Sports

7:15 AM ET It was, in the final quarter of the horrible 2020, when it seemed as though society had finally succumbed to its own appetites and irresponsibility, that baseball was somehow being made an example of. So much loss could not be happenstance. Six Hall of Famers — signatures to their time and instrumental

2:18 AM ET Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia — French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has tested positive for COVID-19, casting doubt on her place in the Australian Open beginning Jan. 17. The 30-year-old Russian confirmed she has the coronavirus and is isolating after arriving in Australia on Tuesday. “I was fully vaccinated and was preparing for

8:30 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN After 2020 significantly cut down the volume of fights and memorable moments fans are accustomed to in boxing, 2021 delivered in a major way. Looking back at the last 12 months, the year could best be described as “the year of the upset,” with several key title fights that going

8:00 AM ET NBA Insiders When the 2021-22 season began in October, it kicked off the first normal NBA schedule since the COVID-19 pandemic paused the league in March 2020. The 2021 playoffs were played in NBA arenas again after the 2020 postseason was held in the NBA’s Orlando, Florida, bubble. Giannis Antetokounmpo and the

7:00 AM ET On Nov. 28, a bad weekend for Oklahoma football fans turned even worse. A day after losing to Oklahoma State in Stillwater and getting eliminated from Big 12 title contention, head coach Lincoln Riley made a swift, stunning departure for USC. For the first time since 1947, a Sooners coach had left

7:01 AM ET Editor’s note: The list of professional athletes and team personnel entering COVID-19 protocols has increased in recent weeks, causing games to be rescheduled across multiple sports. Some unvaccinated NFL players have had to miss a game while being quarantined for 10 days, while others who have been vaccinated have had to produce

7:00 AM ET Indie rocker Faye Webster has spent a lot of time thinking — and singing — about Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. While off the road from touring her 2019 album Atlanta Millionaires Club, Webster — a native of Atlanta — found herself with a lot of free time. She spent much

7:05 PM ET Associated Press KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — Martha Earnhardt, the matriarch of one of NASCAR’s best-known families, has died. She was 91. Grandchildren Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller said in a statement that she died Saturday night. “As we grieve her loss and begin to imagine life without our beloved ‘Mamaw,’ we

7:00 AM ET Every NHL team has one — the player it can’t win without. With the league on pause until at least Tuesday, we’ve combed through each roster to find the player having the biggest impact. Sometimes it was easy to spot that player, in other instances, a closer look was required. The bottom

3:21 PM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent MANCHESTER, England — For the first 25 minutes at the Etihad Stadium on Boxing Day, Manchester City showed why they’re favourites to win the Premier League title again this season. Then, for the opening 20 minutes of the second half, they showed why they might not. Pep Guardiola’s side barely

7:17 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN The boxing industry came to a screeching halt in 2020. Without the possibility of capacity crowds, the biggest fights were tossed to the side, along with the millions in gate revenue that would have accompanied them. But beginning in May with Canelo Alvarez’s victory over Billy Joe Saunders in Arlington,

9:09 AM ET Former world No. 1 Andy Murray has been handed a wildcard into the main draw of next month’s Australian Open, the tournament organisers said on Thursday. 1 Related The Briton, down at 134th in the world rankings after long injury lay-offs due to hip surgery, has reached the final five times at

3:59 PM ET The NBA and National Basketball Players Association are near an agreement to reduce the 10-day quarantine periods for COVID-positive players, sources told ESPN on Thursday. The arrangement — expected to soon be shared with teams — could return some players to active play in six days, based on testing procedures, sources said.

5:40 PM ET Associated Press COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A deal for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to police drugs in horse racing cratered Thursday after months of negotiations that the agency’s CEO said did not give it “a reasonable chance to put in place a credible and effective program.” The USADA was set to become

8:49 PM ET The Indianapolis Colts led the NFL with seven selections for the Pro Bowl as the league announced this year’s teams. The Colts had three players selected on offense (running back Jonathan Taylor, center Ryan Kelly, guard Quenton Nelson), three on defense (tackle DeForest Buckner, linebacker Darius Leonard, cornerback Kenny Moore II) and

10:30 PM ET Rutgers is expected to receive the first opportunity to replace Texas A&M and face Wake Forest in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, sources told ESPN on Wednesday. The NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee will meet Thursday and determine the policy for a bowl replacement opponent for Wake Forest among 5-7 teams. If

3:42 PM ET Associated Press KAPALUA, Hawai’i — Phil Mickelson is headed back to Hawai’i for golf, not a vacation, committing to play the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua for the first time in 21 years. Mickelson won the winners-only tournament at La Costa Resort in 1998, then has played only twice since it

10:20 AM ET On Monday, the NHL announced that it was hitting pause on the 2021-22 season through the Christmas break. On Tuesday, the second piece of disappointing news emerged, as the NHL and NHLPA came to an agreement that NHL players would not be participating in the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, after such

9:00 AM ET This has been one of my annual columns for ESPN for a while now, and it’s always fun to look back at the previous year’s list to see which prospective fights, if any, came to fruition. So, before getting into the MMA fights I want to see in 2022, let’s take a

4:00 PM ET New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is an avid collector of art, his collection of Picasso and Doig and others reportedly worth many hundreds of millions of dollars. But one of his favorite pieces is round: the baseball that rolled between the legs of Bill Buckner to end Game 6 of the