Hall of Famer Dave Winfield retires from players union
'This decision, made after careful reflection and in consultation with his family, marks the end of an extraordinary chapter in baseball history — one defined by passion, sacrifice, and unwavering commitment both to the game and our union,' union executive director Tony Clark said in a lengthy statement.
'From his early days as a standout at the University of Minnesota, to his meteoric rise with the San Diego Padres, Dave's journey on the field was always about more than just baseball. As a young Player, he recognized that the true measure of success lay in the collective strength of the Player fraternity. It was this spirit that inspired him to get involved with the MLBPA, helping to shape the union into the institution it is today.'
Winfield played 22 years, batting .283 with 465 home runs and 1,833 RBIs. He was a 12-time All-Star and had the winning hit in the clinching Game 6 of the 1992 World Series while playing for the Toronto Blue Jays.
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Fox News
3 hours ago
- Fox News
Bad Habits Derailed Mookie Betts' Season. A New Mindset Might Salvage It.
Mookie Betts is not afraid to admit how his year has gone. He knows a few good weeks cannot erase four months of below league-average performance at the plate or lift the burden that the eight-time All-Star has carried throughout the worst offensive season of his illustrious career. So, he's adopting a different mindset. "My season's kind of over," Betts said last week. "So, going to have to chalk that up for not a great season. But I can help the boys win every night, do something, get an RBI, make a play, do something to kind of shift my focus there." It's a new approach, one that his skipper thinks is the right outlook to assist a scuffling Dodgers club. When Betts is right, the three-time World Series champ is a catalyst like few others in the sport. "Getting small wins and playing to win each night, contributing versus trying to chase a season where you're not kind of realizing your career numbers, I think that is freeing," Dave Roberts said. "That's growth from him." Lately, there are positive signs. Betts is in the midst of a season-long eight-game hitting streak at a time when his team needs the production the most. Out of first place in the National League West for the first time since April, the Dodgers host the division-leading Padres this weekend in the first of six crucial matchups over the next 10 days. If the Dodgers are to repeat as World Series champions, it will be partly due to a turnaround from Betts in a season that presented unexpected obstacles before it even began. "I'm just trying to stay inside the ball, and kind of see what happens," Betts said. "I've had a couple good games. We'll see how it goes." Every year, Betts creates a list of goals, which he uses as a marker to chart his progress throughout the course of a season. There are still 41 regular-season games left in the Dodgers' schedule, yet only one of Betts' objectives remains attainable in a year derailed by illness, injury, personal loss and uncharacteristic performance. "Try to win," Betts said. "That's the final goal that I can achieve. All the rest of them have 'X's next to them. The one I can achieve is to win a World Series, so I just have to do what I can for that — and that's be in the moment, every game." A mysterious and vexing stomach virus began to torment Betts when the Dodgers departed on their season-opening trip to Japan. Betts, who needs all of his 175 pounds to generate the power that helps make him one of the game's most decorated threats, began shedding weight at an alarming rate. He lost around 20 pounds in the span of a couple of weeks and missed both games of the Tokyo Series as the unyielding illness ran its course. He performed admirably immediately upon his return, recording six hits — including three home runs — in his first four games back in the lineup. But he was so underweight that he was trying to manufacture more power and bat speed. Unknowingly, his mechanics at the plate began to slip in the process. He started working around the baseball in an effort to find the barrel, rather than staying inside the ball as he had done so well throughout his career. "I just started developing bad habits," Betts said. "Those bad habits, you don't really realize you're doing it, especially early on. When I came back, I had a couple good series, and I'm like, 'All right, we're good.'" A 6-for-44 stretch that followed in the middle of April, during which he tallied just one extra-base hit, told him otherwise. "It worked for like a week," Betts recalled, "and then after that it got worse and worse and worse." Betts recorded a .738 OPS in May. Every time he started to get going, another barrier appeared. He stubbed his toe while walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night and sustained a fracture. Then he tallied a .633 OPS in June. "I tried everything I know that usually gets me back on track or gets me in the right realm, and I can figure it out from there," Betts said. "But the habits were so bad, man. Where I was, I had never been there before." He could not find a remedy. So, the spiral continued. There were stretches when he thought he might be getting back on track — 10 hits in six games at the end of April, another 10 hits in five games in early June — only for another skid to follow. He posted a season-worst .586 OPS in July, a month in which he was also grappling with the death of his stepfather. It is all part of navigating life, said Betts, who tries to separate the personal from the professional, as difficult as it is as his trials and tribulations play out on a public stage. "You do your best," Betts said. "Nobody really cares all that you go through before you play a game. It's just about the results. It kind of is what it is, the nature of this game and really any game, any professional sport. "Nobody really cares what you go through before, it's just a matter of what you do during that time. I've just been trying to use that time as a getaway." Betts' routine at the ballpark helps him navigate life's chaos and establish a sense of normalcy, though it looks exhausting. In the midst of trying to relearn his swing, Betts is also taking on the challenge of becoming a full-time shortstop for the first time in his career at 32 years old. Before every game, he spends hours taking swings in the cage and ground balls on the field. Then he hits some more before first pitch. By the metric defensive runs saved, he has transformed himself into one of the top five defensive shortstops in MLB. But his defensive success is juxtaposed with a dramatic offensive dropoff. He has the fifth-lowest OPS among all qualified players at his position. "It's, like, kind of sad, you know?" Betts said. "And I'm not feeling sorry for myself, but sad that the one thing you essentially built your career around, you hang your hat on, the reason why you've gotten to where you've gotten to, is the one thing that's kind of, like, completely let you down. "The one thing I can wake up out of bed and naturally go do is, like, the one thing I have to work the hardest on. I always worked hard, but this part kind of came a little bit more natural, whereas shortstop was something that was manufactured. Now, it's almost the opposite." It is not the first time he has dealt with lows in his professional career. One time in low-A, the multitalented athlete nearly quit the game. Betts, a 2011 fifth-round pick, was hitting under .150 more than a month into the 2013 minor-league season when he thought about returning to school. He planned to take the ACT early on a Saturday morning, but he ended up rescheduling when his game the night prior went late into the night. That decision was prudent; he went on a tear the rest of the season and was in the big leagues a year later. Since then, cold stretches would come and go, but he always found his way out. The 12-year veteran has never finished a big-league season with an OPS under .800. Barring a dramatic turnaround, though, that will change this year. He currently has an OPS of .684. He had hit 45% better than league average over the course of his first four seasons with the Dodgers; this year, he is batting below league average for a second-place Dodgers team that has yet to play to its massive potential. "He's going to be OK," teammate Freddie Freeman said confidently. "I don't know how to say it other than Mookie Betts is going to be Mookie Betts, and not one person in blue is worried about anything or anyone on our team." Betts' expected stats are better than what he has actually produced, suggesting some unluckiness in the down year. His chase rate is up slightly from the norm, though still well above league average. His strikeout and whiff rates remain among the game's best. He's just not generating as much force as usual. His barrel and walk rates are both down, and his hard-hit rate is the lowest of his career. He still does not attribute the physical toll of playing shortstop as the reason for his offensive shortcomings, viewing the two sides of the ball as "completely different." "Those are excuses," Betts said. "I don't like excuses." Those around him maintain their belief. "We all have Mook's back, we know he's working hard," Clayton Kershaw said. "He gets going, this lineup will get scary really fast." Roberts insists he will not move Betts down from the No. 2 spot in the order. Betts' lockermate, Freeman, reminds him not to take criticism from anyone he wouldn't seek advice from. "Like I told him two weeks ago, I said, 'You're Mookie Betts, it's going to be fine. You're one of the greatest players of this generation.'" Freeman said. "It's more of just trying to harp on, 'Stay with the process, don't chase.' Because when you're going through it, you want to get results." Betts had tried anything — everything — to find those results. He thought back to what worked when he was first coming up in Boston. In 2018, he built a quick friendship with J.D. Martinez when the two first became teammates. They had a similar passion for the game, and Betts appreciated the way Martinez thought about hitting. Even when they were no longer playing together, Betts would continue to send Martinez video of his swing to analyze. So it wasn't all that surprising earlier this month when Martinez, who is currently a free agent, decided to check in with his friend. Martinez met with Betts when the Dodgers traveled to Tampa and worked with his former teammate in the cage, as they had done so often before. But there was no immediate fix; Betts went hitless that series and eventually found himself mired in a career-worst 0-for-22 rut. "I didn't know where to go," Betts recalled. "Usually your outs can kind of guide you, especially if you're in the right realm or whatever. On the outside, I was thinking, like, 'I don't know how to fix it.' If that was my son, I would tell him, 'I don't know how to help you with that.' That's kind of where I was." He continued to seek advice from those he trusted. "I would say probably two weeks in a row, he would come to my locker and just show me video of him hitting and what he's working on and ask me my thoughts of what he thinks I think is wrong," Freeman said. The veteran first baseman didn't want to proactively approach Betts to offer more ideas, knowing how many people were already in his teammate's ear. But when Betts came to him for input, Freeman offered it. "My whole thing for him hitting was his shoulders," Freeman said. "His shoulders were tilted up too much for me. When he was swinging, his left shoulder was higher than his right." Over the last couple of weeks, when Betts would look into the on-deck circle, Freeman would make a motion to try to remind him to keep his shoulders down. "If your shoulders are down a little bit," Freeman reasoned, "everything else will work in line." Lately, Betts is showing signs of life at the plate. When the Dodgers returned from Tampa on Aug. 4, the home crowd rose to its feet to try to encourage Betts, giving him a standing ovation in his first at-bat against the Cardinals. He went hitless that day but responded the following game with three hits, including a double. He doubled again in the series finale, then homered for the first time in more than a month to begin the series against the Blue Jays. "Not to get into all the details of it, but the big thing is he's inside the baseball," Dodgers hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc said. "So, when he is out in front, he drives it in the air, not on the ground on the pull side." Over his last eight games, Betts has more hits (14) than he had in his previous 21 games (13). Over his last six games, he has knocked in as many runs (seven) as he had in his previous 29 games. Betts admits this stretch is encouraging, though he's careful not to say he's out of the woods yet, knowing how many times he felt he was on the right track only to then fall into another rut. But in a season that for so long left him searching for answers, he seems to have a better feel for what he needs to do to produce. "Obviously there's a mechanical piece that is real, that he feels something," Roberts said. "But I think for me, from my vantage point, I think there's a lot more confidence, conviction in the swings. When the ball's in the hitting zone, he's squaring it up." This week, Freeman also noted an encouraging sign. Those meetings at his locker have stopped: "That must mean he's feeling good." Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.
7 hours ago
NL West race heats up as Dodgers tie Padres for lead
LOS ANGELES -- Things sure have changed since the last time the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers clashed, back in June. The Dodgers were running away in the NL West then with a nine-game lead. The Padres were in third place. Now, with 1 1/2 months left in the season, it's all tied up. San Diego came into Dodger Stadium on Friday night with a one-game lead over the defending World Series champions. It's the latest the Padres had led the division since September 2010 and the first time the Dodgers had been out of first this late in the season since Aug. 18, 2021. By the time it was over, the Dodgers won 3-2 to snap a four-game skid and gain a tie for first. 'We just played some bad games and we're fine moving forward,' winning pitcher Clayton Kershaw said. The Padres' five-game winning streak ended. 'The only day in the standings that ultimately matters is the last day of the season,' Padres manager Mike Shildt said before the game, 'but we've played good baseball and we feel good where we're at.' The last time the Padres won the NL West was in 2006, when their leadoff hitter was current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. 'The reality is we got here by putting emphasis on every day being the most important day of the season and that's not going to change from my seat,' Shildt said. The Dodgers had been in first every day since April 27, but injuries, pitching woes and lack of offensive punch have derailed them. 'It just takes one to get going," Kershaw said, "and hopefully this was it for us.' Ever the optimist, Roberts is keeping the faith in his lineup. 'They just got to go out there and take good at-bats,' he said. 'They're motivated. I don't like to be embarrassed, I don't think our players do, so this series I'm expecting kind of high intensity and high performance.' The teams meet five more times over the next nine days. 'The division isn't won or lost in the next 10 days but it will make an impact and we know that,' Kershaw said. 'We just got to keep playing. You can't put any more or any less on it. Hopefully, our talent and our team will take over, which we know it will.' The series opener Friday was devoid of the fireworks that occurred in June, when the Dodgers took five of seven games during the teams' first two series. Ten batters were hit, including Padres slugger Fernando Tatis Jr. three times. The last time cleared the benches. Roberts and Shildt were ejected following a tense back-and-forth exchange. This time, Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia hit Jose Iglesias and Jake Cronenworth back-to-back to open the eighth, but there was no retribution by the Padres. 'It was a high intensity game but it was certainly kind of tempered as far as internally,' Roberts said afterward, 'but I think that I could see it as far as on the field. I could feel it. Our focus was keen.' Roberts said beforehand that he and Shildt had not spoken since the contretemps. 'I'm past it,' Roberts said before the game. 'I just want us to play well.' Shildt said, 'I'm not a grudge guy. I'm not a carry things over. I'm more of a day-to-day guy. Go and treat people with respect.' Shildt and Roberts shook hands while exchanging lineup cards . Roberts said, 'I'll just do what I do all the time, say hello and that's about it.'
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Tom Brady avoids joining list of sports history's infamous statues
A little over a year after the New England Patriots inducted Tom Brady into the franchise's Hall of Fame and retired his No. 12, the seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback received another honor Friday night. [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] Ahead of the Patriots' preseason opener against the Washington Commanders, the team unveiled a statue of Brady in Patriot Place Plaza, right next to the franchise's Hall of Fame at Gillette Stadium. Patriots owner Robert Kraft announced during Brady's team Hall of Fame induction that plans were in place to have Brady be the first player in franchise history to be honored with a statue. The addition of a statue always come with anxiety about it becoming the butt of a joke, but the fans could breathe easy once the statue was revealed. It looked perfectly fine, with a fairly accurate-looking Brady standing with his fist in the air. Thanks to the work of artist and Patriots fan Jeff Buccacio, Brady avoided joining the infamous list of sports statues gone bad, just ask the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Dwyane Wade, Mo Salah and others. Those sports legends are on the list of some of the most notorious athlete statues in sports history. Harry Caray (1999) The legendary Chicago Cubs broadcaster is depicted leading fans in a rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," as he did many times at Wrigley Field. It also appears as if Caray is bursting through a baseball stadium with a creepy cluster of fans at his feet. Andy Murray (2011) A terracotta statue of the Scottish tennis player was unveiled in Shanghai, China, in 2011, much to the dismay of the three-time Grand Slam champion. 'I thought I was better looking than that," Murray said at the time. There will be a second opportunity for a more realistic-looking statue of the two-time Wimbledon champion as Murray will be involved in the design process of the statue that will be revealed at the All-England Club in 2027. Cristiano Ronaldo (2017) To many, he's the G.O.A.T. of the soccer world. In the sports statue world, he was honored with the G.O.A.T. depiction at the Madeira Airport in Portugal. The airport changed its name to Aeroporto Internacional da Madeira Cristiano Ronaldo and unveiled a bust of the soccer legend. The reaction was not positive and a new sculpture was installed a year later. Diego Maradona (2017) The Argentinian soccer god was on hand for the 12-foot statue's unveiling in Kolkata, India. He is depicted holding the World Cup trophy. Some pointed out his resemblance to the likes of Larry Bird, singer Susan Boyle and actress Betty White. Michael Essien (2018) The Chelsea and Real Madrid legend was honored in his native Ghana by a local sculptor. Little is known about the inspiration behind the statue, other than to provide nightmare fuel for those who look at it. Mo Salah (2018) Unveiled in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the Liverpool star is shown celebrating one of his many goals with his trademark pose. Is it Salah or does it more closely resemble singer Art Garfunkel or Daniel Stern's "Marv Murchins" character from "Home Alone." Brandi Chastain (2018) While not a statue, this plaque of U.S. soccer legend Brandi Chastain deserves a mention. Chastain, who famously scored the winning penalty kick in the 1999 Women's World Cup Final, was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. The image they used of her was so bad that she was asked to send a photo of herself in order for a redo. David Beckham (2019) Unlike the temporary statue put up by H&M when Beckham was modeling underwear, the one the Los Angeles Galaxy commissioned had the soccer legend fully clothed, though he did resemble Gordon Ramsay a bit. It was still better than the one he thought the MLS side was using, until late night host James Corden revealed it was a prank. Dwyane Wade (2024) The basketball Hall of Famer was honored by the Miami Heat with a statue outside of the team's arena, Kaseya Center. The depiction of Wade was of him after hitting a game-winning shot in double-overtime in 2009, after which he stood on the scorer's table and declared: "This is my house!" The problem was that it didn't really look like him.
