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TAMPERE, Finland — Samuel Blais scored two goals to rally Canada to a 5-2 victory over Germany in the final of the ice hockey world championship on Sunday.

It’s a record 28th world title for Canada, and its second in three years. Russia has 27 while Germany has never won the trophy.

Blais netted with a backhand 4:51 into the final period for a 3-2 lead for Canada, which was playing in its fourth straight final.

Lawson Crouse, Tylor Toffoli and Scott Laughton also scored for Canada, Peyton Krebs had two assists and goaltender Samuel Montembeault stopped 21 shots.

Toffoli stretched the lead to 4-2 from the left circle with 8:09 remaining and Laughton made it 5-2 with an empty net goal.

Canada had to come back twice in the final.

John Peterka wristed a shot past Montembeault from the left circle 7:44 into the game. It was the sixth goal for the Buffalo Sabres forward at the tournament.

Blais was fed by Krebs to beat goaltender Mathias Niederberger and tie it 1-1 at 10:47.

Daniel Fischbuch put the Germans ahead again with a one-timer with 6:13 to go in the middle period.

Crouse equalized on a power play with 2:32 remaining in the frame.

It was the first medal for Germany since 1953 when it was second behind Sweden.

The two previously met just once in the final with Canada winning 6-1 in 1930.

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‘You’re the driver’s eyes’: The life of a NASCAR spotter

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'You're the driver's eyes': The life of a NASCAR spotter

It’s a clear Saturday afternoon in March, minutes before the start of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. I’m standing at the top of the grandstands in Turn 12, the track’s infamously harsh braking zone. My mouth is dry. I’m swaying at the hips. I feel sick. But I can’t back out now, because for the first time in my life, I’m competing on a NASCAR team — and it’s my job to help keep our driver from wrecking.

It’s a hell of a first assignment.

My job this weekend is called “spotting.” NASCAR spotters track what’s going on behind, beside and in front of a race car, sometimes coaching their driver through a pass while describing the location of rivals or the severity of wrecks around them.

Spotters do this in as few words as possible; if they use too many, they risk distracting the driver. That’s why, when you listen to a team’s radio, you’ll hear truncated sentences.

“Left side.” (There’s a car on your left.)

“Bumper.” “Quarter.” “Door.” (The car next to you is at your bumper, quarter panel or door.)

“Clear.” (No cars overlap with yours, meaning you can move side to side.)

“Five back to the 48.” (The No. 48 car is approximately five car lengths behind.)

“Looking right.” (The car behind you is peeking to your right, potentially to make a pass.)

Typically, each NASCAR driver has one spotter. On a snaky, 3.41-mile road course like Circuit of the Americas, though, they need at least three to “see” the full track, meaning teams recruit part-timers to help.

Knowing that, my husband asked if I could get us spotting gigs at COTA. Neither of us had ever been spotters, but I offered our (admittedly low-demand) services to the first driver who came to mind: my friend Brad Perez, who signed to drive the No. 45 car with Xfinity Series team Alpha Prime Racing.

“Personally, I ain’t scared,” he said. “Just make sure my team owner is good with it.”

Former Xfinity driver Tommy Joe Martins co-owns the team, and he’s also a friend. I asked him next.

“Great idea,” he responded. “It will save us a lot of hassle. I love it.”

Alpha Prime is a lower-budget team in the Xfinity Series, going up against top-level NASCAR Cup Series powerhouses such as Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing, Richard Childress Racing and more. The walls of Alpha Prime’s race shop read “Us Against Them” in bright red.

“We’re a midtier team,” Martins told ESPN. “We’re not an A team; those are the legit Cup teams, $200,000-plus per-race budget. We’re not really a B team; those are the Nos. 48, 26, 27, 31, 15, 39 and 5. They have $100,000-plus per-race budgets.

“We like to think we’re like a B-minus team. We’ve got around a $70,000 per-race budget, including prize money. Realistically, we should be 26th to 28th, but we try to be top-20 every week, with small goals like finishing on the lead lap.

“We want to compete with that B group, and early in the season, I feel like we have.”

Alpha Prime has two regular Xfinity cars, and the No. 45 runs part time. That meant Martins had to bring not only about 14 extra people to COTA to staff the car but also three spotters. When I texted Martins, he was the only spotter confirmed on the No. 45 — pulling double duty as team owner and crew member. My husband and I filled the two extra spots.

Just like his car, Perez doesn’t race full time. At 27 years old, he has made 13 starts in the Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series, NASCAR’s second- and third-tier national tours.

When he’s not racing, Perez is a tire specialist and driving instructor. Just five years ago, he was a valet in south Florida.

“I’m not always the most optimistic person,” Perez told ESPN. “Living the life I’ve lived, I’ve been a realist. Being where I am right now is a huge accomplishment, and I thank everyone who has given me the chances to get near my goals. As [my friend] Mamba Smith likes to remind me: ‘I shouldn’t be here.'”

But Perez is here, heading down COTA’s backstretch toward me during the slow, double-file pace laps. We’re minutes away from the green flag, which will signal a 38-car free-for-all. Perez starts 31st, and our goal is to finish top-20.

My headset’s microphone is tight against my lips, where the team told me to put it so the wind wouldn’t garble my transmissions. I press it tighter, just in case.

I’m nervous, but I’m prepared. My husband and I spent hours studying, acquiring the team radio from Cup driver Tyler Reddick‘s 2023 COTA victory and syncing it up with a replay of the race to learn what his spotters did and didn’t call. My friend Nick Payne, Reddick’s full-time spotter at 23XI Racing, told me to relax.

“It’s easy,” he said. “Just say ‘left’ and ‘right.'”

Payne studied engineering in college, and he originally wanted to be a crew chief, but he shifted to spotting. The role required similar skills: preparation, data analysis, relationship-building and leadership.

“You’re the driver’s metaphorical eyes,” Payne told ESPN. “You’re constantly feeding them information: how to drive, what to do if they wreck and where people are driving. Sometimes you’re a cheerleader. Sometimes you’re the voice of reason.

“There are kind of three levels [to spotting]. On a road course, you’re helping the driver understand scenarios and how to manage the race. On ovals, you’re both managing and helping them drive. Superspeedways are the ultra-extreme. You’re basically helping them steer the car.”

For Payne, COTA is easy mode. The track has 20 turns, with a mix of fast straightaways, rhythmic arcs and harsh braking zones. Xfinity cars hit about 170 mph down the backstretch before slowing to 40 mph for Turn 12, giving drivers a big opportunity to pass. If you can out-brake your competitors, you can potentially get around them.

My spotting zone begins partway down the backstretch, about half a mile from where I’m standing. I lean forward to “see” Perez better — as if that’ll help — and catch the speckled blue nose of his car. He’s just a dot in the distance, and soon, I’ll have to help that dot navigate the cars around him.

When Perez snakes through my section, he’ll alternate between facing me and away from me. He wants me to describe cars as on his “left” or “right,” but for me, the lefts and rights change. I trace the track with my eyes, imagining Perez with a car next to him.

Left side, I think. Door. Quarter. Clear.

Perez’s imaginary car rolls around another turn.

Looking right.

And one more.

Right side. Still there.

While I practice, the Xfinity field takes the green flag. I have about a minute before they reach me, when I’ll locate Perez, warn of anything around him, then coach him through the next five turns. I nervously sway a little faster.

Martins calmly calls the first section of the track, even as cars fan out three and four wide. My husband takes over the second section, guiding him like a pro. Then comes my turn.

This is the first time I’ve seen Perez around so many cars. I realize just how poor my depth perception is, how quickly the lefts and rights flip, and how hard it is to tell whether cars are overlapping with him or simply peeking around. I stay calm, calling what I can but avoiding things I’m unsure about. Perez eventually disappears, and my shoulders fall in relief.

I made it through Lap 1. Just 49 to go.

As the race goes on, I get into a rhythm. I call on-track battles (“Left side … still there … car spinning to your right”) and changes to the track surface (“They’re putting speedy-dry on the racing line”). I tell Perez when faster drivers are charging, and I congratulate him on good passes. We even joke a bit under caution.

By the end of the race, Perez is running in the teens. We’re where we want to be, but two late-race cautions bunch the cars up to battle for final positions. People thrash and wreck, while Martins reminds Perez of the goal: Stay clean and bring it home top-20. That’s exactly what he does.

“Where’d we end up?” Perez radios after crossing the finish line.

“P1-9,” Martins responds. “Nineteen.”

“Would you look at that!” Perez says.

A penalty ahead of Perez eventually moves him into 18th, his best career Xfinity finish. We spend the night eating, drinking, high-fiving and hollering in triumph.

Each of Perez’s NASCAR races is a culmination of his on-the-ground work to gather sponsors for the big day, and his performance has a material impact on whether he gets to make another. Today, it feels like we won.

“I think there’s no reason I can’t be full time,” Perez said after the race. “I go about things the right way; my partners are happy; and I’m growing more partnerships. I love what I do for work, but I know if I had the opportunity to race for a living, I could do well. Hopefully one day, that will happen.

“If it doesn’t, I have no regrets.”

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Yarborough to be honored at Darlington weekend

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Yarborough to be honored at Darlington weekend

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Darlington Raceway will pay tribute to the late NASCAR Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough by displaying his No. 29 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass during its throwback weekend at the Goodyear 400 in May.

Yarborough, a native of Sardis, South Carolina, and three-time Cup champion, died on New Year’s Eve at age 84.

His car will be shown in the Darlington Raceway Stock Car Museum on the outside of the track nicknamed “Too Tough to Tame,” the latest honor there for Yarborough, who won five Southern 500s, which is second all-time to Jeff Gordon’s six victories. The NASCAR Cup Series garage there was dedicated to him in 2016.

The car going on display came from the Florence County Museum. Yarborough drove it in 26 races in 1987 and 1988, with a pair of top-five finishes at Pocono and Talladega.

First-year Darlington President Josh Harris said with Darlington as Yarborough’s home track, “it’s an honor to commemorate his impact to our sport.”

Yarborough won 83 races, with four Daytona 500 victories to go with his five at Darlington in the Southern 500. He won three NASCAR titles from 1976-78.

The annual throwback weekend, NASCAR’s tribute to its past, culminates with the Goodyear 400 on May 12.

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‘He looks happy’: Has Juan Soto finally found a home with the Yankees?

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'He looks happy': Has Juan Soto finally found a home with the Yankees?

WHEN JUAN SOTO began to initiate himself with the New York Yankees, his third team in less than two years, the takeaway from those who observed it was how seamless it felt — how comfortable he looked, how easily he found his voice, how quickly it seemed as if he had been there forever.

He’s getting better at this.

“It’s definitely easier than the first time,” Soto said with a laugh earlier this month, about two weeks after his first official workout as a Yankee. “The first time, it was really tough.”

It can be jarring to consider Soto — the accomplishments he has had, the legends he has been compared to, the trades he has been at the center of — and realize he is only 25 years old, younger than Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman, Toronto’s Bo Bichette and Atlanta’s Austin Riley. Before Soto, no player had ever made three All-Star teams and been traded twice before the age of 26.

The latest brought him to his sport’s most decorated franchise, for whom he’ll debut in an Opening Day matchup against the rival Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on Thursday afternoon. The Yankees will pair Soto with fellow superstar Aaron Judge in hopes of revitalizing a lineup that often looked listless amid an 82-win, playoff-less season last year. But only the 2024 season is promised. After it ends, Soto will venture into the free agent market, potentially on the move once more.

There was a time, not too long ago, when Soto thought his career would be a steady and continuous ascension, the type reserved for only a select few of the game’s greatest. Debuting at 19, winning the World Series after his age-20 season, claiming a batting title at 21 and drawing comparisons to Ted Williams by 22 will do that. He has since had to grapple with interruption, calamity, imperfection. He believes he has been hardened by it.

“The Nationals showed me the business side of the game,” Soto said, “and I’m just glad they showed me that.”

Soto spent an entire morning crying after being traded away from the Washington Nationals, the team that signed him, shaped him, watched him become a star and helped make him a champion. In the aftermath of his trade from the San Diego Padres 16 months later, in December 2023, he was unemotional, fully adept at navigating the cold realities of professional sports.

“I’ve been growing a lot,” Soto said. “On the business side, I’ve been learning a lot of things — about different organizations, different cultures. I think I’ve been learning from that. I’m happy I’m learning that way, so that whenever I get to one spot I know how to react whenever I get around a clubhouse that is going to be different.”

Barring an unexpected extension with the Yankees, Soto, a Scott Boras client, will become baseball’s most coveted free agent in a little more than seven months. Given the heavy deferrals in Shohei Ohtani‘s contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers — he signed for $700 million, but the present-day value, based on how it impacts the competitive balance tax payroll, sits at $460 million — Soto still has a chance to sign the richest contract in baseball history.

But what he wants more than anything is stability.

“That’s the best thing for me,” Soto said. “Stay in one place and try to, whenever I do this deal, just finish in that one spot.”


THE DETAILS OF professional sports contracts are often public, forcing athletes to live with the pressure of how much money they make. Few, though, have to live with the pressure of how much money they turn down. Soto lived that reality in the summer of 2022, during a 17-day window that began with the revelation that he declined a 15-year, $440 million extension from the Nationals on July 16 and ended with his trade to the Padres on Aug. 2.

The noise didn’t just come from fans and media, but from friends and family, many of them miffed by how anyone, let alone a person with such humble beginnings, could turn down generational wealth.

“It was days,” Soto said, “where I’d wake up and I’d get so many text messages, calls, phone calls, everything, that it just made you not even want to go to the field.”

Roughly 17 months later, the anger over all of it becoming public still feels fresh.

“I was a guy who was loyal to the team,” Soto said. “I always tried to say, ‘Anything we do business-wise, it was just between the team and myself.’ And it was really shocking for me, it was really tough for me. It was really frustrating at the same time, because I really trusted that team. I gave all my trust to be able to negotiate and do things like that, and when you see stuff like that, you just feel so bad. It was really uncomfortable.”

The Nationals’ extension offer, which didn’t come with any deferrals, would stand as baseball’s second-largest contract even today. But its average annual value, $29.3 million, would rank Soto behind 18 other players this season. Given the combined $54 million he will make in his last two arbitration years, Soto projects to do better than that in free agency, especially with another MVP-caliber year in 2024. Any free agent deal exceeding $386 million would net him more money in the aggregate.

Just as big a deterrent as the average annual value for Soto, though, was that the Nationals were for sale at the time.

“You’re being offered a contract from a faceless owner,” Boras said in a phone conversation. “And Juan Soto didn’t want to place his career in that position, because he really wanted to know who he was going to be working with for years to come.”

“People can judge you, but at the end of the day, it’s you who has to feel comfortable,” said retired outfielder Nelson Cruz, a confidant of Soto’s with the Nationals in 2022 who briefly joined him with the Padres in 2023. “That made me really proud of him, to see him figure out, ‘It’s me who has to deal with it.’ It was great to see him grow up as a player, grow up on the business side, because he understood his value and what he’s worth. He’s very educated with that. I hope he gets what he wants.”

Once he arrived in San Diego, Soto said, “all the noise just stopped.” But the 2022 season still saw him finish with only a .242 batting average and a .452 slugging percentage, by far the lowest marks of his career. The Padres won anyway, making it all the way to the National League Championship Series. The ensuing offseason saw them sign Xander Bogaerts to an 11-year, $280 million contract. Later, near the end of February, Manny Machado was given an 11-year, $350 million extension.

It seemed like the Padres — also tied long-term to Fernando Tatis Jr., Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish — didn’t have any more millions to give. But Soto said he maintained hope of staying, too. His conversations with owner Peter Seidler made him believe it was possible.

“He really wanted me to be part of the team,” Soto said.

Boras saved his last exchange with Seidler, a short text message from Nov. 2. In it, Seidler, who late in the season had undergone an undisclosed medical procedure, wrote that he was “improving steadily” and that though doctors had told him to stay off his phone, “I’m going to keep in touch with you anyway.” Twelve days later, Seidler died. Sources familiar with the team’s thinking believe the Padres ultimately would have had no choice but to trade Soto; it was their best — and perhaps only — route to adding starting-pitching depth and getting their payroll below $200 million, two clear goals at the start of the offseason. But many wonder if Seidler would have found a way to keep Soto regardless.

“I only know everything that Peter said to me,” Boras said. “Peter Seidler always said to me that Juan Soto will be on his team. He said it 50 times to me — ‘Juan Soto will be on my team.'”


SOTO HAS SAID all the right things about becoming a Yankee. But he hasn’t been as effusive as one might expect for what feels like such a natural fit — a magnetic, star-level player for a premier franchise. Some have rationalized it as another bargaining move, not unlike Soto’s decision to turn down the Nationals’ final offer; a way to maintain leverage in the lead-up to a free agency that will include the crosstown New York Mets, among others, as aggressive suitors.

It might be something else, though: a defense mechanism. Soto doesn’t want to get hurt again, and so he won’t allow himself to.

“That’s how things go,” Soto said. “You definitely love where you’re at, you’re definitely happy, excited with where you’re going to be and how the team’s going to be — but they show you you cannot fall in love, like I did with the Nationals. I was more than excited to be there, and they just cracked everything open and let me go.”

Boras has had precisely 52 meetings with Soto (“I keep track of them,” he said) to go over “the economics of the game and his value in it.” Soto is not just one of the best hitters of this era; at a time when players constantly sacrifice strikeouts to keep up with the high velocities and elevated spin rates of the modern game, his combination of patience and power is unmatched. Soto drew a major-league-leading 412 walks from 2021 to 2023, 136 more than the second-place Kyle Schwarber, but also accumulated 91 home runs, tied for 15th. His adjusted OPS of 157 is the fifth highest all-time through a player’s age-24 season, trailing only Ty Cobb, Mike Trout, Mickey Mantle and Jimmie Foxx, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

That he’ll be a free agent at 26 years old only adds to the possibility that his next contract will reach the $500 million threshold that had been so elusive until Ohtani. Soto, though, cares about the length of his new deal at least as much as he cares about the value attached to it. It’ll be the first contract he signs, but he also wants it to be his last.

“At the end of the day, everybody wants to be where they’re going to finish their career,” Soto said. “This free agency was really tough for a lot of players, but I think if you ask any guy in the clubhouse, anywhere, they will be happy to be in a long-term deal and try to finish their career where they can be. That’s the best thing for me — to stay in one place and try to, whenever I do this deal, just finish in that one spot.”

Soto brought up his four most prominent ex-teammates — Machado, Bogaerts, Trea Turner and Bryce Harper. Machado, Bogaerts and Turner each signed 11-year deals that carry them through their age-40 season; Harper signed a 13-year contract after hitting free agency at a similar age as Soto will. All have full no-trade clauses.

“Long contracts,” Soto said, “because they know they’re going to finish their career right there. Anything can happen in the future. Maybe they get traded. But that’s going to be on them if they want to get traded, instead of going to free agency and trying the market again. They just know they’re going to be there for a long time.”


YANKEES GENERAL MANAGER Brian Cashman lowered the expectations early. On the first day of spring training, when he met with the New York media, he essentially stated that, barring something unforeseen, Soto will play out the 2024 season in the Bronx and then become a free agent. It was a reaction to a conversation Boras had with managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner shortly after the trade, during which Boras relayed Soto’s desire to “learn what it’s like to be a Yankee” before making a long-term commitment.

It was also an acknowledgment of the obvious.

“Scott Boras is his agent,” Cashman said plainly. “Scott takes his guys to free agency. That’s typically what he does. It’s just reading the landscape and recognizing that that is the most realistic avenue. It doesn’t mean that’s what’s going to happen. I don’t rule it out. But I just feel like under-promise, overperform is probably, in the New York market, the best thing you can do.”

The Yankees are expected to be aggressive in their efforts to bring Soto back this offseason, even if it means giving him a contract that tops the one signed by their captain, Judge, who landed a nine-year, $360 million deal as a 30-year-old in December 2022.

The results of 2024 could have a lot of sway.

The Yankees are coming off one of their most disappointing seasons in recent memory and will be without their ace, Gerrit Cole, until at least May or June while he recovers from what has been diagnosed as nerve inflammation and edema in his right elbow. Soto has never needed to be more of a difference-maker, and the early signs were promising. His first seven Grapefruit League games saw him hit four home runs, leaving his new team in awe.

“I feel like he’s going to kill the ball every time he swings,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said at the time.

“I knew I would enjoy watching him,” Cole said, “but I love watching him.”

There are no questions surrounding Soto’s ability to hit, but there are plenty surrounding his ability to defend, so much so that there are already talks — among fans, but also among scouts and executives — about him eventually transitioning to designated hitter, perhaps sooner than later. It’s the one aspect of his game that could prevent the massive contract he once seemed pre-ordained for, and he knows it.

“I want to show people that I can play outfield, I can play defense,” Soto said. “I saw those comments and everything, that they say I’m not going to be [much] longer in the outfield. But I feel like I can.”

By Statcast’s Run Value metric, Soto was a minus-30 from 2018 to 2023, though the number was heavily skewed by an abysmal showing in 2022. He was worth four outs above average in 2021, but minus-16 in 2022 and minus-9 in 2023. In hopes of getting him closer to the metrics of three years ago, Yankees outfield coach Luis Rojas spent a large portion of spring training working with Soto on pre-pitch techniques in hopes of improving his first step, usually by taking live reads during batting practice. His desire to improve has been obvious.

“I noticed that from the first day we talked,” Rojas said. “You can sense it right away, when a player takes over a conversation and basically owns it. You see the sense of responsibility that he has for his career, in all areas.”

Cruz sees Soto as the prototypical Yankee, for reasons that extend far beyond a short right-field porch. Cruz, 43, spent 19 years in the big leagues and struggled to find someone more focused, more disciplined and more mature than Soto. Those traits, while coupled with a strong demeanor and a hard exterior, have at times distanced Soto from teammates, as some around the Padres can attest to. But Cruz believes they’ll be a major benefit under New York’s magnifying glass.

“The fans are going to love him,” said Cruz, now an adviser with the Dodgers. “He’s the type of player the Yankees are looking for.”

Soto made fast friends with fellow outfielder Alex Verdugo, his new throwing partner and locker mate at the Yankees’ spring training complex in Tampa, Florida. One locker over was Trent Grisham, the veteran center fielder who came over with Soto in the most recent trade. Grisham was on the same Padres team where Soto admittedly struggled to adapt and was surprised to see Soto now so comfortable, so at ease, at such an early stage with the Yankees. He told him as much before the end of the first week.

“He looks happy,” Grisham said a few days later. “He looks excited.”

He’s done this before.

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