It has been nine years since Bobby Valentine last managed in major league baseball, but the rivalry with the Yankees is about to get another jolt.

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Valentine Chosen to Manage Red Sox

Major League Baseball’s owners and players are close to an agreement that will include blood testing for human growth hormone, two people briefed on the matter said.

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Baseball Is to Begin Blood Testing for H.G.H.

Baseball player Wilson Ramos, who plays for the US Major League Washington Nationals, is freed in Venezuela, two days ago after being kidnapped.

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Kidnapped US baseball star freed

When I first spoke to The Post about prospective employment near the end of 2003, Steve Spurrier was still working for the Redskins , you had to drive to Camden Yards to see a Major League baseball team, Jerry Stackhouse was the dour leader of the 23-win Wizards and the NHL was about to go dark for a year. Read full article > >

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D.C. sports fans: hopeful, yet less gullible

NEW YORK — Long regarded as the best closer in baseball, Mariano Rivera now has more saves than anyone else, too. Rivera set the major league record with No. 602, pitching a perfect ninth inning Monday and preserving the New York Yankees’ 6-4 win over the Minnesota Twins. With fans standing and cheering from his first pitch to his last, Rivera retired Trevor Plouffe, Michael Cuddyer and Chris Parmelee to end it. Parmelee looked at strike three — it appeared to be Rivera’s signature cutter — and Yankee Stadium roared in approval. Read full article > >

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Mariano Rivera gets 602nd save in Yankees win over Twins

Russia is mourning the victims of a plane crash that wiped out most of a major league ice hockey team, as President Dmitry Medvedev promises a full inquiry.

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Russia mourns hockey crash dead

On May 8, 2009, Jesus Flores reached the high point of a career rocketing upward. He crushed a home run in Arizona, which for him had become stunningly routine for a 24-year-old catcher. That night, he owned a .314 batting average and a .923 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. He might have been the best thing the Washington Nationals had going for them. There were so many more home runs to come. Flores has learned how much can happen in 832 days, the time between that home run in Arizona and Thursday night, when his next home run finally came in the Nationals’ 3-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds . Flores belted a fastball over the left-center field fence in the fifth inning, the first major league home run since he missed almost two seasons with a torn labrum, since he worried he might not play again. Read full article > >

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Nationals vs. Reds: Jesus Flores, Jordan Zimmermann key Washington win

After days of wet and stormy weather, Georgetown University was able to hold out door commencement ceremonies. Saturday was a glorious day for a graduation. Prominent public figures spoke, and thousands of degrees were awarded. But things fell just short of perfection. The graduation program had a misspelling on the cover. Instead of declaring the name of the institution to be “Georgetown University,” letters were transposed in the latter word. It read “Univeristy.” An unfortunate matter, but it was not clear Sunday whether it was sufficiently consequential to take its place alongside the memorable 2009 episode in which players on the local major league baseball team took the field with uniform shirts reading “N atinals” (instead of Nationals). Read full article > >

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But for 2 letters, Georgetown graduation unblemished

Killebrew hit 573 home runs, 11th best on the career list, in 22 major league seasons. He played in 13 All-Star Games.

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Harmon Killebrew, Hall of Fame Slugger for the Minnesota Twins, Dies at 74

Manny Ramirez is retiring from Major League Baseball due to “an issue” with drugs, the league said Friday. In a statement, MLB said it had “recently notified Manny Ramirez of an issue under Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment…

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Manny Ramirez Quits Baseball

The thought process behind the Washington Nationals’ strategy for choosing their bench players can be detected in some unusual places, such as the top of Alex Cora’s head when he removes his cap. It is mostly barren, flecks of gray dominating what hair remains. Cora, 35, sat Sunday at a major league locker, a place not always assured for him last season, inside the Nationals clubhouse. He understands, like the rest of the players the Nationals chose as reserves, why he is there.

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Washington Nationals built their bench with veterans, but do pieces fit together?

The cash shortfall that required the Mets to take a $25 million loan from Major League Baseball was not the team’s first, and it may not be the last.

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Mets May Yearn for Another Pipeline

Major League Baseball’s intervention is yet one more sign of the distress plaguing the team’s owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz.

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Baseball Gives $25 Million Lifeline to Mets

Like any other high school kid, Stephen Strasburg wanted to emulate the major league baseball players he watched on television. He mimicked their actions down to the last detail. He rolled his pants up to reveal high socks, wore wristbands at the plate and, during downtime, opened tins of chewing…

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Strasburg attempting to shut out tobacco

The Yankees and Mariano Rivera are close to agreeing to a two-year contract for about $30 million that will keep him with the only major league team for which he has played.

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Rivera and Yanks Near Two-Year Deal