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Pedro Grifol assesses his 1st season after passing the 60-game mark as Chicago White Sox manager: ‘I’m enjoying the climb’

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

All of Pedro Grifol’s previous roles in baseball — from scouting to serving as a bench coach — have come in handy during his first season as a big-league manager with the Chicago White Sox.“Every single job,” Grifol said in the visiting manager’s room at Yankee Stadium before Tuesday’s game against the New York Yankees. “All the way from my area scouting, when you have to learn how to evaluate, to advance scouting to international, every single job I’ve had has served a (purpose).”He recalled a conversation he had Monday with bench coach Charlie Montoyo about winter ball.“I managed four years of winter ball — it’s a tough environment to manage in,” Grifol said. “I was managing guys who were older than me and that taught me a ton. Just the day-to-day stuff that you had to take care of and worry about. Every job has been really important for this.”Just more than 60 games into his big-league...

Clint Frazier fitting in well with White Sox after ‘rollercoaster’ Yankees tenure

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

As Clint Frazier stood by his locker in Yankee Stadium’s visiting clubhouse, he couldn’t help but flash a smile on a face featuring a bushy red beard and a nose ring.The former Yankee, now a member of the White Sox, returned to the Bronx for the first time on Tuesday. While Frazier didn’t start for Chicago, he took questions from New York reporters and rehashed his tumultuous Yankees tenure before the game.“Rollercoaster,” the outfielder said when asked to sum up his time with the Yankees, which ranged from 2016-2021. “A lot of good times, a lot of hard times. But ultimately, more good than bad.”Frazier, 28, spent the first five years of his career with the Yankees after they acquired him from Cleveland in the Andrew Miller trade. The Yankees designated Frazier for assignment in November 2021 after he hit .239/.327/.434 with 29 home runs and 97 RBI over 228 games from 2017-2021.A former top prospect, Frazier showed plenty of potential with t...

Christie goes after Trump in presidential campaign launch, calling him a ‘self-serving mirror hog’

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

By JILL COLVIN and HOLLY RAMER (Associated Press)MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wasted no time going after Donald Trump while launching his presidential campaign on Tuesday, calling the former president and current Republican primary front-runner a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog” and arguing that he’s the only one who can stop him. A onetime federal prosecutor, Christie was among the crowded field of 2016 Republican presidential candidates steamrolled by Trump. Now that Trump is running for the White House a third time, this year’s crop of rivals have no choice but to criticize him relentlessly, or risk political history repeating itself, Christie says. Kicking off his campaign with a town hall at Saint Anselm College, Christie suggested that other top Republicans have been afraid to challenge Trump or even mention his name much while campaigning — but made it clear he had no such qualms. “A lo...

Needham dominates Natick to advance in boys lacrosse tournament

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

NEEDHAM — In a boys lacrosse first-round matchup between Bay State Conference foes, No. 13 Needham defeated No. 20 Natick 16-6 to advance in the Division 1 tournament.The battle was a rematch from May that saw Needham win 7-6, but early in this contest it was clear that the Rockets were the superior team. Needham coach Dave Wainwright attributed this to better discipline and excitement for the playoffs.“Penalties, and the fact that we had less of them, was big for us,” Wainwright said. “Also the fact that we had seen them before and they had some injuries contributed to how this game went. Also, it’s a tournament game. Everyone rises to the occasion.”The Rockets only won a singular faceoff in the matchup, but Wainwright said the team can handle struggling in that part of the game.“We’ve been losing faceoffs all season long,” Wainwright said. “This is not a secret; this is who we are. We have adapted and overcome this deficiency this year.”The Rockets took off from the jump, scoring ...

Mets Notebook: Buck Showalter made sure to DFA Tomas Nido ‘as humanely as possible’

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

ATLANTA — The Mets made a tough decision to cut catcher Tomas Nido on Monday, and they wanted to make sure that they did it right.With the team departing New York for Atlanta following a series against Toronto Blue Jays, they had to act swiftly to avoid bringing a player to a city only to give him the hard news and send him home. So they contacted the traveling secretary to make sure his wife and kids weren’t on the way or even worse, already in Georgia. They had his equipment taken off the plane.Buck Showalter had a tough conversation with a well-respected, homegrown catcher before the team departed. The following day, the club reinstated catcher Omar Narvaez from the 60-day injured list and designated Nido for assignment, making the decision to move forward this season with a catching tandem of Narvaez and rookie Francisco Alvarez.“I’ve known him for almost two seasons and he’s been in the organization for a long time,” Showalter said Tuesday at...

More than a dozen people injured, 7 with gunshot wounds, in shooting at theater near Virginia Commonwealth University

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

RICHMOND — Seven people were shot, and three of them were left with life-threatening wounds, when gunfire rang out Tuesday outside a downtown theater where a high school graduation ceremony had recently concluded, causing attendees to flee in panic, weep and clutch their children, authorities and witnesses reported.Two suspects were arrested after the shooting near Virginia Commonwealth University, Interim Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards said at a news conference. At least 12 others were injured or treated for anxiety due to the mayhem.Officers inside the theater heard gunfire around 5:15 p.m. and radioed to police stationed outside, who found multiple victims, Edwards said.Police did not believe there was any ongoing threat to the community. The identities of those in custody and those injured were not immediately released.“We’re going to do everything we can to bring the individuals who were involved in this to justice. … This should not be happening anywhere,” Richmond M...

Drug treatment, wildfire response and new jobs: Oregon Democrats cite bills at risk amid GOP walkout

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Democratic lawmakers stood on the steps of the state Capitol Tuesday and implored Republicans, who have been boycotting the Senate, to return and vote on a number of bipartisan bills that are at risk of dying because of a political standoff that has now lasted a month.Several statehouses around the nation, including Montana and Tennessee, have been ideological battlegrounds this year. Republicans in the Oregon statehouse conducted walkouts in 2019, 2020 and 2021 to deny enough members for voting on measures. But this one is the most serious yet, threatening hundreds of bills and the approval of state budgets for the next two years.Democrats who held a news conference Tuesday cited a range of bills about urgent issues facing Oregon, including ones aimed at reducing drug overdoses, mitigating wildfire risks and shoring up seismically vulnerable dams, that are in limbo because of the ideological rift. Yet neither side is budging on a bill on protections for ab...

House conservatives block GOP bills, voice frustration in response to last week’s debt ceiling vote

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — House conservatives staged a mini-revolt Tuesday in retaliation for Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership on last week’s vote to raise the debt ceiling, the right wing banding together to block progress on a mixture of bills and vent their frustration.Led by outspoken members of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of 11 Republicans broke with their party on an otherwise routine procedural vote that threw the day’s schedule — and the rest of the week — into disarray. It’s the first such procedural rule vote to fail in nearly two decades.The group is among some of the same conservative Republicans who tried to stop the debt ceiling bill from advancing last week and who then threatened to try to oust McCarthy after passage of the debt ceiling package that President Joe Biden signed into law. Short of taking that step, they have demanded a meeting with McCarthy, leaving it unclear how the standoff will be resolved. “We’re frustrated with the way this place is operating,” s...

8 young workers at drug cartel call center killed, bodies placed in bags

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — As many as eight young workers were confirmed dead Tuesday in Mexico after they apparently tried to quit jobs at a call center operated by a violent drug cartel that targeted Americans in a real estate scam.U.S. and Mexican officials confirmed the brutal story that unfolded late last month when relatives of the youths reported them missing after they did not return from work in an office near the western city of Guadalajara. Suspicions rose last week when heaps of hacked-up body parts were found in plastic bags. Forensic examiners in the western state of Jalisco said in a statement Monday that tests had confirmed the bodies belonged to the missing call center workers.A total of six men and two women were reported missing between May 20 and May 22, but the forensic examiners did not mention the number of confirmed identities. There had been doubts about whether one of the youths was among the bodies found.While the families believed their children worked at a norma...

Mexico’s foreign minister plans to step down to pursue presidential bid

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 11:18:36 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Tuesday he will resign his position next week to dedicate himself to seeking the nomination of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s party to be its presidential candidate in next year’s election.Ebrard is among three leading aspirants for the nomination of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s ruling Morena party.For months, Ebrard has been juggling his foreign policy duties and pre-campaign activities. He said he will resign Monday, June 12.The other leading contenders for the party’s nomination are Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and Interior Minister Adán Augusto López.Whomever Morena chooses as its candidate is expected to be the frontrunner in next year’s presidential election.The Associated Press