HOUSTON — Houston's Yordan Alvarez might be the top left-handed hitter in Major League Baseball. Teammate Framber Valdez ranks among the best left-handed pitchers, too. Other than that, those guys are all right. Literally — neither player considers himself left-handed at all. MLB and its history are dotted with men who played out of their [...]

STANFORD, Calif. — Tara VanDerveer nearly walked away from coaching 10 years ago before longtime Stanford supporter John Arrillaga asked her to seriously reconsider and insisted she take the summer off. What did the Hall of Fame coach do? She listened. She stuck with it. And she enjoyed a much-needed break, a basketball-free stretch during [...]

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Dan Hurley and the UConn Huskies proved that even in the age of NIL and rampant player transfers, it's possible to build a program capable of winning back-to-back national titles. A few minutes after cutting down the nets on Monday night, the coach was already thinking about a three-peat. "We're going to [...]

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Camilo Villegas wasn't just trying to refine his golf swing as he prepared to play in the Masters for the first time in nine years. He was constantly checking the fine print on the ingredients in sunscreen. It reached a point a few weeks ago when the 42-year-old Colombian was trying three [...]

AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Bruce Devlin hit the best shot he never saw at the Masters. It was the first round in 1967, and the Australian was 240 yards away on the par-5 eighth hole at Augusta National. He took a lash with his four-wood. The ball landed on the front of the green, rolled [...]

TAMPA, Fla. — Nestor Cortes got behind the plate in a batting cage and watched an 8-foot-high, 1,200-pound robot spit out fastballs, cutters and sweepers just like the ones spinning off the fingertips of his left hand. "It was like seeing myself pitch. That was crazy," the New York Yankees All-Star left-hander said. Technology has [...]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Like a loss in the playoffs, voter rejection of a stadium tax plan will force the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs to reevaluate their approach. The defeat last week of a three-eighths cent sales tax to fund a new downtown Royals ballpark and renovate the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium was almost assuredly [...]

Connecticut and Purdue needed the right fit. Alabama needed more bodies. North Carolina State had big holes to fill in the backcourt. They all mined the transfer portal effectively enough that those pieces are key reasons that they've reached the Final Four, headed to the desert with a chance to hoist a trophy. It's a [...]

The 2024 version of March Madness has apexed with a trio of streak busters in the desert. North Carolina State is in the Final Four for the first time since Jim Valvano ran around trying to find someone to hug after the 1983 national championship. Purdue and big man Zach Edey will make their first [...]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Morehead State coach Preston Spradlin wasn't surprised when several players from his 2021 March Madness team eventually took their talents elsewhere, with a couple landing at Power Five programs. The Eagles' return to this year's NCAA tournament shows he didn't panic. Even though the Ohio Valley Conference school tucked in the eastern [...]