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Can Craig Breslow bring back winning Red Sox culture?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:26 GMT

Pedro Martinez hurled a verbal fastball last October.“They’re not going to have the essence of the franchise that we left, the culture that we left is going to be lost. And we don’t know when we’re going to get it back and how we’re going to get it back,” Martinez warned reporters.“We need to bring back the culture,” the Hall of Famer reiterated at the end of September.In hiring Craig Breslow, the Red Sox signal an attempt to restore that kind of culture, which made Boston the winningest baseball club this century.How fitting that they made the official announcement on Wednesday, Martinez’s birthday.By giving Breslow the keys to the kingdom, the Red Sox are repeating history and hoping to repeat history.For the second hiring cycle in a row, they’ve eschewed leadership experience in favor of upside. Like Chaim Bloom, Breslow will be a first-timer in the driver’s seat; his most recent, highest-ranking position with the Chicago Cubs was assistant general manager and vice president of p...

Ravens linebacker Roquan Smith absent from Wednesday’s practice with shoulder injury

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:26 GMT

Pro Bowl linebacker Roquan Smith was absent from practice Wednesday with a shoulder injury as the Ravens began preparations to play the Arizona Cardinals.Coach John Harbaugh declined to comment on Smith’s status, deferring to the injury report. “No, he just wasn’t out there,” he said after practice.Smith leads the Ravens with 71 tackles and has emerged as the vocal leader of a defense that has allowed the fewest points and second fewest yards in the league.Safety Marcus Williams (hamstring) and running back Keaton Mitchell (hamstring) were the only other Ravens who did not practice Wednesday. Cornerback Kevon Seymour (ankle) was limited, while wide receiver Tylan Wallace (hamstring) was a full participant after being designated to return from injured reserve.Outside linebacker Tyus Bowser, who remains on the non-football injury list with what Harbaugh described in August as an agitated knee, declined to speak with several reporters who approached to ask about...

Celtics’ Al Horford earns more praise for coming off bench in season opener vs. Knicks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:26 GMT

NEW YORK — For the first time in his Celtics career, Al Horford came off the bench for Wednesday’s season opener against the Knicks.Horford, entering his sixth total season as a member of the C’s, had started all 429 games he played in Boston – 340 regular season, 89 postseason – before Wednesday. But with how loaded the Celtics’ roster is, and the way Joe Mazzulla wants to play, Horford accepted a seat on the bench as the ball tipped at Madison Square Garden.It’s the first noteworthy example of sacrifice the Celtics are emphasizing this season as they chase a championship. Horford, who preferred to start in previous seasons, swallowed his ego. It didn’t go unnoticed.“That’s the ultimate sacrifice,” Jayson Tatum said. “Everybody knows how much I love and respect Al. A lot of guys say that they’ll do anything to help the team win, but Al is the epitome of that. We got six starters essentially, and everybody’s gonna to sacrifice at some point throughout the season, d...

MIAA Board of Directors: Division 1A tournament may be revisited down the line

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:26 GMT

The Division 1A tournament may be gone, but it is clearly not forgotten.At Wednesday’s MIAA Board of Directors meeting, the topic came up once again. While nothing can be done until July 1, 2025 at the earliest, MIAA associate executive director Sherry Bryant acknowledged that there is still an appetite for it, citing the efforts of two sports (boys hockey and baseball) to restore it.“We’re collecting data right now to see if there is a pattern of dominance between the schools which would require a more balanced divisional structure,” Bryant said. “If there were a 1A tournament (in the future), it would have to meet all the requirements of the other tournaments: single elimination, site policies, similar facilities and assignment of officials.”With the fall season winding down, MIAA assistant director Jim Clark, the man primarily responsible for collecting scores and creating the current power ranking system, said the process by which scores are being inputted into Arbit...

Medway family still looking for way out of Gaza after unsuccessful crossing attempts

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:26 GMT

A Medway family remains stuck in Gaza Wednesday as airstrikes continue to hit buildings near where they are staying and a bloody war between Hamas and Israel rages on nearly two weeks after a horrific terrorist attack.An attorney for the family, Sammy Nabulsi of Rose Law Partners, said attempts to cross the Gaza-Egypt border over the weekend were unsuccessful even after the U.S. State Department told Abood Okal and Wafaa Abuzayda a crossing would open for United States citizens at 10 a.m. local time Saturday.Okal said he is “stranded” in Gaza with his wife and one-year-old son, Yousef. The family traveled to the area for a two-week trip to visit Abuzayda’s parents, Nabulsi previously told the Herald.“We’ve been trying to stay strong, but it hasn’t been easy. Airstrikes have intensified the last few days, and especially last night. It’s become constant all night and most of the day, My son was not able to sleep, Yousef, not until one o’clock in the morning and...

Clarence Thomas’ huge RV loan was forgiven by wealthy businessman, Senate investigation finds

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:26 GMT

Brian Niemietz | New York Daily NewsSupreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was essentially given a luxury motorhome worth more than a quarter of a million dollars by a wealthy businessman, according to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance.The committee released a report Wednesday claiming Anthony Welters lent $267,230 to Thomas for a luxury Prevost Marathon motor coach in 1999 at a 7.5% interest rate, then called it even in 2008 with the loan’s principal still intact. The Senate committee found Thomas paid interest on the loan for a short time, but “never repaid a substantial portion of the loan.”A handwritten note from Thomas to Welters — written on Supreme Court stationery and dated Dec. 6, 1999 — referenced the agreement between the pair, the committee said.“Regular Americans don’t get wealthy friends to forgive huge amounts of debt so they can buy a second home,” the committee wrote in its findings. “Justice Thomas should inform the committee exactly how much debt was forgiven an...

Trump responds with disbelief to reporting of Mark Meadows flip

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:26 GMT

Former President Donald Trump was quick to doubt and deny reporting his former chief of staff told him plainly that he lost the 2020 election.The 45th president was in a New York court Tuesday when news broke that Mark Meadows, the former North Carolina representative who served as Trump’s last chief of staff, had apparently met with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s legal team several times in connection with Trump’s election denial.According to ABC, citing “sources familiar with the matter,” Meadows met with government lawyers three times, once in the presence of a grand jury. Citing the same sources, the news organization claims that Meadows was offered limited immunity in order to reveal potentially incriminating information about Trump’s efforts to see the presidential election overturned.Meadows apparently told Smith’s team he rebuffed his bosses’ claims of election fraud, and that the former president’s assertion he won the 2020 election was “dishonest.”Trump responded...

Biden bails on New Hampshire primary, citing DNC decision on South Carolina

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:26 GMT

President Biden will not participate in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire Democratic Primary.In a letter to the Granite State’s liberal party leaders, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the 46th president’s campaign manager, said that “while the president wishes to participate in the primary, he is obligated to comply” with the wishes of the national party, which has decided to allow South Carolina to hold the first nominating contest.“The president looks forward to having his name on New Hampshire’s general election ballot as the nominee of the Democratic Party after officially securing the nomination at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where he will tirelessly campaign to earn every single vote in the Granite State next November,” Rodriguez wrote to NHDP Chairman Ray Buckley.Biden’s decision comes as no surprise to party insiders, who knew for months that a state law requiring New Hampshire to hold the first primaries would stand in the way of the Democratic National Commit...

UAW expected to announce contract deal with Ford as early as Wednesday evening that could end strike

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:26 GMT

By TOM KRISHER (AP Auto Writer)DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union is expected to announce a tentative contract agreement with Ford Wednesday night that could be a breakthrough toward ending the nearly 6-week-old strikes against Detroit automakers.Two people with knowledge of the bargaining said the company and union are working on the final details of the contract and could announce it Wednesday evening in a video appearance with UAW President Shawn Fain. The people asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly about the bargaining.Terms of the deal weren’t immediately available, but both sides have been discussing a four-year contract. It would have to be approved by 57,000 union members at Ford.The Ford deal could set the pattern for agreements with the other two automakers.The people said the union made a counter-offer to Ford that proposes a 25% general wage increase over the life of a new contract and said that negotiations on Tuesday ext...

Al Jazeera Gaza correspondent loses 4 family members in an Israeli airstrike

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:49:26 GMT

CAIRO (AP) — Al Jazeera’s chief correspondent in the Gaza Strip, Wael Dahdouh, was helping broadcast live images of the besieged territory’s night sky when he received the devastating news: His wife, son, and daughter had all been killed in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday.Moments later, the Qatari-based satellite channel switched to footage of Dahdouh entering al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza before giving way to grief as he peered over the body of his dead son.“They take revenge on us in our children?” he said, kneeling over his son’s bloodied body, still wearing his protective press vest from that day’s work.Dahdouh’s grandson also was declared dead two hours later, the network reported.The video was sure to reverberate across the Arab world, where the 53-year-old journalist is well-known as the face of Palestinians during many wars. He is revered in his native Gaza for telling people’s stories of suffering and hardship to the outside world.According to Al Jazeera, Dah...