It’s confusing enough that senior Maggie Kearin attends Louisville High in Woodland Hills and will soon attend the University of Louisville in Kentucky on a full scholarship.
Let’s forget about the two Louisvilles for a moment. Did you know she has a scholarship awaiting her based on her skills in field hockey? And the high school she attends doesn’t have a field hockey team.
She earned the offer based on her play in club field hockey. At Louisville High, she’s perfectly happy playing volleyball and soccer when outsiders have no idea she’s one of the top field hockey players in Southern California.
Her father is Jeff Kearin, the former Loyola High and Cal State Northridge football coach who’s the JV football coach at Crespi and has been transporting her for years to competitions. He consulted with others about whether Maggie should go to a high school that has field hockey, and they told him being good in several sports will help her versatility in field hockey.
Maggie has been playing the sport since she was 5.
“She came home one night from a sleepover, ‘I want to play the game with a stick.’ I thought it was lacrosse,” her father said.
Now she has a way to pay for her college education. “No one is happier than Mom and Dad,” her father said.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
NEW YORK — If Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear vaults into national prominence as a Democratic leader, he may one day look back at Thursday as a key step in that direction.
SiriusXM announced that it was giving Beshear’s new podcast a national platform starting this month, along with featuring him in a regular call-in show on its Progress network.
President Trump’s appearances on podcasts were a pivotal media strategy in his successful 2024 Republican campaign. Moving forward, mastering a personal podcast could replace soft-focus biographies or wonky books as a way for politicians to increase their profiles.
Beshear said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this summer that he will “take a look” at running for president in 2028. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, also in the circle of potential presidential nominees, started his own podcast earlier this year.
Speaking to the anxiety of Americans
In an interview, Beshear said a motivating factor in his own podcast was people who have come up to him, especially during the Trump administration, to talk about their anxieties.
“That’s how Americans feel,” he said. “They feel like the news hits them minute after minute after minute. And it can feel like chaos. It can feel like the world is out of control. With this podcast, we’re trying to help Americans process what we’re going through.”
He’s already done nearly two dozen podcasts, with his audience heavily weighted toward Kentucky residents. His guests have included some potential Democratic presidential rivals, including Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Entrepreneur Mark Cuban, former Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari and Kentucky-born actor and comic Steve Zahn have also appeared.
Beshear, the son of a former governor who’s been leading Kentucky since 2019, talks issues himself. Two of his friends, a Republican and a Democrat, are regular guests, and his 16-year-old son helps Dad navigate some youthful lingo.
Newsom attracted attention — some of it negative among Democrats — for interviewing conservative guests Steve Bannon, Michael Savage and Charlie Kirk on his podcast.
“I did disagree with him on certain guests because I don’t like to give oxygen to hate,” Beshear said. “But Gavin is out there really working to communicate with the American people, and he deserves to be commended for it.”
Newsom’s podcast started slowly in the marketplace but has caught fire in recent weeks, his regular audiences jumping from the tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands, said Paul Riismandel, president of Signal Hill Insights, an audio-focused market research company.
The California governor’s increased visibility, particularly on social media, is likely a factor in the growing popularity of the podcast, Riismandel said. But it’s also a function of how podcasts often catch on: Many tend to be slow burns as audiences discover them, he said.
Learning to master the format of podcasts
Whether ambitious politicians start their own podcasts or not, they’re going to have to be familiar going forward with what makes people successful in the format.
“With a podcast, the audience expects a more unfiltered, authentic kind of conversation and presentation,” Riismandel said. If politicians come across as too controlled, looking for the sort of soundbites that will be broken out in a television appearance, it’s not likely to work, he said. They have to be willing to open up.
“That is something that is probably new for a lot of politicians,” he said, “and new for their handlers.”
Beshear’s first podcast for SiriusXM will feature an interview with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), conducted in the company’s New York studio and debuting Sept. 10. The Progress network will air Beshear’s podcasts regularly on Saturdays at 11 a.m. Eastern.
The first live call-in show will be next Tuesday at noon, with Beshear joined by Progress host John Fugelsang.
Beshear stressed that his work for SiriusXM is “not just aimed at a Democratic audience.”
“We’re aiming,” he said, “at an American audience.”
FAIRVIEW, N.C. — Jamie Ager has spent much of the past year rebuilding his farm in the foothills of western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene tore through the region, cutting power, destroying fences and scattering livestock.
Then, earlier this year, Ager lost his beef contract with local schools, a casualty of billions of dollars in cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the Trump administration.
Now, the fifth-generation farmer is running for Congress — part of a new crop of Democratic candidates the party is turning to as it tries to compete in the tough, often rural districts it may need to flip to retake the U.S. House in 2026.
Democrats say these new recruits are uniquely suited to break through in districts where President Trump’s popularity dominates. Many, like Ager, are already a well-known presence in their communities. And in parts of North Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan and elsewhere, the party is betting local credibility can cut through skepticism where the Democratic brand has fallen.
Ager says he sees national Democrats as out of touch with rural life: too “academic” and “politically correct and scripted.”
“That’s just not what people are interested in,” he says. “The ideas of helping poor people, being neighborly, the ideal of doing those things, I think, are worthy, good ideas that are actually popular. But the execution of a lot of those ideas has been gummed up, you know, not well executed.”
A shifting House map
Heading into next year’s midterms, Democrats believe momentum is on their side. Historically, the president’s party loses ground in the midterms. In 2018, during Trump’s first term, Democrats flipped 41 seats to take control of the House. Republicans currently control the House by such a slim margin, Democrats need to pick up only a few seats to break the GOP’s hold on Washington.
The Republican-led tax break and spending cut bill has added to Democrats’ optimism. About two-thirds of U.S. adults expect the new law will help the rich, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About half say it’ll do more harm than good for middle-class people and people like them.
Still, Republicans remain confident. They point to having fewer vulnerable seats than Democrats have this cycle. Only three Republicans hold House districts Democrat Kamala Harris won last year, while 13 Democrats represent districts Trump won.
They also note Democrats’ low opinion of their own party after last year’s losses. In a July AP-NORC poll, Democrats were likelier to describe their own party negatively than Republicans, with many Democrats calling it weak or ineffective.
In places where local dynamics may give Democrats a shot, it means finding the right candidates is especially important, party leaders say.
“Recruitment matters in these years when the environment is going to be competitive,” Democratic pollster John Anzalone said.
Democrats hope a farmer in western North Carolina can regain trust
With power, water and telecommunications down due to last year’s hurricane, Ager’s Hickory Nut Gap farm became a hub for the community — hosting cookouts and using propane to grill food for neighbors.
Statewide, the storm caused nearly $60 billion in damage and killed more than 100 people. Little federal aid has reached the hardest-hit parts of western North Carolina.
“Helene hitting definitely put an exclamation point on, like, ‘Whoa, we need help and support,’” Ager said.
Democrats see Ager as a high-risk, high-reward candidate who could be successful in a district where Democrats have struggled.
No Democrat has won North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District since it was redrawn by the Republican-controlled legislature in 2011. A court-ordered redistricting ahead of the 2020 election made it slightly more favorable to Democrats, encompassing Asheville and much of western North Carolina. Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards still won by nearly 14 percentage points last year and is expected to seek reelection.
Grayson Barnette, a Democratic strategist who helped recruit Ager, said in some districts it’s a risk to run a candidate who hasn’t held elected office before.
“But I would argue that’s a good thing, especially when the Democrats just took the big hit we did,” Barnette said. “We have to look in the mirror and say, ‘Let’s try something new.’”
In a district where nearly 62% of residents live in very low-density areas, Barnette believes Ager’s identity — as a business owner, coach and father with deep local roots — could cut through. His unpolished, direct style, he says, may resonate more than a polished political résumé.
In the video launching his campaign, Ager shows flooding on the farm and is seen on the porch of his home, feeding chickens, driving a tractor and spending time with his wife and three sons.
“I’m not flashy, but I’m honest,” he says in the video.
Ager doesn’t call himself a Democrat in the roughly two-minute video and rarely used the word during a three-hour interview. Still, his ties to the party run deep: His brother serves in the state House, following in the footsteps of their father. His grandfather served six years in the U.S. House.
Asked whether that might be a liability in the district, Ager shrugged: “Then don’t vote for me.”
Trump’s big bill could reshape a conservative district in Michigan
In western Michigan, state Sen. Sean McCann is a different kind of candidate from Ager. He’s buttoned-up and soft-spoken, with a long resume in elected office and deep roots in Kalamazoo, having served for a decade on the city commission before winning a seat in the state House in 2010.
In a district anchored by conservative and religious values, Democrats see McCann as the kind of steady, experienced figure who can make inroads — especially as backlash builds to Trump’s tax bill, which includes deep spending cuts.
At a recent meeting at Kalamazoo’s Family Health Center, where nearly 65% of patients rely on Medicaid, the center’s president warned the proposed Medicaid cuts would be devastating.
“It’s about being home in the community and listening to our community’s values — and carrying those to Washington,” McCann said.
The district is represented by Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga, who won reelection by nearly 12 percentage points in 2022. But Huizenga hasn’t said whether he’ll seek another term, and Trump carried the district by only 5.5 percentage points in 2024.
Democrats hope strong ties help elsewhere
Across the country, Democrats are watching similar races in places like Iowa and Kentucky, where local candidates with strong community ties are running. In Iowa’s 2nd District, state Rep. Lindsay James — a fourth-term lawmaker and Presbyterian pastor — is weighing a run in the northeast part of the state. In Kentucky’s 6th, which includes Lexington and Richmond, former federal prosecutor Zach Dembo is running his first campaign, describing himself as a political outsider.
It’s a mix of profiles: Ager, the farmer-turned-candidate feeding neighbors after a hurricane. McCann, the public servant meeting with health workers in his hometown. And others like them trying to reconnect a skeptical electorate.
“Yes, the Democratic Party has some taint to it,” Ager said. “But when I go talk to Republicans who are friends that I’ve known forever, there’s genuine admiration and mutual respect for each other. And that comes from being in this community forever.”
Cappelletti writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Maya Sweedler in Washington contributed to this report.
CALVERT CITY, Ky. — Republican Nate Morris had deftly warmed up a crowd of party faithful, gushing about President Donald Trump and recounting his own life’s journey — from hardscrabble childhood to wealthy entrepreneur — when he turned his attention to the man he wants to replace, Sen. Mitch McConnell.
That’s when things got feisty. While bashing Kentucky’s longest-serving senator at a GOP dinner on the eve of Saturday’s Fancy Farm picnic, a tradition-laden stop on the state’s political circuit, Morris was cut off in midsentence by a party activist in the crowd, who noted that McConnell isn’t seeking reelection and pointedly asked Morris: “What are you running on?”
Morris touted his hard line stance on immigration and defended Trump’s tariffs as a boon for American manufacturing. But he didn’t retreat from his harsh critique of McConnell.
“We’ve seen 40 years of doing it the same way,” Morris said. “And, yes, he’s not on the ballot, but his legacy is on the ballot. Do you want 40 more years of that? I don’t think you do.”
McConnell’s blunt-force approach used against him
The pushback from a county GOP chairman revealed the political risks of attacking the 83-year-old McConnell in the twilight of his career. Towering over Kentucky politics for decades, McConnell is regarded as the master strategist behind the GOP’s rise to power in a state long dominated by Democrats. The state Republican headquarters bears McConnell’s name. As the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history, McConnell guided Republican policymaking and helped forge a conservative Supreme Court. Back home, his appropriating skills showered Kentucky with federal funding.
Now, his blunt-force style of campaigning — which undercut so many foes — is being used against him.
Morris is running against two other prominent Republicans — U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and former state Attorney General Daniel Cameron — for McConnell’s seat. The outcome will be decided in the spring primary next year. Kentucky hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since Wendell Ford in 1992.
All three Republican hopefuls lavish praise on Trump — in hopes of landing his endorsement — but also have ties to McConnell, who mentored generations of aspirational Republicans. Cameron and Barr have chided McConnell at times, but it’s been mild compared to Morris’ attacks. Morris interned for McConnell but glosses over that connection.
McConnell pushes back
At events surrounding the Fancy Farm picnic, an event long known for caustic zingers that he has always relished, McConnell showed no sign of backing down.
“Surely this isn’t true, but I’ve heard that one of the candidates running for my office wants to be different,” McConnell told a Republican crowd that included Morris at a pre-picnic breakfast in Mayfield. “Now, I’m wondering how you’d want to be different from the longest-serving Senate leader in American history. I’m wondering how you’d want to be different in supporting President Trump.”
McConnell received multiple standing ovations. Morris stayed seated.
McConnell has consistently voted for Trump’s policies more often than Kentucky’s other Republican senator, Rand Paul, according to a Congressional Quarterly voting analysis. McConnell recently supported Trump’s signature tax and spending measure. Paul opposed it, saying it would drive up debt.
Yet Morris has taken on McConnell, who has famously had an up-and-down relationship with Trump.
McConnell teamed with Trump to put conservatives on the federal bench and pass tax cuts during the president’s first term. McConnell also guided the Senate — and Trump — through two impeachment trials that ended in acquittals. But the relationship was severed after McConnell blamed Trump for “disgraceful” acts in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack by Trump’s supporters.
McConnell endorsed Trump in 2024, but in a biography by Michael Tackett of The Associated Press, released shortly before the election, McConnell described him as “a despicable human being.”
Running against career politicians
Morris, who started a waste management technology company, says the senator has been insufficiently loyal to Trump and allowed festering issues like immigration and the national debt to grow worse during his years in Senate leadership.
Morris wants to tether his opponents to McConnell while running on anti-establishment themes that his campaign thinks will appeal to legions of Trump supporters in the Bluegrass State.
“Let’s face it, folks, career politicians have run this country off a cliff,” Morris said.
Morris’ rivals sum up the anti-McConnell attacks as an angry, backward-looking message. Cameron called it a diversionary tactic to obscure what he said is Morris’ lack of both a message and credibility as a supporter of Trump’s MAGA movement.
“He can’t talk about his actual record. So he has to choose to pick on an 83-year-old,” Cameron said.
At Fancy Farm, where candidates hurl insults at one another against a backdrop of bingo games and barbecue feasts, Morris took a swipe at McConnell’s health.
“I have a serious question: who here can honestly tell me that it’s a good thing to have a senior citizen who freezes on national television during his press conferences as our U.S. senator?” Morris said. “It seems, to me, maybe just maybe, Mitch’s time to leave the Senate was a long time ago.”
McConnell had his customary front-row seat for much of the event but wasn’t there for Morris’ remarks. He typically leaves before all the speeches are delivered and exited before his would-be successors spoke.
Living by the sword
McConnell complimented Trump in his speech, singling out Trump’s bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.
“He turned Iran’s nuclear program into a pile of rocks,” McConnell, a steadfast advocate for a muscular U.S. foreign policy, said to cheers.
At the GOP dinner the night before in Calvert City, where candidates typically are more politely received, party activist Frank Amaro confronted Morris for his anti-McConnell barrage.
“He keeps bashing Mitch McConnell like he’s running against Mitch McConnell,” Amaro, a county Republican chairman, said afterward. “Overall, he’s helped Kentucky and the United States, especially our Supreme Court, more than any other U.S. senator in this country.”
But Morris’ blistering assessment of McConnell hit the mark with Trump supporter Patrick Marion, who applied the dreaded Republican-in-Name-Only label to McConnell.
“Personally, I think Mitch has been a RINO for way too long,” Marion said later. “I don’t think he was a true MAGA supporter of President Trump.”
Afterward, Morris was in no mood to back off.
“He’s the nastiest politician maybe in the history of this state if not in the history of this country,” Morris said of McConnell. “Look, you live by the sword, you die by the sword.”
WASHINGTON — By a single, tiebreaking vote, Senate Republicans on Tuesday approved President Trump’s signature legislation despite several GOP defections, a major step toward passage of a bill that would expand tax cuts while cutting healthcare access to millions.
Just 50 Republicans supported the legislation, forcing Vice President JD Vance to cast the tiebreaking vote.
GOP Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine joined all Democrats in the chamber in opposition to the bill.
The legislation, called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed with the support of a key skeptic of its most controversial provisions: Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The bill extends tax cuts and benefits first passed in 2017 under Trump that were set to expire later this year, while creating new eligibility requirements for Medicaid and food stamps.
The House of Representatives will now have a second vote on a reconciled version of the bill. Should it pass, it will go to the president’s desk for his signature.
Darrell Wayne Lukas, known to the general public as D. Wayne and to friends simply as Wayne or as “The Coach” if you were in the business, died on Saturday after a brief illness. He was 89.
Lukas’ career, which started in Southern California in 1968, not only built a recognizable brand but helped shape horse racing for more than 50 years. He won 15 Triple Crown races among his lifetime win total of 4,953, having run horses in 30,436 races. His horses earned more than $300 million.
He died at his home in Louisville, Ky., after being diagnosed with a severe MRSA blood infection that affected his heart, digestive system and worsened preexisting chronic conditions. Lukas decided against an aggressive treatment plan that involved surgeries and round-the-clock assistance. Instead, he returned home and entered hospice care.
“It is with heavy hearts that we share the passing of our beloved husband, grandfather and great-grandfather D. Wayne Lukas. who left this world peacefully [Saturday] evening at the age of 89 surrounded by family,” the Lukas family said in a statement released by Churchill Downs.
“His final days were spent at home in Kentucky, where he chose peace, family and faith. As we grieve at his passing, we find peace knowing he is now reunited with his beloved son, Jeff, whose memory he carried in his heart always.
“We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of love, prayers and support from all corners of the racing community — from ractetracks across the country to lifelong friends and respected rivals, and from fans who never missed a post parade when ‘Lukas’ was listed in the program.”
His illness was announced on June 22 along with the decision that he would not return to training. All of his horses were transferred to his longtime assistant Sebastian “Bas” Nicholl.
“Wayne built a legacy that will never be matched.” said Nicholl upon learning Lukas was not returning to racing. “Every decision I make, every horse I saddle, I’ll hear his voice in the back of my mind. This isn’t about filling his shoes — no one can — it’s about honoring everything he’s built.”
Lukas was so good that he was in not one but two halls of fame. He was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2007 and the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame in 1999.
“Wayne is one of the greatest competitors and most important figures in thoroughbred racing history,” said Mike Anderson, president of Churchill Downs racetrack in Kentucky, after the Lukas family announced the severity of his illness. “He transcended the sport of horse racing and took the industry to new levels. The lasting impact of his character and wisdom — from his acute horsemanship to his unmatched attention to detail — will be truly missed.”
Lukas’ story started on a small farm in Wisconsin.
Bill Dwyre, who previously was the sports editor of L.A. Times and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, recently chronicled Lukas’ roots.
“Lukas did not grow up on some farm in Kentucky, mucking stables as a teenager and rubbing elbows all day, every day, with grizzled horsemen,” Dwyre wrote last year after Lukas won the Preakness with Seize the Grey. “Lukas did grow up on a farm, all right, but in the state of Wisconsin, where there is no parimutuel betting, and where horse racing is pretty much confined to county fairs. His birthplace, Antigo, Wis., an hour and a half northwest of Green Bay, had a fair and D. Wayne … liked the horses.
Trainer D. Wayne Lukas looks on as Preakness Stakes winner Seize the Grey cools down after a workout ahead of the 156th running of the Belmont Stakes in 2024.
(Julia Nikhinson / Associated Press)
“But that sort of career was not foremost in his mind. He went to the University of Wisconsin, got his master’s degree in education, started teaching and soon was a high school head basketball coach. For a while, he was an assistant coach in the Big Ten for UW’s John Erickson. He stayed close to the game of basketball, even as his days were dominated by barns and backstretches. Along the way, one of his best friends became Bob Knight. D. Wayne liked the toughness and drive to win of the legendary Indiana University coach.”
Lukas decided to try his hand at training and started at Los Alamitos in 1968 working with quarter horses. It took him 10 years to realize that the real stars — and the money — was in thoroughbred racing. Before leaving the quarter horse ranks, he won 739 races and saddled 24 world champions.
He won his first thoroughbred race on Oct. 20, 1977, at Santa Anita. He won his last race at Churchill Downs on June 12 with 4-year-old colt Tour Player.
In between, he won the Kentucky Derby four times, the Preakness seven times and the Belmont Stakes four times. He has won 20 Breeders’ Cup races. He won the Eclipse Award for top trainer four times and was the leading trainer by wins four straight years from 1987 to 1990. In 1995, he won all three Triple Crown races but with two different horses; Thunder Gulch won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes and Timber Country won the Preakness. It was the first time a trainer accomplished that feat.
“The most enduring and essential sports legacies can also be the most complicated,” wrote NBC’s Tim Layden, a multiple Eclipse Award-winning journalist, upon learning of Lukas’ illness. “The very best are not just driven, but obsessive. Not just creative, but ingenious. Not just hungry, but voracious. Jordan. Woods. Ali. Armstrong. Rose. One of Lukas’ favorites, and a close friend: Bob Knight. To name a few. … Transcendence demands a selfish eccentricity; because greatness and normalcy are often mutually exclusive. Lukas has lived long enough to earn a warm embrace that he would not have received as a younger man, but that embrace alone doesn’t tell enough of his outsized story and his place in racing history, where he stands very much alone.”
Lukas first made his thoroughbred mark in 1980 when he won the Preakness with Codex. It was not a popular win as Codex beat Derby-winning filly Genuine Risk and then had to withstand an inquiry to officially give Lukas his first Triple Crown win.
Bookending that win was his last Triple Crown race victory, when he won the Preakness last year with Seize the Grey.
“One of the things that was very significant to me [that day] — and maybe it’s because I’m getting a little bit older — but as I came out of the grandstand and out across the racetrack, every one of the guys that were in that race stopped and hugged me and gave me a handshake,” Lukas told The Times after the race.
“That meant more to me than any single thing. [Bob] Baffert, Kenny McPeek, right down the line.”
Lukas did not get the nickname Coach because of his days as a basketball coach but because of the coaching tree he established during his tenure.
Among those that were his assistants were Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, future Hall of Famer Brad Cox, Kiaran McLaughlin, Dallas Stewart, Mike Maker, Mark Hennig, Randy Bradshaw, George Weaver and Bobby Barnett.
Among those Lukas was closest to, but never worked for, is Baffert.
“I asked him for a job one time out of high school, and he turned me down,” Baffert told The Times in 2018, while he was on his Triple Crown run with Justify. “I tell him, ‘I’m sure glad you turned me down because you’d be taking all the credit for this.’ But he probably would have fired me after two weeks because he works way too hard.”
Lukas later introduced Baffert at his U.S. Racing Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
“He told me everybody was laughing and kidding [when they heard I was inducting him,]” Lukas told The Times in 2018. “They were saying he’s not going to have Wayne do it because they thought we were rivals. Yet he came to me, and I said, ‘Bob, I’ll be honored to present you.’ And I did.”
“The media portrayed us as rivals and everything, so we would go along with you guys and then we’d go to dinner later,” Lukas said of Baffert.
“We’ve been friends for a long time. I have great respect for his ability. He’s got an excellent eye for a horse. He’s one of the few guys in the sale that when I pick one out that I like, I know sure as hell he’ll be bidding too.”
Seize the Grey’s trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, left, shakes hands with Bob Baffert, Imagination’s trainer, after Lukas’ horse won the Preakness Stakes in 2024.
(Julia Nikhinson / Associated Press)
In fact, this year at the Preakness Alibi Breakfast, an annual affair at Pimlico where trainers, owners and others tell stories and trade barbs about their career and horses, Lukas and Baffert hijacked the event with witty repartee and joking much to the delight of those in attendance. Their friendship was borne out as genuine.
“The horses were everything to Wayne,” Baffert posted on X after learning of Lukas’ death. “They were his life. From the way he worked them, how he cared for them, and how he maintained his shedrow as meticulously as he did his horses. No detail was too small. Many of us got our graduate degrees in training by studying how Wayne did it. Behind his famous shades, he was a tremendous horseman, probably the greatest who ever lived.”
Lukas’ life on the racetrack had one significant downside, when his son and assistant, Jeff, was run over and permanently injured by a loose horse at Santa Anita in 1993.
“I have a phone with one of those long cords,” Lukas told The Times’ Dwyre in 1999, “and so, I was up and walking around and right near the door when it happened. I was the first one to get to him.”
“One of Lukas’ Triple Crown prospects, Tabasco Cat, had bolted and was loose,” Dwyre wrote. “Jeff Lukas, a veteran horseman well schooled in the procedures for such situations, had stepped in Tabasco Cat’s path and was waving his arms. Horses always stop, or veer away. But this time…
“It’s like when you meet somebody in a narrow hallway,” Lukas said. “You go right and he goes right, and then you both go the other way. But eventually, one goes right and one left. Well, Jeff and the horse both went the same way.”
“Witnesses say that the sound of Jeff Lukas’ head hitting hard, compact ground after the collision could be heard several barns away. There was no blood, just an unconscious, badly injured 36-year-old man.”
The next year, Jeff Lukas had recovered enough to return to the racetrack but it proved too difficult for him to work around horses safely. Jeff eventually moved to Oklahoma and lived in a home his father bought him until Jeff’s death in 2016 at age 58.
Santa Anita issued this statement on Sunday after learning of Lukas’ death.
“Santa Anita joins the racing community in mourning the passing of D. Wayne Lukas. … His on-track success was such that it was easy to overlook his outstanding horsemanship that we were lucky to often witness back at the barn, away from the spotlight.”
Funeral arrangements for Wayne Lukas were not immediately announced.
Lukas is survived by his fifth wife, Laurie; grandchildren Brady Wayne Lukas and Kelly Roy; and great-grandchildren Johnny Roy, Thomas Roy, Walker Wayne Lukas and Quinn Palmer Lukas.
There are two things that can help make a sport popular: dynasties and rivalries. Horse racing is immune from dynasties because the sport is built mostly around breeding, which is where the money is. But, after Saturday’s 157th running of the $2 million Belmont Stakes, it certainly has a rivalry, if only for one year.
Sovereignty’s three-length win leaves a lot of people asking “what if” Sovereignty had run in the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness, and won. He would have been the 14th winner of the Triple Crown, although with an asterisk.
Both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes were run at 1¼ miles because Belmont Park is undergoing a rebuilding project forcing the race to move to Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The New York Racing Assn. opted to run the Belmont at 1¼ miles instead of the usual 1½ miles so the race wouldn’t start on a turn.
But that technicality didn’t dampen the spirits of Sovereignty’s trainer, Bill Mott, after the race.
“I think there are three really good horses and I’m glad he was able to come back and put in a race like he did in the Derby,” Mott said. “If we wouldn’t have won today, we would have taken a lot of criticism, but it turned out good. Sometimes you make the right decision and a lot of times you make the wrong ones, but today it really worked out well.”
Mott, and the colt’s owner Godolphin, decided that running in Belmont was the better move. It allowed Journalism, second in the Derby, to run and win the Preakness in a race for the ages, where he bulled his way through horses at the top of the stretch and ate up incredible ground in the final furlong to win by half a length. And a rivalry was born.
Sovereignty was the first horse to intentionally skip the Preakness after winning the Derby and then come back and win the Belmont. It was the first time in the last 22 Triple Crown races that there was a repeat Triple Crown race winner, a streak going back to Justify in 2018. The Triple Crown is restricted to 3-year-olds, meaning a horse only gets one year to compete in those races.
Sovereignty crosses the finish line ahead of Journalism to win the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.
(Seth Wenig / Associated Press)
The race ran pretty much to form with Rodriguez going immediately to the front with Crudo close by as they headed into the first turn. But as the horses went down the backstretch Journalism started to get engaged with Sovereignty close by. Entering the homestretch, Journalism poked his head in front as Rodriguez started to slow. Sovereignty was working his way to the outside of Journalism and with 200 yards to go moved swiftly to the front and won easily.
The top three finishers were exactly the same as the Derby with Baeza finishing third. He was followed by Rodriguez, Hill Road, Heart of Honor, Uncaged and Crudo. Journalism, Baeza and Rodriguez are all currently based at Santa Anita.
Sovereignty paid $7.00 to win.
After the race, winning jockey Junior Alvarado and Umberto Rispoli, who rode Journalism embraced while atop their horses.
“It’s about two great horses,” Alvarado said. “[Journalism] ran amazing again for coming back after the Preakness. He fought very hard but he didn’t make it easy for my horse.
“It’s unreal to be honest. There was a point in my career, I think probably four or five years ago when I kind of saw everything fading away, to be honest. And now here I am. It’s unbelievable.”
It was Alvarado’s first Belmont Stakes win. It was also his first Kentucky Derby win, although he was fined $62,000 and suspended two days for using his riding crop eight times on Sovereignty, two over the allowable number.
The race was run on what was labeled either fast or good after rain pelted the track all morning. It even resulted the postponing until Sunday of two Grade 1 turf races for safety reasons. The track and Equibase, the official statistician of racing, do not have to agree on the quality of track surfaces.
“Look, anytime good horses get space in between their races, they are very, very dangerous,” said Journalism’s trainer Michael McCarthy. “He [Sovereignty] is a very good horse, he trains up here, he’s been up here for a while, he’s in his backyard. Let’s hope everybody stays happy and healthy, and we’ll see him in Del Mar hopefully in November, in our backyard. I can’t say enough good things about that horse or about my horse. It has been a fantastic experience for me and my guys.”
Jockey Junior Alvarado, center, holds up the August Belmont Trophy after riding Sovereignty to victory in the Belmont Stakes.
(Jessica Hill / Associated Press)
McCarthy did not rule out running in the Travers at Saratoga later this summer.
Journalism appeared to have stumbled coming out of the gate but Rispoli dismissed it as a reason for the loss.
“[It was a ] perfect trip,” Rispoli said. “I was lucky to be on the outside today to take the chance. I would say he had a little bit of a stumble coming out of the gate, but I don’t think it would’ve been an excuse that affected anything.
“I had a good trip. I was running down the lane, Junior [Alvarado] was just coming by, easing past, so the only thing I can say is probably the freshness. He [Journalism] is a warrior, he ran in three legs. He [Sovereignty] ran in one and had five weeks to recover, but that’s no excuse. Obviously, I would say the fresh horse won, but he’s a great horse, he beat me already. He beat me twice.”
The rivalry may not be Affirmed and Alydar or Dodgers-Yankees or Lakers-Celtics. But it’s the best horse racing has had to offer in a few years and that’s something to take note of.
PAINTSVILLE, Ky. — Janet Lynn Stumbo leaned on her cane and surveyed the two dozen or so voters who had convened in a small Appalachian town to meet with the chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party.
A former Kentucky Supreme Court justice, the 70-year-old Stumbo said the event was “the biggest Democratic gathering I have ever seen in Johnson County,” an enclave where Republican Donald Trump got 85% of the presidential vote in November.
Paintsville, the county seat, was the latest stop on the state party’s “Rural Listening Tour,” a periodic effort to visit overwhelmingly white, culturally conservative towns of the kind where Democrats once competed and Republicans now dominate nationally.
Democrats’ path back to power may start in places like Paintsville, one small meeting at a time, because it may be difficult for the party to regain control of Congress or the White House without faring better among rural and small-town voters across the country.
The party recently lost U.S. senators from states with significant rural populations: Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Also, Democratic-led states are losing population to Sun Belt states led by Republicans, with some projections suggesting changes after the 2030 census could cost Democrats 12 electoral college votes.
“The gut check is we’d stopped having these conversations” in white rural America, said Colmon Elridge, the Kentucky Democratic chair. “Folks didn’t give up on the Democratic Party. We stopped doing the things that we knew we needed to do.”
It’s not that Democrats must carry most white rural precincts to win more elections. It’s more a matter of consistently chipping away at Republican margins in the way Trump narrowed Democrats’ usual advantages among Black and Latino men in 2024, and not unlike what Kentucky’s Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, did in two statewide victories.
Nationally, Trump won 60% of small-town and rural voters when he lost reelection in 2020 — and 63% in his 2024 victory, according to AP VoteCast data. That’s a far cry from a generation ago, when Democrat Bill Clinton won pluralities in Johnson County on his way to capturing Kentucky’s electoral votes in the 1992 and 1996 White House races.
“We have to be intentional about how we build something sustainable,” Elridge said. “It’s not like we haven’t won here before.”
Combating the ‘caricature’ of Democrats
For two hours in downtown Paintsville, Elridge listened as Stumbo and others took umbrage at conservatives’ policy agenda, expressed frustration over President Trump’s standing in eastern Kentucky and said they were determined to sell their neighbors an alternative. Many brought their personal experiences to bear.
The event was part town hall, part catharsis, part pep talk. In some ways, the complaints in Paintsville mirrored how Democrats nationally are angry, often for very different reasons.
Sandra Music, a retired teacher who called herself “a new Democrat,” converted because of Trump. She bemoaned conservatives’ success in advancing private school tuition voucher programs and said they were threatening a public education system “meant to ensure we educate everybody.”
Music criticized Republicans for making a “caricature” of Democrats. “They want to pull out keywords: ‘abortion,’ ‘transgender,’ ‘boys in girls’ sports’” and distract from the rest of the Republican agenda, she said.
Stumbo, the former justice, lamented what she called the rightward lurch of the state and federal courts. “We are going to suffer irreparable damage,” she said, “if we don’t stop these conservative idiots.”
Michael Halfhill, who works in healthcare information technology, was incredulous that the billionaire president has taken hold of voters in Appalachia, historically one of the country’s poorest regions.
“It’s not left versus right. It’s rich versus poor,” he said, shaking his head at working-class white voters — Johnson County is 97.5% white — “voting against themselves.”
Ned Pillersdorf, who is married to Stumbo, went after Republicans for their proposed federal tax and spending plans, especially potential cuts to Medicaid. He said Paintsville still has a rural hospital, which is among the largest employers in the region, in no small part because Kentucky is among the GOP-leaning states where a Democratic governor expanded Medicaid under the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
Elridge, the first Black chair of a major party in Kentucky, mentioned Trump’s attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and related civil rights laws and regulations.
“This is where Trump and MAGA excel — if somebody who looks like me is your enemy, then you don’t care if the guy in the White House is peeing on your leg and telling you it’s rain,” he said, referring to Trump’s “Make American Great Again” movement.
Republican response
By definition, a “listening tour” is not meant to produce concrete action. Elridge and Nicholas Hazelett, the Johnson County Democratic chair who is a college student and a Paintsville City Council member, acknowledged that the small crowd was Democrat-friendly. Despite a few recent converts, no one was there waiting to be convinced.
Across the street, antiques shop owner Michelle Hackworth said she did not even know Democrats were holding a meeting. Calling herself a “hard-core Republican,” she smiled when asked if she would consider attending.
“They wouldn’t convince me of anything,” she said.
Bill Mike Runyon, a self-described conservative Republican who is Paintsville’s mayor and loves Trump, went immediately to social and cultural commentary when asked in an interview to explain Johnson County politics.
Democrats, he said, “have to get away from the far-left radical — look at the transgender message.” Further, Runyon said, “everything got kind of racial. It’s not like that here in Paintsville and in Johnson County, but I can see it as a country. … It’s making people more racist against one another.”
Asked specifically who he was talking about, he alluded to progressive U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Latina from New York City, and Jasmine Crockett, a Black woman from Texas.
“It’s the ones you always see on TV,” the mayor said.
Governor’s bipartisan appeal
Beshear seems to be the one Democrat who commands wide respect in and around Paintsville.
Democrats hailed the 47-year-old governor for supporting abortion and LGBTQ+ rights while still attracting support beyond the Democratic strongholds of Louisville, Lexington and Frankfort. Beshear did not win Johnson County but got 37% of the vote in his 2023 reelection. He carried several nearby counties.
Many Republicans, including the mayor, complimented Beshear for his handling of floods and other disasters in the region.
“He’s been here,” Runyon said. “I absolutely can get to him if I need him.”
In 2024, Beshear landed on the list of potential vice presidential running mates for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. He also remains Senate Democrats’ top pick for a 2026 campaign for the seat coming open with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell’s retirement.
Beshear, whose father once lost to McConnell after having won two governor’s races, has said he will not run for Senate. But he has stepped up his cable TV interviews and launched his own podcast, fueling speculation that his next campaign will be for the 2028 presidential nomination.
“Andy is not like those national Democrats,” Runyon said. Harking back to the 1990s, he added, “Bill Clinton wasn’t like these Democrats today.”
Hackworth, the shop owner, noted that she voted against the younger Beshear twice. But over the course of an extended interview, she, too, commended the governor’s disaster management. She also questioned some moves by Trump, including the idea of getting Washington completely out of the disaster aid business.
She blamed Trump’s predecessor, former President Biden, for a “tough time at my store,” but acknowledged that federal aid had helped many businesses and households stay afloat through the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.
Hackworth said she was not familiar with details of Medicaid expansion, but she identified the nearby hospital as among the area’s largest employers. The others, she said, are the public school system and Walmart, which a day earlier had announced it was increasing prices because of Trump’s tariffs.
While supporting Trump’s “America first” agenda, Hackworth said widespread tariffs would upset many consumers. “You can walk through my store and see where the new stuff is made,” she said. “I try to buy American, but so much of it is China, China, China.”
Asked again whether any of that should give Democrats an opening in places like Paintsville, she said, “Well, there’s always an opening if you show up.”
The storms are part of a severe weather system sweeping across the Midwest, leaving thousands without power.
At least 21 people have died after tornadoes caused by severe storms swept through the states of Missouri and Kentucky in the United States, officials said.
Kentucky governor Andy Beshear on Saturday said on X that at least 14 people died in the Friday night’s storms.
At least seven others were killed in Missouri as authorities launched a search for people trapped in buildings.
A man sits in a chair after the storm in St. Louis, Missouri [Jeff Roberson/AP]
Kentucky authorities said there were severe injuries when a tornado tore across Laurel County late on Friday. “The search is continuing in the damaged area for survivors,” the office of Sheriff John Root said in a statement posted on social media.
In Missouri, St Louis Mayor Cara Spencer confirmed five deaths in her city and said more than 5,000 homes were affected.
“Our city is in mourning tonight,” she told reporters. “The loss of life and destruction is truly, truly horrific.”
Another tornado struck Scott County, about 209km (130 miles) south of St Louis, killing two people, injuring several others and destroying multiple homes, Sheriff Derick Wheetley wrote on social media on Friday.
“Our first responders acted swiftly, even while the tornado was still active, putting themselves in harm’s way to provide immediate assistance and care to those injured,” he said.
Drivers navigate around debris after the storm in St. Louis [Jeff Roberson/AP]
The storms, which began on Friday, are part of a severe weather system that has also spawned tornadoes in Wisconsin, leaving thousands of people without power in the Great Lakes region and bringing a punishing heatwave to Texas.
A dust storm warning was issued around the Chicago area on Friday night. The weather service said a wall of dust extended along a 161km (100-mile) line from southwest of Chicago to northern Indiana that severely reduced visibility.
In Texas, a heat advisory was issued for San Antonio and Austin cities, with temperatures at a blistering 95F (35C) to 105F (40.5C). Parts of the southern East Coast, from Virginia to Florida, also battled with heat in the 90s (32-37C).
The National Weather Service Office for Austin and San Antonio said humidity over the weekend was expected to make temperatures feel hotter.
“There are concerns of heat exhaustion for people that aren’t taking proper precautions when they’re outdoors,” meteorologist Jason Runyen said, advising those affected to take breaks and stay hydrated.
From John Cherwa: The horses have barely passed the finish line at Churchill Downs when many heads turn to the east, pointing to Baltimore, and start thinking about the Preakness, the second stop on racing’s Triple Crown. And that quickness belies the problem. It’s only two weeks after the Kentucky Derby.
It used to not be a problem when horses raced more often than they do today. The only racing that goes on nowadays is to see how fast you can get your superstar-in-the-making into the breeding shed, which is where the real money is made.
The Preakness is different from the Derby in so many ways. The biggest technical reason is the race is a sixteenth of a mile shorter than the Derby. The biggest non-technical reason is the Preakness is fun, an experience trainers and owners enjoy rather than the price-gouging pressure cooker that is Louisville on Derby week.
“What the Derby thinks it is, that’s what the Preakness is,” Mickey Taylor, one of the owners of Seattle Slew, once said.
This year’s 150th anniversary of the Preakness is full of intrigue but short on stars, especially with Derby winner Sovereignty skipping the race. But it’s still an interesting race and the winner will etch his name in history. Here are five story lines to look for this week.
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NBA PLAYOFFS RESULTS
All Times Pacific
Conference semifinals
Western Conference
No. 1 Oklahoma City vs. No. 4 Denver Nuggets Denver 121, at Oklahoma City 119 (box score) at Oklahoma City 149, Denver 106 (box score) at Denver 113, Oklahoma City 104 (OT) (box score) Oklahoma City 92, at Denver 87 (box score) Tuesday at Oklahoma City, 6:30 p.m., TNT Thursday at Denver, TBD, ESPN Sunday at Oklahoma City, TBD*
No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves vs. No. 7 Golden State Golden State 99, at Minnesota 88 (box score) at Minnesota 117, Golden State 93 (box score) Minnesota 102, at Golden State 97 (box score) Minnesota 117, at Golden State 110 (box score) Wednesday at Minnesota, 6:30 p.m., TNT Sunday at Golden State, TBD* Tuesday, May 20 at Minnesota, 5:30 p.m., ESPN*
Eastern Conference
No. 1 Cleveland vs. No. 4 Indiana Indiana 121, at Cleveland 112 (box score) Indiana 120, at Cleveland 119 (box score) Cleveland 126, at Indiana 104 (box score) at Indiana 129, Cleveland 109 (box score) Tuesday at Cleveland, 4 p.m., TNT Thursday at Indiana, TBD* Sunday at Cleveland, TBD*
No. 2 Boston vs. No. 3 New York New York 108, at Boston 105 (OT) (box score) New York 91, at Boston 90 (box score) Boston 115, at New York 93 (box score) at New York 121, Boston 113 (box score) Wednesday at Boston, 4 p.m., TNT Friday at New York, TBD, ESPN* Monday at Boston, 5 p.m., TNT*
*if necessary
ANGELS
Taylor Ward hit a grand slam to cap a six-run ninth inning, and the Angels beat the San Diego Padres 9-5 on Monday night.
The Angels rallied against Robert Suarez, who had converted 18 consecutive save opportunities — including 15 this season. Alek Jacob replaced Suarez and struck out Jorge Soler before Ward delivered.
Suarez (0-1) yielded a one-out single before walking four straight batters, forcing in two runs. The right-hander gave up just one run in his first 18 appearances this year.
Freshman Moni Nikolov posted six kills, four aces and a pair of digs and Long Beach State beat UCLA 25-17, 25-23 and 25-21 to win the NCAA men’s volleyball tournament Monday night.
It was the Beach’s (30-3) fourth championship in program history and first since 2019. Long Beach State also won the title in 2018 and claimed its first title in 1991 when current coach Alan Knipe was a player.
The 6-foot-10 Nikolov, who just turned 18, started the match with an opening-serve ace and ended UCLA’s two-time reign with a thunderous kill.
“Not for one second did we think we were going to lose that game,” Nikolov said. “Before the game in the locker room we told each other we were here. We were born for this …. game.
“Even when we were down five, we trusted each other because we knew we were the better team.”
And when we say dog, we really mean horse because Ronald is much closer to a small pony than he is to a large dog.
“He’s a pretty cool dog,” van Gisbergen said of the Rhodesian Ridgeback who weighs 130 pounds, which makes him five pounds heavier than Tyler Reddick, the reigning regular-season NASCAR Cup Series champion. Van Gisbergen wasn’t going to leave Australia without him.
“You can’t get rid of a dog,” he said. “He is part of our family.”
Van Gisbergen isn’t the only animal lover on the NASCAR circuit. About a dozen drivers travel with their dogs so regularly, at least two tracks have built dog parks for the race teams.
“It kind of brings a feeling of home on the road,” said Alex Bowman, who has three dogs, an 8-year-old charcoal Labrador named Finn, a year-old Golden Retriever mix rescue named Huck and a goldendoodle named Merle that belongs to girlfriend Chloe Henderson, a self-proclaimed “dog mom.”
“My dogs are my best friends. So it’s always cool to have them at the race track,” said Bowman, who finished fifth in Sunday’s 400-mile race in Kansas City, Kan., the 12th event on the Cup Series schedule.
Pacific 1 Vegas vs. Pacific 3 Edmonton Edmonton 4, at Vegas 2 (summary) Edmonton 5, at Vegas 4 (OT) (summary) Vegas 4, at Edmonton 3 (summary) at Edmonton 3, Vegas 0 (summary) Wednesday at Vegas, 6:30 p.m., ESPN Friday at Edmonton, TBD, TNT* Sunday at Vegas, TBD, TNT*
C1 Winnipeg vs. C2 Dallas Dallas 3, at Winnipeg 2 (summary) Winnipeg 4, at Dallas 0 (summary) Dallas 5, at Winnipeg 2 (summary) Tuesday at Dallas, 5 p.m., ESPN Thursday at Winnipeg, 6:30 p.m., TNT Saturday at Dallas, TBD* Monday at Winnipeg, TBD, ESPN*
Eastern Conference
Atlantic 1 Toronto vs. Atlantic 3 Florida at Toronto 5, Florida 4 (summary) at Toronto 4, Florida 3 (summary) at Florida 5, Toronto 4 (OT) (summary) at Florida 2, Toronto 0 (summary) Wednesday at Toronto, 4 p.m., ESPN* Friday at Florida, TBD, TNT Sunday at Toronto, TBD, TNT*
Metro 1 Washington vs. Metro 2 Carolina Carolina 2, at Washington 1 (OT) (summary) at Washington 3, Carolina 1 (summary) at Carolina 4, Washington 0 (summary) at Carolina 5, Washington 2 (summary) Thursday at Washington, 4 p.m., TNT Saturday at Carolina, TBD* Monday at Washington, TBD, ESPN*
* If necessary
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1891 — Isaac Murphy wins his second straight Kentucky Derby aboard Kingman. In the stretch, Kingman comes from last in the four-horse field to beat Balgownan by one-half length.
1905 — World heavyweight boxing champion James J. Jeffries retires undefeated after 7 title defences; returns in 1910 to be beaten by Jack Johnson.
1950 — First ever race of the Formula 1 World Drivers Championship is run at Silverstone, England and won by Giuseppe Farina of italy in an Alfa Romeo.
1962 — LPGA Western Open Women’s Golf, Montgomery CC: Mickey Wright wins on the 4th hole of a sudden-death playoff with Mary Lena Faulk.
1976 — The New York Nets overcome a 22-point third-quarter deficit to beat the Denver Nuggets 112-106 and win the last ABA championship in six games.
1989 — Trinidad & Tobago ties US 1-1, in 3rd round of 1990 world soccer cup.
1992 — The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New York Rangers 5-1 to eliminate the Patrick Division champions in six games and advance to the Prince of Wales Conference finals. It is the first time all four division winners are eliminated in the same round. The Norris Division champion Detroit Red Wings were swept by the Chicago Blackhawks in four straight games, and the Montreal Canadiens, who had won the Adams Division, lost in four games to the Boston Bruins. The Vancouver Canucks, the Smythe Division champions lost to the Edmonton Oilers in six games.
1995 — Team New Zealand’s Black Magic 1 completes a 5-0 sweep in the America’s Cup, beating Dennis Conner’s borrowed boat Young America by 1 minute, 50 seconds.
1998 — Chelsea of England win 38th European Cup Winner’s Cup against Stuttgart of Germany 1-0 in Stockholm.
2005 — Tiger Woods misses the cut at the Byron Nelson Championship to end his record of 142 consecutive cuts made over the last seven years on the PGA Tour. Needing a par on the 18th hole at Cottonwood Valley, Woods misses a 15-foot putt. He taps in for a bogey and a 2-over 72, leaving him at 1 over for the tournament.
2006 — English FA Cup Final, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff (71,140): Liverpool beats West Ham United, 3-1 on penalties after 3–3 (a.e.t.); Reds 7th title.
2007 — Canada wins hockey’s world championship with a 4-2 victory over Finland. Rick Nash leads the way with two goals as Canada captures its’ 24th world title and first since 2004.
2007 — Rafael Nadal becomes the first player to win the Rome Masters three consecutive times by beating Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-2, 6-2. The victory extends his winning streak on clay to 77 matches. By reaching the final, the Spaniard broke John McEnroe’s record for most consecutive victories (75) on one surface.
2007 — At 16 years, 65 days Matthew Briggs debuts for Fulham in a 3-1 defeat at Middlesbrough; youngest player to appear in an English Premier League match.
2007 — PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: American Phil Mickelson wins by 2 strokes ahead of runner-up Sergio García of Spain; event played in May for the first time.
2012 — Manchester City wins the English title for the first time in 44 years, surging past Queens Park Rangers 3-2 with Sergio Aguero scoring his team’s second goal late in injury time. Aguero scores during the fourth minute of injury time, two minutes after substitute Edin Dzeko made it 2-2. The winning goal snatches the trophy from defending champion Manchester United on goal difference.
2012 — PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: Matt Kuchar wins by 2 strokes ahead of Rickie Fowler, Zach Johnson, Martin Laird and Ben Curtis.
2014 — Henrik Lundqvist sets an NHL record with his fifth straight Game 7 victory. He made 35 saves to lift the New York Rangers to a 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins and earn a spot in the Eastern Conference finals. Brian Boyle and Brad Richards score for New York, who rally from a 3-1 series deficit for the first time in the franchise’s 88-year history.
2015 — Derek Stepan scores 11:24 in overtime, lifting the New York Rangers past the Washington Capitals 2-1 and into the Eastern Conference finals. Stepan’s wrist shot from the left wing caps a comeback from a 3-1 deficit in the series. The Rangers become the only team to manage that in successive years, doing the same thing to Pittsburgh in the second round in 2014.
2018 — Liverpool’s Egyptian soccer forward Mohamed Salah scores in a 4-0 win against Brighton to set the EPL goal scoring record (32) for a 38-game season.
2018 — PGA Players Championship, TPC at Sawgrass: American Webb Simpson wins by 4 strokes from Xander Schauffele, Charl Schwartzel and Jimmy Walker.
2019 — The Tradition Senior Men’s Golf, Greystone G &CC: Steve Stricker wins his first career major title by 6 strokes ahead of Billy Andrade, Paul Goydos & David Toms.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1911 — Detroit’s Ty Cobb hit his first grand slam. After six innings, the Tigers led the Red Sox, 10-1. Boston came back to win the game 13-11 in 10 innings.
1911 — The New York Giants scored a major league record 10 runs before the St. Louis Cardinals retired the first batter in the first inning. Fred Merkle drove in six of the Giants’ 13 runs in the first en route to a 19-5 rout.
1923 — Joe Sewell of the Cleveland Indians struck out twice in one game for the first time in his career. Washington Senator rookie Wally Warmoth was the pitcher. In a 14-year career, Sewell had only one other multiple strikeout game.
1942 — Boston’s Jim Tobin became the only pitcher in modern history to hit three home runs in one game. Tobin led the Braves to a 6-5 win over the Chicago Cubs. His fourth at-bat was a fly ball caught against the fence in left field.
1955 — At Yankee Stadium, Mickey Mantle hits home runs from both sides of the plate for the first time in his major league career.
1958 — Teammates Willie Mays and Darryl Spencer each had four long hits as San Francisco beat the Dodgers in Los Angeles 16-9. Mays had two homers, two triples, a single and four RBIs, and Spencer had two homers, a triple, a double and six RBIs for a combined 28 total bases.
1958 — Stan Musial got his 3,000th hit with a pinch-double off Chicago’s Moe Drabowsky at Wrigley Field. The Cardinals won 5-3.
1969 — Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs reaches the 1,500 runs batted in milestone with seven RBIs in a 19-0 shellacking of the expansion San Diego Padres.
1976 — For the sixth consecutive game, George Brett of the Kansas City Royals collects at least three hits.
1980 — Ray Knight of Cincinnati hit two home runs in the fifth inning — including a grand slam — to lead the Reds to a 15-4 rout of the New York Mets.
1982 — The Chicago Cubs won game No. 8,000 in their history with a 5-0 victory over Houston at the Astrodome.
1989 — Kirby Puckett of the Minnesota Twins tied a major league record with four doubles against the Blue Jays. He became the 35th player to hit four doubles in a game, the first since Toronto’s Damaso Garcia in 1986.
1993 — George Brett of the Kansas City Royals hits his 300th career home run in the 6th inning of a 7-3 victory over the Cleveland Indians. Brett is only the 6th major league player with at least 3,000 hits and 300 home runs.
1994 — Tim Salmon of the Angels went 5-for-5 against the Seattle Mariners to give him 13 hits over three consecutive games.
2000 — Todd Stottlemyre of Arizona earned his seventh victory of the season as the Diamondbacks beat the San Diego Padres 6-2. It was Todd’s 136th career win. He and father Mel Stottlemyre became the first father-son combination to record 300 wins.
2002 — Only 38 home runs shy of the exclusive 500 home run club, Jose Canseco retires at 37 age due to injuries sustained in recent years.
2007 — San Francisco rookie Fred Lewis hit for the cycle in a 15-2 win over Colorado, just four days after being called up from triple-A Fresno.
2009 — Soon after Adam LaRoche became the first player to have a home run taken away following a video replay review, Ross Gload lost one the same way when umpires reversed their call. LaRoche wound up with a double for Pittsburgh at PNC Park. Gload’s pinch-hit drive was finally called foul at Milwaukee and he eventually struck out. Both players had already rounded the bases when umps changed the original call.
2009 — Ryan Zimmerman’s 30-game hitting streak ended when he went 0 for 3 with two walks in Washington’s 6-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants.
2012 — Joey Votto hit a grand slam in the ninth inning for his third home run of the game, rallying the Cincinnati Reds to a rain-delayed 9-6 victory over the Washington Nationals.
2023 — By striking out Brice Turang and Joey Wiemer of the Brewers in the 5th inning, Zack Greinke becomes only the fifth pitcher in major league history to have struck out 1,000 different batters in his career. The veteran Royals hurler, who is in his 20th season, joins Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens in the exclusive club.
2024 — In a first, women are the lead television announcers for both teams in today’s game between the Athletics and Astros. Jenny Cavnar was named the A’s lead broadcaster before the start of the season, and for the occasion the Astros have announcer Todd Kalas and in-game reporter Julia Morales switch roles, with Morales, a long-time friend of Cavnar’s, taking over in the broadcast booth.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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