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(Photo: The Associated Press) HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) — Atlanta Motor Speedway’s slot in NASCAR’s schedule is going from Labor Day weekend to late winter. The move, however, does not leave AMS President Ed Clark cold. The track’s final Labor Day weekend Sprint Cup race is Sunday night. Next year, Atlanta racing shifts to the second week in the schedule, right behind the Daytona 500. It looks like a demotion for…

Kasey Kahne is in the Chase.  Entering the Oral-B USA 500 directly on the bubble of the Chase for Sprint Cup on Sunday night, the 34-year-old was able to enter Victory Lane after an absolutely wild finish, effectively booking his spot in the top 16 and saving his season.  NASCAR’s Twitter feed provided a look at the celebration: Winner! https://t.co/Ni82demQqI — NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 1, 2014 It has been a…

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FRED FLETCHER DOESN’T watch baseball anymore, but one night in May, he got a text from a friend: Something had happened at that evening’s Atlanta Braves game. An 8-year-old boy had been hit in the head by a line drive foul off the bat of Milwaukee Brewer Carlos Gomez during the seventh inning. In bed, with the volume on low so he wouldn’t wake his wife, Fletcher…

Atlanta Motor Speedway’s slot in NASCAR’s schedule is going from Labor Day weekend to late winter. The move, however, does not leave AMS President Ed Clark cold. The track’s final Labor Day weekend Sprint Cup race is Sunday night. Next year, Atlanta racing shifts to the second week in the schedule, right behind the Daytona 500. It looks like a demotion for the track and a gamble with Atlanta’s unpredictable…

Following a three-week absence, Tony Stewart is returning to competition this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Almost universally, his competitors are welcoming him back. Shortly after reading an emotional statement in his first public appearance since Aug. 9, Stewart received a hug from teammate Kurt Busch and Busch’s girlfriend Patricia Driscoll. Aric Almirola gave Stewart a thumbs up before climbing into his car for the first of two practice…

For all the talk about speeding up MLB games, a 50-inning high school rubber baseball game in Japan might be the perfect catalyst to starting up productive talks in the United States. Chukyo and Sotoku, two teams competing in the semifinals of the 59th National High School Rubber Baseball Tournament, traded zeros for 49 innings before Chukyo scraped three runs across the board in the 50th inning.   As MLB’s…

NFL rookie Michael Sam watches the game between the Missouri Tigers and the South Dakota State Jackrabbits during the second half at Faurot Field.(Photo: Jasen Vinlove, USA TODAY Sports) Though the first chapter of Michael Sam’s NFL story lasted just a summer, ending Saturday when he failed to make the St. Louis Rams’ 53-man roster at the end of training camp, his very arrival as the league’s first openly gay…

Following a three-week absence, Tony Stewart is returning to competition this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Almost universally, his competitors are welcoming him back. Shortly after reading an emotional statement in his first public appearance since Aug. 9, Stewart received a hug from teammate Kurt Busch and Busch’s girlfriend Patricia Driscoll. Aric Almirola gave Stewart a thumbs up before climbing into his car for the first of two practice…

Following a three-week absence, Tony Stewart is returning to competition this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Almost universally, his competitors are welcoming him back. Shortly after reading an emotional statement in his first public appearance since Aug. 9, Stewart received a hug from teammate Kurt Busch and Busch’s girlfriend Patricia Driscoll. Aric Almirola gave Stewart a thumbs up before climbing into his car for the first of two practice…

Tony Stewart will return to competition at this weekend’s NASCAR event at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Stewart-Haas Racing announced Thursday. A three-time NASCAR champion, Stewart has missed three consecutive races since his involvement in the Aug. 9 death of Kevin Ward Jr. during a sprint car race at Canandaigua (N.Y.) Motorsports Park. More on Tony Stewart More on Tony Stewart …

Following a three-week absence, Tony Stewart is returning to competition this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Almost universally, his competitors are welcoming him back. Shortly after reading an emotional statement in his first public appearance since Aug. 9, Stewart received a hug from teammate Kurt Busch and Busch’s girlfriend Patricia Driscoll. Aric Almirola gave Stewart a thumbs up before climbing into his car for the first of two practice…

The NASCAR rule book has always been filled with great ambiguity with plenty of room for interpretation by teams and officials alike. And even when a rule may seem clear-cut, there is a term noted in the fine print that overrides any seemingly absolutes. That term is “except in rare instances,” which is NASCAR speak for allowing officials to modify a rule on a whim or to best fit…

Poughkeepsie High School junior wide receiver Jovan Atkinson goes high in the air to make a catch during his team’s second day of football practice.(Photo: Spencer Ainsley/Poughkeepsie Journal) In the nearly 250 columns that have run each Friday in this space since we first created this “Sideline Talk” weekly feature in November 2009, we’ve gotten some things right, and some things wrong. Take for instance that very first column, from…

Tony Stewart will be allowed to participate if he qualifies for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, NASCAR president Mike Helton said Friday. “This has been a very unique set of circumstances to Tony and to our sport,” Helton said. “… After evaluating the circumstances around this occurrence, we’ve come to the conclusion that Tony would be eligible to participate in the Chase if he were to earn a…

At one end of the pacing continuum we have the current malaise of slowness (real, exaggerated or imagined), and on the other end we have what unfurled on Aug. 30, 1916 in the North Carolina State League. What unfurled was a 31-minute nine-inning game between the Winston-Salem Twins and the Asheville Tourists. It was one of the last games of the 1916 Class D regular season, and the Twins had…

Branch Rickey, owner and manager of the St. Louis Cardinals is shown here on July 26, 1922. (Photo: AP Photo ) Branch Rickey was a young baseball coach at Ohio Wesleyan in 1903 when he took his team to South Bend, Indiana, to play Notre Dame. The hotel refused an accommodation for the Bishops’ star catcher, Charles Thomas, because he was black. Rickey finally convinced the desk clerk to allow…

CHICAGO (AP) — Chris Sale struck out a season-high 13 in seven innings, beating Max Scherzer in a matchup of All-Star aces and leading the Chicago White Sox past the Detroit Tigers 6-3 in the first game of a day-night doubleheader Saturday. Adam Dunn hit a two-run homer and Tyler Flowers also went deep against Scherzer (15-5), who fanned 11 and walked none in 6 2-3 innings. But he was…

Elk Grove High School senior Nick Madrigal can play in the majors now, according to former big-league shortstop David Eckstein. That’s a bold statement about someone who is 17 years old and just 5-foot-7 and 145 pounds. Eckstein understands what it takes to make misconception about size in baseball disappear. Eckstein, just 5-6, was the 2006 World Series MVP with the St. Louis Cardinals. “I think he can play shortstop…