PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates made a significant push to improve their beleaguered bullpen at the trade deadline, acquiring veteran right-hander Luke Weaver from the New York Mets, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal.
Pittsburgh, looking to end a decade-long playoff drought, sent shortstop prospect Sammy Stafura to the Mets in exchange for the 32-year-old Weaver, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the agreement was not yet official.
The addition of Weaver signals an unusually aggressive financial push by the typically frugal Pirates. Weaver is in the first season of a two-year, $22 million deal.
The move comes with Pittsburgh’s bid for the National League’s third wild-card spot flickering a bit following a 2-7 stretch in which the bullpen has faltered repeatedly.
The trade for Weaver is the second significant acquisition by the Pirates around the deadline. Pittsburgh brought in former All-Star reliever Camilo Doval from the New York Yankees on Saturday. Doval allowed a run in one inning of work in his Pirates’ debut in a loss to Cincinnati on Sunday.
Weaver had been one of the few bright spots this season for the last-place Mets, going 2-1 with a 1.84 ERA with one save in 42 appearances. A converted starting pitcher, Weaver has been excellent since moving to the bullpen full-time in 2024 with the New York Yankees. He has a 13-8 record with a 2.90 ERA in 168 games with 13 saves with the Mets and Yankees over the last two-plus seasons.
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired the biggest prize on the trade deadline market, getting two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night.
Skubal got the news during the Tigers’ 8-6 win over the Athletics and was emotional after the game as he prepared to leave the team that drafted him in 2018 and developed him into a star to join the two-time defending World Series champions.
“I’m excited to be a Dodger,” he said. ”I’m excited to get down there and meet all those guys and chase three championships in a row. That’s hard to do, so I’m so excited to a part of that. But it’s a lot of different emotions. Definitely kind of a roller coaster a little bit.”
Skubal is the latest star to join the high-priced roster for the Dodgers that already has big-name players like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Mookie Betts. If everyone is healthy, he could be part of a rotation with Ohtani, reigning World Series MVP Yamamoto, fellow two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. The Dodgers lead the majors with a 3.36 ERA from their starting pitchers and now add Skubal to the mix.
The Dodgers are in first place in the NL West and were already the favorites to become the first team to three-peat since the New York Yankees from 1998-2000 before adding Skubal. They began the season with a $323.3 million opening-day payroll for their 40-man roster and a $163.7 million tax for a $487.1 million total. They will pay Skubal about $9.5 million for the remainder of the season.
ESPN first reported the deal and said the Tigers would receive three minor league prospects in right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith and outfielder Zyhir Hope.
Skubal is eligible for free agency after the World Series. He has a $32 million salary, a record total in arbitration, after the team offered $19 million, and is expected to sign a massive contract in the offseason.
The 29-year-old lefty said in July that it was his preference to finish the season with the Tigers and to compete for a World Series championship, which has eluded the franchise since 1984. Skubal took the loss in the decisive Game 5 of the division series against Cleveland in 2024 and then got a no-decision in a 15-inning loss to Seattle in Game 5 of the division series last year.
He said it was “very tough” to leave the Tigers having fallen short of the goal of winning a title.
“Ever since that ’24 Game 5, the failure that I experienced on the mound, I’ve used that as fuel to try and bring a World Series to the city of Detroit. I truly did,” he said. “That whole offseason I’ve never been more motivated and then go in and we lose Game 5 again. That failure kind of sparks some more motivation, just to dig deeper and see how good you can truly be. The goal was always to win a World Series for the city, for the organization that took a chance on me. It’s tough. I love all those guys in there. They’re some of my best friends.”
Detroit planned to contend again this season, bolstering the Skubal-led rotation by giving two-time All-Star pitcher Framber Valdez a $115 million, three-year contract in free agency and retaining three-time All-Star infielder Gleyber Torres with a $22 million deal.
The Tigers, though, got off to a rough start and are currently 2½ games out of the last wild-card spot in the American League.
“It’s crazy. Going into the season, this isn’t what I planned on doing,” Skubal said. “But circumstances change, situations change, and I’m very appreciative of everything the Tigers have done for me.”
They bounced back in June and most of July to get into playoff contention with Skubal leading a rotation and three All-Stars in the lineup: rookie infielder and Delco native Kevin McGonigle, catcher Dillon Dingler and outfielder Riley Greene.
With a chance to possibly persuade management to keep Skubal by improving its playoff positioning, Detroit lost ground by dropping four of its last five games at home, including Skubal’s last start that was made even more memorable by a late-inning collapse.
The Tigers led Baltimore 7-0 after six innings Wednesday and lost 10-9 in 12 innings. Skubal started the game, recorded his 1,000th career strikeout and was cheered at every opportunity by a crowd of 34,406.
“I’ve watched this guy rise to the top of the sport,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He’s carried us a lot. I’ll forever be grateful that our paths crossed and the things that he did for this organization and for a couple of playoff teams. His presence, his work ethic, his example, his dominance. There’s so much to go through, it’s hard to capture in one quote or kind of one setting. But I’m very grateful that I was able to manage him for the time that I did.”
Skubal is 7-5 this season with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 96⅔ innings. He is 61-42 with a 3.04 ERA over seven seasons, all in Detroit. In two postseasons, Skubal is 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA in six starts.
Skubal had a minimally invasive surgery on May 6 to remove a loose body from his pitching elbow and returned to pitch on June 13.
“The way the surgery went is exactly how it was supposed to go,” he said in July.
DENVER — A federal court dealt a perhaps chaos-inducing blow to the NCAA’s new eligibility rule Friday when it ruled that all high school class of 2022 athletes who exhausted their fourth season of college eligibility this spring are eligible for a fifth season this school year.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney in Denver, expected to be appealed, undercuts the NCAA’s plan to have the so-called “five for five” rule go into play starting with athletes who enroll in college in fall 2027.
It also has potential to wreak havoc on rosters across the country — for instance, opening the possibility that an undrafted player in an NFL training camp could decide to try to head back to college for a fifth year this upcoming season.
In granting the preliminary injunction, Sweeney said the players “will suffer irreparable harm without” it. She did not sign onto the governing body’s argument that applying the new rule retroactively would create “roster chaos.”
But NCAA President Charlie Baker said it would in responding to the rulings while referencing a bill in Congress designed to provide the NCAA antitrust protection on the eligibility issues.
“Today’s rulings and the chaos they bring to college sports are exactly why it’s time to pass this bill,” Baker said.
The Colorado ruling came hours after a Tennessee court granted Jalen Washington, who most recently played at Vanderbilt, and 18 other basketball players a fifth season of eligibility.
In June, the NCAA approved its new eligibility model for Division I athletes that will allow five seasons of competition over a five-year period that begins with their full-time enrollment or the academic year following their 19th birthday, whichever occurs first.
While the ruling in Tennessee applied to those 19 basketball players, the one in Colorado cast a wider net, granting the class certification the plaintiffs sought. It means the ruling applies to all Division I players who started their college careers in the 2022-23 season, not just a select list.
GENEVA — Successfully stopping Gianni Infantino’s FIFA plan to sell World Cup profits to private investors was the first half of a high-stakes game in global soccer politics.
The second half kicked off Saturday with what seemed a clear aim of ending Infantino’s decade-long presidency.
“No option should be off the table,” said European soccer body UEFA, whose president Aleksander Čeferin has led the fight against Infantino in a seismic week for FIFA.
“The current FIFA leadership has not only lost UEFA’s confidence but also that of many other members of the football family.”
Later Saturday, the governing body for North and Central American and Caribbean soccer (Concacaf) called for accountability, saying: “A (World Cup) proposal of this magnitude does not reach that stage by accident. It is a symptom of leadership that has stopped putting football first. This recent unilateral and egregious act of poor governance and leadership follows a pattern of missteps and similar behavior. A comprehensive reckoning with this presidency is imperative.”
Concacaf and its 41 Member Associations welcome the withdrawal of the proposed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE).https://t.co/H2KdBi1jJG
Infantino had proposed creating a $20 billion company to run the World Cup with private investors but drew backlash that grew every day since Tuesday’s announcement.
“We cannot keep going on like this with secret schemes on fast-track timescales, cooked up by faceless individuals and of dubious benefit to the game,” UEFA said. “We must identify those responsible and hold them to account.
“It is right that, in the coming days and weeks, UEFA will work with its associations and in close cooperation with other confederations to reflect on how this happened and devise a plan to make sure that it cannot occur again.”
Norwegian soccer federation president Lise Klaveness, an elected member of the UEFA executive committee, said steps must be taken to protect the integrity of the sport.
“The entire framework of international football cooperation was unnecessarily put at risk in pursuit of individual interests rather than the best interests of the game,” Klaveness said Saturday. ”This has been visible to many for a long time, including those of us elected to positions intended to safeguard checks and balances and provide ongoing oversight. We have to recognize that these mechanisms have not worked well enough.”
UEFA welcomes FIFA’s withdrawal of plans to sell a stake in the World Cup
The president of the Asian soccer confederation, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, said “the future of global football must always be shaped through proper consultation, collective dialogue and respect for the established governance structures of our game.”
Infantino’s audacious bid fell apart after UEFA’s 55-member nations agreed Thursday to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions. CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation also said they opposed the plan.
CONCACAF’s statement added that FIFA leaders have “a duty of service over power. Where that duty is not upheld, accountability cannot be optional.”
There was also an internal revolt.
Infantino’s senior adviser, Carlos Cordeiro, a former U.S. Soccer federation president and Goldman Sachs banker who represented FIFA on the White House Task Force for the World Cup, resigned on Friday and urged other senior FIFA staff to speak out.
Hours later, FIFA chief operating officer Kevin Lamour issued a statement to The Associated Press, saying FIFA staff were deceived by Infantino’s lack of openness in planning the sale over recent months and that the project must not continue.
“It is the project of one person,” wrote Lamour, a longtime colleague of Infantino at both FIFA and UEFA. “Not only must this project not go ahead … but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions.”
Infantino had proposed spinning off FIFA’s commercial businesses — including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women — into a $20 billion subsidiary with 20% owned by private investors.
The “anchor investor,” described by FIFA, is a New York-based investment firm launched by Joshua Kushner, the younger brother of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
This is not Infantino’s first big plan to flop
A tumultuous week in international soccer is at least the third time Infantino has rocked it with an ambitious plan many in the sport saw as reckless.
But the fallout from FIFA’s Kushner-backed plan is the first time UEFA has acted quickly to create momentum for removing the man who was its former longtime employee.
Carlos Cordeiro (right) was a frequent presence when Gianni Infantino (second from left) visited the White House.Jacquelyn Martin
In 2018, Infantino pushed a secretive offer of $25 billion from Japan’s SoftBank to create new competitions, that posed a long-term risk to continental events for clubs and national teams.
In 2021, Infantino proposed playing World Cups every two years instead of four — an idea that also angered the International Olympic Committee where he is an elected member.
Both plans created big rifts in the sport and were eventually dropped by FIFA.
Despite the turmoil, Infantino was reelected unopposed in 2019 and 2023.
The third time shapes to be different.
Here is the calendar for the FIFA presidency
Nov. 18 is the deadline for candidates to enter the next presidential contest, exactly four months ahead of the vote in Rabat, Morocco, where FIFA has its African headquarters.
FIFA statutes allow Infantino one more four-year term in office. The failed spinoff venture seemed like a way to create a commissioner-like role for Infantino beyond 2031, likely paying much more than his current annual salary and a bonus deal of more than $6 million.
It would take 106 votes to ensure a majority in a contested election. Continents surely do not vote uniformly en bloc, but most of Europe’s 55, plus Asia’s 46 and CONCACAF’s 35 FIFA members would be a solid base.
The Qatar FA issued a statement in support of Infantino on Saturday.
Its president, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, said: “We welcome FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s decision to withdraw the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal in the interest of the global football community.
“While the proposal had merit, we applaud the wisdom behind prioritizing unity among Member Associations. The Qatar Football Association fully supports President Infantino’s efforts to continue growing and strengthening the game globally.”
Inquirer staff writer Jonathan Tannenwald contributed to this article. Associated Press writer Joseph Wilson contributed from Barcelona, Spain.
The Big Ten and Southeastern Conference agreed Friday night to support the Protect College Sports Act, a Senate bill that seeks to regulate college sports, ending a breakneck week of negotiations and pulling the bipartisan measure out of what looked like a certain death spiral.
School presidents from both conferences voted to back the bill after receiving last-minute concessions over language regarding third-party name, image, and likeness deals and the so-called “associated entities” that often make those arrangements.
More details need to be worked out, but the bill still has a chance to earn the 60 votes it needs to halt debate and head to an up-or-down vote before the Senate heads for summer break next Friday.
The summer recess was increasingly looking like a hard deadline for the Protect College Sports Act, a bipartisan effort headed by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
After the conferences, which had balked at large sections of the bill, put out a short release announcing they supported the act “as currently drafted,” Cantwell went on social media and said: “Good. Now progress can be made in protecting women and Olympic athletes and moving the legislation closer to the President’s desk.”
Good. Now progress can be made in protecting women and Olympic athletes and moving this legislation closer to the President’s desk. https://t.co/RWytYnzVya
President Donald Trump, who also has been seeking fixes for an industry that now pays its players millions, got involved late Thursday, which helped push the parties back to the negotiating table.
Cody Campbell, the Texas Tech regent who has played a big role in shaping this policy, called the SEC and Big Ten support “a major breakthrough that moves us closer to a Senate vote — and a better future” for college sports.
Increased salary cap, new language entice holdouts
It could represent a major reworking of the House v. NCAA settlement, which governs paying players. The idea is that the extra money will take the place of payments from “associated entities” that were allowed beyond the $21.3 million cap. It was those payments that, many schools complained, obliterated any idea of a cap or controlled cost.
The SEC and Big Ten sought stronger language in the bill to guarantee that any third-party deals are truly outside deals and not coming from the schools’ multimedia-rights partners, which currently broker the majority of those deals.
Among the questions still unanswered are whether the new cap will comport with the House settlement, which had specific instructions about the hard cap (22% of a certain part of revenues, which equals $21.3 million this season), and what would happen to the College Sports Commission, the main NIL enforcement arm that spends the bulk of its time analyzing third-party NIL deals.
Long road remains
Even with Friday night’s victory, the bill has a long road ahead. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., has been a staunch opponent of the bill since the beginning. Before the latest compromise, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said that “as written today,” the act “creates chaos and eliminates opportunity for student-athletes.”
Whether the SEC’s approval is enough to get those senators and others from SEC states on board is one issue. If the bill clears the Senate, it would still then need to pass the narrowly divided House, which flailed on another college bill called the SCORE Act, for more than a year.
There’s also the matter of whether smaller conferences, long in favor of the bill, will remain so now that their bigger competition is being allowed to directly pay players up to $48.8 million.
Almost everyone in college sports agrees that the status quo isn’t working.
The news about the bill broke only hours after the NCAA lost a pair of key court cases involving its new rule that would give most Division I athletes five years to complete five seasons of eligibility.
Using those losses as another chance to urge for passage of the bill, NCAA President Charlie Baker said “It is long past time leaders across college sports call for the immediate passage of the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act.”
Two-time national champion hoops coach Dan Hurley of Connecticut used social media to outline the stakes in more colorful terms: “Somebody please come and fix College Sports. It’s a complete [expletive] show,” he said, using an emoji where the expletive would go.
Tony Romo has been placed on leave from his role as the lead analyst on CBS’s NFL coverage following his arrest last week on suspicion of operating a vehicle while under the influence.
CBS Sports announced Friday that the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback was on leave “until further notice.” JJ Watt will join Jim Nantz and Tracy Wolfson as CBS Sports’ lead NFL team during Romo’s absence.
Romo, 46, was arrested July 23 after he was stopped while driving south on Interstate 43 in Wisconsin. According to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office report, Romo performed poorly on field sobriety tests before getting taken into custody, booked, and released.
He has a court date set for Sept. 21.
CBS Sports’ announcement comes after citations released by the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office indicated an open bottle of an alcoholic beverage was found in the passenger’s side of Romo’s black Jeep during an inventory before it was towed.
According to the citations, police stopped Romo after he was seen passing cars in a gore area, which separates interstate traffic from cars entering from an on-ramp. Police said Romo questioned what a gore area was during the stop.
Body camera footage released earlier this week showed Romo telling deputies he had been coming from a golf course and was on his way “to visit grandma and grandpa” when he was stopped. A deputy told Romo he suspected him of being impaired because he had “red glassy eyes” and an “odor of an intoxicating alcoholic beverage.”
Romo went to high school about 35 miles from Milwaukee in Burlington, Wis.
He has been the lead game analyst for CBS’s NFL coverage since 2017 after making four Pro Bowl appearances during an NFL career that ran from 2004-16 and was spent entirely with Dallas.
Romo remains the Cowboys’ franchise leader in career touchdown passes with 248. He held the franchise record for career passing yards (34,183) until Dak Prescott overtook him last season.
Watt joined CBS in 2023. He was an analyst on The NFL Today for two seasons before teaming with Ian Eagle on the network’s No. 2 crew beginning last season.
Romo wasn’t expected to have his first game until the opening Sunday of the regular season on Sept. 13. CBS will air a preseason game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Philadelphia Eagles on Aug. 28.
CBS likely will reveal its game assignments and announcer pairings for the first three weeks of the regular season in the next couple of weeks.
GENEVA — FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s plan to create a $20 billion company running the World Cup with private investors including the Kushner family was announced Tuesday — and immediately attacked by European soccer body UEFA.
“It is not FIFA’s to sell,” UEFA said in a statement. “None of us are the owners of football.”
Infantino’s plans to form a commercial subsidiary, which would be called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), running competitions like the World Cup and Club World Cup was first reported by The Times of London.
FIFA said in a statement FFE would raise up to $4.2 billion later this year to help fund development programs “based on an initial equity valuation of $20 billion by carefully selecting long-term investors who will purchase minority, non-controlling interests.”
FIFA is working with J.P. Morgan while intended investors include Thrive Eternal launched by Joshua Kushner, whose brother Jared Kushner is a son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump.
“The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially,” UEFA said Tuesday, responding to the reports of selling stakes in FIFA competitions.
FIFA is currently a Swiss-based not-for-profit association of its 211 national member federations worldwide.
Those members must approve any plan and would get the chance “to access up to $20 million in one-off capital,” FIFA said.
“This is about the democratization of football worldwide,” Infantino said in a FIFA statement, which added that “a consultation process has begun.”
UEFA, however, said it took reports of the project “extremely seriously. So should every national Football Association.”
“This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross,” said UEFA, which comprises 55 of the FIFA members.
FIFA’s $20M offer to member federations
The outline of Tuesday’s surprise announcement was, FIFA said, detailed by Infantino to members who met in Manhattan on July 18 ahead of the World Cup final. There, Infantino promised to “unleash the commercial potential and opportunity that FIFA has.”
FIFA’s statement Tuesday about its proposed project led on how much money each of its 211 members could get through 2038 in the “FIFA Fast-Forward Program.”
Instead of the currently promised $8 million each in development funds through the 2027-30 World Cup commercial cycle, it would be $20 million, then $22 million and $24 million in the following cycles.
FIFA banked record World Cup income of about $12 billion from the 2026 tournament which had unprecedented high prices for tickets and hospitality across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It already was unclear how that money could be matched from Spain, Portugal and Morocco co-hosting the 2030 men’s edition.
Member federations could choose if they wanted to take part in the new financial opportunities, FIFA said.
“FIFA would retain sole control of FFE and exclusive authority over football governance, competitions, match calendar, and all regulatory and sporting decisions,” the soccer body said.
The project announced Tuesday is the second time in Infantino’s increasingly controversial 11-year presidency he has tried to push through a multi-billion dollar deal with private backers.
In 2018, Infantino proposed a secretive $25 billion offer over 12 years with SoftBank of Japan to create new global competitions, including an expanded men’s Club World Cup, seemingly backed by Saudi Arabian money.
That ultimately failed after meeting fierce resistance from UEFA, which saw threats to its prize assets: the Champions League and the European Championship.
The financial success of the just-ended World Cup has looked likely to ensure Infantino is re-elected next year unopposed for a fourth and final term in office through 2031.
At his re-election by acclaim in 2023 in Rwanda, Infantino suggested any CEO delivering similar financial results would be kept in the job forever.
Speculation has swirled for years Infantino might want a different global role in soccer beyond his FIFA presidency, which is due to end when he is 61.
The Times reported Tuesday that a CEO-like commissioner role of the new FFE operation could be created for Infantino.
“This has never been discussed,” FIFA said in a statement Tuesday. “However, the FIFA president and the FIFA administration will and must have leading roles in this entity — if approved.”
There was no timetable suggested Tuesday for debate and decisions by FIFA, its ruling Council chaired by Infantino, and the 211 members.
FIFA is scheduled to hold an online congress on Nov. 23 to confirm hosts of the Women’s World Cup editions in 2031 and 2035.
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — The son of Chiefs assistant coach Eric Bieniemy has been arrested and charged with the shooting of his mother, Mia Bieniemy, the wife of the Kansas City offensive coordinator, according to authorities in Virginia.
The Loudon County Sheriff’s Office said Monday that deputies responded late Sunday to a shooting in Ashburn, Virginia, where they found 57-year-old Mia Bieniemy with multiple gunshot wounds. She was transported to a hospital and was in stable condition Monday.
Elijah Zion Bieniemy, the 27-year-old son of the couple, was arrested in connection with the shooting. He has been charged with malicious wounding, use of a firearm in commission of a felony and discharge of a firearm inside a dwelling, and is being held without bond at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center.
Eric Bieniemy was with the Chiefs at their practice in St. Joseph, Missouri, earlier Sunday. He was not present for Monday’s workout.
“The club is aware of the incident involving Eric Bieniemy’s family,” the team told The Associated Press in a statement. ”Out of respect for their privacy, we won’t have a comment at this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.”
NEW YORK — Charles Gaines, the author whose book and documentary Pumping Iron helped bring professional bodybuilding into the mainstream and introduce Arnold Schwarzenegger to the world, has died. He was 84.
Mr. Gaines died Tuesday, according to Greta Gaines, the author’s daughter. She did not reveal a cause.
“You always marched to your own drummer and inspired everyone around you to do the same,” she wrote in a tribute to her father. “Follow that bliss, catch that fish and kiss those lips while you can because my father was the live life to the fullest kinda guy.”
Mr. Gaines collaborated with George Butler to write Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding, which led to the making of the documentary Pumping Iron, for which Butler and Mr. Gaines wrote the script.
In the introduction to their 1974 book, Mr. Gaines wrote that he and Butler considered it “a sort of respectful report from the interior of an interesting, colorful and heretofore ignored region of American life.”
In a 2022 edition, he admitted that neither author thought “many people outside of the bodybuilding world would be interested in” the book. Mr. Gaines wrote that Schwarzenegger almost single-handedly “brought bodybuilding out of the shadows it had languished in since its earliest days in America and into the limelight.”
Schwarzenegger, who won seven Mr. Olympia and five Mr. Universe titles and who was pictured flexing on the cover of Pumping Iron, would harness the attention into a career, first in movies — including The Terminator, True Lies, Twins, and Predator — and then politics, becoming governor of California from 2003 to 2011.
Mr. Gaines wrote that he’d been involved in bodybuilding in one way or another since he was 16, when he began lifting weights. Pumping Iron began as an article for Sports Illustrated in 1972 on a bodybuilding contest for Mr. East Coast.
“If we felt at times a little like 19th century explorers, it was because we found bodybuilding to be as primeval and unmapped as parts of Labrador,” he wrote. ”Nobody, we discovered, had been back into it to send out a report on what it was like.”
Mr. Gaines and Butler used the book as the basis for their 1977 documentary Pumping Iron, which centers on the rivalry between Schwarzenegger and fellow bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno in the competition for a Mr. Olympia title. Ferrigno would later star on TV in The Incredible Hulk.
Mr. Gaines was raised in Alabama and earned a bachelor’s degree from Birmingham-Southern College and a Master of Fine Arts in writing from the University of Iowa.
Mr. Gaines published numerous books throughout his career, including Waters Far and Near: Tales of Angling Adventure and Misadventure Around the World and the novels Stay Hungry, Dangler, and Survival Games.Stay Hungry was adapted into a movie starring Jeff Bridges, giving Schwarzenegger his first movie role.
“He climbed mountains, trekked across ice, fished, and hunted on almost every continent, writing about every adventure in a way that captured people’s hearts and minds. He was interested in everything — and his interest was contagious,” Schwarzenegger wrote on Instagram. “I’m lucky that he was always looking for new frontiers, because that’s how he found me and our niche sport of bodybuilding.”
In addition to his daughter Greta, Mr. Gaines is survived by his wife, the artist Patricia Ellisor Gaines, and two other children, Latham and Shelby Gaines.
ATLANTA — Defending champion Argentina rallied to beat England 2-1 on Wednesday and reach the World Cup final.
Trailing 1-0 heading into the final five minutes of regulation, Enzo Fernández and substitute Lautaro Martínez scored for Argentina.
Argentina will play Spain in the World Cup final in East Rutherford, N.J. on Sunday (3 p.m., Fox29), while England will take on France in the consolation game on Saturday (3 p.m., Fox29).
Anthony Gordon had given England the lead in the first half. Still, Lionel Messi and Co. rallied for the third straight game, winning down the wire now against Cape Verde in the Round of 16, Egypt in the quarterfinals, and now, England, which was just five minutes plus added time of qualifying for their first World Cup final since they won it all in 1966.
Argentina pushed for an equalizer, and the pressure eventually led to Fernandez scoring in the 85th minute. Martinez headed in the winner two minutes into injury time.
The game resumed one of the biggest rivalries in international soccer, and there was a raucous atmosphere in the stadium even before kickoff as both sets of fans tried to drown out the other team’s national anthem.
