TUSTIN, Calif. — Chevrolet has officially introduced the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, the brands first production mid-engine Corvette.

“Corvette has always represented the pinnacle of innovation and boundary-pushing at GM. The traditional front-engine vehicle reached its limits of performance, necessitating the new layout,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “In terms of comfort and fun, it still looks and feels like a Corvette, but drives better than any vehicle in Corvette history. Customers are going to be thrilled with our focus on details and performance across the board.”

The 2020 Stingray’s exterior has a bold, futuristic expression with mid-engine exotic proportions, but it is still unmistakably Corvette. It’s lean and muscular, with an athletic sculptural shape conveying a sense of motion and power from every angle.

“As America’s most iconic performance nameplate, redesigning the Corvette Stingray from the ground up presented the team a historic opportunity, something Chevrolet designers have desired for over 60 years,” said Michael Simcoe, vice president of Global Design, General Motors. “It is now the best of America, a new arrival in the mid-engine sports car class. We know Corvette can stand tall with the best the world has to offer.”

A supercar level of craftsmanship, premium materials and attention to detail were critical in designing every component of the Stingray. The new location of the engine is truly the focal point for the car’s design. It’s the heart of this next generation Corvette and it sits like a jewel in a showcase, visible through the large rear hatch window.

The added attention to detail optimized the appearance of every wire, tube, bolt and fastener, similar to those found in modern track and all-road motorcycle design.

True to its aeronautical and racing roots, the 2020 Stingray’s canopy-forward stance was inspired by F22s, F35s and other modern fighter jets and Formula One racing. Other classic Corvette signatures adapted to the Stingray include a distinctive face that communicates the purpose of the vehicle’s mission, a classic horizontal crease, aggressive front fenders and familiar positioning of the dual-element headlamps.

Corvette’s structure is built around its backbone: the center tunnel. This enables a light, stiff structure to serve as the foundation for the suspension system to perform in an optimized manner. By removing unwanted body compliance, Corvette customers will experience the ultimate in ride performance with outstanding lateral grip capabilities. The car has a solid, connected-to-the-road feel with minimal vibrations at high speeds or on long road trips.

“Our mission was to develop a new type of sports car, combining the successful attributes of Corvette with the performance and driving experience of mid-engine supercars,” said Tadge Juechter, Corvette executive chief engineer.

SINGAPORE -- Inter Milan manager Antonio Conte has said he wants to sign Romelu Lukaku from Manchester United.

The two clubs have held talks about the Belgium striker but a deal is yet to be agreed. Inter are willing to offer around £60 million with £15m in add-ons but United value the 26-year-old at between £80m and £90m.

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Conte also said Mauro Icardi and Radja Nainggolan will not be part of his "project" at the Serie A and suggested that he will play against United in Singapore on Saturday without a striker while the pursuit of Lukaku continues.

"Lukaku is a United player," Conte told a news conference at Singapore's National Stadium on Friday. "This is the reality.

"You know very well I like this player. In the past when I was Chelsea coach I tried to bring him to Chelsea. But I repeat, today Lukaku is a player of Man United. This is the reality and this is the truth.

"I think that in this moment, we are talking about player of another club. For this reason it's right I don't talk about Lukaku. I have great respect for United. As I said before for sure I consider this player. I like this player.

"I consider him an important player for us to improve. There is a market. We know our situation. We'll see what happens. Now Lukaku is United's player."

Speaking earlier in the day, United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said there was no update on Lukaku's situation but that the former Everton forward would not be available to face Inter because of injury.

Sources have told ESPN FC there are no meetings scheduled while the two clubs are in Singapore because Ed Woodward and chief negotiator Matt Judge are in London.

United are willing to sell Lukaku, who is keen to move to Italy, if they receive an acceptable offer. At a meeting in London last week, Inter were informed that a loan bid, or a bid involving players moving in the opposite direction, would not be considered.

It's the most complicated time of the year for MLS teams, with the weather steamy, the transfer window open and nothing yet secure when it comes to playoff places. This week the intrigue kicks up just a small notch more with a United vs. United showdown in Atlanta, a chance for another United to prove their postseason bona-fides versus Real Salt Lake and the latest installment in Matias Almeyda's man-marking revolution in San Jose.

United vs. United

There's drama in Atlanta following Gonzalo "Pity" Martinez's comments to an Argentine media outlet that he wasn't happy with United head coach Frank de Boer's decision to speak to the media about subbing off Martinez in a game against the Montreal Impact on June 29. The club says the air is "cleared," but there's a real concern that the 25-year-old just doesn't fit with the Dutchman's system.

Atlanta earned an important confidence-boosting 5-0 win over the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday without Martinez in the starting lineup. De Boer's decision to use Martinez as late substitute made sense with a hectic schedule, but it means that the player missed out on the mental boost from the goal party against Houston. Will De Boer turn back to Martinez against D.C. on Sunday (4 p.m. ET, ESPN)?

It seems like a lifetime ago, but these two teams opened the season against each other. DCU got the better of the champs on that day, ruining De Boer's MLS debut with a 2-0 win at Audi Field.

D.C. has its own issues with a creative Argentine player. Luciano Acosta was Robin to Wayne Rooney's Batman during a run to the playoffs in 2018, but his production has dropped off dramatically this season. The simplest explanation for the dip is that a failed move to Paris Saint-Germain during the offseason changed the alchemy in D.C. and put Acosta off his game.

There's no indication that Acosta is a problem child. He's not Martinez. There are no interviews on Argentine television. The problem for D.C. is that as long as he's not creating goals, it's all the same.

Minnesota playoff credentials to be tested in Utah

The longest active winning streak in Major League Soccer belongs to Minnesota United. One more win and the Loons will tie the longest winning run in the league this season of five, reached by both LAFC and Atlanta.

Does that mean they've turned the corner? Minnesota's three-year plan was always aimed at the first year playing in Allianz Field, and so far in 2019, the plan seems to be working. The additions of Darwin Quintero, Angelo Rodriguez and Jan Gregus in the past year not only filled up Minnesota's quota of Designated Players, it has brought a swagger to the club that was much needed.

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The Loons are utilizing depth, and to excellent effect at the moment as well. The hottest Loon is Mason Toye, a second-year forward with four goals in his past four games despite playing understudy to Rodriguez. A packed schedule and a run to the semifinals of the U.S. Open Cup forced head coach Adrian Heath to get creative with his personnel -- who duly responded.

An away date in Utah on Saturday (10 p.m. ET, ESPN+) is the next test for the Minnesota project. For their part, Mike Petke's men are flying high off a 4-0 trouncing of the Philadelphia Union last weekend. Jefferson Savarino dominated that game, scoring two goals and setting up a third. Real Salt Lake isn't among the league's best, but it won't be an easy out for Minnesota.

In fact, RSL could bolster its own playoff credentials with second consecutive home win against a team in the playoff places.

Almeyda's Quakes set example for Dos Santos' Caps

When you start to really understand what Matias Almeyda's particular brand of soccer philosophy entails and what it requires from his players, it's impossible not to be impressed by what's happening in San Jose. The Earthquakes were an abject disaster for the first month of the season. Since then, they've been one of the league's best teams.

Vancouver has ... not been one of the league's best teams. That sets up Saturday's showdown at BC Place as a match between a team grasping for consistency under a new head coach and one looking to consolidate its place among the league's elite.

One of the more fascinating elements of the Quakes' rise is that the roster isn't stocked with stars; players such as Valeri "Vako" Qazaishvili, Magnus Eriksson, Cristian Espinoza and Jackson Yueill (to name just the midfield) don't jump off the page. But together, working as a unit in Almeyda's man-marking system, they're incredibly effective. The Quakes added a few names (most recently Carlos Fierro) since the Argentine coach's arrival, but he's working largely with the same group that finished dead last in 2018.

Almeyda's early success stands in opposition to the struggles of Marc Dos Santos in Vancouver. The Whitecaps completely overhauled their roster, saying goodbye to some key figures and bringing in 15 new players for 2019. The results have been poor, with the Caps now sitting where the Quakes once were: at the bottom of the Western Conference.

Dos Santos will get a chance to make it work no matter what 2019 delivers. Still, beating the upstart Quakes on Saturday (10 p.m. ET, ESPN+) would be a good way to send a message a turnaround is on the horizon.

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh took a dig Thursday at former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, who retired last season in the wake of a scandal involving domestic violence allegations against a former assistant.

"Urban Meyer's had a winning record. Really phenomenal record everywhere he's been," Harbaugh said on The Athletic's "The TK Show" podcast. "But also, controversy follows everywhere he's been."

Harbaugh, who will speak Friday during Big Ten media days, went 0-4 against Meyer. He says those who criticize his inability to win the big one, and especially to beat Ohio State, have a right to complain.

"You welcome the accountability," Harbaugh said. "All you can be judged on is your record -- what your record is overall, what your record is in your conference, and what your record is in head-to-head matchups with other teams that you play. I think you'll find that right now Ohio State is the only team that has a better record than us, has a better conference record than us, has the better overall head-to-head matchup with us.

"Yeah, we are -- we talk about the goals that we have. We have two: win multiple championships and run a first-class program. That's what we aspire to. We're learning and we take accountability and we learn from it. Hope springs eternal, and we're fired up for this season going forward. It's been good, and now we're gonna take it over the top."

Harbaugh has a 38-14 record since taking over at Michigan in 2015. He has brought Michigan into the national conversation but has fallen short of taking the Wolverines to the next level. To do that, he will need to beat Ohio State.

Ryan Day has taken over in Columbus following Meyer's resignation.

Meyer, 55, will have a role as an analyst on FOX's college football show in the fall. He was the Buckeyes' coach for seven seasons and won a national title in 2014, but last season began with a three-game suspension following an investigation into his handling of allegations of domestic abuse against former assistant Zach Smith. Meyer returned and finished the regular season, then announced his retirement Dec. 4. He coached his final game in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.

He also experienced success and controversy as head coach at Florida. He won two titles with the Gators but was criticized for the number of off-the-field incidents involving his players. Over six seasons, 31 of his players were arrested, some on serious charges.

The Buckeyes will play the Wolverines in Ann Arbor on Nov. 30.

Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer, who left the Rutgers program in February for an unspecified health-related issue, has returned to the Scarlet Knights and "looks great," athletic director Pat Hobbs said Thursday.

The 71-year-old Stringer, who left with two weeks remaining in the regular season, originally said she'd return for the postseason. However, she stayed on leave, on advice from doctors, while assistant Tim Eatman served as acting coach for the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments.

"She's back," Hobbs told NJ Advance Media on Thursday. "She looks great. ... There's no one more looking forward to walking into the RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center than C. Vivian Stringer.''

Stringer, who will earn $875,000, will be entering her 25th season at Rutgers and 49th overall as a coach. She has a career mark of 1,018-410 in 48 seasons, making her the sixth-winningest coach in women's basketball, and is 498-275 at Rutgers. She picked up win No. 1,000 on Nov. 13, becoming just the fifth Division I women's coach -- and first African-American coach -- to achieve the milestone, and sixth overall.

"It's a good time for her to transition back in,'' Hobbs said. "She's raring to go.''

Her contract runs through the 2020-21 season.

She is the only women's coach to take three different schools to the Final Four: Cheyney State in 1982, Iowa in 1993, and Rutgers in 2000 and '07. Her teams have appeared in 26 of the 36 NCAA tournaments and made 10 regional finals.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Houston Astros are not happy about scheduling that has them making a quick turnaround ahead of Friday night's home game against the Texas Rangers.

The Astros played the final game of their series against the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday night. The team was estimated to arrive back in Houston about 5:15 a.m. CT -- only 14 hours prior to first pitch for Friday's game.

"To censor myself, it's BS. I don't think one person is happy about the night game travel," Astros outfielder Josh Reddick told the Houston Chronicle. "I think it's a complete misjudgment on how they make a schedule. It's absurd, really.

"Look at us, we don't do that to anyone. We don't ever give them a [getaway day] night game unless it's Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. It makes no sense. It really makes no sense. A lot of guys aren't happy about it, myself included. It's going to be a long day, but this is what we get paid to do. We suck it up and hopefully take it as a little spark to fire us up."

The Astros lead the AL West by 5.5 games over the Oakland Athletics after Thursday's 6-2 win over the Angels. The Rangers are 10 games back in third.

Astros manager A.J. Hinch said Justin Verlander flew back to Houston early ahead of his scheduled start against the Rangers on Friday.

"It'll be brutal," Hinch said of the quick turnaround. "It's one of those things that I hope they address in the next CBA ...

"It's on our schedule. We're going to play, and we need to win. We're going to play our normal guys [Friday], and I'll address any sort of rest over the weekend."

The past two years of Hall of Fame votes demonstrated that the mindset of the electorate has shifted to a bigger, more inclusive Hall that will reward recent players with the same generosity previous generations created in building a plaque gallery overstuffed with players from the 1920s and 1930s.

Actually, that isn't a fair comparison. With the election of six players last year and six more who will be inducted in Cooperstown on Sunday, the bar for election remains well above the standards that the Veterans Committee established in the late '60s and early '70s. That was when Frankie Frisch managed to elect many dubious candidates from his era, many of them former teammates of his on the Giants and Cardinals.

This year's group of six includes four extremely well-qualified players, including two who made it on their first ballot. Two of our six are icons for their franchises, and another was so beloved that his uniform number was retired while he was still an active player for another team. There are no catchers from the 1800s or commissioners who turned a blind eye to steroids. These are six players, all of whom began their careers in 1980 or later. Here's why each of these can be called a Hall of Famer.

Mariano Rivera

The first player selected as a unanimous choice to the Hall of Fame needs no introduction. He's the greatest closer of all time, and it's not even a debate -- and that's before considering that he might be the most valuable postseason pitcher of all time, as he went 8-1 with a 0.70 ERA and 42 saves in 96 appearances and 141 innings in the playoffs, helping the Yankees win five World Series.

His story is a remarkable testament to the unpredictable path of a baseball career. He had Tommy John surgery in the minors. The Yankees left him unprotected in the 1993 expansion draft and once nearly traded him for Felix Fermin. He became a reliever only after struggling in his initial stint in the majors as a starter. He learned the cutter early in his major league career and built his Hall of Fame résumé with that singular pitch that left a trail of broken bats and weak infield pop flies.

In his 18 seasons as a reliever, Rivera had an ERA over 3.00 just once -- an unsightly 3.15 mark in 2007. He remained forever humble and admired throughout the game. Who could dislike Mariano Rivera? He finished with 652 saves -- 51 more than Trevor Hoffman, the No. 2 guy on the list. After that, nobody else has 500. Closers come and go and burn out quickly. Rivera was so good that even in his final season, at age 43, he had 44 saves and a 2.11 ERA. He could probably still close for many teams today if he had kept pitching.

One Mariano Rivera stat to know: His adjusted ERA+ of 205 ranks first all time -- 105% better than league average. No. 2 on the list is Clayton Kershaw at 158, and No. 3 is Pedro Martinez at 154. OK, Rivera was a reliever and didn't pitch as many innings as the starters below him on the list. Another advanced metric called Win Probability Added considers the specific game situation of a pitcher's results, and Rivera ranks fifth, behind only Roger Clemens, Lefty Grove, Greg Maddux and Warren Spahn.

Roy Halladay

The late Halladay, who died in a plane he was piloting in November 2017, was a long-limbed tactician who threw a variety of sinking fastballs, splitters, cutters and curveballs with precise location and magical movement. He won just 203 games, low for a Hall of Fame starter, but his extraordinary peak value -- in the 10 seasons from 2002 to 2011 with the Blue Jays and Phillies, he went 170-75 with a 2.97 ERA, two Cy Young Awards and two runner-up finishes -- made him a first-ballot selection.

Does he make it with 85% of the vote if not for his untimely death? Maybe not on the first ballot, but his 65.4 career WAR -- his career ended rather abruptly due to shoulder problems in 2012 and 2013 -- is still solid for a Hall of Fame starter. Halladay threw hard enough, but it was his pinpoint command that made him so good. In that 10-year run of domination, he averaged just 1.5 walks per nine innings. He led his league five times in strikeout-to-walk ratio and was one of the last of a dying breed: the starter who could complete a game. He led his league seven times in complete games and four times in innings pitched. He was the pitcher other pitchers wanted to be.

Halladay had two shining moments: His perfect game for the Phillies on May 29, 2010, and his no-hitter in the Division Series against the Reds later that season in his first career playoff start, in which he gave up just one walk while throwing 104 pitches. Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz summed up Halladay's stuff that night like this: "Oh, my god."

Those who played alongside him will remember him for his legendary workouts. "Roy Halladay is the ultimate competitor," teammate Chase Utley said when Halladay retired in 2013. "He is by far the hardest worker that I've ever seen and treated every game as if it were his last. It was no coincidence why he was the best pitcher of his era."

One Roy Halladay stat to know: He threw nine complete games each season from 2008 to 2010 and eight in 2011. Last season, no team threw more than five. Halladay won his second Cy Young Award in this decade, yet his era almost feels like another time.

Mike Mussina

He won 270 games. He has more career WAR than Bob Gibson and Tom Glavine and Carl Hubbell and Jim Palmer and Juan Marichal. He was excellent in the postseason, with a 3.42 ERA over 139.2 innings. Yet when Mussina first hit the Hall of Fame ballot in 2014, he received just 20% of the vote. It took some time, but voters finally came around and rewarded Mussina's long run of consistent performance on his sixth try.

The argument against Mussina was always "he was never the best." Well, most Hall of Famers were never the best. Mussina never won a Cy Young Award, but he was very good for 18 seasons with the Orioles and Yankees and could have kept pitching if he had wanted to win 300 games -- he won 20 in his final season. He ranked in the top 10 in his league in pitching WAR in 11 seasons and in the top five in seven (including first in 2001).

Like Halladay, Mussina was a pitcher's pitcher. He wasn't overpowering, but his knuckle-curve became his most famous weapon, and he located his fastball, slider and curveball with expert command. He was extremely durable, won seven Gold Gloves and received Cy Young votes in nine seasons.

One Mike Mussina stat to know: He ranks 23rd in WAR among pitchers -- all time. He is 13th among pitchers since World War II. He should have been an easy Hall of Fame choice.

Edgar Martinez

He hit .312 and won two batting titles. He had a .418 career on-base percentage, leading his league three times and topping .400 11 times, including nine seasons in a row. He slugged .515. He couldn't run, but because he was on base so often, he scored 100 runs five times. Few hitters were as respected by their peers. Why did it take this man 10 tries to get elected?

Sure, he spent most of his career as a designed hitter. But from 1995 to 2001, he averaged .329/.446/.574 with 28 home runs, 42 doubles and 110 RBIs with a 164 OPS+. Vladimir Guerrero never had one season with a 164 OPS+. Freddie Freeman has never had a 164. Neither has Jose Altuve or Robinson Cano or Nolan Arenado. David Ortiz, the other greatest DH ever, beat 164 just twice. Let's just say Edgar could hit a little bit.

Martinez played all of his 18 seasons with the Mariners and became the most beloved player in franchise history -- after they nearly ruined it by not giving him a regular chance in the majors until he was 27. Then again, maybe he was lucky they didn't release him after he hit .173 in the Northwest League in 1983. He had to overcome an eye condition called strabismus, which prevents eyes from aligning simultaneously, and he spent nearly two decades doing daily eye exercises. After winning his first batting title in 1992, he tore up his knee the following spring. The best was yet to come. His entire career was a miracle.

One Edgar Martinez stat to know: He's one of 21 players since 1900 with a career .300/.400/.500 batting line. Only seven others started their careers after World War II: Manny Ramirez, Frank Thomas, Chipper Jones, Larry Walker, Todd Helton, Joey Votto and Mike Trout.

Lee Smith

The gregarious, outgoing Smith was a man of two eras: When he came up in 1980, the closer -- or stopper -- was expected to pitch with runners on base and expected to pitch more than one inning at times. From 1982 to 1984, Smith averaged 107 innings per season -- nearly double what a closer might pitch today. In 1983, when he led the National League with 29 saves with the Cubs, he pitched at least two innings in 24 of his 66 appearances (and at least three innings seven times). Aroldis Chapman has pitched two innings 15 times in more than 500 career games -- and never three innings. By the end of his career, Smith was averaging less than an inning per game. In 1993, he pitched in 63 games and 58 innings -- and had 46 saves.

He retired in 1997 as the all-time saves leader with 478. He led his league four times. His career was difficult to judge, however. He had just one season with an ERA under 2.00 and just five under 3.00. He never had the peak level of dominance of contemporaries such as Dennis Eckersley, Dan Quisenberry or Bruce Sutter. He appeared in just four postseason games (and lost two of them). Hoffman and then Rivera soared past his saves total. But Smith lasted forever.

He first appeared on the BBWAA ballot in 2003 and received 42% of the vote. That's usually a sure path to election. But he never got there, peaking at 50% in 2012. On his 15th and final try, he remained stuck at 34%. He moved on to the Today's Game special committee vote. The panel of 16 put him in with unanimous support. How do you feel about it? That probably depends on how you feel about closers. Smith will have that No. 3 spot for a long time. The active leader in saves is Craig Kimbrel, and he's still 140 behind Smith.

One Lee Smith stat to know: Here's another example of how the closer role has changed: In his career, Smith inherited 510 runners. Even Rivera had just 367 inherited runners. Kimbrel has inherited just 77 runners in his career (and had two seasons with four and one with three). The job used to be a lot more difficult.

Harold Baines

And you thought Jack Morris was a controversial selection? While Smith gained a fair amount of support from the writers, Baines peaked at just 6%. His election by the Today's Game committee came as a shocking surprise.

He was, of course, a very good hitter, with a .289/.356/.465 career line, 384 home runs, 2,866 hits and 1,628 RBIs. He ranks 34th on the all-time RBIs list, and you have to suspect that was a key stat that helped him get elected. He hit .324 in 31 postseason games. Tony La Russa, his manager with both the White Sox and A's, happened to be on the committee, and one of his main arguments was that Baines was a good hitter at 22 years old and still a good hitter at 40, when he hit .312 with 25 home runs and 103 RBIs and made the All-Star team. Few players have that kind of longevity, and longevity has usually been valued more in Hall of Fame voting than peak dominance.

Baines was never a big star. He finished ninth in one MVP vote and 10th in another, and bad knees forced him to DH duties fairly early in his career. His 38.7 career WAR pales in comparison to that of most modern Hall of Famers. How did he get in? It helps to have friends in high places: Besides La Russa, his White Sox owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, was also on the committee. Baines was a respected teammate, a quiet man who went about his business. He's in, and it's weird, and it's OK. Plus, he was so loved in Chicago that the White Sox retired his No. 3 when they traded him to the Rangers in 1989.

One Harold Baines stat to know: Baines ranked ninth in RBIs and sixth in hits in the 1980s. Showing up is half the battle.