Bob Costas is retiring from baseball play-by-play after 42 seasons.
Costas had done games the past couple seasons for MLB Network and TBS Sports. His final games were the American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals.
Costas’ contract with TBS expired at the end of the season, but his plans to retire from baseball play-by-play had been in the works for more than a year.
The Athletic was the first to report on Costas’ baseball play-by-play retirement. Costas plans to address his decision at a future date.
Baseball has always been Costas’ favorite sport. He called games on NBC from 1982-89 and again from 1994-2000. He was one of the announcers for the 1995 World Series and then the main play-by-play voice for the Fall Classic in 1997 and ’99.
He joined TBS in 2021 to serve as studio host for its coverage of the National League Championship Series and then called games the past three seasons. TBS has had a package of Tuesday night regular-season games to go with its postseason coverage since 2022.
Costas had also done games on MLB Network since its start in 2009. He will continue to do some work for the network on key events, including the Baseball Hall of Fame announcement.
In 2018, he received the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcast excellence from the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Costas was also the prime-time Olympics host.
Golf
Wakimoto grabs LPGA lead >> Hana Wakimoto of Japan shot a bogey-free 9-under 63 to lead by two shots after the first round of the LPGA’s Toto Classic in Shiga, Japan.
Jin Young Ko of South Korea was two off the pace after a 65 at Seta Golf Course. Four players carded 66s to be within three shots of Wakimoto: Linn Grant, Ayake Furue, Hyo Joo Kim, and Jenny Shin.
Tennis
Alcaraz gets upset by Humbert in Paris >> Frenchman Ugo Humbert harnessed the energy of the home crowd and produced one of his best career performances in beating Carlos Alcaraz 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 to reach the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters.
A flurry of forehand and backhand winners had Alcaraz down 5-0 in a first set so one-sided that Alcaraz — a four-time Grand Slam winner — ironically waved his racket and grinned to the crowd after holding in the sixth game.
Serving again to stay in the match at 15-40, Alcaraz saved one match point but returned long on the next as the 15th-seeded Humbert set up a last-eight contest with Australian Jordan Thompson.
Alexander Zverev won the serving battle and silenced the raucous home crowd, beating French prospect Arthur Fils 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
College football
Big 12 says communications flaw resolved >> Big 12 football teams have received an encryption update that protects communication from coaches to players through their helmets.
The conference released a statement saying none of its games were compromised by the flaw, which was first detected in an SEC game in September. All the Power 4 conferences use the same communications system.
The Big 12 said all schools can move forward using technology from the same company they’re using, GSC, or from CoachComm, which supplies a similar product.
Earlier this year, the NCAA approved coach-to-player communication through the helmet, the likes of which have been in play in NFL games for several years.
Coaches talk to players — normally the quarterback on offense and a linebacker on defense — by pressing a button to activate the system. The communication cuts off with 15 seconds left on the game clock.
The SEC and Big Ten previously said they were not aware of any games being compromised because of the problem.
UNLV’s Sluka enters POrtal >> Quarterback Matthew Sluka, who left UNLV three games into the season over a name, image and likeness dispute, entered the transfer portal, agent Marcus Cromartie said.
Sluka’s decision to leave the Rebels after leading them to a 3-0 record ignited a nationwide debate about what kind of precedent this could set. By leaving before playing a fifth game, Sluka was able to use a redshirt season and preserve his final year of eligibility.