Trial for Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco begins in Dominican Republic
PUERTO PLATA, Dominican Republic (AP) — The trial of Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco started Monday in the Dominican Republic in a sexual abuse case involving a 14-year-old girl.
Franco told judges he wants justice to be done.
Franco has been charged in the northern province of Puerto Plata with sexually abusing a minor, sexual and commercial exploitation against a minor, and human trafficking.
Prosecutors introduced documents as pieces of evidence against the 24-year-old Franco during the first hearing, and added they will call at least seven witnesses in a trial that is expected to proceed on Thursday, Friday and next Monday.
Franco heard the charges against him and could be sentenced to up to 30 years in jail.
'I heard all they said, but I wanted to say that justice must be done,' Franco told the judges.
Irina Ventura, one of Franco's attorneys, said part of the evidence against her client is fraudulent and illegal. Teodosio Jaquez, another member of the player's legal team, said that the underage girl denied having sexual relations with the player.
Prosecutor Claudio Cordero said all the evidence 'was obtained in a lawful manner, are self-sufficient and will lead to a conviction, which is sought by the prosecutor's office.'
Franco was having an All-Star season in 2023 before
Dominican authorities began investigating allegations
he had been in a relationship with a minor and paid her mother thousands of dollars for her consent. The trial was initially scheduled for Dec. 12, but was postponed until June.
The trial could take up to eight months to conclude, based on the average duration of trials in the Dominican Republic.
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Indianapolis Star
30 minutes ago
- Indianapolis Star
'I'm not taking this for granted.' How Tyrese Haliburton is preparing for first NBA Finals
INDIANAPOLIS – The first NBA Finals Tyrese Haliburton "truthfully" remembers watching — the first one he didn't just notice but sat down and consumed — was in 2011. He was a LeBron James fan, so at that particular moment, that made him a Miami Heat fan. James had made "The Decision" one year prior to leave Cleveland to join the Heat with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and they ripped through the Eastern Conference playoffs to the NBA Finals in their first year together, so Haliburton was expecting to see James crowned a champion for the first time. But the Heat met a Dallas Mavericks team with less acclaim but plenty of talent and a coach named Rick Carlisle and they lost that series to the Mavs in six games. "I hated Rick for that," Haliburton said. "... I definitely couldn't stand the Mavs and Rick for that at that time." Flash forward 14 years, however, and Haliburton has an Olympic gold medal in large part because of James' heroics and he now is in the NBA Finals for the first time with Carlisle, who will coach for his first championship since that 2011 team. Obviously, Haliburton has moved past the grudge he held as an 11-year-old. For the past three-plus seasons, Haliburton has asked Carlisle and other members of his staff who were around in 2011 about what made that team work and why it was able to take down a Miami team with so much star power. "The biggest thing is they went into that situation similar to how we've went into a lot of our playoff runs," Haliburton said. "Just being the underdog and knowing that a lot of people weren't picking them and just kinda going into with a — I don't know a better way to put it. Kind of with an F-it, (expletive)-it mentality. Sorry, I didn't want to cuss, but I had to right there, I didn't know how to get it across. But just going into it that way and as long as the guys in our locker room and the people in this building believe, then anything is possible." For Haliburton this season has truly proven anything is possible. His grandest dreams are coming true at the end of a season that started with some of his lowest moments as a player in his basketball life. Toward the end of November he was experiencing something beyond frustration as he went through one of the most miserable shooting slumps in his life while the Pacers struggled with injuries en route to a 10-15 start. But thanks to support from teammates and friends he managed to get his mind right and worked his way back to All-Star caliber play. He actually missed the All-Star game but played some of the best basketball of his life after the All-Star break to earn third-team All-NBA honors. "The beginning of the year this year, no one will ever know how difficult that was for him," Carlisle said. "Through it all he may have missed one game in the first 30. He kept playing. He kept believing in himself, engaging with his teammates, kept a great attitude. There's nothing more you can ask for." By the playoffs he had his confidence all the way back and in the postseason he's authored three shots that will earn a measure of immortality in Pacers history — the driving layup to beat the Bucks in Game 5 of the first round, the step-back 3 to beat the Cavs in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semis and the high-off-the-rim jumper that sent Game 1 against the Knicks into overtime. He's averaging 18.8 points and 9.8 assists per game in these playoffs and even the numbers don't quite capture his total impact. The struggles of the early part of the season have led to him viewing these playoffs differently than last year's. In retrospect, he believes he may have spent too much of last year's playoffs thinking of that run as the first of many or as an early step in a gradual rise. When the Pacers struggled early, he realized they weren't guaranteed to get another chance. "This is a really exciting time for me personally to have this opportunity," Haliburton said. "This is something I've wanted to do my whole life. Last year, having playoff success in my first playoff run and being unsuccessful to start the season, for me I thought a lot about, wow, maybe I took last year for granted. I didn't know what the playoffs were going to look like as the year was going on. I didn't know if we'd be a play-in team or where we'd stack up in the end with how we were playing early in the year. I'm definitely not taking this for granted. Learning to appreciate every day and remember all these days as best as I can." Haliburton said, as usual, he's tried to pick Pascal Siakam's brain to get a sense of what's coming as Siakam won a title with the Raptors in 2019. He knows the situation isn't going to be exactly the same, but any amount of foresight is helpful. "We talked about it yesterday in film as far as all the distractions, all the things that come with playing in the Finals," Haliburton said. "We've had many conversations with it. I've had many conversations with Pascal leading up to this just in passing, randomly just sitting on the plane. 'Yo, tell me about this game in that playoff run.' That's part of it. I'm really excited about it. We just continue to make more memories and do more stuff together. ... I'm sure some stuff has changed, but the main thing remains the main thing. The emotions, the energy in the building is going to be a lot of fun. That's something I'm looking forward to a lot." He also knows what's coming is a major challenge. The Thunder team the Pacers are about to face don't come to the Finals with nearly the fanfare that Heat team did, but it won 10 more games in the regular season than the 2010-11 Miami squad, posting the fifth most wins in NBA history at 68-14. The Pacers are close to doing something the franchise hasn't done since it moved to the NBA from the ABA, but they have every reason not to get ahead of themselves. And that allows Haliburton to continue to stay in the moment. "It's easy for human nature to set in and be like, 'Yo, we're four wins away from a championship,'" Haliburton said. "'All we gotta do is this, this and that and we're gonna be a champion and this is what the parade is gonna look like.' It's easy to do that. But just trying to be grounded and be where my feet are and take it one day at a time. Because if we're able to do what we set out to do it's going to be really special."
New York Times
34 minutes ago
- New York Times
White Sox All-Quarter Century Team, the South Siders' best since 2000
Editor's note: The Athletic is marking 2025 by naming MLB All-Quarter Century Teams, selected by Jayson Stark and Tyler Kepner and our readers. In addition, some of our writers are picking All-Quarter Century Teams for the teams they cover. Check this page to find all of our All-Quarter Century Team coverage. Advertisement Well, the last quarter century of White Sox baseball has certainly been eventful, hasn't it? The 2000s began with a surprise division title just three years after the infamous 'White Flag Trade.' Five years later, the franchise reached its apex with a World Series championship. Yadda yadda yadda, in 2024, the White Sox went 41-121 and eclipsed the 1962 New York Mets as the worst team in modern baseball history. It's been a long way down. You could basically put the 2005 team on this list and Sox fans would be satiated, but in the end, I included only four of its position players, the ace of the pitching staff and the closer. I tried to balance longevity with impact, and in one case, I picked a guy mostly for vibes (and two big defensive plays in the World Series). Feel free to argue among yourselves in the comments, but if you look at the team's most common players by position page on Baseball Reference, you'll get a picture of why the Sox made the playoffs only five times since 2000. Signing Pierzynski was one of GM Kenny Williams' finest decisions. He was perfect for this team and this town and no one personified that era of Sox baseball like Pierzynski, who was both brash and good. Mark Buehrle famously said he never shook him off. Pierzynski's two most famous moments of his eight years with the team were running to first on a dropped third strike with two outs in the bottom of the ninth in Game 2 of the 2005 ALCS, a heads-up play that helped propel the Sox to a win; and getting punched by Cubs catcher Michael Barrett in 2006, setting off a benches-clearing brawl. But later that season, when the crosstown series returned to Wrigley Field, he hit a three-run homer to give the Sox the lead in the ninth that led to some Cubs fans showering the outfield with garbage. Those kinds of moments are why Sox fans still wear his jerseys to games. They called him 'The King' for a reason. Konerko, who played on the South Side from 1999 through 2014, was the captain of the White Sox, an erudite student of hitting with a caustic dry wit. He hit 408 of his 439 career homers for the Sox in the 2000s while putting up a .280/.356/.490 slash line. He could go into slumps, but he was otherwise the steady presence for a rocky franchise. Advertisement Everyone thought he'd leave after 2005 for free agency riches, but he pulled a smooth negotiating maneuver when he saved the final-out ball from the World Series and presented it to chairman Jerry Reinsdorf at the parade. When Konerko finally retired in 2014, he immediately got a statue and a retired number. In two-plus seasons of the 2000s, Durham put up 10.8 bWAR for the Sox. He hit 52 homers in that span (Durham is the franchise leader for homers as a second baseman) and was an All-Star in the team's surprising run to the AL Central title in 2000. There aren't a lot of other candidates, really. Tadahito Iguchi was a 30-year-old rookie in 2005 and helped spark the 'Ozzie Ball' Sox to the World Series, but he had a 5.3 WAR in two-plus seasons. Gordon Beckham should've been the guy, but wasn't. Yoán Moncada didn't stick at second long enough. Chris Getz started one season at second base and is now the GM. From 2009 through 2023, the White Sox got consistent production from Alexei Ramirez and Tim Anderson at shortstop. Anderson personified the team's short-lived 'Change the Game' era, winning a batting title in 2019 and making a pair of All-Star Games in 2021 and 2022. His bat-flipping charisma made him a star and his homer into the corn in the 'Field of Dreams' game got the Sox a nod for the 25 best games of the quarter century. Ramirez, who started at shortstop from 2009 through 2015, put up 23.5 bWAR and hit 109 homers in his eight seasons (including one at second base) for the Sox. He finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2008 and made an All-Star team in 2014. But this is a subjective exercise and I'm going with my gut. This team needs Juan Uribe, the Winnie the Pooh-shaped shortstop who brought vibes like no one else. Advertisement 'He remains one of my favorite guys to ever put on a White Sox uniform,' Williams told me in 2016. 'He's a prince of a guy and if you get a chance to know him, he's one of the funniest guys you'll ever know.' More importantly, he made one of the iconic plays of the Sox World Series run, catching a foul ball in the stands for the second out in the ninth before helping finish off the 1-0 clincher in Game 4 with a ridiculous snag and throw to first. You wish you loved your kids as much as Hawk Harrelson loved Joe Crede. (I can only hear his name in Harrelson's bellowing voice.) Crede was only a full-time starter for the Sox from 2003 through 2008, but it seems like he was there forever, a quiet guy on a loud team. His best offensive season actually came in 2006, when the Sox failed to get back to the playoffs, but he'll forever be remembered for his walk-off hit in Game 2 of the '05 ALCS. Crede was up with two outs in a tie game just after Pierzynski reached first on the dropped third strike and hit an 0-2 pitch from Kelvim Escobar for a double to left, scoring pinch-runner Pablo Ozuna. That tied the series at 1-1, and the Sox didn't lose again in the playoffs. Crede had a .949 OPS in the 2005 playoffs with four homers and 11 RBIs. The Hawkeroo will toast to this pick. Carlos Quentin had the best single season of any left fielder in the 2000s with a 5.3 WAR in 2008 (and that's with missing the last month of the season). Scott Podsednik was the straw that stirred the Sox's drink in 2005. But it's the guy who was traded for Podsednik — in the deal that got used as an example of the 'culture change' that Ozzie Guillen wanted — who wins this honor based on actual production. (Yes, I know I used the opposite argument for Uribe.) Because from 2000-04, Lee had a .287/.344/.493 slash line, hitting 136 homers and driving in 468 runs. He was really good, if not the right person for Guillen's lineup at the time. When Theo Epstein traded Eloy Jiménez to the Sox, he comped him to 'El Caballo,' but the oft-injured Jiménez never came close to capturing Lee's production. Advertisement But I should point out that while Podsednik's value was only immeasurable in the 2005 regular season, he really raked in the playoffs with six extra-base hits, including two homers. He slugged .551 in the postseason as compared to .349 during the season. Aaron Rowand is the sentimental favorite, but even though he's having a nightmarish season, Robert is still the pick. He's a five-tool player, even if only three of those tools are showing up right now. He showed signs of stardom in his first four seasons and I have to think the woeful state of the team has had an effect on him. While the team was falling apart in 2023, Robert played 145 games and put up a 5.3 bWAR with 38 homers and an .857 OPS. But he was bad last year in the Sox's historically awful season and he's been even worse in 2025 as the team tries to peddle him for prospects. It's a shame he hasn't produced more in a Sox uniform. You want to know something depressing? Adam Eaton had a better bWAR (16.2) in four seasons with the Sox than Robert does (14.4) in five-plus seasons. Shoot, maybe Eaton should've won this honor? From 2000-04, Ordoñez made three of his four All-Star Games as a Sox (he made two more with Detroit) and put up a .313/.376/.550 slash line with 139 homers and 510 RBIs. He was a star and another White Sox inductee into the Hall of Very Good. The Sox let Ordońez go after the 2004 season and he signed a five-year, $75 million deal with Detroit that included two option years, one of which was picked up for $18 million. Nineteen years later, the Sox finally gave their own five-year, $75 million deal to a free agent outfielder. (Don't ask.) Jermaine Dye, the Sox's World Series MVP, finishes second here. You have Jim Thome, who hit 134 homers, had 369 RBIs and put up a .933 OPS in 529 games in three-plus seasons with the Sox — and also hit the solo homer in the 1-0 2008 division tiebreaker win over the Twins at The Cell — and of course you have Frank Thomas (more on him below). There's also, uh, Adam Dunn. Advertisement But while he never played more than 39 games at DH, Abreu obviously deserves to be on this team for his production over nine years in Chicago. Abreu, the regular first baseman from 2014 through 2022, made three All-Star teams, won Rookie of the Year in 2014 and the AL MVP in the shortened 2020 season. He put up 31.3 bWAR and hit 243 homers and 863 RBIs for the Sox. I'm actually surprised there aren't more pictures of him around the ballpark. When does he get his statue? You can't do an All-Sox team without Frank Thomas, the franchise's all-time best hitter. From 2000-05, after his Hall of Fame peak, he still hit 147 homers and drove in 425 runs in 588 games and he barely played in 2001 and 2005. In that last year, he started the season rehabbing from an offseason ankle surgery and then was lost to foot surgery in late July. Still, he somehow managed 12 homers in just 105 at-bats. He wasn't on the playoff roster, which was a shame, but he still enjoyed the World Series run. The next year in Oakland, he finished fourth in AL MVP voting en route to a first-ballot Hall of Fame nod. He's currently selling an eponymous vodka and appearing in those cringey Nugenix commercials. One thing the White Sox did in this era was produce pitchers. Somewhere Don Cooper is smiling. Our starting five has four left-handers. We're leaving out Lucas Giolito, José Contreras (who was basically the best pitcher in baseball from the second half of 2005 through the first half of 2006), Freddy Garcia and Jon Garland, among others. Buehrle was one of the most effective (and efficient) pitchers of his era and one of the all-time best Sox starters (48.9 bWAR, 161 wins, 3.83 ERA, nearly 2,500 innings in 12 seasons), which is why he's still getting Hall of Fame votes and a statue at The Rate this summer. Sale was the franchise's best draft pick since Thomas. He went 74-50 with an even 3.00 ERA in 228 games (148 starts) for the Sox, striking out 1,244 in 1,110 innings. He was in the top six of Cy Young Award voting for his last five seasons with the Sox, making the All-Star team each time. His trade to Boston after the 2016 season started the team's ill-fated rebuild — and it was obvious then and now that the Sox's failure to build around him and Quintana was an organizational failure. He should be Cooperstown-bound with a strong finish to his career. Advertisement You don't have to say 'What about Danks?' because he made the list. The lefty is just behind Sale in career strikeouts for the franchise. Quintana had 21.2 WAR in six seasons before being dealt in a crosstown blockbuster to the Cubs for Cease, who finished second for the AL Cy Young in 2022. Cease, the lone right-hander, had a 3.83 ERA and 792 strikeouts in 658 innings for the Sox. He pitched in 346 games with the Sox and 209 of them came between 2000-02. Foulke had a 2.74 ERA and 87 saves, striking out 224 in 246 2/3 innings. He wasn't a setup guy, but he'll do just fine. Who else? Jenks is second all-time in saves in Sox history at 173 (Bobby Thigpen is first with 201) and he had 334 strikeouts in 341 2/3 innings. The best closers have what the kids today call 'aura' and Jenks was thick with it. After coming up during the 2005 season as a golden ticket of a waiver claim, Jenks started pumping triple-digit fastballs in an era where that wasn't commonplace. In the post-Jordan era of Chicago sports, I'd put Jenks, despite being a heavyset dude with a goatee, among the most electric athletes we had, right up there with Javy Báez, Patrick Kane and Derrick Rose. He was like a folk hero. As you might've read, Jenks is currently battling stomach cancer in Portugal. Da Pope. The Sox fan formerly known as Robert Prevost sneaks past Donn Pall for the honor. Last year, the Sox had the milkshake as the distraction for an awful season. This season, it's the pope. I love that the White Sox, the team perennially slept on by the national media, can count a Pope and a President among its fans. Obama proudly wore his Sox gear as a Senator and as the President and gave the franchise some needed cachet after they stopped winning. Guillen was the shortstop of the 1990s, a Rookie of the Year and three-time All-Star with the gift of gab. His hiring before the 2004 season was one of Williams and Reinsdorf's best moves. The White Sox went 678-617 in Guillen's eight seasons in charge, with five winning seasons. Their 11-1 romp through the 2005 playoffs looked dominant but included a host of close games. Seven of those wins were decided by one or two runs, including all four games of a World Series sweep. Advertisement Guillen should still be managing somewhere, but he's turned into the best studio analyst in the city, the Charles Barkley of White Sox games. I would love to hear Ozzie the analyst critique Ozzie the manager's moves after a game. (Photo of Mark Buehrle, A.J. Pierzynski and Paul Konerko after Buehrle pitched a complete game against the Cubs in 2006: Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images)
Associated Press
39 minutes ago
- Associated Press
French Open: Coco Gauff will face a Frenchwoman ranked 361st in the semifinals
PARIS (AP) — That No. 2 seed Coco Gauff reached Thursday's French Open semifinals should surprise no one. Her 361st-ranked opponent for a berth in the title match? That's a whole other story. Gauff made it to the final four at Roland-Garros for the third time, getting past No. 7 Madison Keys 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday in a quarterfinal between two Americans who both have won a major title. Next up for 2023 U.S. Open champion Gauff? A matchup against French wild-card entry Loïs Boisson, who extended one of the most stunning runs in tennis history by beating No. 6 Mirra Andreeva 7-6 (6), 6-3. 'Unbelievable,' Boisson said. 'Incredible.' Those are a couple of good words for what's been happening. A year ago, Boisson was supposed to make her Grand Slam debut in Paris, but she tore a knee ligament and couldn't compete. Now 22, Boisson is the first woman to get to the semifinals of her first major tournament since Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati did it at the 1989 French Open and is the lowest-ranked to get that far at Roland-Garros in at least 40 years. She's doing it with a game made for clay, anchored by heavy groundstrokes and buoyed by a rowdy, partisan crowd that rattled the 18-year-old Andreeva — she was warned for ball abuse for smacking one toward the upper deck after one bad volley — and was just as loud when Boisson upset No. 3 Jessica Pegula in the fourth round. 'It's impossible to describe,' Boisson said, 'what it feels like to have that kind of support.' Over and over again, the chair umpire tried to tell the 15,000 or so spectators to be quiet as their thunderous applause and shouts of Boisson's first name reverberated off the inside of the closed roof at Court Philippe-Chatrier. They didn't heed those requests. They jeered and whistled when Andreeva complained about noise between her first and second serves or argued line calls. And Boisson hung in there even while facing a set point in the first while down 5-3. When the match ended, Boisson collapsed to her back, chest heaving and hands on her face. When she rose, there were flecks of rust-colored clay all over, including her forehead. No matter what happens the rest of the way, Boisson certainly has left her mark on the 2025 French Open. What else happened at the French Open on Wednesday? The men's quarterfinals later in the day were No. 1 Jannik Sinner against unseeded Alexander Bublik, and 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic against No. 3 Alexander Zverev. Who plays at Roland-Garros on Thursday? The two women's semifinals are the only singles matches on the Day 12 schedule, with three-time defending champion Iga Swiatek facing No. 1-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in just their second matchup at a Grand Slam tournament, and Gauff meeting Boisson, The men's semifinals are Friday. ___ Howard Fendrich has been the AP's tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: More AP tennis:
