MLB

Willie Mays, one of the greatest baseball players to ever step foot on a baseball diamond, died at 93, Major League Baseball announced Tuesday evening.

Mays had been living in an assisted living facility in the Palo Alto, CA area, according to the Giants.

"The Say Hey Kid" was 24x MLB All-Star, 12x Gold Glove winner, Rookie of the Year, and 2x NL MVP who patrolled the massive Polo Grounds center field for the New York Giants before the team relocated to San Francisco in the late-50s.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are the new front-runner for the best bobblehead of the year ... as the team just announced the next Shohei Ohtani giveaway will feature his adorable pup, Decoy!!!

The team showed off the August 28 promotional item in an email sent out to fans on Tuesday ... which features Ohtani cradling Decoy in his left arm with a massive smile on his face.

It will mark the second bobblehead giveaway for the Dodgers superstar this season ... and his first one was a huge success. Over 50,000 fans filled Dodger Stadium for the matchup with the Cincinnati Reds last month -- marking the biggest attendance at a Dodgers game since September 2019!!

It was a rough day to be a White Sox supporter on Sunday ... 'cause as the MLB team got smacked by the Diamondbacks -- one of their fans got leveled during a fight in a festival pit too.

The crazy scrap happened at SeatGeek Stadium in Illinois during Summer Smash -- a three-day show headlined by Travis Scott, Playboi Carti and Chief Keef.

In video from the scene, you can see a young Sox fan in a grey Chicago jersey got into a tiff with a man in a pink shirt who had been situated on another side of a barricade.

Warning to all baseball fans: Please refrain from jumping onto the field and doing backflips in front of police officers or you will be tased and handcuffed on the ground.

No Joke! That's exactly what happened Tuesday night when the Cincinnati Reds went head-to-head with the Cleveland Guardians.

Check out the video ... it starts off relatively calmly with this dude hanging out with one of the outfielders on the field at Great American Ball Park in Ohio.

The trousers Tom Brady wore in his last-ever NFL game have a new owner ... and it only cost them a whopping $89,000!!!

TMZ Sports has learned -- the unique piece of sports memorabilia went to the highest bidder via Grey Flannel Auctions ... and the final price tag shattered the minimum $10k price.

The size 34 pewter and red pants are from the final game of Brady's Hall of Fame career ... when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Wild Card game on January 16, 2023.

Baseball fans heading out to the MLB's London Series better bring their appetites ... 'cause the league just revealed it's offering up some serious food options for the games -- including 2-foot-long wieners!!

The Mets and the Phillies are hopping across the pond for this year's iteration of the England games ... and those who are following them to London Stadium will have plenty to choose from when it comes time to fill their bellies during the June 8 and 9 contests.

For those in need of some serious calories, the Boomstick Hot Dog and the Boomstick Nachos will certainly deliver. The glizzy has two feet of British pork smothered in chili and cheese. The nachos, meanwhile, have two feet of tortilla chips covered in queso, braised beef and more.

A trio of "Jeopardy!" contestants clearly needed to brush up on their sports knowledge prior to appearing on the game show Tuesday night ... 'cause they missed on some serious softballs, including one that simply asked them to identify NBA superstar Russell Westbrook.

The category that the three hilariously botched was titled "21st CENTURY SPORTS" ... and it became very clear quickly why it was the last subject the contestants took on in the first round of the contest.

In one of the first clues, host Ken Jennings asked the three which MLB team won the 2008 World Series. It offered up hints that the squad featured superstars like Cole Hamels and Ryan Howard.

Ippei Mizuhara -- Shohei Ohtani's former interpreter -- just showed up to court and pleaded guilty to two federal charges ... stemming from allegations he stole from the MLB superstar in order to pay off gambling debts.

The 39-year-old hit a Santa Ana, CA courthouse early Tuesday morning ... and was mobbed by a throng of reporters as he made his way to the proceedings.

He did not, however, address the media as he traversed through all the cameras.

6/4 7:20 AM -- Tucupita Marcano has been banned from Major League Baseball for life, officials announced Tuesday.

The league released a statement on the decision ... saying it was determined Marcano placed 387 baseball bets, including 231 related to MLB, in 2022 and 2023 -- totaling more than $150,000 on the sport.

The league added Marcano bet on the Pirates 25 times while he was a member of the organization -- although he did not play in any of the games due to his season-ending injury.

Josh Gibson is now officially Major League Baseball's all-time batting average leader ... and Albert Pujols couldn't be happier about it -- telling TMZ Sports the MLB's decision to integrate Gibson's Negro Leagues numbers into its record book is "a great thing for baseball."

Rob Manfred's org. made the decision to absorb the legend's stats -- as well as everyone else's who played in the Negro Leagues from 1920-1948 -- on Wednesday ... and Pujols praised the move when we got him out at LAX a day later.

He told us it was the "perfect time" for Manfred and co. to recognize the greats -- saying it showed big respect for those who performed during that era.

Jorge Lopez is expressing some deep regret after the New York Mets decided to part ways with him on Thursday ... issuing an apology for his actions on the field -- and further clarifying his postgame comments.

"First and foremost, I apologize to my teammates, coaches, fans, and front office," Lopez said in a statement. "I feel that I let them down yesterday, both on and off the field."

As we previously reported, Lopez was ejected from Wednesday's game after arguing over a check swing call ... and proceeded to throw his glove into the stands.

1:35 PM PT -- Mets manager Carlos Mendoza addressed the decision to designate Lopez for assignment ... saying the team has standards and his actions would not be tolerated.

9:48 AM PT -- Lopez is clearing the air on his comments ... saying he was really calling himself out, not his teammates.

"Who ever hear me I said teammate and what I said on the situation I been the worst teammate thanks media for make it worse," he wrote on Instagram.

A bad outing for Mets reliever Jorge Lopez got worse and worse as the night went on ... 'cause not only did he throw his glove into the stands after getting ejected, he also unloaded on his team in a post-game interview -- and now, he's losing his spot on the roster.

The whole meltdown started shortly after Lopez gave up a two-run home run to Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani amid the Mets' late-game collapse ... when he started arguing over a checked swing call during the next at-bat.

Lopez got in a heated argument with the third-base ump over the ruling ... which resulted in him getting booted from the contest.

Darryl Strawberry's back to feeling 100 percent --- and he couldn't be happier about it ... revealing to TMZ Sports this week he nearly died from the heart attack he suffered in March.

The Mets legend opened up to us about his medical scare while out in NYC ... and he said things got so bad with his heart at the time of the emergency, doctors couldn't believe he survived.

"My heart was pumping at 40 percent," said Strawberry, who described the heart attack as a "massive" one. "So, there was a lot going on. There was not a lot of blood flowing through my heart at that particular time."

The woman rumored to be expecting a child with Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis is actually welcoming a baby with MLB player Joey Gallo, TMZ Sports has learned.

The erroneous reports were made over the weekend ... with several irresponsible NFL social media accounts assuming Hayden Hopkins -- who was spotted alongside the team owner at a game in 2022 -- was pregnant with his first kid.

We got down to the bottom of things ... and as it turns out, there is still a sports connection to Hopkins' future baby -- just not what was previously indicated.

Shohei Ohtani is putting his historic contract to good use -- the Dodgers superstar just snagged a ritzy mansion in Los Angeles for $7.85 million ... a place formerly owned by comedian Adam Carolla.

Details on the deal were released this week ... with the L.A. Times reporting the Japanese two-way athlete is the buyer of the La Cañada Flintridge digs.

The pad -- built in 2013 -- is perfect for a guy like Ohtani. It's a three-story, five-bedroom, six and 1/2-bathroom home that comes with a decked-out kitchen, private movie theater, basketball court and gym ... as well as a pool and spa.

Corey Seager's late-game home run Tuesday night proved costly for at least one Phillies fan ... who straight up lost an entire plate of nachos because of it!

Here's the deal ... the Texas Rangers superstar was trying to claw his team back from down 3-1 against the Phils in the eighth inning at Citizens Bank Park -- when he launched a ball deep into right field.

As it came crashing down toward the stands, initially, it looked like it ricocheted off some railing ... leaving him with merely a double.