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Former MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer declined to be interviewed by police in Arizona about a sexual assault complaint filed against him, while the woman who accused him gave police varying accounts about her alleged pregnancy, according to two police reports obtained by ESPN on Friday.

The woman, whom ESPN has chosen not to name, said in a civil lawsuit that Bauer sexually assaulted her in December 2020, which led to her “unplanned pregnancy.” The woman reported the incident to the Scottsdale Police Department in December 2022, a week after she filed the suit against Bauer. Bauer’s attorneys, in court filings, have described the encounter as “consensual” and claim the woman fabricated the pregnancy. Jon Fetterolf and Rachel Luba, co-agents for Bauer, told ESPN in a statement that he “categorically denies” the allegations made in the woman’s statements to police and within her court filings, reiterating a statement they made earlier this week calling the woman’s claims “untethered to reality.”

Attorneys listed on the woman’s court documents have not responded to ESPN’s requests for comment.

According to the police reports obtained by ESPN, when the Arizona woman was interviewed by police following her report of sexual assault, she “initially stated she had a miscarriage, but later referred to the miscarriage as an abortion,” the detective noted in his report. “At the time during the interview I questioned [her] whether she had a miscarriage or an abortion because they’re two separate things. During the interview, [she] stated ‘they’re pretty much the same thing’ and said she no longer wanted to talk about it,” the detective wrote.

A month later, the woman told the detective she did not have an abortion, but miscarried just before going to a clinic located in another state, according to the report. She told police she “did not visit medical persons for any treatment, rather, she saw her OBGyn in Scottsdale when she returned to AZ,” according to the report. The detective added that the medical records she had provided “do not indicate” whether she “was in fact pregnant.”

In January, one of Bauer’s attorneys, Anne Chapman, also contacted the Scottsdale Police Department to file a criminal complaint accusing the woman of “theft by extortion.” According to that complaint, Chapman told police that the Arizona woman “had demanded financial compensation from her client for a pregnancy and abortion that was alleged to be false.”

In February, police investigating Bauer’s extortion complaint concluded that his case did not meet the criminal statute.

In March, on the same day news broke that Bauer signed a one-year deal to play in Japan, police asked to interview him. A representative for Bauer told ESPN that Bauer signed with the Yokohama BayStars on Feb. 26 after agreeing to terms the previous week.

Eleven days after police requested to interview Bauer, Chapman declined “due to Bauer recently moving overseas.” The case was listed as inactive “due to no probable cause having been established.”

“Mr. Bauer cooperated with the Scottsdale Police Department’s investigation,” the Bauer representative said. “He was out of state for a family medical emergency at the time of the interview request before traveling to Japan for the season. His attorneys offered to address further questions following his initial statement and exhibits but that was not needed as the case became inactive.”

In April, Bauer’s attorneys filed a countersuit in Maricopa Superior Court accusing the woman of fraud, which she has denied.

On Tuesday, the woman’s attorneys filed an amended complaint on her behalf, stating for the first time in the court record that she had a miscarriage.

Both sides have told the judge presiding over the case that they will be ready for a jury trial by May 2024.

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Ranking returning production for every FBS team: Who should improve, regress in 2025

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Ranking returning production for every FBS team: Who should improve, regress in 2025

The lengthy 2024 season has been over for more than a month, the transfer portal has settled down for now, and we’re waiting to find out if the sport’s powers-that-be are going to change the format of the College Football Playoff for 2025 and beyond.

It seems like as good a time as any to start talking about who might actually be good in 2025!

Early each offseason, I spit out initial SP+ projections, based on a forever-changing combination of returning production, recruiting and recent history. As always, those projections stem from three primary questions: How good has your team been recently? How well has it recruited? And who returns from last year’s roster?

SP+ projections are still a few days away, but let’s deal with that last question first. Who returns a majority of last year’s production? Who has done the best job of importing production from another team? Who is starting from scratch?

For a few years now, I’ve been attempting to expand how we measure returning production. The formula I created shifts with each new year of data and has had to shift a ton with the rising number of transfers. But the gist remains the same: High or low returning production percentages correlate well with improvement or regression. They might not guarantee a good or bad team, but they can tell us a lot. And in 2025, they tell us a lot about the state of college football.

Looking through the prism of returning production data of every FBS team, we’ll break down how the percentage of returning players is trending, what the numbers mean for your favorite team and which teams can expect to improve and which could regress in 2025.

Jump to a section:
Percentages | Transfers
Returning trends | What numbers mean
Likely to improve | Likely to regress

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Mets’ Manaea strains oblique, likely to start on IL

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Mets' Manaea strains oblique, likely to start on IL

New York Mets left-hander Sean Manaea has been shut down for a few weeks due to a right oblique strain and will likely start the season on the injured list, manager Carlos Mendoza told reporters Monday.

Manaea, who is projected as the team’s No. 2 starter, went 12-6 with a 3.47 ERA with 184 strikeouts with the Mets in 2024, leading to a three-year, $75 million deal in December.

“The good news is … the tendon is not involved, the rib cage is not involved,” Mendoza said of the MRI results for Manaea. “It’s just straight muscle, so he’s going to be shut down for a couple of weeks — and then we’ll reassess after that. We’ve got to build him back up again. Safe to say that he’s probably going to start the season on the IL. … Once he’s symptom-free, he’ll start his throwing.”

It is the second injury to the Mets’ starting rotation after right-hander Frankie Montas was shut down for six to eight weeks on Feb. 17 after suffering a high-grade lat strain.

Kodai Senga, Clay Holmes and David Peterson are set to top the Mets’ starting rotation to begin the season. Paul Blackburn, Griffin Canning and Tylor Megill will compete for the final two spots until Manaea and Montas return.

The Mets have also lost reserve infielder Nick Madrigal for an extended period after he suffered a fractured left shoulder during Sunday’s spring training game against the Washington Nationals.

Madrigal, who is fighting for a roster spot, fell to the ground while throwing to first base after making a bare-handed play on a ground ball. He was originally diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder but further tests revealed the fracture in his non-throwing shoulder.

Mendoza told reporters that Madrigal, who signed a one-year deal with the Mets in January, will have a CT scan and will be sidelined “for a long time.”

Field Level Media contributed to this report.

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‘New York, New York’ to play only after Yanks win

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'New York, New York' to play only after Yanks win

TAMPA, Fla. — The Yankees will play Frank Sinatra’s version of the “Theme From New York, New York” only after home wins instead of after all games in the Bronx, going back to the original custom set by owner George Steinbrenner in 1980.

The Yankees said players and staff were tired of hearing a celebratory song following defeats.

After Sunday’s 4-0 spring training loss to Detroit at George M. Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees played Sinatra’s 1966 recording of “That’s Life,” a 1963 song by Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon. The change occurred two days after the team ended the ban on beards imposed by Steinbrenner in 1976.

The team said various songs will be used after losses.

“New York, New York” first was played at the end of Yankees wins after Steinbrenner learned of Sinatra’s version from a disc jockey at Le Club, a Manhattan restaurant and disco, former team public relations director Marty Appel told The New York Times in 2015.

The song, with music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, was first sung by Liza Minnelli for the 1977 Martin Scorsese film “New York, New York” and Sinatra performed it in a Don Costa arrangement for his 1980 recording “Trilogy: Past Present Future.”

For several years, the Yankees alternated the Sinatra version after wins and the Minnelli version following defeats. In recent years, the Sinatra rendition has been played after all final outs.

The Yankees said Friday that they were ending their ban on beards, fearing the prohibition might hamper player recruitment.

Hal Steinbrenner took over in 2008 as controlling owner from his father, who died in 2010.

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