Free Republic

(Reuters) - Baseball fans packed the stands of Globe Life Field on Monday after the Texas Rangers opened their doors to 100% capacity, making the game the first North American sporting event without attendance restrictions since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The team said it was a sellout, with 38,238 in attendance under an open roof on a sunny day at the Arlington, Texas, stadium, the only one in baseball to allow full capacity after Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the state to fully reopen last month. Television cameras showed most fans not wearing masks, which were required at...

Johnny Manziel is returning to the gridiron. Not the NFL gridiron, though. According to ESPN's Kevin Seifert, the QB is joining a startup league called Fan Controlled Football. Fan Controlled Football is scheduled to begin in February and is a far cry from any league Manziel, 28, has played in before. It will consist 7-on-7 games. As is hinted at in the name of the league, fans will call plays and make rosters. **SNIP** Teams in the league will play a six-week schedule and the games will be streamed on Twitch from the league's facility in Atlanta. These games are...

Waking up Wednesday morning, there are few reasons to have any sense of optimism. The 2020 presidential election is in wait-and-see mode while votes continue to be counted. At the same time, the U.S. continues to break records for coronavirus cases, with more than 9.3 million Americans diagnosed with COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 232,000 in the U.S. have died from the coronavirus, and that number could reach 400,000 by February.

As always, follow the money! Forgive my insensitivity, but what happened Thursday night at Citi Field was easier done than said because it was a matter of money. In this case, not much of it was at stake. And every person at or near the top of sports who publicly declares his or her support for Thursday’s Marlins-Mets race-based boycott is full of it. Whatever the issue or cause, it’s a lot easier to be righteous when there are no paying customers to send home. Timing was everything. This season, with no tickets, tack-on fees, parking, hideously marked-up eats and...

Humanity is entertained by competition of all kinds. The pandemic has shown sports fans will find a new way to cheer and chant and boo. It is sometimes underappreciated how new professional sports is as a dominant cultural phenomenon. For the vast majority of human history, sports has been overwhelmingly played by amateurs. And even in America, it is only in the past fifty years that this professionalized version of sport became a route to wealth. Baseball, which has the longest professional sports history in the United States, illustrates this: the average MLB salary is up an inflation-adjusted 3,000 percent...

Mets fans may not be able to attend any games this year, but they can still have a presence once the season kicks off next Friday at Citi Field. The team is selling cardboard cutouts of fans in the stands for $86 each, and a significant amount of them have taken the Mets up on the offer. “Obviously, we want to be there in person,” Michael Ammirabile, a season-ticket holder who attends roughly 10 games a year, said in a phone interview. “I got me and my 7-year-old son in there. I guess this is the best thing at this...

One of the few sports to run in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, NASCAR is now the largest to allow fans to return as more states relax their business shutdowns. NASCAR decided a limited number of fans can attend races this month at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. NASCAR says all fans will be screened before entering, required to wear face coverings, mandated to social distance at six feet, and will not have access to the infield, among other revised operational protocols. NASCAR will allow up to 1,000 Florida service members, representing the Homestead Air Reserve Base and U.S....

Stadiums may be empty when/if football starts its season this fall, but some games probably won’t look or sound that way. Fox is exploring ways to fill the empty National Football League venues with digitally-added fans and crowd noises, Fox Sports announcer Joe Buck said during an interview on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM radio show. “I think Fox and these networks have to put crowd noise under us to make it a normal viewing experience at home,” USA Today reports Buck said, adding that the audio component was “pretty much a done deal.” He added: “I think whoever’s going to be...

**SNIP** Miami Dolphins President/CEO Tom Garfinkel laid out his team’s plans Monday on “Good Morning America,” describing how going to an NFL game will become much like ordering takeout from a restaurant or grocery shopping during the pandemic. All fans would wear masks, and colored spots on the ground outside the stadium would indicate proper social distancing as spectators wait to enter. Food would be ordered from the seat and then picked up at the designated concession stand, eliminating the need for lines. Entering and exiting the stadium also would change to give everyone more space. “We would have times...

A photo taken by a Baltimore Sun reporter at the game shows the fans hanging the red, white and blue banner with the words “Keep America Great!” and “Trump 2020” during the eighth inning at Camden Yards. The paper reports the banner remained up for less than 10 minutes as other fans shouted “take it down!”

Residents across Europe suffered from a second day of record-setting heat on Thursday, as the second heat wave of the summer continues to bake the region. Hot and dry air, originating from northern Africa, trapped between cold stormy systems, was the culprit for the miserable conditions in northern Europe, which hit the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany. Germany recorded its highest temperature ever, measuring 42.6 degrees Celsius (108 Fahrenheit) in the northwestern town of Lingen, according to the German Weather Service. Air-conditioning is the problem, not the solution Nothing feels nicer than walking into an...

Christel Reyna...identified the man as her husband, 47-year-old Rafael Reyna. He's been placed on life support...The incident happened in [parking] Lot 3 just after midnight, Christel said she heard a cracking noise before her husband began moaning, the Associated Press reported. The two men were just leaving the stadium when the fight broke out, Los Angeles Dodgers spokesman Joe Jareck said.

A KMBC 9 News photojournalist's camera caught someone using what appears to be a laser pointer directed at Tom Brady's face during Sunday night’s AFC Championship game at Arrowhead Stadium. The first instance caught on camera was on a hand-off from Tom Brady to Sony Michel in the fourth quarter. The previous play was a punt that appeared to be muffed by Patriots' receiver Julian Edelman but was later overturned. Laser researcher Charles Cobb, DDS, MS, PhD., said based on the size of the spot, it looks like the person was sitting far back in the end zone, possibly in...

**SNIP** Many of her followers criticized the songstress for not speaking up earlier, instead waiting just hours before the polls closed in Texas. One person commented, “Should have spoke sooner. Too little too late. When this was posted there was only 2 hours left to vote.” While it's shocking to see the “Lemonade” singer’s fans criticize her at all, they do kind of have a point regarding her sway. With over 119 million followers on Instagram, she is highly influential. It’s entirely possible that her reach could have made a bigger difference during the midterms, especially considering the effect Taylor...

Major wake-up call for the NFL, but not if the league remains beholden to millionaire players instead of the loyal fans who support the league A new NFL season started on Thursday night, and there were more misguided National Anthem protests. Sadly, several players used the opportunity to express their grievances against their country, instead of respecting a great and unifying symbol of the United States of America. Players who should have been expressing their deep gratitude and support for their country, once again, showed disrespect. President Trump responded by expressing his displeasure, tweeting, “The NFL players are at it...

KINGSPORT, Tenn. -- A video shows a brawl that broke out between parents and fans of two North Carolina girls softball teams at a Tennessee park. The Kingsport Times-News reports the fight happened Saturday in Kingsport during a 12-and-under tournament sponsored by USA Softball.

LODI (CBS13) – Several people were injured outside the Grape Bowl in Lodi on Saturday after a brawl broke out between fans of rival soccer teams. Lodi police say more than 100 people spilled out into the streets surrounding the stadium, around 2:45 p.m., with several dozen directly involved in the fighting. Ernie Silva lives just behind the stadium and saw it all unfold from his block, starting with a shirtless man with a severe head injury. “Blood pouring out everywhere,” he said, describing the man’s head and face. “Not even a second later I hear sirens.” The event was...

Before the New Orleans Saints' victory over the Detroit Lions on Sunday, there was a peculiar moment leading up to the national anthem at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. In the Saints' previous game, a Week 4 win over the Miami Dolphins in London, the entire team kneeled before the anthem and then stood during the song. Some players were kneeling again before the anthem on Sunday -- before the flag was even unraveled -- and many fans booed the choice. What made the situation so odd on Sunday was the timing. The Superdome public address announcer requested a moment of silence...

The state of Wisconsin might burn to the ground if the Green Bay Packers sign Colin Kaepernick to replace injured Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers is probably out for the rest of the season with a broken collarbone, and the worst thing the organization could do is bring in Kaepernick. Giving him a workout alone will cause fans to freak out. I grew up in Wisconsin, everybody I know back home is a huge fan and some of them even own part of the team. There wasn’t a single one of them that was in favor of giving Kaepernick a look. “I...

Sports teams ask a lot of their fans, especially in places like Green Bay. Where, depending on the time of year, a fan could get hypothermia while just sitting in his seat. However, one recent request the team has made of the Pack faithful has left fans feeling a little hot. The Packers players, led by their quarterback Aaron Rodgers, issued a call to their fans to join them in interlocking arms during the national anthem. However, some fans have not taken kindly to the request. According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Packers Director of Public Affairs, Aaron Popkey, says...