Pawol to be MLB's 1st female umpire
Jen Pawol will take a big step toward breaking the gender barrier for Major League Baseball umpires on Saturday when she becomes the first woman to work a big league spring training game in 17 years.
The 47-year-old from New Jersey will work the bases during Houston's exhibition against Washington in West Palm Beach, Florida. She is among 24 minor league umpires assigned full-time as fill-ins at big league spring training.
Last year, 21 of the 26 umps assigned full spring training schedules were picked for the in-season call-up list.
Ria Cortesio was the previous woman to umpire spring training games in 2007. She spent nine years in the minor leagues, including the last five in the Double-A Southern League, then was released after the 2007 season.
Pawol started in the Gulf Coast League in 2016, moved up to the New York/ Penn League in 2017, then was promoted to the Midwest League after the first two weeks of the 2018 season. She worked the South Atlantic League in 2019, the High-A Midwest League in 2021, the Double-A Eastern League and the Triple-A International and Pacific Coast Leagues last year.
NFL SALARY CAP SKYROCKETS TO $255.4 MILLION >>
The NFL's salary cap for 2024 will be $255.4 million, up a record $30.6 million from last year.
The cap number has gone from $198.2 million in 2020 to $182.5 million in 2021 following the COVID-19 pandemic. It increased to $208.2 million in 2022 and $224.8 million last year.
“The unprecedented $30 million increase per club in this year's salary cap is the result of the full repayment of all amounts advanced by the clubs and deferred by the players during the Covid pandemic as well as an extraordinary increase in media revenue for the 2024 season,” the league said in a statement.
Teams are heading into next week's NFL combine and preparing for the free agency period to open March 13 with an opportunity to spend more freely. FORMER HEAD COACHES PART OF RAIDERS STAFF >> As Antonio Pierce prepares for his first season as the Las Vegas Raiders' fulltime coach, he is counting on two experienced former head coaches to help guide him.
The Raiders announced their full staff Friday, and former Cincinnati Bengals coach Marvin Lewis is the assistant head coach and ex-Miami Dolphins coach Joe Philbin is the senior offensive assistant.
Lewis led the Bengals to seven playoff berths, going 131-122-3 from 2003-18. He was a key advisor when Pierce became the interim coach midway through last season.
Philbin went 24-28 as the Dolphins coach from 2012-15 and was 2-2 as the Green Bay Packers interim coach in 2018.
ROBINSON TO RETURN TO RAMS >> Receiver Demarcus Robinson has agreed to terms on a one-year, $5 million contract to return to the Los Angeles Rams, a person with knowledge of the deal tells The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity Friday because Robinson has yet to sign the deal.
Initially signed last June as veteran depth, Robinson got almost no offensive playing time for the Rams in the first 11 weeks of the regular season. He eventually became an important target for Matthew Stafford down the stretch while Los Angeles finished 10-7 and earned a playoff berth.
Colleges JUDGE RULES AGAINST NCAA, SAYS NIL COMPENSATION RULES LIKELY VIOLATE ANTITRUST LAW >>
A federal judge barred the NCAA from enforcing its rules prohibiting name, image and likeness compensation from being used to recruit athletes, granting a request for a preliminary injunction from the states of Tennessee and Virginia in dealing another blow to the association's ability to govern college sports.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker in the Eastern District of Tennessee undercuts what has been a fundamental principle of the NCAA's model of amateurism for decades: Third parties cannot pay recruits to attend a particular school.
The plaintiffs' arguments in asking for the injunction suggest that since the NCAA lifted its ban on athletes being permitted to cash in on their fame in 2021 recruits are already factoring in NIL opportunities when they choose a school.
3 SWIMMERS KILLED IN CRASH >>
Three members of the University of Wyoming swimming and diving team were killed and two others were injured when their sport utility vehicle veered off-road and rolled over along a rural highway known for deadly wrecks, including one that killed eight other Wyoming athletes.
The latest crash happened Thursday afternoon on U.S. 287 about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of the Wyoming-Colorado line between Laramie and Fort Collins, Colo.
The crash happened when the Toyota RAV4 sport utility vehicle with five people inside swerved and went off the pavement, and the vehicle rolled over multiple times.
Golf ORTIZ GOES FOR A BIG WIN AT HOME >>
Alvaro Ortiz got off to a strong start and did just enough right at the end for a 7-under 64, giving him a share of the lead in the Mexico Open as he goes for yet another victory in his home country.
This would be the biggest of all for Ortiz, who won twice on the Mexican Golf Tour at the end of last year. Ortiz is the younger brother of Carlos Ortiz, a PGA Tour winner who signed with Saudi-funded LIV Golf.
Ortiz was at 11-under 131 at breezy Vallarta Vidanta, tied with Jake Knapp, Matt Wallace of England and Sami Valimaki of Finland. Ortiz had a 64 of his own late in the afternoon, Wallace shot 65 and Valimaki had a 67.