The Los Angeles Dodgers set a record for home runs on the opening day of a Major League Baseball season with eight in the 12-5 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Although tomorrow night’s world title defence against Cindy Serrano, the toughest fight of her career to date, might seem like an away fixture for Bray’s Katie Taylor, she is very much the home fighter.

Pallotta’s backroom group is focusing more on computer analysis of players and opponents, using methods developed by an American data team, writes David Shonfield

Jake Gyllenhaal has already been tipped for an Oscar nomination for his performance in his latest movie, Stronger. He deserves the rave reviews, writes Will Lawrence

It didn’t take the hurlers of Dublin, Tipperary, Clare and Galway long to discover Boston’s list of priorities last Friday when they landed for the Fenway Classic Super 11s.

It’s not easy to eat your way through a baseball match.

New York’s World Trade Centre at Ground Zero, the Big Wheel on Place de la Concorde in Paris, and City Hall in Tel Aviv are three of the latest landmarks to join the growing list of famous international attractions that will go green this St Patrick’s Day.

A few months before Bryan Cullen would become the first Dublin man in 16 years to lift Sam Maguire, the then director of football operations at Chelsea, Mike Forde, spoke at a conference in Liverpool about a bit of a continuing professional development tour he took in on Stateside.

Next year the Olympics is taking place in Rio, as you are no doubt aware. Are you looking forward to the event? Should you be?

The only way they win is if they succeed in deepening the wedge that already exists between the West and Islam, writes Fergus Finlay

Following today’s announcement of Cork Airport’s first transatlantic flights to the US with Norwegian Air, here are ten great things you can do in Boston.

What has Phil Mickelson at Winged Foot, the Boston Red Sox in 1978 and Jean van de Velde at the 1999 British Open got in common with this Dublin team?

Between Mr Sepp ‘Steering The Ship’ Blatter (see elsewhere on this page), Mr Patrick ‘Golf Balls’ Neary (see the finance/comedy section) and Mr REDACTED REDACTED’REDACTED (see various legal eagles), it hasn’t been a great few days for prominent personages.

If the Vegas oddsmakers are to be believed, there is no separating New England and Seattle.

Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge will continue his rehabilitation from a thigh injury in the United States over Christmas.

In appearance, Bill James reminds you of Michel Lonsdale, the French actor best known for his portrayal of Lebel, the detective who catches the assassin in Day of The Jackal.

Now that Derek Jeter has left baseball, the rest of the sport can focus on the real business of October, the play-offs and the suddenly dramatic road to the World Series.

There will come a point where we no longer feel like being deferential to the ostentatious voices of sport. That’s probably a good thing, on balance.

Tea towels a class act at exhibition

“What do you think they’re smoking over there at Emirates?” tweeted Liverpool owner John W Henry in July when Arsenal’s bid of £40,000,001 for Luis Suarez triggered not a release clause but a war of words.

The way the Boston Red Sox clinched the World Series this past week is almost too corny to be true.

One of the signposts welcoming traffic to Brooklyn from Queens calls on those who pass by to “Believe the Hype”, paraphrasing that classic Public Enemy hip-hop track.

Forever burned into my memory from the New York Jets game this past Sunday will be my good friend Rob Gallo leaning back at an almost impossible angle, silent joy gripping his face, his eyes wide, his happiness complete.

It’s only getting seedier in the Alex Rodriguez saga that has baseball tearing itself to pieces.

One of the many interesting little anecdotes that emerged out of the James ’Whitey’ Bulger conviction on Monday was the fact that his lawyers had fought successfully for the Boston gangster to keep possession of a 1986 Montreal Canadiens Stanley Cup ring.

Páraic Duffy loves American sport.

Neil Diamond is donating some of this week’s sales from Sweet Caroline to Boston Marathon blast victims after the tune became a source of comfort following the bomb attack.

Celebrations erupted in Boston as the capture of the remaining marathon bombing suspect was announced in a tweet from police.

“If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.” — Kathrine Switzer

IT WAS as good a Patriots Day, as good a marathon day, as any; dry and seasonably warm but not hot like last year.

A former Boston Red Sox manager has criticised the owners of Liverpool in his new book for the way they ran the storied baseball club prior to his tenure ended in 2011.

At the bar, everybody knew her name.

Like a fine wine, Clint Eastwood gets better with age.

Sports personalities in Boston always have a one-way ticket to Palookaville in their back pocket.

Even after two cup finals there was no patience for the greatest living servant of our club. If things go pear-shaped next season, they’ll be asking us to “be patient” for the former boss of Swansea City, a man Reading sacked. Good luck with that.

Last summer at a sports conference in Liverpool’s John Moores University, Chelsea’s director of football operations, Mike Forde, recounted a conversation he had with Billy Beane of Moneyball fame.

IF Christmas is for the kids, today is mainly for winners. A cruel, elitist time of year when we look back and pick our best, our favourite, our most memorable.

THERE’S a lot to dislike about the state of Texas but its baseball teams are hard to hate.

GEORGE WASHINGTON was a Bruin.

Liverpool principal owner John Henry’s recuperation from a minor yachting accident will have been boosted by the club’s victory in today’s Merseyside derby.

Liverpool owner John Henry has been discharged from hospital after suffering an injury on his yacht, it is understood.