The Sports Report: Ron Washington is the Angels’ new manager

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

From Sarah Valenzuela: The Angels hired Ron Washington as their new manager, the team announced Wednesday.

The news comes after Washington came to Arizona to interview for the position on Tuesday night, according to multiple reports. Washington becomes the 23rd manager in Angels history, and their fourth since the Mike Scioscia era.

It’s a move back into a baseball position that Washington has wanted to make for several years. Washington managed the Texas Rangers from 2017-14. The Rangers won two American League pennants in that time, making three postseason trips total with Washington at the helm.

During the 2022 All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium, Washington told The Times that he wanted to manage again, no matter the circumstances of any prospective team that might call on him.

“Wherever [the opportunity] is, I’m gon’ build,” Washington said at the time.

Washington, 71, from New Orleans, has worked as the third base coach of the Atlanta Braves since the 2017 season. The Braves have been in the playoffs every season since 2018, winning the World Series in 2021.

“He’s great. Tremendous. Outstanding. You’re not gonna find better,” Alex Anthopoulos, the Braves president of baseball operations and general manager, said of Washington.

“A guy who’s won, high-energy, level of respect is off the charts,” Anthopoulos added. “Someone that players will go through a wall for… I can guarantee you, as word is spreading today, Angels players are incredibly excited and Braves players are incredibly sad.”

Washington and Dave Roberts of the Dodgers are the only Black managers in the majors.

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DODGERS

From Jack Harris: Scan the myriad lists of contract projections for MLB free agents this offseason, and the estimated payday for two-way star Shohei Ohtani only seems to grow.

$400 million? $500 million? Maybe more?

Even after undergoing an elbow surgery that will limit him to hitting-only next season, Ohtani continues to be pegged for a record-breaking, potential half-billion-dollar deal.

Which, for all the Dodgers’ interest in the 29-year-old superstar, raises an important question: Will this be the time the team goes all in on a big-name, high-priced bidding war? Or will they show the same fiscal constraint that has sidelined them for some of MLB’s other top free agents in recent years?

On the first day of MLB’s general manager meetings in Arizona on Tuesday, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman didn’t tip his hand.

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Who will sign Shohei Ohtani to biggest MLB deal? Here are the top 35 free agents

LAKERS

From Dan Woike: Even if Anthony Davis wasn’t forced to the Lakers bench in a green hoodie and golden baseball cap, the trends say it probably would’ve looked sort of like this in Houston anyways – at least early.

The Lakers, who have been the worst first quarter team in the entire NBA through seven games this season weren’t any better in game eight, another bad start leading to another road loss, this one to the Houston Rockets, 128-94.

Houston led by as many as 15 points in the first quarter – the sixth time this year the Lakers have been down by at least 10 at a point during the first quarter. On the season, the Lakers have been outscored by 74 points in the first quarter, a number that’s created mountains that the Lakers haven’t been able to consistently climb.

No player on the roster has a positive plus/minus cumulative rating in the first quarter this season.

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Lakers box score

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CLIPPERS

From Broderick Turner: The Clippers still have a lot of work to do to get it together with their Big Four and the rest of the group.

They had six players score in double figures, but the Clippers still lost their third straight game, a 100-93 defeat to the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night at Barclays Center.

Paul George led the Clippers with 24 points, Kawhi Leonard had 17, Russell Westbrook 13 and James Harden, in his second game with the Clippers, had 12.

Lonnie Walker IV led the Nets with 21 points off the bench.

The Clippers shot just 39.6% from the field, 22.2% from three-point range.

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Clippers box score

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HORSE RACING

From John Cherwa: Del Mar will host back-to-back Breeders’ Cups, after it was announced that the boutique race track will be the site of the year-end horse racing championships on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 in 2025.

The announcement was supposed to be made Thursday but the Breeders’ Cup moved it up after The Times reported the move Wednesday afternoon.

The last time the same track held consecutive Breeders’ Cups was 2012 to 2014 at Santa Anita. In many ways, the decision is one based on necessity. Since 2008, only four tracks have hosted the event: Santa Anita, Del Mar, Churchill Downs and Keeneland.

Keeneland took itself out of the running for 2025 when it announced last month that it planned major construction projects to include a permanent paddock building. The project is set to begin in January and be finished in the fall of 2025.

The Breeders’ Cup and Churchill Downs do not appear to be in the same place when it comes to a revenue sharing agreement for the event. Essentially, the Breeders’ Cup rents the facility for the event, but how all the revenue is distributed is a negotiation. Churchill Downs last hosted the Breeders’ Cup in 2018.

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KINGS

Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist and the Kings won their fourth in a row, 4-1 over the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night.

With the win, the Kings became just the eighth team in league history to win each of their first seven road games to start a season, and the first to accomplish the feat since the Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils did it in 2009.

After opening the season with points in their first 12 games, the Golden Knights lost for the second straight time in regulation. Vegas hadn’t lost consecutive games in regulation since Jan. 16 and 19 of last season, to Dallas and Detroit.

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Kings box score

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GOLF

From Helene Elliott: Allisen Corpuz’s academic resume at USC was even more impressive than her formidable achievements on the golf course.

Twice an All-American pick and ranked No. 1 nationally as a fifth-year senior, Corpuz also earned an undergraduate degree in business administration, a master’s in global supply chain management, and graduate certificates in business analytics sustainability and business.

“And it wasn’t like she was just skating by in those classes. She was getting As, A-minuses, B-pluses, a very high GPA,” said USC coach Justin Silverstein, who began watching Corpuz when she was in eighth grade. “She took it very seriously. Her mom and dad did a phenomenal job training her for that. She got every inch she could out of this university.”

Now in her second season on the LPGA tour, Corpuz is adding significant accomplishments to her golf resume and is poised to make her mark on a competitive tour that has crowned 23 first-time winners the last two seasons.

Corpuz, who grew up in Hawaii but calls Southern California and the Rolling Hills Country Club her base, convincingly won the U.S. Women’s Open at legendary Pebble Beach in July for her first career tour victory. She was the only player in the field who shot under par all four days, compiling a nine-under 279 on the strength of a dominant final round.

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THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1912 — The lateral pass is used as an offensive weapon for the first time by Worcester Tech coach William F. Carney. Carney’s team beats Amherst 14-13.

1946 — Second-ranked Notre Dame fights to a 0-0 tie with No. 1 Army at Yankee Stadium to snap the Cadets’ 25-game winning streak. The Irish defense holds Army’s running backs Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis to a combined 79 yards.

1953 — The U.S. Supreme Court rules 7-2 that baseball is not subject to antitrust laws, maintaining the game is a sport, not a business.

1984 — Larry Holmes scores a 12th-round technical knockout of Bonecrusher Smith to retain the IBF heavyweight title in Las Vegas.

1991 — Marshall Faulk of San Diego State returns after missing three games due to injury and breaks the NCAA record for touchdowns by a freshman with his 20th in a 42-32 win over Colorado State.

1996 — Evander Holyfield defeats Mike Tyson 37 seconds of the 11th round to win the WBA heavyweight title in Las Vegas. Holyfield, a 7-1 underdog, becomes the second man to hold a piece of the heavyweight title three times.

2001 — Detroit’s Luc Robitaille scores in the first period against Anaheim, becoming the 13th player in NHL history to reach 600 career goals.

2005 — Carolina’s Erik Cole is the first player in NHL history to be awarded two penalty shots in one game. He scores on the first, helping the Hurricanes defeat Buffalo 5-3.

2011 — Joe Paterno is fired by the Penn State board of trustees despite saying he would retire as coach after the football season ended. Paterno is brought down by the growing furor over the handling of child sex abuse allegations against assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Penn State President Graham Spanier is also ousted.

2014 — Landon Donovan scores three goals and sets up Robbie Keane’s goal, propelling the Galaxy into the Western Conference finals with a 5-0 victory over Real Salt Lake.

2021 — 105-year-old Julia Hawkins sets a world record as the first woman and first American her age to run 100 meters in the Louisiana Senior Olympic Games.

Compiled by the Associated Press