Rivera played at Iona College where he went 5-7 with a 2.65 ERA last season. He also set a school record with 113 strikeouts while recording 27 walks in 85 innings. He was drafted last year by his father’s Yankees in the 29th round, but he chose to return to school for his junior season. SPECTOR: Why the MLB Draft will never be a big deal While his father’s accomplishments are impressive, Rivera wants to separate himself and create his own legacy....

Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo and Desmond’s agent, Doug Rogalski, didn’t have contract talks at the GM meetings or the winter meetings, MLB.com reports. The Nationals reportedly offered the 2012 All-Star a seven-year contract last winter, but Desmond opted for a two-year, $17.5 million deal. The Nats secured a possible long-term replacement for Desmond last month in prospect Trea Turner, the player to be named in a deal with the Padres that also brought right-hander Joe Ross....

The Nationals had some (OK, a lot of) beer with their ice Sunday night in D.C. The World Series champs paid a visit to the home of their hockey-brethren Capitals; they brought along the Commissioner’s Trophy and cooler full of Natitude. MORE: When did your city win its last pro championship? It was only good manners, of course; the Caps, after all, brought the Stanley Cup to Nationals Park 16 months earlier....

The leaders meeting comes at the end of NATO’s 70th year, with cracks appearing between key alliance members over a range of issues including a potential detente with its historic adversary Russia. Russia’s recent foreign policy belligerence has given the Cold War-era pact a shot in the arm, prompting collective soul-searching and increased military investment after a period of record low spending. NATO strengthened its military presence in eastern Europe following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukrainian Crimea and Moscow’s subsequent support for separatist fighters in the east of the country....

Pskov is a city in western Russia and shares a border with NATO members Latvia and Estonia. “We have never spoken extensively about this, but there have even been attempts to illegally cross our border with military drones and other aircraft. Such ‘peaceful engagement’ was in full bloom even before the start of the special military operation, and clearly the situation has become even more aggravated,” Vedernikov said during a media forum on Saturday, Sputnik News reported....

Speaking with German newspaper Rheinische Post, Lavrov compared the roughly $1 trillion NATO budget to Russia’s $50 billion military budget, and suggested Western nations were being forced to confront a non-existent threat by the U.S. NATO and Russia moved closer together in the first decade of the 2000s, with the establishment of the Russia-NATO Council to improve cooperation and understanding. However, the past nine years have seen relations sour. NATO nations have pivoted to face an increasingly belligerent Russia which has supported armed revolts in Ukraine, launched covert assassination efforts in the U....

Sometimes known as sun spots, liver spots, or age spots, dark spots are caused by hyperpigmentation, an overproduction or inappropriate deposit of melanin (the pigment responsible for giving your skin its natural color). They often appear on the face, hands, arms, and other areas frequently exposed to the sun. Dark spots can form as a result of years of exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays. They can also result from the natural aging process, during pregnancy, from the use of birth control pills or estrogen therapy (a condition known as melasma), after an inflammatory skin condition such as acne (known as post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation), or from other factors....

Natural Remedies If you have PMS, you may be able to improve your symptoms by making lifestyle changes. Several natural approaches are often used to relieve PMS symptoms. These can include strategies such as eating or avoiding certain foods and exercising. Here are some of the more commonly used remedies. Calcium A variety of supplements have been suggested to relieve PMS symptoms, but calcium is the only one that has demonstrated a therapeutic benefit....

The 33-year-old actress died in July 2020 when she went out on a rented boat on the lake northwest of Los Angeles with her young son, Josey Hollis Dorsey. Her body was found in the lake five days later with her death officially ruled an accident. The actress’s family filed a lawsuit against Ventura County Parks and Recreation Management, and the United Water Conservation District over the incident and a lawyer representing the family said they had accepted a private settlement to help Rivera’s young son, who “endured” his mother’s death on the lake....

Not only will the players be paid a salary and receive benefits under their six-month contracts, they’ll also have the opportunity to win more money over the course of the season. Three different tournaments will be held with prize pools of either $100,000 or $150,000. The eventual winner of the NBA 2K League Championship will receive $300,000 split between the six team members with another $300,000 distributed to participants from the other seven playoff teams....

Shaquille O’Neal is the most dominating center in the NBA today. After all, entering this week, he leads all big men in scoring and ranks in the top five in rebounds per game. But Shaq, who has played for the Lakers for two-plus seasons, will be the first to tell you he doesn’t know everything about the game. That’s the reason he decided to meet Bill Russell at Planet Hollywood in Los Angeles during the lockout....

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — In Oscar Robertson’s 10 brilliant seasons with the Cincinnati Royals, the one big prize that eluded him was the National Basketball Association championship Now he finally has filled that one void in his career, and if it took the Milwaukee Bucks to make him a member of a title team, so did it take him to bring the Bucks the title. The marriage that stunned the NBA a year ago turned out to be a happy one, indeed....

Budenolzer earned the honor Thursday when his Bucks, led by All-Star captain Giannis Antetokounmpo, defeated the Raptors in Toronto, the league announced. Milwaukee (37-13) clinched the best record in the East through Sunday, Feb. 3. NBA ALL-STAR: Gobert most glaring snub among reserves, Deveney says This will be Budenholzer’s second All-Star coaching gig. He was in charge of the East four years ago while coaching the Hawks. “It’s a great honor,” Budenholzer told reporters, per The Associated Press....

In the biggest free agency departure since LeBron James left the Cavaliers for Miami in 2010, Durant chucked the deuces to the Thunder to join the Warriors this past offseason after falling to them in the Western Conference finals, leaving Westbrook to fend for himself without another superstar with whom to go to battle. Chronicling of the state of their relationship reached tabloid levels this past summer, and became an outright soap opera as Durant returned to Oklahoma City for a regular-season meeting against his former team Feb....

Last week, the NBA announced that there will be a new Rising Stars format this season. The NBA’s assistant coaches will select a total of 28 Rising Stars, composed of 12 NBA rookies and 12 NBA sophomores, plus four players from the G League’s Ignite that will be chosen by G League head coaches. Those players will be separated into four seven-player teams and will compete in a three-game, single-elimination mini-tournament....

The Charlotte Bobcats — now known as the Hornets — were the most recent franchise to join, taking the total to 30 in 2004. Toronto and Vancouver were new in 1995 as the NBA moved into Canada, though the latter relocated to Memphis after the 2000-01 season. NBA 2020-21: SN’s season predictions Speaking to the media on the eve of a new season, Silver confirmed that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic prompted the NBA to “dust off” data on the impact of expanding in the future....

The MVP race is clouded by the fact that two of last year’s top candidates, James Harden and Russell Westbrook, have seen elite talent added to their teams. The rookie class should be a good one, but not all the top players will get the opportunity to produce, and they could be overshadowed anyway by a second-year rookie. But still, the logic has been applied and the picks have been made....

Monday they face a stiff test against a Grizzlies squad that isn’t receiving the same love from Vegas despite also being 9-1. Memphis (25-to-1 odds in the futures book) ranks second, right behind Houston, in points allowed per game, so we can expect tonight’s contest to be a low-scoring affair. The Grizzlies are 4-point home favorites, with a total of 187, and while the season is still in its infancy, Monday’s matchup should provide some insight into what we can expect from these two teams throughout the winter and into the playoffs....

Giannis Antetokounmpo put together an otherworldy NBA Finals performance in the 2021 championship round vs. the Suns, officially ascending to the throne of one of the world’s very best players and leaving zero doubt that the Bucks are a stalwart in the Eastern Conference. That all said, the Bucks don’t open as favorites to repeat in 2022: Early odds sit with the Nets, who are a healthy favorite to emerge from the East and represent the conference in the 2022 NBA Finals....

In October, President Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested the NBA only had itself to blame for the low TV ratings that blighted the NBA Finals. Cruz claimed the NBA had “decided to insult half of its fans” with its social justice stance, which Trump suggested had caused fans to tune out as there was “zero interest” in the NBA Finals. An average of 7.5 million viewers tuned in on ABC to watch the Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Miami Heat in six games to clinch a first NBA title in 10 years, a a 51 percent decline from the previous year....