Thursday’s Sports in Brief

BASEBALL

HOUSTON (AP) - David Price put his postseason woes behind him, pitching the Boston Red Sox back into another World Series with a 4-1 victory over the defending champion Houston Astros on Thursday night.

Rafael Devers hit a three-run homer as the Red Sox stunned Justin Verlander and the Astros in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series to win the best-of-seven set 4-1, a perfect 43rd birthday present for rookie manager Alex Cora. After dropping the opener at home, Boston took four straight - including three in a row at Minute Maid Park to improve to 5-0 on the road in these playoffs.

Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr. and the Red Sox will try to bring Boston its fourth crown in 15 years when they open the World Series on Tuesday night at home in Fenway Park against the Los Angeles Dodgers or Milwaukee Brewers. The Red Sox were last in the World Series when they won it all in 2013.

HOUSTON (AP) - Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora says Chris Sale is set to make his next start, lining up the lefty ace for the World Series opener.

Cora said before Game 5 of the AL Championship series against Houston on Thursday that Sale threw off flat ground again earlier in the day and was feeling better since the stomach illness that led to him spending a night in a hospital.

The next Red Sox game will be home the World Series opener in Fenway Park on Tuesday against either the Los Angeles Dodgers or Milwaukee Brewers.

FOOTBALL

Pop Warner, the country’s largest youth football program, is implementing a concussion-awareness initiative aimed at educating young athletes about how to recognize symptoms of a head injury.

The program is called CrashCourse and was developed with Stanford University education, engineering and medical researchers. It uses an interactive online video of a high school football game and a symptoms simulator.

Pop Warner has 325,000 participants in its youth football leagues, including cheerleading and dance, with about 225,000 players. Pop Warner officials plan to promote and encourage use of the program to its coaches and local leagues organizers through social media and email.

NEW YORK (AP) - The NFL will celebrate its 100th season in 2019 with a yearlong series of “NFL 100” events.

The league says the historic celebration will salute fans; highlight the unifying nature of football and its positive impact in communities; bring together generations of past, present and future players; and look ahead to the NFL’s next 100 years.

A special “NFL 100” logo was unveiled Thursday night during halftime of the Broncos-Cardinals game. It will be prominently displayed throughout the 100th season during celebrations on the field, in stadiums, game broadcasts, NFL Films and NFL Network programming, and in digital and social media content. That logo will be featured on game balls and on every player’s game jersey in the neck area.

NFL 100 will officially kick off at the Super Bowl in Atlanta.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) - Kacy Rodgers missed being around the players and coaches the most while not knowing when he’d feel well enough to be back.

A health scare sidelined the New York Jets defensive coordinator for two games - a tense few weeks for Rodgers, who was medically cleared and returned to work this week on a full-time basis.

Bowles announced on Oct. 5 that Rodgers was dealing with something “serious” after visiting the doctor the previous day. The 49-year-old Rodgers underwent tests and then had what he called “a procedure” and was able to do some office work at the team’s facility last week.

Rodgers declined to provide details about the exact nature of his illness, saying he preferred to keep it private.

FRISCO, Texas (AP) - Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrance Williams has been suspended three games for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy, a ban he will serve while on injured reserve because of lingering issues from offseason surgery for a broken right foot.

The league said Thursday the suspension will be in effect Sunday when the Cowboys visit Washington. After Dallas’ open week and a home game against Tennessee, the final game of the ban will be Nov. 11 at Philadelphia.

But Williams will miss at least three more games after that while on injured reserve. His first possible game is Dec. 9 at home against the Eagles.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A Utah mother said in a lawsuit Thursday that school officials brushed aside an alleged sexual assault of her son by his football teammates as “boys being boys” and hazing that went too far.

The woman said her 14-year-old son was pinned down by two teammates while a third rubbed his genitals on her son’s face on Sept. 17 in the small Utah city of Gunnison as several other players watched and laughed.

The three boys were criminally charged earlier this month. One of the boys, a 16-year-old, also is charged with six counts of felony rape and five counts of forcible sexual abuse.

South Sanpete County Public Schools Superintendent Kent Larsen didn’t immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment.

GYMNASTICS

DALLAS (AP) - The attorney for former USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny says her client had no clue of a Texas grand jury indictment when he traveled to Tennessee on a family vacation.

The Walker County district attorney’s office says Penny was arrested Wednesday by a fugitive task force after being indicted for allegedly tampering with evidence tied to the sexual assault investigation of imprisoned gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

Penny’s attorney, Edith Matthai, says her client was arrested at a vacation cabin in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, while he was with his wife and three children.

She says authorities made no attempts to order Penny to Texas before the arrest. The attorney said Penny is “confident that when all the facts are known it will be shown that he did nothing criminal.”

BASKETBALL

NEW YORK (AP) - The NBA is getting even more transparent about the calls its officials make.

The league has revamped its nba.com/official website, adding video archives of plays that merited reviews as well as detailed breakdowns of the responsibilities of officiating crews working each game.

A daily injury report is a new addition to the site. That injury report will be updated three times per day.

Other features of the new site include a sortable digital rulebook with video breakdowns of what makes a certain play legal or illegal, as well as the continued postings of the detailed reports breaking down all calls made in the final two minutes of close games.

AUTO RACING

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Force India and Sergio Perez announced Thursday a one-year extension for 2019 for the Mexican driver ahead of the U.S. Grand Prix and next weekend’s return to Mexico City.

Perez has been with Force India since 2014, and he and his management team have been closely involved in the restructuring of the team. He is expected to partner next season with Williams driver Lance Stroll, whose father led a consortium in helping resolve the Formula One team’s financial problems.

Perez is seventh in the 2018 championship standings, the same position he finished in 2016 and 2017. He has five podium finishes over his career with his best finish this season a third place at Azerbaijan

GOLF

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The PGA Tour Champions has announced that Dominion Energy has agreed to a 10-year extension of its sponsorship of a tour stop in Richmond.

The extension, announced on the day before the opening day of the tour’s annual visit to the Country Club of Virginia’s James River Course, extends the company’s commitment through 2029. The tour for players 50 and older made its debut in Virginia’s capital city in 2016.

This year’s Dominion Energy Charity Classic is the opening event in the tour’s three-event Charles Schwab Cup playoffs.

COLLEGES

NEW YORK (AP) - A lawyer for a longtime Adidas employee urged jurors to use common sense to conclude college basketball coaches knew money was being paid to families to steer top players to their schools.

Attorney Michael Schachter told jurors at a criminal trial’s closings Thursday they could follow the evidence to conclude coaches at Louisville and Kansas encouraged payouts.

A prosecutor later disagreed, saying coaches were not “running rampant.” The jury is likely to start deliberations Monday in the trial of an aspiring sports agent and two men who worked on the behalf of shoemaker Adidas.

Schachter, who represents James Gatto, an Adidas sports marketing manager, mocked the idea that coaches of the caliber of Bill Self at Kansas and Rick Pitino at Louisville didn’t know what was going on.

AWARDS

NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. goaltender Maddie Rooney and Paralympic Nordic skier Oksana Masters have been selected Sportswomen of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation.

Rooney made the winning save in the gold-medal shootout against Canada at the Olympics in South Korea. The victory ended Canada’s streak of four straight Olympic women’s hockey titles.

Rooney, now a junior at Minnesota-Duluth, made 87 saves in four games, allowing just five goals.

Masters journeyed from an orphanage in Ukraine to the U.S. before winning two Olympic golds and a bronze in cross-country skiing and two silvers in biathlon.

South African track star Caster Semenya received the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award at the Salute to Women in Sports. Gail Boudreaux, CEO of the health insurer Anthem, was honored with the Billie Jean King Leadership Award.

SPORTS MARKETING

SEATTLE (AP) - Federal prosecutors have charged a former Microsoft sports marketing director with five counts of wire fraud, accusing him of attempting to embezzle $1.5 million from the company and using his NFL connections to sell Super Bowl tickets for his own gain.

Jeff Tran, 45, was the director of sports marketing and alliances and managed the company’s relationship with the NFL and its payments to third-party vendors, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports .

In addition to selling off Super Bowl tickets intended for Microsoft employees, he allegedly coordinated the issue of false invoices to charge Microsoft for bogus services and the transfer of money for himself, according to the indictment filed Wednesday.

A Microsoft spokesperson said the company had investigated Tran, fired him and then contacted law enforcement.

It was not immediately known if Tran has a lawyer.