Second in a series of stories profiling top high school football players by position. Today, Brian Bonner, Valencia running back.
There are many ways Brian Bonner of Valencia High impacts a football game. As a running back, using his 10.48-second speed in the 100 meters, any kind of opening creates the opportunity for a touchdown.
Ditto catching a ball out of the backfield and being allowed to improvise as he makes defenders miss. And then there’s kickoff returns, where he builds up speed like a locomotive and heads to the end zone faster than putting mustard on a hot dog.
“I think being versatile is very important,” he said. “A lot of teams in college look for a running back that can do more than run the ball. They want you to be able to catch and block.”
At 6 feet and 190 pounds, Bonner is ready to take a place among the many great Valencia backs of the past, from Manuel White to Shane Vereen to Steven Manfro, all of whom made it to the college ranks.
“It’s really cool to learn about the history of the other running backs and it would be an honor to be part of that group,” Bonner said. “I’ve learned all the great things they’ve done at Valencia.”
No one has been faster in Valencia history than Bonner, who started attracting attention when he ran 100 meters in 10.85 seconds during his last race as a freshman. A stampede of football offers started coming after his 10.48 time last year.
Brian Bonner of Valencia runs for yardage against West Ranch during his sophomore season.
(Craig Weston)
“My recruitment started to blow up,” he said. “They were really impressed by speed and my football form backed up my speed. The best way to determine how fast someone is by track times. People can see how fast you are as a player and it shows how important speed is to coaches.”
Bonner rushed for 1,493 yards and 25 touchdowns last season and also caught 40 passes for 498 yards and four touchdowns. He committed to Washington last month.
His combination of speed, size and versatility makes him a valuable offensive weapon. Add to that his patience and youth. He just turned 17 in July and was perfectly fine with playing junior varsity football as a freshman.
“I think everybody wants to play varsity as freshman,” he said. “Now that I look back, it was good. I learned things that I brought to varsity. I knew what to expect instead of being a freshman and not knowing what to expect.”
Valencia coach Larry Muir is plotting how to best use Bonner’s versatility and quickness.
“When you’re special, you have a skill set to catch the ball out of the backfield and he does that as well as anyone,” Muir said. “His speed is incredible, but when you get him in the open field and get him in open space, it’s fun to watch.”
It’s Bonner’s senior year, and he has no intention on relying what he’s done in the past or what 100-meter time he ran.
“You have to work hard, because everyone is going to get better,” he said. “You have to stand out and do things a lot of people won’t do to be the best. Putting in extra hours, learning the plays, learning defenses, becoming a student off the game.”
Thursday: St. John Bosco receiver Madden Williams.
Running backs to watch
Maliq Allen, St. John Bosco, 5-8, 180, Jr.: Showed flashes of brilliance with 1,003 yards rushing
Brian Bonner, Valencia, 6-0, 190, Sr.: Speed and hands make him explosive weapon
Justin Lewis, Mater Dei, 5-10, 195, Sr.: Thousand Oaks transfer gained 1,306 yards as junior
AJ McBean, Mira Costa, 5-11, 208, Jr.: Big back with speed and power
Sean Morris, Orange Lutheran, 5-10, 195, Sr.: Northwestern commit transfers from Loyola
Deshonne Redeaux, Oaks Christian, 6-0, 185, Sr.: USC commit has high expectations for senior season
Edward Rivera, Compton, 6-0, 185, Jr.: City Section transfer gained 1,843 yards and 21 TDs last season
Ceasar Reyes, Garfield, 5-11, 175, Jr.: Rushed for 1,520 yards, 22 TDs with relentless energy in 2024
Journee Tonga, Leuzinger, 5-8, 175, Sr.: Rushed for 2,267 yards, 29 TDs last season
Jorden Wells, Servite, 5-7, 150, So.: Let’s see what track speedster can do in first varsity season
Alanna Kennedy scored a late equalizer and Angel City tied the San Diego Wave 1-1 on Saturday night in their Southern California rivalry.
Just as the Wave looked to be securing a first home win over Angel City since 2022, Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir sent in a cross and Kennedy scored on a header to make it 1-1 in the second minute of stoppage time. The goal was Kennedy’s first for Angel City.
San Diego opened the scoring in the 85th minute, when Makenzy Robbe curled in a shot across the goal from the right side of the box. It was Robbe’s first goal of the season, but her 10th career goal for the Wave.
In the first half, after being struck in the head by the ball, Angel City defender Sarah Gorden left the game with a concussion.
The fourth-place Wave (7-4-4) are undefeated in their last four matches, although the last three have been ties.
Angel City (4-7-4) remains 11th in the standings and is winless in its last seven games. The team is winless since coach Alex Straus came aboard in June.
At the end of the 2019 minor-league season, Alex Call looked at his hitting numbers, then looked himself in the mirror.
A former third-round draft pick who had already changed organizations once, he knew he had just had the kind of year that typically portends a short professional career.
As a 24-year-old outfielder at the double-A level in the Cleveland Guardians organization, Call had taken 325 plate appearances that year with the Akron RubberDucks. In 93 of them — a rate of nearly 30% — he recorded a strikeout.
It wasn’t the only ugly stat in a season that saw Call bat just .205, reach base at a .266 clip and hit only five home runs. But it was the biggest sign of a fundamental flaw plaguing the right-handed hitter’s game.
“That,” he recalled recently, while reflecting on what became a turning point moment in his career, “just wasn’t gonna get it done.”
Six years later, Call joined the Dodgers as a trade deadline addition last week with a polar opposite reputation. Now, the defensively versatile outfielder is one of the harder outs in all the majors. Since the start of last season, his .297 batting average ranks eighth among MLB hitters with at least 350 plate appearances. More important, over that same span, he ranks top 60 in strikeout rate and walk rate (with a 55-to-39 ratio overall), and 22nd in chase rate; consistently putting together some of the better at-bats in all the sport.
“This guy’s just a straight grinder, works at-bats,” general manager Brandon Gomes said after the Dodgers acquired Call from the Washington Nationals in exchange for two pitching prospects. “Playing against him, he’s always incredibly frustrating to try to game plan for and get out.”
“I’ve faced Alex a few times,” added future Hall of Fame left-hander Clayton Kershaw. “He’s tough against lefties, a great defender. A good add, for sure.”
The Dodgers, of course, could have made splashier adds at the deadline. They were linked to All-Star caliber names, including Steven Kwan of the Guardians, but didn’t splurge to pay such inflated deadline prices.
Instead, they settled for Call, who was a smaller name but came with team control through 2029. They put their faith in his overhauled offensive skill set, hopeful a personal transformation more than half-a-decade in the making will make him a key piece in their pursuit of a second straight World Series title.
“That is my whole game,” Call said on the day he arrived with the club. “I am going to grind out at-bats, put the ball in play, take my walks, make it tough on the pitcher, lengthen out the lineup.”
The origins of that mindset date to that 2019 season, and the pandemic-altered year that followed.
Entering 2020, Call committed to a change at the plate. In what was a crowded pipeline of outfielders in the Guardians system — highlighted at that time by Kwan, who has since blossomed into one of the best left fielders in the game — he recognized he needed a new identity. If he was going to reach the majors, it was going to start with simply working better at-bats.
“It’s a bad feeling,” he said, “having a cloud hanging over your head after a season like that.”
The only problem: COVID-19 came, the 2020 minor league season was canceled, and Call (like so many other minor-league long shots clinging to big-league dreams) was left effectively on his own.
So, he found different ways to improve his bat.
As the baseball world shut down, Call bought a portable Junior Hack Attack hitting machine with a self-feeding ball dispenser. And everywhere he went that year — from spring training housing in Phoenix to his childhood home in Wisconsin to his family’s offseason residence in Indiana — he sought out any place “I could find a hitting cage and an outlet” to use it, he said laughing.
His focus was simple. Work on hitting fastballs up in the strike zone. Eliminate what had been one of the biggest holes in his swing.
“For me, it’s just about having that mentality to where, it doesn’t matter if I have two strikes or if it’s an 0-0 count,” he said. “Believe I’m comfortable in every situation. I’m going to put the ball in play.”
By that winter, Call sought out a more advanced piece of training technology as well.
Over the previous couple years, a company called Win Reality had begun manufacturing virtual reality hitting goggles — using data-driven models, actual video and computer-generated images to recreate virtual at-bats against real pitchers from a hitter’s point of view inside Oculus-style headsets.
A handful of MLB teams, including the Dodgers, had invested in the system for their teams. In the months leading up to the 2021 season, Call decided to do the same for himself, buying the $300 product (and paying for its annual $200 software program) to help couple his new swing with a more discerning approach.
“[I was] just really practicing the zone,” Call said. “Knowing what pitches are my strengths and what pitches I don’t want to swing at until two strikes. Developing that plan and developing that approach.”
The training paid off.
At the start of the 2021 season, Call was sent back to double-A Akron. When he arrived, he was informed by manager Rouglas Odor that he would only be slated to play 2-3 games per week — a quick reminder of how far down the organization depth chart he’d fallen.
“I remember him being very disappointed,” Odor, now the Guardians’ big-league third-base coach, recalled this week. “But he took ownership of his career, and didn’t let what I told him affect him.”
Call’s chance arrived that May, after Kwan went down with a hamstring injury. And almost immediately, his COVID-year changes took effect. Over 180 plate appearances, Call hit .310, drew 21 walks and — just as he’d hoped — cut his strikeout rate by half, punching out only 26 times.
“He was a totally different hitter,” said Odor, who had also been Call’s manager during his dismal 2019 campaign. “Defensively, he was already to play in the big leagues. He made some unbelievable plays … But offensively, he found his stroke. His plate discipline was more consistent. And he had an unbelievable season.”
By the end of the season, Call had been promoted to triple-A. The next July, he earned a promotion to the majors.
The ascent from there wasn’t linear. In August 2022, he was designated for assignment and claimed off waivers by the Nationals. In 2023, he played in 128 big-league games but hit only .200, sending him back to triple-A for most of last year.
Alex Call bats against the Houston Astros on July 28 as a member of the Washington Nationals.
(Karen Warren / Associated Press)
Still, his plate discipline didn’t waver (he struck out only 78 times in his 439 plate appearances in 2023, an 18% rate, while also drawing 53 walks). His VR routine only became more ingrained, seeing upward of 54,000 simulated pitches (or, essentially 25 seasons’ worth of throws) through his headset each year, as he told the Washington Post last month.
It all has clicked over the last calendar year, with Call following up a productive return to the majors at the end of 2024 with his best full-season performance this term.
“The type of player that I am, I can hit the ball over the fence, but it’s not really my full game,” Call said. “So for me, it was about trying to create as many opportunities to get on base as possible … I have to be able to hit the ball at good angles.”
Call is one of only four players with at least 200 plate appearances this season (along with Kyle Tucker, Gleyber Torres and Geraldo Perdomo) who strikes out less than 15% of the time, chases less than 20% of the time and whiffs less than 20% of the time. He has hit .236 with two strikes (better than everyone else on the Dodgers except Hyeseong Kim).
He had his first standout game with the Dodgers on Wednesday, when he singled, doubled and made a catch while crashing into the left-field wall to save an extra-base hit.
Eight at-bats into his Dodgers career entering Friday’s game, he has also yet to strike out once.
“I’m always proud of players like Alex, because he wasn’t this big prospect, but he became an everyday big-league player,” Odor said. “He had the urgency to make something happen in order to reach his goal, and his dream.”
And now, Call is aiming to take his career one step further — to be not just a productive big-league bat, but one capable of playing an impactful role on a title-contending club in Los Angeles.
“I always knew that I could do it and be an established major leaguer,” Call said. “It’s just, sometimes it takes a little bit of time. And I’m grateful that I was given that time, and just continued to get better.”
The Galaxy needed a regulation victory and win by at least two goals to qualify for the knockout-round quarterfinals of the Leagues Cup.
Mission accomplished.
Joseph Paintsil scored in the first minute and Matheus Nascimento tallied in the 39th minute to spark a 4-0 victory against overmatched Santos Laguna of Liga MX on Thursday night at Dignity Healthy Sports Park.
The Galaxy, which have endured a nightmarish season in MLS, played like a different team, setting the tempo early with Paintsil tucking in the ball at the right post thanks to an assist by Mauricio Cuevas.
The Galaxy struck again when a sliding Nascimento tapped in the ball past goalkeeper Carlos Acevedo off a long cross from Cuevas to make it 2-0.
In the 45th minute, Choco Lozano was shown his second yellow card to leave Santos Laguna short-handed.
Defender Maya Yoshida then added a goal during injury time to give the Galaxy a 3-0 advantage at the half. Yoshida collected a rebound after a long shot by Paintsil and buried it.
At the end of the first half, midfielder Ramiro Sordo was also shown a red card and Santos Laguna was left with nine players to open the second half.
Substitute Lucas Sanabria scored in the second half off a nice feed from Yoshida in the 74th minute for the Galaxy’s final goal.
The victory moved the Galaxy from the fifth seed among the MLS standings to the third seed, passing the Portland Timbers and No. 4 seed Orlando City.
The Leagues Cup quarterfinals — comprised of four MLS teams and four Liga MX teams — will be held Aug. 19-20. The Galaxy will take on Pachuca in the quarterfinal.
Watch the dramatic finish of Southern Brave’s one wicket win over Manchester Originals, as the away side seal the victory with a ball to spare in the Men’s Hundred at Old Trafford.
The Arizona Diamondbacks designated hitter didn’t swing at the first two pitches he saw from San Diego Padres reliever Mason Miller — a fastball that registered at 102 miles per hour for a ball and an 89-mph slider — with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning Tuesday night in Phoenix.
The Cuban-American batter then fouled off the next four pitches, three of which were fastballs thrown between 101 and 104 mph. Miller’s seventh pitch of the at-bat was another scorcher, but Gurriel made contact and this time kept the ball in fair territory.
It traveled 439 feet and landed in the left-field stands for a two-run home run. Miller’s pitch was clocked at 103.9 mph, making it the fastest pitch to be hit for a home run since MLB started pitch tracking in 2008.
“It’s something that just happened,” Gurriel said after the game through an interpreter.
Miller said of the pitch: “Location could have been better, for sure. Ultimately, the result is what it is. I’m not going to sit here and regret what pitch I threw. Just got it out over the plate, a little bit high.”
Gurriel’s blast, which left the park at 107.1 mph, tied the game at 5-5. Unfortunately for the Diamondbacks, they couldn’t keep up the momentum against their National League West rivals and eventually lost 10-5 in 11 innings.
“The real meaning was in the time of the game and what it meant to the team to tie the ballgame. That was the most important thing,” Gurriel said of his historic homer. “I mean, unfortunately, it didn’t turn into a win, but that was the most exciting thing.”
It was Gurriel’s second home run of the game — he also hit a two-run homer off Padres starter Yu Darvish in the first inning — and his 14th of the season. Before Tuesday, Gurriel had not hit a home run since July 1.
Gurriel is the ninth player known to hit a home run off a ball thrown at 102 mph or faster and only the second player to do so off a pitch thrown faster than 103 mph. In September, Ian Happ of the Chicago Cubs went yard off a 103.2-mph pitch.
That pitch also happened to be thrown by Miller, who was with the Athletics at the time before being acquired by the Padres at the trade deadline last week. In his second appearance for San Diego, Miller pitched one inning, giving up one hit and a walk with two strikeouts. One of his pitches was clocked at 104.2 mph, the fastest ever tracked for a Padres pitcher.
“It’s a weapon,” Miller said of his fastball after Tuesday’s game. “But you still need to put together an at-bat for the guy, and work with him, as far as his swings and his approach in there.”
BBC Radio 2’s listening figures have plummeted since a presenter switch upCredit: PA
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Scott Mills took over the Breakfast Show slot, yet listeners have dropped as the year goes onCredit: Supplied
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Zoe Ball quit her Breakfast Show in DecemberCredit: PA
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For use in UK, Ireland or Benelux countries only Undated BBC handout photo of Zoe Ball presenting her last show on BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, which she has hosted for six years, at BBC Broadcasting House in central London. Issue date: Friday December 20, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story SHOWBIZ Ball. Photo credit […]Credit: PA
Yet at the time, Zoe said she would remain on BBC Radio 2.
She said: “After six incredible years on the Radio 2 Breakfast Show, it’s time for me to step away from the very early mornings and focus on family.”
Telling her listeners about her decision, she said: “I’ve decided it’s time to step away from the early alarm call and start a new chapter.
Zoe Ball’s career so far
Zoe was born in Blackpool and is daughter of the children’s TV presenter Johnny Ball and his wife Julia.
She appeared on television at a young age as part of the studio audience of the Saturday morning children’s show, Saturday Superstore when her father was a guest.
The star began her career in broadcasting as a presenter on the pre-school programme Playdays.
After various behind the scenes roles, she earned a spot as a regular host of Top of the Pops, when she alternated with the likes of Jayne Middlemiss and Jo Whiley.
In 1996, she was chosen to front BBC One‘s saturday morning show Live & Kicking, which led to stints on The Big Breakfast on Channel 4.
But she maintained a huge presence on the radio as she was chosen to be the co-host of BBC Radio 1 Breakfast alongside Kevin Greening in October 1997.
Zoe was later appointed the sole host of the show in a groundbreaking move by the corporation as she was the first female DJ to hold the post.
The presenter chose to leave the station in March 2000 to start a family, where she was succeeded by Sara Cox.
As a mainstream face in TV through the noughties, she hosted a range of huge programmes for ITV, including the Brit Awards in 2002, Extinct in 2006, and both Soapstar Superstar and Grease Is The Word in 2007.
In mid-2002, she returned to radio when she joined Xfm (later known as Radio X), when she was the voice of the weekday drivetime show until December 2003. In 2004, she stood in for Ricky Gervais while he filmed the second series of The Office.
In October 2005, she appeared as a contestant on the third series of Strictly Come Dancing, where she was partnered with Ian Waite, The star impressed viewers with her footwork and the duo waltzed into third place.
In 2011, she returned to the franchise as she took over as the host of the magazine spin-off show, It Takes Two.
She also filled in for Claudia Winkleman on the main show in 2014, when The Traitors star took leave after her daughter suffered serious burn injuries.
THIS is the hilarious moment Donald Trump’s golf caddy appears to drop his ball into a prime spot before he takes his shot.
A video clip has emerged which shows two golf caddies alongside the US President as he drives a golf cart around Turnberry’s Ailsa course, in Scotland.
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Donald Trump is on a five-day visit to Scotland, expected to end on TuesdayCredit: Getty
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Footage appeared to show a caddy drop the President’s ball in a prime spotCredit: X / RoguePOTUSStaff
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The US leader was enjoying a round of golf on Turnberry’s Ailsa courseCredit: X / RoguePOTUSStaff
He donned a white USA baseball cap and was joined by his son Eric.
Trump, 79, is seen being escorted down to the course, with a convoy of 20 other carts following close behind.
The caddies go ahead of the US leaser and one appears to try and secretly place a golf ball on the ground.
The President then gets out and claims to have made the shot himself.
Trump waves for cameras on the third green at the southeast end of the course before the party moves on.
One person who watched the footage circulating on X wrote: “Caddy did that so smoothly. Can only imagine how many times he’s done it.”
“I want to know how he finds caddies to do that for him,” added another.
After waving to the crowds, he was welcomed by Scottish Secretary Ian Murray before being whisked to his luxury Turnberry resort 20 miles down the Ayrshire coast.
Villagers waved as the convoy passed through nearby Kirkoswald and later arrived at the resort at around 9.30pm.
And he wasted no time in taking to the green after being seen teeing off at the luxury resort.
Several protests were planned, with opponents of Mr Trump gathering in both Edinburgh and Aberdeen earlier this week.
The Stop Trump coalition has planned what it has described as being a “festival of resistance”.
Trump donned a white USA baseball capCredit: Getty
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The footage has circulated social media platform XCredit: Getty
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The President was playing with his son EricCredit: Getty
Climate campaigners from Greenpeace confirmed that 10 activists abseiled from the massive 156m bridge to block an INEOS tanker.
A large number of police and military personnel were seen searching the grounds at the golf resort to ensure Mr Trump’s safety before he teed off.
A high-profile security operation was in full swing with land, sea and air coverage from police and security services while a number of guests were checked over.
Secret service agents with sniffer dogs checked bushes as snipers were positioned on a platform on the edge of the course and the roof of the hotel.
Uniformed and plain clothes cops guarded all access points to the course, including roads, footpaths and the beach.
Amid the search, a few golfers were also spotted at the course, enjoying an early-morning game.
A number of onlookers had gathered at the entrance to Turnberry hoping to catch a glimpse of the game.
But they were not let anywhere near.
Police also had road closures in place, with limited access for locals and members of the media.
As well as visiting Trump Turnberry, Mr Trump will later head to Aberdeenshire and visit his golf resort in Balmedie.
During his stay, he will officially open his second course at Menie, named in honour of his late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod.
His visit is expected to last until Tuesday, July 29.
The President is also scheduled to meet Scottish First Minister John Swinney and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during his trip.
After landing in Scotland, Mr Trump said the “invasion” of migrants is “killing” Europe and told the leaders to “get their act together”.
But when asked about illegal immigration, Mr Trump said a “horrible invasion” was taking place in Europe which needs to stop.
He said: “On immigration, you better get your act together.
“You’re not going to have Europe anymore, you’ve got to get your act together.
“As you know, last month we had nobody entering our country – nobody, [we] shut it down.”
He added: “You’ve got to stop this horrible invasion that’s happening to Europe.”
Mr Trump, who made a crackdown on illegal immigration a major policy in his second term at the White House, boasted: “Last month we had nobody entering our country.”
A massive £5million security operation has been rolled out to ensure his safety, with around 6,000 police officers drafted in from across the UK to support the efforts.
We previously told how police and security services assessed fears that Trump could be assassinated during his visit to Scotland after he survived an attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania last year.
David Threadgold, General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, said “a huge amount of threat assessment and intelligence gathering” took place ahead of the visit.
NEW YORK — Rickea Jackson‘s layup at the buzzer lifted the Sparks to a 101-99 win over the New York Liberty on Saturday night.
The Liberty also lost star Breanna Stewart to a lower leg injury three minutes into the game. Stewart had three points and a rebound before she left and went to the locker room. New York was playing the second game on back-to-back nights. The Liberty rallied to beat Phoenix on Friday night.
Sabrina Ionescu, who scored 30 points, tied the score at 99 with an elbow jumper with 23.1 seconds left. Los Angeles worked the clock down before Stephanie Talbot fouled Kelsey Plum with 5.9 seconds left. The Liberty still had a foul to give, so the Sparks got the ball on the side.
After a timeout, Jackson got the ball in the post and threw a shot up over her head just before time expired. She finished with 24 points and Plum added 20 for the Sparks, who have won five straight.
The Liberty (17-7), who had a five-game winning streak stopped, were down 15 points early in the third quarter before rallying. Ionescu’s three-point play with 2:18 left in the game tied it at 95. After the teams exchanged baskets, Azurá Stevens hit a layup with 1:03 left to give the Sparks a 99-97 advantage.
Los Angeles (11-14) led by 15 early in the third quarter before New York rallied. The Liberty got to 65-61 and then Ionescu hit a three-pointer that was waved off because off an illegal screen on Jonquel Jones. Ionescu vehemently disagreed with the call, telling the official to “tech me.” The referee obliged, giving the star guard a technical foul.
Sparks forward Azurá Stevens drives down the lane past Liberty forward Leonie Fiebich during their game Saturday.
(Catalina Fragoso / NBAE via Getty Images)
New York trailed 74-69 heading into the fourth quarter before coming back behind Natasha Cloud and Ionescu. Cloud had 10 of her 22 points in the final 10 minutes.
Los Angeles came out hot, making 13 of its 19 shots in the first quarter, including seven three-pointers. Jackson had 17 points in the opening quarter as the Sparks led 35-20. The team kept it going in the second quarter and was up 58-45 at the half, making 10 of its 18 shots from behind the arc.
Tommy John surgery was never supposed to go this far.
It was once a cross-your-fingers-and-pray fix for a career-ending injury. Now, MLB teams cycle through as many as 40-plus pitchers a year, knowing that surgery is a phone call away.
Just ask John himself, a left-hander who never threw all that hard, only reaching the mid-80s on his sinking fastball. The soft-throwing lefty was having his best year as a Dodgers starting pitcher in 1974.
He didn’t have the strikeout acumen of teammate Andy Messersmith, or the ace makeup of future Hall of Famer Don Sutton. But what John did have was consistency. John consistently pitched late into games, and sent opposing hitters back to the dugout without reaching first base.
“The game of baseball is 27 outs,” said John, now 82. “It wasn’t about throwing hard. It’s, how do I get you out?”
He was the first to go under the knife. The first to lead pitchers through a dangerous cycle of throwing as hard as possible, knowing the safeguard is surgery.
“I threw one pitch and boom, the ligament exploded,” John said.
John’s arm injury left a sensation akin to what an amputee feels after losing a limb. In 1978, he told Sports Illustrated, “It felt as if I had left my arm someplace else.” He didn’t feel pain. He felt loss. His left arm was his career. It was the direct cause for his toeing the Dodger Stadium mound in the first place. Then, John went on to pitch another 15 years in MLB.
It’s the same loss that Hall of Fame Dodgers left-hander Sandy Koufax felt when he retired at age 30 after numerous arm injuries, which could have likely been fixed if current elbow and shoulder surgeries had existed in 1966.
It’s the same loss that Texas Rangers team physician Keith Meister sees walking daily into his office.
Today, Meister can view MRI scans of elbow tears and can tell pitchers where and how they hold the baseball. The tear patterns are emblematic of the pitches being thrown in the first place. The solution — Tommy John surgery, a once-revolutionary elbow operation — replaces a torn or partially damaged ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow with a tendon from somewhere else in the body. The operation is no quick fix. It requires a 13- to 14-month recovery period, although Meister said some pitchers may require just 12 months — and some up to 18.
Meister, who is currently tallying data and researching the issue, wants to be part of the change. Midway through an October phone interview, he bluntly stopped in his tracks and asked a question.
“What is the average length of a major-league career for a major-league pitcher?” he said.
Meister explained that the average career for an MLB pitcher is just 2.6 years. Along with numerous other interviewees, he compared the epidemic to another sport’s longevity problem: the National Football League running back.
“People say to me, ‘Well, that sounds like a running back in football,’” Meister said. “Think about potentially the money that gets saved with not having to even get to arbitration, as long as organizations feel like they can just recycle and, you know, next man up, right?”
Orthopedic surgeon Keith Meister, in his TMI Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Surgery office in Arlington, Texas, in 2024, has advocated for changes to mitigate pitching injuries.
(Tom Fox / The Dallas Morning News)
Financial ramifications play close to home between pitchers and running backs as well. Lower durability and impact have led to decreasing running-back salaries. If pitchers continue to have shorter careers, as Meister puts it, MLB franchises might be happy to cycle through minimum-salary pitchers instead of shelling out large salaries for players who remain on the injured list rather than in the bullpen.
The Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays have shuffled through pitchers at league extremes over the last five years. In the modern era — since 1901 — only the Rays and Dodgers have used more than 38 pitchers in a season three times each. Tampa used 40-plus pitchers each year from 2021 to 2023.
Last year, the Dodgers used 40 pitchers. Only the Miami Marlins tasked more with 45.
The Dodgers have already used 35 pitchers this season, second-most in baseball. The Rays tallied just 30 in 2024 and have dispatched just 23 on the mound so far this season. What gives?
Meister says the Rays may have changed their pitcher philosophy. Early proponents of sweepers and other high-movement pitches, the Rays now rank near the bottom of the league (29th with just 284 thrown) in sweeper usage entering Saturday’s action, according to Baseball Savant. Two years ago, the Rays threw the seventh most.
Tampa is rising to the top of MLB in two-seam fastball usage, Meister said, a pitch he says creates potentially much less stress on the elbow. Their starting pitchers are second in baseball in the number of innings, and they’ve used just six starting pitchers all season.
“It’s equated to endurance for their pitchers, because you know why? They’re healthy, they’re able to pitch, they’re able to post and they’re able to go deeper into games,” Meister said. “Maybe teams will see this and they’ll be like, ‘Wait a minute, look what these guys won with. Look how they won. We don’t need to do all this crap anymore.’”
The Dodgers, on the other hand, rank ninth in sweeper usage (1,280 thrown through Friday) and have used 16 starting pitchers (14 in traditional starting roles). Meanwhile, their starting pitchers have compiled the fewest innings in MLB. Rob Hill, the Dodgers’ director of pitching, began his career at Driveline Baseball. The Dodgers hired him in 2020. Since then, the franchise has churned out top pitching prospect after top pitching prospect, many of whom throw devastating sweepers and change-ups.
As of Saturday, the Dodgers have 10 pitchers on the injured list, six of whom underwent an elbow or shoulder operation — and since 2021, the team leads MLB in injury list stints for pitchers.
“There are only probably two teams in baseball that can just sit there and say, ‘Well, if I get 15 to 20 starts out of my starting pitchers, it doesn’t matter, because I’ll replace them with somebody else I can buy,’” Meister said. “That’s the Yankees and the Dodgers.”
He continued: “Everybody else, they’ve got to figure out, wait a minute, this isn’t working, and we need to preserve our commodity, our pitchers.”
Outside of organizational strategy changes, like the Rays have made, Meister has expressed rule changes to MLB. He’s suggested rethinking how the foul ball works or toying with the pitch clock to give a slightly longer break to pitchers. He said pitchers don’t get a break on the field the same way hitters do in the batter’s box.
“Part of the problem here is that a hitter has an ability to step out of the box and take a timeout,” Meister said. “He has to go cover a foul ball and run over to first base and run back to the mound. He should have an opportunity take a break and take a blow.”
Meister hopes to discuss reintroducing “tack” — a banned sticky substance that helps a pitcher’s grip on the ball — to the rulebook, something that pitchers such as Max Scherzer and Tyler Glasnow have called a factor in injuries. Meister has fellow leading experts on his side too.
“Myself and Dr. [Neal] ElAttrache are very good friends, and we talk at length about this,” said Meister.
Meister explained that the lack of stickiness on the baseball causes pitchers to squeeze the ball as hard as possible. The “death grip on the ball,” Meister said, causes the muscles on the inner side of the elbow to contract in the arm and then extend when the ball is released. The extension of the inner elbow muscles is called an eccentric load, which can create injury patterns.
The harder the grip, the more violent the eccentric load becomes when a sweeper pitch, for example, is thrown, he said.
“Just let guys use a little bit of pine tar on their fingertips,” Meister said, adding that the pitchers already have to adjust to an inconsistent baseball, one that changes from season to season. “Not, put it on the baseball, not glob the baseball with it, but put a little pine tar on their fingertips and give them a little better adherence to the baseball.”
According to the New Yorker, MLB is exploring heavier or larger baseballs to slow pitchers’ arm movements, potentially reducing strain on the UCL during maximum-effort pitches.
Meister, however, said there does not seem to be a sense of urgency to fix the game, with a years-long process to make any fixes.
In short, Meister is ready to try anything.
For a man who has made a career off baseball players nervously sitting in his office waiting room, awaiting news that could alter their careers forever, Meister wants MLB to help him stop players from ever scheduling that first appointment.
“To me, it’s not about the surgery any more as much as it is, what can we do to prevent, and what can we do to alter, the approach that the game now takes?” Meister said.
Tyler Glasnow’s problems have been the same for years.
Spending too much time caught up in his own head, and not enough time actually pitching on the mound.
Ever since the Dodgers acquired the tall, lanky and Southern California-raised right-hander, those two issues have plagued the $136.5-million acquisition in ways that have frustrated him, the team and its fan base.
Glasnow made 22 starts last year (a career-high in his injury-plagued career) before a nagging elbow problem ended his season early. This term, he managed only five starts before his shoulder started barking, landing him on the injured list for another extended stint.
Through it all, Glasnow has talked repeatedly about the need to be more “external” on the mound — focused more on execution and compete-level than the aches and pains in his body and imperfections in his delivery.
Yet, with each new setback, the veteran pitcher was left scrambling for answers, constantly tinkering with his mechanics and toiling with his mindset in hopes of striking an equilibrium between both.
That’s why, as Glasnow neared his latest return to action, he tried to simplify things. For real, this time.
No more worrying about spine angle and release point. No more mid-game thoughts about the many moving parts in his throwing sequence.
“I don’t even know,” he said when asked last week how he changed his mechanics during his most recent absence, the kind of physical ignorance that might actually be a good thing in the 31-year-old’s case.
“I’m just going out and being athletic and not trying to look at it. And if there’s something I need to fix, or something the coaches see, then I’ll worry about it. But I’m just going out … [and] getting in that rhythm. Getting back into a starting routine.”
Two starts in, that new routine looks promising.
After pitching five solid innings of one-run ball in Milwaukee last week, Glasnow started the second half of the season with another step forward Friday, spinning a six-inning, one-run gem in the Dodgers’ 2-0 loss to the Brewers at Dodger Stadium.
“I’ve been feeling good since rehab, making changes and stuff,” Glasnow said. “Feel solid right now. So gotta keep going.”
As the Dodgers (58-40) came out of the All-Star break, few players seemed as pivotal to their long-term success as Glasnow.
The club is counting on him and fellow nine-figure free-agent signee Blake Snell (who, like Glasnow, missed almost all of the first half with a shoulder injury but could be back in action by the end of the month) to bolster a rotation that has missed them dearly.
It is hopeful they can join Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and in some capacity Shohei Ohtani, at the forefront of a pitching staff seeking significant improvement as it tries to repeat as World Series champions.
Granted, the Dodgers — who would like to avoid adding a starting pitcher at the trade deadline, and might have a hard time finding an impact addition such as Jack Flaherty last summer even if they try — did have similar hopes for Glasnow last season.
“I think he’s in a really good spot. He’s healthy, feeling confident. And we’re better for it, for sure.”
— Dave Roberts, Dodgers manager, on Tyler Glasnow
Even when he first went down with his elbow injury in mid-August, the initial expectation was that he’d be back well in time for the playoff push.
Instead, Glasnow’s elbow never ceased to bother him. When he tried ramping up for a live batting practice session in mid-September, he effectively pulled the plug on his season when his arm still didn’t feel right.
Ever since, Glasnow has lived in a world of frustration, spending his winter trying to craft a healthier delivery only to run into more problems within the first month of this season.
“Certainly the talent is undeniable,” manager Dave Roberts said last week, ahead of Glasnow’s return. “But I think for me, for us, you want the dependability. That’s something that I’m looking for from Tyler from here on out. To know what you’re going to get when he takes that ball every fifth or sixth day.”
On Friday, Glasnow produced a template worth following in a four-hit, one-walk, six-strikeout showing.
Flashing increased fastball velocity for the second-straight outing — routinely hitting 98-99 mph on the gun — he filled up the strike zone early, going after hitters with his premium four-seamer and increasing reliance on a late-breaking sinker.
“It’s like the one pitch I can be late with, and it’s in the zone,” Glasnow said of his sinker, which he had thrown sparingly prior to getting hurt. “I don’t necessarily have to be perfectly timed up for it to have a lot of movement. I think if I’m late on it, it’s kind of my go-to.”
His big-bending curveball, meanwhile, proved to be a perfect complement, with Glasnow pulling the string for awkward swings and soft contact.
He retired the first five batters he faced, and didn’t let a ball out of the infield until Brice Turang’s two-out single in the third. He was late getting to the mound at the start of the fourth, resulting in an automatic ball to the leadoff batter, but remained unfazed, retiring the side in order.
Milwaukee’s Caleb Durbin hits a run-scoring double in front of Dodgers catcher Will Smith in the fifth inning Friday.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
Glasnow did wobble in the fifth against Milwaukee (57-40). Suddenly struggling to locate the ball, he walked leadoff hitter Isaac Collins on five pitches before giving up an RBI double to Caleb Durbin in a 2-and-0 count, when he left a sinker over the heart of the plate.
But then he settled down, escaped the inning without further damage, and worked around a high-hopping one-out single from Jackson Chourio in the sixth by striking out William Contreras and Christian Yelich.
“It’s not turn [my brain] off completely,” Glasnow said of his new, in-the-moment mentality. “But it’s not like, when I’m feeling bad, I resort more to, ‘How do we fix this?’ As opposed to like, ‘This is what I got today. Let’s just go get it.’ And I think a lot of that was due to the changes. I’m just in a better position right now to go out and be athletic.”
The outing marked Glasnow’s first time completing six innings since April 13 against the Chicago Cubs, and was his first such start yielding only one earned run since June of last year.
“He’s been able to stay in his rhythm, stay in his delivery, just be in compete mode,” Roberts said. “I think he’s in a really good spot. He’s healthy, feeling confident. And we’re better for it, for sure.”
Unfortunately for Glasnow, he was the second-best pitcher on the bump Friday. Opposite him, young Brewers right-hander Quinn Priester dominated the Dodgers over six scoreless innings, recording the second-most strikeouts of his career by fanning 10. Struggling veteran Kirby Yates didn’t help in relief of Glasnow, either, giving up a home run to Durbin in the seventh that sent the Dodgers to a disappointing defeat.
“They’re pitching us well,” Roberts said of the Brewers, who have won four straight games against the Dodgers over the last two weeks while giving up only four total runs. “We gave ourselves a chance, but we just couldn’t muster anything together tonight.”
Still, for a team with a comfortable division lead and the shortest World Series odds of any club in the majors, getting good starting pitching remains the most pressing big-picture concern for the Dodgers.
At the end of last year, and for much of the first half this season, Glasnow was unable to help. Now, he might finally be showing flashes he can.
“[I want to] just go out and be athletic,” Glasnow said last week. “Just go out and compete.”
Dearica Hamby lined up for one of those last-second launches as the first-half clock dipped toward zero.
The ball clanged off the front rim, appearing short — until backspin carried it to the back iron for a second bounce.
With Julie Allemand holding her knees and Kelsey Plum already prancing away, the ball kissed the rim twice more. And, finally, after a two-second pause that held the whole arena hostage, the ball dropped. Hamby fell with it, her teammates swarming to lift her as Crypto.com Arena erupted for what was perhaps the Sparks’ finest half of basketball of the season in a 99-80 stomping of the Washington Mystics.
Hamby’s arena-triggering triple capped a solo 10-point scoring spree and a 20-minute performance where the ball zipped across the hardwood, the defense suffocated and every Spark had their fingerprints on a rout of the WNBA’s seventh-best team.
By the end of the first half alone, Hamby had piled up 18. Plum chipped in 14. Jackson poured in nine and Stevens poured in eight. Facilitating it all, Allemand dealt eight assists. And — in what didn’t reflect itself on the box score the way it did on the hardwood — the Energizer Bunny chimed in with four.
Energizer Bunny?
Coach Lynne Roberts awarded that label to Rae Burrell before Tuesday night’s showdown, adding that “she brings life and energy” to the squad.
When Burrell picked off her first pass of the night, she orchestrated a play that would lead to Julie Vanloo finding a wide-open Sania Feagin in the paint, capping off a clinic in ball movement.
When Burrell stole her second pass of the night, she took matters in her own hand, going coast to coast for an and-1 layup in the paint.
And each time, it seemed as though everyone profited off the Bunny. Her contagious energy seemed to leak on to each of her teammates, who sliced through gaps on offense and brought out the clamps on defense to limit the Mystics (11-11) to just 12 points in the second quarter.
In the process, Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen — the Mystics’ rookie duo who will compete in the All-Star game this Saturday — were held to a combined two points.
Meanwhile, Plum — the Sparks’ All-Star — seemed to have a dress rehearsal Thursday night, tuning up her shot ahead of Friday’s three-point contest and Saturday’s All-Star Game.
Plum opened the night on a tear — nine points on a perfect 4-for-4 start, including one from beyond the arc. With cutters carving up the defense and her bigs sealing space down low, she shifted gears into facilitator mode as well, racking up six assists by game’s end.
And this time, the Sparks (8-14) didn’t let their scoring avalanche slip through, cruising into the All-Star break with a wire-to-wire double-digit buffer.
LAS VEGAS — The crowd inside the Thomas & Mack Center began to stir a few seconds before the Lakers took the court, the buzz caused by LeBron James strolling into the arena to see his son play.
The elder James took a baseline seat as Bronny James and the rest of the Lakers took the court for warmups ahead of Saturday night’s NBA Summer League game against the New Orleans Pelicans.
There was a point early in the second half when LeBron James began to offer advice to Bronny — the kind of encouragement that helped Bronny put up a solid performance during the Lakers’ 94-81 win.
He had 14 points on five-for-11 shooting. He made one of four three-point attempts and also had three assists and two steals.
Bronny’s defense was solid as well.
“Yeah, we want him to play on the ball,” said Lindsey Harding, Lakers assistant coach and Summer League coach. “Especially in tight moments, I like the ball in his hands and I want him to make those decisions. You can go through as many drills as you want, but nothing beats live.
Lakers star LeBron James sits courtside during the team’s NBA Summer League game in Las Vegas on Saturday.
(Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
“So even after this, he will sit with his coach and watch his reads. Some are great, some can be better. … But it comes with confidence and even this game, whether he made the shot or not, that’s not what it’s about. It’s about making the right read.”
A few possessions after Bronny got the crowd cheering by driving the length of the court and scoring on a left-handed layup, LeBron started instructing him.
“More. More. Get downhill more,” LeBron told him.
On his next play, Bronny did just that, driving in for a layup.
Early in the fourth quarter, Bronny drove baseline and threw a pass that was tipped out of bounds.
“Pull-up,” LeBron told him. “Going right, that’s a pull-up.”
When a pass was thrown ahead to Bronny in front of the Lakers’ bench in the fourth quarter, LeBron yelled, “Knock it down!”
Bronny did, drilling a three-pointer. He did this despite nursing a sore hip after falling hard to the court earlier in the quarter.
Having coached up his son enough, LeBron left with about five minutes remaining.
Late in the first quarter, Darius Bazley blocked a shot and took off down court.
“Go Baz,” LeBron James uttered. “Go Baz.”
And Bazley did, finishing with a dunk.
Bazley had a complete night, producing a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. He also had five blocked shots.
“I guess I would show all my shows are on the defensive end,” Bazley said. “I’m trying to prove that I can switch one through five. I can be in the right spots, protect the rim, all that type of stuff. Offensively, just doing what’s asked — offensive rebounding. Like you said, being a screener, creating advantages for other guys.”
Even with a sore ankle that was taped after the game (Harding said he would be fine), Bazley left an impression.
“Bazley is an amazing defender,” Harding said. “He can guard on-ball. He can guard the point guard. He can guard the center. He does a great job off the ball. Sometimes defenders are great on-ball and not on-ball and vice versa, but he can do everything. He’s long. We need him for every position and they were huge blocks.”
Etc.
Dalton Knecht, who said he suffered cramps in both his legs during Thursday night’s game against the Mavericks, didn’t play Saturday.
