Hall of Famer Torre added to AL staff as honorary All-Star Game coach
Article content
Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre will serve as an honourary coach for the American League at the All-Star Game in Atlanta next month.
New York Yankees skipper Aaron Boone invited Torre on Tuesday to join his staff at the Midsummer Classic. The 84-year-old Torre, a special assistant to the commissioner, won 2,326 games as a major-league manager over 29 seasons. He led the Yankees to four World Series titles and six AL pennants in 12 years with the team.
Article content
Article content
Latest National Stories
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Pete Crow-Armstrong dazzles once again as Cubs add to NL Central lead
CHICAGO (AP) — Pete Crow-Armstrong heard more thunderous chants of 'P-C-A!' and 'M-V-P!' He is still getting used to the adulation. 'I'm still kind of new to the ovations and whatnot. I don't quite know how to respond all the time,' a sheepish Crow-Armstrong said. Looks like he might get some practice this year. In one memorable inning on a warm Tuesday night at Wrigley Field, Crow-Armstrong added another pair of dazzling plays to his breakout season with the Chicago Cubs — one that almost certainly will include the All-Star Game next month in Atlanta. First, he robbed Milwaukee's Brice Turang with a diving catch in center for the second out of the eighth. Then he led off the bottom half of the inning with a 452-foot drive off the scoreboard in right for his team-high 19th homer, sparking another round of 'P-C-A!' chants from the crowd. 'That's why we come to the ballpark, to see things like that,' Cubs manager Craig Counsell said, 'to see great players do amazing things. Pretty cool.' Crow-Armstrong punctuated a 5-3 victory over Milwaukee in the opener of a three-game series between the NL Central rivals. The Cubs upped their division lead to 6 1/2 games over the second-place Brewers. He also had his teammates shaking their heads in almost disbelief once again. 'Every game he plays is like two games for a normal person, just with how hard he plays,' pitcher Ben Brown said. Turang's liner off Caleb Thielbar had an exit velocity of 90.1 mph and looked as if it was ticketed for the grass in left-center. But Crow-Armstrong sprinted over and gloved the ball as he dove and tumbled over before scrambling to his feet. Thielbar just grinned as he took the play in from near the mound. 'He's playing at as high of a level as I've seen a center fielder play,' Counsell said. After Caleb Durbin struck out swinging for the final out of the Milwaukee eighth, Crow-Armstrong walked to the plate to face Rob Zastryzny. He drove the first pitch from the veteran left-hander — an 85.5 mph cutter at the top of the strike zone — deep into the night. It had a 111.5 mph exit velocity, and it was the longest of Crow-Armstrong's 29 career home runs. 'Didn't feel anything,' he said of the swing on the massive drive. Crow-Armstrong, 23, was selected by the New York Mets in the first round of the 2020 amateur draft. He was traded to the Chicago Cubs in the Javier Báez deal in July 2021. He made his major league debut in 2023, going 0 for 14 in 13 games. He had a rough June last year before finding his form. He batted .289 with seven homers and 30 RBIs in his last 57 games in 2024. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Crow-Armstrong has carried over that success into this year. He also leads the Cubs with 52 runs scored and 23 steals, and he ranks second to Seiya Suzuki with 58 RBIs. When the first batch of All-Star fan voting was announced on Monday, Crow-Armstrong had the highest total for NL outfielders at more than 1.1 million. The All-Star voting, along with the 'P-C-A!' and 'M-V-P!' chants he heard once again, well, Crow-Armstrong was taking it all in as best he could. 'It's so personable and it just feels super real and cool,' he said. ___ AP MLB:
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Royals' All-Star reprise in Texas includes homer from Witt against his hometown team
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Bobby Witt Jr.'s biggest memory from All-Star festivities in his hometown last summer was coming up about 6 inches short — his measurement — in the Home Run Derby. Now the star shortstop of the Kansas City Royals has his first homer that counts at the home of the Texas Rangers. Witt went deep in the fifth inning after sparking his offense with a double and a run scored in the first, and fellow 2024 All-Star Salvador Perez homered twice in a 6-1 victory over the Rangers on Tuesday night. As for the other active Kansas City All-Star from last year in the trio's return to Globe Life Field, Seth Lugo struck out a season-high nine in his first victory since May 1. The right-hander allowed three hits and one run in six innings. Pretty good hat trick in an All-Star reprise as the Royals ended a six-game losing streak that tied their season worst. They also stopped a five-game skid against the Rangers, their co-tenant at spring training in Arizona. 'Seems like a little more than a year ago we were here and had good games,' said Lugo (4-5), forgetting for a moment that it's been about 11 months since he pitched a scoreless inning in the American League's 5-3 victory. 'And now we've got the W, so that's what's most important.' Left-hander Cole Ragans, whose career started with the Rangers, is the Royals' fourth All-Star from a year ago. He's on the injured list with a left rotator cuff strain. Witt — the son of former major league pitcher Bobby Witt, who spent 11 of his 16 big league seasons with the Rangers — lost the derby to Teoscar Hernández last July when a homer that would have forced a tiebreaker bounced off the wall in left field at Globe Life. The 25-year-old wasn't the starter at shortstop for the AL — that was Gunnar Henderson — but Witt played and struck out. His only other homer against the Rangers was in a 12-3 loss at home two years ago. His first at Globe Life was his ninth this season. 'It was great to just check off another ballpark,' said Witt, the former Dallas-area high school star who was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 amateur draft. 'But yeah, it was cool.' Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. Perez made the biggest news of the night by breaking Hall of Famer George Brett's franchise record with his 18th career multihomer game. The significance wasn't lost on a nine-time All-Star who won a World Series with the Royals 10 years ago. Brett was on the franchise's other championship team 30 years before that. 'When you pass a Hall of Famer, now you know you're going to be next to him,' the 35-year-old Perez said. 'So it's super exciting for me.' ___ AP MLB:
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Yankees searching for answers after 3rd straight shutout
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Yankees' offense is drifting toward uncharted territory — and not in a good way. The team tied a franchise record by getting shut out for the third straight game Tuesday night, when the Yankees went 0 for 10 with runners on base in a 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Angels. 'Obviously, we're not getting the job done,' outfielder Cody Bellinger said. 'We're not getting a lot of baserunners. We're not causing traffic. We've got to keep going and wake up tomorrow and we've got to get going.' The Yankees have been blanked in three consecutive games seven times in their 123-year history — but only three times in the last 50 years, most recently from Sept. 22-24, 2016. The last major league team to get shut out in four straight games was the Kansas City Royals in September 2017. 'It's a little bit foreign for us to go through this for a few days,' Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. New York has lost five in a row and mustered only five runs in its past six games, including a 1-0 win last Thursday in Kansas City. The last time the Yankees scored five runs or fewer in a six-game span was August 1968. In the past six games, New York is batting .164. Giancarlo Stanton is 4 for 8 in his first two games since returning from injuries to both elbows. But lineup mainstays Bellinger (.152 in his last eight games), Paul Goldschmidt (.164 in his last 17 games) and Aaron Judge (.125 in his last seven games) are all mired in extended slumps. Judge, who began the night leading the American League in all three Triple Crown categories, was booed following strikeouts in the sixth and eighth innings. Boone tinkered with his lineup — batting rookie Jasson Domínguez first and dropping Goldschmidt to sixth — but it didn't yield results for the Yankees, who were limited to four hits and got just three runners to second base against Kyle Hendricks and a trio of relievers. Boone implored the Yankees to remain patient at the plate but acknowledged they might have been pressing Tuesday, when they went up against the soft-tossing Hendricks on an unseasonably cool 67-degree night. 'You want to be the guy (to) kind of get the hit, get it going,' Boone said. 'But that's where the patience comes in and that's where just you can't obsess on the result. You can't go up there (like) 'I gotta get a hit, I gotta do this.' It's got to be, 'I gotta go take a tough at-bat.'' Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. Even with the slump, the Yankees still rank among the top five teams in the majors in runs (370), homers (109) and OPS (.784). They finished among the top five in all three categories in five of Boone's first seven seasons as manager. 'It's been a little struggle the last couple days, which unfortunately is going to happen,' Boone said. 'It's just always shocking to see our group not score runs, right? Especially a few days in a row now. 'We've just got to focus on the little things — think small, big things come.' ___ AP MLB:
