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Untitled. There are few people who have their finger on the pulse of what's happening within Major League Baseball at any given time like MLB insider and ESPN reporter Jeff Passan.

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From breaking trade deals to commenting on social issues around ball clubs, Passan has become an invaluable source for anyone craving baseball news and information all year long. Passan is constantly visible, both on TV and social media, so I checked in with him to ask about the gear and gadgets that have helped him work through the COVID-19 pandemic, and the social media tools and the apps he finds valuable. Technology permeates every industry, so I also asked him about what aspect of tech he sees being a key piece of Major League Baseball moving forward. Untitled. To our Fans: I first want to thank you for your continued support of the great game of baseball.

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This past season, we were reminded of how the national pastime can bring us together and restore our hope despite the difficult challenges of a global pandemic. As we began to emerge from one of the darkest periods in our history, our ballparks were filled with fans; the games were filled with excitement; and millions of families felt the joy of watching baseball together. That is why I am so disappointed about the situation in which our game finds itself today. Curt Flood - The Ballplayer Who Fought for Free Agency. Curt Flood belongs in baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Curt Flood - The Ballplayer Who Fought for Free Agency

An outstanding hitter and outfielder during the 1950s and ’60s, he sacrificed his career to challenge the control of baseball’s corporate plutocracy over players’ lives and livelihoods. Every professional athlete owes Flood a debt of gratitude, but the billionaires who run Major League Baseball and the Hall of Fame aren’t fans of Flood, whose outlook and activism were shaped by both the labor and civil rights movements. Even before the Major League Baseball Players’ Association (MLBPA) had any influence, Flood was an eager trade unionist. Untitled. Ted Simmons' upcoming induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame has robust support from the record book.

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He has the most hits in Major League history among switch-hitting catchers. His career OPS+ is higher than that of fellow Hall of Famers Carlton Fisk, Gary Carter, and Iván Rodríguez. But to fully measure Simmons’ legacy requires a different sort of story, one that unfolded subtly over the 15,000-plus innings he caught for the Cardinals, Brewers, and Braves. Untitled. Untitled. Untitled. Thousands of retired Black NFL players want to end the race-adjusted system used to determine cognitive decline among claimants in the league's near-billion-dollar concussion settlement, Axios' Jeff Tracy writes.

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Why it matters: The test is scored on a curve that assumes Black people's baseline cognitive skills are lower than white people's, meaning Black players must show a larger cognitive decline to qualify for the settlement. The backdrop: In 2013, the NFL agreed to a $765 million settlement in response to a flood of lawsuits from retired players alleging the league concealed what it knew about the dangers of repeated head trauma. The $765 million cap has since been removed, and nearly $848 million has been awarded to 1,256 retired players to date. How it works: Those who claim their careers led to dementia or similar cognitive diseases are required to undergo medical testing to determine if the extent of cognitive decline makes them eligible for compensation.

Untitled. Ted Simmons and Maryanne Ellison Simmons pose with some of the more than 800 works of art they collected over the years that now belong to the St.

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Louis Art Museum. Behind them are "Untitled (Bird Drawing)" (1995) by Kiki Smith (left) and "Untitled (After Yves St. Thank You, St. Louis. Untitled. Aaron and Musial were so similar in so many ways.

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Devoted family men. Great but gracious. Both played for an organization for more than two decades. Neither were ever ejected from a game. Untitled. Forward passes, for one thing, had been attempted before, most recently in an experimental game in late 1905 between Washburn and what would become Wichita State before the new rules were approved in early 1906.

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Passes also had been carried out successfully but illegally several times, including the 1876 Yale-Princeton game in which Yale's Walter Camp threw forward to teammate Oliver Thompson as he was being tackled. You're About to Know Jack. With increasing regularity in recent years, Jack Flaherty has been on message.

You're About to Know Jack

From the first stare at himself in the mirror each morning to the first glance out the window at the rest of the world, his missives are delivered—both to himself and to others—with focus, passion and thought. They begin with himself. Rosenthal: What players with underlying health concerns say about a possible return. Untitled. Untitled. Ted Simmons elected to Hall of Fame. SAN DIEGO -- For Ted Simmons, the fourth time is the charm.

Ted Simmons elected to Hall of Fame

The former Cardinals catcher was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on the Modern Baseball Era ballot, announced Sunday at the Winter Meetings in San Diego. Candidates must receive votes from at least 75 percent of SAN DIEGO -- For Ted Simmons, the fourth time is the charm. The former Cardinals catcher was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on the Modern Baseball Era ballot, announced Sunday at the Winter Meetings in San Diego.

Candidates must receive votes from at least 75 percent of the ballots to gain election to the Hall, and Simmons received 13 votes from the 16-member electorate (81.3 percent) . • Miller, Simmons elected to HOF on Modern Era ballot. Were The Best Umpires Behind The Plate During The Playoffs? Major League Baseball umpires heard their job approval ratings plummet in Washington, D.C., during this World Series, culminating with chants of disdain from Nationals fans after missed calls on Sunday in Game 5. ESPN's 'The Ocho' Is Back, but Is Axe Throwing a Sport? We Asked. Last year on ESPN2, The Ocho’s most-viewed event was the prime-time broadcast of the Dodgeball World Cup, which drew 247,000 average viewers. The Ocho’s average total audience rose 150 percent from 2017 after it moved to “The Deuce” from ESPNU in 2018. Definitions of what qualifies as a sport usually include some combination of three criteria: physical exertion, a demonstration of skill and a competitive element.

Respondents roughly weighed each of those attributes equally. The public ranks this week’s featured events quite low in comparison with more traditional sports such as basketball or soccer, including stone skipping (16 percent say it’s a sport), stupid robot fighting (14 percent) and competitive pizza making (13 percent). On average, 30 percent of the public deems The Ocho’s offerings as sports. The Black Athlete in America. Untitled. Chicago Blackhawks owners Bill Wirtz and James Norris owned the old Arena on Oakland Avenue before the Blues were born as a NHL expansion team. NBA: Kevin Love of the Cleveland Cavaliers opens up on mental health. The Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star was, after all, quietly receiving therapy for an anxiety battle he had kept hidden from the public. But Love came to realize that saying the words "panic attack" and describing his episode publicly were part of the recovery process, and could benefit others suffering in silence.

"It's been therapeutic, and it's been good to share my experience and try to help. " The pressure on male athletes to suppress mental health issues only made his condition worse, Love wrote in the essay. He said he hoped to break down that wall for other pros facing anxiety or depression. Chris Correa: What ex-Cardinals analyst learned after prison, Astros hack. Eu.usatoday. - The Washington Post. Tommy Pham - ScoopsWithDannyMac.com. In full sprint, Rangers Minor Leaguer Eric Jenkins made a catch, tumbled over the wall and stuck the landing. Cardinals OF Tommy Pham sounds off about his road to the big leagues. Just because I have more time to watch games doesn’t mean my picks will be better, but here are my brackets this year. Hochman: Nearly 50 years ago, this Big Red player staged his own NFL anthem protest.

He was the only St. Louis pro athlete to protest during the national anthem. He was white. Inspiring America: This NFL Star Traded Football Field for Farm Field. Election of Donald Trump Deepening Racial Divide in NFL Locker Rooms. Kaepernick’s protest is as American as that flag. Friday night, in a league whose business is Americana, Colin Kaepernick took a stand rarely seen in pro sports. Kaepernick is asking for justice, not peace. Friday night, in a league whose business is Americana, Colin Kaepernick took a stand rarely seen in pro sports. Russian Insider Says State-Run Doping Fueled Olympic Gold. Pressure to Win Dr. DW on Sport. No Evidence of Lleyton Hewitt Fixing Matches. Match fixing has been the talk of the tennis world in the past couple of days, ever since the joint Buzzfeed and BBC reports were published late on Sunday night on the eve of the Australian Open.

Why Betting Data Alone Can’t Identify Match Fixers In Tennis. Hours before the Australian Open started in Melbourne on Monday, BuzzFeed News and the BBC published results from a joint investigation showing that tennis authorities hadn’t punished male pros repeatedly flagged for suspicions that they were fixing matches — deliberately losing, or arranging for their opponent to lose, to maximize their or others’ betting profits. Tennis authorities quickly gathered in Melbourne for a news conference responding to the charges, saying they had “thoroughly investigated” any evidence brought to them. NFL pulls out of funding Boston University head trauma study over concerns about researcher. 10:58 AM ETSteve FainaruCloseESPN Senior WriterWinner, 2008 Pulitzer Prize in International ReportingFour-time first-place winner in Associated Press Sports Editors competitionCo-author of New York Times best-selling book, "League of Denial"Mark Fainaru-WadaCloseESPN Staff WriterInvestigative reporter for ESPN's Enterprise and Investigative Unit since 2007Co-author of New York Times best-selling books "League of Denial" and "Game of Shadows"Co-winner, 2004 George Polk Award.