MLB

6:34 AM ET You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we’ll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history. ON THIS DATE IN 2016, Toronto’s Darwin Barney gave up a game-winning home run in the 19th inning. Barney, of course, is

7:00 AM ET David Schoenfield Close ESPN Senior Writer Senior writer of SweetSpot baseball blog Former deputy editor of Page 2 Been with ESPN.com since 1995 Jesse Rogers Close ESPN Staff Writer Jesse joined ESPN Chicago in September 2009 and covers MLB for ESPN.com. It’s here. Finally. Spring training 2.0. Or make that summer camp.

5:31 PM ET Marly RiveraESPN Writer Close Marly Rivera is a writer for ESPNdeportes.com and ESPN.com. There are no protocols that can completely eliminate the risk of contracting the coronavirus. Therefore, despite Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association having developed an extensive manual to aid in the task of resuming play in 2020,

7:00 AM ET In around three weeks, if fate smiles upon us all in a way that it hasn’t for most of 2020, we will have regular-season baseball. We will have a little more than a three-month sprint to crown a World Series champion, one whose validity will be debated forever after. A 60-game season

8:00 AM ET AT A TIME when industries across America are facing a racial reckoning following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the rising support of the Black Lives Matter movement, Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations, Theo Epstein, spoke out recently about the homogeneity of today’s Major League Baseball front offices.

11:37 PM ET Ian Desmond will opt out of playing this season, the Colorado Rockies‘ outfielder announced Monday. “The COVID-19 pandemic has made this baseball season one that is a risk I am not comfortable taking,” he wrote at the end of a lengthy post on Instagram that touched on race and opportunities for youth

8:00 AM ET High school baseball in Japan is a noisy, communal, hyperkinetic affair. It starts right away, as coaches hit pregame infield practice with three baseballs going at once, one after another after another, and the constant collision of chatter resembles an aviary. It’s difficult to square this raucous spectacle with the perception of

7:00 AM ET Despite a global pandemic and contentious labor fight, Major League Baseball is, in fact, on track to return this year, in one form or another. But baseball’s reach is far greater than its highest level. Countless other people — in high schools and throughout college campuses, from youth teams and travel ball

9:40 PM ET ESPN.com staff With Major League Baseball scheduled to open camps for “spring training 2.0” in the coming days, teams had to submit their initial 60-man player pools Sunday. Players still can be added with many teams listing fewer than 60 names, but this at least gives us a glimpse of whom we’ll

4:47 PM ET Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Edgar Santana was suspended 80 games without pay by Major League Baseball on Sunday after testing positive for a banned substance. MLB said in a statement that Santana was positive for Boldenone, a performance-enhancer. Santana, a 28-year-old right-handed reliever, missed the 2019 season because of Tommy John surgery. In

7:00 AM ET Watching Major League Baseball start a second “spring” training now, amid surging coronavirus infections in the states where many hundreds of ballplayers reside, is like climbing into a sailboat just as the outer bands of a hurricane swirl closer on the horizon. But this is where baseball is in this moment, and

11:23 AM ET ESPN News Services KEY WEST, Fla. — Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Andrew Toles was in jail earlier this week, charged with trespassing property. Toles, 28, was detained this week at the airport in Key West, Florida, by a Monroe County sheriff deputy. The Miami Herald reported Toles was found sleeping behind a

2:27 PM ET The reigning World Series champion Washington Nationals are slated to host the New York Yankees when baseball returns, sources confirmed to ESPN on Saturday. The matchup between last year’s champion and this year’s co-favorite is set to take place on Opening Day at Nationals Park, although Major League Baseball has yet to

12:17 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Following the revelation that multiple co-workers had tested positive for the coronavirus, Texas Rangers employees told ESPN on Friday night that they fear for their health and hope the organization will allow

6:32 PM ET ESPN staff Now that Major League Baseball has a start date for its pandemic-shortened season, it faces hard realities in markets where the coronavirus is spiking, notably Houston, where a top health official says he might object to games if current trends aren’t reversed — and soon. The rate of coronavirus cases

12:15 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Ten days ago, as Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association continued haggling over finances in return-to-play discussions, one official said the whole thing felt like “Game of Thrones.” All this

1:47 AM ET A family of Los Angeles Dodgers fans is seeking $17 million in damages over claims that they were racially profiled and treated with excessive force by the team’s security personnel during a game last October. The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, stems from an incident that took place

7:44 AM ET You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we’ll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history. ON THIS DATE IN 1988, a major league game began without a center fielder on the field. The Angels’ Devon White, one