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Jeff Wilson: Curt Schilling should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. His politics don’t change that.
Depending on what you read on the internet, even on mainstream sites, Curt Schilling is bigoted against every form of human being who isn’t white and straight. He wants all journalists hanged. His words and tweets have inspired radical thoughts and acts. That includes his belief that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Donald Trump and that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. Again, it’s all there on the World Wide Web, where free speech flourishes. More often, though, it doesn’t flourish as much if it leans the wrong way. And, for many, Schilling’s free speech leans the wron...
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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Friday night fight: Kings toughen up to snap losing streak with win over New York Knicks
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Marvin Bagley III took a charge. Chimezie Metu blocked a shot. Tyrese Haliburton threw down a breakaway dunk, howled into the rafters and ran back on defense to swat a shot by Reggie Bullock, helping his team force a shot-clock violation. The Sacramento Kings fought back Friday night, finally matching the physicality of their opponent to snap a four-game losing streak with a 103-94 victory over the New York Knicks. The Kings recorded a season-high 14 blocked shots, came up with six steals and held the Knicks to 38.3% shooting. “They’re big and strong,” Kings coach Luke Wal...
The Sacramento Bee
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Braves mourn Aaron: ‘We lost a legend ... an unbelievably great person’
ATLANTA — Even the great Braves players who came after him knew they could never reach the greatness of Hank Aaron. “He played for the galactic All-Stars, you know,” Chipper Jones said Friday. “We’re just mere earthlings, and he’s on a different level.” Aaron’s death at age 86 “absolutely devastated” the Braves organization, as team chairman Terry McGuirk put it. Jones, himself a Hall of Famer, described Aaron as “a transcendent baseball player” and “a transcendent person in American history as well.” Another former Braves All-Star player, Brian Jordan, said he “almost dropped down to my knees...
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Michael Cunningham: Hank Aaron: Hero to many, especially Black people
ATLANTA — I was an infant when Braves legend Hank Aaron hit home run No. 715. My impressions of what happened April 8, 1974 at Atlanta Stadium were formed by repeated viewings of the famous TV highlight. My thoughts about Aaron’s legacy are, believe or not, influenced by an argument among schoolmates when I was in sixth or seventh grade. The topic: best baseball player of all time. One of my white peers picked Babe Ruth because he was the Home Run King. I told him that Aaron hit more home runs than Ruth. The classmate responded that Aaron’s record was fraudulent because MLB counted homers that...
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Editorial: Baseball loses an American icon — Henry Aaron
Baseball lost one of its greatest players and strongest advocates for civil rights Friday with the death of 86-year-old Henry Aaron. For 33 years he held what many consider the sporting world’s most treasured records, hitting 755 home runs in a 23-year career. But, as one of the last major league stars to have previously played in the Negro Leagues, he was also an outspoken advocate for racial justice and minority hiring in baseball’s managerial and front office positions. Muhammad Ali said Aaron was “the only man I idolize more than myself.” President Barack Obama said Aaron “was one of the s...
The Mercury News
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Commentary: 'Hammerin' Hank' Aaron fought as strongly for civil rights as he did for an extra base
Jackie Robinson was a legend I read about in history books. Hank Aaron was a man I actually saw play. So when news of his death flashed across my smartphone screen Friday, I had an emotional reaction I hadn’t really expected. He wasn’t my favorite baseball player. He didn’t play on my favorite team. In fact, when he in the batter’s box staring down Tom Seaver, I rooted for the other guy. But I loved Hank Aaron. The same way I loved Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Colin Kaepernick and any righteous Black athlete who knows that freedom fighting is a thousand times more important than hi...
New York Daily News
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Padres bring back Jurickson Profar on three-year deal
SAN DIEGO — The Padres and Jurickson Profar are in agreement on a three-year contract, a source said Friday morning. The contract can be worth up to $21 million, and MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reported Profar can opt out after each of the first two seasons. Another source said Profar’s choices had been narrowed to the Padres and Red Sox before he made the decision to return to San Diego. Retaining Profar, who was acquired via a trade last offseason, had been one of the Padres’ priorities this winter, although it was a back-burner issue to the plethora of other moves they made. Bringing back Prof...
The San Diego Union-Tribune
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Baseball great Henry ‘Hank’ Aaron, 86, passes into history
ATLANTA — In March of 1954, with his place in the major leagues far from assured, Hank Aaron was granted a start in a Milwaukee exhibition game versus Boston, only because Bobby Thomson, the regular left fielder and Aaron’s idol, had just broken his ankle. Already possessed of dramatic timing at the age of 20, the rookie promptly drilled a ball that carried beyond the wall, flew over a row of trailers parked outside the Sarasota park and reverberated so loudly in the Red Sox clubhouse that the great Ted Williams emerged, as Aaron recalled, “wanting to know who it was that could make a bat soun...
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Tim Anderson selected as cover athlete for ‘RBI Baseball 21’ — 1st White Sox player to be on cover of the video game series
CHICAGO — Tim Anderson grew up playing video games. “When I couldn’t get outside to play ball or we had bad weather, that was a time to have fun with my friends and live out some fantasies,” Anderson said in a statement Now, the Chicago White Sox shortstop is on the cover of a game. Anderson is the cover athlete for “RBI Baseball 21,” Major League Baseball announced Thursday. “It was always cool to see who was on the cover every year — those were guys I aspired to be,” Anderson said in a statement. “So now to see myself on the cover of ‘RBI 21′ is really part of a dream come true. And I hope t...
Chicago Tribune
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Bryce Miller: Longtime Padres voice Bob Chandler says team ‘off the charts’
Allow former broadcaster Bob Chandler some leash when you ask about the Padres. The chasing-big-names Padres. The still-spending-money Padres. The seemingly-built-for-the-long-haul Padres. Let the man who covered the routinely bumbling bunch since the start in 1969, dutifully keeping at it until 2003, compose himself. There’s a player with a $30 million annual contract, in Manny Machado. There’s a Cy Young Award winner, in Blake Snell. There’s a Cy Young runner up, in Yu Darvish. There’s a generational player, in Fernando Tatis Jr. There’s a relentless push to improve, with the pickup of pitch...
The San Diego Union-Tribune
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