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The Sports Report: Trevor Bauer’s administrative leave is extended again

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Trevor Bauer works against the San Francisco Giants.
Trevor Bauer
(Associated Press)
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Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

Bill Shaikin on Trevor Bauer: Trevor Bauer will not rejoin the Dodgers after the All-Star break.

Bauer’s leave from the Dodgers has been extended through July 27, under an agreement between Major League Baseball and the players’ union.

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Bauer last pitched for the Dodgers on June 28, one day before a woman accused him of sexual assault and obtained a temporary restraining order against him. The league put him on paid administrative leave July 2, and this marks the second extension of that leave.

This extension carries beyond July 23, when Bauer and his accuser are set for a Los Angeles Superior Court hearing in which a judge will consider whether to keep the restraining order in force.

The Pasadena police department continues to investigate Bauer for felony assault, and the Los Angeles County district attorney has made no decision whether to file criminal charges against him. He has not been arrested.

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MLB is conducting a separate investigation. The league has not met with the woman making the allegations.

If the July 23 hearing takes place — Bauer can ask for a delay — MLB‘s investigation could be informed by whatever information emerges from the hearing. The accuser could testify at the hearing and be subject to cross-examination from Bauer’s attorneys.

However, legal experts have told The Times that Bauer might not risk testifying at the hearing if a decision about whether to charge him has not been made, because any of his testimony in a hearing about the restraining order could be used against him in a potential criminal case.

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Bill Plaschke on the Dodgers: The fake Trevor Bauer is gone, his bobblehead night canceled.

The shirt off Trevor Bauer’s back is gone, his jersey no longer available for purchase at the team store.

The clubhouse support for Trevor Bauer is gone, not one teammate agreeing to publicly offer even the mildest of affirmative testimonials, nobody even dare mentioning his name.

Every piece of evidence that Trevor Bauer ever pitched for the Dodgers is gone, save one.

He is still contractually a pitcher for the Dodgers.

That’s as crazy as it sounds, and it needs to change.

It would be enormously costly, legally difficult, and maybe impossible to actually pull off, but the Dodgers need to send the community a message about their standards by ridding themselves of a guy who has clearly sunk far below them.

They need to cut Trevor Bauer, and they need to do it now.

Read Plaschke’s entire column by clicking here.

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ANGELS

Mike DiGiovanna on the Angels: The Angels fortified their thin outfield by signing Adam Eaton to a major league deal Wednesday, just two days after the 32-year-old veteran was granted his unconditional release by the Chicago White Sox.

The left-handed-hitting Eaton, a key member of the Washington Nationals club that won the World Series in 2019, hit .201 with a .642 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, five homers, 28 RBIs and 33 runs in 58 games for the White Sox this season. He hit .341 (15 for 44) with 21 RBIs with runners in scoring position.

The speedy Eaton has compiled a .278 average, .768 OPS, 65 homers, 165 doubles, 46 triples, and 317 RBIs in 10 big league seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks, White Sox and Nationals.

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Daron Sutton ‘very surprised’ the Angels fired him as play-by-play broadcaster

NBA

Thuc Nhi Nguyen on the NBA: If not for an offer of a lifetime, Lindsay Gottlieb might be the focus of this story. Instead, the former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant and newly hired USC women’s basketball head coach is watching from afar as the NBA’s wait for its first female head coach continues.

With the NBA Finals underway, six of the league’s eight open head coaching positions have been filled, all by men. Three are first-time head coaches, five are people of color, all are former players. Becky Hammon was a popular name for several positions and a finalist for the job in Portland, but the seven-year Spurs assistant was reportedly passed over when she received less-than-stellar recommendations from San Antonio staffers.

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“I look at the hires across the board and there’s men who look all different kinds of ways — short, tall, former player, not — and no one bats an eye,” Gottlieb said. “Except when it’s a female. [Then] it’s like, ‘Well, how will the guys respond?’ Guess what, they respond well to good coaches and good people and they respond negatively to bad people and people who aren’t good coaches.”

Hammon has inspired calls for a woman to be named an NBA head coach since she joined the Spurs staff in 2014. With every job opening, a swelling chorus argues it’s time to promote Hammon.

Women in the industry wait anxiously for cracks in the glass ceiling to turn into a full-blown breakthrough. That inevitable day is already long overdue.

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Excerpt: The NBA Finals night Jerry West went for 53 and the Logo was born ... maybe

Arike Ogunbowale leads WNBA All-Stars over Team USA

U.S. basketball: Bradley Beal in protocols, Tokyo Olympics status in doubt

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Candace Parker to be first woman on cover of ‘NBA 2K’ game

San Clemente surfer and Team USA member Kolohe Andino got in some last-minute practice Tuesday before heading to the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games for the debut of surfing.

Andino’s father, Dino Andino, a former pro surfer, and U.S. Olympic coach Brett Simpson were on hand for the training session. It was Andino’s last practice before heading to Japan on Wednesday.

Andino and John John Florence of Hawaii will make up the U.S. men’s team. Another San Clemente surfer, Caroline Marks, and Carissa Moore of Hawaii form the U.S. women’s team.

Check out Allen J. Schaben’s photo gallery by clicking here.

Fernandomania @ 40

The next episode of our docuseries, “Fernandomania @ 40” is now available for viewing.

Fernandomania took baseball and its fans by storm. The media also became infatuated. Throngs of reporters followed his every move, through every city. Though Valenzuela didn’t himself speak English and didn’t reveal much, his impact nevertheless prompted publications like the Los Angeles Times to reassess its coverage of underserved communities in Southern California.

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You can watch this episode by clicking here.

NBA PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE/RESULTS

Khris Middleton’s big finish has the NBA Finals all even.

Middleton scored 40 points, including 10 straight for the Milwaukee Bucks down the stretch to send them past the Phoenix Suns, 109-103 on Wednesday night in Game 4.

Middleton’s hot hand and a big block from Giannis Antetokounmpo gave the Bucks their second straight victory in the first close game of the series.

Antetokounmpo had 26 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists. His streak of 40-point games ended at two but the only number that matters for the Bucks is on the series scoreboard.

All times Pacific

NBA FINALS

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Phoenix vs. Milwaukee
Phoenix 118, Milwaukee 105
Phoenix 118, Milwaukee 108
Milwaukee 120, Phoenix 100
Milwaukee 109, Phoenix 103
Saturday: at Phoenix, 6 p.m., ABC
Tuesday: at Milwaukee, 6 p.m., ABC
*Thursday, July 22: at Phoenix, 6 p.m., ABC

*-if necessary

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1912 — Jim Thorpe wins the decathlon at the Stockholm Olympics and, in the closing ceremony, Sweden’s King Gustav proclaims Thorpe the world’s greatest athlete.

1922 — Gene Sarazen shoots a final-round 68 to beat out Bobby Jones and John Black for the U.S. Open golf championship.

1923 — Amateur Bobby Jones beats Bobby Cruikshank by two strokes in a playoff to win the U.S. Open golf title.

1927 — Bobby Jones wins the British Open shooting a championship record 7-under 285 at the Old Course in St Andrews, Scotland. It’s the second straight Open title for the amateur, who goes wire-to-wire for a six-stroke victory over Aubrey Boomer and Fred Dobson.

1945 — Byron Nelson defeats Sam Byrd in the final round of the PGA golf tournament.

1961 — Arnold Palmer shoots a 284 at Royal Birkdale to win his first British Open title.

1967 — Argentina’s Roberto DeVicenzo wins the British Open by two strokes over defending champion Jack Nicklaus.

1972 — Lee Trevino wins his second consecutive British Open title by beating Jack Nicklaus by one stroke.

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1978 — Jack Nicklaus shoots a 281 at St. Andrews to win his third and final British Open.

1984 — Hollis Stacy wins her third U.S. Women’s Open golf title, beating Rosie Jones by one stroke.

1990 — Betsy King overcomes an 11-shot deficit over the final 33 holes to win her second consecutive U.S. Women’s Open as Patty Sheehan blows an eight-shot lead over the final 23 holes.

1991 — Sandhi Ortiz-DelValle becomes the first woman to officiate a men’s professional basketball game, working a United States Basketball League game between the New Haven Skyhawks and the Philadelphia Spirit.

2000 — Lennox Lewis stops Francois Botha at 2:39 of the second round to retain his WBC and IBF heavyweight titles in London.

2007 — BYU star Daniel Summerhays becomes the first amateur winner in Nationwide Tour history. Summerhays scores a two-stroke victory over Chad Collins and Chris Nallen in the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational.

2007 — The Philadelphia Phillies lose their 10,000th game, 10-2 to St. Louis. The franchise, born in 1883 as the Philadelphia Quakers and later called the Blue Jays in the mid-1940s, fall to 8,810-10,000.

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2008 — Justin Morneau slides home just in time on Michael Young’s sacrifice fly in the 15th inning, giving the American League a 4-3 victory in the All-Star game at Yankee stadium.

2010 — Rory McIlroy, a 21-year-old from Northern Ireland, ties the major championship record by shooting a 9-under 63 in the opening round of the British Open at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland.

2010 — Caster Semenya wins her first race since being cleared to return to competition after undergoing gender tests, winning the 800 meters in a modest time against a weak field at a low-key meet in Finland.

2018 — Novak Djokovic wins his fourth Wimbledon title with a 6-2, 6-2 7-6 (3) victory over Kevin Anderson. It’s Djokovic’s 13th major trophy, the fourth-highest total in the history of men’s tennis, trailing only Roger Federer’s 20, Rafael Nadal’s 17 and Pete Sampras’ 14. At No. 21, Djokovic is the lowest-ranked Wimbledon titlist since Goran Ivanisevic in 2001.

2018 — France wins its second World Cup title with a 4-2 win over Croatia in a dramatic final in Moscow.

And finally

France defeats Croatia in the 2018 World Cup final. Watch it here.

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Until next time...

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

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