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Clippers fall to 0-5
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- Columbiana's baseball team went 0-4 on its Myrtle Beach trip after a 9-4 loss to Brockport (New York) on Friday.
Sam Inboden had a home run and double for the Clippers.
Ethan Lehnerd was the losing pitcher with seven strikeouts, four earned runs and three walks in five innings.
Columbiana (0-5) is at East Palestine on Monday.
BR: 2-0-1-0-1-3-2--9-10-1
CO: 1-0-0-0-1-2-0--4-8-3
Ozzie Guillen's number to be retired
CHICAGO (AP) -- Ozzie Guillen got quite a surprise when the Chicago White Sox informed him on Friday that they will retire his No. 13 this season.
The team caught the former All-Star shortstop and World Series-winning manager off guard by announcing he will be honored prior to the game against Cleveland on Aug. 8.
"What a great surprise it was," Guillen said. "Especially opening day, the way they did it."
Former White Sox star Scott Podsednik broke the news to his old manager during the telecast of the home opener against Toronto. Guillen, a pregame and postgame analyst for Chicago Sports Network, got choked up as the crowd chanted "Ozzie! Ozzie!"
"I always try to represent the White Sox the best I can," he said. "It's something I will appreciate for the rest of my life."
Guillen will become the first manager and 13th member of the organization to have his number retired. That includes Hall of Famer Frank Thomas, pitcher Mark Buehrle and slugger Paul Konerko -- players he managed on the 2005 championship team.
Guillen was a three-time All-Star for the White Sox from 1985 to 1997 during a 16-year career. He compiled a 678-617 record as their skipper from 2004 to 2011 and became baseball's first Latino manager to win a World Series when the 2005 team captured the franchise's first championship since 1917.
"Ozzie is truly one of a kind, and his passion for baseball and the White Sox is unmatched. Ozzie's knowledge of the game, combined with his energy and ability to motivate his teams, helped deliver a World Series Championship to White Sox fans and the city of Chicago after an 88-year drought," chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said. "The number 13 has always belonged to Ozzie in the hearts of our fans, and this season, we wanted to make it official by retiring his number. Like many of the White Sox legends, there will never be another 13."
Former Laurel player is All-American
GLENDALE, Arizona -- Saniyah Hall showed why she is the best high school girls basketball player in the country.
The 6-foot-2 senior from SPIRE Academy (Ohio) was named the MVP at the 25th annual McDonald's All-All-American Girls Game Tuesday at Desert Diamond Arena.
Hall scored a game-high 21 points, including 13 in the first half, to lead the East to a 91-71 victory.
She is heading to Southern Cal where she will join JuJu Watkins and Jazzy Davidson as the Trojans appear loaded for an NCAA national championship run.
Hall played her freshman and sophomore seasons at Shaker Heights Laurel (Ohio) High School, where she was a finalist for Ohio Ms. Basketball. She helped Laurel defeat Crestview and West Branch.
Stars investigate Nazi salutes
DALLAS (AP) -- The home arena of the Dallas Stars has launched an investigation into a video that apparently shows four fans celebrating a goal with a Nazi salute.
A spokesperson for the American Airlines Center told WFAA-TV in Dallas that the arena has "zero tolerance for any acts of hate and/or discrimination."
"We strongly denounce the actions that appear to be depicted in the video footage and are conducting an internal investigation," the spokesperson said. "All fans and attendees are expected to adhere to AAC and, as applicable, NBA or NHL Codes of Conduct when attending events."
A Stars fan, Courtney Ripley, told the television station she took a 12-second video at a game against Toronto in late December. It shows four fans reacting to a goal by appearing to raise and extend their right arms with a straightened right hand facing downward. The video gained traction this week on several social media platforms.
A Stars spokesperson told ESPN on Thursday that the team is "fully aligned with the arena's statement and working with them to find out exactly what happened."
Fan codes of conduct are prominent throughout the NHL. Every team has a scripted segment that is shared on their video boards, through their public address system or both, telling fans about their respective codes of conduct.
The NHL also has a multipoint fan code of conduct that opens by stating, "The best hockey experiences happen in environments that are inclusive, safe and respectful."
The NHL said possible punishments for violating the code of conduct include ejection, suspension or a lifetime ban from future events.
SEC brass don't want championship games
Three months after Alabama narrowly squeaked into the College Football Playoff despite a Southeastern Conference title game loss, athletic director Greg Byrne is calling for an end to the 34-year tradition.
"I think the ship has sailed. It's run its course," Byrne said in a recent interview with USA Today.
Alabama lost to Georgia 28-7 in the SEC championship game in its poorest showing since a Week 1 setback against Florida State. With a 10-3 record, the Crimson Tide left Mercedes-Benz Stadium with the impression that their last game of the season could have already been played.
"It's a great event," Byrne said. "I don't like the idea of it going away, but I think it's reality with an expanded playoff."
Expansion is likely coming, but the College Football Playoff will stay at 12 teams for the upcoming season.
Last year, the selection committee turned to Alabama's regular-season success as evidence that the Tide were a playoff-worthy team. Alabama was ranked No. 9 and knocked off Oklahoma in the first round before losing in the second round to Indiana in the Rose Bowl.
Byrne's opinion isn't necessarily an unpopular one. Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte suggested moving the playoffs up to the week of conference championship games. Lane Kiffin called the game "a pretty big risk" in 2024 while saying that coaches didn't want to play in it.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart, who has led his team to an SEC title game victory in three of the past four seasons, said he can see both sides of the argument.
"I'd want to know the parameters of it before we did anything," Smart said Thursday in an interview with On3. "Where we are right now with 12 teams, I don't necessarily agree that it needs to quit being played. But if it gets to 16 or 24 and we've got to move the end of the season up and we've got to get everything done by the second week of January, then I'd say it probably has to go."
Smart went on to say that the most important thing is that something is gained from the removal of the game, whether that's an expedited timeline or an expanded playoff.
But regardless of its future, being a four-time SEC champion is one of his proudest accomplishments.
"I will never apologize for winning an SEC title," Smart said. "I think it's the hardest thing to do in sports, winning the dang SEC title in almost any sport, because our conference is so hard."
President Trump tries to save college sports
The threat of cutting funding to cash-starved schools that don't comply is real, even if the stricter rules Trump wants to come out of the executive order he signed Friday could take a while to figure out.
In the order signed hours before the women's Final Four tipped off one of the biggest weekends in college sports, Trump went after eligibility rules, transfers and the spiraling costs associated with an industry that now pays its players millions of dollars per year.
He called on federal agencies to ensure schools are following the rules and threatened to choke off federal grants and funding -- a similar approach his administration has taken to force universities around the country to alter policies involving diversity, equity and inclusion, transgender rights and even the kinds of classes they offer. -- AP
In some ways, forcing those changes might seem like child's play compared to making major changes to college sports. The NCAA, the newly created College Sports Commission, the four power conferences, dozens more smaller ones and hundreds of educational institutions all have a say here: It's a big reason Congress, which Trump instructed to act quickly, has been stuck for more than a year on this.
"I'm glad to know the President wants Congress to pass something," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., a key member of the Senate committee looking into changes, who mentioned ongoing bipartisan negotiations.
Trump's order was his second since last July and it included a laundry list of proposed fixes, many of which lawmakers and college leaders have been pushing for since the approval of a $2.8 billion settlement changed the face of games that were once played by pure amateurs.
In one of the more clear-cut demands in this order, Trump called for "clear, consistent and fair eligibility limits, including a five-year participation window," that limits athletes to one transfer with one more available once they get a four-year degree.
"I'm extremely supportive of the President's order," said Cody Campbell, the Texas Tech regent and billionaire who is helping shape policy. "I'm very excited that we're making progress and look forward to continued work in the (Congress) to permanently preserve a system that's done so much for America."
At a college sports roundtable he hosted last month, Trump said he anticipated any order he signed would trigger litigation. Athletes have largely won the freedom to transfer almost at will via the portal along with the ability to be paid by schools that are now doling out more than $20 million a year to their athletes.
Some of those players have also been suing the NCAA about eligibility limits, and their right to do that has been a major sticking point in the Congressional deliberations.
Trump also raised the need to fix revenue-sharing in a way that protects Olympic sports, which are most in peril if the college funding model spirals out of control.
Sarah Hirshland, the CEO of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said Trump's order "sends an important signal about the value of preserving and promoting investment in women's and men's collegiate Olympic sports in America."
As much as the changes he directs, Trump's call for the Education Department, the Federal Trade Commission and the attorney general's office to evaluate "whether violations of such rules render a university unfit for Federal grants and contracts" stands out as a way to force change.
Several universities across the country have made policy changes to comply with federal orders and avoid funding-related showdowns with the government. It hasn't prevented big-named schools like Penn State and Florida State from facing huge debts.
"From what I saw, some of the social media traffic, it's pretty clear that he made clear that we need Congressional action to sort of seal the deal on a number of these things, which is good, because we do," NCAA President Charlie Baker said.
Commissioners at the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern Conference released statements thanking Trump for weighing in, with the ACC's Jim Phillips saying "there continues to be significant momentum to preserve the athletic and academic opportunities for the next generation of student-athletes and we appreciate the ongoing efforts."
Attorney Mit Winter, who follows college sports law, said the order is likely to set up a situation where the NCAA and schools have to decide whether to follow a federal court order or an executive order.
"Either way, we're likely going to see litigation challenging the EO by athletes and third parties," Winter said.
University of Nebraska president Jeffrey Gold said he didn't want to try to predict what the courts would do.
"But it is critical to what we must do to keep college athletics in line with what we do," Gold said. "The roundtable a few weeks ago showed there is a profound sense of urgency around this."
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AP Sports Writers Maura Carey, David Brandt and Eric Olson contributed to this report.
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