Beltré, Mauer and Helton have been elected to HOF
Adrián Beltré, Todd Helton and Joe Mauer were elected to baseball's Hall of Fame on Tuesday while Billy Wagner and Gary Sheffield fell short.
Beltré was picked on 366 of 385 ballots in his first appearance for 95.1%.
Helton, making his sixth ballot appearance, got 307 votes for 79.7%, 18 more than the needed 289 for 75% after falling 11 votes short last year.
Mauer also was elected on his first try, receiving 293 votes for 76.1%.
Billy Wagner received 284 votes, falling five short but up from 68.1% last year. He will appear on the ballot for the final time in 2025, when Ichiro Suzuki and CC Sabathia are eligible for the first time.
There are 273 players among 346 people in the Hall. Beltré, Mauer and Helton will be inducted at Cooperstown on July 21 along with Jim Leyland, elected last month by the contemporary era committee for managers, executives and umpires.
Gary Sheffield got 246 votes for 63.9%, but up from 11.7% in 2015. He is eligible for consideration by the contemporary baseball player committee, which meets next in December 2025.
NBA USA BASKETBALL PICKS CANDIDATES FOR THE PARIS OLYMPICS >>
There are few surprises in USA Basketball's men's player pool for the Paris Olympics that was announced Tuesday, with most of the big names like LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant on the list.
The surprise may have been who was missing.
Draymond Green, who helped the U.S. win gold at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and then another title at the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics in 2021, was not among the 41 names released by USA Basketball as candidates for the team that will compete in Paris this summer in search of a fifth consecutive gold medal.
The naming of the pool is the first official phase in the process of assembling a 12-player Olympic roster that will be coached by Golden State's Steve Kerr. BUCKS FIRE COACH GRIFFIN AFTER 43 GAMES >> The Milwaukee
Bucks fired Adrian Griffin as coach after just 43 games despite having one of the league's top records midway through his first season.
Joe Prunty, who had been an assistant coach on Griffin's staff, will serve as the Bucks' interim head coach. Horst will speak at a news conference Wednesday, before the Bucks' home game with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Milwaukee is 30-13 to tie the Minnesota Timberwolves for the league's second-best record entering Tuesday. The Bucks are 3 1/2 games behind the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference.
CAVALIERS' THOMPSON SUSPENDED 25 GAMES >> Cleveland Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson was suspended 25 games without pay by the NBA for violating the league's anti-drug policy.
According to the league, the 32-year-old Thompson tested positive for ibutamoren, a growth hormone, and SARM LGD-4033, commonly used by body builders and weight lifters for muscle enhancement.
Thompson will begin serving his suspension Wednesday when the Cavs, who have won eight straight games, play the first of two in three days at Milwaukee.
There was no immediate comment from Thompson or the Cavs.
MLB
RELIEVER STEPHENSON AND ANGELS FINALIZE 3-YEAR DEAL >> Right-handed reliever
Robert Stephenson agreed to a $33 million, three-year contract with the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old Stephenson joins his fifth major league team after an impressive finish last season with Tampa Bay, where he adjusted his slider into a faster, more dangerous pitch after joining the Rays in a trade last June. He will get a salary of $11 million annually from the Angels.
Stephenson split last season between Pittsburgh and the Rays, going 3-4 with one save, a 3.10 ERA and 77 strikeouts in 66 appearances.
PAXTON AGREES TO $11 MILLION DEAL WITH HIGHSPENDING DODGERS >> Lefthander James Paxton and the Los Angeles Dodgers have agreed to an $11 million, one-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.
Paxton can earn up to $13 million if he is healthy during the early part of the season and starts at least 20 games.
He joins a Dodgers rotation projected to include fellow newcomers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow along with Walker Buehler, returning from Tommy John surgery, and Bobby Miller or Emmet Sheehan.
Los Angeles has been baseball's top spender this offseason, committing $1,246,687,500 to two-way star Shohei Ohtani, Yamamoto, Glasnow, Paxton and outfielder Teoscar Hernández.
Tennis 10-TIME CHAMP DJOKOVIC BEATS FRITZ, WILL PLAY SINNER IN AUSTRALIAN OPEN SEMIS >>
Nobody has ever been better at this end of the Australian Open than Novak Djokovic, the 10-time champion.
Every time he's won a quarterfinal at Melbourne Park — as he did against Taylor Fritz on Tuesday — he's gone on to win the title.
The odds are usually stacked against his semifinal rival. Perhaps even more so against fourthseeded Jannik Sinner, who won a quarterfinal over No. 5 Andrey Rublev that didn't start until 10:42 p.m. and didn't finish until 1:21 a.m. Wednesday.
Djokovic reached his record-extending 48th Grand Slam semifinal by beating Fritz 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in 3 3/4 hours. Their match started late in the heat of the afternoon because U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff's preceding win over Marta Kostyuk took more than three hours.
Television WWE'S `RAW' IS MOVING TO NETFLIX >>
WWE's weekly television show “Raw” will move to Netflix next year as part of a major streaming deal worth more than $5 billion.
TKO Group Holdings Inc., which houses WWE and UFC, said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that the agreement is for 10 years, with Netflix having an option to extend the deal for an additional 10 years. There's also an opt