ESPN

A profile of a Mexican American soccer prodigy.

“From our first conversation, we connected about what it was like to suddenly no longer be yourself, and the constant self-doubt that came with it. If we can’t do the things we used to do, then who are we?”

“Caldwell is on his back, arms spread wide, out cold on the mound. The lightning strike had hit him directly.”

In October 2020, 41 years after his mother’s disappearance, Paul Wulff received an unexpected phone call.

“Manuel sees sports as the latest front in a culture war that fought — and lost — previous battles over same-sex marriage and trans bathroom bills.”

“She weaponized her hearing loss on and off the court, defied its desire to define her.”

In 2018, a car careened onto a baseball field in Sanford, Maine, killing one spectator. Fifty years before, in upstate New York, a car had hit and killed a little girl. The two incidents were part of the same remarkable story.

Why did one of the greatest basketball players in the world leave the game in her prime? The answer sits in a Missouri courtroom.

Missing Serie A, pasta, and friendship.

A child presented them with a choice. They talked about it. They made a decision. They followed through. It was, by almost any measure, a fairly ordinary act of parenting. Except for this: Josh is not their son.