50 years after Aaron's 715th HR, event honored with statue, stamp
The 50th anniversary of Hank Aaron's 715th home run was marked Monday with announcements of a new statue at Baseball's Hall of Fame and a new commemorative stamp from the U.S. Postal Service.
Meanwhile, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred helped honor Aaron in Atlanta by joining the Braves in announcing the $100,000 endowment of a scholarship at Tuskegee University, a historically Black university in Aaron's home state of Alabama.
Manfred noted the Henry Louis Aaron Fund, launched by the Braves following Aaron's death in 2021, and the Chasing the Dream Foundation, created by Aaron and wife Billye, were designed to clear paths for minorities in baseball and to encourage educational opportunities.
The exhibit will remain open through the 2025 AllStar Game in Atlanta.
Colleges
NAIA ALL BUT BANS TRANSGENDER ATHLETES FROM WOMEN'S SPORTS >>
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics announced a policy Monday that all but bans transgender athletes from competing in women's sports at its 241 mostly small colleges across the country.
The NAIA Council of Presidents approved the policy in a 20-0 vote at its annual convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The NAIA, which oversees some 83,000 athletes competing in more than 25 sports, is believed to be the first college sports organization to take such a step.
According to the transgender participation policy, all athletes may participate in NAIA-sponsored male sports but only athletes whose biological sex assigned at birth is female and have not begun hormone therapy will be allowed participate in women's sports.
A student who has begun hormone therapy may participate in activities such as workouts, practices and team activities, but not in interscholastic competition.
SAN MARCOS SOFTBALL PLAYER MAKES HISTORY PLAYING BASEBALL GAME SAME DAY >> When the Cal State San Marcos baseball team needed a pitcher this past weekend, everybody knew Jillian Albayati could
handle the job.
She's a reliable righthanded pitcher in baseball and plays third base for softball.
Albayati became just the second player in collegiate history and first in Division II to appear in formal baseball and softball games the same day when she pitched the final inning in the opener of a doubleheader against Sonoma State.
Fortunately with the school's baseball and softball fields only about a football field apart (100 yards), Albayati was able to play softball for the Cougars in the morning before she switched gears — and gear — for some baseball next door. Cal State San Marcos posted side-by-side photos of her on social media from both games.
Albayati's softball coach Stef Ewing loved the idea of Albayati helping out when the Division II school's baseball team was down four pitchers and three starters, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Women's basketball NCAA WOMEN'S TITLE GAME WAS MOST-WATCHED HOOPS GAME IN 5 YEARS >>
South Carolina's victory over Caitlin Clark and Iowa in Sunday's women's NCAA championship game had a preliminary audience average of 18.7 million on ABC and ESPN. The only sporting events in the United States to draw a bigger TV audience since 2019 have been football, the World Cup and the Olympics.
The audience numbers are expected to increase when Nielsen releases its final numbers on Tuesday. Nielsen says the audience peaked at 24 million.
It's the most-watched basketball game since 2019, when the men's NCAA title game between Virginia and Texas Tech averaged 19.6 million on CBS.
Monday night's men's final between UConn and Purdue was being shown on TBS and TNT. It's possible that this will be the first year the women's title game has a bigger audience.
SOUTH CAROLINA, IOWA, UCONN TOP FINAL AP TOP 25 POLL >>
South Carolina can add another first to its perfect season: The national champion Gamecocks finished atop the first Associated Press Top 25 women's basketball poll to be released after the NCAA Tournament.
The Gamecocks, who won their second title in three years Sunday with an 87-75 victory over Iowa, received all 35 first-place votes from a national media panel Monday. South Carolina was No. 1 for every week this season except for the preseason poll, when the team was sixth, and at 38-0 became just the 10th team to finish a season undefeated.
It is the first time in the 47-year history of the women's Top 25 that the AP has released its final poll after the NCAA Tournament. Until this year, the final poll had been released after Selection Sunday, on the eve of the tournament.
Iowa was a unanimous choice at No. 2 and the other Final Four participants UConn and N.C. State were third and fourth, respectively. USC was fifth, earning its first ranking in the final poll since 2014 and its highest slot at the end of the season since the Trojans were third in 1986.
LSU, Texas and Oregon State — all reached the Elite Eight — and Stanford and UCLA rounded out the top 10.
MLB
DEGROM THROWING FROM 90 FEET IN REHAB FROM SURGERY >>
Two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom began throwing from 90 feet Monday, another step in his rehab from right elbow surgery 10 months ago with hope of pitching for the Texas Rangers down the stretch this season.
While deGrom started playing catch at the start of spring training, he has now progressed from 75 to 90 feet. He made 25 throws in the outfield from that longer distance, which he will continue through this week with the plan to then increase to 50 throws for a week, and 75 for another week after that.
Texas signed deGrom to a $185 million, five-year deal during the winter before the 2023 season, when he was limited to 30 1/3 innings before the end of April, and then had surgery June 12.
Women's hockey SIMMS SCORES IN OT TO LIFT US TO 1-0 WIN OVER CANADA >>
Kirsten Simms scored 3:38 into overtime to lift the United States to a 1-0 preliminary round win over rival Canada and clinch the Americans the Group A title heading into the women's world hockey championships.
Aerin Frankel stopped 26 shots for her second shutout of the tournament and the defending world champion U.S. finished Group A play with a 4-0 record. Simms is one of four newcomers to the American team, and coming off a season at Wisconsin in which she led women's college hockey in scoring.
Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped 29 shots, including the first six she faced in overtime as Canada (31) finished second in Group A play.
Tennis
DJOKOVIC ECLIPSES FEDERER'S RECORD FOR OLDEST MAN RANKED NO. 1 >>
Novak Djokovic has surpassed another tennis record once held by Roger Federer, becoming the oldest man to be ranked No. 1 in the ATP Tour's computerized rankings.
Djokovic is 36 — he turns 37 next month — and is now older than Federer was on his last day atop the rankings in June 2018. Monday gives Djokovic 420 total weeks at that spot, extending another mark Federer (who was there for 310 weeks) had at one time before Djokovic broke it.
Djokovic's 24 Grand Slam singles titles also are the most by a man in tennis history and the most by anyone in the Open era, which began in 1968.