Sports

A player for Havana's Industriales baseball team winds up to throw a ball during a training session in Havana on Sept. 27. Cuba recently lifted a ban on its athletes' signing contracts to play overseas professionally.

After 50 Years, Cuba Says Its Baseball Players Can Go Abroad

4:45am November 28, 2013

by Nick Miroff

The baseball season is just getting started in Cuba, the first since Communist authorities lifted a half-century-old ban on players' signing professional contracts in other countries. But fans are confident top players will come back home eventually — and that the island has enough talent to go around.

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Y'Jazzmin Christopher, 7, takes up target practice at Archery in the Wild in Longmont, Colo. "She used to be a really shy person, but now she's opening socially," says Alicia Christopher, Y'Jazzmin's mom, about her daughter's archery.

More Girls Target Archery, Inspired By 'The Hunger Games'

12:32pm November 27, 2013

by Grace Hood

The popularity of The Hunger Games book and film series is leading to an uptick in the popularity of archery, especially among girls. USA Archery says membership is on the rise, and some sporting equipment outfitters have seen a big boost in bow and arrow sales in the years since the series began.

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Metro Meteor, a retired racehorse, stands with owners Ron and Wendy Krajewski and one of his paintings at Motters Station Stables in Rocky Ridge, Md., earlier this year.

The Horse Who Picked Up A Paintbrush

10:55am November 27, 2013

by Frank Deford

After his career at the racetrack ended, Metro Meteor was adopted by an artist in Pennsylvania, who discovered the horse's gift. Now, his paintings raise money to treat his knee problems and to help other retired thoroughbreds find new homes.

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Sports

Pacquiao Dedicates Boxing Win To Typhoon Survivors

1:11pm November 25, 2013

In Tacloban, a city in the Philippines nearly wiped away by this month's typhoon, survivors gathered to cheer on a hero. A TV screen was set up in a plaza showing Filipino boxing star Manny Pacquiao defeat American Brandon Rios.

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An Inside Look That Strips The Face Paint Off The NFL

8:44pm November 23, 2013

by Mike Pesca

Writer Nicholas Dawidoff spent a year living with the New York Jets and came away with a respect for players and coaches that not all fans will like. NPR's Mike Pesca says Dawidoff's new book, Collision Low Crossers: A Year Inside the Turbulent World of NFL Football, demystifies the game as it entrances.

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Hoops, He Did It Again: Player Has Second 100-Point Game

11:49am November 22, 2013

by Mark Memmott

Junior guard Jack Taylor of Grinnell College has followed up last year's record-breaking 138-point performance with another "century." He scored 109 points Sunday night in a victory over Crossroads College. He's the only player in NCAA history to have reached or exceeded 100 points twice.

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Sports

After Further Review, MLB Says OK To Instant Replay

3:58pm November 18, 2013

Other sports leagues have fully embraced instant replay to help officiating for years. Major League Baseball stubbornly held out...until Thursday. Owners approved a plan for instant replay starting next season. Sportswriter Stefan Fatsis tells Robert Siegel about that development and other off-season baseball matters, including Derek Jeter: Book Publisher.

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Sports

Chess Superstar Battles Chess Sex Symbol

11:22am November 16, 2013

The World Chess Championship, underway in India, features a faceoff between the sport's heavyweights. Guest host Don Gonyea can't help but inject politics to his conversation with NPR's Tom Goldman, as this week President Obama used sports metaphors to talk about the rollout of the Affordable Care Act.

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Sports

Pro Wrestling Mythology Plays Out In 'Squared Circle'

11:22am November 16, 2013

Professional wrestling is a big show, full of big characters with elaborate back stories delivering crushing blows in the ring. But, says David Shoemaker, it's also full of real athleticism and pain. Guest host Don Gonyea talks with Shoemaker, also known as "The Masked Man," about his new book, The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling.

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Cricket fans holding an Indian national flag cheer in front of a billboard of superstar cricketer Sachin Tendulkar outside a stadium in Mumbai on Thursday. India's favorite son dominated the sport for nearly a quarter of a century. Now, that fabled career

End Of An Era: India's Greatest Cricketer Begins Final Match

2:25am November 15, 2013

by Julie McCarthy

Combine the records of baseball legends Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Pete Rose, and that approximates what India's most revered sportsman, Sachin Tendulkar, achieved on the cricket field during his fabled 24-year career. The ascent of the sport's superstar coincided with the rise of the new India.

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