IndyCar driver and Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi yesterday confirmed that he will "return to Andretti-Herta Autosport" in a deal for the '17 season that has "options on the backend of the agreement." The AP's Jenna Fryer wrote it is now "up to IndyCar to capitalize on Rossi’s decision to stick around." The series has "done decent work marketing Graham Rahal and budding star Josef Newgarden," and IndyCar has put a "tremendous push behind Canadian driver James Hinchcliffe." With Rossi "now in its arsenal, there’s potential to groom another American star" (AP, 10/3).
CAN'T PREDICT THE FUTURE: USWNT MF Carli Lloyd when asked about the possibility of a player strike over equal pay said, "We had a meeting with our union attorney, and we’re trying to set up a new round of negotiations. As for a strike, we haven’t really gotten into that yet. These things tend to be very last-minute. You would think that they would want to start the negotiations earlier and really make progress, but the [U.S. Soccer Federation] hasn’t seemed to want to do that. I don’t know what will happen" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/1).
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE: TENNIS.com's Brad Kallet noted WTA CEO Steve Simon "wants matches to, ideally, last no longer than 60-90 minutes, and the solution might be to implement no-ad scoring and super tiebreaks." Simon: "It will help us with broadcast. It will help us keep people in the seats. You’re much more likely to sit there and watch that match, (one) that’s going to have a lot more action points." Such changes "likely wouldn’t go into effect" until '19 or '20 (TENNIS.com, 9/30).
THE GOOD STUFF: MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Red Sox President Sam Kennedy on Sunday announced that MLB and the Red Sox "will sponsor the David Ortiz Fellowship Program to promote diversity in front office positions." In Boston, Peter Abraham noted a recent college graduate "will be selected to work in a year-long position" with the Red Sox and will travel to N.Y. to "work on projects in the commissioner’s office" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/3).
