U.S./World Sports category, Page 173
Zippy Chippy, horse racing’s lovable loser, dies at 31
Zippy Chippy, horse racing’s lovable loser for never winning in 100 races, has died at the age of 31. The bay gelding was living at the Bobby Frankel Division of Old Friends Thoroughbred Farm at Cabin Creek near Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York since 2010. The farm said...
NASCAR chases holiday TV audience with Easter dirt race
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kevin Harvick was on his annual family beach vacation when he was forced to cut it short early by three days to return to work for the first time in his career on Easter Sunday. NASCAR since its 1949 inaugural season deliberately used Easter as an off...
FedEx Cup champ Cantlay takes RBC Heritage lead into weekendVideo
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay birdied the final four holes Friday for a 4-under-par 67 and take a two-stroke lead over Robert Streb halfway through the RBC Heritage. After dropping back with bogeys on the 11th and 14th holes, Cantlay turned it around on the...
Too dusty: NASCAR working on visibility at dirty BristolVideo
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Kyle Busch took a long pause to carefully choose how to describe visibility Friday in the first practice on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway. “So far better, I guess?” Busch said. “But second half of that practice, you couldn’t see. You put one car in front...
Hoffman misses RBC Heritage cut but happy to be back after muscular dystrophy diagnosisVideo
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Morgan Hoffmann left the RBC Heritage feeling like a winner, even if he didn’t make the cut. Hoffmann played his first PGA Tour event after being sidelined in 2019 by muscular dystrophy. He had not teed off on tour since the Shriners Hospital for Children...
NBA playoffs are here, with many eyes on favored Phoenix
Devin Booker does not take having another chance at an NBA championship lightly. Over his first four years in Phoenix, among players who appeared in at least 200 games spanning the 2015-16 through the 2018-19 seasons, nobody in the NBA experienced more losing than Booker did. He appeared in 272...
Cameron Young shoots 8-under-par 63 in RBC Heritage debutVideo
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Cameron Young showed it doesn’t always take years of practice to go low at Harbour Town Golf Links, shooting an 8-under-par 63 on Thursday to take the first-round lead in his RBC Heritage debut. The 24-year-old PGA Tour rookie had eight birdies in a bogey-free...
Sex abuse case in snowboarding exposes flaws in reporting systemVideo
DENVER — When former members of the U.S. snowboarding team wanted to report sex-abuse allegations against a longtime coach, they received conflicting information that left them unsure of where to turn — or whether they wanted to pursue the cases at all. An Instagram post during the Olympics by a...
Cameron Smith putting Masters behind him at RBC HeritageVideo
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — Cameron Smith has put his bad swing at the 12th hole in the final round of the Masters behind him and is ready to continue a strong season at the RBC Heritage. Smith was in contention much of the way at Augusta National and was...
Mark Madden: Scottie Scheffler should be the story of the Masters, not Tiger Woods
Scottie Scheffler won the Masters. He finished 23 strokes ahead of Tiger Woods, who finished 47th but was somehow the story. Skip Bayless of Fox said that as far as he’s concerned, Woods won the Masters. Bayless referred to Scheffler as “the bland leading the bland.” That’s wrong and unfair....
Joey Logano watches Ty Gibbs scrap with veteran bemusementVideo
Joey Logano has had his share of conflict during a career that began with his appointment as “Sliced Bread” upon arrival. He was 18 and overhyped, evidenced by a nickname that likened him to the “greatest thing since … sliced bread.” Eager to prove himself and determined not to be...
Jimmie Johnson plans to keep driving despite fractured handVideo
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jimmie Johnson doesn’t intend to let a fractured right hand keep him off the track. On Tuesday, the seven-time NASCAR champion who has become an IndyCar Series regular announced on Twitter he had surgery Monday night in Charlotte, N.C., to repair the injury he suffered in a...
Column: Scheffler’s dominant stretch illustrates parity on PGA TourVideo
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Start with Scottie Scheffler winning four times in two months. Now consider the money. His PGA Tour earnings in his past six tournaments — dating to his first victory in the Phoenix Open on Feb. 13 — come to $8,872,200. With consideration to purse increases and the...
Support for Brittney Griner at WNBA draft as Rhyne Howard goes to Atlanta
NEW YORK — Moments before Rhyne Howard went to Atlanta with the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the league is working very hard to help bring Brittney Griner back to the United States. Griner, one of the league’s biggest stars, has been detained in...
Column: IndyCar rich in drama as Indianapolis 500 looms
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Through just three races, the IndyCar Series already is building enough dynamic storylines to be worthy of its own Netflix program. Speculation has been mounting that IndyCar, just like NASCAR and any motorsports series with a finger on the pulse of pop culture, is trying to...
Alexander Bublik cuts short Stan Wawrinka’s return to tour after injuryVideo
MONACO — Alexander Bublik cut short Stan Wawrinka’s return to the tour, defeating the Swiss 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Monday in his first singles in 13 months. Wawrinka started off confidently against the Kazakh, winning the first set with ease. He...
Scottie Scheffler a Masters champion and never saw it coming
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Scottie Scheffler wanted to be a professional golfer for so long he wore trousers to lessons at Royal Oaks in Dallas and even at junior tournaments, no matter how stifling the Texas heat. He just never imagined how he would look in a green jacket. Winning the...
Lakers fire title-winning coach Frank Vogel after 3 seasonsVideo
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers fired Frank Vogel on Monday, choosing their championship-winning head coach to take the first fall for one of the most disappointing seasons in NBA history. Los Angeles wildly underachieved this season, finishing 33-49 and missing the 10-team Western Conference playoffs in a humiliating...
Penn-Trafford grad Emma Nedley toughing out senior softball season at Penn
The pain is constant. On the field. Off the field. Driving in her car. Major knee surgery awaits Penn softball player Emma Nedley next month, but don’t expect the Penn-Trafford graduate to sit out many games the rest of the season. The pandemic already robbed Nedley of most of her...
Kiski Area grad Moyer settles in to more prominent role with Fairmont State softball teamVideo
Courtney Moyer remembers the moment vividly. She was sitting in the Fairmont State dugout, watching as her team took on Notre Dame College last season. The next thing she knew, Courtney Worcester, the Falcons’ standout senior shortstop, was coming off the field with an injury. As if seeing one of...
For Scottie Scheffler, a new world awaits as the Masters champion
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Scottie Scheffler just wanted dinner. The best option, he decided, would be for him and his wife Meredith to grab some takeout and head back to their rented home so he could rest up before the final round of the Masters. Small problem. On the way home,...
Caddie champ: Ted Scott gets to be part of 3rd Masters winVideo
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Ted Scott was retiring last fall. He was done with golf, ready to do something else, probably teach the game. And when Scottie Scheffler called to ask the veteran caddie to work for him, an answer didn’t come easily. Scott was truly torn. He told his family...
Column: A day to remember for Rory McIlroy, but no green jacket at MastersVideo
AUGUSTA, Ga. — For the briefest of moments, there was the smallest bit of hope. A day that began with little to shoot for other than a top 10 suddenly threatened to turn magical for Rory McIlroy as he made his way around Augusta National, triumphantly holing his final shot...
Josef Newgarden moves Team Penske to 3-0 with IndyCar win at Long BeachVideo
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Colton Herta is so good on the downtown streets of Long Beach, and was so strong this weekend, a second consecutive victory seemed automatic. Not so fast, scowled Josef Newgarden, who went to sleep the night before the race Sunday stewing over a question he’d been...
Scottie Scheffler wins Masters by 3 strokes for 1st major titleVideo
AUGUSTA, Ga. — That new No. 1 ranking for Scottie Scheffler looks even better in a Masters green jacket. Two months after Scheffler finally broke through for his first PGA Tour victory, he capped off a most incredible 56-day stretch by making his fourth win the biggest of them all,...
