With #giftoflife @justin_wilson saved 6 lives today. He just keeps setting the bar higher. Keep Julia & the girls in your prayers #myherojw

— Stefan Wilson (@stef_wilson) August 25, 2015

Lem Turner made the shot during a freshman pep rally at Ball State University in Indiana. With the half-court shot, he won free tuition for a semester.

People were so nice this entire week, tons of respect for Greensboro. Very cool to see @Love3d get another win here.

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) August 23, 2015

It’s time now for sports! NPR’s Scott Simon talks to Howard Bryant of ESPN about a sexual assault conviction for a former Baylor University linebacker, and the Philadelphia Phillies of 2008.

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

And it’s now time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: Well, that was a good trade. Just three weeks after he was traded from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Houston Astros, Mike Fiers threw a no-hitter for his new team last night. He blanked the LA Dodgers. But the story in college football is grim. A Baylor defensive end was sentenced to six months in prison yesterday for sexual assault. What did Baylor know, and when did they know it? Howard Bryant of espn.com and ESPN the Magazine joins us now from the studios of New England Public Radio. Howard, thanks so much for being with us.

HOWARD BRYANT, BYLINE: Good morning, Scott.

SIMON: And let’s ask, please, about the case in Waco. Sam Ukwuachu has been sentenced 180 days, sexual assault. It’s only part of the story though.

BRYANT: Well, it’s – the story is really the university, Baylor University, knowing that here was a player who had had this issue, and they did nothing. They – there’s a – he said…

SIMON: He was tossed off the Boise State…

BRYANT: He was tossed off the – of the Boise State team, yes. He was a player at Boise State and was dismissed from the team and then transferred to Baylor. And now you have a he-said-he-said back and forth between Baylor Coach Art Briles and the coach at Boise State, Petersen – former coach, who’s now at Washington – about how – about what they knew. And Petersen is adamant that – he told ESPN yesterday that he told Baylor, told Briles, everything about Ukwuachu’s past. And Briles had previously said that they knew nothing, that the University told them nothing, that he had simply had some problems and was depressed over his former girlfriend. But the story is much deeper and much darker than that. And it goes back, once again, to how much do these universities want to know? It goes back to the things that we talk about constantly, about the talent trap of having people with ability and having the rules not apply to them and having the schools not want the rules to apply to them because they’re good players. And once again, now you’ve got a player who is facing 20 years. He got 180 days in jail but 10 years felony probation. And once more, these universities have a responsibility to the other students and to the women who were involved in this as well. There’s more to life than football, and there’s more to this than just their talent. And it’s – Ken Starr has promised an investigation. I think he knows a little bit about investigations (laughter), being the Lewinsky Whitewater guy from a bunch of years ago. So I really feel like this is something that these universities are not going to be able to get away with. But they keep getting away with it, and it’s very sad.

SIMON: Let’s switch to baseball if we could. Chase Utley was traded from the Phillies to the Dodgers this week. Does this mark the passing of an era?

BRYANT: Oh, sure it does. And I think it’s a good era in Philadelphia. Let’s not forget the Philadelphia Phillies were the losingest team in the history of baseball. They were founded in 1883. They’ve won two World Series. One was in 1980, and the other was with this group in 2008. You had Chase Utley and Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins and Cole Hamels, and three of them are gone now. And Ryan Howard’s the only one that’s left. But I think that it’s a good salute to Philadelphia. It’s a tough baseball town, and I feel like…

SIMON: Oh, I’ll say.

BRYANT: (Laughter) It’s a very tough baseball town.

SIMON: They threw no-hitters in Philadelphia, right?

BRYANT: That’s right. But if you’re a baseball fan, a generation of fans got to see some winning baseball in Philly. And that core group – we talk about numbers and players, but it’s nice to see that some players – the kids bought some jerseys and the players were still wearing them. And that’s what baseball should be all about.

SIMON: ESPN’s Howard Bryant, thanks so much.

BRYANT: Thank you.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

Major League Baseball is dominated by specialists but San Francisco’s Madison Bumgarner upsets convention. David Greene talks to Giants’ broadcaster Jon Miller about Bumgarner and pitchers with bats.

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

If you are watching or listening to a Major League Baseball game, the best moment to grab something from the fridge or run to the bathroom might be when a pitcher comes up to bat. Pitchers just aren’t good hitters – or so we thought. Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants did this last weekend against the Washington Nationals.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Bumgarner hits a high drive left field. This one is gone.

(CHEERING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Well that’s an exclamation point for a great game for Bumgarner, his fourth home run of the year. Yeah, he’s the best hitting pitcher. That was a shot.

GREENE: This could be part of a trend. Big league pitchers are hitting more home runs than in the past, especially in the National League, the only league that forces pitchers to bat. San Francisco Giants’ play-by-play announcer and all around baseball guru John Miller said this isn’t all that surprising.

JOHN MILLER: All the guys who are pitchers, when they played Little League and maybe even in high school, they were excellent athletes and not only could pitch but they played the field. And they were, in many cases, the best hitter on their teams there as well.

GREENE: This changes, though, when pitchers become pros and work their way through the minor leagues. They become specialists fine tuning their craft. If you’re a starting pitcher, you’re actually only throwing in a game once every five days or so. But there’s a lot to worry about in between, leaving little time to practice swinging the bat.

MILLER: Pitching, you think of the arm, and that’s very true. But the big aspect of pitching that is so critical are the legs, the base for the pitcher. And they run every day. They do a lot of calisthenics and starting and stopping and wind sprints and that sort of thing. They will throw on the side. They do their bullpen session in between. So they do a lot of work in between starts. And then there’s Madison Bumgarner, with the Giants, who actually is one of those guys who can hit a little bit, who has also been getting some calls here lately to hit as a pinch hitter for the Giants. So he’s been especially working hard, even when he’s not pitching.

GREENE: Why is this happening this year? Why do we see Madison Bumgarner and some other National League pitchers who seem to be hitting more home runs these days? I mean, is National League pitching getting worse? Are there some pitchers now who are just sort of showing their athleticism more?

MILLER: Well, I wouldn’t say that it’s really become a huge trend. Bumgarner’s for four home runs, and he hit five last year. He’s the best hitting pitcher I think in baseball, especially when it comes to power. But Zack Greinke of the Dodgers has hit a couple of home runs lately. And I think when you look at the batting averages for these guys, then you realize we’re still talking about a different class of hitter than the guys who are the regular, everyday players.

GREENE: You know, I was at a Pirates game in Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago. And the Pirates were down. Their pitcher, A.J. Burnett, came up, hit a home run. And it really sparked a comeback. I mean, the Pirates came back, beat the Cardinals. The team seemed to really rally around Burnett when they saw him hit that home run. Does it do something emotionally to a team when they watch their pitcher do something like that?

MILLER: Yeah, I think so. The whole Giants crowd was energized the other day when Bumgarner pitched in San Francisco. And he hit a home run. He also hit a double and knocked in a run. And he pitched just an incredible game, a shutout, with 14 strikeouts. And it turned out he was the second pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball – Juan Marichal, another Giant, was the only other ever to have hit a home run in a game, have 10 or more strikeouts and pitcher shout-outs. So I think his teammates were energized by him. And the fans love it. He came in as a pinch hitter in St. Louis a couple of days later. And that’s not the norm. And they brought him in with two down in the ninth inning, down by a run. And his manager, Bruce Bochy, just said, well, I looked at what I had left on the bench, and the one guy who had the best chance of hitting a home run to tie the game up for us was Madison Bumgarner. And that’s what we needed, and that’s why I put him out there.

GREENE: And what happened?

MILLER: Trevor Rosenthal.

GREENE: Cardinals closer.

MILLER: Struck him out. There was no joy in San Francisco.

GREENE: John Miller, I hope you enjoy the series between the Giants and Pirates in Pittsburgh.

MILLER: All right, all the best.

GREENE: John Miller, the voice of the San Francisco Giants. He is in Pittsburgh, where Madison Bumgarner will pitch tonight against the Pirates, hopefully giving up home runs and not hitting them.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

After going hitless in 18 at bats, Rodriguez hit a homerun Tuesday night. NPR’s Robert Siegel speaks to MLB Network Insider and New York Post sportswriter Joel Sherman about A-Rod’s comeback season.

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Last night at Yankee Stadium in the bottom of the seventh inning, New York was down by three to the Minnesota Twins. The bases were loaded, and Alex Rodriguez, hitless in his previous 18 at-bats, stepped up to the plate and smashed the ball over the right-center field fence. The Yankees won the game, and it was another chapter in the odd story of Alex Rodriguez’s comeback season. Joel Sherman writes the baseball column for the New York Post and joins us now.

Welcome to the program.

JOEL SHERMAN: Thank you Robert.

SIEGEL: And take us back to before the beginning of this season when Alex Rodriguez was pushing 40. He’d just served a season-long suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs, which he’d long denied. Is it fair to say that the Yankees’ management really just wanted him to go away?

SHERMAN: Well, I think in their preference on multiple layers were that he’d go away. I think they were, A) concerned that he couldn’t play baseball much anymore – he was 39, he had just had a second major hip surgery and he couldn’t catch up to a fastball the last time we saw them, then there was the question of, you know, them feeling duped by him and still having three years and about $60-odd million left, and they’d loved to have gotten out of that money that they owed him. And plus they were worried about him becoming some kind of distraction where people were just interested in the TMZ part of the Alex Rodriguez affair. And so I think there was huge concerns on all of those levels, and as it turned out, he’s actually been one of the big success stories for the Yankees.

SIEGEL: Yeah, talk about the season that he’s had this year. We should say the Yankees, to the surprise of many, are in first place in the American League East.

SHERMAN: Yeah, and one of the reasons they’re in first place in the American League East is, maybe Alex Rodriguez hasn’t played like prime Alex Rodriguez but he certainly played like a primetime player. There’s been a bunch of times where he’s had these little mini slumps, and you thought, aha – here’s the moment where he’s done, his body is breaking down, he turned 40 in July. And instead, he’s been a vital part of what’s a greatly improved offense from the last two seasons. And he’s also part of the fabric of leadership. I think even his greatest critics would agree that he’s actually a baseball gym rat. He loves the game. And one of the things he likes best about it is working with young players and incorporating them into both the clubhouse life, the major league life, and feeding them with information. And so he’s been an important part of the leadership fabric as well.

SIEGEL: Just one question about something. You mentioned Alex Rodriguez has many slumps and every time he goes into one, people think, aha – there it is, I knew he was finished. In 2006, you wrote, (reading) time to face facts – A-Rod simply doesn’t have it.

Next year, he hits 52 home runs and steals 24 bases. What is it about this guy – immensely talented – that he seems to be done for and he just comes back?

SHERMAN: Well, at that time, I would suspect that one of the things that helped bring him back was also what brought him to a suspension. He defied time, as a lot of players in that era defied time, by not playing legally.

SIEGEL: You’re saying performance-enhancing drugs?

SHERMAN: Yes. I mean, clearly, he was taking performance-enhancing drugs in 2010 and probably 2011 at the minimum, which probably helped him defy injury, recovery situations and age. But, you know, let’s start with who he is. Alex Rodriguez was the first pick in the first round of a draft. I think anybody who did amateur scouting would tell you that in the last 40 years – if you skipped to somebody who’s done amateur scouting in that period – there’s maybe two or three players, the Ken Griffey Jrs., the Alex Rodriguezs, the Bryce Harpers, who stand out, that they would be the first pick in the last 40 years of drafts if you put everyone together. So unique athletes tend to be able to last longer and be better than others. So he’s a very successful player now. I have two children. I wouldn’t bet their lives or my lives that he’s doing it clean, and, you know, let’s hope he is. It’s a greater story if he is. But he has kind of fooled us once already, and so the shame would be on me to believe him moving forward.

SIEGEL: Joel Sherman, of the New York Post and MLB Network Insider, thanks for talking with us.

SHERMAN: Thank you.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

The National Labor Relations Board announced Monday it dismissed a previous ruling by a Chicago regional office in favor of the Northwestern University athletes.

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

College football players cannot unionize – at least for now. Today, the National Labor Relations Board dismissed a case brought by football players at Northwestern University. They had argued that student athletes are actually employees who should be able to join a union. NPR’s Cheryl Corley has the story.

CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: It could have been the first union for college athletes – the College Athletes Players Association, or CAPA. Last year, a regional director of the NLRB in Chicago ruled that Northwestern University football players on scholarship are employees. The university and the NCAA appealed that decision. Today, the full NLRB board dismissed the case. It said it did not have jurisdiction over state-run schools. Those schools make up the majority of the football schedules in which Northwestern, a private university, participates.

JOHN ADAM: Well, the NLRB, you know, to use a legal term, punted.

CORLEY: That’s John Adam, attorney for CAPA.

ADAM: They decided not to decide the question on the merits.

CORLEY: What the NLRB did say was that a union in college sports would not promote uniformity and stability in labor relations, and the board did not want to single out just one team. Northwestern University spokesman Alan Cubbage said the university was both surprised and pleased with the decision.

ALAN CUBBAGE: Northwestern considers its students who participate in sports, including those who receive scholarships, to be students, first and foremost. They are not employees. They are students.

CORLEY: The NCAA prohibits players from earning income beyond their academic scholarships and any nominal stipends to cover the cost of college attendance. At a news conference last year, former Northwestern University quarterback Kain Colter said that he and other student athletes were employees who worked more than 40 hours a week practicing and playing games, work that can earn millions for universities.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KAIN COLTER: We are not taking these measures out of any mistreatment from Northwestern. However, we recognize that we need to eliminate unjust NCAA rules that create physical, academic and financial hardships for college athletes across the nation.

CORLEY: Colter and others argued that players, even with scholarships, struggled to pay for basic living expenses, and some suffer severe injuries. The players voted secretly on whether to join the union. Today’s decision to dismiss the case means those votes will not be counted. CAPA attorney John Adam agrees there was no particular problem with Northwestern, but this push was to make sure that student athletes had a voice. He says that’s an issue that CAPA will continue to pursue.

ADAM: You need a check and balance of some sort, and right now it’s not there.

CORLEY: Adam said the fight isn’t over, and the NLRB said it could reconsider the issue in the future. Cheryl Corley, NPR News, Chicago.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

NPR’s Scott Simon talks baseball with Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN the Magazine. This season’s hot baseball teams are usually underdogs — the Cubs, Blue Jays and Mets.

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Time now for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: Nine, 10, 11 – the Yankees win last night, stopped the Toronto Blue Jays winning streak at 11. But this summer’s dog days have seen baseball’s underdogs rise up. Howard Bryant of espn.com and ESPN The Magazine joins us from the studios of New England Public Radio.

Morning, Howard.

HOWARD BRYANT, BYLINE: Morning, Scott. How are you?

SIMON: I’m fine because the three hottest teams in baseball are the Toronto Blue Jays, the Mets, who happened to lose to Pittsburgh yesterday, and I don’t want to cast a curse on them now…

BRYANT: (Laughter).

SIMON: …But a team from the north side of Chicago who defeated the White Sox, who aren’t pushovers, 6-5 yesterday. What’s in the water?

BRYANT: I think that curse predates you, Scott – even you. It predates you.

SIMON: (Laughter) Yes, hundred years old.

BRYANT: Once again, we’ve had this conversation a few times, especially we had it last year when you were looking at the Kansas City Royals doing what they did last year. And you’re looking at some of these teams that hadn’t been very good for a long time suddenly starting to compete this year. It’s insane. It’s fantastic in a lot of ways. Last year, you had Kansas City. You had Baltimore coming back. This year, you’ve got the Astros. You’ve got the Blue Jays. You’ve got the Cubs, and the Mets are in first place. It’s insane.

And it’s good for baseball. I think it’s one of the things that you need, especially with a 162-game season. You need when those trucks roll out in spring training to feel like your team has a chance and more than ever teams feel like they have a chance. Right now, if the playoffs started, you’d have the Angels and the Blue Jays playing a one-game playoff and the Cubs and the Pirates playing each other in the postseason, which they’ve never done.

SIMON: Yeah, yeah. That would be wonderful, but I’m not going to get ahead of myself. Quick…

BRYANT: And the Mets in the playoffs as well, already.

SIMON: Oh, my word. Well, nothing that either of us would have predicted – you probably – when the season began. I think I remember you saying that. Of course I always predict the Cubs, but, you know, no need to reopen that. Quick switch to football. Michael Sam released a statement yesterday. He’s leaving the Montreal Alouettes, says he’s worried about his mental health. He was greeted with a lot of excitement in the Canadian Football League. Any insight into what might be going on with this young man?

BRYANT: Well, very difficult story. We always knew that there was going to be a price when you’re the first anything – the first openly gay player, especially in that sport, especially being the Defensive Player of the Year in Missouri, as he was in his senior year, and then not getting drafted. And then trying to catch on with some teams, catch on with St. Louis, that didn’t work. Tried to catch on with Dallas, that didn’t work. And then he went to Montreal and was greeted with open arms.

I think a lot of the community wanted him to succeed. I think that the sports community wants to see this story work. And then he left the team. And then he left the team again. And so the one thing that we knew was that there was going to be a big price for being first. And I think that it’s very, very difficult to know what’s happening with him. What we do know, however, is that it’s going to be very hard for him to continue playing because teams want you to be on the field. And if he’s not there, it just makes it more and more difficult.

SIMON: Don’t want the week to pass without noting LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers announced a program to send more than a thousand youngsters from Akron, his hometown, to college. This is a sports star. He’s been famous since he was a high school athlete who’s become a mensch, a real man in all ways.

BRYANT: He’s walking the walk. Absolutely, it’s wonderful. He’s walking the walk. I think when you look at LeBron as a political figure, as a basketball player, he’s starting to move into that Bill Russell territory, the Mohammed Ali territory, where he’s not just a player. He’s a citizen of the world. And I think this is what we’ve always wanted. We didn’t get that from the Michael Jordan era. And he’s ushering in something that should be respected no matter how many wins or losses he has on the field.

SIMON: ESPN’s Howard Bryant. Thanks so much.

BRYANT: My pleasure.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

So disappointing to see a fellow athlete and colleague be so disrespectful in a way I could never even imagine.

— Stanislas Wawrinka (@stanwawrinka) August 13, 2015

What was said I wouldn’t say to my worst enemy.
To stop so low is not only unacceptable but also beyond belief.

— Stanislas Wawrinka (@stanwawrinka) August 13, 2015

There is no need for this kind of behaviour on or off the court and I hope the governing body of this sport does not stand…

— Stanislas Wawrinka (@stanwawrinka) August 13, 2015

… for this and stands up for the integrity of this sport that we have worked so hard to build.

— Stanislas Wawrinka (@stanwawrinka) August 13, 2015