San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
New XFL kicks off in D.C., Houston
The debut of the new XFL had a punt blocked for a touchdown, a juicedup crowd roaring for big plays and a player swearing during an ingame television interview.
The actual football was hit and miss. College national championshipwinning former Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones was the biggest star on the field and took the microphone to address fans before the start of a brandnew football league.
“This is for the love of football,“Jones said. “Enjoy.”
Jones’ D.C. Defenders beat the Seattle Dragons 3119 Saturday afternoon before 17,163 that almost filled up Audi Field, home of Major League Soccer’s D.C. United.
“For us, if the fans who attend and watch at home feel as though it was a good football game and they had a fun time either watching or being in this awesome venue with us, that’s success,” XFL chief operating officer Jeffrey Pollack said. “We’re taking a long term view in this.”
Later Saturday, the Houston Roughnecks beat the visiting Los Angeles Wildcats 3717.
Trump goes to bat for Rose in Hall
President Trump wants Cooperstown to open its doors for Pete Rose.
Trump tweeted Saturday that baseball’s career hits leader should be in the Hall of Fame. On Wednesday, Rose again asked Major League Baseball to end his lifetime ban for betting on the Cincinnati Reds while playing for and managing them.
“Pete Rose played Major League Baseball for 24 seasons, from 19631986, and had more hits, 4,256, than any other player (by a wide margin). He gambled, but only on his own team winning, and paid a decades long price. GET PETE ROSE INTO THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME. It’s Time!” Trump tweeted.
Golf: Ayean Cho shot 2underpar 70 on a difficult day for scoring to take a onestroke lead over Madelene Sagstrom after three rounds of the LPGA Tour’s Vic Open at Barwon Heads, Australia. A European Tour men’s tournament runs alongside the women’s event.
Choi had a threeround total of 12under 205. Canada’s Alena Sharp was in third, two strokes behind Cho after a 70.
In the men’s event, Min Woo Lee eagled the 18th hole for 4under 68 to take a threestroke lead over threetime European Tour winner Marcus Fraser and fellow Australian Travis Smyth.
Track and field: Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis broke the men’s world record, jumping 6 meters, 17 centimeters (20 feet, 2.9 inches) at the indoor meet in Torun, Poland, beating by one centimeter the record set by France’s Renaud Lavillenie in 2014.
The record needs to be officially ratified by World Athletics, which doesn’t approve records until it receives confirmation of a clean doping test from the event.
At the Millrose Games in New York, Elle Purrier set an American indoor mile record with a time of 4 minutes, 16.85 seconds in winning the Women’s Wanamaker Mile. Purrier broke Mary Tabb’s record of 4:20:50 set in 1982. It was the secondfastest indoor mile ever, behind Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba world record of 4:13:31, set in 2016.
Motor sports: On the eve of NASCAR’s AllStar event at Daytona Beach, Fla., 2014 Cup champion Kevin Harvick, 44, agreed to a twoyear contract extension with StewartHaas Racing through 2023.
Skiing: France’s Clement Noel won a World Cup men’s slalom in Chamonix, France, his tworun time eclipsing by 0.21 of a second that of runnerup Timon Haugan of Norway . ... Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg won a women’s World Cup downhill race by 0.61 of a second over Italy’s Federica Brignone in GarmischPartenkirchen, Germany.