Sports
Altuve accounts for 4 runs, AL-best Astros beat Rangers 5-3
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Jose Altuve drove in two runs and scored two more for the Houston Astros in a 5-3 win over the Texas Rangers and their All-Star starter Martín Pérez. The reigning American League champion Astros will enter September at 84-47 to match their best record ever through 131 games. Altuve drew a leadoff walk to start the game and scored on Trey Mancini’s single. Texas led 2-1 on shortstop Corey Seager’s 29th homer, but Houston regained the lead for good on Altuve’s two-run double in the second. Cristian Javier struck out seven and walked three while allowing three runs over five innings.
NFL
Commanders prepare to play without Robinson after shooting
ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — The Washington Commanders are preparing to start the NFL season without Brian Robinson Jr. after the rookie running back was shot in his right leg in an attempted robbery Sunday. Robinson was released from the hospital earlier this week and visited with doctors at the team facility. There is optimism Robinson could play at some point this year after bullets did not damage anything structurally in his right knee. Robinson’s unexpected injury caused the Commanders to keep an extra running back on their initial roster. Antonio Gibson reclaims the starting role at least for now with Week 1 against Jacksonville on the horizon.
Aaron Donald on helmet swing: ‘It was just a practice’
Aaron Donald downplayed swinging a helmet at Cincinnati Bengals players in a brawl at a joint practice between last season’s Super Bowl teams last Thursday. “It was just a practice. It was football,” Donald said Wednesday in an interview for an upcoming episode of the AP Pro Football Podcast. “I don’t really wanna go back to nothing negative that happened and talk about something that happened in a practice. My main focus is Buffalo.” The three-time AP Defensive Player of the Year and seven-time All-Pro was thrown to the ground after swinging a helmet while players threw fists in a free-for-all that ended the session between the visiting Los Angeles Rams and the Bengals.
Gruden ‘ashamed’ about emails that cost him his job
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Former Raiders coach Jon Gruden says he is “ashamed” about his old offensive emails that cost him his job and hopes to get another chance in football. Gruden spoke publicly about the affair at the Little Rock Touchdown Club for the first time since he resigned as coach of the Raiders last October. The resignation followed the publication by The New York Times and Wall Street Journal of emails he had sent from 2011 to 2018 that contained racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments.
Panthers’ Mayfield denies using malicious words vs. Browns
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Carolina Panthers quarterback Baker Mayfield denies that he said anything malicious toward his former team, the Cleveland Browns. Mayfield said “first, I didn’t say that” and added that “everybody is going to write what they want.” Mayfield said he was shocked to hear the report on Tuesday that NFL Network analytics analyst Cynthia Frelund, who was working as a Buffalo Bills sideline reporter for Friday night’s preseason game against Carolina, said on a podcast that Mayfield had some choice words for his former team. The Panthers will open the regular season at home against the Browns on Sept. 11.
AP sources: Presidents meeting to discuss CFP expansion
The university presidents who oversee the College Football Playoff are scheduled to meet Friday to discuss expanding the four-team format. The presidents hope to accelerate a process that bogged down last year and re-open the possibility that a new model for crowning champion could be implemented as soon as the 2024 season. Two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press the CFP’s Board of Managers, led by Mississippi State President Mark Keenum, is set to convene by video conference. All the people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the board’s plans were not being made public.
Week 1 preview: Irish-Buckeyes matchup tops juicy slate
The first big weekend of college football is bursting with storylines. No. 5 Notre Dame visits No. 2 Ohio State. New Oregon coach Dan Lanning faces his old team when the 11th-ranked Ducks meet defending national champion and No. 3 Georgia in Atlanta. Lanning was the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator last season. No. 7 Utah goes to The Swamp for Billy Napier’s first game as Florida’s coach. No. 23 Cincinnati is coming off its College Football Playoff appearance and is an underdog at No. 19 Arkansas. The Backyard Brawl returns when West Virginia visits No. 17 Pittsburgh.
Serena beats No. 2 seed Kontaveit at US Open to reach 3rd Rd
NEW YORK (AP) — Serena Williams has eliminated No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 in the U.S. Open’s second round to ensure that the 23-time Grand Slam champion will play at least one more singles match. The 40-year-old Williams has hinted this will be the last tournament of her illustrious career. Williams missed about a year of action before returning to the tour in late June at Wimbledon. She lost in the first round there and was 1-3 in 2022 entering the U.S. Open, where she is 2-0 so far this week. She beat Danka Kovinic in the first round before following that up against Kontaveit on Wednesday night in front of a full house at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Tiger Woods shows up to support Serena Williams at US Open
NEW YORK (AP) — Serena Williams credits Tiger Woods with offering advice before she made her recent comeback from a year-long injury absence. Woods sat courtside at the U.S. Open on Wednesday night, throwing uppercuts in the stands to cheer Williams on to victory. Williams says Woods is “one of the reasons I’m here.” She beat No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 to reach the third round at Flushing Meadows in what could be the last tournament of her career. Woods was in Williams’ guest box at sold-out Arthur Ashe Stadium, two seats over from her sister, Venus.
Today in History: September 1, Titanic wreckage is found
Today in History
Today is Thursday, Sept. 1, the 244th day of 2022. There are 121 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Sept. 1, 1983, 269 people were killed when a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 was shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner entered Soviet airspace.
On this date:
In 1715, following a reign of 72 years, King Louis XIV of France died four days before his 77th birthday.
In 1897, the first section of Boston’s new subway system was opened.
In 1923, the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama were devastated by an earthquake that claimed some 140,000 lives.
In 1939, World War II began as Nazi Germany invaded Poland.
In 1942, U.S. District Court Judge Martin I. Welsh, ruling from Sacramento, California, on a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Fred Korematsu, upheld the wartime detention of Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.
In 1945, Americans received word of Japan’s formal surrender that ended World War II. (Because of the time difference, it was Sept. 2 in Tokyo Bay, where the ceremony took place.)
In 1969, a coup in Libya brought Moammar Gadhafi to power.
In 1972, American Bobby Fischer won the international chess crown in Reykjavik (RAY’-kyuh-vik), Iceland, as Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union resigned before the resumption of Game 21. An arson fire at the Blue Bird Cafe in Montreal, Canada, claimed 37 lives.
In 1985, a U.S.-French expedition located the wreckage of the Titanic on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean roughly 400 miles off Newfoundland.
In 2005, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issued a “desperate SOS” as his city descended into anarchy amid the flooding left by Hurricane Katrina.
In 2009, Vermont’s law allowing same-sex marriage went into effect.
In 2015, invoking “God’s authority,” Rowan County, Kentucky, Clerk Kim Davis denied marriage licenses to gay couples again in direct defiance of the federal courts, and vowed not to resign, even under the pressure of steep fines or jail. (Davis would spend five days in jail; she was released only after her staff issued the licenses on her behalf but removed her name from the form.)
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama ridiculed the just-completed Republican National Convention as better-suited to an era of black-and-white TV and “trickle-down, you’re on your own” economics, and declared that Mitt Romney “did not offer a single new idea” for fixing the economy. Lyricist Hal David, 91, who teamed with Burt Bacharach on dozens of timeless songs for movies, television and a variety of recording artists in the 1960s and beyond, died in Los Angeles.
Five years ago: A line of cars stretched more than a mile at a water distribution center set up on a high school football field in Beaumont, Texas, which had been left without drinking water by flooding from Hurricane Harvey. The mayor of Houston announced that ongoing releases of water from two swollen reservoirs could keep thousands of homes flooded for up to 15 days. Comedian Shelley Berman died at his California home at the age of 92.
One year ago: Relentless rain from the remnants of Hurricane Ida sent the New York City area into a state of emergency, as water poured into homes and subway stations and left vehicles nearly submerged on major roadways, the storm would leave nearly 50 people dead in six Eastern states. Three days after Ida battered Louisiana and parts of Mississippi as the fifth-most-powerful hurricane to strike the U.S., about a million homes and businesses still had no electricity, and hundreds of thousands of people lacked running water. Three suburban Denver police officers and two paramedics were indicted on manslaughter and other charges in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who was put into a chokehold and injected with a powerful sedative in a fatal encounter that provoked national outcry. President Joe Biden played host to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, and sought to reassure him that the U.S. remained squarely behind the Eastern European nation.
Today’s Celebrity Birthdays: Actor George Maharis is 94. Conductor Seiji Ozawa (SAY’-jee oh-ZAH’-wah) is 87. Attorney and law professor Alan Dershowitz is 84. Comedian-actor Lily Tomlin is 83. Actor Don Stroud is 79. Conductor Leonard Slatkin is 78. Singer Archie Bell is 78. Singer Barry Gibb is 76. Rock musician Greg Errico is 74. Talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw is 72. Singer Gloria Estefan is 65. Jazz musician Boney James is 61. Singer-musician Grant Lee Phillips (Grant Lee Buffalo) is 59. Country singer-songwriter Charlie Robison is 58. Retired NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway is 56. Actor Ricardo Antonio Chavira is 51. Actor Maury Sterling is 51. Rock singer JD Fortune is 49. Actor Scott Speedman is 47. Country singer Angaleena Presley (Pistol Annies) is 46. Actor Boyd Holbrook is 41. Actor Zoe Lister-Jones is 40. Rock musician Joe Trohman is 38. Actor Aisling (ASH’-ling) Loftus is 32.
Crazy News Stories
TIMMY TRUMPET GETS TO PLAY, DIAZ GETS SAVE, METS WIN
NEW YORK (AP) — It was a day late, but Timmy Trumpet finally got the happy ending he was looking for – and so did fans of the New York Mets and their relief pitcher Edwin Diaz. Diaz has been using the Australian musician’s song “Narco” as entrance music when he comes in from the bullpen. And fans have been breaking out plastic or foam trumpets to “play along” — as have the team’s mascots, Mr. Met and Mrs. Met. Trumpet was invited to play the song live for Diaz on Tuesday, but the Mets lost. Last night, both got the chance to do their thing: Trumpet serenaded Diaz as he came in from the pen and the pitcher got the save as the Mets edged the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1.
LIVE LIZARDS SENT TO WRONG ADDRESS
PORT CHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Nothing like a shipment of a bunch of live lizards delivered to your door to get your attention. That’s what happened to someone living in Port Chester, New York over the weekend. Police were summoned after some lizards were delivered to the wrong address on Saturday. And in an online post the following day, they posted an image of three dark-colored reptiles in a large white container. Police say they held on to the animals until a local animal sanctuary could pick them up for safekeeping.
