Brandon Belt was reinstated from the 10-day injured list and will be active for the Toronto Blue Jays' game Wednesday against the Miami Marlins.

The 35-year-old infielder/designated hitter missed time with left hamstring inflammation. He is hitting .263 this season with four home runs and 16 RBI in 152 at-bats.

Spencer Horwitz was optioned to the Blue Jays' Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo, New York, in a corresponding move.

Horwitz had two hits, scored a run and had an RBI in eight at-bats in his three games with Toronto this season.

Ruth Chepngetich will defend her title in the Windy City on October 8 against a field that includes London Marathon winner Sifan Hassan and US record-holder Emily Sisson

Ruth Chepngetich won a remarkable Chicago Marathon women’s race last year when she flew off at 2:08 pace during the early stages before slowing to clock a swift 2:14:18 to miss Brigid Kosgei’s the world record by just 14 seconds.

On October 8 the Kenyan returns to defend her title with unfinished business of breaking Kosgei’s mark. But she will face tough opposition from Sifan Hassan, the Dutch athlete who will be racing her second marathon following her dramatic debut victory in London in April.

Added to this, US record-holder Emily Sisson is set to race as organisers announced some early big-name signings on Wednesday (June 21).

Chepngetich of Kenya will attempt to capture her third consecutive Bank of America Chicago Marathon victory and said: “I am planning to defend my title and improve my time. There’s no better race in the world than the Bank of America Chicago Marathon.”

In London in April, Hassan stopped twice in the early stages to stretch but then closed a near-half-minute gap on the leaders to win and in a Dutch record of 2:18:33. Since then she has successfully returned to track racing and her big goal of the summer is the World Championships in Budapest in August – on the track – before returning to the roads six weeks later.

“At the moment, my focus is on the World Championships in Budapest, so my marathon preparation will be very short, but as most people know, I like to be challenged,” said Hassan. “I will see how my body responds and how my mind handles it. The good thing is that I have the experience from London so I’m looking forward to Chicago, to see what the marathon can teach me this time.”

Sisson’s US record is 2:18:29 and she said: “Chicago is where I set the American marathon record last year. I am really looking forward to coming back for another great race in October!”

Chicago has seen some great women’s races over the years such as Paula Radcliffe beating Catherine Ndereba in 2002 in a world record at the time. In 1985 Joan Benoit Samuelson beat Ingrid Krirstianson, while in 2017 Tirunesh Dibaba beat rising star Kosgei.

Legendary matchups have long made for thrilling finishes in Chicago. In 1985, a grueling duel between Olympic champion Joan Benoit Samuelson and then world record holder Ingrid Kristiansen saw Benoit Samuelson outlast her Norwegian competitor and set an American record.

“Epic battles between the fastest women in the world are a hallmark of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon,” said race director Carey Pinkowski. “As we celebrate four and a half decades of racing this fall, we look forward to seeing Ruth, Sifan and Emily set the tone and provide inspiration for the next 45 years.”

There are expected to be 45,000 runners in total for what will be the 45th edition of the race on October 8.

Olympic and world 400m hurdles champion tackles flat 400m, while Mu races 800m on Saturday June 24 in New York

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will hope to bounce back from a recent and rare defeat at the Paris Diamond League with another 400m flat race at the USATF NYC Grand Prix this weekend.

The 400m hurdles world record-holder is focusing on developing her flat speed right now but in Paris earlier this month things didn’t go to plan as she went through 200m in a blistering 22.67 before fading to run 49.71 as Marileidy Paulino came past her to win in 49.12.

In New York this weekend she will face, among others, Gabby Thomas, the American who won the 200m impressively in Paris in 22.05, whereas she has also run 49.68 for 400m this year.

The meeting is part of the Continental Tour Gold series and also sees Thomas run the 100m against Aleia Hobbs, the reigning US champion and American record-holder at 60m, plus Melissa Jefferson, the 2022 US champion at 100m.

Athing Mu, meanwhile, the Olympic and world 800m champion, makes her summer racing debut over two laps and takes on fellow Americans Ajee’ Wilson and Heather Maclean.

Michael Norman, the world champion at 400m, will face Christian Coleman and Kenny Bednarek in the 100m in addition to racing the 200m against US record-holder Noah Lyles.

The sprint hurdles sees Trey Cunningham, Robert Dunning and Devon Allen in action. Clayton Murphy faces Bryce Hoppel and recent NCAA winner Will Sumner in the men’s 800m.

Reigning world champion Chase Ealey takes on Maggie Ewen in the women’s shot put, while Keni Harrison and Megan Tapper are in the 100m hurdles.

Full line-ups can be seen here.

Just last May Gloucester said they were to "significantly increase" the funding in their women's team to be at the forefront of growth in the game.

The West Country club had never finished higher than fourth before in the league.

This season they topped the table and are fighting to be crowned champions.

"I felt we were a little bit of a sleeping giant, we have undoubtedly the best women's pathway in the world. I don't think anyone can disagree with that," Gloucester-Hartpury CEO James Forrester told BBC Sport.

"Hartpury's under-18 girls win everything, BUCS [university] team coached by Mo Hunt has won the league two years in a row, Cheltenham Tigers, our sister club, have won back-to-back championships.

"We've got amazing facilities at both Gloucester and Hartpury and then we've got this fantastic brand at Gloucester.

"I think we just felt that actually we had a lot going for us. Probably last year we were at that tipping point with a bit of investment, a bit of belief."

Such is the importance of the club reaching the final, Gloucester have even rebranded their stadium name from Kingsholm - which is hosting the match - to Queensholm for this week.

The funding boost, which the BBC understood saw the club's budget almost triple, followed on from a major review at the end of last season.

"It would mean everything [to win]. To top winning the league off, just going into this cup final is everything for our players, staff and the supporters," head coach Sean Lynn told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"What the players are creating here is something special.

"We did a massive season review last year as a coaching group and having James Forrester involved as CEO of Gloucester-Hartpury, he was the man behind all that.

"We went big on the recruitment and it's been great, and it's huge for us."

Recruitment has obviously played a key role in Gloucester-Hartpury's leap forward this year.

A host of high-profile international players were signed last summer including Wales captain Siwan Lillicrap and winger Caitlin Lewis, England flanker Alex Matthews, back-rower Sarah Beckett and prop Maud Muir, and Spain captain Laura Delgado.

England lock, Zoe Aldcroft, who was voted World Rugby's women's player of the year in 2021, also extended her contract.

"We've had a massive squad effort this year," said captain and scrum-half Mo Hunt.

"There's been so many people take the field in the Gloucester-Hartpury colours, to be that consistent and to win that many games with so many people pulling on the shirt is a great testament to where we are as a club."

For all the new faces this year, Gloucester-Hartpury have a core crop who have been part of the setup for a long time. Hunt and Aldcroft are in their fifth seasons, while Lynn has been part of Hartpury University rugby for 22 years. Forrester is a former Gloucester flanker who has worked at Hartpury since 2018.

"I can't do everything as a head coach, you just need to know the strength of the staff around you and let them be what they have to be, and make it benefit for the team," Lynn said.

"It's everything for me to make sure the team work together for one outcome."

First West Country winner

Gloucester-Hartpury take on Exeter in the final on Saturday, a team they beat in their first game of their potentially history-making campaign back in November.

It means that for the first time since the competition was created in 2017, the champion will come from outside London, with Harlequins and Saracens sharing all the previous titles between them.

And with Kingsholm confirmed as the host of the final back in February, Gloucester-Hartpury have home advantage on their side.

"It's class, the fact that we're seen on that parity with the boys and to be able to change the whole stadium's name for the week of the final is incredible," Hunt said.

Gloucester-Hartpury are hoping to set a new record attendance at a domestic women's rugby match this weekend, having already broken their own record for a standalone Gloucester-Hartpury game at Kingsholm this season.

First and foremost, the aim is to beat Exeter on Saturday and clinch a first Premier 15s title. But the bigger ambition is for the club to build on the leaps forward they have made this year and grow Gloucester's women's rugby scene.

"It would be a massive relief [to win] because of all the hard work that we've put into this year," Aldcroft continued.

"I think it would be absolutely incredible for women's rugby in different parts of the country as well other than London, because it's a West Country derby."

"It would be amazing for us as a club and a team to build that rugby environment around Gloucester."

La Rochelle and Leinster will play a repeat of their epic Heineken Champions Cup final when they meet in the 2023-24 pool stage.

They defeated the Irish team 27-26 in May having been 17-0 down at half time.

Both clubs are in Pool 4, alongside Premiership clubs Leicester Tigers and Sale Sharks, as well as Stade Francais and Stormers from South Africa.

Premiership champions Saracens are in Pool 1, as are Bristol Bears and Connacht, while Bath and Harlequins are in Pool 2 along with Cardiff Rugby and Ulster.

Exeter Chiefs and Northampton Saints are in Pool 3 with two-time champions Munster and last year's Challenge Cup runners-up Glasgow Warriors.

The European Rugby Champions and Challenge Cup competitions will return to a multi-pool format for the 2023-24 season.

The Champions Cup has 24 teams split into four pools of six, with the 18-team Challenge Cup being divided into three pools of six. Each team plays four games in their pool, and will not face the team from their same nation or league who they have been drawn in a group with.

The first round of fixtures will begin on Friday, 8 December, six weeks after the final of the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France, which runs 8 September to 28 October.

The 2024 finals will take place at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium 24-25 May.

2023-24 Champions Cup pool stage

Pool 1: Saracens, Union Bordeaux-Begles, Bulls, Bristol Bears, Connacht, Lyon

Pool 2: Toulouse, Cardiff, Bath, Racing 92, Harlequins, Ulster

Pool 3: Munster, Aviron Bayonnais, Glasgow Warriors, Exeter Chiefs, Toulon, Northampton Saints

Pool 4: La Rochelle, Leinster, Stade Francais, Leicester Tigers, Stormers, Sale Sharks

British and Irish clubs discover Challenge Cup opponents

The draw for the second-tier Challenge Cup pool stage took place prior to the Champions Cup, with Premiership clubs Gloucester and Newcastle Falcons learning their opponents.

Newcastle were drawn in Pool 2 alongside Welsh club Ospreys, Italian side Benetton Rugby and Lions from South Africa, as well as two French clubs in USAP and Montpellier.

Gloucester are in Pool 3 with Edinburgh Rugby, Scarlets, two Top 14 clubs in Castres and Clermont Auvergne, and one of two as yet unknown invitee clubs to be determined at a later date.

Toulon are Challenge Cup holders after overpowering first time finalists Glasgow Warriors 43-19 in the 2023 final.

2023-24 Challenge Cup pool stage

Pool 1: Invitee 1, Section Paloise, Dragons, Zebre, Oyannax, Sharks

Pool 2: Ospreys, USAP, Newcastle Falcons, Lions, Montpellier, Benetton Rugby

Pool 3: Edinburgh, Castres, Clermont Auvergne, Invitee 2, Gloucester, Scarlets

Manchester United have made a second bid for Mason Mount but Chelsea are holding out for a fee closer to their valuation, sources have told ESPN.

United have already had one offer of £40 million ($51m) knocked back but have returned with a second offer worth close to £50m ($64m). Chelsea's valuation is £70m ($89m), and negotiations between the two clubs are ongoing.

- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)

Erik ten Hag is keen to land the England international to bolster his midfield and take some of the burden off Christian Eriksen, who made more than 40 appearances last season after joining on a free transfer from Brentford.

Mount has a year left on his contract at Stamford Bridge, and negotiations over a new deal have collapsed. Sources have told ESPN that the 24-year-old, who came through Chelsea's academy, is open to a move to Old Trafford.

United, according to sources, believe £50m is a fair fee that reflects that Mount could leave Chelsea for nothing in 12 months' time.

Other interest in Mount has also cooled after Liverpool signed Alexis Mac Allister from Brighton and Arsenal and Bayern Munich turned their attention to different targets.

Sources have told ESPN that United remain confident they can do a deal for Mount that would see him signed in time to join Ten Hag's squad for the preseason tour of the United States, which begins in New York on July 20.

However, club sources have told ESPN that United are reluctant to stretch to £70m and that the transfer will depend on Chelsea lowering their demands.

Already this summer, Chelsea have reduced their valuations of Mateo Kovacic and Kai Havertz to facilitate moves to Manchester City and Arsenal, respectively.

SCOOT HENDERSON WILL have to earn his buckets the hard way tonight, it seems.

At the Gateway Center in College Park, Georgia, there are almost 1,500 people scattered around the arena's 3,500 seats, some with their legs hanging down onto the seat in front of them, and at least two people stretched out horizontally across multiple seats. It's quiet enough to hear the symphonic nuances of the game with alarming clarity: The squeaky starts and stops of sneakers; the trash talk; the frustrated exchanges between teammates; and also the ferocity of a foul. One that, in this specific case, sends Henderson crashing to the floor, relaying a small echo throughout the arena.

It's early March, and the G League season is winding down. It has been a long one for Henderson, now in his second season with G League's Ignite. Everyone knows this is his last go with the Ignite before he becomes a top-three pick in the NBA draft that has enough talent to redefine the league's future for the next decade. Accordingly, there was an energy in the arena before the game, an energy that rang familiar to me, an Ohioan of a similar age to LeBron James who would sometimes arrive early to watch his high school team warm up. People had arrived at College Park early today, too, to get as close as they could to the loosely guarded baselines, hoping to catch a look at Henderson, the 6-foot-2, 196-pound guard who played high school ball at Carlton J. Kell.

To their disappointment, he didn't show his face until right before game time, and he emerged seemingly locked in, impervious to the noise. Now, an hour later, what little buzz was palpable in the arena is gone as we've hit the second half of a game that has offered little in the way of defense. After being helped up following the foul, Henderson makes both free throws, and the game drearily carries on. Both the Ignite and their opponent, the College Park Skyhawks, show the wear of the season, though the Ignite players are cloaked in it a bit more heavily. They are 9-15, and have lost their last two by double figures. Tonight is careening toward a similar result.

It's worth unraveling the how and why of Scoot Henderson, what he's even doing here, and where he's headed. He's the youngest American player in history to ever go pro, joining the Ignite at 17. He comes from a familial basketball lineage that suggested that he'd never been anyone other than who he is now. A brand-building teenager who can't imagine any world where he isn't the No. 1 pick, who isn't reading your columns and analysis that suggests otherwise. He knows he's got it, alternate realities and Victor Wembanyama be damned.

Despite the fact that the past five NBA MVPs have gone to three players 6-11 or taller, despite the fact that Wembanyama is a marvel, sending the mind wandering with flights of fascination -- the guards will always say it is a guard's game. And so yes, while Victor will go first, and will do so at a level of hype and expectation that will guarantee some form of immortality or infamy, just know that Scoot Henderson too has big plans. Plans to redefine his position, and by extension the game. Plans to redefine the path to the NBA in the first place.

He's here now, in College Park, putting those plans to the test. Because to play in the G League is to play against grown men. Some of whom have been to the league and know what it takes. Some of whom are fighting to get back, no matter the stakes. Some of whom are distinctly aware that in a game with a young, future NBA star, there are going to be scouts watching. Henderson has to get everything the hard way.

In the paint, Silva and Tyrese Martin collapse on him immediately, not letting him reach a takeoff point. He's dared to shoot beyond the 3-point line. He's double-teamed on the perimeter. Even when the game is seemingly out of reach, Henderson is still fighting, and the Skyhawks are still fighting him. He finishes with 17 points, seven assists, and five rebounds, but he's also got five turnovers, and his 17 points came on 19 shots.

None of the fans filing out of the arena know this yet, but they've just watched Scoot Henderson play in a G League Ignite uniform for the final time.

IN THE LOBBY of the team's hotel the next morning, shortly before the Ignite announce they are shutting Henderson down for the season, he looks exhausted. But as he stretches out his legs along the carpet in a conference room now, there's also a sense of relief that he is close to home.

We're less than 30 miles from Marietta, Georgia, where Henderson was born and raised. Last night, he watched his younger sister, Moochie play in her high school game before heading to the arena for his own game. When I tell him that I hear she broke his school scoring record, Henderson laughs a little, and then beams with pride. "Yeah, well. My record wasn't that many points. I wanna say it was like 1,700," he shrugs, before slowly shaking his head, the smile returning. "But she got over two bands though. 2,300."

Basketball is the planet the Henderson family revolves around. Scoot has seven siblings: Two older brothers, CJ and Jade, three older sisters, Diamond, Onyx and China, and a younger sister, Crystal (who goes by "Moochie"). His sisters Onyx and China played at Cal State Fullerton, and his sister Diamond played at Tennessee Tech and Syracuse. All of his sisters now assist him in building his brand: Onyx helps in keeping up his social media, China in styling his outfits, and Diamond acting as his "chief of staff." Meanwhile, Moochie is a top-rated point guard in her class. All of them were coached by their father, Chris.

"You know Joe Jackson, like the Jackson Five dad?" Chris Henderson asks me over the phone. When I confirm that, yes, the name rings a bell, Chris replies. "Well, I'm kinda like the Joe Jackson of basketball." And then, through a raucous laugh, he follows up, "Less severe, but yeah."

The benefit of raising a family of high-level basketball players, Chris and his wife Crystal both tell me, is that you don't have to work hard to build up their competitiveness. If enough of your kids are already doing one specific thing at a high level, the others won't want to be left behind. "Scoot was always a student of the game," Crystal says. "At two years old, he had to come with us to his older sister's games, and he would watch, and it helped his IQ a lot. When Chris started training him, he already had picked up so much of the game just from watching at a young age."

Chris weighs in. "And look, when we train, we're not just training to train. I tell all my kids, if you're not doing it to be the best, we're not going to do it. I didn't want any second-place trophies in my house. If we went to a tournament and got a second-place trophy, it wasn't coming home with us. I had to create that culture in my household. Either we are going to be the best or we're just going to be everybody else."

Despite now being one of the most highly sought-after trainers in his area, Chris didn't play high school basketball. And, according to Scoot, he only ever played casually with friends. "He's just a real student," Scoot says. "I'll wake up, go upstairs, and then I see him just watch a lot of basketball. He got a little notepad that I seen him just working in. He's a student in the game, it's real scary how locked in he is -- it be all night."

When he was going into ninth grade, Henderson's parents established a gym, Play 360, in Marietta, which became a hub for developing all of the Henderson siblings. This marked a turning point for Scoot. Before then, he had been playing both basketball and football. After the gym opened, he turned completely to basketball, spending all of his time after school and during summers in the Play 360 gym, working with his father. By his junior year, he'd reclassified to the 2021 class, and signed a two-year, $1 million contract with G League Ignite, making him the youngest player in the league's history.

His teammates are blown away by his talent. Erik Mika was a star at BYU in 2017 and had largely bounced around overseas until the Ignite recruited him to play this season. He tells a story of a play in practice that "lives rent-free in my brain," when one of his teammates went up for a layup during a two-on-one drill. As Mika tells it: "The layup was high-arching, it had to be at least twelve feet in the air. And Scoot just -- I swear, he came out of nowhere -- got all the way up and just smashed it against the backboard. And THEN, he gets the ball, comes back down to the other end for the two-on-one, takes off one foot inside the free throw line and just floats to the basket for a dunk. So, in the span of 20 seconds, I saw two of the most athletic plays I've seen in my entire life."

John Jenkins, who had stints in Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix, Washington and New York before playing with the Ignite this season, is from the same area as Scoot, and had heard the stories of him about how driven he was. He says that Henderson lived up to his rep, showing up to gym four hours before game time, rebounding his own misses, working on defensive footwork. Not coincidentally, Jenkins says: "His playmaking has taken a leap this year. He knows when to pick his spots, slow down, pick his spots, when to get someone else involved. All the things he needs in the league, he got better at."

Stretching out in the hotel lobby now, Henderson insists that the journey with Ignite has been long, but the time has simultaneously gone by very quickly. When we talk, he speaks of the time in a past tense, which, perhaps, should have been some foreshadowing. He expresses gratitude to Pooh Jeter, a player-coach of sorts, who mentored him through the two years. "I've been blessed to have these opportunities, to get extra access to places, to be in buildings that other draft prospects would love to be in. But it's still a grind, especially more off the court. We get schooled at the business of basketball. We have to learn stuff that a lot of people don't know about." He pauses for a moment, and leans back reflectively. "And sometimes it is annoying if you really think about it. But it's what you need to know going into your job for the next 10-plus years."

Turning pro as a 17-year-old is a fulfillment of a reality that many young basketball players know: Basketball is your job, often your only job. But basketball as the only job, serves Henderson well in this moment, where his laser focus is sparing him from any of the several whirlwinds of media analysis and speculation. He insists that he hasn't looked at any draft boards because there's no need. It doesn't matter what they say. He wants to go No. 1, and so the math is simple. He's working on his leadership, being more vocal when his team is in a drought. He only listens to people who are a part of NBA teams, or who have been there before. He doesn't really follow many of his peers in this draft class. He knows Brandon Miller, Anthony Black, Nick Smith. He checks in on them but doesn't get too involved.

While Henderson repeats the same refrain ("I want to go No. 1. I don't want anyone to think I'm solid at No. 2") there is the towering, ever-present threat to that goal: Victor Wembanyama, who projects unanimously to be the first pick in the draft. Henderson and Wembanyama famously faced off in October. Wembanyama stole the headlines, scoring 37 points on a series of impressive shots for someone of his 7-2 size. But the Ignite got the win, and Henderson put up 28 points on 11-21 shooting. When I bring up Wembanyama, Henderson is more ambivalent than dismissive.

"I mean, he's just like another draft prospect. Obviously, his height and unique ability to shoot the ball at that size is ... I don't know, I'm not guarding him, so I can't say too much."

When I ask Henderson what it was like to be on the court with Wembanyama, he shrugs.

"It was cool, I guess. Pretty sure it's cool to be on the court with me too, though."

OUTSIDE OF THE WINTRUST CENTER in Chicago, a man waves a large photo of Scoot Henderson in frustration, while being gently talked down and walked back onto the sidewalk. "I have been out here waiting," he says, exasperated. "I just got a few more things, just one more thing." A member of Henderson's team politely repeats: "You've already got two, he's already signed two, that's it, come on man."

When the exchange eventually dies down, the man sulks off, defeated, before looking at the two Scoot Henderson signatures already in his possession and nodding with satisfaction. The member of Scoot's team looks over at me and sighs. "We shouldn't have come outside."

It is the first day of the NBA Draft Combine and also the day of the NBA Draft Lottery, and Henderson had been largely sequestered in the gym, watching some of his Ignite teammates go through their individual measurements, vertical jump, shuttle, things of that nature. He emerged from the side door of the arena concourse briefly, onto a sparsely populated sidewalk that wouldn't remain sparsely populated for long. He stopped, first, for one autograph. And then, due to his stopping, people simply began to accumulate from places that I couldn't even locate. I'd look down for a moment, look up, and there would be three more people, Scoot at the center of the crowd, smiling and graciously thanking people for their time while signing his name and handing cards, and posters, and scraps of paper back through the mass of hands.

After leaving behind the slightly disappointed straggler, Scoot and I sit in a quiet corner of the food court where he can shrink a bit more and get to work on some leftover Chipotle. When I ask him how much of that attention he's been getting, he shakes his head, smiling. "First time I got to the airport, they was there. Last night when we got back from getting food. Dang, it's been a lot."

It has been almost exactly two months since we'd last spoken, and in the time between, Henderson briefly shut down all media access while he worked and got ready for the draft. He's lighter today than he was in March, walking with a bounce in his step, talking in longer, more circuitous routes where he'll sometimes stop himself mid-story and talk himself into or out of an aside.

"I'm just trying to continue a legacy," he says, nodding while sifting through rice with a plastic fork. "My siblings all left legacies behind their name. If you go back home to Marietta, everybody know who my sister Diamond is before they know me. I always looked up to my brother CJ. I looked up to how hard he worked. That comes out in my workouts now. Being so young, watching them grow up and watching them train...." He trails off here, stopping for a moment to drop his fork in his bowl. "It's kinda like I'm watching myself right now. So, it's fun."

Henderson says that with the help of his sisters, he's building "a whole enterprise, a whole empire." He tugs at his red button-up shirt and tells me "My sister China, she's my stylist, she put together this whole fit I got on right now." Diamond helps with his social media, growing his fanbase. He refers to his sister Onyx as his chief of staff, the person he keeps close to keep his days in check, remind him when to eat, drink, when it's time to go to bed. Brother CJ joins their father in helping Scoot train.

Any path to the top is going to come with his family beside him, he insists. He's trademarked a motto, "ODD" ("Only Determined to Dominate") which he hopes will define his arc. "I'm on an odd pathway that nobody has ever been on. And I'm prepared for the job. I think everyone should be ODD, mentally-wise. Be overly determined to dominate whatever it is in life you want to do."

There are moments, like this, where Henderson can veer into what some could read as motivational speaker-talk, but there's no real put-on; he genuinely believes in his approach to the world because he's basking in the results of them. At one point, in the midst of talking age and numbers, he gets granular: "Most guys start on this kind of path of building things at around 25. And I'm starting out at 19, which is a blessing, but also I have the right people around me."

Of course, draft boards have shifted since we last spoke too, with Brandon Miller now the odds-on favorite to go No. 2 after Wemby. But Henderson claims to not be concerned with any of that. He's in a mode where he's controlling what he can control and letting the rest wash away. He's locking in on his attention to detail, his shooting. He's working on his leadership, taking lessons that he learned from his time at Ignite with Pooh Jeter, who he refers to as his "Brother/Uncle." He insists that he has spent time practicing talking while dribbling, or talking out loud, very literally finding his leadership voice.

But the work isn't all there is. There's also the more frivolous branches of Scoot Henderson's massive tree of dreaming. The kind of things that you might expect a 19-year-old on the verge of (even further) life-changing financial gain to be eager about. Henderson, couldn't drive two years ago, for example. "I never really had to drive anywhere," he says. He got his driver's permit after his first G League season, a test which he claims he passed easily, without even having to study. He practiced driving with his mom, which he laughs about now ("She'd always be on me to slow down, you know how it be when your parents with you. It's so chaotic.") All of this, finally, resulting in him getting his driver's license, for which he's got big plans.

"My DREAM car???" he exclaims, when I casually mention that he can now drive and will soon have the ability to fill a driveway with vehicles. "My DREAM car..." he says again, as though he's just considering it for the first time, tapping his fingers on the table in small, measured beats.

"Rolls Royce Cullinan. I'mma get me one of those one day." He grins wide, staring a bit beyond me, into the empty street over my shoulder.

These are the personality points that, as a fan, you hope Scoot Henderson never loses. There's an intensity that cloaks his on-court presence and persona. He locks in, using a simple approach: People are out there working hard, and I've got to work harder than they are. No one can work harder than me. But off the court, there's a switch that flips, and he's a kid living a miracle, enjoying the sweetness of it. The first time we talked, he wanted to talk to me about the books he was reading ("The Secret," among them.) He wanted to talk about his two dogs, two young Pitbulls he takes care of. He wanted to talk about how he'd just finished the Harry Potter movies, and was diving into the Hogwarts video game. In Chicago, when I ask him if he found the time to beat the game, he nods and tells me he's on to Dead Island. We commiserate on how slow-moving the game is ("It's like a long way to get a gun just to kill the zombies," he mutters, shaking his head.)

He's also been playing 2K and joyfully wrestling with the surreal nature that he's going to be in the game himself next year. He excitedly goes on a sprint of language and arm movements, telling me about how he and his brother used to create custom teams and create players. Then, there's a switch that cuts off the slightly unbridled nature of reminiscing. "It's gonna be surreal, but....I work for it, so it isn't a surprise. I knew I was going to be in 2K because I knew I was going to work hard to be in the league."

And all of that is true. There is certainly a mindset (and a work ethic aligning with that mindset) that will serve Scoot Henderson well. But in the moments between now and whatever happens on the night of the draft, he's still propelled by a type of charming disbelief that I hope never fully washes away.

There was a brief moment, after he was hustled inside and away from the autograph seekers, when we sat down across from each other, and before I asked anything, he laughed, and put his head in both his hands for a moment, his fingers stretching up into his neatly piled hair.

"It's so crazy, bro. Life is so crazy. I would have never thought in a billion years...I knew I was going to do SOMETHING, but I....I just never thought I was going to come to be the person I am to people."

LONDON -- London seems like a no-brainer for a European road trip. Paris is all but assured next. Why not throw in Germany and the Netherlands?

Major League Baseball has big plans for Europe, starting with an English reintroduction to the sport this weekend when the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs play a two-game series in London.

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox featured in London four years ago, smashing six home runs in a European debut for MLB that was higher scoring -- the Yankees won 17-13 -- than the NFL's first one in London in 2007, when the New York Giants beat the Miami Dolphins 13-10.

Though the coronavirus pandemic threw a curveball -- the Cards-Cubs series was slated for 2020 -- the success of the World Baseball Classic has provided a boost. Britain won a game at the tournament for the first time and found a star in Seattle Mariners prospect Harry Ford, who was born in Atlanta but has parents from the U.K.

"The U.K. has really been identified for us, London in particular, as the jumping-off point for us to get into Europe," Chris Marinak, MLB's chief operations and strategy officer, told The Associated Press. "We feel like we proved that out in 2019. By coming back and having a really strong showing ... we're going to have the opportunity to really make some headway for growth both in the U.K. and throughout Europe."

Britain is MLB's biggest market in Europe in terms of broadcast revenue, merchandise sales and subscribers to digital products, though it trails the likes of Mexico, Japan, South Korea, China and Australia.

Audience research company GWI's data showed that interest in baseball among British sports fans increased from 4% in 2019 to 5.9% last year, the league said. It added that MLB Europe's social media channels since the 2019 series have more than tripled their followers to 452,000.

The New York-Boston series, a two-game set that drew nearly 119,000 fans to London Stadium, was a driver in the BBC signing a deal last fall to begin broadcasting a handful of games, including the London series, each season. MLB's lead broadcaster in the U.K., the pay-TV service BT Sport, last year renewed its agreement to broadcast 15 games per season.

"We feel like the U.K. offers us a good model for growth in the Europe market," Marinak said.

MLB's first regular-season game outside of the United States -- including Puerto Rico -- and Canada was in 1996 when the New York Mets and San Diego Padres played a three-game series in Monterrey, Mexico. The league has also staged games in Tokyo and Australia. Earlier this season, Mexico City hosted a two-game series between the Padres and San Francisco Giants.

The Yankees are lobbying to play in Paris in 2025. The league hasn't announced the City of Light just yet, but Marinak noted: "We see a lot of engagement in France."

London is locked in for a series next year and another in 2026.

The Netherlands -- bolstered by baseball's popularity in Aruba and Curacao -- and Italy boast the best national teams in Europe, though the Czech Republic is improving. Germany -- which has become the NFL's leading market in Europe -- has a big U.S. military presence and has produced several big leaguers, including Minnesota's Max Kepler.

"We've really focused on looking into Europe as once a year, maybe max twice a year ... just because it's such an effort to get over there, and it doesn't really fit into the normal cadence of the major league schedule, but we really do think it's important to bring live game content to the market," Marinak said.

"We want to hit our priority markets but we may rotate around to a Germany in the long run or if there's a facility in the Netherlands that we could potentially look at, France we've talked about, the UK," he continued. "But for the medium term we're really focused on the UK as our primary vehicle."

A suitable venue is the tricky part. Olympic-style, multi-use stadiums are possibilities, like Stade de France. Baseball was a demonstration sport at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin's Olympiastadion. Renovating the Sydney Cricket Ground for the Australia series in 2014 "was sort of a complicated endeavor," Marinak said.

The NFL, NBA and NHL have been staging games in Europe for years, leaving MLB playing catch up. Thirty years ago, MLB scheduled exhibitions between Mets and Red Sox minor leaguers at the Oval, but rain at the London cricket venue washed out the first two days. Technically, baseball's connection with Britain goes way back, starting with exhibitions between the Boston Red Stockings and Philadelphia Athletics in 1874.

In a more modern development, MLB is giving individual teams certain marketing rights abroad, like the NFL does.

"They have the opportunity to pick a few markets and do sponsorships," Marinak said. "We think that's an opportunity to grow, where teams can activate in local markets and really pick places where they can bring their brand to bear and then also bring those relationships with some of those international partners back to the United States."

Having a star player from abroad is vital, said sports economist Victor Matheson, a professor at the College of the Holy Cross. Pro leagues "tend to generate a reasonable amount of revenue in those players' home countries." Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels is the shining example.

"That being said, with so few MLB players hailing from the UK or the rest of the EU, it's my impression that MLB has made almost no inroads into Europe," Matheson said.

MLB hopes Britain's relative success in the WBC planted a seed. The 20-year-old Ford, whose parents are British, was Seattle's top pick in the 2021 draft and hit a home run in Britain's 7-5 win over Colombia - which qualified the team for the next WBC.

"You need that type of star to create the engagement and the interest in the local market," Marinak said.

For now, the focus is on the weekend games at London Stadium.

"We're optimistic that this is the next step in a long journey of linking Major League Baseball to the U.K. and the rest of Europe."

Five-time champion Venus Williams is among the players to receive a wildcard for next month's Wimbledon, with a host of British players also on the list.

Ukraine's Elina Svitolina joins them, fresh from a run to the French Open quarter-finals in her first Grand Slam since giving birth to her daughter.

Liam Broady is one of five Britons given men's singles wildcards.

Wildcards are awarded to players whose ranking is not high enough for them to qualify automatically and are usually offered on the basis of past performance at the tournament or to increase home interest.

Last year, Williams, 43, - who won the most recent of her singles title here in 2008 - delighted fans by teaming up with Briton Jamie Murray in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon.

However, it remains to be seen if there will be a similar move this year as mixed doubles entries are announced nearer to the tournament.

An excellent British week at the grass-court event in Nottingham last week is rewarded by wildcards for Boulter, who won her maiden WTA title there, runner-up Jodie Burrage, semi-finalist Heather Watson, quarter-finalist Harriet Dart and Katie Swan.

Watson had her best run at a Grand Slam at last year's Wimbledon, reaching the fourth round, but she has described how she felt "hard done by" because of the effect of not getting ranking points at Wimbledon last year has had on her.

Usually the points for getting that far in a major would have propelled her up the rankings, helping her gain direct entry to the bigger tournaments, including Grand Slams, but instead she is currently ranked 194th in the world.

The women's WTA and men's ATP governing bodies did not award points last year at the All England Club in response to Wimbledon's decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players because of the invasion of Ukraine.

As well as Broady, the British men's singles wildcards are Ryan Peniston, Jan Choinski, George Loffhagen and Arthur Fery.

Britain's Gordon Reid, Lucy Shuker and Gregory Slade have been given wildcards into the wheelchair events.