Category: Sports

DALLAS (AP) — Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice was sentenced to 30 days in jail on Thursday after authorities said he and another speeding driver caused a chain-reaction crash that left multiple people injured on a Dallas highway last year.

The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office said Rice pleaded guilty to two third-degree felony charges of collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway causing bodily injury in the March 30, 2024, crash. As part of a plea agreement, Rice was sentenced to five years of deferred probation and 30 days in jail as a condition of his probation, prosecutors said.

The judge will allow Rice, 25, to find a time or times to serve the jail sentence, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said.

Prosecutors said he was also required to pay the victims for their out-of-pocket medical expenses, which totaled about $115,000.

Rice was driving a Lamborghini Urus SUV at 119 mph (191 kph) when he made “multiple aggressive maneuvers around traffic” and struck other vehicles, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said that after the crash on North Central Expressway, Rice failed to check on the welfare of those in the other vehicles and fled on foot.

The news release from prosecutors included a statement from Rice that was released by his attorney. Rice said in the statement that he’s had “a lot of sleepless nights thinking about the damages that my actions caused, and I will continue working within my means to make sure that everyone impacted will be made whole.”

“I am profoundly sorry for the physical damages to person and property,” Rice said in the statement. “I fully apologize for the harm I caused to innocent drivers and their families.”

Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s vice president of communication, said in a statement, “We have been closely monitoring all developments in the matter which remains under review.”

The Chiefs said Thursday that they did not have a comment.

Rice was leasing the Lamborghini that police said was speeding along with a Corvette when the crash occurred. Rice’s attorney has said that the Corvette belonged to Rice. The driver of the Corvette, who police said also left the scene, was also charged in the crash. The status of that case was not immediately clear on Thursday.

Rice, a member of the Super Bowl-winning Chiefs team, is from the Dallas area. He played for SMU in Dallas and grew up in the Fort Worth suburb of North Richland Hills. Rice was selected by the Chiefs in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft and has caught nine touchdowns in his two seasons with Kansas City.

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AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta contributed to this report from Kansas City, Missouri.

Bryan Braman, a key special teams player for the Philadelphia Eagles’ first Super Bowl championship team, has died from a rare and aggressive form of cancer. He was 38.

Braman was diagnosed earlier this year and had multiple surgeries in recent months in an attempt to treat the illness. He died Thursday morning, according to a statement issued by the team.

“We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Bryan Braman,” the team said. “During his four seasons in Philadelphia, Bryan was a loyal teammate, a supporter of the community, and a valuable member of our Super Bowl LII-winning team. More importantly, he was a devoted father who passionately loved his family and everyone around him. We extend our deepest condolences to Bryan’s family and all who are grieving his loss during this difficult time.”

Signed as an undrafted free agent by the Texans in 2011, Braman played seven seasons in the NFL. He spent his first three in Houston and last four in Philadelphia. The Eagles beat the Patriots 41-33 to win the franchise’s first Super Bowl in Braman’s final game on Feb. 4, 2018. He gave a fiery speech in the locker room before that game.

Braman had 56 tackles, 1 1/2 sacks and two fumble recoveries in 97 career games.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (AP) — The oldest major championship has taken a step into the modern world by using a technological feature that British Open organizers hope will bring to life one of the most storied walks in golf.

Spidercam — that’s a camera, not a superhero — was used in golf for the first time at Royal Portrush on Thursday. It’s a camera suspended above the 18th green using four pylons about 25 meters high, giving TV viewers unique views of the closing hole and its undulations.

Held in a resting position high to the back of the green for approach shots, Spidercam swoops down as the players make their walk to the green and hovers just above them as they make their putts.

“It’s pretty cool the way it can move and do all those swings,” said Northern Irish golfer Tom McKibbin, who went out at 6:35 a.m. local time in the first group of the day with Nicolai Hojgaard and Padraig Harrington.

They were the first players to experience in competition the technology which reportedly cost the R&A 300,000 pounds ($400,000) to install.

“It was a little bit different,” McKibbin said. “I’d never seen it before.”

That’s because the R&A is using the technology before any of the professional tours in golf.

Spidercam has, though, operated widely in TV coverage of other major sports including soccer, rugby and cricket — and has occasionally gotten in the way.

In 2017, India star MS Dhoni hit a shot in a cricket match against England that smashed into the hovering camera and broke it.

In 2022, South Africa cricketer Anrich Nortje was knocked to the ground when he collided with a low-swinging Spidercam as he walked to his place in the field in a test against Australia. The camera operator responsible was stood down for the remainder of the match.

“I didn’t know what hit me,” Nortje said at the time. “I don’t think it should be traveling at head height.”

At Royal Portrush, Spidercam will complement existing technology such as a plane camera, aerial drones and bunker cameras to enhance TV coverage.

According to the Guardian newspaper, players were briefed last week about plans to use Spidercam at Royal Portrush and there were no complaints despite the potential for getting distracted while preparing to make a shot.

As Hojgaard and Harrington walked alongside each other to the 18th green, Spidercam swung down and over them. As Harrington made his two putts, the camera almost circled him.

Hojgaard said he didn’t notice Spidercam.

With Royal Portrush not having a clubhouse on the 18th green, there has been space to install the technology. Other venues on the Open rotation won’t have that luxury, notably Royal Lytham St. Anne’s, Royal Troon and Hoylake.

Next year’s Open is at Royal Birkdale, which has its clubhouse near the 18th green but should still have room for the Spidercam technology.

“We … believe that Spidercam will bring millions of fans a new perspective of the action from Royal Portrush,” said Neil Armit, chief commercial officer at the R&A, “with incredible detail and accessibility wherever they are in the world.”

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

MONACO (AP) — Women’s marathon world record-holder Ruth Chepngetich was provisionally suspended for a positive doping test on Thursday.

Track and field’s Athletics Integrity Unit said Chepngetich tested positive for a banned diuretic and masking agent in March and “opted for a voluntary provisional suspension while the AIU’s investigation was ongoing.”

The Kenyan runner set the world record by almost two minutes at the Chicago Marathon last October in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 56 seconds. It was her third win in Chicago.

She also won the marathon at the 2019 world championships in Qatar, where the women’s race started at midnight to avoid extreme daytime heat.

The AIU gave no timetable for a disciplinary case for the 30-year-old runner.

Chepngetich was interviewed in person in Kenya in April and “complied with requests regarding our investigation,” AIU official Brett Clothier said in a statement.

The substance Chepngetich tested positive for, hydrochlorothiazide or HCTZ, can be used to disguise the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (AP) — Phil Mickelson delivered more magic Thursday in the British Open, leaving one shot in a bunker and holing the next one from 75 feet away for an unlikely par. He tipped his cap. He gave a thumbs-up to the crowd.

It looked like the Mickelson of old, especially with all that gray stubble in his beard.

Mickelson, who opened with a 1-under 70 at Royal Portrush, already holds the major championship record for oldest winner, capturing the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island when he was 50.

Now he’s at the oldest championship in golf, the one that least discriminates against age. The Open is where 53-year-old Greg Norman had the lead going into the final round at Royal Birkdale in 2008, and more famously where 59-year-old Tom Watson was an 8-foot putt away from winning at Turnberry in 2009.

“The Open gives the older gentlemen a chance to win more than any other tournament,” 52-year-old Lee Westwood said after a day in which he was tied for the lead early in the round until a few bogeys dropped him back to a 69.

Westwood is playing the British Open for the first time since he joined Saudi-funded LIV Golf in 2022, going through final regional qualifying three weeks ago to earn a spot in the field.

He has yet to win in LIV Golf and his results would suggest he is riding out the rest of his career. And then he showed up at the major he first played in 1995 — Scottie Scheffler was not even born then — and found some form.

Links golf helps.

“There’s not the premium on carrying traps. They don’t make it unplayable for us older guys with length,” Westwood said. “You can use your experience, guile and cunning on them.”

Westwood tripped over his words on the Sky Sports interview and then added, “Not easy to say, but easy to use at our age.”

Mickelson, who has not won since that historic day at Kiawah Island, had missed the cut in all three majors this year. At age 55, he still has six more years playing the British Open as a champion at Muirfield in 2013.

He started strong with a deft touch with his wedge to easy birdie range on the par-5 second, but the real Lefty showed up on the next hole when he put his tee shot into a bunker, plugged and not far from the steep lip.

The first attempt barely got out, rolling on the edge of grass before tumbling back into the bunker. It looked like a bogey at best. But then he splashed out, carrying it some 25 yards and about 10 feet to the left, and the shot had enough side spin to drop into the cup.

He raised both arms. Mickelson loves moments like these, and he’s had plenty of them.

“That was a crazy one,” Mickelson said. “It was really one of maybe two poor shots I hit, that bunker shot that buried in the lip. And then to make it was obviously a lot of luck. I was just trying to save bogey, and I got lucky it went in.”

And then his name stayed on the leaderboard the rest of the morning — a birdie on the par-5 seventh, a couple of bogeys on the back nine, a 20-foot birdie on the 17th hole.

Mickelson had gone 21 consecutive rounds in a major without breaking par until Thursday in the British Open. Sure, he had the advantage of missing the rain for all but the last couple of holes. But it was good golf. It’s still there.

“I played really well, and I had an opportunity,” he said. “I really enjoy playing these conditions and playing this tournament. It’s just a lot of fun.”

Not all of the 50-and-older gang had the best of times.

Padraig Harrington, coming off his win in the U.S. Senior Open, had the honor and thrill of hitting the opening tee shot. He made birdie on the first hole. That was the highlight on his card when he signed for a 74.

“I got a little emotional when I was clapped on, and then I calmed down, and I was kind of fine when I was hitting it,” Harrington said.

He three-putted two straight holes and had a lost ball on No. 10. It was an otherwise forgettable day, except for the unforgettable start of hitting the first shot.

“Yeah, it was a tough day on the greens, and it just ate into my game,” he said. “Might have been a little bit of the fact that I was hyped up for the first tee box. Who knows? Certainly felt like I played better, could have played better, should have played better.”

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — When the running gets hard in this desert dubbed “hell on Earth,” Danny Westergaard tells himself: “Slow and steady” or “smooth as butter.”

For 18 years, Westergaard, 66, has braved the scorching summer heat of California’s Death Valley in an ultramarathon billed as the world’s toughest. Last week, 99 runners from across the globe embarked on a grueling 135 mile (217.26 kilometer) competition from the lowest point below sea level of North America to the trailhead of the highest peak in the contiguous U.S. They had 48 hours to do it. Few have completed the competition as many times as Westergaard, a retired aerospace project manager, though finishing is not a given.

“It’s just become like a summer ritual and a family reunion,” he said. “I feel at home when I’m here. It’s my tribe.”

For the 37th year, the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon challenged athletes to withstand stretches of this dry, searing desert. The race takes place in July, when temperatures have soared into the 130s F (54.44s C). Even as a place of extremes, Death Valley is not immune to global warming. Seven of its hottest summers have occurred in the past 10 years, according to the National Park Service. And if planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current pace, more places could experience its broiling temperatures.

Over two days, Westergaard would trek up and down mountain ranges, past sand dunes and salt flats, through quaint towns and vast desertscapes amid temperatures as high as 117 F (47.22 C). He tried to smile throughout, even when he felt miserable.

“It just lifts you up,” he said of smiling so others smile back.

First night: The race begins

At 8 p.m., the first wave of runners take off. Westergaard jogs up a ramp into the pale light of dusk. It’s 113 F (45 C), and it feels like a blow dryer to the face.

Leap frogging in a van behind him is his cheer squad and support crew – Jennifer Drain, his smiley cousin back for the 17th year, and daughters Meagan, who has attended before, and Madison, a first timer. The crew, who playfully call Westergaard “wiener dog,” are hauling everything he needs: food, ice, water, electrolytes.

This heat can kill. Soaring body temperatures can lead to organ failure and strain the heart, especially for people with heart disease, and cause heat stroke. To prevent that they keep him cool. They spray mist on him and pour ice into his hat and a bandana wrapped around his neck. His drinking water is ice cold.

A few hours in, Meagan asks her dad if he’s peed. “Long stream,” he responded of his amount of urine. Staying hydrated is critical. As he sweats, he’s losing liquids that can critically stress kidneys if not replenished. Dehydration can cause organs to fail from lack of blood, oxygen and nutrients, leading to seizures and death.

No runners have died doing the competition, but heat-related issues are common, said Megan Dell, the race’s medical director. Stomach issues can lead to vomiting and dehydration. Hyponatremia — which happens when your blood’s sodium is too low — has sent runners to the hospital.

Westergaard has learned to embrace the rollercoaster. One moment he feels like Superman — the next he could be throwing up on the side of the road, questioning if he’ll make it. “You just suck it up, just like in life, and get through the lows, and it always gets better.”

The next day: Running through “the oven”

The runners dash toward mile 50.8 (81.75 kilometers), the critical cut off point they must get to by 10 a.m. or be eliminated. The sun is peaking over the mountains, casting a warm glow over dune fields. It’s 85 F (29.44 C).

“Living the dream, ey?” Westergaard said with a smile, his perky strut now a droopy shuffle.

He pours water on his face and arms and munches some watermelon. Madison paces behind him as they crack jokes. “Get er done! Junior wiener in training!” Meagan yelled.

Westergaard makes it to the cut off point before 9 a.m. It’s 90 F (32.2 C).

Mile 56 (90.12 kilometers): After moving for 14 hours straight, Westergaard rests and eats some avocado toast. “Great! Let’s motor!” he said after 10 minutes sitting on a chair.

Miles later, he begins his descent into “the oven” that is Panamint Valley, usually the hottest part of the race during the hottest part of the day. It’s 96 F (35.56 C) and the heat sizzles from above and below. Westergaard runs on the white line on the road because it’s cooler. In hotter years, the asphalt got so hot the bottoms of his shoes felt sticky on the ground.

Westergaard trains year round to acclimate to the heat. As he gets older, he doesn’t tolerate heat as well and has slowed down. His two-hour sauna sessions are now one, and he runs a few times a week instead of daily.

“I’m just out there longer,” he said, “but still getting it done.”

Tony Wolf, kinesiology professor at the University of Georgia, said aging adults generally have reduced heart function compared to younger adults. When combined with the cardiovascular demand of exercise and heat stress, it can cause difficulties.

There isn’t much research about how the bodies of fit older adults, including competitive athletes, regulate internal temperature. “There aren’t a ton of people in their 60s and older who are doing those kinds of events,” said Wolf.

Studies focused on adults before and after a training program found that exercise improved heart function and thermoregulation. That could suggest that the heart and thermoregulation impairments linked to aging are largely mitigated by lifelong fitness, Wolf said.

Second night: Sleepy hallucinations

The runners are spread out now, their flashing lights twinkling in the distance. This night is the toughest for Westergaard as sleep deprivation sets in. He zigzags on the road, barely awake. The runners ahead of him look like they’re running toward him.

In past years, his hallucinations have included people luring him to rest on couches that were actually bushes. Another time, he struck up a conversation with a kid skateboarding by him with a dog. And once, he watched for hours as a guy swung off the edge of the crescent moon, waving down at him.

“It was just clear as day,” Westergaard said of the hallucination.

At 3:10 a.m. at mile 98 (157.72 kilometers), he sleeps for 15 minutes under the moonlight.

“No one really quite understands” why he does this, said Madison.

Final day: The push toward the finish

At 11:50 a.m. and around mile 123 (197.95 kilometers), Westergaard shuffles through the town of Lone Pine. Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental U.S., soars some 14,500 feet (4,420 meters) into the blue sky.

A crowd claps and cheers as he runs by.

“Go Danny, go!” yelled a man.

It’s 92 F (33.33 C) as he approaches the final 4,750 foot (1,447.8 meters) mountain ascent to the finish line. Westergaard is walking at a snail’s pace and says he’s falling asleep. But his smile hasn’t waned.

“We’ve come a long way,” Westergaard said, Madison pacing behind and spraying him.

“Long way for a burger!” she responded. They giggle while thinking about the veggie burger they’ll buy upon finishing.

Then he does, crossing the finish line with his crew at exactly 45 hours and 29 minutes.

It was his most special Badwater 135 race by far, he says misty eyed, having Meagan and Madison at his side.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

It is the world’s most popular sport and yet there is still debate over what it should actually be called.

Is it football or soccer?

U.S. President Donald Trump waded into the topic while at the Club World Cup final in New Jersey last Sunday. He joked that he could pass an executive order to bring the United States in line with much of the rest of the world and ensure that from now on Americans refer to it as football.

“I think I could do that,” he said with a smile during an interview with host broadcaster DAZN.

It was a light-hearted comment, but at a time when the U.S. is playing an increasingly significant role in soccer the question of why Americans continue to call it by a different name to the one by which it is most commonly known has been raised again.

“They call it football, we call it soccer. I’m not sure that change could be made very easily,” Trump said.

Soccer keeps growing in the U.S. and so does its influence on the sport. It is co-hosting the men’s World Cup with Canada and Mexico next year — the third year in a row that it stages a major tournament after the 2024 Copa America and this summer’s Club World Cup.

Other factors are keeping soccer more often in the U.S. consciousness — and perhaps they will make saying ”football” more commonplace in a tough sporting landscape.

One of the greatest players of all time, Lionel Messi, plays for MLS team Inter Miami; the popularity of the Premier League and Champions League is booming; and the documentary series “Welcome to Wrexham” about a low-level Welsh club co-owned by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, has attracted new eyeballs.

Don’t blame Americans for calling it soccer

Despite “soccer” being widely associated with the U.S., it is commonly accepted that the word was actually coined in Britain, perhaps as far back as the 1880s.

The exact date when it was first used is not known, but it is believed “soccer” was derived from “association football,” which was the first official name of the sport.

The charity English Heritage says the nickname may have first been used by pupils at the iconic Harrow School to “distinguish the new association game from their older pursuit, known as ‘footer.’”

Numerous versions of football began to flourish, often involving handling a ball more than kicking it. One example dating back to the 1600s and still played today in England is Royal Shrovetide. Rugby is another example.

The English Football Association was created in 1863 and drew up codified rules for associated football to set it apart from other versions being played elsewhere in Britain and, from there, soccer as we know it was born.

Dr. Stefan Szymanski, a professor of sport management at the University of Michigan, wrote the book “It’s Football, Not Soccer (And Vice Versa)” and explored the origins of the name. In a lecture to the American University of Beirut in 2019 he said soccer was “very clearly a word of English/British origin.”

“And bear in mind that the name ‘association football’ doesn’t really appear until the 1870s,” he said, “so it appears really very early on in the history of the game and the word ‘soccer’ has been used over and over again since it was coined at the end of the 19th century.”

Soccer was a commonly used term in Britain

“Soccer” is not a commonly used term in Britain these days but that has not always been the case.

It was the title of a popular Saturday morning television show, “Soccer AM,” which ran from 1994 to 2023 on the Premier League’s host broadcaster Sky Sports.

England great and 1966 World Cup winner Bobby Charlton ran popular schools for decades, titled “Bobby Charlton’s Soccer School.”

And Matt Busby — Manchester United’s iconic manager who won the 1968 European Cup — titled his autobiography, which was published in 1974, “Soccer at the Top, My Life in Football.”

That book title suggests the terms “soccer” and “football” were interchangeable in British culture at that time.

Perhaps the word ‘soccer’ isn’t the real problem

Szymanski suggested the problem some people have with “soccer” isn’t the word at all. But rather that it is specifically used in America.

“It’s when Americans use this word that we get the outpourings of distress and horror, and one of the most popular thoughts that people throw at this is to say that American football is not really football,” he said in his lecture.

He argued that given the overwhelming popularity of the NFL in the U.S. it makes perfect sense to differentiate between soccer and its own version of football.

Not just Americans call it soccer

The use of the word “soccer” is a bit more confused in other countries.

Australia, which has its own Australian rules football along with both rugby codes, commonly uses the term and its national men’s team are known as the Socceroos. It’s soccer federation, however, is called Football Australia.

It’s a similar situation in Ireland, where Gaelic football is popular. The term “soccer” is used but the national soccer team is still governed by a body called the Football Association of Ireland.

Canada, like the U.S. simply calls it soccer, which clearly distinguishes it from the NFL and Canadian Football League.

The Associated Press stylebook says soccer is the preferred term in the U.S. but notes that “around the world the sport is referred to as football.”

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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

The NHL released its 2025-26 schedule on Wednesday, 1,312 games set to be played from Oct. 7-April 16 before the chase for the Stanley Cup.

Soon, there will be 1,344, with each of the league’s 32 teams playing 84 games starting in 2026-27. But until that happens, here’s a look at some of the best hockey has to offer next season:

Schaefer’s debut?

No. 1 draft pick Matthew Schaefer is no sure bet to make the New York Islanders out of training camp. If he does, Schaefer would be in line to make his NHL debut on Oct. 9 in Pittsburgh against Sidney Crosby and the Penguins.

Crosby, 38, is entering his 21st season. Schaefer turns 18 just a little over a month before opening night.

Schaefer would be the second top pick in three years to start his pro career against Crosby on the road. Chicago’s Connor Bedard also did so in 2023 on the way to winning the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.

Full slates

The back-to-back defending champion Florida Panthers are set to raise their second consecutive Stanley Cup banner as part of an opening night tripleheader on Oct. 7, and it will not take long for fans to see way more games on the same day.

There are 16, with every team in action, for the first time this season on Saturday, Oct. 11. That happens again on Tuesday, Oct. 28 with game times staggered from 6 p.m. until 11 p.m. EDT.

Each of the three final Saturdays of the season features 15 games.

Special events

The Penguins and Nashville Predators face off in a pair of games in Stockholm on Nov. 14 and 16. The New York Rangers visit the Boston Bruins in the “Thanksgiving Showdown” on Black Friday, Nov. 28.

The first Winter Classic in Florida takes place Jan. 2 when the Panthers host the Rangers at the Miami Marlins’ ballpark with a retractable roof. A surefire open-air game across the Sunshine State comes roughly a month later when the Tampa Bay Lightning play Boston in the Stadium Series at the home of the NFL’s Buccaneers.

The Islanders’ UBS Arena is expected to hold a pre-Olympic sendoff event when the season pauses Feb. 6 for players to participate in the Milan Games. The event is in lieu of All-Star festivities, which are being rethought for future years after the success of the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in February.

Milestones in reach

Alex Ovechkin is three goals away from 900 after breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career record in April. Whatever number Ovechkin finishes at — he turns 40 in September and this is the final year of his contract with the Washington Capitals — will become the new 894 that seemed unapproachable until the successful “GR8 Chase.”

Ovechkin has not closed the door on playing beyond his 21st season, but if this is it, game 81 is against Crosby in Washington. The finale is at Columbus against the Blue Jackets, against whom Ovechkin debuted in 2005.

Crosby is 13 points away from becoming the ninth player in league history with 1,700. Ovechkin would be the 10th if he records 77.

Three-time MVP Connor McDavid, coming off another Edmonton loss in the final to Florida, is far and away the leading scorer since entering the league in 2015. He’s 18 points away from 1,100, while longtime Oilers teammate Leon Draisaitl needs 53 to get to 1,000.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — A home belonging to Arizona Diamondbacks star Ketel Marte was burglarized during the Major League Baseball All-Star break, according to police.

Scottsdale, Arizona, police confirmed that the department is investigating a “high-dollar residential burglary” that is believed to have happened on Tuesday night, which is when Marte was playing for the National League in its All-Star game win in Atlanta.

Numerous personal items and jewelry were stolen. No one was at home when the burglary occured.

Police said the home is “reportedly” owned by Marte. Maricopa County Assessor’s Office records show Marte owns a home on the block near the investigation.

Police say the investigation is ongoing.

Marte hit a two-run double in the first inning of the NL’s win, which was secured after a home run contest at the end of the game after the score was tied after nine innings.

The burglary is the latest in a series of thefts from the homes of high-profile athletes acoross the country this year. Players have been targeted because of the high-end products believed to be in their homes and sometimes the thefts occur when they are away with their teams for road games.

The FBI has warned sports leagues about crime organizations targeting professional athletes. The NFL and NBA have issued security alerts to athletes.

A Seattle man was charged last month in connection with a string of burglaries at the homes of prominent active and retired professional athletes in the area.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (AP) — The oldest major championship has taken a step into the modern world by using a technological feature that British Open organizers hope will bring to life one of the most storied walks in golf.

Spidercam — that’s a camera, not a super hero — was used in golf for the first time at Royal Portrush on Thursday. It’s a camera suspended above the 18th green using four pylons about 25 meters high, giving TV viewers unique views of the closing hole and its undulations.

Held in a resting position high to the back of the green for approach shots, Spidercam swoops down as the players make their walk to the green and hovers just above them as they make their putts.

“It’s pretty cool the way it can move and do all those swings,” said Northern Irish golfer Tom McKibbin, who went out at 6:35 a.m. local time in the first group of the day with Nicolai Hojgaard and Padraig Harrington.

They were the first players to experience in competition the technology which reportedly cost the R&A 300,000 pounds ($400,000) to install.

“It was a little bit different,” McKibbin said. “I’d never seen it before.”

That’s because the R&A is using the technology before any of the professional tours in golf.

Spidercam has, though, operated widely in TV coverage of other major sports including soccer, rugby and cricket — and has occasionally gotten in the way.

In 2017, India star MS Dhoni hit a shot in a cricket match against England that smashed into the hovering camera and broke it.

In 2022, South Africa cricketer Anrich Nortje was knocked to the ground when he collided with a low-swinging Spidercam as he walked to his place in the field in a test against Australia. The camera operator responsible was stood down for the remainder of the match.

“I didn’t know what hit me,” Nortje said at the time. “I don’t think it should be travelling at head height.”

At Royal Portrush, Spidercam will complement existing technology such as a plane camera, aerial drones and bunker cameras to enhance TV coverage.

According to the Guardian newspaper, players were briefed last week about plans to use Spidercam at Royal Portrush and there were no complaints despite the potential for getting distracted while preparing to make a shot.

As Hojgaard and Harrington walked alongside each other to the 18th green, Spidercam swung down and over them. As Harrington made his two putts, the camera almost circled him.

Hojgaard said he didn’t notice Spidercam.

With Royal Portrush not having a clubhouse on the 18th green, there has been space to install the technology. Other venues on the Open rotation won’t have that luxury, notably Royal Lytham St. Anne’s, Royal Troon and Hoylake.

Next year’s Open is at Royal Birkdale, which has its clubhouse near the 18th green but should still have room for the Spidercam technology.

“We … believe that Spidercam will bring millions of fans a new perspective of the action from Royal Portrush,” said Neil Armit, chief commercial officer at the R&A, “with incredible detail and accessibility wherever they are in the world.”

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf