Yahoo SportsOntario woman wins first $500,000 Plinko prize
Florence Kalu, a personal support worker from Hamilton, Ont., got to live out a Price is Right dream when she won $500,000 on the real Plinko board at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto.
Florence Kalu, a personal support worker from Hamilton, Ont., got to live out a Price is Right dream when she won $500,000 on the real Plinko board at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto.
Renee Montgomery, a two-time WNBA champion, announced her retirement this month.
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Tua breaks down his former backup QB, two of his former receivers and even touted the former Bama teammate he wouldn't mind teaming up with in the NFL.
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The UFC has been feeding Rozenstruik a diet of strikers, with his last three opponents being Alistair Overeem, Ngannou and Junior dos Santos. On Saturday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN+), he’ll get another when he meets unbeaten Ciryl Gane in the main event of UFC Vegas 20 at Apex.
ATLANTA — It took a while for Brian Snitker to get his shot at being a big league manager. He's in no hurry to let it go. The Atlanta Braves announced Friday they have extended Snitker's contract through the 2023 season, with a club option for 2024. Snitker is certainly worthy of the job security, having led the Braves to three straight NL East titles and within one win of a spot in the World Series last season. The 65-year-old Snitker took over the Braves on an interim basis in 2016 and is heading into his fifth full season as the skipper. “It feels good,” he said after Friday's spring training workout in North Port, Florida. “I'm not one that worries about that kind of thing, honestly. If this was going to be my last year or whatever, I would give it everything I've got. But it's nice, obviously, that someone thinks enough of you to extend that kind of package.” Snitker has been with the Braves organization for 45 seasons as a player, coach and manager — mostly in the minor leagues — after signing with the club as an undrafted free agent in 1977. When Fredi Gonzalez was fired early in the 2016 season, Snitker became one of the oldest first-time managers in big league history. He's now the fourth-oldest manager in the majors behind Tony La Russa of the Chicago White Sox, Houston's Dusty Baker, and Joe Maddon of the Los Angeles Angels. Despite the age gap leading one of baseball's most exciting young rosters, a group that includes 20-somethings Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies and Mike Soroka, Snitker has meshed well with his players while adapting to the analytics-driven style pushed by general manager Alex Anthopoulos. “It's refreshing being around all these guys," Snitker said. “They keep keep me young and feeling good and wanting to come back. I stay energized from these players. And knowing and respecting how they go about it, and appreciating what they do, is a big thing that allows them to relax and just enjoy what they're doing.” Shortstop Dansby Swanson said Snitker's vast experience at all levels of the game earns him the respect of the players. “When you've seen it from so many difference angles, it allows you to know what the players like to do and how they see things," Swanson said. “He's grown as comfortable with us as we have with him. He's always asking us about certain things. When you can have that direct dialogue, it's definitely a fun working relationship.” Plus, Snitker has shown a deft personal touch with his young players. “We know he cares about us tremendously off the field as people,” Swanson said. “That stuff is important because we spend so much time together.” Snitker took over when the Braves were in the midst of a massive rebuilding job, and few saw him serving a long-term role as manager. But, after going 72-90 in his first full season, Atlanta won the first of its three straight division titles in 2018. Last season, the NL MVP Freddie Freeman and the Braves won a post-season series for the first time since 2001, beating Cincinnati in the wild-card round and Miami in the divisional series before losing to the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in an NL Championship Series that went the seven-game limit. Atlanta led the series 3-1 before the Dodgers rallied to win the final three games. “I am thrilled that Brian will continue to lead our club on the field and in the clubhouse," Anthopoulos said in a statement. “Three consecutive division titles speak to the impact of Brian and his staff, and we are pleased that he will continue to guide our club through 2023.” Snitker has an overall record of 353-317 (.527), which makes him the fourth-winningest manager since the franchise relocated to Atlanta in 1966. He's far behind Hall of Famer Bobby Cox (2,058), but figures to go past Gonzalez (432) and Luman Harris (379) this season. Snitker was voted NL Manager of the Year in 2018. ___ Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at https://twitter.com/pnewberry1963 His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/paulnewberry ___ More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Paul Newberry, The Associated Press
It turns out a Black athlete didn't actually have to do much to be considered a potential threat back then. All he had to do was be successful. Here are the stories of five Black athletes who were targeted by the FBI — some without ever knowing it.
While Webber waits for the call, he’s joined with JW Asset Management to launch a $100 million private equity cannabis fund that will invest in companies led by minority entrepreneurs pursuing careers in the cannabis sector.
Continuing his Shuffle Up series, Scott Pianowski turns his attention to the middle infielders.
In early January, when COVID-19 numbers were climbing again, and Ontario had just hunkered down in another stay-at-home order, Melissa Bishop-Nriagu, husband Osi and their daughter Corinne, moved from Windsor, Ont., to Victoria. With her Olympic participation on the line, the west coast city offered fairer weather for training and fewer COVID-19 restrictions. Still, the world 800-metre silver medallist faces an uphill battle in securing a spot on the Tokyo Olympic team. Bishop-Nriagu, who was fourth at the 2016 Rio Olympics, should be among Canada's top medal hopes on the track in Tokyo — if she can just get there. "It is (brutal)," said Bishop-Nriagu. "And even more brutal given the pandemic. . . Bottom line: I need races. And I need them to be fast." Track and field isn't the only sport scrambling to qualify amid Canada's COVID-19 protocols. Canada promised to send perhaps the strongest men's basketball team to Tokyo last year, when the Olympics were originally supposed to take place. Now, the compacted NBA season conflicts with the Olympic qualifying tournament in June in Victoria. Canada's boxing team is in quarantine less than three months from a qualifying event in Argentina after a team member tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this week. Athletics Canada had hoped to send a team of 60-plus athletes to Tokyo, but just 24 have achieved qualifying standards, largely due to the inability to compete. Before the pandemic, World Athletics had implemented new qualifying rules that require athletes to either achieve one very difficult standard — a fast time, a long throw, etc. — to earn an automatic berth, or be ranked in the top 48 in a complicated points system calculated over an athlete's five best major competitions. The automatic entry standard for the 32-year-old Bishop-Nriagu is one minute 59.50 seconds. She has the Canadian record of 1:57.01, but with the 2020 season virtually wiped out by the pandemic, her fastest time is the 2:00.98 she ran indoors in Boston last February. "The easiest route is just run the standard and get it over with," Bishop-Nriagu said. "But it's not easy given our travel circumstances." Because of Canada's international travel protocols, leaving the country to race means two weeks in quarantine upon return. "It's for the betterment of everybody's health that we have these measures in place, but it just makes it difficult to (qualify)," said Bishop-Nriagu, who started planning the temporary move to Victoria back in October. The Olympic trials June 24-27 in Montreal are both a chance to run that standard or accumulate ranking points to climb into the top 48. "Nationals is actually in the best interest for anybody on the line of making standard, because you go could there and win and get enough points to be ranked in the top 48 and you're on your plane to Tokyo," she said. Reigning Olympic high jump champion Derek Drouin faces an even tougher road than Bishop-Nriagu. Hammered by injuries the past couple of seasons, Drouin is unranked, and since he lives in Toronto can't travel to international meets. In the meantime, Athletics Canada is lobbying for an edit to the stringent qualifying rules to allow for a more even playing field in Tokyo. "It's just so unfair for Canadians at the moment, it's terrible," said Simon Nathan, Athletics Canada's high performance director. "The worry is: if I don't travel, then I can't qualify. If I do travel, there are places that are more risky (for the pandemic) than Canada. And then I come home and have to sit on my bum, literally not allowed to do anything for two weeks while my rivals are still training, they're still competing. "So it's stress coming from every direction." Nathan said between half and two thirds of national team athletes are based in Canada. Athletics Canada recently removed the stipulation that every athlete must compete at the trials, thus runners Andre De Grasse, Moh Ahmed, Gabriela DeBues-Stafford and others training abroad need not cross the border to race here. Nathan noted that Canada's men's 4x100 relay team that won bronze in Rio hasn't qualified. They could qualify at the World Relays in Poland in early May, but it's tough to bring sprinters together from training bases in Canada, the U.S., and the Caribbean. The deadline to register an athlete in any sport for the Tokyo Olympics is July 5, which is less than five months away. And the pandemic is severely impeding international and domestic competitions that ultimately determine the expected 400 to 40 athletes representing Canada in Tokyo. "We're going to see a lot of last-minute qualification around Tokyo," Canadian Olympic Committee chief sport officer Eric Myles said. "There will be hard stories, heartbreaking stories for sure. There are so many moving parts. We are trying as much as possible to prevent unfairness issues, but it's not simple. The virus is not making it simple." Canada as a country has gained 99 event entries into Tokyo, which represents 239 athletes, according to Myles. Of Canada's 35 national summer sport organizations, 28 are still in the process of choosing their Olympic athletes. "The challenges are massive," said Own The Podium summer sport director Mark Hahto. "It stems primarily from the cancellations, the uncertainties, the postponements of so many events on the summer calendar." Entry into other countries for events, what the pandemic situation is there, Canada's quarantine requirements, how to physically be ready for a qualifying event that keeps getting rescheduled while also peaking for Tokyo are just a few of the plates athletes, their coaches and their federations are juggling. "The emotional weight on the athletes, the staff and the people they work closely with is not insignificant," Myles said. Canada is expected to be strong in the new women's sport of sprint canoe, for example, but still has to qualify a C-2 boat. A continental qualifier in Brazil in April is the chance to do so if it doesn't get cancelled. Canoe Kayak Canada has to determine whether it's safe for athletes to travel there, and how to combat a decline in conditioning over a two-week quarantine when they come back. Canada's Paralympic athletes face an extra layer of complexity. In order to compete against other athletes with similar in abilities in Tokyo, they need to be classified before the Games. "Because of all the cancellations, we have so many athletes that are unclassified so they're not going to be able to compete," Hahto said. "Some of them are podium athletes, so they will not be able to compete at the Paralympic Games unless we can get them to a classification event, which in most instances are linked to a World Cup or something of that nature, or some type of qualifying." "I don't want to say it's chaos because that's probably a little bit too dramatic, but it's dire." Previous Olympic medallists, world champions and other proven international performers could expect to be hand-picked to Canada's 2021 team should the qualification process go completely sideways. Swimming Canada recently named six swimmers, including freestyle champion Penny Oleksiak and world championship backstroker Kylie Masse, to the Olympic team. The rest of the swim team will be determined at trials postponed from April to May, and a June qualifier. In the case of track and field athletes such as Bishop-Nriagu and Drouin, Athletics Canada is bound by World Athletics rules. "We can only pick people who are qualified within the system, we can't go beyond that," Nathan said. "We'll send as many as we can. If there's no flexibility, if they don't change the system, and the borders remain closed in Canada, then I think we'll have a smaller team than we would have had." There are track and field meets happening in the U.S., Australia and other countries, while Canada is hamstrung from hosting anything at the moment. Nathan noted Toronto has an excellent indoor facility at York University — but only 10 people are permitted indoors at a time, including athletes, coaches and officials. "And people make a huge sacrifice to get to the Games, they park all sorts of things, they park their life, having families, their education, their careers to make this go. And because the Games were postponed, they had to stretch that for another year," Nathan said. "Then to go through all of that, and be in this quandary of: I can't even get to enough competitions because of things outside of my control, and I can see other people doing stuff that I just literally can't do . . . it is very, very hard. It's also athletes not yet in the prime of their careers, for whom a first Olympic Games is valuable experience for a second, that risk falling through the cracks if they don't get a fair chance to prove themselves. "If we don't get some of those NextGen athletes, those new athletes that are really emerging that are on the bubble, and they actually miss their opportunity to get their feet wet in their first Olympic Games, which we know has a huge impact just looking at the data, it is really critical," Hahto said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2021. Lori Ewing and Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
The Brooklyn Nets guard shared why he felt the late Lakers superstar was the “standard for our generation”.
Marv Levy says that, at his age, he's starting to have some issues with his hearing. But the 95-year-old has no trouble recollecting his first head-coaching stint in pro football almost a half-century ago. Levy left his job as a special-teams coach with Washington following the NFL team's 14-7 Super Bowl loss to the unbeaten Miami Dolphins in 1972 to become head coach of the CFL's Montreal Alouettes. During that five-year span, Levy's teams always made the playoffs and three times reached the Grey Cup, winning twice, before returning to the NFL in 1978 as the Kansas City Chiefs head coach. This week, the CFL made its 1970s championship games available on its Grey Cup On Demand Portal. Included are Montreal's victories in 1974 and '77 and its heart-breaking '75 loss, all against Edmonton. "It's only five of 47 years in my coaching career," Levy told reporters during a video conference. "They are so wonderfully memorable in my career, it was such a joy to be there." Levy recalled being recruited by the late J.I. Albrecht, then Montreal's GM. The two had routinely crossed paths and Levy accepted Albrecht's invitation to interview for the Alouettes' post. "I was a bit intrigued about Montreal and Canada and I really admired and liked the owner (Sam Berger)," Levy said. "They offered me the head job, I don't know if it was with a raise or not, that didn't make any difference. "I also knew there'd been coaches who'd coached in the CFL and if they did well sometimes moved on to big boosts in pay with an NFL head job. Bud Grant (who went from Winnipeg to the NFL's Minnesota Vikings) was one of them. It was a variety of things: Head coach; great ownership; wonderful city; intrigued with the league and enthusiasm for something new. That inspired me." Levy posted a 43-31-4 CFL record and was its top coach in 74. That's the same year he captured his first Grey Cup victory, a 20-7 win over Edmonton at Empire Stadium. Montreal made a second straight championship appearance in '75, dropping a 9-8 decision to Edmonton. The Alouettes were poised to go ahead with 45 seconds left but Don Sweet's 19-yard field goal sailed wide for a single after Jimmy Jones bobbled the snap in the bitterly cold conditions. Levy almost didn't make it to the field for the second half because of the weather. "At halftime I was suffering badly from frosted fingers and hands," Levy said. "The doctor told me I should not go out for the second half (but) I couldn't listen to that, of course, I had to go back out there." Two years later, Levy capped his CFL career in yet another frigid Grey Cup, this time at Olympic Stadium before a record crowd of 68,205. The weather had turned the field into more of an ice rink, prompting Alouettes defensive back Tony Proudfoot to punch staples into his cleats for better traction. The move worked and many of Proudfoot's teammates followed suit, resulting in a convincing 41-6 Montreal win over Edmonton. "The weather was awful," Levy said. "One of our players got someone to put staples in the shoes of our players unknown to me. "That was unfair but it gave us better traction than our opponent." A member of Levy-coached teams in Montreal was linebacker/punter Wally Buono. He'd go on to amass the most head-coaching wins (282) in CFL history with Calgary and B.C. "He was bright," Levy said of Buono. "He wasn't a real big linebacker (and) you can never predict what's going to happen except he was smart, he worked hard, he was likable, he was team oriented, he had all the good qualities. "But I didn't know if he was going to be a coach, a lawyer or what he might be after he finished with football." Levy also remembers Berger luring Heisman Trophy winner Johnny (The Ordinary Superstar) Rodgers from Nebraska to the CFL. Rodgers was the league's top rookie and a three-time CFL all-star over his four seasons in Canada (1973-76) but also enjoyed himself off the field. "That's quite a story," Levy said. "I got a call from the athletic director at Nebraska who I knew well and he said, 'You're going to get a great player . . . and you're going to have some headaches.' "Johnny was a remarkable talent . . . but he was a big party guy back then. But as I say that was in the past, certainly he's coming around and is living a good life." Levy cites exercise, diet and family as reasons for his longevity. "Somebody once said he owes it to drinking only fine wine, I can't say that," Levy said. "I can't say I was perfect, there was a period of time when I did smoke cigars but I did give them up long ago. "Exercise, diet, good family, honest living, a wonderful professional life, great parents and family. I've been unbelievably blessed with all the people I've got to know during my time." Levy was an NFL head coach with Kansas City (1978-82) and Buffalo (1986-97). He led the Bills to four straight Super Bowl appearances (1990-93) and was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001 before returning to the franchise as GM (2006-07) at age 80. Regardless of the level of football, Levy said the key to success remains the same. "The thing that's most important is if you run, throw, block, tackle, catch, kick better than your opponent you're going to win," he said. "Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals, that's what counts. "I remember after one very hot pre-season practice when I was in Buffalo, probably the greatest defensive player in the history of the league, Bruce Smith, came up to me and said, 'Hey coach, tell me something. Who put the fun in fundamentals?' I chuckle a little bit but it's just a lot of hard work." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2021. Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press
The five-time NBA All-Star connected with Yahoo Sports senior NBA writer Vincent Goodwill to discuss his role in changing the paradigm for power forwards in the NBA. Plus, Webber opens up about the $100 million Cannabis Impact Fund to assist minority entrepreneurs and his chances on making the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Kyrie Irving further explained why he wants Kobe Bryant to be the NBA logo.