The majority of online and brick and mortar stores that sell camera usually have sales that match the holidays, Thanksgiving (Pre, Before After) Black Friday, Presidents Day etc. Most sellers have adopted the furniture and mattress sell method of selling each week has another theme to have a sale.

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You are welcome, either a lens shade or changing your position to take the shot should remedy the problem

Jerry, so true, and if you notice if the cables are in a drawer, you have to pick them up and inspect each cable to make sure ya got the right cable, and of course the majority of them are black as pitch, Apple cables being the exception. I have taken to using a label maker to label cables that work with certain devices, of course, the next battle is exactly I put the cable after I labeled it.

So true, so many times mothers of players do not understand, the rules of baseball. Some associations and fields have move the stands to the outfield. If you do find that baseball mom and baseball grand mom that thinks a bad call took place, they won't stop. I shooting a recreational baseball game, and the umpire went to the coaches, and told them he or the crew would not tolerate any more comment that were being spewed from a lady behind the backstop, he would not start play until she was removed. The mother was moved to an area down the baselines <only a temporary measure, a few plays later, the umpire behind the plate, stopped play again the lady had made her way back behind the backstop, between every play she was shouting comment that could only be intended. The umpire stopped play again and told the lady she had to be removed from the field before play could start again. When her husband, the coach and other teams parents told her she had to move, she became more unruly, "I paid must as much as everyone else to watch the game, I am not leaving", "Its a free country you can't stop me from having my say etc." The player had to be embarrassed. In this instance where four or five teams play each other over a season, it not like this mother was a stranger . Once play has started the umpires totally control what takes place during a baseball games.

If you look at end zones in most NFL games, and college games I see a large percentage of photographers with lens shades, certainly the longer fixed lens 300 2.8, 400 2.8, especially. As close to the action as the majority of those shooters are and the threat of being a victim of a photo accident the lens shades provide an extra ounce of protection against damaging those expensive lenses. At times is may not be protection from an player scoring a touchdown, but other photographers. The exception I find is that in some shots that are taken of some of the post game interviews, I do not notice the wider angle lens with lens shade on them.

My guess is lens flare also, put a lens shade on your lens

Here is an edit of one of the shots, has been cropped, it's not a look what I did, it is an example of what can be done. The majority of the shots could be improved with higher ISO's and faster Shutter Speeds

Your camera should be able to capture good sports images. The majority of sports photos are shot using a spot focus you want to get a shot focused on the players or players and have the background that is not as sharply focused. In order to eliminate the blur you are experiencing you must select a shutter speed of no less than 1/500, if you intend to capture a ball being released or caught by a player, you may have to use 1/1000. If you should get noise in your shots, you can eliminate a great deal of the noise.
Here is a link to a Canon page that might help you de mistify some of the settings you might need to use to shoot good sports photography
http://downloads.canon.com/camera/brochures/EOS_7D_Mark_II_AF_guide_CUSA_9-2014.pdf. (the setting include case settings)
You biggest handicap is of course the lighting in most school gyms is usually dimly or poorly lighted, in your case the color balance far from being natural. The point where you are shooting has a great deal of effect on the good shots you are able to capture. Having said that you take what is given you to you, if you can only shoot from the stands or bleachers, you can still get good shots. The lower you get on the bleachers, the closer you get to the players and action. You lens might be a drawback at this point, the majority of sports are shot with a 70-200 mm 2.8 lens, many also say that you may to shoot one stop under wide open or 2.8.

I included a remote in my original purchase, before I realized the feature was available in the Playmemories App, it was a pleasant surprise,

If you enjoy seeing one offer, and then ordering that camera and being told it is not in stock, if you think you enjoy being charged for the "battery package" < hint most legitimate sellers of course include a battery with the camera. If you enjoy possibly being told that low, low price is only offered if you purchase the "camera protection or extended warranty option. If you enjoy getting your card billed even though the item is not in stock as soon as you place your order vs having your card charged when the item is in stock and shipping, if you love having a vendor squander you camera budget dollars, go ahead right click. If you do not love misery then order from the time honored sites, Adorama, B&H, Amazon.

Thanks, awesome present, thanks for the sharing that excellent shot

Of course the color version gets my vote

That is a sure enough keeper, glad you uploaded it before it defrosted, thanks for posting

Regardless of what brand you might use, you are flirting with disaster if you store your camera, flash with any version of battery in the device for extended period of time, whether it be Carbon Zinc, Alkaline at some point in time you might suffer the agony of battery leak.