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From Jack Harris: Shohei Ohtani wasn’t able to participate in this week’s Home Run Derby. But the Dodgers slugger didn’t leave All-Star week in Texas without a memorable big fly.
In the third inning of Major League Baseball’s 94th All-Star Game on Tuesday night at Globe Life Field, Ohtani wowed the 39,343-person crowd the best way he knows how: smoking a no-doubt, 400-foot home run halfway up the right-field stands in the American League’s eventual 5-3 win over the National League.
“At this point, it’s normal for him,” teammate Teoscar Hernández said. “It’s Shohei being Shohei.”
The blast was Ohtani’s first home run in the Midsummer Classic, where he is now two for six with three walks in four appearances (he also has a win as a pitcher, making him the only player in MLB history with both a home run and win in the event).
It was the first All-Star Game homer by a Dodgers player since Mike Piazza in 1996, and only the second by a Japanese-born player after Ichiro Suzuki’s inside-the-park home run in the 2007 game.
However, it was also the only scoring for the NL on Tuesday, denying Ohtani potential most valuable player honors that instead went to the Boston Red Sox’s Jarren Durran, a former Long Beach State and Cypress High standout, who broke a 3-3 tie in the fifth inning with a two-run homer.
MLB draft Day 3: Pitcher Christian Becerra becomes third Harvard-Westlake grad taken
Shaikin: MLB players with Vegas roots skeptical of A’s relocation: ‘It’s a terrible idea’
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ANGELS
From Bill Shaikin: Shohei Ohtani is here at the All-Star Game, representing the Dodgers. Mike Trout is not here, the first time in his 13 full seasons that the All-Star Game has gone on without him.
Baseball has pretty much gone on without the Angels this season, yet again. They are in fourth place, where they have finished in five of the last six seasons.
Angel Stadium used to be packed every night, for stars such as Vladimir Guerrero and Bartolo Colon, Garret Anderson and Tim Salmon, Jered Weaver and John Lackey, Torii Hunter and Francisco Rodriguez.
Those were Arte Moreno’s Angels, in his first decade of ownership, with five division championships in a six-year run.
His second decade of ownership has not been successful: one postseason appearance, three general managers, five managers, eight consecutive losing seasons and counting, and what ranks as baseball’s worst farm system, according to the league’s website.
Fans cannot be taken for granted. Commissioner Rob Manfred should be very concerned that a team in the second-largest market in North America is about to extend its streak of consecutive years without a postseason victory to 15 years, its streak of consecutive years without a postseason appearance to 10 years.
LAKERS
From Dan Woike and Broderick Turner: Lindsey Harding, last season’s G League coach of the year, will join JJ Redick’s first staff with the Lakers, The Times has learned from multiple people not authorized to discuss the negotiations.
Should she be hired, she’d be the first full-time female assistant in team history.
Harding, 40, played college basketball at Duke at the same time as Redick. She was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 WNBA draft and had a nine-season career in the WNBA with Minnesota, Washington, Atlanta, Las Vegas, New York and Phoenix.
She worked in Philadelphia while Redick was a player for the 76ers before moving to Sacramento, where she has been an assistant for the last five seasons, including her time in the G League when she coached the Stockton Kings.
Joe ‘Jellybean’ Bryant, father of late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, dies at 69
Is Bronny James a pro? Jaylen Brown doesn’t think so: He’s with Lakers ‘because of his name’
SPARKS
From Marissa Kraus: Asked after Tuesday’s game how she would rate the Sparks’ season, Azurá Stevens immediately answered “D+” before quickly switching to a “C+” in a fit of laughter after Rickea Jackson gave her a shocked expression.
“I meant a C+,” Stevens said as the media room joined in the lighthearted laughter. “That’s because of the record and because we’ve had injuries, but a lot of these games have been within our control so we are trending in the right direction. At the end of the year it will be an A.”
Despite Stevens helping the Sparks catch up to the Storm with 17 second-half points, the Sparks couldn’t overcome Seattle’s late push in the fourth quarter to fall 89-83 at Crypto.com Arena.
PARIS OLYMPICS
From Kevin Baxter: Israel is sending 88 athletes to Paris this month, the second-largest Olympic team in the country’s history. And they’re going to France against the backdrop of a bloody war at home that is entering its 10th month with no end in sight.
Yet that’s a topic few Israeli athletes seem willing — or able — to talk about.
“I don’t want to answer. I don’t want to go inside this thing,” Misha Zilberman, a four-time Olympian in badminton, said when asked about the war in Gaza.
A communications officer for a first-division Israeli soccer team, which placed numerous players on the Olympic team, was more blunt.
“We will not approve any questions regarding political/security situation/current affairs,” he warned. “I don’t think it’s fair on them to face such questions.”
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1941 — Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak of 56 games is stopped by Al Smith and Jim Bagby of the Indians before 67,000 at Cleveland.
1966 — Jim Ryun becomes the first American to hold the record in the mile since 1937. With a time of 3:51.3 at Berkeley, Calif., Ryun shatters Michel Jazy’s mark of 3:53.6 by 2.3 seconds.
1974 — Bob Gibson strikes out Cesar Geronimo of the Reds in the second inning to become the second pitcher in major league history to record 3,000 strikeouts.
1979 — Sebastian Coe breaks the world record in the mile with a time of 3:48.95 in Oslo, Norway. The time is rounded up to 3:49.
1983 — Bobby Hebert passes for 314 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Michigan Panthers to a 24-22 win over the Philadelphia Stars in the first USFL championship game.
1983 — Tom Watson wins his second straight and fifth career British Open title. Watson shoots a 9-under 275 at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England to finish one stroke ahead of Andy Bean and Hale Irwin.
1990 — Minnesota becomes the first team in major league history to pull off two triple plays in one game, but it isn’t enough to overcome Boston as the Red Sox beat the Twins 1-0.
1994 — Brazil wins a record fourth World Cup soccer title, taking the first shootout in championship game history over Italy.
2005 — Tiger Woods records another ruthless performance at St. Andrews, closing with a 2-under 70 to win the British Open for his 10th career major. He wins by five shots, the largest margin in any major since Woods won by eight at St. Andrews five years ago. He joins Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win the career Grand Slam twice.
2006 — Stacey Nuveman and Lovieanne Jung each homer to power the United States to the World Cup of Softball title with a 5-2 victory over Japan.
2011 — Japan stuns the United States in a riveting Women’s World Cup final, winning 3-1 on penalty kicks after coming from behind twice in a 2-2 tie. Goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori makes two brilliant saves in the shootout. Japan, making its first appearance in the final of a major tournament, hadn’t beaten the Americans in their first 25 meetings.
2011 — Darren Clarke gives Northern Ireland another major championship, winning the British Open by three strokes over Americans Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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