The infield defensive shifts have become a mainstay in baseball. But the Dodgers and the Red Sox use them very differently.

The ball the injured Dodger sent into the stands in the 1988 World Series never turned up publicly. If it did now, who would believe it?

Tiger Woods has won a PGA Tour event for the first time in over five years after victory at the Tour Championship. The 14-time major winner's triumph at Atlanta's East Lake Golf Club was his 80th on the PGA Tour and his first since August 2013. Woods finished 11-under par for the weekend, two strokes clear of his nearest challenger Billy Horschel.

The New York Mets have been playing the role of spoiler in Los Angeles this week as they took each of the first two games of their three game series against the Dodgers by a score of 4-2. During Monday night’s victory, Mets third baseman Todd Frazier pulled off a pretty incredible catch in the stands…or at least he made it seem like he did.

Andy Appleby, owner of the four-team independent league that plays out of Utica, says he's talking with about 20 cities in seeking a second location.

At Eliud Kipchoge’s training camp in Kenya, where he never misses his turn to clean the toilets or draw water from the nearby well, his fellow athletes call him “the boss man”. And on a pleasant autumn day in Berlin the 33-year-old lived up to that reputation – as well as reinforcing his case to be considered the greatest distance runner of all time – by obliterating the marathon world record. Kipchoge’s time of 2hr 01min 39sec was staggering enough, given it took 78sec off the previous best set by Dennis Kimetto in 2014.

Canadian athletes are not mincing their words when it comes to the World Anti-Doping Agency's decision to reinstate Russia's drug-testing program after a nearly three-year suspension over its widespread, state-sponsored doping scheme.

The Canadian sprinter lost his gold medal 30 years ago this week after a positive test at the lab in Seoul. The Star dug up the results which are filled with bizarre notations. “If I had seen this in Seoul, I would have kept my medal.” “If I had seen this in Seoul, I would have kept my medal,” Johnson says while reading pages from the September 1988 lab report containing his drug-testing results. “If you can’t see the evidence, how can others condemn somebody?”

With his unlikely blast, the Brewers reliever joined obscure players like Tom Lawless, Jim Mason and Kurt Bevacqua, as well as greats like Ozzie Smith and Kirk Gibson.

The true freshman Tua Tagovailoa replaced Alabama’s starting quarterback, Jalen Hurts, at halftime, and led the Crimson Tide past Georgia in a thrilling comeback.

Eagles 41 New England 33

Sportsnet’s Jerry Howarth has announced his retirement, closing out a remarkable 36-year career as the radio broadcaster of the Toronto Blue Jays. With health issues affecting his voice in recent years, Howarth’s personal decision to retire takes effect immediately. “I had every intention of continuing my career into the 2018 season but my health and stamina and continuing voice issues dictated otherwise,” said Howarth.

In a potential effort to combat the surge in home runs, MLB is mandating that each team store balls in an air conditioned and enclosed room for 2018.

After a historic performance at the Olympics, some Norwegians fret that they dominate their favorite sport so much that they are ruining it.

Aaron Judge, the American League Rookie of the Year, will earn $622,300 in the major leagues as part of his one-year contract with the New York Yankees. Judge, who led the AL with 52 home runs, is not eligible for salary arbitration until after the 2019 season. He agreed to a split contract in which his salary would drop to $272,250 in the unlikely event he is sent back to the minors.

The Italian rider launched his Ducati to victory after a last corner attack by Marc Marquez.

Villanova Wildcats guard Donte DiVincenzo holds the national championship trophy with Jalen Brunson after defeating the Michigan Wolverines 79-62 in the championship game of the 2018 men's Final Four.

SOUTH KOREA’S professional basketball league has kicked out a US national because he is deemed “too tall” under new regulations. The Korean Basketball League (KBL) announced last week that as of next season, foreign players can be no taller than 2 metres. The league believes that by imposing height restrictions it will encourage teams to recruit players rather than “just tall ones”, reported The Korea Times.

NEW YORK—Saying that the “antiquated and barbaric procedure” has no place in modern baseball, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced Monday that the league was banning the brutal practice of castrating mascots. “Despite being a long accepted practice among team owners, the MLB executive board has determined that it is unethical and dangerous to perform the invasive act of removing a mascot’s genitals,” said Manfred, responding to public outcry over what many consider to be a cruel surgery, which teams claim makes mascots docile, easy to train, and prevents them from attacking fans.

Thanks to MLB's sabermetrics revolution, the defensive shift has changed the basic principles of the game. So what does the data tell us about baseball's future?

Regulations intended to tame offenses have forced many families of young players to dig deep into their pockets.

Premier League games will be streamed on Amazon from the 2019/20 season after the US tech giant purchased one of the remaining rights packages. Sky Sports and BT Sport will continue to broadcast games after buying the rights to 160 matches for almost £4.5bn earlier this year, but they will do so alongside Amazon, who will show 20 matches per season for an initial three year period.

The Washington Capitals are Stanley Cup champions. Lars Eller scored the game-winning goal at the 12:23 mark of the third period as the Capitals edged the Vegas Golden Knights 4-3 in Game 5 Thursday night to capture their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

For the first time in 2018, the Stanley Cup was in the building. A few hours later, it was in the hands of the Washington Capitals. After a tight first period, the second period featured a combined five goals. This blew things wide open, and the Vegas Golden Knights carried a one-goal lead into the third. Unfortunately for them, the Caps weren’t done; a pair of Washington goals in the third period finished off Vegas’ bid at a championship. Devante-Smith Pelly tied the game, and Lars Eller scored the winner.

In the end Golden State was just too much for every team it came up against, including a most valiant Cleveland squad and its superstar, LeBron James.

A week away from the first games of the World Cup and geopolitical tensions are making their way into the event. American sportswear brand Nike said they would not provide cleats to the Iranian National team this year. The decision followed the Trump administration's plan to reimpose sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation, the company said.

The Texas Rangers’ Game 7 of the 2011 World Series was just another time when the home plate umpire got it wrong, according to the latest episode of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.

The United States reportedly requested results from Russian footballers’ doping tests following a sudden improvement in performance during the World Cup. FIFA vowed rigorous doping tests at the tournament following allegations that Russia ran a state-run doping program in past competitions, a charge Moscow has denied. The World Cup host country started off the competition as the lowest ranked out of 32 teams, and has since won two unexpected victories that ensured their team's advance to the knockout stages.

The Samurai Blue of Japan were eliminated from World Cup play on Monday. But the crushing defeat by Belgium didn't stop the Japanese national team from cleaning their locker room until it was spotless, and leaving behind a note thanking Russia for hosting them. A tweet from sports correspondent Tancredi Palmeri showing Japan's immaculate locker room and a one-word thank you note has gone viral, with more than 12,000 likes and 6,000 retweets as of Tuesday morning. Palmeri noted that the photo was uploaded by a delegate from FIFA, the organization that runs the World Cup.

Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao is a world champion again. Pacquiao defeated Argentine Lucas Matthysse on Sunday to capture the WBA welterweight title in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Pacquiao improved his record to (60-7-2) after stopping his opponent in the seventh round of their fight. Matthysse, suffered his fifth defeat in his prosessional career.

Sebastian Vettel’s former team mate Mark Webber says the Formula 1 world championship leader is prone to cracking in uncertain race situations. Webber said high-profile errors by Vettel such as at Azerbaijan in 2017, when he drove into Lewis Hamilton’s car during a Safety Car period, were examples of his “meltdowns”.

Amateur Ali Gibb enjoyed a trip to the golf course that Tiger Woods could only dream of earlier this week, hitting three holes-in-one on the same day. The 51-year-old managed the incredible feat while successfully defending her championship title at the Croham Hurst Golf Club in Surrey, south of London. She hit her first ace on the par-three fifth hole that morning during the 36-hole tournament, before repeating the trick at the same hole during the afternoon.

Formula One is enjoying a boom in young talent. Drivers such as Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, all in their early 20s and the formative stages of their careers, are poised to become the new stars. Yet it is the oldest man on the grid, Kimi Raikkonen, 38, of Finland, who continues to stand out as one of Formula One’s most interesting drivers, breaking with convention through his character and demeanor.

Andy Murray will face Kevin Anderson in his fourth Queen's Club final after beating Viktor Troicki in the last four.

Some devastating news for World #1 ranked golfer Rory McIlroy. The star golfer was on crutches Monday after he ruptured ligaments in his ankle while playing soccer over the weekend. The injury leaves his status very much in doubt ahead of next week’s British Open; the tournament he won last year.