The Sports Report: Dino Ebel turns out to be key man on NL All-Star team
From Jack Harris: Technically, there was no winning pitcher in Major League Baseball’s 95th All-Star Game.
The man who gave up the night’s biggest swings, however, was probably as deserving as any.
As the American League stormed back from a 6-0 deficit in Tuesday’s Midsummer Classic, a rarely contemplated reality started to dawn in both dugouts.
Three years ago, MLB changed its rules for how to break ties in its annual marquee event, instituting a home run “swing-off” to be conducted at the conclusion of the ninth inning. Each team selected three players, who each got three swings. Whichever team hit the most home runs in those nine swings wins the game.
Enter Dino Ebel — veteran Dodgers’ third base coach — and, now, victorious pitcher in the inaugural All-Star Game swing-off.
“What an exciting moment, I think, for baseball, for all the people that stayed, who watched on television, everything,” Ebel said, after teeing up the NL hitters for a 4-3 win in the home run swing-off, and a 7-6 win overall in the All-Star Game.
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From Jack Harris: In a week where so much of the focus was on players who weren’t playing in the All-Star Game, and those who were selected that weren’t seen as deserving, it was the player who had been in more Midsummer Classics than anyone else who delivered the most profound reminder.
Before the start of Major League Baseball’s 95th All-Star Game at Truist Park in Atlanta, National League manager Dave Roberts called upon longtime Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw to speak in the clubhouse.
And in an impromptu pregame speech as the team’s elder statesman, Kershaw imparted the most important lesson he’s learned from his 11 All-Star Games.
“The All-Star Game, it can be hard at times for the players,” Kershaw recounted when asked about his message to the team. “It’s a lot of travel, it’s a lot of stress, chaos, family, all this stuff.”
“But,” the 37-year-old future Hall of Famer added, “it’s meaningful, it’s impactful for the game, it’s important for the game. We have the best All-Star Game of any sport. We do have the best product. So to be here, to realize your responsibility to the sport is important … And I just said I was super honored to be part of it.”
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DODGERS
From Jack Harris: The hierarchy of stars was obvious even in the table arrangements.
At an All-Star Game media day event on Monday at the Roxy Coca-Cola Theater in Atlanta, the Dodgers’ five All-Star representatives were in the same area of the large venue.
In the first row, basking under large spotlights near an elevated stage, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Clayton Kershaw were positioned front and center, expected to attract so many reporters that retractable ropes lined the perimeter of their podiums.
Several feet behind them, in the shadows of a balcony overhang, sat Will Smith and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
An obvious A-List, followed by a clear B-group.
And even then, where Yamamoto’s media contingent stretched several rows deep, Smith’s rarely swelled beyond a few people.
He was a third-time All-Star, National League starter and batting title contender — once again relegated to the background of the sport’s public consciousness.
“He’s up there as far as being overlooked,” Dodgers manager and NL All-Star skipper Dave Roberts said of his ever-present but easily forgotten backstop. “You know what you’re going to get, but you probably don’t appreciate it as much as you should.”
Appreciated, Smith has not been this year. Not fully, at the very least.
CHARGERS
The Chargers have unveiled their 2025 uniforms, which include an all-gold alternative and an all-navy option.
(Los Angeles Chargers)
From Chuck Schilken: The Chargers are going for the gold this season.
Or are they going for the mustard bottle?
Or the banana?
Fans will be able to figure that out for themselves this fall when the team debuts its “Charger Power” uniforms, one of two alternate looks revealed by the team Tuesday that will be worn during the 2025 season.
The Chargers also announced that they now have the option to wear powder blue pants with their regular jerseys, which are powder blue at home and white on the road.
INDOOR BEACH VOLLEYBALL
From Kelvin Kuo: AVP, the biggest and longest-running professional volleyball league, hosted beach volleyball matches for the first time in an NBA arena last weekend.
Hosted at the Intuit Dome, crews were tasked with bringing 300 tons of sand from a quarry in Palm Springs, which is roughly 16 truckloads. AVP is looking for creative ways to attract a new audiences to the sport, often hosting its marquee volleyball events in unconventional locations.
A wooden sandbox was constructed to contain the pre-washed sand and form a single court.
It took the crew, which consists of about 150 people for a change over a typical event at Intuit Dome, five hours after the conclusion of the event to ready the arena for Clippers season ticket-holders the following day.
Click here to watch video of the transformation.
LAFC
LAFC defender Aaron Long will miss the rest of the season after having surgery to repair a ruptured left Achilles.
The team — which said the surgery was successful — made the announcement on Tuesday, three days after Long was injured in the 76th minute of a 2-0 win over Dallas.
The 32-year-old Long is in his third season with LAFC and has started all 15 games this year, scoring one goal. He’s started 60 games for the club over the last three seasons.
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SPARKS
From Ira Gorawara: 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.
“No one on our team would want anyone to hit a buzzer beater more from three than Dearica,” Plum said. “We were just all super excited, and especially the way it rolled in — it was very, like, climactic. … It was a great moment and it just represented the style we’re trying to play moving forward.”
WNBA
The WNBA players’ union and league officials have much to discuss when they sit down this week for their first in-person talks as a group since December about the new collective bargaining agreement.
After sharing initial proposals, the two sides apparently are far apart in the early negotiations as they prepare for their first face-to-face meeting that includes the players executive council in Indianapolis on Thursday heading into All-Star weekend.
“We got a proposal from the league, which was honestly a slap in the face,” Phoenix Mercury forward and union rep Satou Sabally said.
Increased salaries, revenue sharing and roster size are three areas where the union expect to see major changes from the current CBA that will expire at the end of this season after the players decided to opt out last year. Nearly all the players who aren’t on rookie scale contracts right now will be free agents after this season and looking for big salary increases.
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THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1920 — The United States sweeps Australia in five matches to win the Davis Cup for the first time since 1913. The U.S. team is made up of Bill Tilden and Bill Johnston.
1938 — Paul Runyan wins the PGA Championship by routing Sam Snead 8 and 7 in the final round.
1947 — Rocky Graziano scores a technical knockout with a barrage of 30 punches against Tony Zale in the sixth round to win the world middleweight boxing title. Held in Chicago Stadium, it’s the largest grossing fight in history.
1950 — Uruguay beats Brazil 2-1 to win soccer’s World Cup in Rio de Janeiro.
1967 — Kathy Whitworth wins the LPGA championship by one stroke over Shirley Englehorn. Whitworth sinks a fifty-foot uphill putt for a birdie on the 18th green at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Sutton, Mass.
1989 — Betsy King birdies three of the first four holes of the final round to win her first U.S. Women’s Open championship by four strokes over Nancy Lopez.
1993 — Nick Faldo ties the best single round in 122 years of the British Open with a course-record 63 to give him a one-stroke lead after the second round.
1995 — Annika Sorenstam of Sweden wins the U.S. Women’s Open by one stroke over Meg Mallon, her first victory on the LPGA Tour.
2005 — In Las Vegas, Jermain Taylor beats Bernard Hopkins for the undisputed middleweight title. Hopkins, a winner of a record 20 consecutive defenses, starts slowly and the undefeated challenger builds up a big enough lead on two judges’ scorecards to take the crown.
2006 — J.R. Todd becomes the first Bblack driver to win an NHRA Top Fuel event, beating Tony Schumacher in the Mopar Mile-High Nationals.
2011 — Kyle Busch wins the Nationwide race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to become the third driver to win 100 races in NASCAR’s three national series. Busch, with 22 Cup victories and 29 Trucks wins, also ties Mark Martin for first place in career Nationwide Series victories with 49. Richard Petty and David Pearson are the other drivers with at least 100 wins.
2012 — Roger Federer surpasses Pete Sampras to set the record for the most weeks at No. 1 in the ATP rankings. After winning Wimbledon a week ago — his 75th career ATP title — Federer returns to the top for the first time since June 2010. Today marks his 287th week at No. 1, one more than Sampras.
2017 — Roger Federer defeated Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-1, 6-4, to claim a record 8th Wimbledon men’s title.
2023 — Wimbledon Men’s Tennis: In a classic final, 20-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz ends Novak Đoković’s 34-match win streak at the All England Club with a 1-6, 7-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 victory.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1897 — Chicago’s Cap Anson became the first major leaguer to reach 3,000 hits when he singled off Baltimore’s George Blackburn.
1902 — John McGraw was named manager of the New York Giants, a post he would hold for 30 years.
1909 — Ed Summers of the Detroit Tigers allowed only seven hits and pitched all 18 innings of a 0-0 tie with the Washington Senators, the longest scoreless game in AL history.
1920 — Babe Ruth broke his own season record of 29 homers with his 30th as the New York Yankees beat the St. Louis Browns, 5-2. Ruth would finish the season with 54.
1933 — Red Lucas of the Cincinnati Reds pitched a 15-inning 1-0 win over Roy Parmelee and the New York Giants in the opener of a doubleheader.
1941 — Joe DiMaggio extended his hitting streak to 56 games with a 3-for-4 day as the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians 10-3.
1958 — In the nitecap of a doubleheader, Baltimore pitcher Jack Harshman hit two homers in a 6-5 win over the Chicago White Sox.
1970 — The Cincinnati Reds beat the Pirates 3-2 before 48,846 in the first game at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium.
1985 — Sparky Anderson became the first manager to lose an All-Star Game in both leagues. The National League won 6-1 for the 21st win in the last 23 games.
1996 — Colorado’s streak of scoring seven runs in a game ended at 11. The Rockies beat the Giants 5-3 and tied the 1911 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1938 New York Yankees and 1976 Cincinnati Reds with 11 7-run games.
1997 — Kevin Brown pitched his first career one-hitter to lead Florida to 5-1 win over the Dodgers. Brown, who no-hit San Francisco on June 10th, faced two batters over the minimum and allowed a lead-off single to left by Raul Mondesi in the fifth. He struck out eight and retired his final 15 batters.
1998 — Randy Johnson pitched a one-hitter to lead Seattle to a 3-0 win over Minnesota. Johnson struck out 11 and gave up a single to third baseman Brent Gates.
2006 — Chipper Jones hit a two-run homer in Atlanta’s 10-5 win at San Diego to give him an extra-base hit in 14 straight games, tying a 79-year-old major league record. Jones tied the record set in 1927 by Pittsburgh’s Paul Waner.
2006 — Mariano Rivera earned his 400th save, escaping two jams and getting six outs to preserve the New York Yankees’ 6-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox. Rivera joined Lee Smith, Trevor Hoffman and John Franco in the 400-save club.
2009 — Philadelphia Phillies slugger Ryan Howard became the fastest player in major league history to reach 200 career home runs, breaking the record previously held by Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner. Howard reached 200 homers in his 658th game, hitting his 23rd of the season in the sixth inning of a 4-0 win over Florida. Kiner hit No. 200 in his 706th game.
2013 — Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect eighth inning in his final All-Star appearance, Jose Bautista, J.J. Hardy and Jason Kipnis drove in runs to back a night of pulsating pitching, and the American League beat the National League 3-0.
2015 — Brock Holt became the first Boston player to hit for the cycle since 1996 and the Red Sox slugged their way out to a 9-4 victory over Atlanta.
2021 — Jake Cronenworth hit for his first career cycle, Wil Myers had a grand slam and a two-run shot and the San Diego Padres set a franchise record for runs in a 24-8 blowout of the Washington Nationals.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
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