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Hanser Alberto makes an impression as the Chicago White Sox try to identify the right bench mix: ‘Culture’s important’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:47 GMT

Hanser Alberto tripled to right to begin the second inning of a March 2 Cactus League game against the Colorado Rockies.He led off the fourth with a single to center. Alberto’s third at-bat in the sixth resulted in a double.He was lifted for a pinch runner after that, so he didn’t have a shot at completing the cycle. But he continued hitting the next day with a single to center in his first at-bat against the Cincinnati Reds.Alberto, a 30-year-old infielder and non-roster invitee to Chicago White Sox camp, has put together an impressive spring, hitting .471 (8-for-17) through Tuesday.“I feel great up there,” Alberto said Sunday. “I’ve been doing a lot of work and it’s showing out there. I’m happy about it. I hope to continue to do the hard work and the results out there.“I’m going out there with a good plan and just trying to be ready to hit and put the best swing I can, and I think I’m doing it right now.”The v...

Daniel Jones was in the building to sign off on last-minute Giants contract

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:47 GMT

Daniel Jones was in the Giants’ facility on Tuesday, and might have actually been in the room, when the two sides hammered out their 11th hour contract extension.GM Joe Schoen and Jones said Wednesday on Zoom that they got a deal done at either 3:53 or 3:54 p.m., just minutes before the 4 p.m. franchise tag deadline. They both described a tense final hour when neither side was sure they would find a compromise.“It got a little dicey yesterday,” Schoen said. “As it was getting closer to 3:30, 3:40, there was a part of me [that felt], like, we may not get to the finish line. And in the last four or five minutes we tied a bow on it, luckily.”Jones admitted he had some doubt at times, too, including a Monday night session that got testy.“I think there were probably some points where you had more confidence and some points in time where you had less confidence,” the quarterback said, wearing a sweatshirt at the team facility one day after securin...

Possible Mets 26-man Opening Day roster

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:47 GMT

Spring training has been fairly uneventful for the Mets so far, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You could say the roster is starting to take shape, but that probably wouldn’t be accurate since the Major League was mostly in place before camp even opened up.The only position battle is in the bullpen. There are two spots open in the bullpen, which doesn’t exactly make for the most intriguing competition. The Mets have been relatively healthy so far with the exception being left-hander Jose Quintana, and there are plenty of replacements for his rotation spot already.The prospects have been the talk of the town this spring. Third baseman Brett Baty, third baseman/first baseman Mark Vientos, shortstop Ronny Mauricio and catcher Francisco Alvarez have all handled themselves well over the last month, with the first three showing off their hit tools and Alvarez showing improvements behind the plate.But any excitement surrounding those four should be curtailed for n...

Magic need to cut down on fouling to have better defensive performances

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:47 GMT

The Orlando Magic’s defense has gone through a slump over the last week, and there are multiple reasons to explain why.The absences of starting guard Gary Harris and big man Wendell Carter Jr., two of the team’s better defenders, in the last two games have hurt.“It’s always difficult losing two starters,” guard Cole Anthony said. “Those are two dudes who help our defense greatly. I’m not saying that we still can’t be a good or great defensive team but it’s an adjustment period when you just lose two dudes who are both really good defenders, start [or] play a lot of heavy minutes, and help our team out on the defensive end.”But even with those absences, the Magic are hurting themselves by committing too many fouls.Tuesday’s 134-123 home loss to the Milwaukee Bucks — who were without two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and All-star guard Jrue Holiday — was another example of the Magic fouling too much.“...

Massachusetts SJC defends free speech in public comments, even of calling public figures ‘Hitler’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:47 GMT

The state’s highest court looked to the intentions, practices and philosophies of Founding Fathers Samuel Adams and John Adams to declare that, yes, you have the right to call public officials Hitler.“The people have a right, in an orderly and peaceable manner, to assemble … to request of the legislative body, by the way of addresses, petitions, or remonstrances, redress of the wrongs done them, and of the grievances they suffer,” reads Article 19 of the state’s Declaration of Rights, one of the prime documents in informing the SJC’s ruling that reversed a lower court’s decision and found that public bodies can’t bar the public from criticizing them.The article was written by none other than John Adams, the second president of the United States and the namesake of the courthouse on Pemberton Square where the state Supreme Judicial Court issued its ruling Tuesday that also found this provision, informed by John Adams’ fiery cousin Samuel Adams, “expressly envisions a poli...

Celtics’ Grant Williams speaks after missing potential game-winning foul shots at Cleveland

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:47 GMT

In the wake of his missed last-second free throws at Cleveland, which would have clinched a critical Celtics win Monday night, Grant Williams draws on the death threats.The death threats Williams said he received amid a serious slump in the 2020-21 season, the worst of his play bringing out the worst in fans. He remembers how he felt and then rebounded following a simple game plan.It’s the plan Williams is executing now, after declaring he would make both foul shots against the Cavs before they fell away in an eventual overtime loss that sparked an avalanche of criticism.“I’ve learned playing this sport long enough now that you can’t ever give people the satisfaction in a way,” Williams said before Wednesday’s game against Portland. “There’s always going to be somebody saying something about you. My second year, I was getting death threats. … You’ve gotta tune it out.”Williams did not meet with reporters after Monday&...

North End restaurants file amended lawsuit over outdoor dining regulations

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:47 GMT

Some North End restaurateurs are claiming Mayor Michelle Wu made them pay thousands to provide outdoor dining last year because of her bias against “white, Italian men.”The allegation is included in an amended version of a lawsuit the owners filed last year when they said the fees from the mayor — $7,500 to entertain guests outdoors and $480 for parking – created “unfair” competition with the city’s other neighborhoods.The North End was the only neighborhood that faced fees last year. Wu and other city officials cited burdens to the residents’ quality of life — increased noise, trash, traffic and a loss of parking — behind the decision.“The Plaintiffs had a right to be treated the same as other restaurants in the city who were granted outdoor dining and not be singled out to pay fees that other restaurants were not forced to pay in order to have outdoor dining because of their sex or national origin/ethnicity as appears in this case,” reads the am...

Video shows Utah traffic stop ending in barrage of gunfire

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:47 GMT

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Body camera footage released Wednesday by a suburban police department in Utah shows five officers repeatedly firing into all sides of a car in a fatal shooting after yelling “Gun!” several times. The deceased’s family called the incident “brutal murder” in the lead-up to the release of the footage.The March 1 shooting came after Chase Allan, 25, refused to give officers his driver’s license or comply with most of their commands. He instead responded with a litany of antigovernment views calling into question their authority to pull him over. He was initially stopped by an officer for having what police later called an “illegitimate license plate.”Farmington Police Chief Eric Johnsen told reporters during a news conference Wednesday that officers opened fire after Allan reached for a gun. The footage is unclear about what happens seconds before the shooting because the body cameras’ view of Allan’s hip holster is obstructed by the car do...

Fifth American told police friends feared missing in Mexico

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:47 GMT

LAKE CITY, S.C. (AP) — The frantic effort to rescue four Americans taken captive in Mexico in a kidnapping that left two of them dead came after a fifth person traveling with the group contacted police when they did not return to the U.S. side as expected.Cheryl Orange, who did not cross into Mexico with the others, told The Associated Press in a text message that her three friends were supposed to return within 15 minutes after dropping off their companion, Latavia McGee, for cosmetic surgery in the Mexican border city of Matamoros on Friday.Orange stayed behind at a motel in Brownsville, Texas, and said she grew concerned as the hours passed and she did not hear from the others. The five friends had driven a rented minivan from South Carolina on Thursday to the southern tip of Texas, according to a police report based on Orange’s account. Four of them left Friday morning around 8 a.m. to go to Mexico.Orange’s statements and the report offers the most detailed account s...

Ex-Navajo President Zah, guided by love for people, dies

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:47 GMT

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Peterson Zah, a monumental Navajo Nation leader who guided the tribe through a politically tumultuous era and worked tirelessly to correct wrongdoings against Native Americans, has died. Zah died late Tuesday at a hospital in Fort Defiance, Arizona, after a lengthy illness, Navajo President Buu Nygren’s office said. He was 85. Zah was the first president elected on the Navajo Nation — the largest tribal reservation in the U.S. — in 1990 after the government was restructured into three branches to prevent power from being concentrated in the chairman’s office. At the time, the tribe was reeling from a deadly riot incited by Zah’s political rival, former Chairman Peter MacDonald, a year earlier.Zah vowed to rebuild the tribe, and to support family and education, speaking with people in ways that imparted mutual respect, said his longtime friend Eric Eberhard. Zah was as comfortable putting on dress clothes to represent Navajos in Washington, D...