charlie Blackmon also went deep for the Rockies. Marcell Ozuna homered twice and Giancarlo Stanton hit one for the Marlins. The previous MLB mark was five. The eight home runs were also the most in a game at Marlins Park since it opened in 2012. Five of the game’s first 13 batters connected.

2017 — Umpire Joe West worked his 5,000th major league game. West was behind the plate for a matchup between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. The 64-year-old, nicknamed “Cowboy” Joe, is the third umpire to work at least 5,000 games, joining Hall of Famer Bill Klem (5,375) and Bruce Froemming (5,163). West made his major league debut as a 23-year-old on Sept. 14, 1976, at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium in a game between the Braves and Houston Astros. He joined the NL staff full time in 1978. His 40 seasons umpiring in the majors are the most by any umpire.

TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

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June 19

1867 — Ruthless, ridden by J. Gilpatrick, wins the inaugural Belmont Stakes at Jerome Park in the Bronx. The filly earns $1,850 for her victory.

1914 — Harry Vardon wins his sixth and final British Open by shooting a 306, three strokes ahead of J.H. Taylor at Prestwick Club.

1936 — German heavyweight boxer Max Schmeling knocks out previously unbeaten Joe Louis in the 12th round. Schmeling’s victory sets off a propaganda war between the Nazi regime and the United States on the eve of World War II.

1938 — FIFA World Cup Final, Stade Olympique de Colombes, Paris, France: Luigi Colausig & Silvio Piola each score 2 goals as Italy beats Hungary, 4-1.

1954 — Ed Furgol edges Gene Littler by one stroke to win the U.S. Open, the first golf tournament to be televised nationally.

1955 — Jack Fleck beats Ben Hogan by three strokes in a playoff round to win the U.S. Open.

1973 — Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds) and Willie Davis (LA Dodgers) both record 2,000th MLB career hit; Rose, a single in 4-0 win vs SF Giants; Davis, a HR in 3-0 win vs Atlanta Braves.

1977 — Hubert Green wins the U.S. Open by one stroke over Lou Graham.

1986 — Len Bias, the second pick in the NBA draft made by the Boston Celtics two days before, dies of a heart attack induced by cocaine use.

1992 — Evander Holyfield wins a unanimous decision over Larry Holmes to remain unbeaten and retain the undisputed heavyweight title.

1992 — Charlie Whittingham becomes the second trainer in history, behind D. Wayne Lukas, to top $100 million in purse earnings when Little by Little finishes second in the sixth race at Hollywood Park.

1999 — Dallas wins its first Stanley Cup, as Brett Hull’s controversial goal at 14:51 of the third overtime gives the Stars a 2-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres in Game 6.

2000 — NBA Finals: Los Angeles Lakers beat Indiana Pacers, 116-111 in Game 6 to win the franchise’s first title in 12 years; MVP: Shaquille O’Neal.

2005 — Michael Campbell answers every challenge Tiger Woods throws his way for a two-shot victory in the U.S. Open. Retief Goosen, the two-time U.S. Open champion, turns in a collapse that ranks among the greatest in major championship history. He loses his three-shot lead in three holes and closes with an 81 to tie for 11th at 8 over.

2006 — Cam Ward stops nearly everything giving the Carolina Hurricanes their first Stanley Cup title with a 3-1 victory over Edmonton in Game 7.

2011 — Rory McIlroy runs away with the U.S. Open title, winning by eight shots and breaking the tournament scoring record by a whopping four strokes. McIlroy shoots a 2-under 69 to close the four days at Congressional in Bethesda, Md., at 16-under 268.

2015 — Alex Rodriguez homers for his 3,000th career hit as the New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers 7-2.

2016 — Dustin Johnson atones for his past mishaps in the majors winning the U.S. Open by three shots. Shane Lowry, who began the final round with a four-shot lead, Jim Furyk and Scott Piercy finish tied for second.

2016 — LeBron James and his relentless Cavaliers pulls off an improbable NBA Finals comeback to give the city of Cleveland its first title since 1964. James delivers on a promise from two years ago to bring a championship to his native northeast Ohio, and he and the Cavs become the first team to rally from a 3-1 finals deficit by beating the defending champion Golden State Warriors 93-89.

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June 20

1908 — Colin wins the Tidal Stakes at Sheepshead Bay and retires undefeated after 15 starts. No major American racehorse approaches this record until 1988, when Personal Ensign retires with a perfect 13-for-13 career.

1936 — Jesse Owens sets a 100-meter record of 10.2 seconds at a meet in Chicago.

1940 — Joe Louis stops Arturo Godoy in the eighth round at Yankee Stadium to retain the world heavyweight title.

1960 — Floyd Patterson knocks out Ingemar Johansson in the fifth round in New York to become the first boxer to regain the world heavyweight title.

1966 — Billy Casper beats Arnold Palmer by four strokes in a playoff to win the U.S. Open.

1967 — Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, is convicted of violating the United States Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. Clay is sentenced to five years in prison and fined $10,000, the maximum penalty for the offense. Ali remains free while his conviction is on appeal.

1968 — The Night of Speed. In a span of 2½ hours, the world record of 10 seconds for the 100 meters is broken by three men and tied by seven others at the AAU Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, Calif. Jim Hines wins the first semifinal in a tight finish with Ronny Ray Smith, becoming the first man to break the 10-second barrier. Both runners are credited with a time of 9.9 seconds. Charlie Greene wins the second semifinal and then ties Hines’ 9.9 record in the final.

1976 — UEFA European Championship Final, Red Star Stadium, Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Czechoslovakia upsets West Germany, 5-3 on penalties following 2-2 draw.

1980 — Roberto Duran wins a 15-round decision over Sugar Ray Leonard at Olympic Stadium in Montreal to win the WBC welterweight crown.

1982 — Tom Watson wins the U.S. Open by two strokes over Jack Nicklaus.

1982 — Pete Rose is 5th to appear in 3,000 games (Cobb, Musial, Aaron, Yaz).

1984 — Jockey Pat Day equals a thoroughbred racing record for an eight-race card when he wins seven races at Churchill Downs. Day’s only loss is in the fourth race.

1993 — Lee Janzen holes a 30-foot chip for birdie on No. 16 and adds birdies on the par-5 closing holes for a two-stroke victory over Payne Stewart in the U.S. Open. Janzen ties Jack Nicklaus’ record 272 total and Lee Trevino’s four straight rounds in the 60′s.

1993 — John Paxson hits a 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds left as the Chicago Bulls win their third consecutive NBA title with a 99-98 victory over the Phoenix Suns in Game 6 of the finals.

1994 — Ernie Els of South Africa becomes the first foreign winner of the U.S. Open since 1981, beating Loren Roberts on the second sudden-death hole.

1994 — Former NFL running back, broadcaster and actor O.J. Simpson arraigned on murder of Nicole Simpson & Ronald Goldman.

2004 — Retief Goosen captures his second U.S. Open in four years. In the toughest final round at the U.S. Open in 22 years, Goosen closes with a 1-over 71 for a two-shot victory made possible when Phil Mickelson three-putts from 5 feet on the 17th.

2004 — Ken Griffey Jr. hits the 500th home run of his career, off Matt Morris, to help the Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-0.

2006 — Dwyane Wade caps his magnificent playoffs with 36 points and 10 rebounds to lead Miami past the Dallas Mavericks 95-92 as the Heat roar back from a two-game deficit to win the NBA finals in six games.

2013 — LeBron James has 37 points and 12 rebounds, and the Miami Heat repeat as champions with a 95-88 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

2017 — Tiger Woods checks into a clinic to manage his pain medication and sleep disorder, following his arrest for driving under the influence.

2018 — Christiano Renaldo scores a goal against Morocco to become the all-time leading European goalscorer (85) in international compitition.

2019 — Duke power forward Zion Williamson is the first player chosen in the 2019 NBA Draft.

2020 — Tiz the Law, ridden by Manuel Franco, wins the 152nd Belmont Stakes becoming the first New York-bred horse to win the event since 1882.

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