I Dig Sports
PITTSBURGH -- Paul Skenes has a lot on his mind. The chances of the perpetually curious National League Rookie of the Year staying with the Pittsburgh Pirates indefinitely is not one of them.
"I haven't given it too much thought," Skenes said Sunday when asked about the chances of him signing an extension with the Pirates.
The 22-year-old star might be one of the few.
Pittsburgh's quiet offseason in free agency has done little to quell angst among the fan base that the club is already living on borrowed time with the hard-throwing right-hander, who became a sensation the moment the top pick in the 2023 draft made his big league debut last May armed with an electric 100-mph fastball and the swagger to match.
Skenes' arrival gave the city and the franchise a needed jolt. Yet it hasn't exactly spurred general manager Ben Cherington to go on a spending spree over the winter to juice up an offense to complement what could be one of the better rotations in baseball led by Skenes and 23-year-old Jared Jones.
One fan has begun a billboard campaign urging Pirates chairman Bob Nutting to sell the team. A small chant of "Sell the Team!" even broke out at the club's annual fanfest, with vice president Travis Williams responding during a Q&A session that Nutting had no interest in moving on.
At this point, neither does Skenes, who pointed to Pittsburgh's young core of talent and tweaks to the coaching staff as proof that the team has not sat idly by following a second straight 76-86 finish.
"The group that we have from last year is going to be better I think than we were last year," Skenes said. "We're going to have more experience. I don't think you can overstate the impact that coaches can have on it, too, so we made some good additions there. It's not a complicated thing. It's hard to do, but it's not complicated."
The Pirates hired Matt Hague to run their hitting program and brought on longtime pitching guru Brent Strom to help a staff loaded with potential but short on experience.
The external fear is that the club could be limited on time to maximize its window while Skenes is on the roster. Though the Pirates have locked up some of their cornerstones for the long term -- including outfielder Bryan Reynolds and pitcher Mitch Keller -- in recent years, keeping Skenes would be another matter. He will become eligible for arbitration after the 2026 season, and the list of high-end pitchers the club has parted with before they became too expensive includes Gerrit Cole and Joe Musgrove.
Skenes, however, is not caught up in the future. There's too much at stake in the present. He'll be grateful when he arrives for spring training in Bradenton, Florida next month as a full-fledged major leaguer without worrying about any sort of innings limit like the one the team imposed last year to protect his arm. He was fully on board with the idea, even saying at the end of the season it worked perfectly.
"I'm going to be ready to throw 240 innings," said Skenes, who went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 starts. "It's not going to be 160 innings again. I know that. It's gonna be much more, 'Take the ball and pitch.'"
Off the field, Skenes expects to take a more central role in creating a clubhouse culture designed to create a productive environment. He spent a portion of his offseason canvassing veterans on other teams looking for insight.
"I don't know what the character of that will be, but I'll have probably a little more say-so," Skenes said. "There's still a long way to go. I'm not going to overstep, but winning is winning. We've got to do what we've got to do to make it happen."
He has spent a portion of the winter training in Charlotte, North Carolina, and coming to grips with his burgeoning fame.
"The nice thing about the offseason is people kind of forget you because it's not baseball season," Skenes said. "It never completely goes away. That's just how it is. It's the new normal."
He's aware of the yawning gap between teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Pirates, who haven't been to the playoffs since 2015. No, he's not willing to use it as an excuse for failure.
"There's no reason we can't play fundamental baseball and execute at a very high level without having players like [Shohei Ohtani]," he said. "It's not a complicated game."
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal recently agreed to a one-year contract with the Detroit Tigers and is keeping negotiations about a long-term deal to himself.
"I'll keep that pretty private," Skubal told The Associated Press on Sunday. "But I love playing in Detroit and I'm excited to get down to spring training."
Skubal and the Tigers avoided salary arbitration earlier this month with a $10.15 million, one-year contract.
Tigers pitchers and catchers are due to report to spring training Feb. 12 in Lakeland, Florida. Detroit opens the season March 27 on the road against the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 28-year-old left-hander had an AL-high 18 wins, a 2.39 ERA and a majors-best 228 strikeouts in 31 starts. He was the unanimous pick for the league's best pitcher.
Skubal helped Detroit make a late-season surge to earn a wild card, ending the franchise's decade-long postseason drought. The Tigers swept Houston in the opening round before getting eliminated by Cleveland in their AL Division Series.
"We're a young team, and a hungry team," Skubal said. "I'm as confident as I was at the end of the year going into spring training with the additions we made and the guys we have coming back."
The Tigers bolstered their lineup and rotation with two-time All-Star second baseman Gleyber Torres and right-hander Alex Cobb, signing both to $15 million, one-year deals.
"Gleyber Torres hit one probably 470 feet off me at Comerica, so I'm glad he's on our team," Skubal said with a grin.
Coco Gauff says she is "sad" TikTok is no longer usable in the United States - but it will help her "read more books instead".
The American, 20, wrote "RIP TikTok USA" and drew a broken heart on a camera lens shortly after her win over Belinda Bencic in the Australian Open fourth round.
The social media platform has gone offline for American users, hours before a new law banning the platform was due to come into effect.
It has been banned in the US over concerns about its links to the Chinese government.
Speaking after her 5-7 6-2 6-1 win over Switzerland's Bencic in Melbourne, third seed Gauff said: "Hopefully it comes back. It's really sad. I love TikTok."
"It's like an escape. I honestly do that before matches.
"I guess it'll force me to read books more, be more of a productive human probably. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise."
Bayonne: Spring; Megdoud, Martocq, Mori, Erbinartegaray; Lopez (c), Germain; Villar, Martin, Scholtz, Marchois, Paulos, Traversier, Heguy, Cassiem.
Replacements: Bosch, Cormenier, Cotet, Moon, Habel-Kuffner, Rouet, Segonds, Tiberghien.
Gloucester: Barton; Hillman-Cooper, Butler, Knight, Morris; Atkinson, Chapman; Ford-Robinson, Nelson, Petch, Clark, Jordan, Eite, Taylor (c), Tuisue.
Replacements: Singleton, McArthur, Benz-Salomon, Gwynne, James, Englefield, Taylor, Cotgreave.
Referee: Ben Breakspear (Wales)
Edinburgh: Goosen, Graham, Currie, Lang, Wells; Healy, Shiel; Schoeman, Harrison, Hill, Sykes, Skinner, Dodd, Crosbie (c), Bradbury.
Replacements: Ashman, Venter, Sebastian, Young, Watson, Price, Thompson, Tuipulotu.
Black Lion: Tsirekidze, Tabutsadze, Kakhoidze, Metreveli, Aptsiauri; Matkava, Peranidze; Kakovini, Mamukashvili, Tchumbadze, Babunashvili, Ghaniashvili, Mamamtavrishvili, Gachechiladze, Ivanishvili (c).
Replacements: Kvatadze, Khatiashvili, Ghkhartishvili, Chachanidze, Epremidze, Khuroshvili, Shvangiradze, Todua.
Referee: Jeremy Rozier.
Ulster reach Champions Cup last 16 as Bordeaux thrash Sharks
Ulster have qualified for the last 16 of the Investec Champions Cup on points difference after Bordeaux claimed a 66-12 victory against Sharks.
Richie Murphy's side's bonus-point 52-24 win over Exeter Chiefs on Friday night moved them level with fourth-placed Sharks on five points.
On Sunday, they needed already-qualified Bordeaux to beat Sharks by 29 points to have any chance of progressing on points difference.
Sharks started brightly in France and raced into a 12-point lead before Bordeaux fought back to hold a 19-12 advantage at half-time.
Damian Penaud scored a tournament-record six tries as a blistering second-half display held Bordeaux secure top spot in Pool 1 and home advantage in the next round in April.
The heavy defeat for Sharks meant Ulster leapfrogged them into fourth place with a better points difference of -61 compared with Sharks' -87.
Ulster will now be away from home for their last-16 tie as the Sharks drop into the Challenge Cup.
CASA GRANDE, Ariz. The final night of the Pitt Stop Motorsports IMCATV Western Nationals at Central Arizona Raceway maintained the steady car count with 226 on hand.
That number happened to be the average per night for the first year of the event at Casa Grande.
The modified main was a dramatic duel between front row starting Dylan Thornton and Brandon Beckendorf. It was 25 laps of two modifieds racing each other and dealing with traffic.
Thornton was the leader the entire distance with a gap measured in feet more than car lengths. Beckendorf tried inside and outside moves but settled for second and Troy Morris finished third.
The stock car main was all Shelby Williams with a large lead while well back three drivers raced for second. Todd Heinrich prevailed to finish second ahead of Bo Partain.
Northern sport mod action was another win for Robbie Thome with a last lap slider nearly changing the outcome.
Thome took the lead on lap four, using the bottom of turn one to take over. Things went smoothly for Thome until a late yellow created an opportunity.
Heading into turn three for the final lap, Cole Suckow was on the bottom and threw a slider at Thome.
The move created hope for Suckow but Thome kept the lead off of turn four to collect the win. Suckow was second and Kaden Woodie was third.
Riley Clem won the mod lite main and Dillon Richards made it eight wins out of nine mains in the hobby stock division.
The events were broadcast live on IMCA.tv.
The 2026 Western Nationals will return to Central Arizona Raceway running Jan. 6-17
Golobic & Matt Wood Racing Enjoy Stellar Chili Bowl
TULSA, Okla. Shane Golobic not only finished third in Saturday nights 39th annual Chili Bowl Nationals, but he prepared three cars that finished in the top five.
The Matt Wood Racing stable earned the third, fourth and fifth-place finishes with Golobic preparing his No. 17w midget as well as the cars wheeled by Ryan Bernal (fourth) and Landon Brooks (fifth).
What a week. I cant say enough about these guys, Golobic said after the race. It was a true honor working with them all week. Everybody stepped up their game. It is a really cool little team that we have built. We are just a bunch of winged guys from California and to put three in the top five is super cool.
Golobic and Bernal each finished second on the preliminary nights, while Brooks went to victory lane on his qualifying night. Racing his teammates on Saturday was an interesting occurrence for Golobic.
It is super weird racing against cars that you are crew chiefing. You are pulling for them, but you want to beat them, he said. You kind of know what their car has got and what mine has got. It is definitely a weird feeling that you dont get that often, but I wouldnt trade it for anything.
Its a really cool little team. All five of our drivers, we all get along really well. We are just good buddies. Its a really fun week and to have really good results just caps it off.
Third is Golobics best finish at the Chili Bowl.
Third is my best here. I want to be a couple better, he said. I feel like our cars are really good when we come here. We might need to race midgets more often just to knock the rust off a little bit. Our cars are really good. Maybe someday we can move up a couple of spots. I need to get a prelim win so I dont have to start deep in the feature.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. Only a year ago at this time, Kevin Magnussen was preparing to compete in the 2024 Formula 1 season. This month, the son of sports car legend Jan Magnussen begins a season in sports cars something he says he so genuinely looks forward to.
Magnussen will co-drive the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL Hybrid V8 competing in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class in next weeks Rolex 24 his third start in the historic twice-around-the-clock race and first since 2022. He will compete fulltime in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) as well and racing stateside in three IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup events at Daytona, Sebring and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
He fondly remembers coming to the IMSA races as a kid with his father, a four-time sports car champion who won nearly 50 races the experiences stocking a lifelong love of the sports car kind.
Magnussen, who spent a decade competing in F-1, said he is looking forward to the career transition and eager to improve on a pair of fifth-place finishes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opener at Daytona and his car was fastest in Fridays two-hour afternoon practice.
In 10 previous career IMSA starts, he has a victory from pole position at Detroits Belle Isle course in 2021.
I came here so much as a kid and grew up at these races in a way and always knew I wanted to be a part of that, said Magnussen, 32, who said this opportunity was absolutely where he wanted to transition. As a young boy you look up to your dad and want to do what he is doing. I guess for many drivers, Formula 1 is like the pinnacle which it is for me as well, but I certainly have an extra passion for sports car racing because I grew up with it.
Its more pure. sports car racing in general, I think people love what they do more than they do in Formula One because its so competitive [in F1] it can be kind of cold in a way. I arrived here and see everyone smiling and looking forward to the race and everything. Its a different vibe, different environment.
AC Milan senior advisor Zlatan Ibrahimovic has confirmed the Serie A club are exploring a move for "great player" Kyle Walker.
Walker is looking to leave Manchester City this January and sources have told ESPN's Rob Dawson that Milan are the frontrunners for the defender's signature.
The England right-back has been left out of City's last two squads by manager Pep Guardiola and the Premier League side are focusing on reinforcements in this window.
Ibrahimovic, a legendary striker for Milan who took an executive role for the club's owners, RedBird capital, in 2023 spoke glowingly of the 34-year-old before Milan's league defeat to Juventus on Saturday.
"Everyone knows that Walker is a great player, for Man City, Tottenham, and England," he said, as reported by Calciomercato.
"There is a lot of interest. He doesn't go against our strategy and vision, he is a leader and dominates the dressing room, so let's see what we can do."
Milan's new boss Sérgio Conceição has stressed the need for signings and Ibrahimovic added: "We talk to Conceição every day, we know what is needed and we work on it.
"The more I talk, the more the players cost. New names come out every day, the agents play their game."
Milan will likely have to choose between Walker and international teammate Marcus Rashford, who they are also interested in, due to Serie A rules on foreign players.
The club are eighth in Serie A, 19 points behind league leaders Napoli.
Phone: (800) 737. 6040
Fax: (800) 825 5558
Website: 
Email: 
