The Athletics (55-69) snapped an eight-game losing streak, which included seven this season, against the Angels.
Thomas and Kurtz each had three hits and drove in three runs. Thomas, a 24-year-old rookie, hit a three-run homer in the third inning and Kurtz hit a three-run shot that capped the scoring in the eighth.
Perkins (2-2) made his third career start and allowed three runs on five hits with three walks. He allowed three runs on three hits in six innings to beat Orioles 11-3 for first win as a starter his last time out.
Langeliers hit solo homer off Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi (6-8) and added an RBI single. Kikuchi gave up five hits and four runs in four innings.
Travis d’Arnaud doubled to drive in Yoán Moncada in the second for the Angels (59-63). Zach Neto homered after Bryce Teodosio walked on four pitches to lead off the fifth to trim their deficit to 4-3.
Key moment: Brent Rooker doubled to lead off the third and moved to third on a single by Kurtz before Thomas hit a first-pitch curveball over the wall in left center field to make it 4-1.
Key stat: The Athletics were six for nine with runners in scoring position while the Angels were one for seven.
Up next: Angels LHP Tyler Anderson (2-7, 4.63 ERA) starts Saturday opposite Athletics RHP Luis Morales (0-0, 1.93).
100m champion Sha’Carri Richardson addresses domestic violence arrest and apologizes to boyfriend Christian Coleman.
Sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson has addressed her recent domestic violence arrest in a video on social media and issued an apology to her boyfriend Christian Coleman.
Richardson posted a video on her Instagram account Monday night in which she said she put herself in a “compromised situation”. She issued a written apology to Coleman on Tuesday morning.
“I love him & to him I can’t apologize enough,” the reigning 100-meter world champion wrote in all capital letters on Instagram, adding that her apology “should be just as loud” as her “actions”.
“To Christian I love you & I am so sorry,” she wrote.
Richardson was arrested on July 27 on a fourth-degree domestic violence offence for allegedly assaulting Coleman at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. She was booked into South Correctional Entity in Des Moines, Washington, for more than 18 hours.
Her arrest was days before she ran the 100 metres at the US championships in Eugene, Oregon.
In the video, Richardson said she’s practising “self-reflection” and refuses “to run away but face everything that comes to me head on”.
According to the police report, an officer at the airport was notified by a Transportation Security Administration supervisor of a disturbance between Richardson and her boyfriend, Coleman, the 2019 world 100-metre champion.
The officer reviewed camera footage and observed Richardson reach out with her left arm and grab Coleman’s backpack and yank it away. Richardson then appeared to get in Coleman’s way, with Coleman trying to step around her. Coleman was shoved into a wall.
Later in the report, it said Richardson appeared to throw an item at Coleman, with the TSA indicating it may have been headphones.
The officer said in the report: “I was told Coleman did not want to participate any further in the investigation and declined to be a victim.”
A message was left with Coleman from The Associated Press.
Richardson wrote that Coleman “came into my life & gave me more than a relationship but a greater understanding of unconditional love from what I’ve experienced in my past”.
She won the 100 at the 2023 world championships in Budapest and finished with the silver at the Paris Games last summer. She also helped the 4×100 relay team to an Olympic gold.
She didn’t compete during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, following a positive marijuana test at the US Olympic trials.
Mattia Debertolis discovered unconscious during an orienteering event in Chengdu on August 8 and died four days later.
Italian orienteering athlete Mattia Debertolis died on Tuesday after being found unresponsive during competition at the World Games in China’s Chengdu, organisers have said.
The 29-year-old was discovered unconscious during an orienteering event on August 8 and died four days later, said a joint statement from World Games organisers and the International Orienteering Federation (IOF).
The World Games is a multisport event held every four years for disciplines not included in the Olympics.
“Despite receiving immediate expert medical care at one of China’s leading medical institutions, he passed away,” the statement said.
It did not provide details on the cause of death.
The event took place in intense heat and humidity, with temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
Orienteering sees athletes navigate an unmarked course with a map and compass, punching in at designated spots along the route in the quickest time.
Debertolis, from Primiero in eastern Italy, was taking part in the final of the men’s middle-distance, the first medal event of the Games.
The 6km (3.7-mile-) course featured 180 metres (590ft) of ascent and 20 control points that athletes must visit.
Footage from the World Games’ social media accounts showed athletes running through crop fields and villages on a largely rural course.
The winner, Switzerland’s Riccardo Rancan, completed the course in 45 minutes and 22 seconds.
“I needed to acclimatise quickly with hot and humid conditions. I think I managed quite well,” Chinese state media quoted Rancan as saying.
Debertolis was listed as “Did Not Finish” in official results, along with 11 other athletes.
He was ranked 137th in the men’s Orienteering World Rankings and had been competing since 2014, according to the IOF website.
He participated in several World Championships and World Cups as part of the Italian team.
Alongside his training, Debertolis was studying for a PhD at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, where he lived.
President of the Italian Orienteering Federation (FISO), Alfio Giomi, invited the national team to wear black armbands while competing in the World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships, which begin on Tuesday in Poland.
Debertolis’ family had agreed that “athletes will be able to participate in the competitions in Mattia’s name and memory,” Giomi said in an online statement.
World Games organisers and the IOF were “struck by this tragedy and extend their heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the athlete and the whole orienteering community”, the joint statement read.
“Our thoughts are with those touched by this event.”
Organisers will “continue to support the family of Mattia Debertolis and the orienteering community in every possible way”, it added.
This is the 12th edition of the World Games, and it runs until August 17, with approximately 4,000 athletes competing in 253 events.
Water polo players briefly left the pool after shots were fired near an Under-20 World Cup game in Brazil.
Brazilian police have said there were no injuries after shots were fired near an Under-20 World Cup water polo women’s game between China and Canada in the city of Salvador.
China won 12-8 on Sunday – the opening day of the tournament – but footage showed the game being briefly interrupted as players got out of the pool, lay down and took cover by a small barrier after hearing gunshots outside the water polo venue in the Pituba neighbourhood. China led Canada 3-2 at the time.
“The match stopped for about a minute. Our team saw that the police were taking care of it,” Marco Antonio Lemos, head of the Bahia state water sports federation, said in a statement on Monday.
Police said the cause of the shots was a confrontation with an alleged local thief who was outside the venue and tried to escape. No more details were given.
Spectators were told about the incident after the game had resumed.
Brazil is hosting the 16-team tournament for the first time.
Caudery won the pole vault with a first-time clearance of 4.45m, before pushing herself to equal her best performance of the year by going over at 4.85m.
The 25-year-old won world indoor gold in a breakout 2024 season, during which she broke the British record with a 4.92m jump, but failed to qualify for the Olympic final.
“I’ve just been finding my flow again and figuring a few things out, so I didn’t push it today, but it is really exciting to jump back over the 80s again and I’m hoping to attempt [the British record] soon,” Caudery said.
Nuttall sealed her place on the team by winning the women’s 5,000m in 15 minutes 46.90 seconds, having achieved the qualifying time before the championships.
But 19-year-old Innes FitzGerald, who achieved the qualifying standard in breaking the European Under-20 record in London last month, must wait to see if she is selected after finishing third behind India Weir.
Okoye confirmed his place in Tokyo by winning the men’s discus with a 65.93m throw, while Anna Purchase threw a championship record 72.96m to win the women’s hammer title – a distance within UK Athletics’ (UKA) consideration standard.
Megan Romano announced as first female competitor at 2026 debut of Olympic-style Enhanced Games in Las Vegas.
The Olympic-style sport venture that will run an event next year with no drug testing signed world-champion swimmer Megan Romano as its first female and first US athlete.
The Enhanced Games will debut next May in Las Vegas, featuring swimming, track and weightlifting competitions in an event that will allow athletes to use performance enhancers.
Romano calls competing in the event “an opportunity to push the boundaries of human performance in a transparent and scientifically-backed environment, and to compete on a stage where female athletes are valued and compensated fairly. equally. I believe this is the future of sport.”
The Enhanced Games will offer a prize purse of $500,000 for each event, with $1m bonuses going to anyone who breaks a world record in the 100-metre sprint (track) and 50-metre freestyle (swimming).
Megan Romano, right, and members of the US relay team pose with their gold medals on the podium after winning the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay final during the Short Course Swimming World Championships in 2012 [Valdrin Xhemaj/EPA]
Those marks would not count as “official”, because world records need to be ratified by international federations, which require record-breakers to pass doping tests.
The International Olympic Committee has condemned the concept of the Enhanced Games, saying, “If you want to destroy any concept of fair play and fair competition in sport, this would be a good way to do it.”
But the games have built some momentum and raised money in the “double-digit millions,” according to founder Aron D’Souza.
Four male swimmers, including Olympic medallist James Magnussen of Australia, have committed to the games.
Romano, a standout swimmer at Georgia in college, anchored the US 4×100 freestyle relay team to a gold medal at world championships in 2013.
In the sprints, Dina Asher-Smith contests the women’s 200m, with Daryll Neita and Amy Hunt doubling up by adding the 100m.
Jeremiah Azu and Zharnel Hughes are among those aiming for glory in the men’s events, with Louie Hinchliffe focusing his attention on retaining his 100m crown.
Charlie Dobson is favourite to retain his 400m title in the absence of Hudson-Smith, as is world indoor champion Amber Anning in the women’s event.
In the field events, high jumper Morgan Lake will seek to continue her good form following her London Diamond League victory, while Molly Caudery is in pole vault action.
Johnson-Thompson is entered in the 100m hurdles, javelin and shot put as she builds towards her bid for a third world title.
With the World Para Athletics Championships taking place in New Delhi, India, from 26 September, Kare Adenegan, Zachary Shaw and Sophie Hahn are among the British stars also in action.
The US football league has previously faced legal challenges over its failure to address players’ concussions.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has said that a gunman who killed five people, including himself, sought out the headquarters of the National Football League (NFL), which he blamed for the brain injuries he suffered from.
Adams said on Tuesday that a note carried by the shooter, identified as 27-year-old Shane Tamura, suggests his target was the NFL.
“The note alluded to that he felt he had CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy], a known brain injury for those who participate in contact sports,” Adams told CBS News. “He appeared to have blamed the NFL for his injury.”
But Tamura appears to have arrived at the wrong floor of a New York City office tower and instead opened fire in the offices of a real estate firm, on top of shooting people in the ground-floor lobby.
Police officers work near the scene of a shooting in Manhattan on July 28 [Eduardo Munoz/Reuters]
The NFL has previously faced litigation relating to concussions suffered by football players.
The organisation, which oversees professional US football, has denied any link between conditions like CTE and its sport, but it has nevertheless paid out more than $1bn to settle concussion-related lawsuits.
Monday’s shooting has also renewed debate about mass shootings and access to firearms in the US. Tamura reportedly entered the building with an AR-15-style rifle.
The NFL’s headquarters are located in a skyscraper that it shares with other firms.
Tamara is believed to have started shooting as he entered the lobby of the skyscraper. Then, police believe he took the wrong elevator, arriving at the 33rd floor, which contained the offices of Rudin Management, a real estate firm.
There, he opened fire once more and then took his own life.
Among those killed in the shooting was a 36-year-old police officer named Didarul Islam, who had come to the US from Bangladesh and had been on the force for three years.
Other victims include security guard Aland Etienne, Julia Hyman of Rudin Management, and an executive at the BlackRock investment firm, Wesley LePatner.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated in a memo that there would be an “increased security presence” at the organisation’s offices over the coming weeks.
Tamura is a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, with a history of mental health issues. He never played in the NFL, but he did play football in high school.
The news outlet Bloomberg reported that Tamura’s note alleges that his football career was cut short by a brain injury.
The note also called for his brain to be studied. CTE can only be diagnosed through an autopsy.
Trial that sparked debate over culture of sexual assault in Canadian hockey ends after judge says allegations not ‘credible’.
A Canadian judge has found that five former members of the country’s 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey team are not guilty of sexual assault, following a trial that roiled Canada.
Judge Maria Carroccia told a courtroom on Thursday that she did not find allegations of assault against the five men “credible or reliable”, according to Canada’s CBC News.
A lawyer for the complainant said the justice system had fallen short in both the way her client was treated on the stand and the conclusions drawn by the judge.
“She’s obviously very disappointed with the verdict and very disappointed with Her Honour’s assessment of her honesty and reliability,” said Karen Bellehumeur, a lawyer for the complainant who is only known as EM due to a prohibition on publicising her identity. “She’s really never experienced not being believed like this before.”
Pavement is painted in support of a complainant in a sexual assault case near the Superior Court of Justice in London, Ontario, Canada, on July 24, 2025 [Carlos Osorio/Reuters]
The allegations of misconduct prompted debate over the culture of sexual assault within Canadian hockey, a favourite pastime of the North American country. But it also drew attention to the sceptical eye that authorities often cast on alleged victims.
Carroccia’s statement that she did not find evidence from the woman who was allegedly assaulted reliable prompted gasps in the courtroom, CBC reported.
All five men – Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, Carter Hart and Cal Foote – denied wrongdoing, stating that the alleged victim, EM, was a willing participant in sex acts at a hotel in London, Ontario, in 2018, following a team celebration.
The judge seemed to accept that claim, saying that the complainant had failed to establish that the encounter was “vitiated by fear”. She also said that the woman had a “tendency to blame others” when presented with inconsistencies in her memory of the night.
“Justice Carroccia’s carefully reasoned decision represents a resounding vindication for Mr McLeod and for his co-defendants,” said McLeod’s lawyer, David Humphrey.
Two previous juries in the case were dismissed, resulting in a trial where a single judge rendered a verdict.
The CEO of Hockey Canada and the organisation’s entire board of directors stepped down in October 2022 amid scrutiny of the alleged gang rape and an out-of-court settlement with the accuser.
Englishmen Black, Richardson and Hylton plus Welsh duo Thomas and Baulch were belatedly presented with their gold medals at Saturday’s Diamond League meeting at a sold-out London Stadium.
“It’s been hanging over us for a very, very long time. I mean, 28 years is a long time so yesterday really completed it. It was great,” added Black.
“In some ways, it was more special because we were there with our families and our kids, who obviously weren’t born back then.
“I think Jamie had a baby then but we were able to share it with our families and you don’t get to do that, do you?
“Also, more importantly, we shared it with 60,000 British fans in there and a lot of them supported us back in the day.
“I think pulling that together, it was actually a surprisingly emotional moment and we loved it. It was really special.”
Cherry Alexander, UK Athletics’ strategic lead for major events, said: “We’re proud to be able to give these athletes their moment in front of a home crowd.
“It’s a chance to recognise not just their talent, but the values they stood for. This medal means even more because of how long they’ve waited for it.”
In June more than 100 of Britain’s most renowned athletes wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer urging the government to back London’s bid to host the World Athletics Championships.
It came after concerns that a bid could be at risk, with uncertainty over the estimated £45m that government was being asked for amid spending cuts, despite claims that the event would deliver £400m of economic impact.
The championships were not referenced when ministers unveiled half a billion pounds of investment into sporting events in a spending review last month.
However, talks have been taking place with UK Athletics and UK Sport, and Starmer said he is “delighted to support the bid”.
“Bringing the World Athletics Championships to the UK would be a moment of great national pride, building on our global reputation for hosting memorable sporting events that showcase the very best talent,” he said.
“Hosting these championships would not only unlock opportunities for UK athletes, but it would inspire the next generation to get involved and pursue their ambitions.
“The event would provide a boost for UK businesses and support jobs as well as bring our communities together.”
Jack Buckner, CEO of UK Athletics, said: “After superb medal hauls over the last few years on the world, Olympic and Paralympic stage, athletics in the UK is on an upward trajectory, with new partners, record participation and sold-out stadia. This support will drive the sport on to new heights.”
Josh Kerr, 1500m world champion and double Olympic medallist, said: “London 2017 was my first senior World Championships and it lit a fire in me.
“Being part of a home team in that kind of atmosphere was incredible – it made me hungrier than ever to become a world champion and chase Olympic medals.
“Having the government support to bid for 2029 and potentially bring that experience back to London would be massive.
“It would inspire so many young athletes and give the sport the platform it deserves.
“I’m proud to support the bid and hope we get the chance to show the world what we can do on home soil.”
Track and field’s Athletics Integrity Unit suspend Ruth Chepngetich after record marathon runner’s positive doping test.
Women’s marathon world record-holder Ruth Chepngetich has been provisionally suspended for a positive doping test.
Track and field’s Athletics Integrity Unit said on Thursday that Chepngetich tested positive for a banned diuretic and masking agent in March and “opted for a voluntary provisional suspension while the AIU’s investigation was ongoing.”
The Kenyan runner set the world record by almost two minutes at the Chicago Marathon last October in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 56 seconds. It was her third win in Chicago.
She also won the marathon at the 2019 world championships in Qatar, where the women’s race started at midnight to avoid extreme daytime heat.
The AIU gave no timetable for a disciplinary case for the 30-year-old runner.
Chepngetich was interviewed in person in Kenya in April and “complied with requests regarding our investigation”, AIU official Brett Clothier said in a statement.
The substance Chepngetich tested positive for, hydrochlorothiazide or HCTZ, can be used to disguise the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
The home run swing-off to end Tuesday’s All-Star Game was great. Whether you embrace it as a revelation or dismiss it as a gimmick, baseball needs more of that kind of imagination on the national stage. On the morning after the game, it’s what you’re talking about.
But baseball cannot count on a tie score every summer.
The All-Star Game cannot live off old glories. The All-Star Game cannot thrive simply because the NFL turned the Pro Bowl into a flag football game and skills competition while the NBA turned its All-Star Game into a week of parties and 48 minutes of a defense-free scrimmages.
Baseball can say its All-Star Game is the best, but the bar is as low as the final round of a limbo competition. Baseball needs the best players, not the best available players, in the game. And, in an era dominated by social media and short attention spans, baseball needs innovation in the Home Run Derby — not just in an All-Star Game tiebreaker, but in the actual Home Run Derby that is its own Major Television Event on the night before the game.
The first suggestion, from Brent Rooker, the Athletics’ All-Star designated hitter: “I had the idea that we would just stick PCA (the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong) and (the Athletics’) Denzel Clarke in the outfield during the Home Run Derby and just let them run down balls. That’s a fun idea that popped into our clubhouse a few weeks ago.”
An all-in-one Home Run Derby and skills competition of outfielders contorting their bodies in all directions to make highlight-worthy catches? That’s a cool thought.
Bat flips would be better.
The bat flip, once scorned as an instrument of disrespect, is now celebrated by the league itself. It naturally lends itself to the “Did you see it?” reels young fans share on Instagram and Snapchat.
The first round of Monday’s Home Run Derby was exhausting. It took nearly two hours, and what little flash there was felt forced. Besides, the sluggers you most wanted to see — Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge — declined to participate.
“I already did it,” Judge said Tuesday. “I don’t know what else you want from me. I think it’s time for somebody else to step up and do their thing and have fun with it. I love seeing new faces in the game go out and do their thing.”
Said Dodgers pitcher and Hall-of-Famer-in-waiting Clayton Kershaw: “It’s a lot of swings, man. It’s not easy to do. When I used to hit, I was tired after taking six swings. I can’t imagine doing that for three straight hours.
“If Shohei and Aaron Judge and those guys, if they had them all in there, it would be awesome. You can’t expect those guys to do it every single year.”
So keep the eight-man field but split it into two groups: four players in the traditional format, and four players in a one-round competition judged not only by how many home runs you hit but with how much flair you toss your bat after each one.
Dodgers veteran pitcher Clayton Kershaw, tapping gloves with teammate Will Smith after pitching in the second inning during the All-Star Game.
(Daniel Shirey / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
The creative and outrageous dunks in the NBA‘s slam dunk competition go viral. The All-Star bat flips would too.
“With respect to an event like the Home Run Derby, we should continue to innovate,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “It’s fundamentally an entertainment product.”
There’s an idea, Rob. Run with it.
“The game piece of it? Fundamentally, I believe in the game,” Manfred said. “I think what we have to do is continue to work with our very best players to make sure that they’re here and showcasing themselves in front of a fan base that is really, really important to us over the long haul.”
Right now, all the very best players are not here. When MLB announced the All-Star rosters, the league selected 65 players. By game time, with all the replacements for players that withdrew, the All-Star count was up to 81.
That meant that, for every four players announced as an All-Star, one chose not to play.
“Usually, when you think All-Star Game, you think probably the best at the time in the game right now are going to be playing,” Phillies All-Star designated hitter Kyle Schwarber said.
Sometimes they are: On Tuesday, Schwarber was the most valuable player, with the winning swings in the swing-off.
Schwarber and Kershaw noted that, for the most part, the position players are here, and the pitchers dominated the list of missing stars. Pitchers throw harder these days. They need time to recover. Tony Clark, the executive director of the players’ union, talked about the need for players to find “opportunities on the calendar to take a breather.”
And, frankly, the All-Star Game does not mean nearly as much to players as it did before interleague play started 28 years ago. Winning one for the National League used to actually mean something.
“The All-Star Game then and the All-Star Game now are two completely different things,” Clark said. “The requirements for players, the travel and logistics for their family and support, the day to day of a 162-game season is more complex and it’s more challenging than it’s ever been.”
Yet in 1980, when the All-Star Game was played at Dodger Stadium, players had one free day before resuming the schedule. Today, players have two days.
And, in 1980, fans got to see the players they wanted to see. Should each team have an All-Star representative? Yes. Should managers feel compelled to use every one of those players? No way.
On Tuesday, the National League used 13 pitchers and the American League 11.
In 1980, each league used five pitchers. Steve Stone and Bob Welch each pitched (gasp) three innings. The top four batters in the American League lineup — Willie Randolph, Fred Lynn, Rod Carew and Reggie Jackson — each batted at least three times.
Today’s pitchers are reluctant to work even one inning in the All-Star Game if they pitched on the final weekend of the first half. So move the All-Star Game back one day to Wednesday, and move the Home Run Derby back one day to Tuesday. No longer would players have to scramble for Sunday night private jets to get to the All-Star Game by Monday morning.
As a bonus, MLB could play the Futures Game on Monday, when no other games are being played, instead of in relative invisibility because the league insists on putting what it says is a showcase event up against a full schedule of regular-season games.
“It would be great,” Clark said, “to just have a conversation around the All-Star Game and talk about the All-Star Game and the great players that we have, doing so in a way that truly highlights the Midsummer Classic and truly puts players in a position where they are sprinting to come to the game.”
ATLANTA — Seattle’s Cal Raleigh won his first Home Run Derby after leading the big leagues in long balls going into the break, defeating Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero 18-15 in the final round Monday night.
The Mariners’ breakout slugger nicknamed “Big Dumper” advanced from the first round on a tiebreaker by less than an inch over the Athletics’ Brent Rooker, then won his semifinal 19-13 over Pittsburgh’s Oneil Cruz, whose 513-foot first-round drive over Truist Park’s right-center field seats was the longest of the night.
Hitting second in the final round, the 22-year-old Caminero closed within three dingers, took three pitches and hit a liner to left field.
Becoming the first switch-hitter and first catcher to win the title, Raleigh had reached the All-Star break with a major league-leading 38 home runs. He became the second Mariners player to take the title after three-time winner Ken Griffey Jr.
“Usually the guy that’s leading the league in homers doesn’t win the whole thing,” Raleigh said. “That’s as surprising to me as anybody else.”
Raleigh was pitched to by his father, Todd, former coach of Tennessee and Western Carolina. His younger brother, Todd Raleigh Jr., did the catching.
“Just to do it with my family was awesome,” Raleigh said.
Just the second Derby switch-hitter after Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman in 2023, Raleigh hit his first eight left-handed, took a timeout, then hit seven right-handed. Going back to lefty, he then hit two more in the bonus round and stayed lefty for the semifinals and the final.
Caminero beat Minnesota’s Byron Buxton 8-7 in the other semifinal.
Atlanta’s Matt Olson, Washington’s James Wood, the New York Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Rooker were eliminated in the first round of the annual power show.
Cruz and Caminero each hit 21 long balls and Buxton had 20 in the opening round. Raleigh and Rooker had 17 apiece, but Raleigh advanced on the tiebreaker of their longest homer, 470.61 feet to 470.53.
“One little tweak in the system and I’m not even in the next round, so that’s crazy,” Raleigh said.
Cruz’s long drive was the hardest-hit at 118 mph.
The longest derby homer since Statcast started tracking in 2016 was 520 feet by Juan Soto in the mile-high air of Denver’s Coors Field in 2021. Last year, the longest drive at Arlington, Texas, was 473 feet by Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna.
Wood hit 16 homers, including a 486-foot shot and one that landed on the roof of the Chop House behind the right-field wall. Olson, disappointing his hometown fans, did not go deep on his first nine swings and finished with 15, He also was eliminated in the first round in 2021.
Chisholm hit just three homers, the fewest since the timer format started in 2015.
As college athletic departments across the country brace for a new era of sharing revenue directly with their athletes, USC is eliminating a dozen jobs in its athletic department in an effort to reduce costs in the wake of the House vs. NCAA settlement.
Six athletics employees were told late last week that their roles in the department had been eliminated, a person familiar with the decision not authorized to disucss it publicly told The Times. The most senior among them was Paul Perrier, an executive senior associate athletic director, who spent two six-year stints at USC working under three different athletic directors.
Six other vacant roles have also since been eliminated, the person said.
USC is planning to share the maximum of $20.5 million with its athletes that’s permitted by the settlement in 2025, the vast majority of which will go to the football program. That’s no small expenditure — especially for a university in the midst of serious financial issues.
USC, like other schools, continues to explore other revenue streams to help pay for the costs associated with this new landscape of college athletics. USC recently signed a 15-year multimedia rights deal with Learfield that should help ease some of the burden of revenue sharing. Last season, the school sold ad space in the Coliseum end zone to DirecTV.
Some schools have opted to cut sports, in an attempt to reduce costs. But USC has yet to choose that route. Instead, athletic director Jennifer Cohen announced last month that USC would invest revenue-sharing dollars, in some form or fashion, with all 23 of the school’s athletics programs.
Welcome back to another edition of the Times of Troy newsletter, fresh off a pretty consequential week at USC, one you might have missed while eating ungodly amounts of potato salad or sipping margaritas by the pool. But I’m here to catch you up.
July 1, in particular, marked a major turning point for the University of Southern California. Not only was it Carol Folt’s final day as university president, but it was also the first day of a new era for all of college sports, as USC and other schools are now officially permitted to make direct payments to their athletes.
Both changes will have a profound impact on USC’s athletic department and how it operates going forward.
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But let’s focus on Folt’s exit. I wrote in November about the imprint her six years as president would leave on USC athletics. She made investing in athletics one of her “moonshot” goals and, by most accounts, followed through on that promise. She signed off on the hire of Lincoln Riley, which cost the university over $20 million in the first year and more than $10 million per year since, and ushered forth the school’s move to the Big Ten, which will help its bottom line. Then last November, Folt was there with ceremonial shovel in hand to break ground on the Bloom Football Performance Center, the gleaming centerpiece of a $225-million fundraising initiative that will forever be part of her legacy. She announced her exit soon after.
Say what you will about Folt — and I have said plenty in this space — but she saw the value in investing in athletics. She understood that the football program was the front porch of the university.
There’s no guarantee that USC’s next president will have the same approach.
Whoever that is will have plenty more pressing problems to deal with first. He or she will inherit a university that reported a staggering $158-million budget deficit for 2023-24 and could now face even more dire financial straits courtesy of the Trump administration, with the potential for major cuts to federal research funding, among other things, in near the future.
No matter what happens, USC’s next president will have a serious financial crisis to solve, a furious faculty to calm and a tense political climate to navigate. Athletics, in the grand scheme, probably shouldn’t be front-of-mind. But the new president’s perspective on college athletics — and their plans for the university as a whole — will have wide-reaching implications for USC’s athletic department going forward.
Take the last two presidents at USC. Folt arrived in 2019 in the aftermath of the Varsity Blues scandal — as well as several other scandals — with an edict to clean up the university. Right away, she set out to reshape athletics, forcing out athletic director Lynn Swann two months after taking the job. She fired three other senior officials a few months after that.
Before her, Max Nikias took the helm in 2010 and immediately announced a $6-billion fundraising initiative, the largest in the history of higher education at the time. In six years, the university raised as much as it had in the previous six decades combined, $760 million of which came from athletics. That directive would shape how every department functioned. In athletics, I’d argue that it set the tone for Varsity Blues.
The new president now takes over at a time when college athletics have never been more expensive. Not only will USC use the full allotted revenue-sharing cap of $20.5 million — $2.5 of which will likely be counted for scholarships — but the expectation is it will spend much more in additional scholarships beyond that. That’s no small expenditure.
Already, no one else was reaching as deeply into their pockets for athletics as USC. According to the most recent Department of Education data, USC reported over $242 million in total athletics expenses between July 2023 and July 2024, more than every other Big Ten or Southeastern Conference school by a considerable margin. (USC also reported $242 million in revenue.)
That number is almost certainly higher this year, too. And from 2025 to 2026, we know at least $20.5 million — and likely much more — will be added to the total.
But the bigger question, in this time of great uncertainty and unexplored gray area, may be what the new president’s tolerance for pushing the envelope will be. At the advent of NIL, when third-party collectives were first coming to the forefront, multiple officials within the department told me that Folt had no interest in wading into the gray area of boosters directly paying football players. She was, after all, the president hired to clean up the school’s image. It wasn’t until a federal judge opened the floodgates on NIL that USC even stepped in with both feet.
It’s going to take more innovative thinking than that to “win the new era” of college athletics. Will the new president have the stomach for working outside the rev-share cap? What about collective bargaining with college football players? Or a Big Ten-SEC super league?
USC has the right leaders in place at the top of its athletic department, and I’ve only heard positive feedback around the department about interim university president Beong-Soo Kim.
But whomever is hired for the permanent job will take the reins at an especially critical time for college athletics. And wherever they stand could change everything about the direction in which USC is headed.
USC and Texas A&M track and field athletes and coaches pose with NCAA trophies after being crowned co-champions. USC has already sent at least one track athlete through the NIL clearinghouse to get their compensation approved.
(C. Morgan Engel / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
— USC has already had deals approved by the NIL clearinghouse. All third-party NIL deals over $600 must now be approved by NIL Go, the clearinghouse run by Deloitte that’s set up to determine whether deals have a legitimate business purpose and fall within a reasonable range of compensation. There will be ways to get around that, of course. For one, schools all over the country front-loaded as many NIL deals as they could before the July 1 deadline, so as to not have to use the clearinghouse. But USC has successfully used the clearinghouse already, and it wasn’t for football like you might assume. The first of those deals, an official said, came from USC’s track and water polo programs.
— USC continues to be an unstoppable force on the recruiting trail. The latest addition to the Trojans’ No. 1 class comes at receiver, as Ethan “Boobie” Feaster committed last week, giving USC three four-star wideouts and eight top-100 prospects in 2026. Feaster, who reclassified from the 2027 class, looks like he could be the best of the bunch. USC now has the No. 1 tight end, the No. 2 offensive tackle, the 7th- and 10th-ranked receivers and the 5th- and 9th-ranked running backs committed — and its class on defense might still be better!
—USC’s women’s basketball program has a new general manager. Selena Castillo spent the last two years as director of external affairs for Duke’s women’s basketball team. She replaces Amy Broadhead, whose hire last September was hailed at the time as a groundbreaking move for the program. Broadhead ultimately chose to leave college athletics of her own accord just nine months later, for a job at the streaming service Crunchyroll. Now Castillo steps into a key role, at a key time. It’ll be up to her to maximize the rare window that USC has now with young, marketable stars like JuJu Watkins and Jazzy Davidson in the fold.
—What’s up with the transfer exodus out of USC baseball? When I spoke with Andy Stankiewicz ahead of our last edition of this newsletter, he singled out outfielder Brayden Dowd as a player he was excited about heading into next season. Well, Dowd has since entered the transfer portal, along with 16 of his teammates. That’s a significant portion of last year’s NCAA tournament roster. Dowd, who hit .324 with 52 runs, 10 home runs and 36 RBI last season, is the only major loss in the batting order. But the Trojans will have a ton of talent to replace on the mound, with its two top starters out (Caden Aoki, via transfer, Caden Hunter, via the draft) and its two top relievers, by ERA, transferring (Brodie Purcell and Jude Favela).
—There’s a new one-time transfer window from July 7-Aug. 5, but don’t expect the usual chaos. The only athletes permitted to transfer in that window will be those listed as “Designated Student-Athletes” by their respective schools, and the only athletes listed as DSAs are those who would have been removed from a roster in 2025-26 because of new roster limits from the House settlement. In other words, this would only really affect athletes on the back-end of rosters, many of which would have previously been viewed as walk-ons. So, for now, no need for any more transfer panic.
—Should college athletes and staff be allowed to bet on other sports? That’s a question that was recently asked by the NCAA Division 1 Council to its membership. Whether you agree morally or not, the reality is the NCAA simply doesn’t have the bandwidth to police all forms of sports betting on campus. Betting on college sports will obviously still be against the rules — and punishable by a lifetime ban — and the Council was clear that it doesn’t “endorse” gambling. But betting on other sports could be an option moving forward.
Food for thought
Joey Chestnut wins the Nathan’s Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4 in New York City.
(Adam Gray / Getty Images)
Growing up in the Kartje household, it was tradition that every July 4 we would watch the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. This year, after a few years off, I got to share those 10 gloriously gluttonous minutes with my son.
We’re still working on his hot-dog eating fundamentals. (According to my wife, toddlers are not supposed to competitively eat. Ugh. Lame.) But the whole experience got me ruminating on a question I’d seen asked before on social media: How many hot dogs have I actually eaten in my lifetime?
I’ll spare you the methodology here, but let’s just say I’m looking at between 600-700 hot dogs, conservatively, in my lifetime. Gulp.
Matthew Goode, right, stars in the Netflix series “Dept. Q.”
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
I’m a sucker for a British crime drama, so it’s no surprise that I’ve enjoyed Netflix’s “Dept. Q.” Set in Scotland, the show follows an ornery police detective begrudgingly leading a misfit cold-case unit. It reminds me of Sherlock, another fantastic entry in the genre featuring a prickly lead. Matthew Goode, the star of Dept. Q, is particularly good at playing prickly.
Until next time….
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Great Britain finished fifth overall at the European Athletics Team Championships in Madrid.
The GB team, captained by discus thrower Lawrence Okoye, finished on 381 points, 3.5 points behind the Netherlands in fourth and three points ahead of sixth-placed Spain.
Sarah Tait, making her international debut, was one of the standout performers on the final day, adding 15 points to GB’s tally with a second-placed finish in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase – just three hundredths of a second behind Finland’s Ilona Mononen.
There were also third-place finishes for Revee Walcott-Nolan in the women’s 1500m and Toby Harries in the men’s 200m.
Bekah Walton, who had surgery on her throwing arm just five months ago, threw 58.63m to finish fourth in the women’s javelin, while Scott Lincoln also finished fourth in the men’s shot put.
Jazmin Sawyers continued her comeback from a 20-month lay-off with an Achilles injury with a sixth-placed finish in the women’s long jump.
In the final event of the night, the 4x400m mixed relay team of Lina Nielsen, Toby Harries, Emily Newnham and Samuel Reardon finished finished third with a time of three minutes 9.6 seconds – the same time as second-placed Italy – to earn GB their final 14 points.
On Friday, 21-year-old Reardon set a championship record and ran a personal best time of 44.60 to win the 400m.
The time places the double Olympic bronze medallist seventh on the all-time list for European under-23s.
Eugene Amo-Dadzie, nicknamed the ‘world’s fastest accountant’, clocked 10.07 as he claimed top spot in the men’s 100m.
Italy successfully defended the crown they won in Poland in 2023.
The competition featured a host of well-known athletes, including British Olympic sprinters Daryll Neita and Matthew Hudson-Smith, and 1500m world champion Josh Kerr.
Male and female competitors are subdivided into six categories – each containing eight athletes – such as Short Sprints, with the eight featuring in that group competing in the 100m and 200m each weekend.
It offered significant financial incentives, with up to $100,000 (£73,600) on offer for the winners of race categories, as well as salaries for contracted athletes.
GST has suffered controversies in its maiden year. American three-time Olympic champion Gabby Thomas was allegedly abused during the meet in Philadelphia, where the programme was cut from three days to two.
And Johnson himself admitted he would “love to see more spectators” after the opening event in Kingston was poorly attended in April.
British middle-distance runner Elliot Giles took part in the Philadelphia leg of the competition and told BBC Sport it was a “phenomenal” event.
“The actual experience, the set-up, the hype, the marketing, was brilliant,” Giles said.
“I’d love to see it again. Competition is what we need in our sport.
“It’s the same as what’s happening in boxing now. You get other people involved, new promoters, new people, venture capitalists putting into it, and the sport explodes and then performances come and everything else follows.”
American sprinters Kenny Bednarek and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden have been named the GST Racers of the Year having won their respective Slam Championship at all three events.
Jo Adell homered in a wild six-run sixth inning and the Angels overcame two homers by Brent Rooker to beat the Athletics 6-5 at Angel Stadium on Wednesday and sweep a three-game series.
Adell’s 13th homer was his sixth in nine games.
His two-run shot capped a rally that saw Athletics starter JP Sears ejected after giving way to reliever Grant Holman (4-2) with one out. Holman walked Mike Trout on a 3-2 pitch he believed was a strike to load the bases. Holman hit Taylor Ward to bring in a run and Jorge Soler followed with a two-run single. That’s when Sears was tossed after yelling animatedly from the dugout.
Osvaldo Bido relieved Holman and Travis d’Arnaud gave the Angels the lead with a sacrifice fly. Adell followed with his homer.
Rooker’s two-run homer in the seventh, his 15th this season, cut the Angels’ lead to 6-5. He had four hits, including a double. He scored three runs and drove in three.
Kyle Hendricks (4-6) pitched six innings and gave up three runs, two earned, and seven hits. Reid Detmers pitched a perfect ninth for his second save.
The A’s have lost 23 of 27 games.
The Athletics’ Jacob Wilson, second in the majors with a .366 average, missed his second consecutive game because of a sore hamstring.
Key moment
Soler’s two-run ground-ball single somehow evaded the Athletics’ diving middle infielders to tie the score and that’s when Sears, in line for a win, boiled over.
Key stat
The Angels swept a home series for the first time since June 24-26, 2024. That also came against the A’s.
Up next
The Angels’ Jack Kochanowicz (3-7, 5.61 ERA) will pitch against Charlie Morton (2-7, 6.59) at Baltimore on Friday.
Nolan Schanuel hit a single into shallow center field in the 10th inning for the first walk-off hit of his career to drive in Jo Adell and give the Angels a 2-1 win over the Athletics on Tuesday night.
Reid Detmers (2-2) struck out two of three batters to strand the automatic runner in the top of the 10th.
Hogan Harris (1-1) took the loss for the A’s, who have lost 22 of 26 games.
The Angels trailed 1-0 in the bottom of the eighth when Travis d’Arnaud hit left-hander T.J. McFarland’s first pitch for a pinch-hit homer and a 1-1 tie.
Angels starter José Soriano gave up one run and two hits and struck out a career-best 12 in seven innings. He walked two. He threw a career-high 110 pitches, 71 for strikes, and induced 22 swinging strikes.
The A’s Mitch Spence, making his second start since being moved from the bullpen, gave up three hits, struck out four and walked none in five scoreless innings.
Soriano was virtually untouchable through five no-hit innings in which he racked up nine strikeouts and walked one. He lost his no-hit bid in the sixth when Brent Rooker drove an RBI double to left-center field just beyond the reach of a diving Adell for a 1-0 A’s lead.
Veteran right-hander Hunter Strickland, who signed a minor league deal on May 6, escaped a runner-on-second, no-out jam in the eighth and has not yielded a run in 11 innings over nine appearances with the Angels.
D’Arnaud’s eighth-inning shot was the second pinch-hit homer of his career. His first came for the Atlanta Braves against the Colorado Rockies on Sept. 4, 2021.
