Sports

For decades, championship teams have visited the White House in a moment of ritual and tradition. Athletic excellence is celebrated, lame jokes are told and the president is given yet another jersey bearing his name. Under President Donald Trump, though, the visits often have become politicized, featuring athlete protests and, in the case of the […]

Residents of Japan began entering a ticket lottery on Thursday, hoping to land seats for next year’s Tokyo Olympics. People overseas will have to wait until June 15 when tickets are put on sale by special distributors in each country — known as Authorized Ticket Resellers. Buying for Japan residents is straightforward. Applications are accepted

Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks found another gear after their first loss of the playoffs. Kyrie Irving and the Boston Celtics just couldn’t keep up. Antetokounmpo had 20 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, and the Bucks routed the Celtics 116-91 on Wednesday night to advance to the Eastern Conference final. After sweeping Detroit

Oakland right-hander Mike Fiers replied to countless congratulatory texts and phone calls following his second career no-hitter, and then crawled into bed around 5 a.m. He saved one special call for later. No one talks to Bruce Fiers until after he has watched his son’s games the following morning. No spoiler alerts allowed. And Mike

The Chicago Cubs vowed Wednesday to indefinitely ban the fan who used what appeared to be a racist hand gesture behind an African American television reporter who was on the air. “The individual responsible will not be welcome back at Wrigley Field,” Cubs spokesman Julian Green said. The Cubs were still working to identify the

Rafael Nadal was concerned going into his first match at the Madrid Open. He lost practice time ahead of the tournament because of a stomach virus and didn’t know exactly how his body would react when he stepped onto the “Magic Box” center court on Wednesday. But despite the lack of preparation and the physical

There are 27 head coaches starting new jobs in major college football this season. Which ones are most likely to have successful tenures? On the last AP Top 25 College Football Podcast , USA Today’s Paul Myerberg joins the show to pick apart Ralph Russo’s Most Likely to Succeed rankings of new FBS coaches. Houston’s

The Tokyo Olympics are caught between the proverbial rock and hard place. Tokyo organizers are trying to cut spending, under pressure from the International Olympic Committee, which has been widely criticized for pushing host cities to build “white elephant” venues — often at the taxpayer’s expense. That’s the rock. And here’s the hard place. Some

Mike Fiers of the Oakland Athletics is pitching a no-hitter through eight innings against the Cincinnati Reds. Fiers has thrown 118 pitches Tuesday night in Oakland. He has struck out five and walked two. In 2015, Fiers pitched a no-hitter for Houston against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He threw a career-high 134 pitches in that

The Edmonton Oilers hired longtime Detroit Red Wings executive Ken Holland as their new general manager and president of hockey operations Tuesday. Holland takes over the struggling team from interim GM Keith Gretzky and one of his first tasks will be finding a new coach. Veteran Ken Hitchcock will not be back next season after