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MILAN — The public address announcer at the Milano Rho Hockey Arena hadn’t even finished explaining who scored the USA’s third goal of Friday night’s rout of Italy when Laila Edwards cut him off mid-sentence.

The American defender fired a rocket through traffic that beat Italian goalkeeper Gabriella Durante, added to her team’s lead and had the U.S. goal song “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd blaring over the arena speakers yet again.

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“Free Bird” played on a loop during the 6-0 quarterfinal thrashing of eighth-seeded Italy, just as it has throughout this Olympic women’s hockey tournament. It has reached a point where the U.S. isn’t just playing for an Olympic gold medal anymore. The Americans are two victories away from staking their claim as the best women’s hockey team their country has ever produced.

“I’ve been on a lot of teams throughout my career, but there’s something special about this one,” American forward Kendall Coyne Schofield said. “I think it’s ultimately how enjoyable it is to be in that locker room and how everyone is willing to do whatever it takes for this team, no matter what the role is.”

Outshooting Italy 51-6 was the most savage example yet of the team’s tournament-long dominance. The Americans have steamrolled to the semifinals by outscoring their first five opponents 26-1 and outshooting them 225-72.

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The only goal the U.S. has surrendered was a flukey one in its opening game of group play. Czechia’s Barbora Jurickova emerged from the penalty box at the exact same moment the U.S. coughed up possession of the puck, producing a breakaway opportunity that resulted in the lone blemish against the Americans’ record.

“I’m a big believer that the best offense is the best defense, U.S. coach John Wroblewski said. “Possession, hunting loose pocks, making it as hard on the defense as you possibly can make it. So if they are going to go on offense, they’ve earned their entire 200 feet and they’re caught in between changes. Then, you’re ready to reload with fresh players.”

For decades, Canada has been the Americans’ bitter rival and primary competition; the team that has beaten them in five of seven Olympic gold medal matches. On Tuesday, in the final game of group play, the U.S. inflicted the worst beatdown on the Canadians in their brilliant Olympic history, a 5-0 shutout that was every bit as lopsided as the score suggests.

That outcome wasn’t an outlier either. The Americans have now won seven straight against their North American rivals. Earlier this winter, they swept four straight games against Canada in the Rivalry Series by a combined score of 24-7.

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The Americans have been so impressive that legendary defender Angela Ruggiero earlier this week declared this the best U.S. team of all time. Ruggiero, part of the 1998 U.S. team that won Olympic gold, elaborated when reached Friday by Yahoo Sports.

“They just have tremendous depth to the roster,” Ruggiero said. “Point producers up and down the lineup. Both goalies are superb. Fast. Youth energy coupled with some veterans.”

“I could go on and on,” she added.

Whereas Canada chose to bring back most of its aging stars from its gold medal run at the 2022 Olympics, the U.S. overhauled its roster after those Games and welcomed a wave of promising newcomers. College stars like Abbey Murphy, Caroline Harvey, Tessa Janecke and Edwards joined longtime stalwarts Hilary Knight and Alex Carpenter, among others.

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The chemistry developed over the past four years is paying off now. The newcomers have brought speed, intensity and depth. On Friday alone, Edwards helped put away the game with a goal, Harvey made an impact at both ends and Murphy leaped to the defense of a teammate when she felt Italy was getting needlessly rough.

“A lot of people like to talk about the younger players,” Coyne Schofield said, “but to me they’re young by age only. “They’ve worn the jersey. They’ve played in big games.”

It’s a testament to Italian goaltender Durante that the host country stayed in striking distance as long as it did Friday night. Durante saved 19 of the 20 shots she faced during the first period, including a diving stick save to rob Murphy of what looked to be a certain goal.

The dam broke less than two minutes into the second period when American forward Kendall Coyne Schofield collected the puck behind the Italy net and seemed to catch Durante unaware. Coyne Schofield snuck the puck through Durante from a tight angle to give the U.S. a 2-0 lead and to unleash an avalanche.

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Schofield struck again three minutes later. Then it was Edwards. Then Britta Curl-Salemme and Hannah Bilka. By the end of the second period, it was 6-0 and the U.S. could start looking ahead to the semifinals.

“From their first line to their fourth line, they have amazing players,” Italian player Matilde Fantin said. “That’s what makes them different from other countries. They have so much depth and speed.”

NBA free agent Malik Beasley is signing a deal with Bad Bunny’s professional basketball team in his native Puerto Rico. Beasley, 29, has agreed to play for the Santurce Crabbers of the Baloncesto Superior Nacional (BSN) league, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports.

The nine-year NBA veteran has been a free agent since being investigated by the U.S. District Attorney’s office for allegations of gambling on NBA games and prop bets in June. Beasley confirmed the signing on social media.

“Shoutout to @badbunnypr for giving me the opportunity to just hoop,” Beasley wrote on Instagram, accompanying a video of him dribbling a basketball. “With everything going on, I wanted to be close to home and give myself a chance to be seen again.”

“Coming off my best season in the NBA, I know I can only build from here,” he added. “The grind hasn’t changed. I’m more humble than ever, and I’ve learned a lot about myself through it all. If you’re still with me, you’re still with me.”

The Baloncesto Superior Nacional season begins in March.

As Beasley alluded to in his Instagram post, he’s coming off an excellent season during which he averaged 16.3 points and shot 42% on 3-pointers while appearing in all 82 games for the Detroit Pistons. He helped fuel a resurgence by Detroit, which went from the NBA’s worst record (14-68) in 2023-24 to a playoff team last season that lost a first-round series to the New York Knicks in six games.

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Finishing second in voting for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award, Beasley was in position to cash in as a free agent following the season. But on the verge of signing a three-year, $42 million deal with the Pistons, the reports of Beasley’s involvement in a federal gambling investigation put negotiations on hold. As the NBA also investigated those gambling allegations, no other team showed interest in free agency.

Continuing a tumultuous summer, Beasley was sued by his agency, Hazan Sports Management Group, for breach of contract. And he was evicted from his downtown Detroit high-rise apartment for failing to pay $21,500 in rent.

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In August, Beasley’s attorneys told ESPN that he was no longer a part of the federal gambling probe.

Beasley’s performance during the 2023-24 season with the Milwaukee Bucks is drawing scrutiny from federal prosecutors. A prominent U.S. sportsbook noticed unusual betting activity for prop bets on Beasley beginning in January 2024, ESPN’s David Payne Purdum reported. That season, he started 77 games, averaging 11.3 points per game and shooting 41% on 3-pointers.

Bad Bunny is all over the sports world

Meanwhile, Bad Bunny is keeping his name in the sports news cycle after a performance during the Super Bowl halftime show that averaged 128.2 million viewers and dominated conversation the following days.

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The superstar singer and rapper was also revealed to have offered to pay for Carlos Correa’s insurance, which would have allowed him to play for Puerto Rico in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. The Houston Astros third baseman was denied coverage during the tournament due to ankle and wrist injuries.

However, after consulting with Major League Baseball and agent Scott Boras, Correa declined the offer, saying the company pitched by Bad Bunny had a history of not paying players back.

LIVIGNO, Italy — There were two things everybody agreed on after the men’s snowboard halfpipe final Friday night.

First, what the 12 finalists just participated in was the heaviest, most exciting, most daring halfpipe competition ever held anywhere.

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Second, whatever Japan’s doing to dominate this event, the United States and other countries need to figure it out before the next Winter Olympics in 2030.

After all the corks, switches and grabs that dazzled the crowds stacked up along the halfpipe at Livigno Snow Park, it was Yuto Totsuka sobbing atop the podium with a gold medal hanging around his neck as the Japanese national anthem played. Next to him was another Japanese rider, Ryusei Yamada, who won bronze. And clapping for both of them were Ruka Hirano in fourth and Ayumu Hirano, who finished seventh and wasn’t that far off from the performance that won him the gold medal in 2022.

“Everyone was going massive,” New Zealand’s Campbell Melville Ives said. “It’s not often that so many people land such crazy runs.”

The craziest was the one Totsuka put down about half an hour earlier: A monster with two triple-cork 1440s, a switch backside-double 1080 and a backside-double 1260, good enough for the judges to award a 95.00. And he deserved every bit of it.

Scotty James, the Australian legend who won bronze in 2018 and silver four years ago, has won everything but a gold medal. Starting the final run just 1.5 points behind Tatsuka and the silver in his pocket, the opportunity was right there on the last run to do something historic. It just wasn’t meant to be: James’ final trick, the one he needed to one-up Totsuka, didn’t quite land.

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“I went for a back 1620 on the last hit, and that would have been the run, I think, to do it,” James said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t make it.”

In many ways, though, who hit the podium was secondary to the show everybody put on and the evolving story of the sport itself.

Every four years, halfpipe riders showcase tricks with more amplitude, more flips, more spins, more flair, more fearlessness. Go back and watch Shaun White’s run from 20 years ago in Turin when he won his first of three gold medals. For its time, it was impressive — the best in the world. But by today’s standards? Rudimentary.

When he repeated in 2010, White’s 1260 Double McTwist trick was a ground-breaker. Nobody else could do it. Friday night, if that was your best trick, it would have made you a spectator.

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Or how about this for context: Veteran American rider Chase Josey said every run that landed Friday night could have won a gold medal at some previous point in history.

“That’s just a fact,” he said. “Four years ago, probably the top-five runs [Friday] would have won it. It just goes to show that four years of progression really goes fast.”

It leaves us with a question: Where does it end? How big can these tricks get? And, from an American point of view, can our snowboarders keep up?

Yes, there’s a lot of promise around 17-year-old Alessandro Barbieri, who landed a basic run on his first attempt to score 75.00 points but couldn’t put one down when it was time to go bigger and finished 10th.

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But when you ask these riders what the difference is between the Americans and a Japanese system that has claimed six of the last 12 Olympic halfpipe medals with a deep bench of talent — at times Friday, it seemed like Japan was having its own competition within the Olympic final — there is an answer.

The Japanese have built an airbag training facility that Josey described as “next level” because it allows riders to mimic a takeoff and landing as they would on a real halfpipe.

“That’s something the U.S. doesn’t have right now,” he said. “We’ve made the trip over to that facility and trained it, and you can see the difference it makes for younger riders and high-caliber riders as well.”

And for American riders to access it requires spending their own money to go train in Japan, which is both costly and not particularly practical for most of them when they’re based in the U.S.

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In essence, the Japanese — backed by a lot of technology and funding — are beating Americans at the sport they invented back in Lake Tahoe 45 years ago.

“To be honest with you, there is a huge variable with the funding,” said Jake Pates, who finished eighth after coming back from a four-year hiatus from the sport. “It puts it on the rider to fly to Japan, spend months and months training like they’re doing. I did it last summer, and that’s the only way I’ve been able to come back and do this at all.”

But how realistic is that? It takes resources and sponsors, which Pates hopes he’ll get as a result of performing on the Olympic stage to help him push forward toward 2030.

“U.S. riders are going to have to put up a little bit of money on their end if they want to make it happen,” he said.

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And as we saw Friday, this sport moves on whether or not America comes along for the ride. White carried the banner to three gold medals, but his departure did not slow down the progression of the generations he inspired. Halfpipe specialists are better than ever.

“Everyone is riding to an unprecedented level,” Josey said. “[The Japanese riders] are just hungry, and they know they have to ride hard to get the respect that they want. They’re fiery, they’re strong and they’re ready to push the limits beyond what’s been seen.”

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Steve Jones and Nekias Duncan give you the latest news and updates surrounding the 2026 All-Star Weekend. They dive into their predictions for Team USA vs. World, who will come out victorious in the skills competitions and what to expect with the new format.

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Next, they dive into the news of the NBA fining the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers hefty amounts for tanking. Does the league have a tanking problem? What are possible solutions?

Plus, Angel Reese is back in Unrivaled! They give their takeaways, recap the 1v1 tournament and preview the latest matchups.

All that and more!

1:03 Rising Stars showcase preview
9:29 3-point contest preview
14:35 Shooting Stars competition preview
18:07 Dunk contest preview
22:14 New format expectations
27:26 All-Star replacements
32:16 Lineup predictions
35:26 Key players to watch
38:25 Team USA vs. World predictions
39:02 Jazz & Pacers fined
47:40 Unrivaled takeaways & thoughts

🖥️ Watch this full episode on the Yahoo Sports NBA YouTube channel

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MILAN — Something was wrong from the very start. Something about Ilia Malinin’s free skate Friday seemed tentative, uncertain, so very unlike the “Quad God.” This was his gold-medal moment, and it was slipping away from him.

He landed his first element, a quad flip, but it had the feel of an unexpected success, like a half-court heave that went through the net, rather than the start of a triumphal procession. And then he skated toward his planned quad axel, a move literally only he can land, a move that could have put him on a direct path to the top of the podium.

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He flinched … and was lost.

In one of the most stunning collapses in Olympic figure skating history, Malinin plummeted from a near-certain gold medal all the way to eighth place. Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov won gold, while Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama took silver and Japan’s Shun Sato claimed the bronze medal. Malinin finished with a score of 264.49, well behind Shaidorov’s 291.58, Kagiyama’s 280.06 and Sato’s 274.90.

No one saw this coming — not Malinin, not skating fans, and not the betting markets, which had Malinin as an overwhelming -10000 favorite to win.

As Malinin spoke after his skate, televisions around the Olympic mixed zone under the arena’s stands showed the night’s three medalists ascending the podium. Malinin didn’t seem to look in their direction, though as the national anthem of Kazakhstan played out in the arena, he knew exactly what was going on.

Malinin’s free skate routine begins, oddly enough, with his own recorded voice. “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing,” his voice echoes in the silent arena as he stands at center ice, preparing to begin.

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On a good night, his lines feel like a battle cry. On Friday night, they felt almost forlorn, a desperate attempt to rally himself in front of the entire world.

“Honestly, before getting into my starting pose, I just felt all of those experienced memories, thoughts really just rush in,” Malinin said. “It just felt so overwhelming. Honestly, I didn’t really know how to handle it at that moment.”

The audience at the Assago Ice Skating Arena could feel it all falling apart as element after element crumbled. The quad loop Malinin had listed in his planned program became a double loop in reality. The triple flip never materialized. The quad salchow became a double salchow that ended with Malinin falling to the ice. And by then, it was all over but the cold, merciless math.

“I blew it,” Malinin told NBC after his skate. “That’s honestly the first thing that came into my mind — there’s no way that just happened. I was preparing the whole season. I felt so confident with my program. To go out and have that happen … there’s no words, honestly.”

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This is the brutal cruelty of the Olympics, of figure skating. You devote your entire life to this merciless, fickle sport; you give up every shred of a normal life, from school to friends to weekends to holidays; you devote it all to the pursuit of perfection. And in the coldest twist of all, the closer you get to the pinnacle, the more you start to believe that perfection is possible … right up until your dreams vanish in mere minutes. The higher you rise, the further you have to fall.

Malinin is 21 years old, and in the minutes after his skate, he looked both much younger than that, and much more world-weary and broken, too. He faced multiple media outlets, dozens of lenses and microphones and questioners all seeking to understand how this could have happened. How could a skater who’s reigned over the sport — two straight world championships, four straight national championships, no loss anywhere on Earth since November 2023 — fall apart so suddenly, so thoroughly?

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The words were there, but like his routine earlier, Malinin looked uncomfortable speaking them. He committed the athlete’s unpardonable sin, confessing to weakness. But it seemed the right thing to do in the moment. What else could he do?

“I just thought that all I needed to do is go out there and trust the process that I’ve always been doing with every competition,” Malinin said. “But of course, it’s not like any other competition. It’s the Olympics, and I think people only realize the pressure, and the nerves that actually happened, from the inside. So it was really just something that overwhelmed me, and I just felt like I had no control.”

He threaded his way into an excuse — “Maybe the ice was also not the best condition for what I would like to have” — but quickly found his way right back out again. Everyone skates on the same ice, after all, and if he’d merely matched the scores of any of the three skaters who went right before him, he would have medaled.

After Malinin vanished behind closed doors, and as the fans left the arena, one last cruel joke awaited. On the overhead speaker system — the one that had carried Malinin’s own voice just a few minutes before — a surely well-meaning DJ cued up Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida,” and, for Malinin, its sadly on-point lyrics.

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I used to rule the world … One minute, I held the key / Next the walls were closed on me …

It’s a long time until the 2030 Olympics in Chamonix, France. If Malinin makes it there, at least he’ll know what to expect.

The pitch-rigging scandal keeps getting bigger for Cleveland Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase.

Federal prosecutors unsealed a 29-page indictment providing further insight into the mechanics of the alleged pitch-rigging system involving Clase, according to The Athletic, as well as more examples in which he’s accused of intentionally throwing balls to ensure his co-conspirators’ prop bets cashed.

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One such example is particularly bad: Game 1 of the 2024 ALDS. Clase had previously been accused of rigging pitches only in the regular season.

Clase entered that game with a 7-0 lead. The Guardians ultimately beat the Detroit Tigers 3-2 in the series.

In total, prosecutors reportedly claimed to have identified 15 times from 2023 to 2025 in which Clase allegedly threw pitches to help bettors win their prop bets, as well as three occasions in which he planned to do so but never entered the game. That’s actually far less than a previously reported total of 48 in a different legal filing.

Clase would allegedly communicate with co-conspirators in code via text message. You can probably crack the cipher, via The Athletic:

“Throw a rock at the first rooster in today’s fight.”

“Yes, of course, that’s an easy toss to that rooster,” [Clase] responded. If there was any confusion, he followed up again later. He would throw it “low.”

In addition to Clase, Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz is accused of similar actions during the 2025 season. Both men face charges of wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery. They have pleaded not guilty.

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Clase’s co-conspirators are alleged to have won at least $450,000 with their system, with Clase and Ortiz receiving kickbacks. Of course, those numbers are far less than the $4.9 million salary Clase was receiving from the Guardians in 2025.

Clase has claimed innocence via his attorney:

“Emmanuel Clase is innocent and denies all allegations in the superseding indictment,” Michael Ferrara, the lawyer for Clase, said. “While we remain disappointed in the flawed views of the evidence and rush to judgment that led to these charges, we look forward to clearing his name at trial where the full facts and circumstances of the case will be revealed.”

A third man, Robinson Vasquez Germosen, has also reportedly been hit with federal charges for allegedly working as the middleman for Clase.

Clase and Ortiz are scheduled for a trial in May and face decades in prison if found guilty. Even if they avoid a significant prison sentence, there’s also the matter of MLB discipline, as they face a lifetime ban from baseball, pending the league’s investigation into the allegations.

Day 7 of the 2026 Winter Olympics was a surprise shutout for Team USA on the podium, as no American won any of the 21 medals handed out Friday in Italy. Nothing was more shocking than Ilia Malinin stumbling his way off the podium. The day wasn’t all bad, though, as a couple of U.S. teams posted big wins.

Here are the top five stories of the day:

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U.S. women’s hockey team stomps Italy to open playoffs

Team USA left group play looking like the clear gold-medal favorite. Nothing changed on that front in their first game of the knockout round. The Americans advanced to the semifinals with a 6-0 win over the host country, scoring five goals in the second period.

Through five games, the United States has outscored opponents 26-1, dominating against both the teams at the bottom of their group and co-favorite Canada. They will likely face Sweden, which pulled off an upset over Czechia, in the semis, barring an upset on the other side of the quarterfinals on Saturday.

Ilia Malinin falters into eighth place

The ascension of the “Quad God” turned into a fall from grace. Ilia Malinin, the overwhelming gold-medal favorite who entered Friday in the lead after the men’s short program, faltered enough times in the free skate to land in eighth place, marking one of the most surprising outcomes in figure skating history.

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It was instead Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov who claimed gold, with Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama and Shun Sato joining him on the podium. Malinin will still leave Italy with a gold medal via the Americans’ win in the team event, but he was blunt about his performance on Friday: “I blew it.”

U.S. women’s curling team finally beats Canada in Olympic play

The U.S. women’s curling team beat Canada 9-8 in round-robin play on Friday. It’s the first time in nine Olympic meetings that the Americans have been victorious against their northern neighbors.

The match was tight through the first five ends, with Canada clinging to a 3-2 lead. In the sixth end, the U.S. roared ahead with four points. Canada did not back off, scoring two in the seventh and adding three in the ninth.

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Holding the hammer, Tara Peterson scored two on the last shot of the match to give the Americans their second victory of the tournament.

Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo ties record by winning eighth career gold medal

Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo tied a Winter Olympic record on Friday by winning his eighth career gold medal, and he might not be done yet. Klæbo’s latest medal came in the men’s 10km freestyle race, in which he claimed his third gold of the Milan Cortina Games. He had already won the 20km skiathlon and the individual sprint.

The 29-year-old can break his tie with fellow Norwegians Bjørn Dæhlie, Marit Bjørgen and Ole Einar Bjørndalen if he wins gold in the 4×7.5km relay, the men’s team sprint or the 50km mass start, all of which he’s scheduled to compete in.

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Vladyslav Heraskevych’s appeal over DQ for helmet tribute denied

Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych’s appeal for reinstatement was denied after he was banned from competing at the Winter Olympics on Thursday. Heraskevych refused to change a helmet honoring Ukrainian athletes who died during Russia’s invasion of his home country. He said he did not consider racing with a different helmet because he believes he is “not violating any rules” and pointed to other athletes from different countries who are allowed to express their political views.

The IOC stated that his helmet did not comply with Olympic rules, which prohibit any form of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda at Olympic sites, venues or other areas. The IOC offered him the option to wear a black armband or black ribbon instead of the helmet on Thursday, but Heraskevych refused. As a result, he sat out Friday’s men’s skeleton event after missing the first two runs yesterday.

Team USA medal count sits at 14

Highlight of the day

You want to see what a 95.00 looks like in the snowboarding halfpipe? Here’s what Japan’s Yuto Totsuka did to win gold.

One more thing

Jorrit Bergsma was already a decorated Olympian, entering these Games with one medal of each color. He returned for another go in Milan at 40 years old and won a bronze medal in the 10,000m, becoming the oldest-ever speedskating Olympic medalist. But the highlight might just be his cheering section, also known as the “Matties,” who sport his signature mullet.

Sacramento Kings guard Zach LaVine will undergo season-ending surgery on his right hand after the All-Star break, longtime NBA insider Chris Haynes reported Friday.

LaVine, a two-time All-Star, was averaging a team-leading 19.2 points per game and shooting 47.9% from the field, including 39% from 3, this season. It’s his second season with Sacramento after he was traded midseason from the Chicago Bulls last year in the three-team deal that sent now-two-time All-Star guard De’Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs.

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The Kings have been riddled with injuries this season. Notably, center Domantas Sabonis missed extensive time earlier in the 2025-26 campaign due to a partially torn meniscus.

A three-time All-Star, Sabonis returned before the trade deadline. He had been the subject of trade talks this season, and so had LaVine and fellow veteran DeMar DeRozan.

The Kings, an NBA-worst 12-44 at the break and losers of 14 consecutive games, didn’t deal any of those players. General manager Scott Perry did, however, send Keon Ellis and Dennis Schröder to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a three-team trade that brought back De’Andre Hunter and moved Dario Šarić to the Chicago Bulls.

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Šarić has since been traded again and waived.

As for the soon-to-be-31-year-old LaVine, he sat out the past three games due to what the team described as a “right fifth finger tendon injury.” That shooting-hand issue is reportedly requiring a procedure that will end LaVine’s 12th season in the league.

Earlier this season, he sustained a left ankle injury when he landed awkwardly on a drive into the paint against his old team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, on Dec. 14. He missed nine games in a row as a result.

LaVine has a $48.9 million player option for next season. He’s expected to pick that up, but trade rumors likely will resume in the offseason.

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Although he led an imbalanced Kings roster in scoring this season, LaVine’s 2.3 assists per game were the fewest he has averaged in his career. Plus, he was reeling in under three rebounds per contest for just the third time and the first since the 2015-16 campaign.

Known for his athleticism, LaVine made a name for himself as a two-time NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion with the Timberwolves, who took him No. 13 overall in the 2014 draft. Friday marked the 10-year anniversary of LaVine’s high-flying showdown versus Aaron Gordon in the memorable 2016 dunk contest.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Los Angeles Dodgers are back at the beginning, preparing once again to climb the mountain that is the major-league season, sights set squarely on adding to this golden era for the franchise.

The Friday, Feb. 13, report date for Dodgers pitchers and catchers was the latest of any team league-wide, an appropriately delayed start after the Dodgers’ championship run stretched into November. And unlike the previous two years, when the Dodgers opened the season with series in Seoul and Tokyo, the team will stay grounded on the west side of Phoenix this spring, affording a bit more wiggle room to ease into camp activities, rather than needing to arrive early and expedite the preparation process.

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“First day, good,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Getting the pitchers, catchers here, majority of the position players are here already. Guys are anxious. I think for me, we got a long camp, longer than we’ve had in recent years. So to try to get guys to start slow but intentional, methodical … is kind of the message.”

While the World Baseball Classic will add a wrinkle for a handful of Dodgers stars, the vast majority of the roster is embarking on a more normal spring training leading up to Opening Day against the D-backs on March 26 at Dodger Stadium. Granted, little is normal about even the most average day at Camelback Ranch, the spring training home of MLB’s supervillains and superheroes, a gobsmacking collection of baseballing talent that only grows each year.

A large banner touting Los Angeles’ status as “BACK-TO-BACK WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS” now adorns the chain-link fence looming over the bullpen mounds. A full week before the Cactus League slate begins, hordes of fans swarmed the backfields Friday in hopes of catching their favorite Dodgers in action, if even in low-intensity practice settings. As each player emerged from the facility to make his way down to the fields, crowds erupted, offering expressions of adoration and appreciation for the team that has given them so much to cheer about across consecutive title runs.

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The specifics of what was happening on each field seemed to matter less than the fact that it was happening at all — baseball is back, bringing a breath of fresh air after a long winter. But Friday did offer a particularly intriguing sampling of backfield activity, at least by mid-February standards: Shohei Ohtani threw a bullpen, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw live batting practice.

The duo is in their third spring together, and the buzz around their presence in Glendale has grown each year as the two have achieved more and more while wearing Dodger blue. Ohtani is entering his first fully healthy spring with the Dodgers, gearing up to put his unprecedented two-way abilities on full display from the get-go in 2026. Yamamoto is only a few months removed from one of the most legendary pitching performances in World Series history, earning an almost mythical aura that now follows him in perpetuity. Perhaps more pertinently, both stars are ramping up to represent Japan in the World Baseball Classic, adding a level of urgency to their early camp activities that most of their teammates don’t feel quite yet.

Along with USA’s Will Smith, Puerto Rico’s Edwin Díaz (reminder: he’s on the Dodgers now) and Korea’s Hyeseong Kim, Ohtani and Yamamoto are two of the five players in Dodgers camp slated to participate in the upcoming international tournament. Japan’s pool-play games will be in Tokyo, with its first official game on March 6 and five pre-tournament friendlies against NPB clubs beginning Feb. 22. Roberts said Friday that he’s unsure when exactly the duo will make the trip back to Japan. But it stands to reason it will be at least a few days before Smith and Diaz will need to depart to join their national teams, whose training will commence in early March. As such, the time spent in Arizona is especially crucial for the two Japanese stars.

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Yamamoto faced Smith and Kim for a few at-bats each in his live batting practice session Friday, coaxing some weak contact from Kim and a swing-and-miss from Smith on a running two-seam fastball that had the All-Star catcher shaking his head in disbelief. Yamamoto looked as dialed in as ever, his picturesque mechanics unfolding in perfect sequence to unleash pitches to the location of his choosing. It was an infinitely lower-stakes setting than his most recent on-mound experience, but it was Yamamoto all the same. To that end, it’s impossible to watch him now without recalling the unfathomable feats of pitching endurance he displayed in the Fall Classic. Yet Roberts isn’t worried about a lingering hangover from the right-hander’s rare workload last postseason, even as Yamamoto builds back up to participate in the WBC.

“I just believe that he knows his limitations, and he’s prepared,” Roberts said. “So I’m not too concerned.”

Earlier Friday, it was Ohtani’s turn to take the mound, albeit not against hitters. His bullpen took place right alongside Diaz, who was making his first high-intensity tosses in his new threads. Unlike Yamamoto, Ohtani is not preparing to pitch in the World Baseball Classic — he will DH only for Team Japan — but that doesn’t lessen the hype for Ohtani’s first full season in the Dodgers’ rotation. Roberts was not shy about his expectations for what Ohtani The Pitcher is capable of now that he’s further removed from his second elbow surgery.

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“I think there’s certainly a lot more in there,” the manager said. “And regardless of my expectations for him, his are going to exceed those. And I think it’s fair to say he expects to be in the Cy Young conversation. But we just want him to be healthy and make starts, and all the numbers and statistics will take care of themselves.”

Asked whether the league’s top pitching honor is indeed a personal target, Ohtani didn’t confirm his ambitions but acknowledged it could be in the cards if he’s able to stay on the mound.

“If in the end the result is getting a Cy Young, that’s great,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “Getting a Cy Young means just being able to throw more innings and pitch throughout the whole season. So if that’s the end result, that’s a good sign for me. That’s what I’m more focused on — just being healthy the whole year.”

Redirecting the focus to his durability might sound like a way to downplay his ambition, but it’s also rooted in reality. The closest Ohtani has come to winning a Cy Young was during his healthiest campaign in 2022, when he threw a career-high 166 innings. He ultimately settled for fourth that year (and second in MVP voting), but it’s a reminder that his potential as a pitcher should not be discounted whatsoever. For all the prolific power-speed exploits Ohtani has demonstrated as a hitter, entering 2026, he seems eager to seize on his currently prime physical condition and remind everyone what he’s capable of on the mound.

“Everything he does is with purpose,” Roberts said. “So I’m really excited to see — with the full offseason to just prepare and not rehab — what he can do this year.”

Tony Stewart’s hopes of a win in his first NASCAR race back from retirement ended before the race was even halfway over.

Stewart’s truck was shoved into the wall when Jake Garcia’s truck got loose off Turn 4 in the second stage of the 100-lap Craftsman Truck Series race at Daytona. As Stewart was to his outside, Garcia overcorrected and collided with Stewart as he hit the wall.

The damage to Stewart’s truck was significant enough that it ended any chance he had at winning the race. After his Kaulig Racing team made repairs, it decided to take the truck to the garage.

The three-time Cup Series champion and Hall of Famer was making his first start in a NASCAR event since he retired after the 2016 season. Stewart won 49 races over 618 career Cup Series starts and was one of the best drivers of the 2000s before he stepped away. He won the 2002, 2005 and 2011 Cup Series titles, and his final title is widely credited with helping create NASCAR’s recently ditched winner-take-all championship race.

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That season, Stewart and Carl Edwards waged one of the greatest playoff battles in NASCAR history. Stewart, who won five races in the 10-race playoffs after going winless in the regular season, won the final race of the year at Homestead-Miami Speedway to tie Edwards and win the championship via tiebreaker because he had more wins.

Stewart was back in NASCAR on Friday thanks to Ram’s reentry into the Truck Series. The manufacturer returned to the NASCAR Truck Series in 2025, and Stewart, whose NHRA team fields Dodges, was chosen to run the team’s No. 25 truck, which will have a rotating cast of drivers throughout the 2026 season.

The race was Stewart’s first Truck Series start in more than 20 years. He had last made a Truck start in 2005 and had won twice in six starts across NASCAR’s third-tier series.