- Jonathan Majors picked up then-girlfriend ‘as if she was a doll,’ NYC prosecutor says as assault case goes to jury New York Post
- Disturbing Jonathan Majors Texts and Audio Released in Court: ‘I’m a Great Man’ and ‘Doing Great Things for My Culture and the World’ Variety
- Jonathan Majors and Meagan Good Cry in Courtroom as Defense Says Actor ‘Is Innocent’ in Closing Remarks PEOPLE
- In Closing Argument, Jonathan Majors’s Lawyer Says Accuser Invented Story The New York Times
- Jonathan Majors’ defense accused ex-partner of “big lies” in closing arguments Salon
Tag Archives: picked
Should parents of Oxford shooter face charges? How judges picked apart both arguments during appeal – WDIV ClickOnDetroit
- Should parents of Oxford shooter face charges? How judges picked apart both arguments during appeal WDIV ClickOnDetroit
- Oxford High School shooter’s parents appear in court: Five takeaways USA TODAY
- Appeals court hears arguments in case against James & Jennifer Crumbley WXYZ-TV Detroit | Channel 7
- ‘You can’t sue the king.’ Qualified immunity under attack in Oxford High mass shooting lawsuit MLive.com
- Morning 4: Charges against Oxford shooter’s parents scrutinized by judges in appeal hearing — and other news WDIV ClickOnDetroit
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Eugene Levy Says Christopher Guest’s Fake Documentaries Are Likely Done: “TV Shows Have Picked Up That Form & Just Destroyed It” – Deadline
- Eugene Levy Says Christopher Guest’s Fake Documentaries Are Likely Done: “TV Shows Have Picked Up That Form & Just Destroyed It” Deadline
- Eugene Levy says ‘American Pie’ fanfare ‘got a bit tedious’: ‘People would bring me apple pie every time I went into a restaurant’ Yahoo Entertainment
- Eugene Levy: ‘The eyebrows didn’t hinder or help my career, I don’t think’ The Guardian
- Eugene Levy hates holidays, so why is he presenting a new travel series? Daily Mail
- ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Star Eugene Levy Speaks About “Magical” South Africa 2oceansvibe News
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Trustees picked by DeSantis may change progressive college
SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — “Your education. Your way. Be original. Be you.”
That’s how New College of Florida describes its approach to higher education in an admission brochure. The state school of fewer than 1,000 students nestled along Sarasota Bay has long been known for its progressive thought and creative course offerings that don’t use traditional grades.
The school, founded in 1960, is also a haven for marginalized students, especially from the LGBTQ community, said second-year student Sam Sharf in a recent interview on campus.
“There’s a lot of students out there that are not allowed to be themselves in their hometowns,” said Sharf, who is transgender and identifies as a woman. “When they get to come here, they get to thrive because they really get to be themselves.”
To Sharf and others, New College’s reputation as a haven for originality and individualized coursework is now threatened. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recently appointed six new trustees who intend to turn the school into a classical liberal arts school modeled after conservative favorite Hillsdale College in Michigan.
One new trustee, Manhattan Institute senior fellow Christopher Rufo, said in a column on his website that the governor wants the group to accomplish what he calls “institutional recapture,” which would move New College away from such things as diversity, equity and inclusion programs and teaching of critical race theory — the idea that racism is enmeshed in U.S. society.
“Ours is a project of recapture and reinvention,” Rufo wrote, listing several ways he believes left-wing ideas have permeated universities across the country. “Conservatives have the opportunity finally to demonstrate an effective countermeasure against the long march through institutions.”
Students such as Sharf and New College faculty have begun to push back, organizing meetings to plan strategy and issuing statements against the conservative takeover.
“We support (students’) fearless pursuit of knowledge, including research on race and gender,” the New College chapter of United Faculty of Florida wrote in a public statement last week. “We assert our unflagging commitment to free speech, academic integrity and the respectful exchange of different viewpoints.”
Sharf said many students worry New College will become “a quote-unquote ‘Hillsdale of the South.’ I’m not trying to be in an environment where I’m force-fed dogmatic, nationalistic, Christian education. I want to be in a place where you’re free to think and learn what you want.”
The governor’s appointment of the New College trustees, including a government professor at Hillsdale College, are only one part of DeSantis’ effort to shift Florida’s 28 state-funded institutions of higher learning in a more conservative direction. The moves come as DeSantis considers a potential 2024 presidential campaign in which education culture battles could play a prominent part, particularly in a Republican primary.
These efforts include a memo DeSantis sent to all Florida colleges and universities requiring them to list programs and staff involved in diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives. The governor signed legislation last April to change the accreditation method for Florida schools and heighten performance review of tenured professors.
During his second inaugural address earlier this month, DeSantis said his goal is to “ensure that our institutions of higher learning are focused on academic excellence and the pursuit of truth, not the imposition of trendy ideology.”
The presidents of all 28 Florida colleges and universities responded to DeSantis’ memo on DEI initiatives with a joint statement seeking to distance their institutions from critical race theory and similar concepts. They set a Feb. 1 goal to remove any objectionable programs.
That statement says, in part, that the schools will not fund programs with the primary idea that “systems of oppression should be the primary lens through which teaching and learning are analyzed and/or improved upon.”
The presidents added that critical race theory can be taught but only “as one of several theories and in an objective manner.”
Back in Sarasota, New College has previously fended off efforts to fold it into another state school, such as Florida State University or the University of South Florida, which has a nearby campus. It was once a private school but, since 2001, has been part of the public university system.
The new trustees, on an interim basis pending Florida Senate confirmation, will join the rest of the 13-member board at a meeting Jan. 31. Students and other opponents of conservative change expect to make their views known, Sharf said.
“The vast majority of people on campus don’t want this,” she said. “They would erase a lot of things on campus. I don’t want to be in a place that tries to erase my existence.”
‘Scream’ picked up by police bodycam night of Idaho murders: report
A police officer’s bodycam picked up a high-pitched sound that could have been a scream on the night four University of Idaho college students were slaughtered in their beds.
The sound was recorded at 3:12 am on Nov. 13, by a Moscow, Idaho cop responding to an incident unrelated to the murders but also near the university campus, the Daily Mail reported Saturday.
The sound was heard around the time the students were killed, and while some think it was a scream, others speculated it could also be the squeal of car tires pulling away.
So far, the police have not made much if any progress, at least publicly, in solving the savage deaths of Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin in the three-story home in the college town. The four were members of the university’s Greek system and all were friends. Two students on the first floor were left unscathed.
The newly released video footage, of a police stop involving students suspected of underage drinking, had been flagged by internet sleuths.
Several people can also be seen moving quickly past police on Taylor Avenue in the background of the video, just two houses down from the scene of the crime.
It occurred just minutes before police said the students were killed.
On Dec. 8, a neighbor of the four slain students also reported hearing a scream on the night of the murders.
Inan Harsh, 30, who lives in an apartment building next to the off-campus home, said he returned from his job as a cook around 1:30 a.m. Nov. 13 and later heard someone yell, he told the Idaho Statesman.
As he dozed off around 4 a.m., he assumed it was a “party sound” coming from the six-bedroom house at 1122 King St. in Moscow, where the slain sorority sisters would often host get-togethers on weekends.
“I didn’t think anything of it,” Harsh told the paper. “After what happened, I’ve definitely had second thoughts. Maybe it was not a party sound.”
‘The tools are getting picked off’: An ever-mutating mix of COVID variants means fewer and less effective treatments this fall
The pandemic might be over in the minds of some. But like it or not, COVID is ramping up for a fall wave—one likely to be fueled by multiple variants, experts say, as the virus mutates and spreads exponentially.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington and other experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, foresee a wave beginning to swell in late October, and peaking in late December or January.
It could kill another 20,500 Americans, according to the IHME.
While the coming wave may be caused by multiple variants, they may start to look increasingly similar as they mutate to become more efficient—and take the same path to achieve it.
The wave may be carried by one variant, Dr. Raj Rajnarayanan, assistant dean of research and associate professor at the New York Institute of Technology campus in Jonesboro, Ark., told Fortune this week.
“But if you look closer, they may all have the same set of mutations.”
And they may all end up with the same disastrous effect: rendering current COVID countermeasures like drugs and vaccines powerless.
The spawn of Centaurus
Omicron spawn BA.2.75, dubbed “Centaurus,” seemed like the COVID variant to watch this summer—one with the potential to wreak havoc later in the year.
But Centaurus is no longer a worry, according to Rajnarayanan. Instead, one of its children, BA.2.75.2, has outcompeted it, eliminating it as a threat—but replacing it with a more formidable one.
Fauci this week called the BA.2.75.2 variant “suspicious,” in that it has the potential to develop into a variant of concern for the fall.
In Rajnarayanan’s book, it’s the most formidable of up-and-coming strains because of its spike protein—a feature that allows it to enter cells—binds more tightly to human cells than that of any other variant. By doing so, it makes it more difficult for antibodies to successfully attack.
The variant is picking up mutations that make it more similar to globally dominant BA.5 and the deadly Delta variant of late 2021. And it’s just “a couple of mutations away from picking up increased transmission speed,” Rajnarayanan said.
To make matters worse, the new variant shows “extensive escape” ability, according to a new preprint paper released this week by researchers at the Imperial College in London and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
The paper, which is not yet peer reviewed but has been widely cited by experts, called the variant “the most neutralization-resistant variant evaluated to date,” and said it may effectively evade antibody immunity, built by vaccination and prior infection.
A spin-off of a heavyweight champ
Another major contender: Omicron spawn BF.7. It’s a spin-off of globally dominant strain BA.5, three generations removed.
The new subvariant has a change in the spike protein seen in other Omicron strains making headway. It also has a change in the nucleotide sequence—sometimes referred to as the blueprint of an organism—that could cause it to behave differently than other subvariants, Dr. Stuart Ray, vice chair of medicine for data integrity and analytics at Johns Hopkins Department of Medicine, told Fortune this week.
Scientists are taking note of BF.7 because it’s making headway in an increasingly crowded field of Omicron subvariants.
“The same growth advantage in multiple countries makes it reasonable to think that BF.7 is gaining a foothold,” and that it’s potentially more transmissible than parent BA.5, Ray said.
Convergent evolution & ‘frankenviruses’
There are more contenders, including BQ.1.1. The variant is jockeying with BA.2.75.2 to lead the wave this fall, Rajnarayanan said.
Major players are beginning to pick up identical advantageous mutations as they try to gain supremacy over their rivals, according to Rajnarayanan. Some mutations offer advantages like increased transmissibility, while others make it more difficult for the human immune system—as well as treatments and vaccines—to fight them off.
It’s common for variants to garner multiple mutations—and increasingly, variants of potential concern are acquiring many of the same ones.
“Eventually all variants may look the same at the spike level,” Rajnarayana said.
Variant hunters are also keeping their eye on recombinants—combinations of multiple variants that form “frankenviruses” of sorts.
One Rajnarayanan and others are watching: XBB, a combination of two different Omicron spawns. It’s not currently a concern in terms of spread, but “it’s probably the most immune evasive yet”—even more so than the rising BA.2.75.2, which is more immune evasive than globally dominant BA.5, the most immune evasive until recently.
It’s a concerning pattern that has the ability to reduce the effectiveness of COVID treatments, as acknowledged by World Health Organization officials this week—and perhaps even vaccines. In a worst-case scenario, increasingly immune-evasive variants could render them ineffective entirely.
BA.2.75.2 is being watched for its potential to escape the immunity provided by the last antibody drug that is effective on all variants, Bebtelovimab, according to Rajnarayanan and other experts. It’s administered to those at high risk of serious outcomes from COVID.
According to a preprint updated Friday by Yulong Richard Cao, an assistant Professor at Peking University’s Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center in China, and others, BQ.1.1 beat it to the punch. The variant escapes immunity from Bebtelovimab, as well as another antibody drug that only works against some variants.
“Such rapid and simultaneous emergence of variants with enormous advantages is unprecedented,” Cao and others wrote in the paper.
It’s unknown how well new Omicron boosters will hold up against coming variants. But Cao’s paper notes that herd immunity and boosters may not protect against new strains. It urges the rapid development of broader COVID vaccines and new antibody drugs, and encourages researchers to test them against recombinants they construct in the lab, in an effort to gauge their effectiveness ahead of time.
Rajnarayanan worries for the future of COVID countermeasures and, like WHO officials, calls on countries to keep up testing and the genetic sequencing of samples. It’s the only way to know what’s coming, they contend. Ideally, such knowledge will allow researchers to scramble to create new countermeasures, or update old ones, as necessary.
“We used to say we have the tools,” he said. “The tools are getting picked off.”
Russian Official so Sure of Ukraine Win, He Picked New Apartment: WaPo
- The Washington Post obtained Russian comms intercepted by Ukraine and other countries.
- They include a senior officer appearing to pick the Kyiv apartment he wanted before the invasion started.
- Russia was so sure of a quick win that it picked Ukrainian accommodation for its personnel, officials said.
A top Russian security official appeared to have picked the Kyiv apartment he wanted to live in before the Ukraine invasion even started because he was so sure of a swift Russian victory, The Washington Post reported.
Igor Kovalenko, who was identified by Ukraine as a senior officer in the FSB, Russia’s security service, spoke to a subordinate on February 18 in an exchange that suggested he had picked out an apartment in Ukraine’s capital, according to intercepted Russian communications seen by The Post.
Russia’s invasion started on February 24, six days after the conversation.
Russia had expected a quick victory that involved taking Kyiv and installing a new government, but was met with unexpectedly staunch Ukrainian resistance. Russia retreated from Kyiv in April and has since focused on the country’s east and south.
The Post reported that the apartment was in “Kyiv’s leafy Obolon neighborhood, overlooking the Dnieper River.”
In the intercepted communications, Kovalenko also identified an apartment that already had an FSB informant living in it, and asked for the address and informant’s contact details, The Post reported. The subordinate then gave him the details, The Post reported.
The communications seen by The Post were intercepted by Ukraine and other countries’ security services, the newspaper said.
Kovalenko dealt with Ukraine for years in his FSB role, The Post reported. He is a senior officer in the FSB’s Ninth Directorate of the Department of Operational Information, which works to try keep Ukraine close to Russia. He worked with Ukrainians who were secretly being paid by Russia, The Post said.
Ukrainian authorities told The Post that Ukraine detained and questioned the unidentified informant when it intercepted Kovalenko’s communications.
Ukrainian officials told The Post that the informant admitted the FSB told him in the days before the invasion that he needed to leave his apartment — to pack his things, leave Kyiv, and leave his keys behind so that he would stay safe as the invasion began.
Ukraine’s security service then monitored the apartment after Ukraine intercepted the communications, but Kovalenko did not turn up, not did any other FSB officials, Ukrainian officials told The Post.
It is not clear what happened to the informant, whom Ukraine did not name.
The Post said Kovalenko did not respond to its requests for comment.
Kovalenko went back to Russia at one point earlier in the invasion, and then said in late May that he was going back to Ukraine, The Post reported. Ukrainian officials told The Post that they are no longer sure where he is.
Kovalenko’s confidence in picking out an apartment was echoed by the FSB, The Post report said.
Russia told multiple informants to leave their homes in Ukraine but to leave their keys behind, The Post reported. Ukrainian and Western officials told The Post that that Russian officials were picking accommodation for the personnel they planned to bring into the country as they anticipated an easy victory.
Another Steelers steal: Why George Pickens looks like the next star wideout picked by Pittsburgh after Round 1
It’s the long-time neglect of a specific, high-profile position in the first round of the draft you haven’t heard about in excess over the past three years. Of course, I’m referencing the Steelers and the fact that they haven’t picked a receiver in Round 1 since Santonio Holmes was selected in 2006 (the Packers, more famously, haven’t picked a first-round receiver since 2002).
But, from Mike Wallace to Emmanuel Sanders to Antonio Brown to Martavis Bryant to JuJu Smith-Schuster to Diontae Johnson to Chase Claypool, no team in football has created a more prestigious lineage of Day 2 and Day 3 picks at receiver over the past two decades than the Steelers.
And it feels like Pittsburgh has uncovered the next overlooked wideout in George Pickens, their second-round selection in April. He’s taken Steelers training camp by storm, and our very own Bryan Deardo recently documented Pickens’ dominance at St. Vincent College this summer.
Pickens was comfortably a first-round wideout on my Big Board before the 2022 draft. The only wideouts who received a higher grade were Drake London, Jameson Williams, Garrett Wilson, and Skyy Moore.
I know training camp videos are all the rage right now. But let’s go inside what Pickens did in his unique career at Georgia that indicated he was ready to not just make the jump to the NFL but arrive on the scene as a wideout with instant star capabilities.
Before I begin, let’s remember, Pickens was a five-star recruit and the No. 4 wideout in the nation entering the collegiate ranks from the high school class of 2019. Pickens has been that dude for a while.
Let’s start with a touchdown against fellow second-round pick Roger McCreary, now of the Titans, then of Auburn University. Notice how assertively Pickens demolishes McCreary at the line then how effortlessly he accelerated and found the football out and over his shoulder.
That play is receiver teaching tape, and Pickens made that play as a 19 year old, mind you. Moving that fluidly and explosively at his 6-foot-3 is rare.
On the vertical route tree, Pickens is a scary matchup. Not simply because he’s tall and fast and entered college with the advanced skill of combating press coverage. His catch radius is enormous. Bigger than you think.
Grabs of the ridiculous extended-arm variety are littered all over Pickens’ film. From his freshman season on. That one, in a highly competitive bowl game, made a mark with me. From a potential standpoint, based on his frame and athleticism alone, Pickens is a weapon.
Why I smacked a first-round grade on him before the draft, he couples that five-star recruit caliber athletic profile with nuanced receiver skill. Like check how he blends both elements of playing the position on this touchdown against Arkansas. Comeback from the perimeter, catches the football then bends incredibly then dives for the score.
Or how about this comeback route against Cincinnati? It showcased much of Pickens next-level skill set. Same route as the score against Arkansas, subtle juke at the line, serious acceleration to push the corner up the field, then he snapped off the top of the route stem precisely when he moved into the defender’s blind spot to assure himself separation.
The cherry on top was how he adjusted to the slightly low and outside throw and watched it into his hands to make the grab. Stellar stuff from Pickens.
On this score against LSU and eventual No. 3 overall pick Derek Stingley, Pickens faked toward the sideline, erupted to the inside and, once again, adjusted to an off-target toss to secure the football thrown well outside his numbers. Oh, and this play, was one of Pickens’ eight touchdowns as an 18 year old (!) in 2019 for the Bulldogs.
Watch that again. Notice how Pickens kept his eyes on the quarterback the entire time. Sure, Stingley had outside leverage, which allowed for Pickens to sneak inside. But the suddenness Pickens showcased there was special.
As the 11th receiver drafted with the No. 52 overall selection in April, Pickens was an enormous steal. Based on the Steelers track record with picking wideouts, we should have realized this immediately when his named was called when they went on the clock in Round 2.
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2022 MLB All-Star Game – How each Home Run Derby slugger picked his pitcher
Corey Seager called his father Thursday to ask Jeff Seager how long it has been since he’s thrown batting practice. It might have seemed an odd question, but there was a very special reason behind it: Corey wanted his dad to pitch to him in the Home Run Derby.
Jeff Seager did not immediately say yes. Rather, he drove the 2 miles to Northwest Cabarrus High School, where he had thrown a zillion hours of batting practice to his sons within cages for which the Seagers possessed a key. Jeff Seager loosened up his arm — and apparently felt OK, because he quickly phoned Corey back to give him the OK.
Seager will likely be a favorite of the Dodger Stadium crowd in the derby, as he returns to L.A. for the first time since he signed with the Texas Rangers as a free agent in the offseason. He’ll have an ingrained understanding of how the ball will travel in the late afternoon on a hot California day. He’ll be surrounded by familiar faces, from security to the clubhouse attendants. But the most rewarding part of the event for Seager will be sharing the moment with his father. “He has probably thrown the most to me in my life,” Corey said in a phone conversation this week. “You’re doing what makes you the most comfortable.”
“It’ll be a really exciting moment, in multiple ways.”
When Corey did the derby back in 2016 in San Diego, Jeff Seager threw to him then, too. Corey remembers his dad being pretty nervous at first, “but then he kind of locked in.”
As the last confirmed contestant, just 72 hours before the derby, Seager made no plans to practice, to reacquaint himself with the pace of the event, the exhaustion that overtakes a lot of the competitors. “Nah, I’m just going to wing it,” he said, though he added: “I definitely will try to pull the ball.”
A rundown of some of the plans and pitchers for the other Home Run Derby sluggers:
For the slugger who has seemingly mastered the art of the Home Run Derby like no other player, there was no doubt about whom he would pick to throw to him — the man who could be regarded as the industry standard for batting practice pitching, 65-year-old Dave Jauss.
In 2021, Jauss was a coach with the Mets and helped Alonso dominate the derby in Colorado. After the Mets changed managers and most of their coaching staff, Jauss took a job with the Washington Nationals. But Alonso approached him during spring training to confirm that if Alonso was back in the derby, Jauss would again throw to him.
Actually, it was Alonso’s teammate, Jeff McNeil, who first leaked the news to Jauss. “So you know, Pete’s going to ask you again,” McNeil said.
Jauss has a long history in the derby. He and Clint Hurdle threw to all the competitors in 1999, when the event was in Fenway Park, and after his showing with Alonso last summer, Jauss was asked to throw to hitters in Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby X. Scheduling around his work with the Nationals, Jauss was in London earlier this year and has trips scheduled to South Korea and Mexico in the months ahead.
His ability to throw consistently in batting practice, Jauss said, laughing, is what “has kept me in the game. I’m not wearing the Wally The Green Monster costume, and I don’t have to be Abraham Lincoln in the presidents’ race.”
The experience of throwing in the derby has been enriched by sharing the experience with Alonso, whose family has embraced Jauss and his family. “He’s such a quality guy, and good for the industry,” Jauss said.
Like Alonso, Soto makes it clear his goal is to win. Last year, Soto took out Shohei Ohtani in a wild first-round matchup, and what he learned from that night will inform his approach in this year’s derby. “I’m going to do the same thing I did last year — I’m not going to try to hit moon shots,” he said. “I’m going to just be consistent [with my swing].”
The urban legend surrounding the derby is that hitters will sometimes mess up their swings going through the event, which requires the participants to take the sort of rushed hacks they never would in their day-to-day preparation. But Soto mentioned last year that he felt that the derby helped him, getting his aggressiveness and swing on track for a second half in which Soto generated a slash line of .333/.485/.601. That experience has Soto all-in on this year’s event, and he has asked Jorge Mejia to pitch to him. He has worked with Soto extensively; the two met when Soto was 17 years old. “He’s been my hitting coach in the offseasons,” Soto said.
Mejia’s delivery, Soto said, allows him to see the ball well — a three-quarters motion, not too high and not too low. “He’s pretty accurate,” Soto said.
Rodriguez is 21 years old and ranks among the youngest competitors in Home Run Derby history, but he’s asked around enough to know this: He’s not going to worry about distance, just clearing the fence. “I’m not going to be trying to hit the ball the furthest,” he said over the phone. Rather, his hope is that he gets a lot of pitches up in the zone so he can consistently get the ball in the air and over the fence, while conserving some of his energy for the swings to follow.
Rodriguez’s intent was to practice over the weekend, to at least try the timed format, to understand what he is in for. His batting practice pitcher, Franmy Peña, was in Texas over the weekend, with a locker next to Rodriguez’s, as part of their preparation for the derby.
Peña’s family runs a baseball academy in the Dominican Republic, and Rodriguez said that if not for Franmy and his father, he doesn’t believe he would be in the event. Peña played in the minor leagues with the Rockies and Brewers organizations a decade ago, serving as a catcher for much of that time. Some of the best batting practice pitchers are former catchers because of their short, precise arm action. Peña throws him batting practice a lot, Rodriguez said, and is very consistent.
Of course, throwing batting practice is different when it’s in a ballpark that’ll be packed the way that Dodger Stadium will be Monday, a fact Rodriguez acknowledged. Through the years, nervous and inaccurate pitchers have sometimes sabotaged derby participants. “But he is ready for it,” Rodriguez said.
The belief among some of the competitors is experience will be crucial to defeat Alonso, and nobody has more derby experience than Pujols, who is in this event for the fifth time. He will set an age record in the derby — at 42 years and 183 days old, he is more than 2 years older than Barry Bonds, who was 39 years and 353 days old when he reached the semifinals in 2004.
Pujols is also more than 8 years older than the oldest winner, Dave Parker, who was 34 when he took his swings in 1985 — and, relatedly, Pujols has the most home runs (685) of any competitor at the time.
Pujols asked Kleininger Teran, the Cardinals’ bullpen catcher and a regular batting practice pitcher, to throw for him.
A couple of weeks ago, Schwarber seemed to be leaning against swinging in the derby. But understanding that the event needs the best power hitters, he changed his mind. Before he made a final call, he reached out to the batting practice pitcher who threw to him in 2018 when he nearly edged Bryce Harper in Washington. Mike Sanicola played at the University of Miami and has thrown to Schwarber in the offseason. Schwarber and others refer to him as Money because his batting practice is so consistent.
“Would you want to do it?” Schwarber asked.
“Absolutely,” Money responded.
What Schwarber learned about Sanicola in 2018, he said, is that Sanicola “isn’t going to be overtaken by the moment. He’s pretty confident in himself.”
Schwarber said his own takeaway is that he really doesn’t have to try to hit every single pitch. Rather, it’s better to be patient and home in on pitches he can drive. “The constant swinging wasn’t maybe the best strategy,” he said. “But don’t get me wrong, you’re going to be working at a quick pace.”
The left-handed-hitting Schwarber mostly pulled the ball that year, when he came in second behind Harper, but this time around, he figures he’ll try to drive the ball to center or right-center. His sweet spot? “Anywhere in the strike zone,” he said, chuckling. “Aim for the middle, and we’ll go from there.”
Most derby sluggers will try to aim to one part of the park — like Todd Frazier, who tried to pull all pitches to left field. But when the right-handed-hitting Acuña was in the derby in 2019, he distinguished himself from other competitors by launching the ball in all directions. “He’s got power to the opposite field, and he can put on a show,” Braves coach Tomas Perez said.
It was Perez who pitched to Acuña that year — a Venezuela native pitching to a fellow Venezuelan — and he will again in L.A. He and Acuña had talked for weeks about returning to the event, and about three weeks ago, the Braves outfielder got the invitation officially. “Everybody in my country will be watching,” said Perez, who pitches batting practice to Acuña in the Braves’ daily regimen. “Hopefully, we can do it right, and it’ll be a lot of fun for the fans, for our country.”
Acuña and Perez agreed to practice a little over the weekend in Washington — a timed minute. The sweet spot that Perez says he’ll be aiming for as he works to Acuña: inside just a bit, in the upper part of the strike zone just a bit.
As Ramirez explained through an interpreter, the derby is something that he’s always wanted to do, partly for those around him, for his mom. “My family was anxious to have me do it,” he said.
And the man throwing to him might as well be family. More than a decade ago, Junior Betances had been hearing often from a friend about his nephew, about what a special baseball talent he was, so Betances found some time to watch the kid. That was the first time he saw Ramirez, then 17 years old.
Then, in his role as a minor league hitting coach, Betances worked with Ramirez, mentoring him in professional baseball. Given all of that shared history, Ramirez reached out last week to Betances, who is now working for the Guardians’ Double-A affiliate, and asked him whether he wanted to throw in the derby. For Betances, it was an emotional moment.
“It’s unbelievable,” Betances said. “I’m so excited, and I appreciate it so much.”
The Mars Perseverance Rover Has Picked Up a Hitchhiker — and NASA Says It’s a Long Way From Home
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Mars Perseverance rover has adopted a pet rock — or surprising hitchhiker — and has been taking care of it for four months.
The “unexpected traveling companion” first hopped a ride on the front left wheel of the rover in February, according to NASA, and has been riding around ever since. So far, it’s been transported more than 5.3 miles as the rover transmits images of the Red Planet to Earth.
“This rock isn’t doing any damage to the wheel, but throughout its (no doubt bumpy!) journey, it has clung on and made periodic appearances in our left Hazcam images,” NASA wrote in a statement, adding, “Perseverance’s pet rock has seen a lot on its travels… If this pet rock could talk, it might tell us about the changes it’s noticed as we [traveled] back north through the Octavia E. Butler landing site, and then west, passing the spectacular remains of the former extent of the delta, ‘Kodiak,’ on our journey to the western Jezero delta.”
The pet rock, may fall off the wheel at some point and will likely land among rocks that are very different.
“As one of our team members quipped this week, ‘we might confuse a future Mars geologist who finds it out of place!'” NASA wrote.
This isn’t the first time a rover picked up a rocky traveling companion, the agency noted. About 18 years ago, the Spirit rover collected a “potato-sized” rock that lodged itself into the rear right wheel and had to be dislodged. And the Curiosity rover occasionally picked up rocks as well.
But NASA noted the current Perseverance rock is “on its way to setting Mars hitch-hiking records!”
The Perseverance rover landed on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021, to “seek signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for possible return to Earth.” Since it arrived, it has been tweeting and sending images.
Later this month, the Grand Canyon will host a star party that kicks off with a Mars Perseverance presentation on June 18 to learn about the rover from someone who helped build it.
Alison Fox is a contributing writer for Travel + Leisure. When she’s not in New York City, she likes to spend her time at the beach or exploring new destinations and hopes to visit every country in the world. Follow her adventures on Instagram.