SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Much has been made of the Dodgers’ exorbitant spending, magnified by a pair of World Series titles for the franchise, as Major League Baseball enters the final year of the current collective bargaining agreement.
The Dodgers open 2026 with a record $381 million payroll, while having over $1 billion in deferrals. As if signing Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández and Blake Snell, and extending Tyler Glasnow and Will Smith weren’t enough, the club once again opened up its wallet this winter, spending a combined $309 million on four-time All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker and three-time reliever of the year Edwin Díaz.
Relief pitcher Blake Treinen, one of the longest-tenured players on the Dodgers heading into his seventh season with the team, did not mince words when asked about how outsiders view the organization.
“Perception is built from the media and maybe owners that don’t like what the Dodgers are doing because they would have to do something similar,” Treinen said earlier this week. “And I say to that, ‘Maybe you’re in the wrong business.’”
Treinen thinks more teams should spend the way that the Dodgers do.
“Is it a bad thing that the people who pay our checks and our salaries want a winning product?” Treinen said. “If you’re going to complain about a team willing to do what it takes to win, then I think you’re in the wrong business. And, if you win, to say that you lose money by winning is a wild statement, so I think the perception is more or less if you don’t like what the Dodgers are doing, either take a look in the mirror or look at the people who aren’t putting a product on the field.”
Treinen went on to say that teams don’t necessarily need to be lavish spenders in order to compete, pointing to how the Milwaukee Brewers posted baseball’s best record a season ago, with the 22nd-highest payroll. The Brewers bested the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central by five games, despite having a payroll nearly $100 million lower than their rival, and reached the National League Championship Series.
“You don’t always have to spend money to be great, look at the Brewers,” Treinen said. “But to say that you can’t compete — like they did — is a wild thing, because [they had] the best record in baseball last year. Draft and development is a big deal, a lot of teams have leaned into it. So, if you either invest heavily in one or the other, and the Dodgers have done a great job of doing both and that’s why players sign here. If you don’t like it, then maybe find a new business model.”
How the Dodgers operate has garnered some praise — the Padres’ Manny Machado and the Phillies’ Bryce Harper weighed in on the subject early in spring training — but the front office wasn’t really seeking it out.
“We’re not looking externally for validation,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said earlier this month at Camelback Ranch. “The validation is winning championships and putting out as good a team as we can each and every year, and all we’re trying to do is get a little bit better each and every season, with the goal of winning championships. [Our] coaching staff, our players I think view it as that. Good, bad or indifferent, the external stuff is something we can’t worry about.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, speaking at Cactus League media day earlier this month, said the fixation on the money spent makes people miss the things they do well.
“It does get lost, the things that we do well,” Roberts said. “Scouting and player development, I think we do as well as anybody in baseball … to get superstars to play well every night, to put out a good product every single night, I think we do a good job at that.”
“That’s why the biggest conversation should be that instead of a payroll question,” Roberts added. “Why are we good for baseball? Because our players play the game the right way.”
The office of Los Angeles City Councilmember Imelda Padilla has begun working with agencies to find a solution to repair infrastructure damage caused by a fire last month that went through a tunnel at Encino Franklin Fields and has limited access to three softball fields used by youth organizations and the high school teams at Harvard-Westlake, Louisville and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.
The fire on Jan. 22, believed to have been set by a homeless person, took out wooden framing below an asphalt bridge connecting access to a parking lot, making it unusable for safety reasons. Parents have since paid for a temporary scaffold bridge that allows people to traverse the condemned bridge. The parking lot remains out of commission along with handicap access. Notre Dame has not practiced or played games there since, moving to Valley College. Harvard-Westlake and Louisville have resumed practices and games.
The land is owned by the Army Corps of Engineers. The bridge spans a culvert, maintained by the city. The fields are leased.
A spokeswoman for Padilla said in a statement: “Our team has taken the lead in convening City departments and have engaged the Mayor’s Office to help accelerate coordination and solutions. While agencies work through jurisdictional and cost responsibilities, our priority is preventing unnecessary delays and advancing immediate solutions. As damage and improvement needs are evaluated, we are focused on restoring safe access, including exploring a secondary access point to improve parking safety and ADA accessibility for families and field users. Student athletes and families should not bear the burden of administrative complexity, and we are pushing for a coordinated path forward that prioritizes timely repairs and safe access.”
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
Watch Bundesliga highlights, as hostAugsburg celebrate their 500th game in the competition with a win over Cologne, thanks to a well-taken goal by Rodrigo Ribeiro.
Connor McDavid secured his ninth 100-point season with a goal and an assist, Leon Draisaitl had a goal and three assists, and the Edmonton Oilers snapped their four-game skid with an 8-1 victory over the Kings on Thursday night.
McDavid scored his 35th goal and Draisaitl got his 30th during his fourth four-point game of the season as the Oilers again routed the opponent they’ve knocked out of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in each of the past four seasons.
The game marked the biggest margin of defeat against the Kings this season.
Jake Walman scored two goals, Zach Hyman had a goal and two assists, and Ty Emberson, Vasily Podkolzin and Andrew Mangiapane also scored in Edmonton’s impressive rebound from a painful loss against the Ducks. Connor Ingram made 22 saves for the Oilers (29-23-8), who have returned from the Olympic break with 13 goals in two games.
Warren Foegele scored for the Kings (23-21-14), who have lost five straight games since January. The Kings’ humiliating third-period collapse against Vegas one night earlier bled into this game: When Hyman scored on a power play midway through the second period, the Kings had surrendered 10 goals in their past 41 minutes of play.
Darcy Kuemper gave up four goals on 15 shots before getting pulled early in the second period for Anton Forsberg.
Some Kings fans targeted coach Jim Hiller for the struggles, repeatedly chanting “Fire Hiller!” in the third period.
Emberson opened the scoring with his first goal since Oct. 28. Podkolzin scored 54 seconds later on another shot that could have been stopped by Kuemper.
Mangiapane beat Kuemper cleanly on an odd-man rush early in the second, and McDavid made it 4-1 when Kuemper comically fell down six feet outside his crease to leave an open net for the NHL’s top scorer.
Up next for the Kings: vs. Calgary at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday.
He wanted to get back into the “Scream” franchise. Of course his character, Stu Macher, could survive a television being dropped on his head (though it’s said that he was electrocuted). Lillard even thought about dropping an actual TV on his head to prove that it was possible. Luckily, he didn’t go through with it, becausea lot of TV figuratively dropped on his head anyway.
The “Scooby-Doo” actor has been cast in several high-profile projects. He’s on “Cross,” the Amazon Prime show starring Aldis Hodge as a homicide detective and forensic psychologist. He will be in the eight-episode “Carrie” miniseries — yes, that Carrie — developed by filmmaker Mike Flanagan for Amazon MGM Studios. He’s dipping his toes in the Marvel cinematic pond with a role in Netflix’s “Daredevil: Born Again.”
On the big screen, he’s prepping for a third “Five Nights at Freddy’s.”
All of this from an actor whom Quentin Tarantino (speaking on “The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast”) “doesn’t care for.” Lillard has answered questions about and commented on Tarantino’s viral comments often in the last few months. An actor for almost four decades, Lillard says he has built up a thick skin, but the comments were hurtful.
He talks about those comments, along with his recent projects, working with friends and his constant desire to say “F— ICE.”
So. Tarantino said some things about your (and Paul Dano’s) acting prowess …
Look, candidly, it was a weird moment. It was a bummer. It was a drag at the beginning. But I’ll say this — I have never felt so seen by this industry. My entire career, I felt like a blue-collar working-class actor trying to be in the best movies and do the best work I possibly can. In that moment, along comes an industry that I’ve served now for 35 years, rising up and saying really lovely things. I said, in the past, it felt like I was living through my own wake. You don’t normally see that outpouring of love until after somebody passes. At the end of the day, it ends up being a really beautiful moment for me.
It’s not like I’m this fragile little thing. I’ve been around a long time. Did it suck? Sure.
This Quentin Tarantino thing … I’m good. I love his films. It also sucked because I was like, “Oh, I would love to get in there and kick ass for him.” But whatever. It is not about the box office wins that week. It’s about a body of work, a community of friends, and longevity that really defines. Which is the goal, and it defines a life well spent.
You mentioned longevity, and a quick IMDb search shows that Shaggy is your world! There’s so much “Scooby–Doo.” Straight-to-video. Live-action. Video games.
Yeah. Isn’t that crazy?
Looking back, how did you approach doing the voice work and being in the movies, and what was your thought process when that first came to you?
My first thought process was, “I’m getting that job.” I’m like, “I will kill that.” The way I got into the voice was that I would have to scream myself hoarse. I’ll never forget coming down and being in the car, an empty Warner Bros. lot, screaming to prepare my voice for the audition, and having Chuck Roven, the producer, walk by and knock on the window and be like, “Dude, are you OK?”
The first movie was so successful that I felt like I was launched. James Gunn and I went in and pitched “Plastic Man” at Warner Bros. I felt like, “Oh, I’m now an option to be No. 1 on a call sheet.” Then “Scooby-Doo 2” came out, didn’t do great, and started a reset of my career that took a couple of years.
I look back now at 56 years old and think, without that, I wouldn’t be in this career. I don’t know if I would have been around long enough to get this comeback that I’m in the middle of and enjoying.
“Scream 7” revisits one of the most successful horror franchises ever. How did you feel about being approached to come back? Can you say much about your role?
Ghostface in Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group’s “Scream.”
(Brownie Harris / Paramount Pictures / Spyglass Media Group)
I’m not going to lie, I was over the moon. At some point, right before I got the offer, probably three or four months before I got the offer, [“Scream” franchise creator] Kevin Williamson put it out in the world that the “Scream” franchise does not need Matthew Lillard. I remember reading that and thinking to myself, “Why don’t you just leave me alone? I’m planning on getting back in.”
[Film producers] Radio Silence had set up in [the fifth and sixth films] the potential or the whisperings that Stu was still alive. So I was like, “We’re trending in the right direction here. Why is Kevin Williamson kicking me in the teeth?” And the funny thing is, he called me in the middle of the afternoon and he’s like, “Are you interested in coming back?” I was super excited. And … there’s not a lot I can say about the movie, for obvious reasons. But I think that people are going to be really excited.
You’re continuing in the horror field with “Carrie.” No release date yet, but what can you say about it?
I had a small scene [in “Life of Chuck”], but the scene’s great and the movie’s beautiful. I saw Kevin Williamson at [“Life of Chuck” and “Carrie” producer] Mike Flanagan’s house because we were playing a game of “Mafia.” I was doing “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and I was sitting talking to Mike and he was talking about doing “Carrie” and everything he’s got coming up. After he and I did “Life of Chuck,” he’s like, “Well, congratulations. You’re now in the Flanafam.” He works a lot with the same actors.
I finally got up the courage to say, “Hey, listen, what is that? I mean, if I’m in the Flanafam, what does that mean? How does that work? Am I supposed to tell you my schedule?” He’s like, “Oh, no, no, no. I have a part for you in ‘Carrie.’ I want you to come and do ‘Carrie’ if you’re interested.”
Everyone knows the story. Carrie, pig blood, all that. But that De Palma version only uses certain specific aspects of the book. The thing I’m excited about is that Mike Flanagan pulls in elements of the book that are not necessarily in the first film, and then adds headlines ripped from today’s day and age in terms of bullying and things we’re seeing in social media and all of that. So he’s giving it a new lens to look at what bullying looks like for kids today. I saw the first three episodes — the entire cast gathered at a screening room — and it blew me away.
Summer Howell plays Carrie, and she’s incredible, and Sam Sloyan plays her mother. There’s three basic parties. There’s the kids, there’s the parents, and then there’s the faculty. I play the principal at the school, watching the entire thing fall apart around them.
You’re also dipping your toes in the world of Marvel with “Daredevil: Born Again.”
I can talk about “Daredevil” a little. I played Dungeon & Dragons with three incredible showrunners. Dario Scardapane, who runs “Daredevil,” Matt Nix, who’s doing the new “Baywatch,” and then Elwood Reid, who does “Tracker.” I’m their dungeon master. We play with Abraham Benrubi, this beautiful actor (“ER,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), a dear friend of mine. … Dario brought me in to play Mr. Charles [on “Daredevil: Born Again”], who’s like a CIA spook. He’s a guy that controls power from afar. He helps nations rise and fall, but he’s very clandestine. He is not impressed by the powers of [Vincent] D’Onofrio’s character [Kingpin] at all. He and I get into this really delicious struggle over power. It’s good. It’s fun.
Matthew Lillard taps “Scream” vibes with Ghost Face Vodka, whose release will coincide with the seventh installment of the film franchise.
(Andreas Branch)
You’ve combined storytellingwith alcohol for your lines of whiskey, vodkas and the like. How did you decide to mix the two?
I started a Dungeons & Dragons company six years ago now called Beadle & Grimm’s. Somebody approached me about building a spirits company around Dungeons & Dragons.For me, what I heard in that was like, “Hey, build a luxury item for niche communities that people don’t always respect and know and understand.” My experience with Beadle & Grimm’s was very clear. They will come out and support it.
So we created Quest’s End Whiskey. Quest’s End is a 16-bottle drop over four years. Each bottle is a different character class, but each bottle delivers a new chapter of an ongoing saga. We sold out in the first two weeks. In a week, we had 25,000 people on the waiting list to purchase that first bottle.
I know the impact that “Scream” [has] had on the horror community. I realized that if we could license the [intellectual property] of [film villain] Ghostface that we could make something super badass that fans would go crazy for. It took us a while to secure those rights. But once we did, we built Ghost Face Vodka.Our hope was to sell 2,000 units of a collector’s edition. We had 40,000 people sign up for early access in the first 72 hours.
Ghost Face Vodka has a game on the back, a QR code. When you sit down, all your people can hit that QR code with their smartphones and load an automated game of “Mafia.” It’s a communal game. It’s like two or three of you are Mafia members, and you have to figure out who that is. And it’s super fun. Again, trying to build community. Our hope is that, launching around “Scream 7,” it’s going to catch the zeitgeist and blow up.
Lastly, we have “Cross,” your most current TV project.
Matthew Lillard in “Cross.”
(Ian Watson / Amazon MGM Studios Prime Video)
I’m in love with that creative team and Aldis Hodge and everything he represents. I don’t think people understand that that show did 40 million views in the first 20 days for Amazon. It is unapologetically a Black show that … it feels like it’s being ripped from the headlines. I think Aldis Hodge and the creative team do an incredible job representing a man who is a Black man as a detective in this world. The relationships, the friendships, the bonds he has with his community — just being around that creative team has been really inspiring, and [show creator] Ben Watkins is an incredible storyteller.
I think the thing about “Cross” is that it really challenges you, especially given what we’re living through in this moment. I have to say it — politically speaking, we’re in a s— storm. I went viral a month ago about saying, ‘F— ICE.’ But … f— ICE.
Could you describe your character?
Another dubious character. He’s a billionaire named Lance Durand, and he’s out to solve world hunger. Sometimes, a billionaire has very questionable scruples as to the best ways to go about things. Solve world hunger, kill all the people. That’s how you do it.
The whole series opens up with a bunch of middle-aged white men on an island doing horrible things to girls. So when I say “ripped from the freaking headlines” … It’s, like, crazy.
Joel Quenneville became the second coach in NHL history to win 1,000 games with the Ducks’ 6-5 comeback victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night.
Quenneville joined Scotty Bowman in an exclusive hockey club with a milestone win in the Ducks’ first game back from the Olympic break.
Cutter Gauthier scored the tiebreaking goal with 1:14 to play for the Ducks, who erased a pair of two-goal deficits. Leo Carlsson had a goal and two assists in his first appearance since Jan. 10 for the Ducks, who have won six straight home games and 10 of 12 overall to leapfrog the Oilers into second place in the Pacific Division.
Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard scored late in the second period to put the Oilers ahead, but Carlsson and Olen Zellweger scored early in the third to even it again.
Rookie Matt Savoie then converted a rebound late in a power play for his 10th career goal, but Beckett Sennecke answered 46 seconds later with a slick wrist shot for his 19th goal — tops among NHL rookies.
Gauthier then converted a rebound of Carlsson’s shot, setting off a wild celebration inside a sold-out Honda Center.
Jack Roslovic and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored for Edmonton. Connor McDavid had two assists, giving the Olympic silver medalist an NHL-best 98 points in 59 games.
Ian Moore and Alex Killorn scored for the Ducks, and Lukas Dostal made 22 saves.
Tristan Jarry made 20 saves before getting pulled for Connor Ingram after Sennecke’s tying goal with 13:21 to play.
Carlsson was outstanding in his return to the Ducks’ lineup after missing the final 11 games before the break with a thigh injury that kept him out of the Olympics.
Mikael Granlund didn’t play for the Ducks after captaining Finland to bronze in Milan. None of the Oilers’ Olympians sat out as they opened a three-game California trip.
As his USC team slid further off the NCAA tournament bubble, falling flat against its fiercest rival, frustrated coach Eric Musselman couldn’t help but lament what might have been.
If the Trojans had Rodney Rice, maybe things would have gone differently in his second season.
“I haven’t really talked about it in a long time,” Musselman said. “But we’ve got three games left, so I’m gonna bring it up now. To run our offense and stuff without a guy like him is problematic for sure.”
Of course, after losing 81-62 to crosstown rival UCLA,, there wasn’t much else for USC to find solace in Tuesday night. Maybe Rice, who has been out since late November, would have elevated the Trojans’ ailing offense. Maybe freshman Alijah Arenas, who didn’t debut until late January, could have found his stride faster with a full offseason.
No amount of what-ifs, however, will fix what ails USC during its final three games. The loss to UCLA was its fourth straight. As of Tuesday night, the Trojans were firmly out of the tournament field, a fact that Musselman was well aware of.
That’s not set in stone yet. But the question now is whether the Trojans even have the capacity to climb back into the March mix.
That path back for USC would certainly be smoother with a more potent offense. Sixth-year senior Chad Baker-Mazara led the team with 25 points against UCLA in spite of playing through a sore knee.
But the rest of the Trojans offense shot under 30% — another issue that Musselman traced back to Rice’s absence.
“The lack of shooting is really hurting us,” Musselman said. “I haven’t really talked about it in a long time. But not having Rodney Rice’s shooting is killing us. It kills our spacing. It kills our help to the ball.”
The arrival of Arenas, the Trojans highly touted freshman, was supposed to solve that. Instead, 10 games into his college career, Arenas is struggling mightily with his offensive efficiency.
USC coach Eric Musselman reacts to the Trojans’ loss to UCLA at Pauley Pavilion on Tuesday.
(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)
Arenas had four first-half turnovers in nine minutes and didn’t hit a shot from the field until midway through the second half. The freshman has shot just 8 of 29 over his last three games. He finished Tuesday with 10 points, four rebounds and five turnovers.
“It’s a learning curve for him,” Musselman said. “He’s an incredible talent who has an awesome ceiling, and he’s got an incredible future. But in a game like tonight — he’s learning. You can see it out there. He’s learning on the fly.”
There’s not much time left to learn. The Trojans will face No. 12 Nebraska on Saturday, before traveling to Washington, which beat them earlier in the season, a few days later. A rematch with UCLA awaits at Galen Center the following Saturday.
USC won’t stand much of a chance against that slate if it can’t find some consistency on either end, but the Trojans had their moments Tuesday. They fired out to an early lead thanks to Baker-Mazara, who followed up a 13-point outburst Saturday by knocking down three consecutive 3’s in a three-minute stretch.
Later, near the midway mark of the second half, Baker-Mazara hit another 3 to cut the UCLA lead to just five points. And for a brief moment, it seemed USC might find a way.
But then, in the waning seconds of the shot clock, UCLA star guard Donovan Dent let a deep three pointer fly with 10 minutes remaining. It swished. A sold-out crowd at Pauley Pavilion roared.
Dent finished with 30 points, while the Trojans never recovered. Musselman, meanwhile, was left thinking of something his wife, Danyelle, had said to him.
“Take a 20-pointer scorer off of any team and see what they do,” Musselman recalled his wife saying. “Take Dent off of them and let’s see what they do. That’s a fact.”
But the facts, for USC, are pretty grim at this point. And with just three games remaining, time is running out for the Trojans to change that.
PHOENIX — For the first time since he grounded out to end the 11th inning in Game 7 of the World Series, Freddie Freeman stepped into the batter’s box in the first inning Tuesday against the Cleveland Guardians at Camelback Ranch. Freeman was met with cheers by the thousands of Dodgers fans in attendance.
After popping out to third in his first at-bat, Freeman laced a double to left-center to drive in two runs in the third inning before he was lifted from the Dodgers’ 11-3 victory.
Freeman, who last season battled the lingering effects of a right ankle injury he suffered late in the 2024 season, said having a more typical offseason was crucial to regaining his fitness.
“It’s been in a good spot since I started hitting this offseason,” Freeman said of his swing. “Nice to be able to hit a ball to left-center already, that’s a good sign. … I hadn’t swung a bat till a day before FanFest last year. A normal offseason definitely helps.”
While still an All-Star and a recipient of MVP votes, Freeman has had a slight decline in production over the last two seasons compared to his first two with the Dodgers. Freeman posted on-base percentages of .407 and .410, while raking a league-leading 47 and 59 doubles, respectively, in 2022 and 2023. His OBP dropped to .378 in 2024 and .367 in 2025.
But for Freeman, it is his contact numbers that have been a thorn in his side all offseason.
His .295 batting average was the third-best in the National League last season but still was not good enough for Freeman, a career .300 hitter.
“There wasn’t a 3 at the start of my batting average last year, and that irks me,” Freeman said last week. “That’s my goal always, to hit .300. I like hits. I’m a hitter. Three at the front of a batting average means a lot to me. I know batting average and those kinds of things don’t mean a lot to a lot of people these days, but it does to me. If you hit .300, it means you’re on base a lot, and you’re scoring runs for your team, so that’s the goal, .300 again.”
Freeman landed on the injured list at the start of last April after he aggravated his surgically repaired right ankle, causing him to miss nine games and setting the tone for a season in which he never felt quite right.
“I was taping my ankle till about August,” Freeman said. “It was never really in a good spot last year. There was a lot of treatment, and I think I played all right for that, and we won again, so I’m really looking forward this year.”
One area Freeman thinks he can improve is his defense. A former Gold Glover, Freeman rated as a below-average fielder in both the defensive runs saved (minus-7) and outs above average (minus-6) metrics.
“I didn’t like the way I played defense last year and I thought it was just because I wasn’t mobile enough,” Freeman said. “So, that’s a big, big goal of mine, to play better at first this year, get to more balls, be able to cover more things. So, that’s going to be a key for me.”
Manager Dave Roberts is optimistic about what his veteran first baseman can do, even at age 36.
“I think he takes such good care of himself,” Roberts said. “I think that age is an easy one to point to, but I really believe that he’s been dinged up for two years.
“Right now, today, it’s as good as I’ve seen his swing over the course of a week sample, [better] than I have [seen] in two years. So, he’s in a good spot physically, mechanically. So, if we can keep him healthy, I just don’t see why he can’t have the year that he expects, and with that, with everything that he went through the last couple years, he was still very productive.”
Freeman said last week he hopes to play four more years, through his 20th season as a big leaguer.
“In that fourth year, I turn 40,” Freeman said. “Four is just a number that’s floated. Is it less? Is it more? I don’t know, but that’s kind of just where I’m at. I feel good right now, so that was just floated because that would be an even 20 years, I’ll be 40. I got a family that I would like to go home to. I do love this game; I love playing it, but for me, if I can do four, that would be 20 years. I think that’s enough.”
Etc.
After major shoulder surgery in 2024 that forced him to miss all of last season, right-hander Gavin Stone made his return to the mound a smooth one, pitching a scoreless first inning and striking out two against the Guardians.
“It was awesome,” said Stone, who last pitched for the Dodgers on Aug. 31, 2024. “Definitely a lot of hard work over the previous year. Rehab was a grind, but it’s good to be back out there.”
What’s not to love about Pete Crow-Armstrong? The young, talented Chicago Cubs center fielder is somehow simultaneously super cool and fiery. Nicknamed simply PCA, he should be an entertaining and accomplished player to watch for many years.
And he’s Southern California born and bred, the product of esteemed diamond factory Harvard-Westlake High.
So why oh why did these words come out of his mouth during an interview for a 4,500-word article published Monday in Chicago Magazine?
“I love Chicago more and more,” he said. “It’s just an incredible city. The people are great. They give a [crap]. They aren’t just baseball fans who go to the game like Dodgers fans to take pictures and whatever. They are paying attention. They care.”
The love of Chicago and Cubs fans? Understood.
The dissing of all Dodgers fans as photo-obsessed, uncaring whatevers? Laughable.
The Dodgers became the first team to draw four million fans in 2025 and have exceeded 3.7 million paying customers every non-COVID season since 2013.
And it’s a false narrative to suggest the devotion is merely a byproduct of back-to-back World Series titles and a star-studded lineup. Remember, the Dodgers didn’t win a title from 1989 through 2019, a 31-year drought during which their attendance exceeded 3 million 25 times.
So, where did a baseball-loving future MLB star growing up in Sherman Oaks come to such a contorted conclusion?
Blame it on dad.
PCA penned a first-person article for the Player’s Tribune in September that spelled it out:
“Growing up in L.A., my dad gave me a couple of rules. 1) I couldn’t root for the Dodgers. 2) I couldn’t root for the Cardinals.
“He’s from Naperville, just outside Chicago. He didn’t force me to be a Cubs fan, but let’s just say it was heavily encouraged.”
The Cubs won the World Series for the first time in 108 years in 2016. PCA was 14, and he and his dad, actor Matthew John Armstrong, watched Game 7 together on television. Dad cried.
“I don’t think I fully got it in the moment, you know?” PCA wrote. “I was like, Dad, don’t be weird … stop crying. But I’m sure almost every Cub fan of a certain age had tears in their eyes that night. And now, a bit older, I get it.”
PCA signed with the New York Mets after being drafted 19th overall out of high school in 2020. He was traded to the Cubs a year later for Javier Báez, Trevor Williams and cash and swiftly rose through the minor leagues, making his Cubs debut in 2023.
Last season he broke out as a bona fide star, becoming the first MLB player to accumulate 25 home runs, 25 stolen bases and 70 runs batted in during the first half of a season. He also cemented himself as the top center fielder in the game.
PCA slumped during the second half and finished with 31 homers and 35 stolen bases to go with a .247 batting average. Although the fans might not have noticed with all the picture-taking and whatever, he has done well in six games at Dodger Stadium, batting .333 with a home run and five RBIs.
But according to his teammate and close friend Nico Hoerner, PCA feels at home in the friendly confines of Wrigley Field.
“That’s one thing that is very cool about him that not a lot of younger players get,” Hoerner said. “He couldn’t have more of an appreciation for the history of the game and playing in Wrigley Field. He’s excited to be a part of the city of Chicago in a way a lot of guys don’t really understand.”
Kara Braxton, who won two WNBA championships during a 10-year career, has died at age 43.
“It is with profound sadness that we mourn the passing of 2x WNBA Champion Kara Braxton,” the WNBA said in a statement Sunday. “Our thoughts are with her family, friends, and former teammates at this time.”
No cause of death has been given.
Born in Jackson, Mich., along with twin sister Kim, Braxton played high school basketball at Jackson High for one season and at Westview High in Portland, Ore., for three seasons.
Braxton, a 6-foot-6 center-forward, played at the University of Georgia from 2001-2004, earning SEC freshman of the year and first-team all-conference honors in 2002. She averaged 15.4 points and 7.3 rebounds a game during her three seasons with the Bulldogs.
“Rest in peace Kara,” Georgia basketball posted on X.
Braxton was selected by the Detroit Shock at No. 7 overall in the 2005 draft. She spent 5 1/2 seasons with the team, winning the WNBA championship in 2006 and 2008 and earning her only All-Star nod in 2007. She also played for the Phoenix Mercury from 2010-11 and the New York Liberty from 2011-14, finishing with career averages of 7.6 points and 4.7 rebounds a game.
New York Liberty’s Kara Braxton grabs the ball between Indiana Fever’s Tammy Sutton-Brown, left, and Tamika Catchings on Sept. 17, 2011.
(Mel Evans / Associated Press)
“We mourn the loss of Kara Braxton, a former Liberty player whose presence and passion left a lasting impact on our organization and the women’s game,” the Liberty wrote Sunday on X. “Our hearts are with her family, friends, teammates, and all who were touched by her spirit. Her impact will not be forgotten.”
Braxton is survived by her husband Jarvis Jackson and two sons, Jelani Thurman and Jream Jackson.
Thurman, a tight end who played three seasons at Ohio State before transferring to North Carolina last month, posted a number of tributes to his mother on his Instagram Story, including a photo of her kissing him as a baby at a Shock media day photo shoot.
“imma miss my queen,” Thurman wrote to accompany another photo, which appears to show him as an older child wearing his mother’s No. 45 jersey to school.
Thurman also posted video of an interview from around the time Ohio State won the 2024 national championship in which he was asked what lessons he learned from his mother that helped get him to that point.
“Man, she taught me always go hard,” Thurman said. “There’s one goal, you know what you need to go to do.”
All of the current Lakers realized that playing against the Boston Celtics on national television really was more than just one of 82 games on the schedule.
It was crystallized even more because iconic former Lakers coach Pat Riley sat courtside after a celebration for the unveiling of his statue on the Star Plaza outside Crypto.com Arena. He was the first Lakers coach to beat the hated Celtics for an NBA championship after eight failed attempts.
So, yes, on this Sunday afternoon, this game meant more if only because it was another game in the long rivalry, a game the Lakers lost, 111-89.
Luka Doncic had 25 points for the Lakers but he was just nine for 22 from the field. LeBron James had 20 points but was just nine for 21 from the field.
It was the second time this season the Lakers scored in the 80s, and that also was a loss.
For a team that entered the game shooting a league-best 50% from the field, it was not a good sign for the Lakers’ offense when their shooting slipped to 36.8% in the second quarter. They shot 39.1% for the game and 30% (nine for 30) from three-point range.
“We had some really good looks,” James said. “I think they had a good game plan defensively, forcing us to take some shots … I mean listen, sometimes you got to make shots. And they made timely shots and we didn’t. We didn’t give ourselves a good chance on the offensive end. I think defensively, we held serve as long as we could. But offensively, we didn’t give ourselves a good chance.”
It was obvious the Lakers felt the intensity of the rivalry when Austin Reaves and Marcus Smart received technical fouls in the second quarter and coach JJ Redick got one in the third.
They were unhappy with the officiating that didn’t go their way against an aggressive Celtics defense.
Perhaps, it was posed to Doncic, the Lakers lost some focus on offense because of the complaints that led to the T’s.
“Maybe. …You’re surprised it wasn’t me, huh?” he said. “Then you know it’s bad.”
Doncic laughed.
But what was of real concern for the Lakers was trying to deal with the Celtics and their three-point shooters.
The Celtics (37-19) entered the game tossing up 42.4 threes per game, the third-highest output in the NBA, and making 15.4 of them, also the third-highest.
On cue, the Celtics shot 14 for 36 from three-point range.
The Lakers (34-22) fell behind by 18 points with 4:46 left in the fourth quarter after Jaylen Brown was fouled while scoring. He made the free throw and then followed that with a three-pointer to put the Lakers in a 21-point hole.
Brown finished with 32 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
But the real problem for the Lakers was not being able to slow down Payton Pritchard. He had 30 points off the bench, making 10 of 14 shots and six of nine three-pointers.
His three-pointer gave the Celtics a 22-point lead and forced Redick to call a timeout with 3:22 left. Redick pulled his starters, knowing it was over.
“You talk about the personnel and how good Jaylen Brown has been and how good Payton Pritchard has been,” Redick said. “Really where this team kills you is when they can get you in the blender and take catch-and-shoot threes. They can shoot 51 of them and they’re going to make 20. They’re that good. Trying to limit that is the biggest thing when you play these guys. And you have to be willing to live with contested off-the-dribble jumpers. Pritchard made a lot of them tonight. He played a great game.”
James said he watched some of the Riley ceremony that took place at halftime.
James played for the Miami Heat for four years under the watchful eye of Riley. The Heat went to four NBA Finals and won two championships.
Riley left an indelible impression on James.
“I got out there for a little bit, sat on the bench during halftime before our meeting,” James said. “Listen, he’s one of the all-time greats to ever have been a part of this league. Not only player — coach, executive, front office, everything. Obviously what he did here for the Lakers organization in the ‘80s goes without saying and rightfully so, him having a statue outside his building. Obviously I spent four years with him. I have the utmost respect for him, for his family and everything. So, it’s pretty cool.”
Desmond Bane scored 36 points and Paolo Banchero added 16 points and eight assists as the Orlando Magic held on for a 111-109 victory over the Clippers on Sunday night at Intuit Dome.
Wendell Carter Jr. had 15 points and 14 rebounds and Tristan da Silva scored 13 for the Magic, who improved to 5-2 since Feb. 5.
Kawhi Leonard shrugged off an ankle injury to score 37 points and Bennedict Mathurin added 21 points and nine rebounds off the bench for the Clippers, who are 4-5 since Feb. 2. Mathurin missed a three-point attempt to win the game at the buzzer.
Jordan Miller had 14 points for the Clippers (27-30).
Leonard exited Friday’s loss against the Lakers with an ankle sprain. Mathurin was playing in his fifth game for the Clippers after he was acquired at the trade deadline from the Indiana Pacers.
Orlando won despite going eight of 23 from three-point range, two games after setting a franchise record with 27 three-pointers in a victory at Sacramento. Jalen Suggs missed his second consecutive game for the Magic with back spasms.
In a tight game throughout, Leonard gave the Clippers a 107-105 lead with 3:03 remaining on a jumper from the top of the key. The Magic took charge from there as Bane hit a jumper to tie the score and then made a layup with 1:28 left for a 109-107 advantage.
As the Clippers missed four consecutive shots, Orlando went up 111-107 on a fast-break dunk from Banchero with 40 seconds left.
Bane tried to pad the Magic’s lead with eight seconds remaining but had his shot blocked inside by rookie Yanic Konan Niederhauser. Mathurin then raced down the floor only to miss a 25-footer as time expired.
The No. 2 UCLA women’s basketball team beat Wisconsin 80-60 on Sunday afternoon at Pauley Pavilion. Lauren Betts recorded a double-double with 19 points and 14 rebounds — including three in quick succession in the fourth quarter — as the Bruins celebrated their six graduates on Senior Day by winning their 21st game in a row. Five Bruins — all seniors — scored in double digits.
Gabriela Jaquez had 14 points and six rebounds in the first half for the Bruins, while the Badgers’ leading scorer, Dorja Zaja, had 10 points in the first half and 16 on the game.
While Jaquez led the way in the first half, Betts took over in the second, with a double-double in the second half alone.
After jumping out to a 14-4 lead just over three minutes into the game, UCLA (27-1 overall, 17-0 in the Big Ten) was held scoreless from the field for nearly five minutes, until a Betts basket ended the drought. Wisconsin (13-15, 5-12) cut the lead in half to 16-11 during that stretch, but UCLA extended it to 25-15 to end the first quarter.
The Badgers committed six fouls in the first quarter and the Bruins capitalized for seven points from the free-throw line.
Wisconsin held nearly even with UCLA on the scoreboard in the second quarter (15-14), while leading the rebound game 12-9.
The Badgers scored the first five points of the third quarter to tighten the gap to seven, but the Bruins took control from there and led 65-49 by the end of the quarter.
The Bruins won the fourth quarter 15-11, and they took time for the crowd to honor their seniors as the quarter came to a close.
UCLA has one remaining game in the regular season, against USC on March 1.
PHOENIX — Dalton Rushing’s first year in the big leagues with the Dodgers didn’t go quite as planned.
Over 53 games after his May call-up, the highly-regarded prospect batted .204 with a .258 on-base percentage, .582 OPS, four home runs and 24 RBI. It was the only time in his baseball life — aside from his freshman year at the University of Louisville — that Rushing was not a regular fixture in his team’s lineup.
“It was very, very up and down,” Rushing said. “It was some good, some bad, some ugly. A lot of things were new to me, the scattering [of] playing time was tough. It was a little tough being able to stay on top of compete mode, keep the swing in a good spot.”
But it still yielded a rather satisfying end result.
“Overall, I got to win a World Series with this team,” Rushing said. “And it’s hard to look back and think, ‘I’d take this back or I’d take that back.’ It went exactly how it was planned.”
With three-time All-Star catcher Will Smith in front of him, Rushing’s role is clear: he is the Dodgers’ backup catcher. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts feels good about Rushing’s progression going into 2026.
“Dalton’s in a good spot right now,” Roberts said last week. “I want him to understand his role as a backup catcher, what that entails, really learn the pitchers, learn the swing that works for playing a couple times a week. He’s used to playing a lot more. But I think, that [he’s] still maturing, because it’s not easy to not play every day when you’re used to [playing regularly]. I think that he grew last year, and I like where he’s at.”
Roberts plans to use Rushing at first base, if Freddie Freeman comes out of the game or needs a day off. Rushing will not, however, play in the outfield, where he saw some run in the minor leagues.
“Outfield’s not on the table”, Roberts said. “I do think that there’s going to be some spots for him to come into games if Freddie’s out or if there’s a game he doesn’t play, we’ll see how that lines up. And I think right now for me, just seeing how the roster plays out as far as what are the options we might have at first base, but I do want to get him at-bats when I can.”
Rushing started Saturday’s Cactus League opener against the Angels, driving in a run on a sacrifice fly in his three at-bats. The 25-year-old said he’s fully embracing his spot on a club vying for its third consecutive championship.
“For me, if I can keep myself ready to play two or three times a week, then it’s going to be easy to keep myself ready to play five or six,” Rushing said. “To be able to go through something like this early in my career, where I have to not only earn the time on the field, but also navigate my way through my career, I think it’s a really good start to my career, to be able to understand how this game works.”
Rushing also views playing behind Smith as a valuable opportunity to learn from one baseball’s best catchers, something he believes will help him grow as a player.
“I have a spot to work behind the best catcher in baseball,” Rushing said. “And from there, I’m going to be given opportunities to see more time on the field, to get my bat in there as much as possible, and it’s up to me to take advantage of those opportunities and continue to put myself on the field as much as possible.”
Rushing says he does not have any personal goals or accolades that he hopes to reach in 2026. This season is about team success and winning.
“The main goal especially with this role is I’m going to win as many [games as] possible,” Rushing said. “Every game I’m on the field, I want to win. I want to win 110 games in the regular season as a Dodger. We’re fully capable of it. I think that’s a good goal to put for ourselves and it just makes each and every game that much important.”
Shohei Ohtani throws live BP before departing for WBC
Before the Dodgers’ 5-1 win over the San Diego Padres in Peoria, Ariz., on Sunday, Shohei Ohtani had a live batting practice session at Camelback Ranch in which he threw 33 pitches and struck out Freeman and Mookie Betts.
“I felt pretty good about today in terms of volume,” Ohtani said via interpreter Will Ireton after his session. “While in Japan, I plan to do some sort of live BP/bullpen/some kind of simulation.”
After the game, Roberts revealed the star two-way player is expected to depart either Sunday night or on Monday to join Team Japan for preparations for next month’s World Baseball Classic.
A half dozen little kids have come out of the bleachers seeking high fives from any Palisades High basketball player. Jack Levey, the smallest player on the court, responds to the delight of the fanatics. Receiving recognition and giving back to those rooting for you is among the most memorable parts of the high school sports experience.
Palisades is on the verge of winning its first upper division City Section basketball championship since 1969. The Dolphins will play Cleveland on Friday night at 8 p.m. at L.A. Southwest College for the Open Division title.
Levey, a 5-foot-10 junior guard, is the secret weapon who shows up when the Dolphins’ three stars — freshman Phillip Reed and junior twins EJ and OJ Popoola — need a little help.
“All the attention is on them,” he said. “I’m always open.”
His contribution comes in the form of making three-pointers.
“I practice all the time,” Levey said. “Any time I’m in the gym, I’m shooting threes. That’s why I know if I’m going to play in college, I have to be able to shoot threes.”
If he’s not shooting 400 threes a day at practice, he’s in the backyard at home in Westchester shooting threes on a hoop, with his father feeding him passes.
He has made 103 threes this season. During Palisades’ 71-56 semifinal victory over San Pedro on Saturday night, he stole the ball and was leading the fast break for what looked like could have been a breakaway layup. Instead, he pulled up on the wing and made a three.
“I’m more comfortable shooting a transition three than getting to the basket,” he said. “I feel like a three is a layup.”
Coach Jeff Bryant has given him the green light to pretty much shoot from anywhere. In a game against Westchester this season, he was 11 for 12 from three-point range.
Jack Levey celebrates a big win in the Dolphins’ return to their home court against Western League rival Fairfax.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
“I couldn’t miss,” he said. “It was so fun. It was the best.”
Other coaches in the Western League know they must pay attention to Levey or suffer the consequences.
“He’s one person we game plan for to limit his looks,” University coach Steve Ackerman said. “He’s an exceptional three-point shooter and has even improved over last season.”
Levey’s journey wasn’t necessarily supposed to turn him into a three-point shooter. Growing up, he was usually the tallest player on his youth team. Then he stopped growing and saw others pass him by. When he entered high school, he had to re-invent himself.
“I thought I was going to be 6-3,” he said. “I have to be able to shoot the ball.”
You’d have to know nothing about basketball these days to fail to guess who his favorite player is.
“Steph Curry,” he said. “That’s my GOAT.”
In a season where the overall talent level in City Section basketball probably reached a new low, the young talent at Palisades provides a starting point to move forward. Reed, the talented freshman, had 29 points Saturday in the semifinals.
And from a fan perspective, waiting for Levey to launch one of his threes offers a moment of excitement and entertainment that even makes little kids look up and put down their video games to see if the ball goes in.
A season of frustratingly unfortunate events for USC had led here, to this nightmarish crescendo at the one-minute mark Saturday, in a must-win matchup.
Through a roller-coaster afternoon, the Trojans had navigated one wave after another, riding several hot streaks and surviving the cold ones, knowing full well that their NCAA tournament hopes hinged on a win over Oregon, one of the Big Ten’s worst teams.
All that stress seemed to subside as USC took a six-point lead with 70 seconds remaining. Any rational onlooker would assume that the Trojans had held on for good, dispatching of the Ducks.
But then Oregon scored on a layup. It stole the ball back. And it hit a three-pointer.
USC coach Eric Musselman reacts after a play during the Trojans’ loss to Oregon Saturday at the Galen Center.
(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
USC clung to a one-point lead as freshman Alijah Arenas stepped back for a jumper that clanged away. Kam Woods missed a tip. Then, Oregon got the ball back and drew a foul.
Two free throws from Oregon’s Nate Bittle dealt USC one final, unbelievable blow to their Saturday — and perhaps their season — handing the Trojans a devastating 71-70 loss.
Their hopes of making the NCAA tournament aren’t necessarily dead as of Saturday. Four games still remain for the Trojans to build their case before the Big Ten tournament. But two of those come against UCLA and another against Nebraska, one of the best teams in the Big Ten this season.
USC had hoped Chad Baker-Mazara‘s return from injury would help lift them to a victory Saturday. Baker-Mazara led all scorers with 21, but he also fouled out late, during that final possession.
Arenas struggled most of the afternoon, before scoring 11 in the second half. But it was his turnover in the final seconds that ultimately handed Oregon the win
Baker-Mazara hadn’t played since the beginning of February, and in back-to-back losses to Illinois and Ohio State, the Trojans undoubtedly missed his spark. If not for a late game winner in State College from Arenas, they would’ve dropped all three games played without Baker-Mazara.
The circumstances ultimately left USC in a must-win scenario Saturday, if it hoped to continue clinging to the edge of the NCAA tournament bubble. Oregon had, on the other hand, spent most of the season in the Big Ten cellar. It entered Saturday’s matinee with losses in 11 of its last 12 games.
There was no such urgency in Baker-Mazara upon his return. The sixth-year senior sang and danced his way through warm-ups, before opening the game on a stationary bike in the corner of the arena.
But upon checking in, he jolted the Trojans offense to life with 13 straight points.
The boost Baker-Mazara provided eventually ran out of gas. USC hit just three of its final 14 shots before halftime, and Oregon stormed out in front.
The Ducks did the same in the second half, albeit in much more devastating fashion, leaving USC with a much harder road ahead.
They are the core of the Lakers, the engines that make this team go, but health issues have prevented them from playing together for far too much of the 2025-26 campaign.
During their first game since the NBA All-Star break, Doncic, Reaves and James carried the the Lakers to a 125-122 win over the Clippers Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Doncic had 38 points, 11 assists and six rebounds.
Lakers guard Austin Reaves celebrates after Clippers guard Bennedict Mathurin (9) was called for an offensive foul Friday at Crypto.com Arena.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Reaves had 29 points, six assists and made a big defensive play late in the game.
And James had 13 points and 11 assists, his fifth straight game with 10 or more assists.
Up 118-115 with 1:49 left, Reaves took drew a charge on Bennedict Mathurin, the Clipper’s sixth foul that sent him to the bench with 26 points.
Still, the Lakers didn’t escape until Doncic made two free throws with 21.2 seconds left to give the Lakers a five-point lead that barely stood.
With a 125-122 lead and the ball, James threw a dangerous cross-court pass intended for Doncic that Nicolas Batum instead stole.
But Batum missed a potential game-tying three-pointer and James got the rebound to secure the win.
The Lakers put two defenders on Kawhi Leonard, double teaming the Clippers’ best offensive weapon, keeping a crowd of defenders around him, especially when they employed their zone defense.
Leonard was giving it to the Lakers, but he left late in the fourth quarter with left ankle soreness, departing with 31 points on 11-for-19 shooting.
Lakers coach JJ Redick said pre-game that Leonard is back to being a force on both sides of the basketball.
That’s why so much of the Lakers’ gameplan centered around trying to slow down Leonard, who is eighth in the NBA in scoring (27.8) and tied for first in steals (2.0).
“He’s more consistently taking the tougher assignments right now, and he’s back to being just an elite two-way player on both ends of the floor,” Redick said. “And you know, he’s playing as well as anybody in the NBA right now for the last two months, whatever the starting point would be, but it really is on both sides of the ball.”
Leonard is a primary reason why the Clippers are still rolling despite having traded away two key pieces in guard James Harden and center Ivicia Zubac.
The Clippers started the season 6-21, looking nothing like a playoff team.
But then they beat the Lakers on Dec. 20 and that got the Clippers rolling to a 21-7 stretch entering Friday night’s game, a two-month period that saw them get to one game under .500.
Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said none of the Clippers ever gave up on the season, adding they were always “playing to win” no matter whether they had “young, old, toddlers” on the court.
“I just feel confident,” Lue said. “I just feel confident in our players, confident in our coaching staff and I just feel confident in the environment and the culture that we’ve set. Why wouldn’t we want to play to win? That’s our mindset. That’s my mindset every single night. As tough as it may be or you start 6-21 whatever it may be, you’re playing to win. So, we make it to the playoffs and anything can happen. So our goal is to make it to the playoffs. I don’t know why somebody would scoff at that.”
PHOENIX — Flashing bleached hair under his cap as he settles in with his new team, Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz threw his first pitch of Thursday’s live bating practice session to Freddie Freeman. It was called a strike. As Díaz got set for his next pitch, Freeman tapped on his helmet in a playful attempt to challenge the call.
In response, Díaz tapped his cap twice.
These gestures will become the norm in major league baseball this season, starting this weekend, thanks to the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System.
Each team will begin games with two challenges, initiated by a pitcher, hitter or catcher tapping their head within seconds of the call — no dugout consultation allowed. The moment it’s challenged, a graphic will show the result of the challenge on the video board and once the call is confirmed or overturned, the game will go on.
Teams retain challenges when they’re successful and lose them when they’re not.
The added layer of strategy intrigues Stephen Nelson, the Dodgers’ radio play-by-play voice.
“As humans we are naturally resistant to change, especially baseball fans, and I say that as a baseball fan,” Nelson said this week at the team’s Camelback Ranch training facility. “So there’s definitely going to be that early period where everybody’s probably going to hate it, but you got to get through that.”
In recent years, MLB has tweaked the game — implementing a replay system to challenge calls on the field, placing a runner on second base to start extra innings, using a pitch clock. The ABS system has been tested in the minor leagues since 2022, and major leaguers got a taste of it during spring training last year and also in the All-Star Game.
In 288 spring games last year, there was an average of 4.1 challenges per game, adding an average of 57 seconds to it. Pitchers and catchers successfully overturned calls more often than hitters.
So who will be in charge of making challenges during at-bats?
“I will let the catcher dictate if he [wants] to challenge or not,” Díaz said this week. “I won’t do it … he’s been there all day long, they know the strike zone for the umpire.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was hesitant to say the club will have a hard rule on who can call for challenges. He feels more comfortable with his catcher doing it than a hitter or pitcher, but if a catcher decides to challenge, he expects them to be right.
“He better be right,” Roberts said Friday.
“It’s good that we’re practicing in spring, but we’re having conversations about leverage and how to use it to our advantage,” he added.
Roberts said if hitters want to make a call, they need to be honest with themselves about their personal knowledge of the strike zone and their baseball IQ and understand when to challenge a call and when not to.
“There’s no perfect science to it, but we’re just going to keep talking about it, trying to educate our guys,” he said.
Luis Cruz, a former player and now a Spanish-language announcer for the Dodgers, said hitters don’t need to be thinking about challenging a call.
“I don’t want to have another thing in my mind … then you lose your focus on your at-bat,” he said.
Jackson Ferris to start Sunday’s game
Left-hander Jackson Ferris, the Dodgers’ minor league pitcher of the year in 2024, will start Sunday’s game against the San Diego Padres at the Peoria Sports Complex.
Ferris, acquired along with outfield prospect Zyhir Hope from the Chicago Cubs for Michael Busch two years ago, logged a 3.86 ERA and 1.46 walks plus hits per inning pitched across 26 games and 126 innings at double-A Tulsa last season.
“I like Jackson,” Roberts said. “I like the player. He’s a good kid. A lot of talent. I think for me, it’s just trying to harness his arsenal. It’s a good fastball. He needs to continue to get ahead, be able to put hitters away with the secondary pitches, be efficient with his pitches per inning, but I like Jackson. He’s really talented. He’s scratching the surface, but he’s gotta go out there and perform, so I’m excited to see him on Sunday, and throughout the spring.”
“He will be in the MVP conversation this year,” Roberts said this week. “But again, I think, speaking for Mookie, his main goal is to help us win a championship. So, I think whatever falls out from there, I think that will happen. I just want him to focus on just being healthy, helping us win, and then whatever happens outside of that, will happen.”
Coming off a season that got off on the wrong foot with a stomach virus that caused him to lose 20 pounds and then saw him set career lows for batting average (.258), on-base percentage (.326) and OPS (.732), Betts is eager to move forward. And with a more typical spring training timeline this year — unlike the previous two years when season-opening games in South Korea and Japan sped up preparations — Betts can ease into his seventh season with the Dodgers.
“I haven’t had a regular spring maybe since I’ve been a Dodger,” said Betts, who also won’t be participating in the World Baseball Classic as he did in 2023. “I just know that, being 33 now, I don’t have to hurry up and get here, and be ready to play from day one. So, I can just kind of embrace that. Not everybody’s blessed to have that, so being that I am one of the ones that’s blessed with that, I’ll see what I can make of it.”
One thing that’s not in question for Betts heading into the season: his shortstop play. Despite the nearly unprecedented shift from the outfield to the infield, Betts played 148 games at short last season and was a Gold Glove Award finalist. The work he put in to learn a new position raised questions about whether that was a root cause of his hitting struggles, a point he granted some credence to late last season.
Betts did pick up the pace late in the season, batting .317 and nearly doubling his home run total from 11 to 20 over his final 47 games. But he slumped in the NLCS and World Series, batting a combined .136 and was eventually dropped from second to third in the batting order for Game 5 against the Toronto Blue Jays, then fourth for Games 6 and 7.
Roberts said this week that he intends to slot Betts third in the batting order this season, with Shohei Ohtani still in the leadoff spot. (He added that Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and newcomer Kyle Tucker are all in play for the second and fourth spots in the order.)
“I like [Betts] in the number three in the sense that there’s an on-base component, there’s a ‘get hits’ component, there’s a drive-in-runs component, and you’re more of a Swiss Army knife in the lineup,” Roberts said. “So, I’m not beholden to it, but I like him in the three-hole right now.”
And as a result, Roberts feels bullish about Betts this season.
“I think he had a great offseason,” Roberts said. “He’s in a good headspace. The body’s good, and I think for me, it’s just getting back to being who he is. I just think that last year was an outlier offensive season, and I’m not too concerned about Mookie at all.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto to start Cactus League opener
Roberts announced Thursday that World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start the Dodgers’ first spring training game Saturday against the Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium. He did not share how many pitches or innings Yamamoto expects to throw, but he did state that it will likely be Yamamoto’s only Cactus League start before departing to play for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic.
Roberts also revealed what players may start Saturday’s Cactus League opener.
“I would expect Will Smith to be in there,” Roberts said. “I expect [Teoscar Hernández] in there, and probably Andy [Pages]. I think that’s safe, and then we’ll go from there.”
Roberts plans to hold other veteran players until next week.
“Guys like Mookie and Muncy, I’m going to start those guys a little bit later than this weekend and see where we go,” Roberts said. “Once they get going, then we’ll stagger and give them the ample time in-between. I’ve got to appreciate that it’s a longer spring. So, if they’re going to be here for six weeks, then I don’t want to kind of come in too hot, I want to pace them out a little bit.”
Freeman said Thursday that he will not play in the Dodgers’ first three spring training games.
“I feel good, I’m ready to go, but we are going to slow-play it a little bit,” Freeman said. “I won’t play until I think Tuesday, so the fourth game, and then I’ll get going.”
MILAN — A gold medal that seemed firmly in the grasp of the U.S. women’s hockey team nearly slipped through its fingers in the final of the Milan-Cortina Games on Thursday, but the Americans rallied to win 2-1 on Megan Keller’s goal just over four minutes into overtime.
Kristin O’Neill’s shorthanded goal less than a minute into the second period gave Canada its goal while Hilary Knight matched that for the U.S. with 2:04 to play, deflecting a Laila Edwards’ slap shot from the high slot through her legs and past Canadian goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens to send the game to the extra period.
The goal, Knight’s 15th in Olympic competition, broke the American record and came seconds after U.S. coach John Wroblewski had pulled his goalie for an extra attacker.
Keller then won it, taking a long Taylor Heise pass on the left wing, racing into the Canadian zone, stickhandling around defender Claire Thompson before beating goalie Desbiens cleanly.
The gold was the second in the last three Olympics for the Americans, who are ranked No. 1 in the world. Both have come against Canada while the victory was the eighth straight for the U.S. over their northern neighbor dating to last April’s world championship.
The overtime rules are unique for gold-medal games, with the teams playing three-on-three for 20-minute periods, with the first goal deciding the winner. Games cannot end in a shootout.
In the preliminary round, overtimes were limited to five minutes, followed by a five-round shootout. In the knockout stage, the overtime period was extended to 10 minutes, followed by a shootout.
None of that figured in Thursday’s result.
The young Americans, who had 12 women playing in their first Olympics, looked uncharacteristically rattled in a scoreless first period in which they took two penalties — one for too many players on the ice — and were outshot 8-6. It was just the third time in the tournament the U.S. went an entire period without a goal.
Things got worse 54 seconds into the second period when O’Neill outskated Edwards up the center of the ice on a breakaway, took a short centering pass from Laura Stacey, then deked U.S. goalie Aerin Frankel to the ice before beating her to her gloved side for the first goal of the game.
That snapped a 352-minute scoreless streak for the U.S. and marked the first time the Americans trailed in Milan.
For much of the game Canada was faster, smarter and more poised. And Desbiens was spectacular in goal. In Canada’s group-play loss to the U.S., she was pulled in the third period after giving up five goals. This time she came within two minutes of shutting out a team that had scored 31 times in its previous six games.
That was the toughest thing to watch. That was what seared into the mind. That’s what made you want to fire Mick Cronin on the spot.
It was a look of embarrassment. It was a look of confusion. It was the look of a young man who had just been cruelly pushed around by someone with more power.
Mick Cronin is a classic bully, and the fact that UCLA continues to empower him with new contracts and no questions is misguided malfeasance.
So, he wins games. He doesn’t win enough to compensate for incidents like Tuesday night in East Lansing, Mich., where Cronin became perhaps the first college coach in history to eject his own player from the game and order him to the locker room in the middle of the game.
Yes, Cronin holds players accountable. That’s fine, as long as he also holds himself accountable, but that didn’t happen when, after his team was beaten by 23 points by Michigan State in a second consecutive humiliating loss, he publicly criticized Jamerson for the hard foul that led to the ejection incident and then wrongly assailed a reporter for allegedly raising his voice during postgame questioning.
Cronin has become a walking viral video. He has become a nightly uncomfortable wince. He has become an embarrassment to a university athletic department that prides itself on winning with class.
Mick Cronin is light years from the aura of Coach, and if UCLA cared a whit about the legacy of its legend, it would care that his flame has been completely snuffed by this unworthy keeper.
Wooden’s home is now decorated with a pyramid of poop, and one wonders how many humiliations will be required to convince administrators to clean things up.
UCLA coach Mick Cronin extends his arms and complains while watching the Bruins lose to Michigan State Tuesday in East Lansing, Mich.
(Rey Del Rio / Getty Images)
Cronin quietly signed a new five-year contract last summer that includes a $22,5 million buyout if he is fired this spring. That figure drops to $18 million, then $13.5 million, then $9 million, then $4.5 million in coming years. No wonder the Bruins didn’t publicize the deal at the time. It was another Martin Jarmond mistake, and now the entire university is going to pay the price.
It’s hard to see UCLA canning Cronin in the next couple of years because of those buyouts, which means this mess of a program is going to be increasingly hard to watch.
What happened Tuesday should scare away any of the remaining top prospects who would want to play for this berating blowhard. His usual postgame rants don’t compare to what happened on that Michigan State court, where he picked on the wrong kid in the worst possible fashion.
By all accounts, Jamerson is a dream player, one filled with resilience and gratitude. The former Crespi High star initially wanted to play for Michigan State, but he couldn’t make the team, even as a walk-on, so he tried to become a student manager, and failed at that, too. After spending a year there as a student, he transferred to University of San Diego, where he spent three seasons strengthening his game before eventually transferring to UCLA. This season he has spent most of his time on the bench, playing about 11 minutes per game for the Bruins while supplying rebounding and defense and energy.
It was this fire that led him to give chase to Michigan State’s Carson Cooper in the final five minutes of a game that UCLA currently trailed by 27. Cooper went up for a fast break dunk and Jamerson knocked him to the floor. It was ruled a Flagrant 1 excessive foul, but not a dangerous Flagrant 2 foul, so Jamerson was not ejected from the game.
At least, that’s what he thought.
Moments later Cronin was grabbing the kid’s shirt and leading him to the baseline, where he ordered an assistant coach to remove him from the court area and banish him to the locker room.
Jamerson’s dreams of a solid return to a school that snubbed him were shattered. His night ended amid a storm of laughing students and obscene gestures.
UCLA coach Mick Cronin shouts toward the bench while sending Steven Jamerson II to the locker room after the player was called for a foul Tuesday at Michigan State.
(Rey Del Rio / Getty Images)
It was just awful, and so avoidable. Why couldn’t Cronin have just sent Jamerson to the end of the bench? Considering it wasn’t a Flagrant 2, why did he even have to take him out of the game? Why did he have to make an example of a player who was understandably overeager on what could have been one of the triumphant nights of his life?
“Steve’s a good kid. He made a bad decision. But if you want to be a tough guy, you need to do it during the game, for a blockout, for a rebound,” said Cronin afterward.
“So, I was thoroughly disappointed; the guy was defenseless in the air. I know Steve was trying to block the shot, but the game’s a 25-point game. You don’t do that.”
That point could have been made without humiliation. But Cronin wasn’t done, later admonishing a reporter for what he considered a dumb question, then scolding the reporter for allegedly raising his voice at him.
The question was about the student section’s harassment of former Spartan Xavier Booker, which seemed like a legitimate query considering Booker had a terrible game. But what was really baffling was Cronin’s claim that the questioner was raising his voice.
Listen to the video. No voices were raised. It was just Cronin once again being a bully. You want a raised voice? Here, I’ll raise my voice in words that Cronin will hopefully understand.
CHILL OUT! SHOW RESPECT! HONOR WOODEN!
If the coach doesn’t grow up and the program doesn’t rapidly improve — for a third straight year they’re barely a tournament team — there needs to be another ejection.
It would be the most expensive firing in UCLA history. It would be worth every penny.
