1+ hour, 44+ min ago (791+ words) Shohei Ohtani will once again represent Team Japan in next year's World Baseball Classic. Whether or not he pitches in the international tournament, however, remains unclear. On Monday, Ohtani announced on Instagram he is planning to participate in the WBC for the second time in his career. In the 2023 WBC, he won tournament MVP with a .435 batting average and 1.86 pitching ERA, helping Japan to that year's title. He punctuated the event with his memorable strikeout of Mike Trout for the final out in the championship game. The baseballs turned into fast cash for two Blue Jays fans and one Dodgers fan who secured their possession through good fortune and quick thinking. "I'm happy to play again representing Japan," Ohtani wrote in Japanese on Monday. The question now is whether Ohtani will pitch in the event, which takes place in March,…...

1+ hour, 44+ min ago (791+ words) Shohei Ohtani will once again represent Team Japan in next year's World Baseball Classic. Whether or not he pitches in the international tournament, however, remains unclear. On Monday, Ohtani announced on Instagram he is planning to participate in the WBC for the second time in his career. In the 2023 WBC, he won tournament MVP with a .435 batting average and 1.86 pitching ERA, helping Japan to that year's title. He punctuated the event with his memorable strikeout of Mike Trout for the final out in the championship game. The baseballs turned into fast cash for two Blue Jays fans and one Dodgers fan who secured their possession through good fortune and quick thinking. "I'm happy to play again representing Japan," Ohtani wrote in Japanese on Monday. The question now is whether Ohtani will pitch in the event, which takes place in March,…...

17+ hour, 26+ min ago (735+ words) Legendary graffiti artist Daniel "Chaka" Ramos once claimed he had tagged more than 40,000 locations around Los Angeles. He can now add seven more. And unlike decades ago " when Ramos had to sneak around in darkness to spray-paint his nickname in large, block letters all over the city and surrounding areas " this time it was fully permissible. Earlier this month, Nike recruited Ramos to add his signature style to seven murals celebrating the Dodgers" back-to-back World Series titles, which the team clinched Nov. 1 with a dramatic Game 7 victory against the Toronto Blue Jays. Ramos, an L.A. native and Dodgers fan, was more than happy to participate, adding his name and slogans crafted by Nike to each piece. He told The Times in an email that it was his "first major project with a corporate giant like Nike." "They"re one of the…...

2+ day, 1+ hour ago (655+ words) Talk about easing the blow. The Canadian father-son duo that secured not one, but both home run balls that doomed the Toronto Blue Jays team they root for in Game 7 of the World Series turned the evidence into some serious U.S. currency Saturday night. Dodgers fans will never forget those baseballs hit by Miguel Rojas in the ninth inning and Will Smith in the 11th flying over the left-field wall and into the first row of seats beyond the Blue Jays" bullpen. John and Matthew Bains " sitting side-by-side " will never forget the balls ending up in their hands. John, 61, caught Rojas" 387-foot home run in his glove on the fly. Two innings later, Matthew, seated next to his dad, saw Smith"s blast land in the bullpen and bounce directly into his hands. Novices they were not. John has been a Blue…...

2+ day, 6+ hour ago (655+ words) Talk about easing the blow. The Canadian father-son duo that secured not one, but both home run balls that doomed the Toronto Blue Jays team they root for in Game 7 of the World Series turned the evidence into some serious U.S. currency Saturday night. Dodgers fans will never forget those baseballs hit by Miguel Rojas in the ninth inning and Will Smith in the 11th flying over the left-field wall and into the first row of seats beyond the Blue Jays" bullpen. John and Matthew Bains " sitting side-by-side " will never forget the balls ending up in their hands. John, 61, caught Rojas" 387-foot home run in his glove on the fly. Two innings later, Matthew, seated next to his dad, saw Smith"s blast land in the bullpen and bounce directly into his hands. Novices they were not. John has been a Blue…...

2+ day, 21+ hour ago (666+ words) The streak is over. Crenshaw relied on tenacious defense and an efficient passing attack to end Birmingham's 55-game winning streak against City Section teams and earn a spot in next week's Open Division championship game with its gritty 12-7 semifinal victory Friday night in Lake Balboa. "It's all about heart " I thank my O-line and my defense " they dominated," said junior quarterback Danniel Flowers, who played with a fiberglass cast on his left hand to protect a broken wrist he suffered Oct. 10 in a 32-0 shutout of Washington Prep. "We came in here with a lot of confidence and all I did was read the zone and throw it right behind where the defender left." The sixth-seeded Cougars (10-1) have reeled off eight consecutive wins since a 23-6 defeat to Hamilton on Sept. 5, and their latest triumph counts as the 300th for longtime coach Robert…...

3+ day, 5+ hour ago (648+ words) Ahead of his final season under club control, and with his 2026 salary expected to top more than $6 million through arbitration, reliever Evan Phillips was not tendered a contract for next year by the Dodgers on Friday, but president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said the team is still interested in re-signing him as he recovers from Tommy John surgery. Friday's decision " which will make Phillips a free agent " reflects the uncertainty around the pitcher's status for next season, following the Tommy John procedure he had last June. Farhan Zaidi and Andrew Friedman, who helped build the Dodgers into World Series champions, will be working with the Lakers' Rob Pelinka to do the same for his team. Phillips' recovery process is expected to stretch at least into the early part of next year. How much he will be able to pitch…...

4+ day, 6+ hour ago (642+ words) The Lakers confirmed that Joey and Jesse Buss, who both had been executives with the team, are no longer with the franchise. The announcement was made Thursday in a move many figured would come later with changes to the Lakers" basketball operations department after Mark Walter became the majority owner. The sale was at a $10-billion valuation and was approved by the NBA board of governors in October. According to a person not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, everything with the Lakers is being evaluated and that included firing scouts on Thursday. It was felt that starting the process now was the best course of action to take, according to one person who spoke on condition of anonymity, rather than wait. Joey Buss was an alternate governor and vice president of research and development with the Lakers while…...

4+ day, 14+ hour ago (897+ words) When spring training rolls around, it will be one dozen years since the Angels last appeared in a postseason game and two dozen years since they won their first and only World Series championship. If baseball were scripted, two of the Angels" World Series heroes would take charge of the team and make it a winner again. As it turns out, two of those champions are taking charge of a team next year. Not the Angels, though. Troy Percival has been hired to manage the new Long Beach team in the independent Pioneer League. Percival, the closer who recorded the final out in the 2002 World Series, said his hitting coach would be Troy Glaus, the 2002 World Series most valuable player. "I made sure that he could hit fungoes," Percival said, "because I can"t." The Angels send Taylor Ward, who hit…...

5+ day, 6+ hour ago (626+ words) After walking away from its TV rights deal with Major League Baseball earlier this year, ESPN has a new package that will provide additional games for its streaming customers. The deal announced Wednesday by the league will also return baseball to NBC and bring three MLB events " an opening night game, the Home Run Derby and the Field of Dreams game " to Netflix for the first time. As part of the deal, ESPN will integrate the league's streaming platform MLB.TV into its recently launched direct-to-consumer service that provides the sports channels to consumers with or without a cable subscription. MLB.TV provides local telecasts of out-of-market games to consumers. In the 2026 season, new customers will now be able to purchase the service as part of an ESPN subscription. Pricing has not yet been set for the combined services. ESPN…...