The growing sign-stealing scandal led a third major league baseball team to sack its manager on Thursday. The New York Mets parted ways with new hire Carlos Beltrán before he even managed his first game. Beltrán played on the 2017 Houston Astros team that won the World Series while electronically stealing opposing catchers’ signals to pitchers. Houston fired general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch on Monday.
On a Saturday afternoon in December, the sounds of clicking timers echoed from a white tent in an Abuja garden. There, 36 chess players focused on their boards while observers stood on both sides of the tent.
The spectators included nine children from a primary school waiting for their own tournament after the nine 10-minute rapid rounds.
Folarin Adebayo, the children’s coach of four years, told me he’s taken them to several tournaments, including one in Lagos state, where a 6-year-old won a bronze medal.
The reigning American League champions fired general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch after Major League Baseball on Monday suspended the two for one year for their role in a cheating scheme. An MLB investigation found that the Astros electronically stole the pitch signs of opposing teams during its 2017 World Series championship run and again in 2018.
Africa | Nigerians are working to make chess and other mind games pay—literally
