



Mo’ne Davis is not done playing baseball.
The former Little League phenom who at 13 became the first girl to pitch a victory — and a shutout — in the Little League World Series, will be one of more than 600 players to try out for the Women’s Professional Baseball League set to launch next year, the league said.
Davis will join other women’s baseball stars like Kelsie Whitmore, the first woman to sign a professional contract with an MLB-partnered league, at the tryouts, which will be held in Washington, D.C., from Aug. 22-25.
Davis will try out as a pitcher, as well as at second base, shortstop and center field, per the league.
The WPBL is aiming to launch in the summer of 2026 with six teams and would be the first U.S. pro league for women since the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — depicted in the classic film “A League of Their Own” — dissolved in 1954.
Motor sports
NASCAR’s oldest champion dies at 95 >> Rex White, who was NASCAR’s oldest living champion and a 2015 inductee into the Hall of Fame, has died. He was 95.
NASCAR and the NASCAR Hall of Fame confirmed White’s death on Friday. No additional details were provided.
White won the 1960 Cup Series title and 28 Cup races in a career that spanned 233 starts across nine seasons. He led the final five laps of the 1958 season opener at Champion Speedway in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to earn his first career victory and scored 13 top-five finishes in 22 starts.
NBA
Clippers sign Beal >> The Los Angeles Clippers have signed guard Bradley Beal after the final two years of his contract were bought out by the Phoenix Suns earlier this week.
He averaged 17 points, 3.7 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 32.1 minutes while starting 38 of 53 games for the Suns last season. Beal shot 50% from the floor, 39% from 3-point range and 80% from the foul line.
The 32-year-old Beal is a three-time All-Star and 13-year NBA veteran.
MLB
Ortiz’s leave extended >> Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz will remain on non-disciplinary leave through Aug. 31 while he is the subject of a Major League Baseball gambling investigation.
Ortiz’s paid leave began on July 3 and was supposed to end on Friday before MLB and the MLB Players Association agreed to extend it.
The team can continue to have contact with Ortiz, but he can’t enter any of the Guardians’ facilities.
The Guardians said in a statement they have been informed of the extension and will continue to fully cooperate with the investigation.
Marlins’ Norby out >> Miami Marlins third baseman Connor Norby will be sidelined for several weeks after having surgery on his wrist.
The procedure on Wednesday was to repair a broke hamate bone in his left wrist and was done by hand specialist Dr. Don Sheridan in Phoenix, the team said Friday. The recovery timeline is six to eight weeks.
Norby felt wrist soreness during Miami’s road series at Baltimore last week and was initially listed with wrist inflammation.
NFL
tackle out >> The Las Vegas Raiders placed defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, who experienced a significant setback earlier this year in his recovery from a broken foot, on the physically unable to perform list.
That means Wilkins will miss at least the beginning of training camp, which opens Wednesday. Because he was placed on the PUP list before practices began, the Raiders can activate Wilkins at any time during camp once medically cleared.
Wilkins suffered the season-ending injury in Week 5 last season. He then experienced some sort of setback in his recovery, which caused him to miss all of organized team activities and minicamp.
fence guilty >> A Manhattan pawn shop owner pleaded guilty to serving as a fence for luxury items stolen from wealthy residences across the country, including a brazen burglary at the home of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow while he was playing an away game last year.
Dimitriy Nezhinskiy admitted to knowingly purchasing stolen watches, jewelry and other high-end goods in order to re-sell them in his pawn shop. But he maintained that he did not know they had been taken from people’s homes until after his arrest.
Nezhinskiy pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to receive stolen property. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison as well as restitution of about $2.5 million and forfeiture of more than $2.5 million. He’ll be sentenced at a later date.
NFLPA head resigns >> Lloyd Howell has resigned as executive director of the NFL Players Association, citing distractions his leadership has caused in recent weeks.
Howell has come under scrutiny since ESPN reported he has maintained a part-time consulting job with the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that holds league approval to seek minority ownership in NFL franchises.
That followed the revelation that the NFLPA and the league had a confidentiality agreement to keep quiet an arbitrator’s ruling about possible collusion by owners over quarterback salaries.