BASEBALL
Ohtani among awardees
Left-handers Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves and Garrett Crochet of the Chicago White Sox were selected Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Comeback Players of the Year at the All-MLB Awards show in Las Vegas on Thursday. Cleveland right-hander Emmanuel Clase won his second American League Reliever of the Year Award and St. Louis righty Ryan Helsley won the National League honor. Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, the likely National League Most Valuable Player, joined David Ortiz as the only players to win four straight Outstanding Designated Hitter Awards. Ohtani and the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge won Hank Aaron Awards as the outstanding offensive performers in their leagues.
TENNIS
Medvedev knocked out
Italian world No. 1 Jannik Sinner eased past Daniil Medvedev 6-3 6-4 in their final group match on Thursday, and would meet Taylor Fritz in the semi-finals of the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin after the American defeated Alex de Minaur 5-7 6-4 6-3. Sinner gave Russia’s Medvedev, who had to beat him in straight sets to eliminate US Open runner-up Fritz, no chance of reaching the last four after taking an untroubled first set. Medvedev said he needs to “build a better version” of himself after the loss, which ensured the Russian would end the season without a title for the first time since 2017.
TENNIS
Kyrgios to return
Former Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios would return to action at the Brisbane International — a warm-up event for the Australian Open — which runs from Dec. 29 to Jan. 5, organizers said yesterday. The Australian Open runs from Jan. 12 to 26. Australian Kyrgios is also scheduled to play in the Dec. 19 to 22 World Tennis League exhibition event in Abu Dhabi. Kyrgios has played just one singles tour match in the last two years due to knee, foot and wrist injuries.
BOXING
Netflix seeks big hit
A showdown between former boxing heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and social media influencer-turned-fighter Jake Paul today is the latest one-two punch from Netflix, as the media giant hopes to cash in on sports’ sprint to streaming. The intergenerational showdown has all the makings of a crossover hit, with 58-year-old Tyson bringing in the old guard and 27-year-old Paul, who achieved early fame on YouTube, appealing to the younger, screen-toting social media junkies. “The trend in all sports right now is moving some of their properties to streaming,” said Bob Dorfman, a veteran San Francisco-based sports marketing analyst. The mega-event is the sign of a lasting love affair between sport and streaming, said Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS Sports, though he predicts streaming and traditional broadcast will exist side-by-side for the foreseeable future. Amazon Prime picked up Thursday Night Football in 2021 and Major League Soccer signed a 10-year mega-deal with Apple TV in 2022 worth a reported $2.5 billion. Major League Baseball signed a deal with Apple for Friday Night Baseball, a weekly doubleheader, in 2022, as well. Leagues have been gravitating to streaming because it reaches a global audience, including younger viewers, who are not watching traditional television.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
A debate over the soul of soccer is raging in FIFA World Cup holders Argentina, pitting defenders of the social role of the beautiful game against the government of libertarian Argentine President Javier Milei, who wants to turn clubs into for-profit companies. Argentina, which gave the world Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi, is home to some of the world’s most devoted soccer fans — a fact attributed by supporters like Gabriel Nicosia to the clubs’ community outreach. Nicosia is a lifelong supporter of San Lorenzo, a more than 100-year-old first division club based in the working-class Buenos Aires neighborhood of Boedo where
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