BASEBALL
BOSTON (AP) — This World Series is making history even before it starts.
Boston's Alex Cora and Los Angeles' Dave Roberts are the first minority managers to face each other in the Series. Cora, who is from Puerto Rico, is already the first minority manager in Red Sox history.
Roberts was asked about it on the workout day Monday, and he said he doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about it but he is glad to see progress has been made.
Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw will square off against Boston's Chris Sale in the opener Tuesday night.
Cora says David Price will start Game 2 on Wednesday night for the Red Sox. Roberts says lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu will start in the second game, followed by righty Walker Buehler in Game 3.
It's looking to be cold for Game 1, but at least the Red Sox and Dodgers will probably avoid the rain.
Forecasts for Tuesday night call for the temperature to be around 50 for the 8:09 p.m. first pitch. It will cool off during the game to the high 40s. There is a 50-50 chance of rain during the afternoon, but it is expected to pass by game time.
Wednesday night's second game is expected to be about five degrees colder. The series then moves to Los Angeles where the teams can expect it to be hot and sunny.
ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta Braves right-hander Brandon McCarthy, who missed the second half of the season with a knee injury, can become a free agent if he chooses to continue his career.
Major League Baseball and the players union have determined the Braves have no club option for 2019 with McCarthy.
McCarthy had a clause in his contract that could have triggered a team option if he had been on the disabled list for a certain amount of time due to a specific injury.
The 35-year-old McCarthy told MLB.com in August he plans to retire, but he has not yet made that decision final with necessary paperwork.
McCarthy was 6-3 with a 4.92 ERA in only 15 games this season. He was placed on the disabled list on June 28 with right knee tendinitis and never returned.
PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Diamondbacks have signed infielder Eduardo Escobar to a three-year, $21 million contract.
Arizona acquired the switch-hitting Escobar from Minnesota on July 27 for three minor league prospects. Between the two teams, the 29-year-old infielder set career highs in home runs (23), doubles (48), walks (52), runs (75), games (151), hits (154) and total bases (277).
He started 144 games, 124 of them at third base, leaving open the question of what will happen when left-handed third baseman Jake Lamb returns from injury.
BASKETBALL
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Kansas is No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll.
Bill Self's Jayhawks earned 37 of 65 first-place votes in results released Monday. That was nearly double that of second-ranked Kentucky.
The Jayhawks lost three starters from last year's Final Four team, but have a restocked roster that includes transfer help from Memphis and California.
Gonzaga is No. 3, followed by Duke and Virginia to round out the top 5. The rest of the top 10 is: No. 6 Tennessee, No. 7 Nevada, No. 8 North Carolina, reigning national champion Villanova at 9 and Michigan State at 10.
The Atlantic Coast Conference has seven ranked teams, the most for any conference. The Southeastern Conference has five teams in the poll.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Alabama transfer Braxton Key has received a waiver from the NCAA and will be eligible to play for No. 5 Virginia this season.
Cavaliers coach Tony Bennett made the announcement Monday. Key, a Charlotte, North Carolina, has two years of eligibility remaining.
The 6-foot-8, 225-pound guard averaged 7.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 26 games for the Crimson Tide last season after missing 10 games with a knee injury.
He was named to the All-SEC freshman team in 2016-17 after averaging 12 points and 5.7 rebounds.
BRIGHTON, Mass. (AP) — Former Syracuse recruit Darius Bazley, who opted to forgo college to work toward the 2019 NBA draft, has landed a job as an intern for New Balance.
The New York Times reports the 18-year-old Bazley signed in May with agent Rich Paul, who arranged for the 6-foot-9 forward from Cincinnati to work for the athletic equipment company for the first three months of 2019.
Paul, who also has LeBron James, John Wall and Ben Simmons among his NBA clients, told the newspaper the internship is part of a multiyear shoe contract that will pay Bazley at least $1 million and up to $14 million if Bazley reaches performance incentives written into the contract.
New Balance hasn't marketed basketball shoes since the 1990s. Bazley, who decided not play in the development league, is the first athlete signed to promote the company's re-entry into the basketball shoe market.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — TCU receiver and standout returner KaVontae Turpin was suspended from the team Monday after his arrest over the weekend on an assault charge for an alleged altercation with his girlfriend.
According to an arrest affidavit, Turpin was charged with assault causing bodily injury to a family member after Fort Worth police responded to a domestic disturbance call at an off-campus apartment complex late Saturday.
Coach Gary Patterson said he was still gathering information and that Turpin probably won't play Saturday at Kansas. The senior receiver is suspended indefinitely.
GOLF
NBC Sports is hiring Paul Azinger as its lead golf analyst with hopes he can deliver his own brand of sharp, candid observations that made Johnny Miller such a strong presence in the broadcast booth for three decades.
Miller is retiring. His last tournament will be the Phoenix Open the first weekend in February.
Azinger already has a steady voice in golf from 10 years at ABC and ESPN, and the last three years at Fox Sports. In a unique arrangement by today's standards, NBC Sports will allow Azinger to retain his role at Fox for the U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open.
Azinger turns 59 in January, and he will keep plenty busy.
He is expected to do four days of tournament coverage on Golf Channel and NBC.
LAW
Former NFL wide receiver Rae Carruth has been released from prison after serving 18 years for conspiring to murder the mother of his unborn child.
The Carolina Panthers' 1997 first-round draft pick was released Monday from Sampson Correctional Institution in Clinton, North Carolina, after completing his sentence.
Carruth, now 44, was found guilty of orchestrating a plot to kill Cherica Adams on Nov. 16, 1999, in Charlotte, North Carolina, to avoid paying child support. Adams was shot four times while driving her car, but managed to make a 911 call that helped implicate Carruth.
Adams fell into a coma and died less than a month later after the shooting.
The child she was carrying, Chancellor Lee Adams, was delivered by emergency cesarean section but suffers from permanent brain damage and cerebral palsy.
NEW YORK (AP) — A jury quietly deliberated for five hours Monday on its first day considering the merits of claims by the government that three men conspired to cheat major college basketball programs by paying young athletes to sign with schools sponsored by Adidas.
Attorneys for the defendants contend their clients broke NCAA rules but no laws.
Deliberations began midday Monday after U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan instructed the jury. Five hours later, jurors went home without sending any notes. They resume work Tuesday morning.
ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) — Ex-Major League Baseball player Lenny Dykstra pleaded not guilty Monday to drug and terroristic threat charges stemming from an altercation with an Uber driver.
The three-time All-Star, who played 12 seasons in the majors and was a member of the New York Mets' 1986 championship team, told reporters as he left the courthouse he would "let the process handle itself and the truth will come out."
Dykstra was indicted this month on one count each of cocaine and methamphetamine possession and with making terroristic threats in connection with the May 23 incident in Linden, where he lives.
All three crimes are punishable by up to five years in prison.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An investigator who helped uncover the sexual exploitation of 400 boys by an Iowa basketball coach says victims can still come forward to share their information.
Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agent Ryan Kedley said Monday that state and federal investigators have attempted to contact all 400 known victims of former Iowa Barnstormers Coach Greg Stephen, which he called a massive undertaking. But he says some individuals who were victimized haven't been identified or contacted.
Kedley says Stephen's guilty pleas to sexual exploitation and pornography charges doesn't mean the case is over and that anyone who wants to share information should call his office.
Stephen acknowledged that he secretly recorded players showering, posed as a girl on social media to trick boys into sending him sexually explicit images, and recorded himself fondling some boys while they slept.
WRESTLING
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — WWE wrestler Roman Reigns says he will step away from the ring because he has leukemia.
The 33-year-old Reigns, whose real name is Joe Anoa'i, made the announcement Monday night to open the episode of "Raw."
He was originally diagnosed in 2008 at age 22, though he quickly went into remission. He's been fighting the disease since.
Anoa'i, who played football at Georgia Tech, has appeared in the last four main events at WrestleMania. The WWE's universal champion said during the announcement that he plans on returning to the ring when he gets healthy.