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HOUSTON (AP) — Soon after Lance McCullers Jr.'s family received online death threats following a tough start by the Houston Astros' pitcher, his 5-year-old daughter, Ava, overheard wife Kara talking on the phone about it. What followed was a painful conversation between McCullers and his little girl. "She asked me when I came home: 'Daddy like what is threats? Who wants to hurt us? Who wants to hurt me?'" McCullers told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "So, those conversations are tough to deal with." McCullers is one of two MLB pitchers whose families have received online death threats this month as internet abuse of players and their families is on the rise. Boston reliever Liam Hendriks took to social media soon after the incident with McCullersto call out people who were threatening his wife's life and directing "vile" comments at him. The Astros contacted MLB security and the Houston Police Department following the threats to McCullers. An police spokesperson said Thursday that it remains an ongoing investigation. McCullers, who has two young daughters, took immediate action after the threats and hired 24-hour security for his family. "You have to at that point," he said. Abuse increasing with rise in sports gambling Players from around the league agree that online abuse has gotten progressively worse in recent years. Milwaukee's Christian Yelich, a 13-year MLB veteran and the 2018 NL MVP, said receiving online abuse is "a nightly thing" for most players. "I think over the last few years it's definitely increased," he said. "It's increased to the point that you're just: 'All right, here we go.' It doesn't even really register on your radar anymore. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. You're just so used to that on a day-to-day, night-to-night basis. It's not just me. It's everybody in here, based on performance." And many players believe it's directly linked to the rise in legalized sports betting. "You get a lot of DMs or stuff like that about you ruining someone's bet or something ridiculous like that," veteran Red Sox reliever Justin Wilson said. "I guess they should make better bets." Hendriks has had enough Hendriks, a 36-year-old reliever whopreviously battlednon-Hodgkin lymphoma, said on Instagram that he and his wife received death threats after a loss to the Mets. He added that people left comments saying that they wished he would have died from cancer among other abusive comments. He later discussed the issue and his decision to speak out about it. "Enough is enough," he said. "Like at some point, everyone just like sucking up and dealing with it isn't accomplishing anything. And we pass along to security. We pass along to whoever we need to, but nothing ends up happening. And it happens again the next night. And so, at some point, someone has to make a stand. And it's one of those things where the more eyes we get on it, the more voices we get talking about it. Hopefully it can push it in the right direction." What teams are doing Both the Astros and the Red Sox are working with MLB security to take action against social media users who direct threats toward players and their families. Red Sox spokesperson Abby Murphy added that they've taken steps in recent years to make sure player' families are safe during games. That includes security staff and Boston police stationed in the family section at home and dedicated security in the traveling party to monitor the family section on the road. Murphy said identifying those who make anonymous threats online is difficult, but: "both the Red Sox and MLB have cyber programs and analysts dedicated to identifying and removing these accounts." The Astros have uniformed police officers stationed in the family section, a practice that was implemented well before the threats to McCullers and his family. Abandoning social media For some players, online abuse has gotten so bad that they've abandoned social media. Detroit All-Star outfielder Riley Greene is one of them, saying he got off because he received so many messages from people blaming him for failed bets. "I deleted it," he said of Instagram. "I'm off it. It sucks, but it's the world we live in, and we can't do anything about it. People would DM me and say nasty things, tell me how bad of a player I am, and say nasty stuff that we don't want to hear." Criticism is part of the game, threats are not The 31-year-old McCullers, who returned this year after missing two full seasons with injuries, said dealing with this has been the worst thing that's happened in his career. He understands the passion of fans and knows that being criticized for a poor performance is part of the game. But he believes there's a "moral line" that fans shouldn't cross. "People should want us to succeed," he said. "We want to succeed, but it shouldn't come at a cost to our families, the kids in our life, having to feel like they're not safe where they live or where they sit at games." Houston manager Joe Espadawas livid when he learned about the threats to McCullers and his familyand was visibly upset when he addressed what happened with reporters. Espada added that the team has mental health professionals available to the players to talk about the toll such abuse takes on them and any other issues they may be dealing with. "We are aware that when we step on the field, fans expect and we expect the best out of ourselves," Espada said this week. "But when we are trying to do our best and things don't go our way while we're trying to give you everything we got and now you're threatening our families and kids — now I do have a big issue with that, right? I just did not like it." Kansas City's Salvador Perez, a 14-year MLB veteran, hasn't experienced online abuse but was appalled by what happened to McCullers. If something like that happened to him he said it would change the way he interacts with fans. "Now some fans, real fans, they're gonna pay for that, too," he said. "Because if I was him, I wouldn't take a picture or sign anything for noboby because of that one day." McCullers wouldn't go that far but admitted it has changed his mindset. "It does make you kind of shell up a little bit," he said. "It does make you kind of not want to go places. I guess that's just probably the human reaction to it." Finding a solution While most players have dealt with some level of online abuse in their careers, no one has a good idea of how to stop it. "I'm thankful I'm not in a position where I have to find a solution to this," Tigers' pitcher Tyler Holton said. "But as a person who is involved in this, I wish this wasn't a topic of conversation." White Sox outfielder Mike Tauchman is disheartened at how bad player abuse has gotten. While it's mostly online, he added that he's had teammates that have had racist and homophobic things yelled at them during games. "Outside of just simply not having social media I really don't see that getting better before it just continues to get worse," he said. "I mean, I think it's kind of the way things are now. Like, people just feel like they have the right to say whatever they want to whoever they want and it's behind a keyboard and there's really no repercussions, right?" ___ AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick and AP Sports Writers Jimmy Golen, Kyle Hightower, Larry Lage and Steve Megargee contributed to this report. ___ AP MLB:https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

DALLAS (AP) — This playoff run has felt different for Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, though they are now back in the same place. They haveadvanced to their second Stanley Cup Final in a row, again against Florida after losing a seven-game series to the Panthers last June. "I think we're better for going through last year. It's a great learning experience and it's really driven us all year," McDavid, their captain, said after the Oilers wrapped up their second Western Conference title in a row. "This run has felt different than last year. It's felt very normal. ... I don't want to say boring because it's not boring at all. It hasn't been as emotional." Edmonton won in its first clinching opportunity in all three series so far this postseason. After losing their first two games at Los Angeles in the opening round, the Oilers won four in a row against the Kings, took out Vegas in five games and then did the same to the Dallas Stars in a West final rematch that ended with a 6-3 win Thursday night. Game 1 of their Stanley Cup rematch is Wednesday night in Edmonton. "We haven't had the highs and we haven't had the lows. It's just kind of been steady,"McDavid said. "I think that does put us in a good position. You know those games can be emotionally draining. We're not drained. ... You know, we've got as good a chance as they do." Florida wrapped up the East in five games over Carolina to get to itsthird Stanley Cup Final in a row. The Panthers won the first three games against Edmonton last year, then finished it off with a2-1 victoryafter the Oilers forced a Game 7. That was the first Stanley Cup Final for the Oilers since 2006, their only other one since the franchise's five titles in a seven-season span from 1984-90. "I think we spent seven months getting ready for this playoff run. Like, I think it was on our minds since we lost that last game," coach Kris Knoblauch said. "A long, tough summer, and training camp, regular season and it was just kind of punching our card, showing up, wanting the playoffs, just having another opportunity." While top scorers McDavid (26 points, six goals) and Leon Draisaitl (25 points, seven goals) were the players on the podium after the West clincher, these playoffs have been more than a two-man show for the Oilers. Nineteen different players have goals, 11 of them have at least three. Corey Perry, 40, has seven goals — the most in a single postseason by any player 39 or older. Both goalies, Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard, have won six games. Regular-season starter Skinner was replaced in net after the two losses to the Kings. He took over again when Pickard got hurt midway through the second round against Vegas. Skinner finished off the Golden Knights with consecutive shutouts, including a 1-0 overtime win in the clincher, and posted another shutout against the Stars. "We're mature. We've learned, and we're learning every game. The way we're playing, the calmness on the bench and making plays when things are going hairy on the ice," Perry said. "This group, it's been a want since the end of last year. There's been a lot of things said about what happened last year and self-reflecting. But here we are." So are they glad they get another shot at the Panthers? "It doesn't matter. You're competing for a Stanley Cup," said Perry, a Cup champion at age 22 with Anaheim in 2007, and now going into his fifth Final in six seasons while still seeking another title. "I mean we know what they're about. We played them seven times and they're a good team," Draisaitl said. "We're really a good team as well. Obviously it's nice to get a shot at, you know, getting some revenge, but a long ways from that." ___ AP NHL playoffs:https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cupandhttps://apnews.com/hub/nhl

LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) - A British man appeared in court on Friday charged with causing grievous bodily harm after a car ploughed into a crowd of Liverpool soccer fans during this week's victory parade. Paul Doyle, from the West Derby area of Liverpool, is charged with seven offences including dangerous driving and two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. The 53-year-old appeared at Liverpool Magistrates' Court on Friday morning and confirmed his name, address and date of birth before the case was briefly adjourned. The incident took place in Liverpool's packed city centre on Monday evening, as around a million people had come out to celebrate Liverpool's Premier League win and watch an open-top bus parade the team and its staff with the trophy. (Reporting by Phil Noble in Liverpool and Sam Tobin and Sam Tabahriti in London; editing by William James)

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Faizan Zaki's enthusiasm for spelling nearly got the better of him. Ultimately, his joyful approach made him the Scripps National Spelling Bee champion. The favorite entering the bee after his runner-up finish last year — during which he never misspelled a word in a conventional spelling round, only tolose a lightning-round tiebreakerthat he didn't practice for — the shaggy-haired Faizan wore the burden of expectations lightly, sauntering to the microphone in a black hoodie and spelling his words with casual glee. Throughout Thursday night's finals, the 13-year-old from Allen, Texas, looked like a champion in waiting. Then he nearly threw it away. But even a shocking moment of overconfidence couldn't prevent him from seizing the title of best speller in the English language. With the bee down to three spellers, Sarvadnya Kadam and Sarv Dharavane missed their words back-to-back, putting Faizan two words away from victory. The first was "commelina," but instead of asking the requisite questions — definition, language of origin — to make sure he knew it, Faizan let his showman's instincts take over. "K-A-M," he said, then stopped himself. "OK, let me do this. Oh, shoot!" "Just ring the bell," he told head judge Mary Brooks, who obliged. "So now you know what happens," Brooks said, and the other two spellers returned to the stage. Later, standing next to the trophy with confetti at his feet, Faizan said: "I'm definitely going to be having nightmares about that tonight." Even pronouncer Jacques Bailly tried to slow Faizan down before his winning word, "eclaircissement," but Faizan didn't ask a single question before spelling it correctly, and he pumped his fists and collapsed to the stage after saying the final letter. The bee celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, and Faizan may be the first champion who's remembered more for a word he got wrong than one he got right. "I think he cared too much about his aura," said Bruhat Soma, Faizan's buddy who beat him in the "spell-off" tiebreaker last year. Faizan had a more nuanced explanation: After not preparing for the spell-off last year, he overcorrected, emphasizing speed during his study sessions. Although Bruhat was fast last year when he needed to be, he followed the familiar playbook for champion spellers: asking thorough questions, spelling slowly and metronomically, showing little emotion. Those are among the hallmarks of well-coached spellers, and Faizan had three coaches: Scott Remer, Sam Evans and Sohum Sukhantankar. None of them could turn Faizan into a robot on stage. "He's crazy. He's having a good time, and he's doing what he loves, which is spelling," Evans said. Said Zaki Anwar, Faizan's father: "He's the GOAT. I actually believe that. He's really good, man. He's been doing it for so long, and he knows the dictionary in and out." A thrilling centennial After last year's bee had little drama before an abrupt move to the spell-off, Scrippstweaked the competition rules, giving judges more leeway to let the competition play out before going to the tiebreaker. The nine finalists delivered. During one stretch, six spellers got 28 consecutive words right, and there were three perfect rounds during the finals. The last time there was a single perfect round wasthe infamous 2019 bee, which ended in an eight-way tie. Sarv, an 11-year-old fifth-grader from Dunwoody, Georgia, who ultimately finished third, would have been the youngest champion since Nihar Janga in 2016. He has three years of eligibility remaining. The most poised and mature of the final three, Sarvadnya — who's from Visalia, California — ends his career as the runner-up. He's 14 and in the eighth grade, which means he has aged out of the competition. It's not a bad way to go out, considering that Faizan became just the fifth runner-up in a century to come back and win, and the first since Sean Conley in 2001. Including Faizan, whose parents emigrated from southern India, 30 of the past 36 champions have been Indian American, a run that began with Nupur Lala's victory in 1999, which was later featured in the documentary "Spellbound." Lala was among the dozens of past champions who attended this year and signed autographs for spellers, families and bee fans to honor the anniversary. With the winner's haul of $52,500 added to his second-place prize of $25,000, Faizan increased his bee earnings to $77,500. His big splurge with his winnings last year? A $1,500 Rubik's cube with 21 squares on each side. This time, he said he'd donate a large portion of his winnings to charity. The bee began in 1925 when the Louisville Courier-Journal invited other newspapers to host spelling bees and send their champions to Washington. For the past 14 years, Scripps has hosted the competition at a convention center just outside the nation's capital, but the bee returns downtown next year to Constitution Hall, a nearly century-old concert venue near the White House. A passionate champion Faizan has been spelling for more than half his life. He competed in the 2019 bee as a 7-year-old, getting in through a wild-card program that has since been discontinued. He qualified again in 2023 and made the semifinals before last year's second-place finish. "One thing that differentiates him is he really has a passion for this. In his free time, when he's not studying for the bee, he's literally looking up archaic, obsolete words that have no chance of being asked," Bruhat said. "I don't think he cares as much about the title as his passion for language and words." Faizan had no regrets about showing that enthusiasm, even though it nearly cost him. "No offense to Bruhat, but I think he really took the bee a little too seriously," Faizan said. "I decided to have fun with this bee, and I did well, and here I am." ___ Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow his workhere.

The New York Knicks found a lead that was safe against the Indiana Pacers. In a 2025 Eastern Conference finals that has seen both teams choke away big leads, the Knicks found a Game 5 advantage and kept it against their fellow comeback artists in a 111-94 win. Game 6 is scheduled for Saturday in Indiana (8 p.m. ET, TNT). It was Indiana's first loss in a Game 5 all playoffs after closing out the Milwaukee Bucks and Cleveland Cavaliers in the same situation. The mechanics of the blowout came down to two major factors: Jalen Brunson and a miserable night on offense for the Pacers. The Knicks star posted 32 points on 12-of-18 shooting with five rebounds and five assists, continuing a stellar series in which he was averaging 33.3 points per game entering Thursday. Brunson joined LeBron James, Michael Jordan and potential NBA Finals opponent Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the only players to post at least 10 games of 30 points and five assistsin a single postseason. Brunson's point guard counterpart, Tyrese Haliburton, was a bit quieter. He posted eight points on 2-of-7 shooting with six assists and two rebounds. As a team, the Pacers shot 40.5% with 20 turnovers. None of that is to say the Pacers were dead all night, though. The Knicks never trailed and were up by as many as 22 points late in the third quarter, but Indiana cut it to 12 early in the fourth quarter. Any fan in Madison Square Garden who says they weren't worried at that point is lying. It might be hyperbole to say that about a second half in which the Knicks led by double digits throughout, but that's the reputation the Pacers have earned given what they've done in all three of their series this postseason. Tom Thibodeau was certainly concerned, as that was when the Knicks head coach reinserted his starters. That group held on until Indiana finally waved the white flag with two minutes remaining. "Knicks in seven" chants rang out soon after. Now comes the harder part for New York. The Knicks staved off elimination at home with a loud crowd behind them, but Game 6 will feature a Gainbridge Fieldhouse audience fully aware of how close its team is to its first Finals since 2000. It will be loud, and it won't even be the only game the Knicks need to win. But for now, they can say they definitely looked like the better team on Thursday.

The Florida Panthers are looking to repeat as Stanley Cup champions, but to do so they'll have to beat a familiar foe — who is a slight favorite. The Edmonton Oilers and Panthers faced off in last year's Stanley Cup Final, and the Panthers won the series with a hard-fought 2-1 victory in Game 7. Florida entered as a -140 favorite over Edmonton last year. This season, the margin entering the series between the two teams is even smaller, asBetMGMopened the Oilers as -115 favorites and the Panthers at -105. Edmonton defeated the Los Angeles Kings in the first round in six games, the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round in five games and the Dallas Stars in the conference finals in five games. Oilers superstar Connor McDavid is searching for his first Stanley Cup. Florida beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games in the opening round, the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games in Round 2 and the Carolina Hurricanes in five games in the conference finals. Game 1 will be at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday on TNT.

In the summer of 2021, Paris Saint-Germain had seemingly everything it needed to get the one thing it didn't have: a reputation as one of global soccer's big winners. Its roster appeared built out of a video game. Kylian Mbappé, the 22-year-old World Cup champion from France, alongside Brazilian superstar Neymar and, in a breathtaking signing, Lionel Messi, the Argentine many considered the world's best player of all time. The collection of three of the world's best goal-scorers — and a total payroll of nearly $430 million — was made possible by the club's equally staggering resources. Since 2011, PSG has been owned by an arm of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, which spent freely to establish it among the world's most accomplished clubs. Although PSG routinely won France's top soccer division, it had never won the Champions League, Europe's annual and most prestigious club tournament, and only once played for the title. By some metrics, the two-year run featuring Mbappé, Messi and Neymar was a smashing success. Star-studded PSG raked in more than $1 billion in revenue, according to the club. But by exiting the Champions League in the round of 16 in 2022 and 2023, and with Mbappé, Neymar and Messi playing together in only about a third of their potential games, PSG never came close to conquering Europe on the field. All three stars eventually departed, replaced by younger, less expensive successors. For most clubs, that would have signaled the start of a rebuild. Instead, just two years later, a less-heralded, less-expensive version of PSG could win the most coveted title that eluded its starrier predecessors when it plays Internazionale of Milan in the Champions League final Saturday in Munich. A Champions League trophy would be notable not only for PSG, one of the most prominent clubs never to have won the tournament. Only one team from France has ever won it, and that was 32 years ago. PSG enters as the favorite because under manager Luis Enrique, it operates no longer as a star system but as a team, said NBC Sports analyst Robbie Mustoe, a former English Premier League player. "There's a lot of evidence that having star players in a team doesn't make a team, and PSG is such a great example with Neymar and Lionel Messi and Mbappé and everybody else they've had there," Mustoe said. "It takes an all-around team, and you can't really have passengers too much now. And what I mean by that is players that switch on when they have the ball and switch off when they don't have the ball. "PSG is such an amazing example of this, where they changed the manager, they obviously got rid of all the star players, they went younger, they went hungrier." Even with Mbappé only 22 years old in 2021, the average age on PSG's roster that season was 27.8, two years older than on its average opponent, thanks to 34-year-old Messi's joining 29-year-old Neymar and 33-year-old Ángel Di Maria. This season, the team's average age is 25, two years younger than that of its average opponent, a reflection of PSG's decision after the 2023 season to "completely change its strategy" of roster construction, Alice Lefebvre, a reporter for Agence France-Presse who covers PSG, said by email. Knicks playoff games have turned into photo shoots for A-list celebrities Oklahoma City Thunder advance to NBA Finals MLB invests in Athletes Unlimited Softball League ahead of June debut "The club's management have stopped obsessing over the Champions League, as they had done until now, and have officially stated that they are giving themselves time to build a project around the young players and youngsters coming through the Parisian training program," Lefebvre wrote. "As the season progressed, despite some internal tensions between a few players and Luis Enrique at the start of the season, a new spirit began to permeate the team. Everyone plays for everyone, and everyone presses for the ball, just as the coach wants." Enrique and sporting director Luís Campos recruited younger players including French winger Désiré Doué, 20, a breakout star for whom the team paid $54 million to acquire last summer, João Neves and Willian Pacho. The oldest mainstay is 31-year-old Brazilian defender Marquinhos. The majority of the team is either in its prime, such as leading scorer Ousmane Dembélé, or entering it, like 22-year-old Bradley Barcola, whom Enrique has called "the best passer in Ligue 1; he's one of the best dribblers in Europe." The arrival in January of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia from Italy strengthened PSG's ability to attack. Weaving it all together is Enrique, who was used to high-profile, high-pressure jobs before, after having managed Barcelona to a Champions League title, then coached the Spanish national team. When PSG hired him in 2023 after Messi had left and Neymar was in the process of exiting, Enrique arrived with a specific project, Lefebvre wrote, of getting young players who would defend and attack in unison. In Champions League competition, PSG owns the fourth-highest passing accuracy and the third-highestpossession percentage. "As long as Luis Enrique is here, the strategy will remain one of youth rather than stars," Lefebvre wrote. Enrique was also tasked with overhauling a change in attitude. The team would be built no longer on the potential brilliance of three players, but on the doggedness of all 11. "A Paris Saint-Germain player has to get used to starting, coming off the bench or even not being called up," Enrique told reporters amid the team's Champions League run. "We make sure that every player who comes on is at 100% and gives his all." Perhaps the coach's best work has been coaxing a career-best season out of Dembélé, whose potential had always been evident. Barcelona signed Dembélé in 2017 with ambitions of his becoming the successor to its outgoing star Neymar. Instead, during six inconsistent seasons combined, he scored 24 goals and assisted on 34 more. When PSG needed its own Neymar replacement in 2023, it placed its hopes on Dembélé, too. This season, his second for PSG, Dembélé scored 21 goals during the domestic season and eight more in 14 Champions League matches, and he added 10 assists between the two. Enrique's coaching has mimicked Dembélé's role earlier in his career at clubs in France and Germany, allowing for "more freedom to go everywhere on the pitch," Dembélé saidthis week. "I have my bearings," he said "I just try to create space and to cause a bit of chaos in midfield. This has been paying off so far." Relative to its past, PSG reined in its payroll this season to $220 million, a number that is nonetheless still larger than that of the three next-high-spending teams in France's top division combined and that would also rank second-highest in England's Premier League, the world's richest domestic soccer league. What is different is that now PSG could have a trophy to show for all that spending. While past PSG teams weren't prepared to "suffer," said Mustoe — a buzzword in global soccer with the loose definition of a team's ability to endure its struggles — this year, "they have a team that suffers with immense ability," he said. PSG proved it during the knockout stage of the Champions League, when advancing relies on the aggregate score of a two-game series. PSG lost in the round of 16 to Liverpool at home, then held firm to win on the road on penalties and advance. After it beat Aston Villa in the quarterfinals, it won again on the road to open its semifinal against Arsenal, then advanced to only the club's second Champions League final with a home win on May 7. "If we were to analyze everything that has happened in the UEFA Champions League this season, I think it would make a great thriller or horror film or even a very good series, because it has had a bit of everything," Enrique, who managed Barcelona to a Champions League title a decade ago,said this week. "I think we should be proud of what we've achieved. However, we have to finish the job because what we're really aiming for is to make history."