Pastora Blanca

NHL 2024-25 season predictions: Stanley Cup winner, playoff teams, dark horse and more

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NHL 2024-25 season predictions: Stanley Cup winner, playoff teams, dark horse and more

Can the Florida Panthers repeat as Stanley Cup champions or is it the Edmonton Oilers’ turn to go from runners-up to No. 1? What will happen in the Eastern Conference wild-card race? After kicking off The Athletic NHL staff’s season predictions Thursday with individual awards, today we look at team expectations. Who makes the playoffs? […]

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With the Astros out of the picture, the Yankees must seize their moment

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With the Astros out of the picture, the Yankees must seize their moment

In difficult times during the regular season, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone often remarked that the team’s path to the playoffs remained wide open, saying, “it’s right in front of us.” The same can now be said of the American League title. After 14 years of wandering through the October desert, the Yankees have

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For Michael Jordan, it got personal, and now NASCAR could be forever changed

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For Michael Jordan, it got personal, and now NASCAR could be forever changed

In “The Last Dance,” ESPN’s documentary on the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan never actually said “And I took that personally.” That line is the stuff of memes, but Jordan did not utter it. What Jordan really said was this: “It became personal with me.” Maybe it’s a small difference, but the actual quote packs

For Michael Jordan, it got personal, and now NASCAR could be forever changed Read More »

Examining the Mets’ late-game bullpen decisions in loss that forces decisive Game 3

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Examining the Mets’ late-game bullpen decisions in loss that forces decisive Game 3

MILWAUKEE — As the New York Mets pinballed between the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers over the past week, they’d banished any thoughts of fatigue. The adrenaline of their postseason push, the momentum of their late-season magic, could carry them deeper into October. Late Wednesday, six outs away from their first postseason series win in

Examining the Mets’ late-game bullpen decisions in loss that forces decisive Game 3 Read More »

Why does MLB’s early playoff slate feature so many day games? ‘Numbers don’t lie’

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Why does MLB’s early playoff slate feature so many day games? ‘Numbers don’t lie’

What’s with all the daytime playoff games? Sentimentalists longing for bygone eras of Major League Baseball love them, sure. But for fans who reside on the West Coast, the first playoff game on Tuesday is pretty early: Game 2 in the Wild Card round between the Detroit Tigers and the Houston Astros is scheduled for

Why does MLB’s early playoff slate feature so many day games? ‘Numbers don’t lie’ Read More »

Orioles, Royals and … Babe Ruth? Astros 103, Tigers 0? Mets’ ‘Win Improbability’: MLB playoffs Day 1

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Orioles, Royals and … Babe Ruth? Astros 103, Tigers 0? Mets’ ‘Win Improbability’: MLB playoffs Day 1

You think it’s easy watching four postseason baseball games in one day so you don’t have to? You think it’s no big deal to stay laser focused when three of those games are going on at the same time and also … the bases are loaded in the ninth in one of them? You think the human

Orioles, Royals and … Babe Ruth? Astros 103, Tigers 0? Mets’ ‘Win Improbability’: MLB playoffs Day 1 Read More »

Inside the fight to bring DI women’s hockey to Michigan: ‘Women belong on the same ice’

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Inside the fight to bring DI women’s hockey to Michigan: ‘Women belong on the same ice’

Denise Ilitch was tired of being told no. For the last few years, she had been championing the idea of varsity women’s hockey to the University of Michigan administration. Because while the school is known as a men’s hockey powerhouse — with nine national championships, the second most all-time — Michigan has never iced a

Inside the fight to bring DI women’s hockey to Michigan: ‘Women belong on the same ice’ Read More »

WNBA players say the troubling side of its rise is racism and threats

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WNBA players say the troubling side of its rise is racism and threats

As the WNBA has reached wildly successful highs this season in viewership and attendance, players say the boom long coveted throughout women’s basketball has come with unfortunate consequences. During these playoffs, athletes who would normally be focused on winning have instead shared a swell of complaints of being targeted with racist, misogynistic, homophobic and threatening

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Reflections on Pete Rose, the Hall of Fame and the spot where his plaque will never hang

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Reflections on Pete Rose, the Hall of Fame and the spot where his plaque will never hang

I know exactly where Pete Rose’s Hall of Fame plaque should have been hanging — for the past three decades. You’d have found it in the middle of a powerhouse cluster in the plaque gallery — nestled in between the plaques of Tom Seaver and Reggie Jackson. Among others. Thousands of baseball fans would have

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Why the WADA appeal into Jannik Sinner doping case cuts to the heart of anti-doping priorities

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Why the WADA appeal into Jannik Sinner doping case cuts to the heart of anti-doping priorities

At the heart of the doping case against Jannik Sinner, the top-ranked men’s tennis player in the world, is an existential debate about the policing of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in sport. Are the primary goals to catch cheats and prevent athletes from gaining unfair advantages over their peers? What happens when the enforcers of the

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