Giving nearly two years’ notice, New York Yankees’ veteran Alex Rodriguez announced his retirement from playing at the end of 2017 season when his contract with the team is up.

“I won’t play after next year,” Rodriguez, who turns 41 in July, told ESPN. “I’ve really enjoyed my time. For me, it is time for me to go home and be dad.”

Rodriguez’s retirement will mark the end of a long but tumultuous baseball career. In his 20 seasons in the league so far, Rodriguez has been named the American League MVP three times, has been nominated to the A.L. all-star team 14 times, and was part of the Yankees’ World Series winning team in 2009.

The designated hitter also enters the 2016 season with 687 career home runs, needing just 28 more to pass Babe Ruth for third on the all-time list.

But Rodriguez’s career will be forever shadowed by using performance-enhancing drugs, for which he was suspended for the entire 2014 season. Major League Baseball said he used numerous performance-enhancing substances and then tried to “cover-up” his use by obstructing baseball’s investigation. At the time of the suspension, Rodriguez maintained he did not use performance-enhancing substances, though when he returned to baseball before the the 2015 season, he released a handwritten letter to fans that said, “I take full responsibility for the mistakes that led to my suspension for the 2014 season.”

He also wrote, “I regret that my actions made the situation worse than it needed to be. To Major League Baseball, the Yankees, the Steinbrenner family, the Players Association and you, the fans, I can only say I’m sorry.”

Though he missed a full season, Rodriguez was able to put together an impressive 2015 season, especially for his age. According to ESPN, he tallied his highest number of runs scored (83) since 2008, most at-bats (523) and games played (151) since 2007, and his best slugging percentage (.486) since 2010. Plus his 33 home runs last season were the sixth-most in MLB history for a player 39 years of age or older.

It will be interesting to see how Rodriguez’s extended farewell tour unfolds in comparison with those of his teammates, the universally beloved shortstop Derek Jeter, who retired in 2014 and the legendary relief pitcher Mariano Rivera who retired in 2013. Both of those players enjoyed unbesmirched reputations and were sent off with tearful goodbyes and much fanfare.

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After apologizing for his series of remarks about female tennis players, Raymond Moore, CEO of the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, Calif., has resigned.

“Earlier today I had the opportunity to speak with Raymond Moore,” BNP Paribas Open owner Larry Ellison said in a statement. “Ray let me know that he has decided to step down from his roles as CEO and Tournament Director effective immediately. I fully understand his decision.”

As we reported Monday, Moore’s comments about female tennis players sparked outrage. He said, “In my next life, when I come back I want to be someone in the WTA because they ride on the coattails of the men.”

Moore, 69, who was speaking at a news conference Sunday, continued:

“They don’t make any decisions and they are lucky. They are very, very lucky. If I was a lady player, I’d go down every night on my knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born, because they’ve carried this sport. They really have. And now the mantle has been handed over to [Novak] Djokovic and [Andy] Murray, and some others.”

The tennis executive from South Africa, who has been associated with the Indian Wells tournament for decades, also drew criticism for saying there are several “very attractive players” in the women’s game who could lead their sport the way Serena Williams has. When asked whether he was referring to their physical appearance or their game, he answered, “I mean both.”

While tennis players and pundits have widely condemned Moore’s comments, a debate about equal pay for men and women has resurfaced in the wake of his remarks.

Men’s world. No. 1 Novak Djokovic advocated that prize money from joint men’s and women’s tournaments be distributed based on ticket sales and TV ratings. The Serbian player admitted it was a “very delicate situation” and was “completely for women power,” according to the BBC, but he said both men and women’s games should “fight for what they think they deserve.”

Serena Williams, responding to Moore’s comments, said, “If I could tell you every day how many people say they don’t watch tennis unless they’re watching myself or my sister, I couldn’t even bring up that number.”

In fact, as Williams pointed out, tickets for the 2015 U.S. Open women’s final sold out before tickets to the men’s final.

Another factor in the discussion about equal pay for men’s and women’s tennis is that men play best-of-five sets in grand slam matches while women play best-of-three sets. In all non-grand-slam matches, men and women play three sets. In 2007, Wimbledon became the last grand slam tournament to offer equal prize money. So all four major tennis tournaments as well as other events such as Indian Wells and the Miami Open pay the same to men and women.

Referring to the grand slams, current world No. 2 Andy Murray told The New York Times in 2013, “I think the women should play best-of-five sets. I don’t see why they couldn’t do it. It would mean the days in the Slams are a little bit longer.

“And maybe it doesn’t have to be from the first rounds. I think either the men go three sets or the women go five sets. I think that’s more what the guys tend to complain about, rather than the equal prize money itself,” he said.

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Daily fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel have agreed to suspend paid contests in New York until an appellate court hearing in September on whether the sites violate state gambling laws.

The agreement, struck with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, comes as the companies are lobbying state lawmakers to pass legislation that would explicitly legalize the industry.

As NPR’s Joel Rose reports, New York is the second-biggest market for daily fantasy sports, after California.

Schneiderman “sued the two companies last year, arguing that they’re essentially gambling operations and therefore illegal under state law,” as Joel reports. “The fantasy sports companies deny that. They say they’re offering games of skill, not chance.”

On Dec. 11, a New York district court — acting on an enforcement action from Schneiderman — barred the companies from accepting bets. Later that day, a state appeals court overruled the decision and said the companies could continue operations until the case had been fully considered. Monday’s deal to accept the terms of the preliminary injunction is a victory, albeit a temporary one, for Schneiderman.

“I’m pleased to announce that both FanDuel and DraftKings will stop taking bets in New York State, consistent with New York State law and the cease-and-desist orders my office issued at the outset of this matter,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “As I’ve said from the start, my job is to enforce the law, and starting today, DraftKings and FanDuel will abide by it.”

Should the state Legislature not legalize daily fantasy sports contests before June 30, then the appellate court’s September ruling will stand. According to the agreement, if the court rules against the companies, the two sites will not make any further appeals. If the court rules in favor of the companies, the attorney general’s office must drop the crux of its case against the companies.

In his statement Monday, Schneiderman also said that regardless of the agreements, the state’s claims of false advertising and consumer fraud will continue.

A statement from DraftKings read, in part, “We will continue to work with state lawmakers to enact fantasy sports legislation so that New Yorkers can play the fantasy games they love.”

FanDuel also released a statement:

“New York is a critical state for FanDuel. FanDuel is headquartered in Manhattan, where we employ more than 170 young, smart, passionate fans who are committed to innovating and providing the best fantasy experience possible. We are proud to be one of New York’s largest startup companies, and while it is disheartening for us to restrict access to paid contests in our home state, we believe this is in the best interest of our company, the fantasy industry and our players while we continue to pursue legal clarity in New York.”

It also urged players to contact their government representatives about daily fantasy sports.

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Last summer, Yusra Mardini was swimming through the Aegean ocean in a last-ditch attempt to survive a perilous sea crossing from Turkey to Greece.

This summer, she hopes to swim in the Olympics.

Mardini is one of 43 refugees who are vying for the opportunity to compete at Rio as a part of the first-ever “Refugee Olympic Athletes” team.

In a video released by the International Olympic Committee, the 18-year-old Syrian refugee says it was difficult maintaining her athletic training during Syria’s war. Trainings were canceled — or held at pools that were then struck by explosives. She describes looking up at the roof over a pool and seeing the sky through holes blown by bombs.

Mardini fled her home in Damascus with her sister Sarah. The Associated Press describes their journey:

“The sisters left Damascus in early August, joining a wave of Syrian refugees who lost hope of the conflict ending soon. They made their way to Lebanon and then Turkey, where they paid smugglers to take them to Greece.

“Their first attempt was thwarted when Turkish coastguards drove their boat back so they tried again, boarding a small inflatable dinghy at dusk. There were 20 people crowded onto the boat, all but three of whom couldn’t swim. Within half an hour, the boat was taking on water.

“All the passengers’ bags were thrown overboard in an effort to stay afloat as wind churned up the Aegean Sea. But it wasn’t enough. As a last resort, Yusra, Sarah and another strong swimmer jumped into the water to give the boat more buoyancy.”

They spent 3 1/2 hours in the water before reaching Lesbos. It was awful, Yusra Mardini says, and left her with a hatred for the open sea.

But it didn’t destroy her love of swimming.

Mardini and her sister traveled through Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria before reaching Germany. There, the two of them were connected with a local swimming club.

Mardini has been training for the last five months, hoping to qualify for the Olympics.

In the video released by the IOC, Mardini says she didn’t want to sit around and cry.

“It’s tough. It was really hard, for everyone, and I don’t blame anyone if they cried. But sometimes you just have to move on,” she says.

She’s proud to be a refugee, she says: “My sister, when she wants to encourage me, says, ‘Show them the refugee, what she will do.’ “

But she’s more focused on being an athlete.

“In the water,” she says, “there is no difference if you are a refugee or a Syrian or German.”

All told, 43 athletes are aiming for a spot on the refugee team. The IOC has identified Mardini and two others: Raheleh Asemani, an Iranian taekwondo fighter living in Belgium, and Popole Misenga, a judo competitor from Congo training in Brazil. You can read about all three in The Guardian.

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Extending a long-awaited trip to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, No. 12 seed Yale upset fifth-seed Baylor in the West region Thursday night. Yale notched its first-ever win at the Big Dance, 79-75, relying on strong defense and rebounding.

The historic win comes at the Yale Bulldogs’ first trip to the NCAAs since 1962, as Yale’s student newspaper reports. The paper adds, “The Ivy League’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid has now resulted in five wins over the past seven tournaments.”

Yale moves on to face Duke in the second round — but at the post-game news conference Thursday night, one reporter’s question about rebounding created a memorable moment, as Baylor star Taurean Prince delivered an answer that’s being praised for exemplifying both straightforward simplicity and deadpan sarcasm.

After a reporter asked, “How does Yale outrebound Baylor?” Prince patiently explained:

“Um, you go up and grab the ball off the rim when it comes off. And then you grab it with two hands, and you come down with it, and that’s considered a rebound. So, they got more of those than we did.”

We’ll note that Prince, who scored 28 points in the game, did not mention the time-honored practice of using one’s body to establish position around the basket — the “boxing out” of one’s opponents, as he might have said. Yale outrebounded Baylor, 35-30.

Yale’s Bulldogs weren’t the only No. 12 seed to score an upset Thursday: The University of Arkansas Little Rock Trojans erased an imposing Purdue lead in the second half to shock the Boilermakers in double overtime, 85-83.

That win brought its own historic citations. As the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports, it is UALR’s “second NCAA Tournament victory and first in 30 years. It came after being down 14 points with four minutes left and by four points with 33 seconds left.”

The Trojans will now prepare to play the Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday.

For Yale, Thursday’s win brought welcome relief from the off-court controversy surrounding former captain Jack Montague, who attended the game — and who’s planning a lawsuit against the university over his expulsion that came after sexual assault allegations were made against him.

Yale’s win wasn’t as welcome for many basketball fans who filled out tournament brackets. After the game, CBS Sports said that fewer than 6 percent of brackets filed with the network remain perfect.

With March Madness now in full swing, millions of Americans will spend this weekend ignoring weather reports, tax deadlines and the U.S. election season to focus on college basketball. The NCAA lists the schedules for the men’s and women’s tournaments.

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FIFA is requesting tens of millions of dollars in restitution, arguing that it was a victim of its corrupt leadership.

FIFA’s Victim’s Statement, filed to authorities in New York on Wednesday, contends that the embattled international soccer federation is a “global force for good.” The organization is arguing that a group of disgraced leaders — rather than systemic corruption — is to blame for the onslaught of corruption and bribery allegations.

“Their actions have deeply tarnished the FIFA brand and impaired FIFA’s ability to use its resources for positive actions throughout the world, and to meet its global mission of supporting and enhancing the game of football,” the court document reads.

FIFA is asking for tens of millions in damages that defendants stand to pay after the conclusion of ongoing U.S.-based cases against more than 40 FIFA officials and other football organizations. A third of those defendants “have so far admitted to participating in longstanding bribery and kickback schemes,” The New York Times reports.

“These dollars were meant to build football fields, not mansions and pools; to buy football kits, not jewellery and cars; and to fund youth player and coach development, not to underwrite lavish lifestyles for football and sports marketing executives,” newly elected FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement. “When FIFA recovers this money, it will be directed back to its original purpose: for the benefit and development of international football.”

Here’s a breakdown of what FIFA wants, according to court documents:

• Tens of millions of dollars “at least” for reputational harm to FIFA.
• At least $28 million for money the defendants took from FIFA “under false pretenses.”
• $10 million allegedly stolen by three co-conspirators, “which they funneled as bribes for their personal use.”
• Compensation for other bribes and kickbacks, and legal fees for the ongoing cases.

“They sold the power of their positions, including by taking bribes and kickbacks in return for selling the valuable marketing rights associated with football tournaments and competitions,” the court documents say. “Together, the Defendants misappropriated FIFA’s resources, its brand, and its commercial value to enlarge their own bank accounts.”

In this document, FIFA “recognized for the first time executives had in the past ‘sold’ votes in World Cup hosting contests,” the Associated Press reports.

The document says former FIFA Vice President Jack Warner, his son Daryan and former FIFA executive Charles Blazer “engineered a $10 million payoff in exchange for Executive Committee votes regarding where the 2010 FIFA World Cup would be hosted.”

But as the AP notes, “it did not mention the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments awarded to Russia and Qatar, a decision which has triggered a criminal investigation by Swiss authorities.”

With this request for restitution, FIFA is fighting a perception that it is corrupt beyond repair after a series of scandals. As The New York Times reports, it “approved a broad set of reforms last month.” However “it has yet to conclude an ambitious internal inquiry into the ‘endemic’ corruption that American authorities suggested would not end with the firing of any single individual.”

But at the same time, as the Times reports, U.S. authorities have signaled that they view FIFA as a victim of its leadership:

“Enabling FIFA’s request is the United States government itself, which has characterized the organization as a victim of its leaders’ crimes. A basic premise of the Justice Department’s case is that soccer officials robbed FIFA and its confederations of their honest services. That prompted FIFA, in estimating the financial damage done by defendants in the United States case, to include not only bribe money routed away from soccer, but also salaries and bonuses paid to people who were supposed to be supporting the sport.”

According to the Times, “Authorities are not expected to rule on FIFA’s request until after the defendants have been sentenced, possibly years away.”

You can read FIFA’s full victim statement here:

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Selection Sunday is over. The field is set. Let the gambling begin.

People all across the country are poring over the NCAA basketball tournament bracket, hoping to correctly pick which of the 64 teams will advance through the tournament to the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight, the Final Four, and then, finally, the championship game.

This year, the number of “March Madness” brackets filled out is expected to top 70 million, according to the American Gaming Association. The gambling industry trade group estimates that this number will top the number of votes cast for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, or any other single presidential candidate in the 2016 general election.

In 2012, 66 million Americans voted for President Obama while 61 million voted for Mitt Romney, according to the Federal Election Committee, and no presidential candidate has ever received 70 million votes though Obama came close in 2008 with 69 million. (Speaking of Obama, even he participates, announcing his choices on ESPN in years past).

The possibility of making all the right picks also inspired billionaire Warren Buffet to hold a contest two years ago, offering $1 billion for a completely correct bracket. According to the data analytics website FiveThirtyEight, the odds of picking a 100 percent perfect bracket were one in 7,419,071,319. Needless to day, no one even came close to winning the $1 billion prize.

This year, Buffet’s contest offers $1 million every year for life, if a person correctly predicts the Sweet Sixteen round correctly, Yahoo Finance reports. Unfortunately, it’s only open to employees of Buffet’s companies.

In regular bracket pools, whoever makes the most correct picks wins, and as history has proved, the winner need not be a basketball fan at all. Last year, the owner of the only perfect bracket through the round of 64 was a 26-year-old sign language interpreter from Cleveland, according to ESPN. So what did he do to make his perfect picks?

” ‘Nothing,’ he said Saturday, after his first two picks of the day, UCLA and Kentucky, advanced. ‘I actually haven’t watched a full game this entire year.’

“Malachi [ESPN agreed to keep his surname secret] got much further than anyone got last year, as no entry on any of the major websites survived the round of 64.

“He said his brother called him Thursday morning to remind him that he only had 15 minutes to fill out a bracket. He filled out two.

” ‘I knew I had to have some upsets, but I can’t really give you specific reasons as to why I chose certain teams over others,’ he said.

This is part of what makes the NCAA tournament so engaging: Anyone can win — both in bracket pools, and in the tournament itself, which is cherished for its upsets and Cinderella stories.

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Players from Monmouth, St. Bonaventure and even Michigan State got the bad news the way so many folks do these days — through social media.

The bracket that leaked on Twitter while CBS was in the middle of unveiling the March Madness pairings turned out to be 100 percent accurate. That left a number of teams searching for answers a bit earlier than they’d hoped — and it gave the NCAA something else to explain, beyond the selection committee’s annual handful of unexpected — inexplicable? — decisions.

For Michigan State, the news was that it was a No. 2 seed, behind Oregon, Virginia, Kansas and North Carolina — a ranking that belied the predictions of almost every self-proclaimed bracketologist in the country. For the Hawks of Monmouth and the Bonnies of St. Bonaventure, along with South Carolina, St. Mary’s, San Diego State and a handful of other bubble teams, the news was even worse: They wouldn’t be part of March Madness.

“To me, that’s very unprofessional,” St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt said.

He was talking about the leaking of the bracket, which the NCAA called unfortunate and regrettable, though he could have just as easily been speaking of the selection committee’s overall body of work.

There was, as always, plenty to debate.

In the end, Michigan, Syracuse, Vanderbilt and, yes, even Tulsa, made it off the bubble. Monmouth, which went out of its way to toughen its schedule, per the NCAA’s mandate, and St. Bonaventure, which was rated 25 in the RPI but had bad strength of schedule, were among those that did not.

“This year, they say it’s top 50. Last year, it was road wins. Two years ago, it was RPI,” said Kentucky coach John Calipari, speaking to the vagaries of the selection committee’s criteria.

His team earned a No. 4 seed, while the team Kentucky beat only hours before the brackets came out, Texas A&M, was a “3.”

Even before Kentucky was done playing, the committee had more or less made up its mind on that one, said chairman Joe Castiglione, the athletic director of Oklahoma.

Then, not too much after Michigan State was wrapping up its title in the Big Ten Tournament – which serves as the lead-in to CBS’ bracket coverage – a copy of the pairings was going viral on Twitter. It showed up while CBS was on the air, putting a big damper on the network’s selection show, which had been newly super-sized, from one to two hours.

The NCAA is investigating.

“Nothing’s secure, huh? That’s great,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. “That is so typical. It’s so typical of college basketball.”

The 68-team tournament starts Tuesday, with the Final Four set for April 2 and 4 in Houston.

A few story lines to follow:

PLAY-IN GAMES: The opening-round game between 11th seeds Wichita State and Vanderbilt is being touted as potentially one of the best since the NCAA expanded the bracket to 68 teams in 2011. That game is Tuesday, along with a meeting of No. 16 seeds Florida Gulf Coast and Fairleigh Dickinson. On Wednesday, No. 16s Holy Cross and Southern meet, followed by Michigan vs. Tulsa in another pairing of 11s.

TOP BILLING: Kansas is the overall No. 1 seed. North Carolina got another of the top spots. The other No. 1s, Virginia and Oregon, were considered surprises in some circles. The Cavaliers were runners-up to North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Oregon got less attention because of the West Coast, though Michigan State was almost universally viewed as a higher-rated team. Not that Virginia’s road to the Final Four will be easy. This is the third straight year Virginia has Michigan State in its region. If they meet, it would be at the Midwest Regional final in Chicago, which could feel like a home game for the Spartans.

BET THE OVER: Here’s a sure thing that has nothing to do with your bracket: Take the ‘over’ in the Iowa State-Iona game. The fourth-seeded Cyclones average 81.8 points; the 13th-seeded Gaels average 79.6. They are playing in mile-high Denver, which means getting back on defense will be that much tougher. Also, already, Iona is trending as a popular upset pick.

HUH?: Castiglione listed Tulsa as the last bubble team to get in. The Golden Hurricane went 10-11 against teams in the top 200, a record no team had previously overcome to get an at-large bid. Oh, Tulsa also lost by 22 to Memphis in the American Athletic Conference quarterfinals. So off the grid was Tulsa that, as Selection Sunday approached, most bubble watchers weren’t even watching anymore. Apparently, the Golden Hurricane passed the eye – or some other – test to become the tournament’s most-unexpected at-large team.

TOPSY-TURVY: Given the season, maybe the surprises aren’t so surprising. This was one of the most unpredictable years for college basketball in history. Six times, the top spot in The Associated Press poll changed hands – one short of the record. Also, there were 31 conference tournaments, and the top seed came out the champion in only 10 of those. That put teams such as Fresno State, Florida Gulf Coast and Holy Cross, with its 14-19 record, in the dance. But it ultimately took away a few bubble spots — which left Monmouth and Co., on the outside looking in.

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