ORLANDO, Fla. -- The WNBA continues to be the standard-bearer when it comes to hiring women and minorities in top-level positions.The league earned a combined A-plus for its race and gender hiring practices in the report card by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (TIDES) that was released on Wednesday. For the year, the league received A-plus for race and an A for gender with an accumulative 95.5 points, which is just a percentage point below its record of 96.5 set in 2014.Its the 12th straight year in the 20-year existence of the WNBA that the league has posted at least an A for its combined grade on the report issued by the University of Central Floridas TIDES.Dr. Richard Lapchick, the primary author of the report, said the impressive marks go well beyond the fact that its a league for women so diversity might be perceived as a given.I think of college sport where more than 60 percent of the womens college teams are coached by men and more 50 percent of the assistant coaches are men, he said. So it doesnt necessarily matter that its a womens sport.I think they have taken the leadership seriously, have paid attention to diversity right from the start.TIDES also issues annual race and gender report cards for the NBA, NFL, MLB, MLS and college sports. The NBA received a combined A on its most recent report card when it comes to racial and gender hiring practices, while the NFL, MLS, MLB and college sports all received combined grades of B during the last year.But the WNBA continues to be the gold standard among sports leagues because of its large numbers of minorities and women in key leadership positions. It starts at the top where Lisa Borders became the WNBA president in February, making her the second consecutive African-American woman to hold the position after replacing Laurel J. Richie.Its critically important, Lapchick said of Borders appointment. I think the WNBA has made that example possible for the other sports entities to consider a woman of color to lead their operations.There are 14 women and seven people of color who have held ownership positions with WNBA franchise in 2016. Also this season there were three African-American head coaches, which was the same as 2015, and the number of women head coaches decreased by one this season to five.The recently crowned WNBA champion Los Angeles Sparks have been the shining example of the WNBAs exemplary status in race and gender hiring practices with Magic Johnson as the team owner along with team Christine Simmons and general manager Penny Toler, who are both women of color.I think it was interesting this year that the Sparks won with probably the most diverse front office in the league, Lapchick said.But while most of the numbers were positive for the WNBA, there still seems to be rm for improvement. The report card gave the league a D-plus for gender in senior administration after a drastic decrease from 34.4 percent in 2015 to 24.4 percent in 2016. The percentage in this area has been dropping every year since 2016, according to Lapchicks report.This is true across all of the other report cards at the team level in team leadership positions, Lapchick said. There is definite rm for improvement. Aside from that the WNBA is ahead of everybody else in virtually all categories and has been for years.Air Jordan 1 Nz . Belfort (24-10) needed just 77 seconds to down Henderson in the headlining bout of Saturdays "UFC Fight Night: Belfort vs. Henderson" event at Goiania Arena in Goiania, Brazil. The fight served as a rematch of the pairs 2006 meeting, which Henderson won by decision. Air Jordan 1 For Sale Nz .Y. -- Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo had little trouble picking up his first shutout of the season against a Buffalo Sabres team thats having trouble scoring goals. http://www.wholesaleairjordan1nz.com/ . Note: The Calgary Flames announced Tuesday that Sean Monahan would not be made available to Canadas World Junior team. Air Jordan 1s Nz . -- Three close lks at the bucket, three misses. Wholesale Air Jordan 1 . "I dont know that were close," said general manager Alex Anthopoulos. "I just think, right now, the acquisition cost just doesnt work for us right now. I dont know if I can quantify how far off or things like that that they might be but I would say we continue to have dialogue.ATLANTA -- The Detroit Tigers needed a lot of things to go right on the final day of the regular season.Nothing did.So its wait `til next year for the Tigers, who were eliminated from the wild card Sunday with a 1-0 loss to the Atlanta Braves in the final game at Turner Field.Julio Teheran matched a career high with 12 strikeouts, and Freddie Freeman drove in the lone run with a first-inning sacrifice fly off Justin Verlander. Detroit missed the playoffs for the second year in a row after four straight postseason appearances that included a trip to the World Series in 2012.When you start spring training, your goal is to get to the postseason, said Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, whose team won 12 more games than a year ago. We didnt, so were very disappointed.Detroit needed to win, hope that either Baltimore or Toronto lost, and then win a makeup game against Cleveland on Monday in order to force a tiebreaker for an AL wild card.I would not have enjoyed the travel, Ausmus said, but I would have relished traveling.Detroit lost its second straight against the last-place Braves. With a runner aboard in the ninth, Justin Upton was called out on strikes to end the game.It didnt matter, anyway, as both the Orioles and the Blue Jays won.We were dead in the water in a lot of peoples minds, Ausmus said. The guys played hard and continued to play hard all the way through the last game.Atlanta was never a playoff contender but is feeling a lot better about its prospects heading to SunTrust Park. After an 18-46 start that included the firing of manager Fredi Gonzalez, the Braves went 50-47 the rest of the way under interim manager Brian Snitker, who might have done enough to keep the job in 2017.We feel really gd walking out of here, Snitker said. I dont know how we could end the season any better to build momentum for next year.Clearly inspired by the Turner Field finale, Teheran (7-10) went seven innings, giving up three hits and a walk before a sellout crowd of 51,220 that included former President Jimmy Carter and Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, who threw out ceremonial first pitches in unison.When Teheran tk the mound, he did a pretty gd impression of those three in their prime.The emotions I was feeling on the mound were unbelievable, Teheran said. Everybody was excited. Im glad that I had my stuff. It couldnt be any better than that.Verlander (16-9) allowed six hitts in seven innings, walked one intentionally and struck out eight.dddddddddddd Most days, it would have been gd enough to win. But one run was all the Braves needed.Ender Inciarte led off the Atlanta first with a single to left center, and raced around to third when Adonis Garcia followed with another hit. Freeman brought home the run by flying out to center.I was just a little out of sync there to start the game, Verlander said. I settled down from there but t little, t late at that point. Who would have known that?Atlanta had a chance to pad its lead in the sixth. Garcia started things with a single, stole second and made it to third on an errant throw by catcher James McCann.Verlander buckled down, getting Freeman on an infield pop and striking out Matt Kemp. After Nick Markakis was intentionally walked, Verlander fanned Tyler Flowers to end the inning.The Tigers only real threat off Teheran came in the second, when J.D. Martinez singled and Nick Castellanos walked with one out. McCann struck out and Jose Iglesias popped out to the shortstop.Jim Johnson, who agreed to a two-year contract extension before the game, worked around a hit in the ninth for his 20th save in 23 chances.Then it was on to a postgame ceremony that included the removal of home plate, which was taken by Hank Aaron and team chairman Terry McGuirk on a police-escorted ride to SunTrust Park.Thats the way we all wanted to finish and close this bk, Teheran said. Im proud of myself and the job that I did.BIG CROWDThe third sellout of the season at Turner Field pushed the season attendance to 2,020,914, ensuring the Braves drew at least 2 million fans in each of their 20 seasons at the ballpark.Still, it was their second-lowest season attendance at the Ted (the team drew 2,001,392 a year ago) and a far cry from the first season in 1997, when Atlanta attracted 3,464,488 for an NL East-winning team.TRAINING RMDetroit OF Ty Collins tripped on a sprinkler head during batting practice Saturday, leaving him with a sprained ankle. He didnt play in the season finale.UP NEXTThe Tigers open the 2017 season at the Chicago White Sox on April 3.The Braves also begin next season April 3, facing the Mets in New York. The first game at SunTrust Park is set for April 14 against the San Diego Padres. ' ' '