Yahoo Sports AM: Play ball!
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🚨 Headlines
🏀 First Four: Wagner held off Howard, 71-68, to set up a date with No. 1 UNC, and Colorado State blew out Virginia, 67-42, to set up a date with No. 7 Texas. UVA has not won a single tournament game since their 2019 title.
🎓 Clemson sues ACC: Clemson has joined Florida State in filing a lawsuit against the ACC over its exit fees. Both schools are making it clear they want out of the conference.
🏀 McCullar ruled out: Kansas' leading scorer Kevin McCullar Jr. has been ruled out for the entire NCAA tournament due to a knee injury that has hobbled him since February.
⛳️ Masters menu: Jon Rahm's Champions Dinner menu for next month's Masters is a Basque Country dream, headlined by crab salad, ribeye, and a variety of tapas like "Mama Rahm's Classic Lentil Stew."
🏈 New Netflix series: Following the success of "Quarterback," a new docuseries called "Receiver" will feature the 2023 seasons of Davante Adams, Justin Jefferson, George Kittle, Deebo Samuel and Amon-Ra St. Brown.
⚾️ Play ball!
The 2024 MLB season officially began a few hours ago in Seoul, South Korea, where the Dodgers and Padres are facing off in a two-game set.
The matchup: The star-studded NL West clubs are playing right now on ESPN at Gocheok Sky Dome, home of the KBO's Kiwoom Heroes. They'll play again tomorrow (6:05am ET, ESPN) before coming home.
The host country: South Korea has produced 28 MLB players and the sport has exploded in popularity over the past few decades. "People just love baseball here," says sportswriter Jee-ho Yoo, underlying the significance of MLB playing regular season games there.
Seoul Series notes:
Bomb threat: The Seoul Police received an email on Wednesday morning threatening to detonate a bomb at the stadium to hurt Shohei Ohtani and others. Nothing dangerous or suspicious has been found, and the game began as scheduled.
Sho-Time: After signing a $700 million contract and mashing in spring training (.500 AVG, 1.486 OPS), Shohei Ohtani finally made his Dodgers debut, and he's 1-4 with a single and a stolen base.
Homecoming: The Padres have two Korean players: SS Ha-Seong Kim, the first Asian-born infielder to win a Gold Glove, and Woo-Suk Go, a closer for last year's KBO champion LG Twins who signed with San Diego in January.
International home run king: Padres 2B Xander Bogaerts is already the only player to homer in four different countries (USA, Canada, England, Mexico). Will he add Korea to his tally?
Pandemic memories: Four years ago, ESPN anchors announced KBO games from their homes during the height of the pandemic when it was the only live professional baseball we had. Now they're broadcasting MLB games live from Seoul.
What to watch:Seoul Series preview
🇰🇷 In photos: Seoul Series
Fans make their way into the Gocheok Sky Dome, which opened in 2015 and seats 16,744.
Chan-Ho Parkthrew out the first pitch, 30 years after becoming MLB's first Korean-born player. He spent nine years with the Dodgers and two with the Padres, where he currently serves as a baseball operations advisor.
The two teams are getting the full KBO experience, where dueling "cheer squads" break out in choreographed song and dance numbers when their team is at the plate.
Yes, Shohei Ohtani really is a Dodger. The global superstar is so transcendent that Koreans have put aside their sporting rivalry with Japan to heap praise on him.
🏈 Kadyn Proctor's semester abroad (in Iowa)
In January, shortly after Nick Saban retired, Alabama offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor transferred to Iowa. Now he's transferring back to Alabama after going on a spring break trip with his former Tide teammates.
Timeline: This will be the second time that the Hawkeyes have missed out on the services of the former five-star recruit and Iowa native.
June 2022: Commits to Iowa; becomes their highest-ranked commit ever
December 2022: Flips to Alabama two days before Signing Day
Fall 2023: Starts every game for Alabama as a true freshman; earns All-SEC honors
January 2024: Enters transfer portal and commits to Iowa
March 2024: Announces that he will re-enroll at Alabama (can't officially do so until the portal re-opens on April 15)
Well, that was quick: Proctor will leave Iowa before ever practicing with the team — though it does look like he played some intramural basketball. The transfer portal is a chaos machine. Welcome to the new normal.
🏀 AP All-Americans
For the second straight year, Purdue center Zach Edey is the unanimous headliner for the AP All-America team. And for the second straight year, the three teams are loaded with upperclassmen.
By the numbers: 12 of the 15 All-Americans are either seniors (9), fifth-year seniors (2), or graduate students (1). That leaves just two juniors, one sophomore and zero freshmen.
First Team
Zach Edey, Senior (Purdue): 24.4 points, 11.7 rebounds, 2.3 blocks
Dalton Knecht, Fifth Year (Tennessee): 21.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists
RJ Davis, Senior (UNC): 21.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists
Jamal Shead, Senior (Houston): 13.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 6.2 assists
Tristen Newton, Graduate (UConn): 15.2 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists
Second Team
Tyler Kolek, Senior (Marquette): 15 points, 4.7 rebounds, 7.6 assists
DaRon Holmes II, Junior (Dayton): 20.4 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists
Mark Sears, Senior ( Alabama): 21.1 points, 4 rebounds, 4.1 assists
Kyle Filipowski, Sophomore (Duke): 17.1 points, 8.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists
Hunter Dickinson, Senior (Kansas): 18 points, 10.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists
Third Team
Jaedon LeDee, Senior (San Diego State): 21.1 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists
Johni Broome, Junior (Auburn): 16.2 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists
Caleb Love, Senior (Arizona): 18.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists
Baylor Scheierman, Senior (Creighton): 18.4 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists
Terrence Shannon Jr., Fifth Year (Illinois): 23 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists
Honorable Mention:
B-D: Armando Bacot (UNC), Keion Brooks Jr. (Washington), Boo Buie (Northwestern), Devin Carter (Providence), Donovan Clingan (UConn), L.J. Cryer (Houston), Tucker DeVries (Drake)
F-M: Enrique Freeman (Akron), PJ Hall (Clemson), Graham Ike (Gonzaga), David Jones (Memphis), Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton), Tamin Lipsey (Iowa State), Kevin McCullar Jr. (Kansas)
O-W: Great Osobor (Utah State), Antonio Reeves (Kentucky), Reed Sheppard (Kentucky), Braden Smith (Purdue), Cam Spencer (UConn), Isaiah Stevens (Colorado State), Vonterius Woolbright (Western Carolina)
Looking back:Past AP All-America teams
📆 Mar. 20, 1973: Clemente's special election
51 years ago today, Roberto Clemente was elected to the Hall of Fame in a special vote held just three months after his tragic and sudden death age 38.
A great man: As good as Clemente was on the field,* he was even better off it. MLB renamed its sportsmanship and community service award after the Puerto Rican star, who died in a plane crash while delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
⚾️ 1934: Babe Didrikson pitched a hitless inning for the A's in a spring training game against the Dodgers, becoming the first woman to play for a major league team.
⚾️ 1989: MLB opened an investigation into Reds manager Pete Rose for what it called "serious allegations." The following day, SI broke the news that he had ties to baseball betting, and later that year he received a lifetime ban.
*Clemente, by the numbers: The 1966 NL MVP and four-time batting champ notched 3,000 career hits (33rd most all-time), 94.8 wins above replacement (25th among position players) and 12 Gold Gloves (most among right fielders).
📺 Watchlist: More "First Four"
The women's tournament tips off today with a pair of First Four games, while the men's First Four concludes to finalize the field of 64.
Women (ESPNU): No. 16 Presbyterian* vs. No. 16 Sacred Heart (7pm ET) to face No. 1 South Carolina; No. 12 Columbia* vs. No. 12 Vanderbilt (9pm) to face No. 5 Baylor.
Men (truTV/Max): No. 16 Grambling* vs. No. 16 Montana State (6:40pm) to face No. 1 Purdue; No. 10 Colorado vs. No. 10 Boise State (9:10pm) to face No. 7 Florida.
More to watch:
🏀 NBA: Bucks at Celtics (7:30pm, ESPN); Grizzlies at Warriors (10pm, ESPN)
🏒 NHL: Maple Leafs at Capitals (7:30pm, TNT/Max); Wild at Kings (10pm, TNT/Max)
⚽️ Women's Champions League: Häcken vs. PSG (1:45pm, YouTube); Brann vs. Barcelona (4pm, YouTube) … First-leg quarterfinal matches.
🏀 NIT: Saint Joseph's at Seton Hall (7pm, ESPN2); VCU at Villanova (9pm, ESPN2)
🏒 PWHL: Ottawa at New York (7pm, YouTube); Boston at Toronto (7pm, YouTube)
*First-timers: Presbyterian (women), Columbia (women) and Grambling (men) are three of this year's six NCAA tournament debutants. The others: California Baptist (women), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (women) and Stetson (men).
🇰🇷 World trivia
Seoul is the sixth-largest metro area in the world (24.3 million population).
Question: Can you name the five larger metro areas?
Hint: They are in Japan, India, Indonesia, China and the Philippines.
Answer at the bottom.
🏀 Fill out your bracket!
Have you filled out your bracket yet? Head to yahoo.com/tourney to play with friends or enter the $25K Best Bracket Contest for both the men's and women's tournaments.
Trivia answer: Tokyo, Japan (36.5 million); Delhi, India (30.1 million); Jakarta, Indonesia (29.8 million); Shanghai, China (26.9 million); Manila, Philippines (25 million)
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