By C. Trent Rosecrans, Stephen J. Nesbitt and Sam Blum One night earlier this summer at Kauffman Stadium, Bobby Witt Jr. came to bat in the ninth inning with one on, one out and his Kansas City Royals down a run. Then he roped a game-tying triple for his third hit of the game, raced…

Keith Fletcher will never forget the moment he saw a six-year-old Cole Palmer with a ball at his feet and realised, very quickly, he might be watching something special. It was a Saturday morning on the pitches where NJ Wythenshawe used to play in Manchester, and the boy in question was wearing an oversized shirt…

Mike Greenberg will be the new host of “Sunday NFL Countdown” as ESPN sets up its lineup for its first Super Bowl in 2027, a source briefed on the matter told The Athletic on Tuesday. Greenberg replaces Sam Ponder who was fired last week with one-year and more than a million dollars left on her…

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — In late June, the quietest time on the NFL calendar, Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach started receiving text message after text message while on a family vacation. Questions raced through his mind. Was there breaking NFL news? Did a member of the Chiefs organization need his attention? Did something…

Richard and Kathy Verlander promised their son a sports car if he earned a college scholarship. So, in the fall of 2002, a gangly goofball from Goochland, Va., drove onto the campus at Old Dominion University in a black Mustang.  Three months earlier, the Pittsburgh Pirates pondered picking Justin Verlander in the Major League Baseball…

Editor’s note: This article is part of the College Football Playoff Prospectus, previewing and predicting the top CFP contenders and Power 4 conferences for the upcoming season. COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jack Sawyer was the first recruit to commit to Ohio State in the first class Ryan Day put together from scratch as head coach. The five-star defensive…

The Seattle Storm and forward Gabby Williams agreed to a rest-of-season contract, the team announced Tuesday. The deal comes after Williams led the French national team in points (15.5) and assists (2.3) en route to earning a silver medal at the Paris Olympics and nearly defeating the Americans. Williams, 27, played a career-low 10 games…

Jannik Sinner, the men’s tennis world No 1, has received an anti-doping sanction after twice testing positive for a banned substance. An independent tribunal has ruled that Sinner bears “no fault or negligence” for both positive tests, but Sinner has been stripped of his ranking points, prize money, and results from the BNP Paribas Open…

It’s off and running: Premier League season 33 has kicked into action and should the title race goes the distance, nine months and one week from now we will know if, on the banks of the Thames at Fulham, Manchester City have confirmed a fifth consecutive triumph or, at Southampton, if Arsenal have become champions…

At a recent celebration, members of SLAM magazine’s staff, past and present over the last 30-plus years, couldn’t believe it. The Hall of Fame. Really? SLAM in the Hall of Fame? Founder Dennis Page and the publication were honored by the James Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with the Curt Gowdy Transformative Media Award…