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LAWRENCE, Kansas — The Kansas student known as Plunger Boy showed up to David Booth Memorial Stadium at 5:30 a.m. Saturday to make absolutely sure he would get his front row seat for the football game against Duke. He had waited overnight for basketball games at Allen Fieldhouse countless times. But getting to a football game early? Well, there is a first time for everything. So Plunger Boy, otherwise known as Noah Ginsberg, arrived with a group of friends, a handful of signs, the trademark plunger headband he wears on his head (a gag gift from his dad, he says), and waited.

Around two hours before kickoff, about 100 students had gathered, waiting for the gates to open, a giddy buzz filling the air as they wondered, “Are we really good at football?”

“Nothing gets a college fan base excited like a football team,” Ginsberg says.

Even here?

“Even here,” he continues. “We’ve been begging for football to be back. I’ve been waiting for a long time. My cousins go to Clemson, so I have to hear about that. Football, it brings people together, and that’s what we want KU football to be. I know it starts on the field, but it also starts with the fans. If we get fans back here, that’s where it starts.”

Getting fans to games has been tough sledding for Kansas football. Before this season, Kansas had gone 12 straight years with three wins or fewer — tied with Kent State (1989-2000) for the longest streak by a FBS team since the FBS/FCS split in 1978. Over 122 seasons, Kansas has made 12 bowl games and has an all-time record that sits below .500.

Meanwhile, Kansas men’s basketball has one of the best (the best, if you ask Kansas fans) home atmospheres in America at 16,300-seat Allen Fieldhouse — with a sellout streak of 336 games dating back to 2001. Fans come because they know they will see an elite team — Kansas is the defending national champions, with four total national championships. Last season, the Jayhawks passed Kentucky to become the winningest all-time Division I men’s basketball program.

But there are hardcore football fans in Kansas, and they were proud to share their stories on Saturday. Ginsberg has been coming to games since he was 8. He went to the 2008 Orange Bowl when Kansas beat Virginia Tech 24-21 and finished with a 12-1 record. He has attended every game as a student. So has his friend, Alex Ailey, also a senior. On this particular day, Ailey is wearing a red and blue spiked wig and a shirt that says quite simply, “We are back,” purchased three years ago in anticipation of this moment.

“You sit here and you say, ‘I’ve watched us lose by 45 every week,'” Ailey said.

“I’ve watched us lose by 60,” Ginsberg chimes in.

“But I fell in love with this team, my freshman year, when we lost to Nicholls State,” Ailey says. “That was my first KU game. Even though we lost to an FCS team, I saw this was a team worth sticking behind. I knew one day we would get there.”

Freshman Bryce Erickson chimes in next.

“There’s something about getting behind a team that’s trying to get over the hump, which makes it so special to be here,” Erickson said. “You know KU basketball is going to be good, but you don’t know KU football is going to be good every year.”

On the other side of the stadium, Dave Couch and his son, Colin, take their usual spots to greet the football team on arrival. They have done this for so long, the Couch family has become Kansas family. Coach Lance Leipold, and before him Les Miles, and well before him, Charlie Weis, would always make sure to stop and say hello. So do players, administrators, the parents of the players and security guards. If you follow Kansas athletics, you know the Couches.

They got season tickets in 1996, the year Colin was born. Colin is in a wheelchair, the result of a traumatic birth. Dave explains doctors didn’t know whether Colin would survive. But he did, and as he grew up, he connected with football in a way that made him the team’s biggest fan. As Dave talks, Colin makes sure to high five players and assistants as they head to the field for pregame warmups. One assistant screams, “It’s a great day to go 4-0!”

“Colin has got this mentality about being a warrior, because he’s fought since the day he was born just to be here,” Dave Couch says. “So he can relate to what it means to be pushed into a corner, but to not back down from it. Sports in general has that, but with football, you’re fighting on every play to try and win. Whether Colin knows it or not, that’s who he is, and that’s who he’s always been. I love the fact that this might have something to do with his love for football, too.”

Just behind them, the large grassy hill that leads up to the landmark Campanile is dotted with white tailgating tents as far as the eye can see. Freshman Quin Wittenauer is standing with a group of friends and shouts, “We’re a football school!”

Wait, Kansas a football school?

“It’s a dream come true,” he says. “I’ve been waiting for this since I was 5 years old. I’ve watched every KU game. It makes me want to cry. I’m in a KU uniform in my baby pictures.”

His friends AJ McDonald, Drake Doser, Mason Johnston, Adrian Dimond and Cadynce Marlow all start shouting in unison, their voices indistinguishable as they try and top one another on their Kansas football predictions.

“We want Bama!” they yell.

“No, no we want Georgia!”

“No, no no … Alabama wants US!”

Doser points out the white tent behind them. His parents and their friends decided to get a tailgating tent for this game around the time the season started, since it was parents weekend.

“We were supposed to have 10 people in the tent,” Shannon Doser says. “I think we have 100.”

At the top of the hill, on a bench that has a clear view of the stadium, Scott Johnson takes in the view. A Kansas graduate, class of 1970, he remembers going to games in the 1960s to watch Gale Sayers, Curtis McClinton and John Hadl.

“You know, they’ve had great football teams through history here,” Johnson says. “But the last 10 years have been rough. Really rough.”

Johnson drove 585 miles from his home in Colorado to come to the game, believing he could just get a ticket on game day like he always does. But when he arrived in town on Thursday, he learned the game was sold out — the first sellout since 2019.

“I’m kind of amazed,” he said.

So he decided he would sit on the bench to take it all in — even with an obstructed view of the field, thanks to the scoreboard behind the end zone.

Had Johnson made it into the stadium, he would have been a part of a loud, raucous crowd, one that was on its feet throughout the game. With Kansas leading late, security guards stood in front of the Kansas student section holding a rope — a signal they would not be allowed to come onto the field.

After Kansas made a defensive stop to seal the 35-27 victory and move to 4-0 for the first time since 2009, the crowd was at its loudest, waving white towels in the air to punctuate the moment. As the final seconds ticked off the clock, a will-they-or-won’t-they dance ensued between security and the students.

After a few moments delay, one segment of the rope was let down, and students poured onto the field in a fairly orderly fashion, without pushing, shoving or trampling but rather pure elation and some disbelief, streaming for the players chanting, “4-0! 4-0!”

“That was crazy,” receiver Luke Grimm said. “I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I guess we’re doing this. You’ve got the announcer in the background, saying, ‘We expect to win, don’t run on the field,’ and the students are just like, ‘Whatever, we’re running on the field.’ So, you’re with family at that point because you’re just having fun and you just experienced something together.”

About 10 minutes after the students made it onto the field, they were asked to leave. As they trudged for the exits after filling their cell phone camera rolls with pics, one student turned to her friend and screamed, “I can’t believe we f—ing won!”

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Nats’ Strasburg, in retirement impasse, put on IL

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Nats' Strasburg, in retirement impasse, put on IL

CINCINNATI — Pitcher Stephen Strasburg was put on the 60-day injured list by the Washington Nationals ahead of Thursday’s opener at Cincinnati.

The 2019 World Series MVP has not pitched since June 2022 because of injuries that have derailed his career. He still has three seasons left on a seven-year, $245 million contract.

Strasburg, 35, decided in late August to retire, but the Nationals announced in September that there would be no retirement news conference. Owner Mark Lerner said in a statement at the time that the team looked forward to seeing Strasburg at spring training.

The right-hander did not report to the Nationals’ facility in West Palm Beach, Florida. The only practical impact of him being on the roster is it takes up a protected spot for the Rule 5 draft in December.

Strasburg gets $35 million annually, with $11,428,571 per year deferred at 1% interest. The deferred money is payable in equal installments of $26,666,667 on July 1 in 2027, 2028 and 2029, with an interest payment of $3,999,974 on Dec. 31, 2029.

Restructuring the money Strasburg is owed could be part of a retirement agreement.

Washington also selected the contracts of right-handers Matt Barnes and Derek Law along with outfielders Eddie Rosario and Jesse Winker from Triple-A Rochester. Barnes, Rosario and Winker get $2 million salaries while in the major leagues, and Law gets $1.5 million.

The Nationals also placed right-handers Cade Cavalli and Mason Thompson (Tommy John surgery) and left-hander Jose Ferrer (left lat strain) on the 60-day injured list and outfielder Stone Garrett (recovery from left ankle reconstruction surgery) on the 10-day injured list, a move retroactive to Monday.

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Manfred eyes ‘short’ time for Ohtani investigation

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Manfred eyes 'short' time for Ohtani investigation

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday the league is committed to its investigation of the scandal surrounding Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and hopes it will take a “short” time to resolve.

Last week Ohtani’s interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was fired after questions surrounding at least $4.5 million in wire transfers sent from the superstar’s bank account to a bookmaking operation.

Ohtani claims his close friend Mizuhara repeatedly took money from his accounts to fund his illegal sports gambling habit. Ohtani also says he was completely unaware of the “massive theft,” as his lawyers termed it, until Mizuhara confessed to him and the Dodgers last week in South Korea, where the team opened its regular season against the Padres.

“Given the way the story unfolded, it’s important in assuring our fans about the integrity of the game that we verify the things that Mr. Ohtani said, it’s really that simple,” Manfred said on Major League Baseball Network’s “High Heat with Chris Russo” on Thursday.

Mizuhara incurred the gambling debts to a Southern California bookmaking operation that is under federal investigation, multiple sources told ESPN. How he came to lose his job started with reporters asking questions about the wire transfers.

“It’s really difficult for the federal authorities to cooperate with us fully when they have their own ongoing investigation so I think this is one where we’ll have to proceed on our own,” Manfred said. “We never have the kind of authority that law enforcement people have but we manage to get these investigations done and find the facts and I’m sure we will on this one.

“I hope [it’s] short, but I just don’t know.”

Ohtani’s camp initially said Ohtani transferred the funds to cover Mizuhara’s debt and presented Mizuhara for an interview with ESPN, during which he laid out the process in detail. The following day, a statement from Berk Brettler LLP, the law firm representing Ohtani in the matter, instead said the two-way star “has been the victim of massive theft.” Mizuhara then told ESPN that Ohtani had no knowledge of his debt and that Ohtani had not transferred the money.

Ohtani’s representatives declined again Tuesday to answer ESPN’s questions about which authorities they have contacted to report their allegation of theft against Ohtani’s former interpreter.

ESPN has been asking repeatedly for the information since Ohtani’s lawyers first issued a statement last week alleging that “Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft, and we are turning the matter over to the authorities.”

When asked Tuesday to provide proof that Ohtani or his representatives have reported the theft to an investigating agency, a spokesperson for Ohtani declined to comment.

ESPN received no confirmation from any of the likely local, state or federal agencies that could investigate allegations of theft that they received a report from Ohtani’s camp.

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Yanks put Cole on 60-day IL due to injured elbow

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Yanks put Cole on 60-day IL due to injured elbow

Any dreams of a speedy return to the mound for reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole were dashed Thursday when the New York Yankees moved the right-hander to the 60-day injured list due to elbow inflammation.

On March 16, Cole said he wouldn’t throw for three to four weeks in an effort to heal his ailing throwing elbow, telling reporters that nerve irritation and edema were the source of his problem, with rest and recovery the prescription.

The Yankees finalized their Opening Day roster Thursday morning, also moving right-handers Tommy Kahnle (right shoulder inflammation) and McKinley Moore (right knee bursitis) to the 15-day IL and infielders DJ LeMahieu (right foot contusion) and Oswald Peraza (right shoulder strain) to the 10-day IL. All four moves were retroactive to Monday.

New York added newly acquired infielder Jon Berti to the active roster, recalled right-hander Luis Gil from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and signed right-hander Nick Burdi to a major league contract and selected him to the roster.

Cole, 33, pitched just twice this spring, once in a Grapefruit League game on March 1 and then in a simulated game six days later. He subsequently was shut down and underwent medical tests.

Cole has been one of the most durable pitchers in the majors, making at least 30 starts in every season since 2017 except for the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.

Cole is coming off a season in which he went 15-4 while leading the AL in ERA (2.63) and innings pitched (209). He struck out 222 and walked 48.

The Yankees open the 2024 season at the Houston Astros. Nestor Cortes will start for the Yankees against Framber Valdez in a matchup of left-handers.

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