Latest news with #RedOctober
USA Today
01-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Reds' Elly De La Cruz hits two long homers in first game with torpedo bat
Reds' Elly De La Cruz hits two long homers in first game with torpedo bat Show Caption Hide Caption Yankees introduced torpedo bats and rest of league likely to join them The Yankees made waves on opening day with their new torpedo bats and Bob Nightengale explains the impact they will have on the league. Sports Pulse The Hunt for (Cincinnati) Red October has a powerful new weapon in its arsenal. Using a torpedo bat for the first time, Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz had a career night Monday against the Texas Rangers, hitting a pair of long home runs and driving in seven in a 14-3 blowout. Both of De La Cruz's homers were hit to deep center field, with the first landing on the turf berm and the second hitting the base of the batter's eye. Combined, the homers totaled 854 feet. He also had a single and a double, scored four times and stole a base. But what will undoubtedly draw the most attention in the wake of De La Cruz's fourth multihomer game of his career is that he did it with a new style of bat that's taken MLB by storm this season. He said Monday was his first official game with the torpedo bat, adding: "I just want to know if it feels good and it definitely does." According to Statcast, De La Cruz's homers left the bat at speeds of 110.2 and 107.2 mph – his highest and third-highest exit velocities of the young season. The new bats gained attention when several members of the New York Yankees used them to hit a record-tying 15 home runs in the season's first three games. De La Cruz said Reds teammate and former Yankees catcher Jose Trevino has used a model of the torpedo bat for over a year, and the two talked about it this past spring training. Reds hitting coach Chris Valaika also made torpedo bats available to Reds players this spring. But De La Cruz had not used one in a game until Monday night. After De La Cruz's power-hitting display Monday night, several players said they're open to taking the new bats for a test drive.
CBS News
31-03-2025
- Climate
- CBS News
When do the Phillies play today? What to know about the home opener at Citizens Bank Park
Baseball is back at the bank. The Philadelphia Phillies' 2025 season is already underway, but on Monday, the team will play its first game of the year in front of its home crowd at Citizens Bank Park. The weather looks a bit iffy , but that's not tampering with the excitement for a fresh run at a Red October. Here's what you need to know about today's Phillies' home opener . First pitch for the Philadelphia Phillies' home opener at Citizens Bank Park is set for 3:05 p.m. against the Colorado Rockies. All gates open at 12:35 p.m. Tailgating lots M-O open at 10 a.m., and non-tailgating lots P-X open at 12 p.m. Heading into their first home games, the Phils are 2-1. As of Monday morning, the team hasn't released its full lineup for their first game at CBP. However, pitcher Cristopher Sánchez is listed as the probable start on the mound for Philadelphia Right now, it looks like it'll stay dry for first pitch, but a severe weather threat is forecast to reach the city around 6 p.m. However, that could change if the storm speeds up. Heavy rain, damaging winds and intense lightning are the main threats on Monday night. While the tornado threat is very low, it's not zero in our region. Tickets are still available for Monday's game against the Rockies. Single-game tickets and ticket packages can be purchased on the Phillies' website . Non-clear bags, backpacks and draw-string bags are not allowed inside Citizens Bank Park. Only small purses and/or fanny packs (no larger than 5" x 7"), clear bags (no larger than 12" x 6" x 12"), medical bags, and diaper bags will be permitted into the stadium, the team says. Medically necessary bags, including diaper bags, are permitted. Guests can store items inside lockers located on Citizens Bank Way for $10, and all bags are subject to inspection.
Axios
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
What Opening Day means to Phillies fans
MLB Opening Day means different things to different Philadelphians. Why it matters: It's when baseball fans genuflect at the altar of America's pastime, united by the hope of a fresh start, infectious fandom and memories of celebrating with loved ones. Catch up quick: The Phillies didn't temper expectations last year, billing the 2024 campaign as World Series or bust. They started the first half red hot before tapering off late in the season, and losing to the Mets in the divisional playoff round. They return with the big-money core roster intact, hoping to conjure the same Red October magic that had Philly two wins away from a Fall Classic victory in 2022. Ahead of the Phillies season opener against division rivals the Nationals Thursday afternoon, we asked fans what Opening Day means to them. For Scot Teller, an actor and former Reading Phillies bullpen catcher, his perspective has changed over the years. Teller experienced it as a young boy attending games with his dad, a diehard Phillies fan. Decades later, he strapped up as a player, taking the field for the Phils' double-A affiliate. And then, he's reveled in the fun as a father, taking his own son to the game. Teller remembers the twinkle in his son's eye when they took in their first Opening Day from the stands — rather than Teller's usual spot on the field. "That's when I knew my son loved the game of baseball," he says. What they're saying: Teller still gets chills whenever the announcer shouts, "Play ball." "Whether you're playing, whether you're a fan, whether you're a father," he tells Axios, "hearing that ball hit the glove. That pop. The cheers. I still get nervous." Zoom out: Local influencer Kory Aversa is trying to capture some of that magic. He's behind the popular Philly Publicist TikTok and Instagram pages, cranking out all the content a ravenous Phillie Phanatic could want — like when the team's mascot gave Arizona a smashing welcome in 2023. At last year's Opening Day, he featured bundled-up fans who braved the weather to root on the Phils. "I am a man on a mission," Aversa tells Axios. "I want to find out where the people are, where all the good action is." Chris Heffernan, owner of the dlivrd, one of Philly's fastest-growing delivery businesses, knows that fan-entrepreneur struggle all too well. His company sees a huge spike in food delivery demands on Opening Day and throughout the long baseball season.
Los Angeles Times
26-03-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
The bulk bins overflow with thousands of chocolates — and memories — at this Russian market
If the Valley were an ocean, and it often feels as vast as one, then its sunken treasure is surely found in the bulk sections of its Russian grocery stores. There, in place of dried cherries and slivered almonds, lie thousands of individually packaged chocolates. In shades of violet and vermilion they glitter like jewels under beams of light, each with an intricately designed wrapper and a story to tell. My Russian fluency starts and ends with 'cheers,' but lucky for me, iconography is no stranger in the Russian grocery store. Take Odessa Grocery in Valley Village, for example. Here one could cast a children's picture book by simply pacing the aisles. Butter, biscuits, condensed milk, everything seems to have a mascot. The bulk section is no exception. The folktales on the chocolate wrappers are interesting enough, but the lore they've created for those who grew up with them may just be a folktale of its own. 'Little Red Riding Hood, that's the candy we had as children.' says Tatiana Rosinskaya from her post behind the cold case, her face framed by piles of piroshki and bricks of salt-cured pork. She's referring to a chocolate-covered wafer with an illustration of the folk heroine featured prominently on the front. Consider the Golden Cockerel, an orange praline with a dark chocolate glaze, inspired by Alexander Pushkin's poem of the same name. 'This is not a fairy tale, this is a painting,' says shopper Sveta (who preferred providing only her first name) as she plucks a blue confection from the pile and holds it between her elegant fingernails. On it, a tiny painting of four bears in the forest. 'Shishkin painted this,' she says, referring to the famous painting 'Morning in a Pine Forest' by Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky. One can see the similarities, but in the reproduced candy version the bears are fuller, fluffier and more playful. Rosinskaya is from Saratov, Russia, and has memories of a nearby candy factory in Samara. But as far as candy manufacturers go, her clearest memory is of Красный Октябрь or 'Red October,' headquartered in Moscow, with Wonka levels of renown. Red October is responsible for a slew of treats, none more famous than Alenka. Initially created when the company won a Soviet government contract in the 1960s to create an affordable milk chocolate easily reproducible for the masses, Alenka is recognized more for its packaging than its flavor. Its signature blue-eyed baby wrapped in a headscarf was later revealed to be Elena Gerinas whose father Aleksandr took the photo back in 1962. Gerinas lost a legal battle seeking compensation for rights to the image, which to this day remains an icon of the aisles. Not all grocery stores in the Valley's Russian enclave are exclusively Russian, and the same can be said for their patrons. Families from all over the former Soviet Union — Uzbekistani, Ukrainian, Georgian and Armenian folks — shop at Odessa, which itself is named after a city in Ukraine. The candies follow suit, none more fittingly than hazelnut praline Kara-Kum named for the desert that covers 70% of Turkmenistan. On the wrapper, five camels ride into beige oblivion under a golden sun. 'We left when they kicked us out,' Sveta says, when asked about coming to America from Uzbekistan. 'It also started like that in Ukraine, they said Russians go to Russia, Jews go to Israel, Armenians go to Armenia. We lived in a very international city, lots of different types of people.' These candies hold nostalgia for the first generation too, Bella Sosis tells me. She was born in Chicago to Ukrainian parents, and Batonchik, a chocolate roll filled with powdered milk and crushed wafers, was a favorite in her house. She picks one off the shelf and smiles at it like an old friend. 'Honestly, they aren't my favorite sweets. The chocolate flavor in a lot of these candies isn't intense. Because chocolate is expensive, it's cut with milk powder, sugar, stuff like that,' she tells me. 'But I do like to eat them because they help me understand my dad's childhood experience a little bit.' 'I think a lot of these illustrations are meant to serve as escapism of sorts,' her sister Ari chimes in. 'Yeah,' Bella responds. 'You get lost in the story and it elevates the chocolate, which itself isn't rich or luxurious.' Holding up a Golden Cockerel, she adds: 'When we were growing up my parents would eat the candy inside then re-wrap them so they looked just like this.'
