
Royals bring 3-game road win streak into game against the Rangers
Kansas City Royals (36-38, fourth in the AL Central) vs. Texas Rangers (36-38, fourth in the AL West)
Arlington, Texas; Thursday, 2:35 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Royals: Michael Wacha (3-6, 3.38 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 60 strikeouts); Rangers: Shawn Armstrong (2-1, 2.90 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 35 strikeouts)
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Royals -135, Rangers +114; over/under is 8 runs
BOTTOM LINE: The Kansas City Royals visit the Texas Rangers looking to continue a three-game road winning streak.
Texas has a 23-15 record in home games and a 36-38 record overall. The Rangers have a 25-10 record in games when they did not give up a home run.
Kansas City has gone 17-19 on the road and 36-38 overall. The Royals have the seventh-ranked team batting average in the AL at .249.
The matchup Thursday is the third time these teams match up this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Josh Smith leads the Rangers with a .292 batting average, and has 11 doubles, a triple, seven home runs, 23 walks and 20 RBIs. Adolis Garcia is 13 for 39 with a home run and eight RBIs over the past 10 games.
Bobby Witt Jr. has 24 doubles, three triples, nine home runs and 39 RBIs for the Royals. Salvador Perez is 11 for 37 with three doubles, four home runs and nine RBIs over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Rangers: 7-3, .284 batting average, 3.26 ERA, outscored opponents by 24 runs
Royals: 3-7, .242 batting average, 4.25 ERA, outscored by 12 runs
INJURIES: Rangers: Josh Smith: day-to-day (hamstring), Tyler Mahle: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Nathan Eovaldi: 15-Day IL (tricep), Joc Pederson: 10-Day IL (hand), Cody Bradford: 60-Day IL (elbow), Jon Gray: 60-Day IL (wrist), Josh Sborz: 60-Day IL (shoulder)
Royals: Cole Ragans: 15-Day IL (rotator cuff), Michael Massey: 10-Day IL (ankle), Hunter Harvey: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Alec Marsh: 60-Day IL (shoulder), James McArthur: 60-Day IL (elbow), Sam Long: 15-Day IL (elbow), Kyle Wright: 15-Day IL (shoulder)
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

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CBS News
26 minutes ago
- CBS News
Millions made available for Florida universities to pay student-athletes
Pointing to a need to avoid a disadvantage in recruiting athletes, Florida university-system leaders Wednesday made up to $22.5 million available for each state university to share revenues with athletes. The system's Board of Governors approved the funding, which will be available annually at that level as a loan or transfer for the next three years. It is designed to help carry out a new revenue-sharing model with athletes under a national legal settlement in a case known as House v. NCAA. Will help put universities into a position to compete for talent It comes amid massive change in college sports, in part because of athletes now being able to cash in through "name, image and likeness" deals. Traditionally, college athletes could not be paid. Board of Governors member Alan Levine said the money approved Wednesday "takes some of the pressure off the donors" now funding name, image and likeness deals and ensures "we put our universities in as advantageous a position as possible to compete." The settlement, approved June 6 by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District of California, in part establishes a 10-year model for NCAA Division I schools to expand rosters and directly pay athletes for their names, images and likenesses. "They're already out there trying to sign contracts with these athletes," Levine said. "And if we don't act, there's a really good chance that our institutions will be severely disadvantaged. I don't think anybody wants that." Spending is capped per school Payments, expected to go primarily to students who play football and men's basketball, would be in addition to currently allowed individual name, image and likeness deals, where money is often raised and distributed through what are known as "collectives" and other organizations tied to schools. Under the settlement, schools that opt in to the plan could spend up to a capped amount on direct payments and roster-expanding scholarships. For the 2025-2026 school year, the cap would be set at $20.5 million per school. Peter Collins, chairman of the Florida State University Board of Trustees, said not every Florida school will reach the cap. "I don't know for sure everybody else around the table, but I know we will, because everybody that we play is spending in the cap," Collins said. The cap is based on calculations involving media, ticket and sponsorship revenue at schools in what are known as the "Power 5" conferences --- the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Southeastern Conference and Pac-12 --- and at Notre Dame. The additional $2 million being offered to schools would cover back-pay of certain athletes who played before name, image and likeness deals became legal in 2021.


New York Times
34 minutes ago
- New York Times
Mykhailo Mudryk's doping charge explained: Can Chelsea sack him if found guilty and could he appeal?
After provisionally suspending Mykhailo Mudryk in December for a failed drugs test, the English Football Association (FA) has now charged the Chelsea winger for violating its anti-doping regulations. This means Mudryk, who has not played a competitive game of football since the end of November, could now face a maximum penalty of a four-year suspension. Advertisement Although the 24-year-old was in Wroclaw, Poland, to watch Chelsea lift the UEFA Conference League on May 28, he is not with the squad for their ongoing involvement in the FIFA Club World Cup, which is taking place in the United States. In statement released on Wednesday afternoon, the FA said: 'We can confirm that Mykhailo Mudryk has been charged with anti-doping rule violations alleging the presence and/or use of a prohibited substance, in terms of regulations 3 and 4 of The FA's Anti-Doping Regulations. As this is an ongoing case, we are not in a position to comment further at this time.' As per the FA's anti-doping regulations, Mudryk now has 20 days to decide whether to accept the finding and whatever punishments follow, or request a hearing with the FA. Although a four-year ban would be the worst-case scenario for Mudryk, a possible suspension could range anywhere from two years to a month, depending on any mitigating factors. Here, we explain the background to his case — some of which appeared in an article previously published in December — and what happens now. In December, it emerged that a routine drugs test found Mudryk to have — in Chelsea's words — 'an adverse finding' in a urine sample provided by the player. This immediately led to a provisional suspension from Chelsea's first team as they awaited the results of further testing. When urine samples are collected, they are put into two separate containers. The A sample is used for the initial test, and if that comes back positive, they then test the B sample to verify the accuracy of the first result. So, following Mudryk's positive A sample, his B sample was then tested, which verified that he had tested positive for meldonium, a banned substance. The Athletic previously reported that Mudryk returned the positive test for meldonium after being away on international duty in November during a period that saw him feature in Ukraine's Nations League fixtures against Georgia and Albania. Before his positive test became public knowledge, Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca was asked about Mudryk's absence and simply said he is 'out', or that he was ill, without giving any further reason. Advertisement Neither Mudryk or Chelsea have spoken publicly since the FA announced its decision to charge him on Wednesday. In December, the club issued a statement saying that Mudryk 'has confirmed categorically that he has never knowingly used any banned substances'. In the same statement, the player said: 'This has come as a complete shock as I have never knowingly used any banned substances or broken any rules, and am working closely with my team to investigate how this could have happened.' If the charge is upheld, the player's options would be limited. 'If a ban is imposed, he will have the option to try to reduce the length of the ban by appealing the sanction,' says Dan Chapman, a partner and head of employment and sports law at Leathes Prior. Chapman notes that any appeal by Mudryk would be to the FA, though his legal team may also explore whether they can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS), which is where Paul Pogba had his four-year ban reduced to 18 months. Chapman says that the 'domestic process is reasonably speedy', both in terms of possible sanctions and any appeal. 'Appeals to the European system are complex, even if available, and will take some while,' he adds. 'The thing with Pogba was that he was of an age where the sanction was career-ending and challenging the ban was his only play. If Mudryk feels that he no realistic prospect of overturning any ban, the situation could change. 'Depending on how long the ban is for,' Chapman continues, 'the advice might be that once the FA process has been concluded, he will need to accept the outcome and that he will still have plenty of time to play after the ban ends.' If the FA finds against Mudryk then, unlike the player, Chelsea would have several options. In the standard Premier League contracts that are in place between all players and clubs, there is a definition of gross misconduct, and being found to have taken a prohibited substance falls under the definition, as it does in accordance with FA rules. Advertisement 'The club, on the face of it, would have a relatively open-and-shut case to say the player is guilty of gross misconduct and, if they wanted to, they could terminate the player's contract,' Chapman says. 'They would need to give 14 days' notice to the player in writing if that is what they wanted to do. 'There is an appeal process available to the player, and we are not talking about an appeal against the drugs finding, but an appeal against the decision of the club to terminate his contract for gross misconduct. 'The player can follow that process, although it is hard to see how any appeal could realistically be successful, if the FA allegations have been upheld.' When Mudryk joined Chelsea in January 2023, he signed an eight-and-a-half-year contract, the last year of which is optional, meaning he could be tied to the club for another six years. But Mudryk would not have the remainder of his contract paid out if he is sacked for gross misconduct. Chelsea would only need to pay him for the 14 days. Another option open to Chelsea, Chapman explains, is that they may decide to keep Mudryk, given his age, potential and remaining contract length. In this scenario, the Premier League side may seek to renegotiate the Ukrainian's contract and put him on a significantly lower wage while he serves the ban. It would still be up to Mudryk, however, to sign a new deal on reduced terms. He may instead fancy his chances as a free agent if the alternative to that is being sacked by the club. If Chelsea opt to sack Mudryk, then Chapman says they could in theory also sue him for damages, which is what they successfully did when they sacked Adrian Mutu in 2004 after he tested positive for cocaine and was handed a seven-month ban. 'That is a very rare step, but that is an option open to them,' adds Chapman. 'They would argue they bought an asset for £80million, he breached the contract, and now the asset is worth virtually nothing. Advertisement 'Not many clubs would ever want to do that because the message you are sending future players is that if you sign for us and things go wrong, then we may sue you. This doesn't tend to happen, but it can. The signs so far, and who knows whether this is a justified position not being privy to the facts, is that Chelsea are being fully supportive of their player.' A prohibited substance, in short. Meldonium is a heart disease drug developed in 1970 in the former Soviet Union. It is designed to combat ischemia, a condition where blood flow is restricted to body tissue, muscles or organs. It boosts metabolism and increases blood flow and, by extension, the exercise capacity of athletes. It was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)'s list of banned substances in January 2016 after its previous inclusion in the agency's monitoring programme the year before. Former Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova had been the most high-profile case of an athlete being banned for using meldonium. A failed drugs test at the 2016 Australian Open led to a two-year ban issued by the International Tennis Federation, with Sharapova accepting she had made 'a huge mistake' in taking the substance. Sharapova told a news conference in Los Angeles she had been given a medicine for 10 years by her family doctor and had been unaware that it had also been known as meldonium, which had been added to WADA's prohibited list in the weeks before her failed test. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) reduced Sharapova's ban to 15 months in October 2016 after finding that she did not deliberately cheat and that there was no 'significant fault or negligence on her part'. The use of meldonium was not uncommon by Eastern European athletes before its ban, but it was the subject of a doping scandal in 2016 when the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia replaced its under-18s squad with an under-17s team at the World Under-18s Championships due to several players returning positive test results. Philip Buckingham Adverse findings are few and far between and, most commonly, have been due to traces of recreational drugs being discovered. Mutu, goalkeeper Mark Bosnich and one-time England midfielder Jake Livermore were all given suspensions by the FA for testing positive for traces of cocaine, as was the Cardiff winger Nathaniel Mendez-Laing more recently, in 2020. Advertisement Further afield, the use of performance-enhancing drugs is rare but not without precedent. In February, Pogba was banned for four years when found to have taken a doping agent while at Juventus, a suspension that was later reduced to 18 months when an appeal to CAS found the consumption of the drug had not been intentional. He is still without a club. In February 2021, Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana, then playing for Ajax, was banned for a year by UEFA after testing positive for furosemide, a diuretic. That was reduced to nine months by CAS after the court accepted Onana's explanation that he had confused the medication — which he said belonged to his wife — with aspirin. On November 4, Oscar Zambrano, the Hull City midfielder, was also given a lengthy ban. Zambrano had returned a positive test last season when playing for his Ecuadorian parent club LDU Quito but had remained eligible to feature until CONMEBOL issued a ban for breaching anti-doping rules. Hull, who had only signed the player on loan, said Zambrano intended to appeal through CAS but the case is not yet listed. Philip Buckingham Doping bans ordinarily fall between two and four years, although appeals can reduce the length of those bans, as was seen in the case of Pogba. 'If we look at what happened with Paul Pogba, his violation and the consequences that followed, that was a lengthy ban,' says Jibreel Tramboo, a sports lawyer at Church Court Chambers. 'I understand the circumstances are different but the point still follows. 'Anti-doping regulations are a strict liability offence. Athletes are fully responsible for substances found in their bodies. It's irrelevant if it's accidental or intentional. If it's there, it's a breach. You could argue a reduced sanction if he can demonstrate no significant fault or negligence in what he's taken but there is arguably no defence.' Philip Buckingham


Forbes
38 minutes ago
- Forbes
WFA Primed To Expand To Franchise Model, Bringing Women's Football To Canada
Women's Football Alliance (WFA) started in 2009 by now commissioner Lisa King and her husband, but in 2026 will be expanding to new heights as the league moves to a franchise model with new investors and owners including teams in Canada. The league has come quite far in its short 17 year history with King at the helm. Currently, the WFA holds three divisions: Pro, Division II and Division III. The league has expanded internationally, has a youth emphasis, as well as into flag football which has increased in popularity in the United States for women and girls. Accordingly, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) reported that in 2023 roughly 500,000 girls played flag football across the US with nine states sanctioning it as a varsity girls sport and 19 more in the process of piloting or moving it towards that goal. With the addition of flag football to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, its traction will continue to increase. Following many of the trends of other major women's sports, WFA has seen increased attention and viewership due to their partnership with ESPN. WFA games began on ESPN3 but due to their demand were moved to ESPN2. In 2023 and 2024 the WFA Pro Championship outpaced the viewership of the 2019 NWSL Finals, also held on ESPN2. King sees this as a significant marker as the NWSL is ahead of the WFA in terms of their timeline and investment, but she is encouraged by the audience WFA is drawing when their games are broadcasted on TV. She said, 'Our 2024 National Championship had 25% more viewership on ESPN2 than the National Women's Soccer League National Championship did on their ESPN2 broadcast in 2019, so that's three, four years later. So in my mind, we're about four years behind these other major women's sports leagues. because our viewership numbers are bigger than theirs were four years ago.' Similar to other women's sports leagues, the WFA has had to diversify its broadcasting offerings, outside of their multi-year deal with ESPN. Recently, the WFA has signed a deal with All Women's Sports Network (AWSN) which includes Pluto---extending their reach and audience further. Beyond traditional media and television exposure, the league smartly invested in quality cameras to capture highlights of their own to post to their social pages and have seen it pay off in their social media impressions and conversations about the league online, a staple of organic growth in women's sports---creating buzz and an online community and presence. According to WFA President Terry Smith, the inspiration behind the hit AppleTV show Ted Lasso, 'I think that was an area [capturing highlights] that has really helped us to grow and develop this year. All the highlights, cameras, and footage that we have been able to get out, but also our own shows like Road to the Championship and other content like that has had huge amounts of impact. And if you go back to ESPN in the early days when they had all the highlights, what separated them was the short clips, the highlight clips. That is what we really created with the league and highlights, that has been such an important element to open doors for us.' The league also has a multitude of partnerships that have helped elevate the teams and players including Wilson, AdeNation hydration drink, cellhelmet, edX, educational platform, and most notably in regards to their championships, Visit Canton and Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. WFA signed a five year deal with Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium to host their National Championships for all three divisions, as well as flag football. This year these championships will take place July 25 and July 26. The WFA and its front office core of King and Smith believe now is the right time to expand into a franchise model and capitalize on the momentum and boom of women's sports. Smith said, 'We are moving forward with the sale of expansion franchises because with the tremendous growth that is occurring in women's sports, then the WFA is the greatest investment opportunity available for people who want to own a professional team in any women's or men's sport.' He continued with a comparison to the NWSL and how its astronomical growth in a short time can demonstrate to investors the impact and earning potential of women's sports teams, 'Eight years ago, the NWSL had only four teams in their league that were charging $2 million for a franchise. Today, the average NWSL team is worth $134 million, and individual teams are worth up to $280 million.' The numbers in women's sports demonstrate this massive increase in business opportunities and ventures for savvy investors and owners. Recently, Forbes released its evaluation of NWSL and WNBA teams. The average of the WNBA's 12 team league (before the addition of the Golden State Valkyries) was $272 million with the New York Liberty ($400M) and Indiana Fever ($370M) taking the top two spots. King also echoed that this is not only a moment in time for women's sports but for the WFA, "We feel that our pro teams are now at a place where they're going to continue getting more viewership, they're getting more sponsorship dollars, they're getting more people in the stands. They're getting more network deals. And so with our growth right now, it is at a place where we set a solid foundation, and the teams are playing at such a high level that it's a natural transition into becoming a professional league and paying our players. Well now we're at a level where we're sellable. It's marketable. People are paying to watch it. You know, sponsors are coming in and paying to have sponsorship dollars, and so now they can invest in the league, and we can share in the growth, we can share in the profit, and we can continue to grow together, rather than it being membership teams. As for the evaluation of WFA teams, Smith asserted, "The WFA is the only major women's or men's sport remaining that is still poised to experience this explosive franchise value growth. Therefore, we expect our current $2 million franchise fee to increase in value just as rapidly.' As the WFA looks beyond the US for its growth and franchise model they have partnered with Cosmos Sports & Entertainment, a sports-marketing firm based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada to search for ownership groups in Canada for teams to play in the league's pro division starting next season. According to Smith, 'About a week and a half ago, we signed an agreement in Canada where we have begun selling expansion franchises and creating an entire 6-8 team Canadian Division in the WFA.' Follow me for more women's sports content on X, LinkedIn, and Instagram.