(BOSTON) — Authorities from Homeland Security Investigations and the Boston Police Department are warning that there could be an uptick in counterfeit NBA goods and tickets being sold, as the series shifts to Boston for Game 3 on Wednesday.
“Criminals have been known to exploit fan enthusiasm during major sporting events by selling counterfeit jerseys, hats and other sports related merchandise to unsuspecting consumers,” said Jim Mancuso, HSI Intellectual Property Rights Center Director. “Fans who spend their hard-earned money can rest assured the IPR Center and its partners are working around the clock to ensure they are getting only genuine, high-quality officially licensed NBA merchandise.”
HSI is the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security.
The effort isn’t new. During major events such as the Super Bowl and the NCAA Men’s Final Four, HSI is out on the streets collecting counterfeit goods. In February, officials announced they seized nearly $100 million worth of counterfeit sports goods in the past year.
In a separate news release, Boston Police urges fans to be cautious in purchasing NBA finals tickets.
“The BPD encourages fans to only buy tickets from authorized ticket agencies,” the Department says. “Fans who purchase tickets from a secondary source are taking a chance and do so at the buyer’s own risk.”
Homeland Security Investigations works in concert with the NBA and other sports leagues to crack down on counterfeits.
“In San Francisco, Boston and beyond, counterfeiters take advantage of consumers who want genuine, quality NBA merchandise and tickets — and take away from their overall NBA Finals experience,” said Ayala Deutsch, NBA Executive Vice President and Deputy General Counsel.
HSI urges consumers to shop at official NBA licensed stores and look for the NBA hologram which is on every licensed, official product.
The series between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors is tied and Game 3 takes place Wednesday at the TD Garden in Boston.
(BATON ROUGE, La.) — Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards didn’t veto or approve the Republican-led Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, by the end of the legislative session Monday. The now-law that bans transgender women from participating in women’s sports.
“Whether it’s intended or not, the effect is to [send] a strong message to at least some of these young people that they shouldn’t be who they think they are, who they believe they are, who they know that they are,” Edwards said in a press conference on Monday. ” I find that very distressing. I do believe that we can be better than that.”
The legislation points to the biological differences between men and women. It claims “strength, speed, and endurance” are generally found in “greater degrees in biological males than biological females.”
The law also claims that hormone therapy after puberty is not effective until over a year after treatment begins — but does not reference puberty blockers, which some trans youth take to temporarily halt puberty.
There is no conclusive evidence as to whether transgender women have an unfair advantage, some experts say.
A recent study found that hormone therapy is most effective at quelling physical advantages after two years, but the study had several limitations. For example, it didn’t take into account differences in exercise habits.
Several major athletic organizations, including NCAA, the Olympics and the governing bodies for U.S. national sports leagues, allow transgender women to compete against cisgender women.
LGBTQ advocates say such bans are aiming to solve a problem that does not exist, and will only serve to harm trans children.
“SB 44 is a direct attack on transgender youth that are trying their best to just be kids, and fit in with and play alongside their peers,” the Human Right Campaign said in a statement when the legislation first passed the legislature.
It continued: “Trans kids, like all kids across the country, have said themselves that they play sports for the same reasons all kids do: to be part of a team, to learn discipline, and above all, to have fun with their friends.”
There have been more than 300 bills targeting the LGBTQ community across the country so far this year.
Louisiana joins Indiana, Oklahoma, Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia in banning transgender girls from sports that align with their gender identity.
However, several governors have vetoed similar bills, including Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb.
The two cited a lack of evidence that trans students were unfairly dominating and warned about the mental health implications of banning trans youth from recreational sports.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Philadelphia 9, LA Angels 7
AMERICAN LEAGUE
NY Yankees 5, Detroit 4
Cleveland 3, Baltimore 2
Minnesota 8, Toronto 6
Chi White Sox 6, Tampa Bay 5
Houston 7, Kansas City 4
Seattle 6, Texas 5
Boston 5, Oakland 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Pittsburgh 3, Arizona 0
San Francisco 5, Miami 1
Washington 5, Cincinnati 4
San Diego 6, Milwaukee 4
Atlanta 8, Colorado 7
NY Mets 5, L.A. Dodgers 4
St. Louis 5, Chi Cubs 3
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS
Golden State 107, Boston 88 (Series tied 1-1)
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Tampa Bay 3, NY Rangers 2 (NY leads 2-1)
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Minnesota 84, New York 77
Atlanta 75, Indiana 66
Chi 91, Washington 82
Phoenix 81, Los Angeles 74
Las Vegas 84, Dallas 78
Connecticut 93, Seattle 86
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Friday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Final Philadelphia 10 L.A. Angels 0
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Final N.Y. Yankees 13 Detroit 0
Final Cleveland 6 Baltimore 3
Final Minnesota 9 Toronto 3
Final Tampa Bay 6 Chicago White Sox 3
Final Seattle 4 Texas 3
Final Houston 10 Kansas City 3
Final Boston 7 Oakland 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Final St. Louis 14 Chicago Cubs 5
Final Washington 8 Cincinnati 5
Final San Francisco 15 Miami 6
Final Arizona 8 Pittsburgh 6
Final San Diego 7 Milwaukee 0
Final Atlanta 3 Colorado 1
Final L.A. Dodgers 6 N.Y. Mets 1
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Final N-Y Rangers 3 Tampa Bay 2
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Final New York 74 Washington 70
Final Dallas 68 Seattle 51
Final Connecticut 92 Phoenix 88
Final Chicago 73 Atlanta 65
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Thursday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Detroit 3, Minnesota 2
NY Yankees 6, LA Angels 1
NY Yankees 2, LA Angels 1
Tampa Bay 3, Texas 1
Toronto 8, Chi White Sox 3
Seattle 7, Baltimore 6
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Miami 3, San Francisco 0
Cincinnati 8 Washington 1
Milwaukee 5, San Diego 4
Chi Cubs 7, St. Louis 5
Atlanta 13, Colorado 6
LA Dodgers 2 NY Mets 0
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS
Boston 120, Golden State 108 (Boston leads 1-0)
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Colorado 4, Edmonton 0 (Colorado leads 2-0)
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Connecticut 97, Las Vegas 90
(NEW YORK) — There may be no crying in baseball, but some major leaguers are crying foul over the official baseballs used during this year’s play.
Meredith Wills, an astrophysicist and a lifelong baseball fan, said things are “very different” this season.
“Players, when they hit the ball, they’ll talk about it feeling like mush coming off the bat,” Wills told ABC News’ “Start Here.” “We’re seeing that pitchers really don’t like to hold the ball or throw the ball. They call it spongy. They’ll actually say that it’s squishy.”
Over the past few years, a complaint among some baseball fans was that it was easier to hit home runs. According to data analyzed by FiveThirtyEight, last season averaged nearly 1.22 home runs again; this season only .97 are averaged so far. Average home runs per game hit their peak in 2019 with 1.39 a game.
A league official told ABC News that several factors are contributing to the drop in home runs in the beginning of the 2022 season relative to prior seasons and not any one cause is to blame. The official pointed to factors that include conditions, pitchers on the roster, weather and the ball.
Also, a labor stoppage at the beginning of the 2022 season resulted in a protracted spring training and less practice for hitters heading into regular season games.
Some scientists like Wills pointed to the ball and said that depending on climate, the ball will become harder and easier to launch.
“[The yarn] dries out. It will shrink down. It’s like your hair frizzing in humidity,” said Wills.
To address this problem, the league began using humidors, according to Wills, which was also told to ABC News by a league official.
A league official told ABC news that the humidors being used in all 30 ballparks are consistent with the public recommendations made by experts to make the ball perform more consistently in various atmospheric conditions.
The 2022 baseball season began on April 7 and some pitchers have already expressed anger because they say they can’t control the new ball.
At the end of April, New York Mets starting pitcher Chris Bassitt expressed frustration toward the league for the lack of consistency in baseballs, saying that the “bad” baseballs are “all different,” following an April 26 game against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Mets won 3-0, but three Mets players and two Cardinals players were hit by pitches.
Bassitt said that the inconsistency among the baseballs is being exacerbated by the different climates, despite the use of humidors.
“The problem is that it’s sitting on a flat shelf for two weeks. Balls are getting flat spots,” said Wills, who added that fans may start to recognize that more pitchers are discarding or throwing away balls before pitching.
An MLB official provided ABC News with league-wide data through May 15 of the current season. The data suggests that there is no evidence yet that pitchers are struggling to control the ball, saying that the league has seen the lowest walk rate since 2019, the lowest hit by pitch rate since 2019 and the lowest rate of wild pitches per game since 2012.
Also, due to the pandemic wreaking havoc on game schedules, Wills said that there are batches of balls from multiple years being used.
The MLB released a statement in November 2021 confirming that, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and supply-chain issues, the league and sports equipment company Rawlings “incorporated excess inventory” into “a full complement of baseballs” for the 2021 season.
“Every baseball used in a 2021 MLB game, without exception, met existing specifications and performed as expected,” said the statement. “MLB’s independent panel of experts and the Players Association were informed of this decision. The baseballs were fully within the specification range both before and after the production change.”
The statement also added that the excess inventory has been “exhausted,” and the 2022 season will be played “with only balls manufactured after the production change.”
In May 2022, an MLB official told ABC News that in response to player feedback following last season, the league has taken steps to make the ball more consistent than ever, including mud applied on game days, providing each team with rosin bags and umpires manually checking baseballs to ensure a level playing field is maintained.
Wills said she is not convinced. She said that the change in production has created a whole new host of problems for the league.
“If you want to break something,” she said. “Try to fix something that’s not broken, that’s pretty much the surest way to do it.”
(FRISCO, Texas) — Marion Barber III, a former running back for the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears, has died, the Cowboys announced on Wednesday. He was 38.
“We are heartbroken by the tragic death of Marion Barber III,” the Cowboys said in a statement. “Marion was an old-school, hard-nosed football player who ran with the will to win every down. He had a passion for the game and love for his coaches and teammates. Our hearts go out to Marion’s family and friends during this difficult time.”
In a statement, the Frisco Police Department said it “responded to a welfare concern at an apartment believed to be leased by Marion Barber. Frisco Police along with the Collin County Medical Examiner’s Office are investigating an unattended death at the location.”
The NFL mourns the tragic loss of Marion Barber III and we extend our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones. pic.twitter.com/NzP9jVeTyp
Barber was drafted by the Cowboys in 2005 and played with the team for six years. Following the 2010 season, he signed with Chicago, where he played the final season of his NFL career before retiring.
“We are saddened to learn of the passing of former Bears RB Marion Barber III,” the Bears said in a statement Wednesday. “Our hearts go out to his family and friends.”
We are saddened to learn of the passing of former Bears RB Marion Barber III. Our hearts go out to his family & friends.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Boston 7, Cincinnati 1
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Cleveland 4, Kansas City 0
Houston 5, Oakland 4
Detroit 5, Minnesota 0
Baltimore 9, Seattle 2
Toronto 7, Chi White Sox 3
Tampa Bay 4, Texas 3
LA Angels at NY Yankees (Postponed)
NATIONAL LEAGUE
St. Louis 5, San Diego 2
NY Mets 5, Washington 0
Miami 14, Colorado 1
Atlanta 6, Arizona 0
Philadelphia 6, San Francisco 5
Chi Cubs 4, Milwaukee 3
Colorado 13, Miami 12
Pittsburgh 8, LA Dodgers 4
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
NY Rangers 6, Tampa Bay 2 (NY leads 1-0)
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
New York 87, Indiana 74
Atlanta 84, Minnesota 76
