- Associated Press - Monday, October 2, 2017

O.J. SIMPSON

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Former football legend O.J. Simpson became a free man again Sunday after serving nine years for a botched hotel-room heist in Las Vegas that brought the conviction and prison time he avoided in the killings of his wife and her friend after his 1995 acquittal.

Nevada state prisons spokeswoman Brooke Keast told The Associated Press that Simpson was released at 12:08 a.m. PDT from Lovelock Correctional Center in northern Nevada. She said she did not know who met Simpson upon his release and didn’t know where Simpson was immediately headed in his first hours of freedom.

“I don’t have any information on where he’s going,” said Keast, adding she had no indication where he was immediately Sunday.

Keast said, the dead-of-night release from the prsion located about 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of Reno, Nevada, was conducted to avoid media attention.

“We needed to do this to ensure public safety and to avoid any possible incident,” Keast added, speaking by telephone.

The 70-year-old Simpson gains his freedom after being granted parole earlier this year. Unlike the last time he went free 22 years ago, he will face restrictions - five years of parole supervision - and he’s unlikely to escape public scrutiny as the man who morphed from charismatic football hero, movie star and TV personality into suspected killer and convicted armed robber.

Simpson is looking forward to reuniting with his family, eating a steak and some seafood and moving back to Florida, his lawyer said recently.

GOLF

JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) - The Americans won the Presidents Cup for the seventh straight time, and this one was no contest.

With most of the work already done, a dominant U.S. team needed only one point from the 12 singles matches Sunday. Kevin Chappell halved the opening match with Marc Leishman, and victory was assured when Daniel Berger went 3 up with three to play against Si Woo Kim.

Berger wound up winning his match, and the celebration was on.

President Donald Trump arrived at Liberty National about 45 minutes before the Americans secured the gold trophy that he was to present to them. Trump, the honorary chairman of the matches, is the first sitting president to attend on the final day and present the trophy.

The Americans had an 11-point lead going into Sunday. All that remained was the margin of victory, and to see if they could become the first team to win all five sessions in the Presidents Cup.

That was the motivation from U.S. captain Steve Stricker, and the players responded with some of their best golf.

BASEBALL

NEW YORK (AP) - In a season of record-high home runs and strikeouts along with record-low complete games, there were some constants in Major League Baseball: Houston’s Jose Altuve and a Colorado Rockies player won batting titles.

There were 6,105 home runs hit in the season that ended Sunday, topping the old mark of 5,963 set in 2000 at the height of the Steroids Era.

Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton hit 59, the most in the majors since Barry Bonds set the record with 73 in 2001 and Sammy Sosa hit 64. Drug testing with penalties began three years later.

Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees led the AL with 52, breaking the rookie record of 49 set by Oakland’s Mark McGwire in 1987. There were 117 players with 20 or more, up from 111 last year, and 41 with at least 30, up from 38.

Along with the round-trippers came quick returns to the dugout. Strikeouts set a record for the 10th straight season at 40,105, topping last year’s 38,982.

Four pitchers tied for the MLB lead with 18 wins - the fewest ever to top the majors in a non-shortened season.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Alabama’s big win over Mississippi didn’t keep Clemson from cutting into its lead in The Associated Press college football poll.

The defending national champion Tigers more than doubled their number of first-place votes after their 31-17 win over then-No. 12 Virginia Tech. Clemson lost ground a week ago after struggling for three quarters against Boston College, but its sharp performance against the Hokies took the Tigers from eight to 17 first-place votes Sunday.

The Tide went from 52 first-place votes last week to 44 despite their 66-3 rout of the Rebels.

The top four teams remained the same. Following Alabama and Clemson are Oklahoma, which lost the first-place vote it got last week, and Penn State.

Southern California’s loss at Washington State made room for Georgia to take over at No. 5 after its 41-0 win over Tennessee.

Washington, Michigan, TCU, Wisconsin and Ohio State rounded out the top 10.

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