7:54 PM ET MESA, Ariz. — The pop of leather and the crack of wood reverberated through Bell Bank Park, a sprawling sports and entertainment facility outfitted with turf baseball fields and an expansive weight room. Professional baseball players, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 of them, threw bullpen sessions and took batting practice there
1:57 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Former Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz, perhaps the most prominent voice in Dominican baseball, says he is open to the idea of an international draft but is wary of its implementation
7:08 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Major League Baseball canceled the second week of the regular season Wednesday after days of discussion with the MLB Players Association failed to generate a new collective-bargaining agreement. The international draft, long
9:20 PM ET One hundred eighty-four games. So far. That’s the number of games that have been lopped off the schedule after MLB’s second announcement of cancellations on Wednesday. Of the 2,430 originally slated contests, 7.6% of them are already gone. We can only hope the number doesn’t go even higher. For now, if an
7:00 AM ET The MLB lockout is nearly three weeks old, and it seems like not much has come out of the negotiations. So what exactly is going on between the owners and players? Are they moving any closer to a deal? And most importantly: When is it time to worry about the sport’s immediate
9:25 PM ET There will be no MLB games until at least April 14. After talks between Major League Baseball and the MLBPA broke down on Wednesday, the league canceled the second week of the 2022 regular season. How far apart are the two sides in negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement? How concerned should
Captain Mithali Raj had no hesitation in admitting that top order’s performance hasn’t been up to the mark as India didn’t have “a batter to take the game deep” in their 62-run defeat against New Zealand in the ICC Women’s World Cup. India managed only 198 in a chase of 260 against the White Ferns after
12:29 PM ET Dutch prosecutors intend to press attempted murder charges against Spartak Moscow player Quincy Promes, they said on Wednesday, in order to ensure his case proceeds as quickly as possible. Promes was arrested in connection with a July 2020 stabbing in the Dutch town of Abcoude. It later emerged that the alleged victim
3:01 PM ET New Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch has described the reaction to his decision to hold an on-pitch huddle with his players after his first game in charge as “hilarious and ridiculous.” Marsch became just the third American to manage in the Premier League when he was appointed to replace Marcelo Bielsa last
6:52 PM ET Alex KirklandESPN FC Paris Saint-Germain were left fuming after Real Madrid’s 3-1 Champions League win at the Bernabeu, with security having to intervene when president Nasser Al-Khelaifi and sporting director Leonardo went looking for the referee to complain about his performance, sources have told ESPN. Karim Benzema scored a second-half hat trick
4:29 AM ET The U.K. government said on Thursday it had imposed asset freezes on seven Russian businessmen including Roman Abramovich, Igor Sechin, Oleg Deripaska and Dmitri Lebedev after they were added to the country’s sanctions list. “There can be no safe havens for those who have supported Putin’s vicious assault on Ukraine,” U.K. prime
An inept batting performance by India led to an all-too familiar surrender against New Zealand as the Mithali Raj-led side went down by 62 runs in its second league stage match of the ICC Women’s World Cup here on Thursday. New Zealand, who have dominated the Indians throughout this summer, didn’t let anything change in
7:04 AM ET Roman Abramovich has received multiple bids for Chelsea but none have yet matched his £3 billion (3.94bn) valuation, sources have told ESPN. Potential interested parties have until March 15 to submit offers to the New York merchant bank Raine Group, appointed to handle the sale of the club. – Olley, Marcotti: What
9:35 PM ET CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Kyrie Irving‘s 50-point outburst during Tuesday night’s 132-121 win over the Charlotte Hornets was so impressive that Kevin Durant spent the first few moments of his postgame news conference clapping for his teammate at the podium. Durant called Irving’s performance a “master class” and said younger players should watch
1:28 PM ET The NBA suspended Sacramento Kings center Domantas Sabonis for one game without pay for “aggressively confronting and making contact with a game official,” the league announced Wednesday. Sabonis was ejected in the Monday night game against the New York Knicks with 4:35 remaining in the fourth quarter at Golden 1 Center in
8:07 PM ET Andrew LopezESPN New Orleans Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram has a mild right hamstring strain and will be reevaluated in seven to 10 days, the team announced Wednesday night. The Pelicans started a four-game, seven-night homestand Wednesday against the Orlando Magic. 1 Related Ingram injured his hamstring late against the Denver Nuggets on
3:24 PM ET Tim BontempsESPN CAMDEN, N.J. — Even with Ben Simmons not playing in Thursday night’s game between the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers, there is plenty of excitement in Philadelphia. Sixers coach Doc Rivers said after practice Wednesday that while he isn’t a fan of the way this Atlantic Division rivalry began, he
10:51 PM ET ESPN News Services MIAMI — Not that there was any doubt about this, but the Phoenix Suns are going to the playoffs. The Suns didn’t leave any doubt in a matchup of conference leaders, either. Devin Booker scored 23 points, Mikal Bridges added 21 and the Suns shook off a slow start