A Yankees fan is suing the team for $10 million after she was hit in the head by a flying baseball bat as she sat in the stands for a June game.

Stephanie Duluc, 37, was sitting in a fourth-row seat directly behind home plate during the team’s June 2 game when Cleveland Guardians infielder Jose Ramirez’s bat went soaring into her section during the fifth inning, according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, according to the New York Post.

Protective netting meant to shield fans from speedy foul balls and airborne bats did not keep Duluc safe. The bat hit Duluc “with such force that it knocked her from her seat and violently threw her to the ground, causing her to sustain severe and permanent injuries,” the lawsuit claims.

Duluc was left with a traumatic brain injury, concussion, severe light sensitivity and permanent damage to her neck and hands, the lawsuit claims.

These injuries are so severe they have prevented her from returning to her job as the chief of staff at the Bronx-based SOMOS Community Care, which owns the seats in the section where Duluc was sitting. The organization helps people find help with food and housing in their community.

The lawsuit argues that the beloved New York team is responsible for her injuries because the netting in that section was “significantly lower” than other nearby sections, leaving an “unprotected opening” for the bat to fly through.

Less than two weeks after filing the lawsuit, Duluc appeared on PIX11’s Monica Makes It Happen to discuss a recent event sponsored by her company. Her attorney, Jon L. Norinsberg, told the Post that her appearance does not mean she is not injured.

“Ms. Duluc continues to suffer significant residual deficits from her traumatic brain injury, including persistent headaches, sensitivity to light, balance issues, and other cognitive impairments,” Norinsberg said.

“A brief television appearance does not mean she has recovered or is capable of performing her professional duties on a sustained basis,” he added.

Duluc’s lawsuit may face trouble over the century-old “Baseball Rule,” a doctrine that usually exempts teams and owners from liability over foul ball, bat or other similar injuries.

However, stadiums may be found liable if they are found to have failed to provide adequate protection for fans.

The Independent has contacted the Yankees for comment.

Manchester City are getting a brief taste of what life would be like without Erling Haaland during their pre-season tour of Asia.

Since Erling Haaland’s arrival in 2022, Manchester City have not needed to fear where goals would come from. The Norwegian sensation enters his fifth season at the Etihad Stadium next week and so far he has not scored fewer than 31 goals in a single campaign.

Such is his talent, even the great Pep Guardiola admitted he needed to adapt his style to accommodate Haaland. “We know his quality. We cannot play a false nine with him and we have to adapt some movements,” the City boss explained in 2023. “He has to get the balls delivered as much as possible. We have fantastic players around him but the first goal is because he is there and the delivery from Kevin [de Bruyne] is fantastic.”

But even with a modern-day great leading the line, Guardiola was aware of the importance of everyone at City pulling their weight. After Haaland bagged a brace to beat Everton in October, the City head coach said: “He [Haaland] could have scored four or five at the end. He’s our key man.

“At the same time, we cannot do good things with just Erling. Our wingers, attacking midfielders and the other players have to make a step up.”

This summer, the onus has been on other players to show their worth. Haaland’s run to the World Cup quarter-finals with Norway ensured he missed this year’s trip to Hong Kong and South Korea. While results and goals are not really important during pre-season, new boss Enzo Maresca wants to see how his players react in the striker’s absence.

Stepping up to the plate has been Antoine Semenyo. City’s January signing from Bournemouth went to the World Cup but, unlike Haaland, he struggled.

Upon his return to Manchester, the 26-year-old received his new instructions from Maresca and has since flourished. “I reported a little bit later than some of the boys and I’ve had individual meetings with him on how he wants to set up, how he wants to play, his wide men, and just overall as a team,” Semenyo explained in Hong Kong last week.

“It’s been good so far. I think his ideas are great – quite similar to Pep. When he got appointed, that was the first thing I thought about because when I’ve played Chelsea previously when he was there, his wide men were always high and wide and quite free. That was one of the things that excited me the most when he got appointed and it’s exciting for me as a winger. I get to have 1v1 situations most of the game and I’m looking forward to it.”

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In the two matches against Inter Milan and the K-League All Stars, we have seen Semenyo torment defenders with his direct runs and physicality.

Divin Mubama scored the only goal from open play against Inter, but it was all about Semenyo in the build-up. He was the one who worked the opening and his drilled, low cross was begging to be tapped in by the youngster.

On Wednesday, the forward had a hand in two of City’s three goals against the K-League All Stars. Semenyo’s awareness to back heel the ball to Tijjani Reijnders brought back memories of his fantastic FA Cup-winning goal against Chelsea. He then did superbly to cut inside from the right, fire a shot towards goal that was spilt and eventually tapped in by Mubama.

His energy down both the left and right has been one of the main positives of this tour. The evolution of City’s tactics has not gone unnoticed by Nico Gonzalez. “I think it is clear that we try to arrive to the wingers,” the midfielder told City’s in-house media following the win in Seoul. We have a lot of quality with the wingers so they can go one v one all the time.”

Next week, Haaland returns to City as the squad arrive back from Asia. With little more than two weeks remaining before the Premier League restarts, Blues fans will be hopeful the Norwegian is fresh and ready to hit the ground running.

But if he does need time to find his feet, Semenyo’s hot form in pre-season suggests he is primed to share the weight of expectation with Haaland this year.

Man Utd play double European champions Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday and Luis Enrique’s side are something of a benchmark for Michael Carrick.

It won’t be a full-strength Paris Saint-Germain side that Manchester United face in Gothenburg this weekend, and the beating heart of Luis Enrique’s brilliant side might not all be present, but for Michael Carrick, the game will provide a chance to see how his own creation shapes up against a team that are something of an inspiration.

Speaking before landing the United job, Carrick spoke glowingly about Enrique’s side and said they are a team he would have loved to have played for in his prime. So much of their success is built around an ability to keep the ball in midfield and the technical brilliance of players like Joao Neves, Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz.

That is exactly the style Carrick espoused as a player. His game was less about physicality and breaking up play and more about setting the tempo through passing and controlling the game.

Now that he has been given the keys to Old Trafford on a permanent basis, Carrick wants to build a midfield that resembles PSG’s, making this week’s game in Sweden an interesting barometer.

The challenge for Carrick is that PSG have it easy in Ligue 1 and can rotate so heavily in domestic competition that their best players are almost always fresh for the Champions League. The Premier League offers a different test and while Carrick wants control, the trends in this country have moved away from that approach.

Instead, last season was about duels and physicality and set-pieces. Perhaps there will be a reversion to something more like the football that Carrick admires this season, and if there is he wants to be leading the charge.

As a head coach at Middlesbrough and United, he has preached possession as a fundamental principle to his style. This pre-season is the first chance he has had to really put a fresh stamp on the team he inherited last season.

He has signed two midfielders with high-level technical ability and has repositioned Mason Mount as a deep-lying midfielder capable of dictating a game through passing rather than physicality. Carrick wants a United team able to keep possession and dominate teams with the ball.

Barcelona used to set the standards for that in Europe, but it feels like the mantle has been passed to PSG and Carrick hasn’t hidden his admiration for what they do.

“Of course they’re winning, but it’s the way they play that really stands out,” he said. “The midfield rotations, the constant connections, the quick, short passing… it’s exactly the kind of football I enjoy.

“Then you look at the pace, movement and energy of the forwards. The way they attack space is incredible and, as a midfielder, that’s the dream because you’ve always got options ahead of you.

“You’re constantly involved, always getting on the ball, always looking to play forward and keep the game flowing. That’s the kind of football every midfielder loves.

“They’re simply a fantastic team to watch.”

There are enough clues there to realise it’s a style Carrick would love to implement now he has a two-year contract at United and on the evidence of the club’s transfer activity and pre-season so far, that is what he is trying to do.

Mount and Kobbie Mainoo fit that bill, as do £50million Andrey Santos and £35million Youri Tielemans. That quartet could yet be strengthened in the final weeks of the summer window.

They will still have some way to go to rival Vitinha, Neves and co in Paris, and will have to do it in a far more demanding league, but the template for Carrick’s dream United midfield seems clear.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Caitlin Clark sat at the dais Thursday night, staring at the stat sheet and reliving the eight turnovers and her two missed free throws with seven seconds left in regulation.

Then she took the blame for the Indiana Fever‘s stinging 86-84 overtime loss to defending champion Las Vegas.

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“Obviously, it just can’t happen,” the three-time All-Star said just hours after she was one of 12 players named to the FIBA Women’s World Cup team. “Those are free throws I usually make and certainly frustrating. Obviously, one of them gives us a two-possession lead and kind of caused my pain there, for sure, so that’s on me.”

It wasn’t a great night for Clark by any measure. While she scored 20 points, had eight assists and made two go-ahead 3-pointers in the final 4 1/2 minutes of regulation, it was the miscues she rued after first watching a 20-point first-half lead slip away and then failing to protect a three-point lead in the final seconds of the fourth quarter and a two-point lead at the end of overtime.

Jackie Young took advantage of the first opening by scoring a franchise-record 15 consecutive points to finish the second quarter and start the third. Chelsea Gray then made the Fever pay for their late miscues — making a buzzer-beating 3 to tie it at 75 following the missed free throws and then making another buzzer beater to win it following Clark’s final turnover, forced by A’ja Wilson.

Clark went 7 of 20 from the field, 2 of 10 on 3s and had more fouls (four) than rebounds (three). Still, she didn’t make any excuses.

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“I didn’t know we scored nine points in the third quarter, but you know we still battled, still fought, we put ourselves in position to win the game,” Clark said. “And then, honestly, it was me that made the costly errors for us. So that’s on me to helps us win. That’s my job. That’s what I get paid to do.”

As usual, though, it wasn’t just Clark.

Kelsey Mitchell, July’s WNBA Player of the Month, missed one of two free throws with 9.2 seconds to go in the fourth quarter. And then, instead of fouling to prevent the tying 3-point attempt, or corralling the loose ball, Gray got her chance to tie the score.

“Aliyah Boston read it perfectly, her timing was perfect,” coach Stephanie White said, noting they gave up 18 points on turnovers, too.. “It’s a loose ball and it bounced their way. We’ve got to come up with that play.”

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White also acknowledged making her own mistake — not calling timeout at the end of overtime when they were struggling to get a shot, which led to Clark’s turnover.

And, though, that seemed of little solace to Clark, White saw it another way.

“Players already hate that they miss free throws, right? They hate that they miss plays,” White said. “You’ve just got to keep them positive in those moments.”

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

WWE SmackDown star Blake Monroe recently opened up about the creative process behind her current entrance music. The Glamour surprisingly revealed that she is directly responsible for a specific element of the song that many fans have actively criticized.

Monroe officially arrived on the Friday Night Show on June 27 and quickly established her dominance after attacking Giulia. The star has appeared in segments and promos, but she has still not competed in a televised in-ring match on the brand.

The former AEW star recently made an appearance on TMZ’s Inside the Ropes, where she was asked whether she had any input in the creation of her WWE entrance theme, “Glamour Is Forever.” Monroe confirmed that she was heavily involved throughout the process and even addressed one of the song’s most debated elements.

Monroe explained that she deliberately wanted a signature opening line, “glamorous forever,” to make her entrance instantly recognizable. She cited WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus as inspiration, pointing to the iconic opening of her entrance music. Blake Monroe revealed that after receiving the first version of the track, she worked with friends with musical experience to refine it further by slowing it down and adding electric guitar before approving the final version.

“Yeah. So I connected with them. I sent them like a bunch of inspiration, which was Sabrina, Ariana Grande, and then kind of described my character cause the song, if you actually listen to the lyrics, is kind of like the way I dress and I act and everything. And then they sent me the first, and I said I wanted the star, which people hate, you know, I say ‘Glamorous forever.’ People like, ‘Why did they put that in there? They ruin everything.’ And I’m like, yeah, why did they do that? That’s crazy. It was actually me. I knew I wanted something signature at the start. You know, like Trish Stratus, it’s like, it’s just iconic. So, I wanted that, and then they sent me the first version, and then I got my friends who’s, like, big into music to kind of help me, and we slowed it down, and we added like electric guitar, and it’s pretty good. They killed it.”

You can watch the full interview below:

WWE star Blake Monroe made a major statement about the end of her AEW character

Blake Monroe signed with WWE last year in June after finishing her run with All Elite Wrestling, where she performed as Mariah May.

The SmackDown star recently shared her thoughts on closing the chapter on her former AEW persona, explaining why she believes it was the right time to move on.

During an interview with Danise Salcedo, Monroe was asked about leaving the Mariah May character behind and embracing a fresh start in WWE. She admitted that she views the conclusion of her AEW run as a fitting ending rather than an unfinished story.

“Our dearly beloved friend Mariah did pass away, she got killed off at the end there, but it felt like the perfect end for her and her story, and her impact on people. Now we start something new,” said Monroe.

It will be interesting to see what Triple H and his creative team have in store for the former NXT Women’s North American Champion and when she makes her official in-ring debut on SmackDown.

If you use quotes from the article, please credit TMZ’s Inside the Ropes and provide an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.