GYMNASTICS
The U.S. Olympic Committee is moving to revoke USA Gymnastics' status as the governing body for the sport at the Olympic level, meting out the nuclear option to an organization that has botched its own reorganization in the wake of a sex-abuse scandal involving former team doctor Larry Nassar.
In an open letter to the gymnastics community Monday, USOC CEO Sarah Hirshland said "you deserve better," and that the challenges facing USA Gymnastics are more than it is capable of overcoming as currently constructed.
The organization, even with a newly constituted board of directors, made repeated mistakes after the revelations Nassar molested Olympians while working as a volunteer.
Those included the botched hiring of a program coordinator and an interim CEO to replace Kerry Perry, who lasted barely nine months on the job after replacing Steve Penny.
The announcement comes only days after the U.S. team brought home nine medals from the World Championships in the first major meet on the lead-up to the Tokyo Games in 2020. Five of those were individual medals won by Olympic champion Simone Biles, who is among the athletes who have not hesitated to criticize the organization.
NHL
A video has surfaced showing several Ottawa Senators players trashing the team and an assistant coach during an Uber ride, the latest bit of humiliation for an organization that's been riddled with it recently.
The video shows players discussing their ineffective penalty kill and mocking assistant Martin Raymond in what appears to be a recording from a camera mounted on the dash of an Uber Driver's van or SUV. There are seven players in the vehicle, including Matt Duchene, Chris Wideman, Chris Tierney and Thomas Chabot.
Post Media shared the video on its YouTube page Monday night. It said the video was originally posted elsewhere over the weekend and has since been deleted. It's not clear who posted the original video.
The driver is heard asking what team the players play for, and Wideman, seated in the passenger seat, replies: "Ottawa. If you can tell we're really pleased with our ..." before a player seated in the middle row of the vehicle finishes his sentence: "with our PK."
The players go on to ridicule Raymond, who handles the team's penalty-killing unit, in the five-minute clip that appears to have been recorded in the Phoenix area.
The Senators are currently 29th in the league in penalty killing at 68.8 percent.
The team did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.
BASEBALL
NEW YORK (AP) — Shohei Ohtani is a finalist for the AL Rookie of the Year award along with two New York Yankees infielders.
The Baseball Writers' Association of America revealed the finalists for its major awards Monday night. The winners will be announced next week.
Ohtani figures to be in a tight race with Yankees infielders Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres after a historic first season with the Los Angeles Angels. The two-way Japanese sensation is the first player ever to hit 15 home runs and strike out 50 batters in a season, and he joined Babe Ruth as the only players ever to hit 15 homers and pitch 50 innings.
The World Series champion Boston Red Sox might be in line for more hardware. Mookie Betts is a finalist for AL MVP, and Alex Cora is in the final three for AL Manager of the Year in his first season. Los Angeles' Mike Trout and Cleveland's Jose Ramirez are also finalists for AL MVP.
Milwaukee's Christian Yelich is the favorite for NL MVP, and Colorado's Nolan Arenado and Chicago's Javier Baez were also revealed as top vote-getters.
HORSE RACING
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — English stayer Cross Counter, ridden by Kerrin McEvoy, gave Dubai-based Godolphin stable its first Melbourne Cup with victory in Australia's largest and most prestigious horse race on Tuesday.
Cross Counter, a four-year-old bay gelding trained by Charlie Appleby and based at Newmarket, England, was quoted early at 10 to 1. It was only Cross Counter's eighth start, but he had missed a top-two finish only once.
Marmelo was second and A Prince of Arran two lengths behind in third.
An English-trained horse had never won the Melbourne Cup, but Tuesday's result gave England a 1-2-3 finish.
The winner stormed down from the outside in the final several hundred meters for a length victory. Cross Counter was third-last on the first turn
During the trophy presentation, rain which had affected the lead-up to the race again started to fall at Flemington.
Appleby said the Melbourne Cup had been on his "bucket list for a long time."
