dependant clause, cause we don't know who "who" is and the first sentance tells us this. If the sentence was on it's own without the context, we'd have no idea who "who" is.
The narrator of “The Deciding Pitch” is neutral about who wins the game, but the narrator of “The View from the Bleachers” isn’t.
The correct puntuation is shown in this sentence: “It looks like they will be champions again”, the reporter said. When you have to use direct speech in a sentence, remember to put the comma before the final quotation mark, like it is shown in example. Keep in mind, that it is a rule used for the cases when direct speech is put at he beginning of a sentence.