Russell T Davies has spoken out after Disney+ ended its partnership with Doctor Who and jokingly suggested some festive titles for the upcoming Christmas special
22:00, 28 Oct 2025Updated 22:06, 28 Oct 2025
Doctor Who boss Russell T Davies has spoken out on the news regarding the sci-fi show(Image: Getty Images)
Russell T Davies has spoken out after Disney+ ended its partnership with Doctor Who. The showrunner, 62, took to social media in the hours after it was announced that his sci-fi programme would be solely produced by the BBC going forward after two years under the global streaming service.
Earlier in the day, Lindsay Salt, director of drama at the BBC, said Disney+ had been “terrific global partners and collaborators over the past two seasons”, before confirming that a Christmas special is on the way. She added: “The BBC remains fully committed to Doctor Who, which continues to be one of our most loved dramas, and we are delighted that Russell T Davies has agreed to write us another spectacular Christmas special for 2026.
“We can assure fans, the Doctor is not going anywhere, and we will be announcing plans for the next series in due course which will ensure the TARDIS remains at the heart of the BBC.”
In the hours that followed, Russell posted an image of the famous TARDIS onto his Instagram page, where he jokingly asked fans what they thought of some potential titles for the festive special. He wrote: “Here we go. Away in a Danger? Jungle Hells? Silent Night? Hark the Weeping Angels Sing? O Come All Ye…um, Nimon?”
Following the news that the show was no longer part of Disney, fans instantly flooded social media with their reactions, with many praising show bosses for the move to step away from the media corporation. One wrote: “Maybe without Disney’s sanitized grip, Doctor Who can return to its roots, weird, dark, brilliant storytelling that doesn’t need a corporate logo to feel epic.”
Another said: “Time for Doctor Who to feel British again, not branded,” whilst a third joked of the streaming service: “this app is literally screaming at us all month to end our memberships.” Another fan simply said: “Good tbh. The Disney era was kinda meh!”
At the end of the last series, viewers were shocked to see Ncuti Gatwa’s doctor seemingly regenerate into the likeness of Billie Piper, who starred as Rose Tyler alongside Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant following the programme’s initial revival in 2005. A comeback for her has not been confirmed, and some fans seem to think that Ncuti could be stepping back into the role after all.
One said: “Ncuti walking out of the Tardis on Christmas 2026 and pretending like nothing happened,” and another said: “billie is gonna go find 14 and then ‘fuse’ with him which will cause an ACTUAL regeneration and its just Ncuti again lmao.” A third agreed, writing: “I would LOVE for Ncuti Gatwa to be back!”
This festive season will be the first to not have a Doctor Who special for 20 years. The BBC said that the announcement about the 2026 Christmas episode had been prompted by Disney+ confirming that it would not be partnering on the next season of the sci-fi show – as widely anticipated – after international viewing figures proved disappointing.
In a statement yesterday, the BBC said that it remained “fully committed to the show and will announce plans for the next series in due course to ensure the Doctor’s adventures continue”.
At the end of this year, Doctor Who spin-off The War Between The Land and the Sea will air, as well as a brand-new animation series for CBeebies.
During a 19-year playing career that yielded 123 bookings and 12 red cards, Muscat was once branded the “most hated man in football”.
Post-retirement, he revealed, external former Rangers manager Alex McLeish did not trust him to play in an Old Firm derby during his brief spell at Ibrox.
It is to the Australian’s credit that he has since gone on to somewhat shake off his hot-head image in an impressive 13 years in management.
His glowing CV attracted Rangers two years ago, but he reportedly missed out on the job when the club opted for Philippe Clement instead.
At that time, former Rangers team-mate Neil McCann told BBC Scotland that the Ibrox side would be getting someone with “presence” who “understands the league, the intensity, the rivalry and how to get the job done”.
Muscat was then first-team boss at Yokohama F Marinos, where he won 2022 J-League after taking over from Ange Postecoglou following his exit for Celtic.
He also succeeded Postecoglou at Melbourne Victory after a period working under the current Nottingham Forest head coach.
It was in Melbourne where Muscat’s managerial career began, winning the A-League Championship twice in five-and-a-half years before his move to Japan.
Runners-up spots in the J-League in 2021 and 2023 bookended his 2022 triumph in Yokohama.
Muscat became a title winner in a third different country last year in China, and he is on the verge of another with just four games remaining as his side sit top with a two-point lead.
Across his managerial tenures in Australia, Japan and China, his win rate stands at 54%, with his teams scoring an average of 1.9 goals per game while conceding 1.2.
His Shanghai Port side scored 96 times in a 30-game league-winning campaign last year.
Those numbers suggest this is a coach who can win while implementing a front-foot approach. How that translates to Scottish football is unclear, though.
Those Rangers fans who are almost as old as the Campsie Fells, the hills sitting above the club training ground just north of Glasgow, will tell you that Martin was the worst manager they’ve ever known. And that’s saying something.
One of his predecessors, Pedro Caixinha, once lost to Progres Niederkorn, the fourth best team in Luxembourg at the time, and ended the night by rowing with Rangers fans while standing in a bush.
Martin’s end was chaotic. A draw at Falkirk saw fans once again screeching for his sacking, a pretty much constant and venomous refrain in recent times. He was smuggled out a back exit at the Falkirk Stadium with a police escort. It was unseemly. It couldn’t go on.
The draw with Falkirk followed on from other league draws against Motherwell, Dundee, St Mirren and Celtic. Hearts beat them at Ibrox. Brugge beat them 6-0 and 3-1 in Europe. Rangers had the devil’s own job in defeating Livingston. Every game was the football equivalent of fingernails down a blackboard. It was excruciating.
As were the Martin explanations in the aftermath. He ran the gamut. He spoke about his players being anxious and scared, he talked about them not doing the things they were doing in training and not listening to the messages they were being told. It was impossible to avoid the conclusion that Martin thought it was always the fault of others.
After the Falkirk draw, he mentioned Falkirk’s deflected goal and their artificial pitch. After the loss to Sturm Graz on Thursday night he banged on about a throw-in that went wrong and cost Rangers a goal. “Somebody didn’t do their job,” he said.
The excuses flowed like lava. The one person he singularly failed to put in the frame was himself. Ibrox turned against him in the most vicious way, He was booed on and booed off. When Rangers scored a late winner against Livingston the cry that went up from fans seconds later was about Martin. It wasn’t nice, put it that way.
When you win a game and they still want your head on a spike, there’s no coming back from that. He lasted 17 games. It doesn’t seem like a lot but in the world of the Old Firm it really is. Old Firm managers get judged early. Gordon Strachan once said that there were calls for his head after a friendly prior to his first season as Celtic manager.
Red Bull’s Verstappen finished second, and McLaren’s Norris, finishing third, now has a 22-point lead in the drivers’ standings.
Published On 5 Oct 20255 Oct 2025
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George Russell of Mercedes has won the Singapore Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, as McLaren clinched the Formula One constructors’ championship.
Red Bull’s world champion Max Verstappen and the two McLarens were to fight it out for the other podium spots on Sunday as Briton Russell took the chequered flag under the lights of the Marina Bay Street Circuit to claim his second victory of the season.
“It feels amazing,” said Russell. “We don’t really know where this performance came from, but really, really happy.
“I was really nervous at the beginning when I saw Max on the soft [tyres], but that first stint was great from us.”
Norris put pressure on Verstappen towards the end of the race, but had to settle for third ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri, the pair earning enough points to seal a second consecutive constructors’ title for the team.
“It was a tough race,” said Norris. “Max didn’t make any mistakes. I gave it my all today, and got close.
“I’m happy with today. I got forward two positions. We won as a team, the constructors’ once again.”
Piastri’s lead over Norris in the drivers’ standings was cut to 22 points, while Verstappen is 63 points behind the Australian with six races remaining in the season.
“I think second was the maximum result today,” said Verstappen.
“I think the whole race was quite difficult, more difficult than I hoped for, for a lot of different reasons.”
The celebrations for the constructors’ title in the McLaren garage might be muted, however, with Piastri fuming at the way Norris forced his way past his teammate on the opening corner.
Kimi Antonelli was a distant fifth in the other Mercedes with Charles Leclerc sixth ahead of his Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin, while Haas driver Oliver Bearman and Carlos Sainz, who started at the back of the grid after the Williams cars were disqualified from qualifying, took the final points in ninth and 10th.
MAX VERSTAPPEN blasted Formula One title rival Lando Norris for getting in his way after failing to land a maiden pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix.
George Russell denied old rival Verstappen the front row seat with a lightning-quick lap of 1:29.158 – a new record at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
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Max Verstappen blasted Lando Norris for getting in his way during Singapore GP qualifyingCredit: X / SkySportsF1
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Lando Norris bit back at the hot-tempered commentCredit: Getty
Verstappen, 28, is eyeing a first-ever win in Sunday’s race to complete the career set of winning at every F1 track on the 2025 calendar.
The raging Red Bull driver replied: “Yeah, that’s what happens when there’s a car two seconds in front of you cruising in front.
“So that’s noted, will be remembered as well.”
When pressed on the identity of the culprit, Verstappen replied: “Not Oscar [Piastri]. So yeah, that was a bit of a shame. Otherwise, I think it could have been close for a pole.
“It’s very exciting here in qualifying. A little bit disappointed not to be first but for us this weekend the car has been really good.
Briton Russell was delighted with his top spot, a first-ever pole for him in Singapore after a “challenging day” on Friday following a crash in FP2.
He said: “It’s good to come back and get a good result today.
“There’s a long sweaty race tomorrow but I knew there was potential in the car because Kimi [Antonelli] was doing an amazing job all weekend and I gained quite a lot from seeing what he was capable of doing.”
George Russell forced to abandon Singapore GP qualifying after smashing into barriers and mangling Mercedes
On the prospect of keeping four-time world champion Verstappen behind him going into Turn 1, Russell added: “Yeah, I mean Singapore’s not always been the kindest to me in the past.
“That’s been through my own doing the majority of the time. I’m not going to get carried away with this pole position. But it’s the best place to start.
“There’s a good pole side advantage here so I like to think I can hold the lead into Turn 1, but obviously this guy on my left is pretty good at race starts and sending it down the inside.”
Such a claim seemed off-beat considering Verstappen is 69 points behind McLaren championship leader Oscar Piastri, who scored third in Saturday’s qualifying.
Yet wins in Italy and Azerbaijan and a strong result in qualifying is threatening to split the drivers’ title race wide open despite the comparative dominance of McLaren for most of the season.
Piastri said: “I obviously would have wanted more but I don’t think we had four-tenths in it to go and get pole.”
Team-mate Norris, who will start P5 in the race, addressed Verstappen’s claim after the session.
He said: “Red Bull always complains. There was no problem with Max driving behind me. Yes, he was riding behind me. But there was such a huge distance, so no problem.”
There was early hope for Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari in qualifying as he topped the first session, but he ultimately ended up in P6 with team-mate Charles Leclerc in P7.
Piastri said he simply did not have the pace to compete and was 0.366secs off pole.
He said he and McLaren had expected to be able to compete at the front.
“My first lap of Q3 felt reasonable,” Piastri said. “It certainly didn’t feel 0.4secs off. We just didn’t have the pace tonight, which was a little bit of a surprise for us. We were relatively confident going in.”
Piastri’s performance, though, was a return to form for the Australian after a difficult race in Baku, where he made a series of mistakes, culminating in crashing on the first lap.
Starting two places in front of Norris, he has a good chance to extend his 25-point championship lead.
Norris said: “We weren’t quick enough., the Mercedes were quite a lot faster. I didn’t put it all together and you need to do it on a track like this.
“There’s still chances so we have to wait and see.”
Hamilton outqualified Leclerc for the first time since the British Grand Prix to underline an upturn in his form in recent races.
He was fastest in the first session and said he felt Ferrari had mismanaged the rest of qualifying.
“The pace was there,” Hamilton said. “We just didn’t optimise the sessions, Q2 onwards.
“I’m definitely more comfortable in the car, this weekend I think I have been driving really well.
“P6 is not good. I definitely think we should have been further ahead but it was all about tyre temp today. It is every week. Tomorrow is going to be tough from where we are. There is not really much we can do from here.”
Williams, whose drivers Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz qualified 12th and 13th, have been reported to the stewards because their rear wings were found to exceed maximum dimensions. This is likely to lead to their disqualification from qualifying.
Team boss James Vowles later confirmed the brakes had reached temperatures of over 1000 degrees before Albon was forced to retire.
But Mercedes ace Russell then sparked more chaos in FP2 as his car went straight on into the barriers at Turn 16.
As he attempted the right hander he lost the rear before the snap correction sent him flying into the wall and prompting the first red flag of the session.
It was an incident labelled “weird” by the Briton over the team radio.
Liam Lawson followed suit not long after as he hit the wall in the run off of Turn 17.
That saw his front-left go flying down the track and the plank under his car grind along the floor as his Racing Bulls drive skidded to a halt at the pit lane entrance.
And following the restart, Charles Leclerc bizarrely smashed into McLaren‘s Lando Norris in the pit lane following an unsafe release from the Scuderia mechanics.
Besides the small step on the road to recovery that was the Scottish Premiership win at Livingston at the weekend, Rangers haven’t managed to lose sight of the starting blocks.
In Austria, they had an opportunity to build a bit of momentum and make a case for their head coach, who remains under huge pressure.
Instead, a poor throw-in from James Tavernier was lofted forward by Dimitri Lavalee, controlled by Maurice Malone, and finished by Tomi Horvat. Seven minutes had elapsed.
If that was a defensive mishap, the second goal was a defensive calamity.
A high line at a deep free-kick was sliced open with one delightful daisy-cutter, and a scrambling Jack Butland was left blushing for a second time in the first half.
“Schoolboy stuff,” said former Rangers right-back Alan Hutton.
Two mistakes due to the Ibrox side’s mentality, according to Martin. Nothing to do with their set-up, system or style.
“The difference from the first half-hour to the next 60 minutes was too far apart really,” the head coach said. “It’s concentration, it’s mentality.
“I’m frustrated because we give away two poor goals, soft goals. We did so much work on them recently we were just not alive.
“We hurt ourselves because they didn’t create anything from open play. It’s hurtful and frustrating.”
The lack of incisiveness in Martin’s team is remarkable for a set of players put together for a relative king’s ransom.
We’re told that Rangers’ net spend this summer has been £21m, including transfer fees and loan payments. You could put a dot between the 2 and the 1 and still wonder if they’ve got value.
They had Youssef Chermiti up front, a 21-year-old brought in from Everton at a cost of £8m.
It’s easy to bash the young striker, but he didn’t lack hunger or work-rate. What he lacked was a modicum of a chance, a sniff at goal. Just one.
The life of a Rangers centre-forward is a lonely existence right now. Isolated and joyless. They’re on their own up there. Sink or sink would appear to be the range of their options.
Diomande’s moment of madness was the last thing Martin needed, but it was Martin who picked him and it was Martin who picked others who struggled to make passes.
It was Martin, again, whose management of this team produced very little threat while giving up big chances even when it was 11 versus 11.
His midfielder let him down on Thursday, and on other days and nights it was others who let him down, didn’t show enough leadership, failed to make a difference.
The cast of characters on that front is long and thunderously unimpressive.
Martin gets filleted but the Rangers players can’t escape censure here. A lot of this mess is down to the manager, but not all of it.
He said the red changed the game and he was correct, but there’s always something – players being anxious, a red card, a penalty not given, another decision given in error. There’s a fatalism about all of this.
And on Sunday they have a trip to Livingston. Plastic pitch, canny manager, physical team motivated to the high heavens. A gauntlet awaits this meek Rangers outfit.
An outstanding outfielder in his first three major league seasons, Russell moved to the infield full time in his fourth year. It was a disaster.
“It was something I lost a lot of sleep over,” said Russell, who led the majors with 34 errors that year. “After the season, I just collapsed for a few weeks.”
Then he picked himself up and went to work on getting better and in his second year as a shortstop he led the majors with 560 assists, led the National League in defensive WAR and made the first of three all-star teams.
He went on to play more games for the Dodgers than any player in Los Angeles history.
It was a remarkable career, one that hardly needed a second act. But even after he left the stage, Russell never left the theater. Six months after his last at-bat — he struck out as a pinch hitter in the final week of the 1986 season — Russell was back in uniform as the team’s bench coach.
He later managed in the Dodgers’ minor league system, replaced Tommy Lasorda in that job at the major league level and, for the past 13 years, has worked in the team’s community relations department, coaching youth camps and appearing at schools, fan fests and other events. Since 2002 he’s also served as an umpire observer, partly because the job gets him a good seat behind the plate at Dodger Stadium.
If the team were to a pick a Mr. L.A. Dodger, someone emblematic of the team’s history and values since moving to Southern California, the soft-spoken, humble Russell, a Dodger for nearly half a century, would have to be in that conversation.
But it was his dedication to mastering the switch from the outfield to shortstop — becoming the first prominent player since Honus Wagner to make the move — that literally changed the direction of the franchise. If he hadn’t made it work, the Dodgers may never have had the courage to turn a minor league outfielder named Davey Lopes into a second baseman, where he became Russell’s double-play partner.
If he hadn’t made it work, the Dodgers may never have tried pushing a scatter-armed third baseman named Steve Garvey across the diamond to first, opening up the position to Russell’s right for Ron Cey. The resulting infield of Garvey, Lopes, Russell and Cey played together for 8 ½ seasons, longer than any quartet in baseball history, winning four pennants and a World Series.
“Each one of us had different talents,” Russell said. “It was tough at first but all of a sudden we started having success. It’s four brothers.”
From left, Ron Cey, Bill Russell, Davey Lopes and Steve Garvey pose before an old-timers game at Dodger Stadium in 2013. The infield quartet won four pennants and a World Series together.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Now Betts, a six-time Gold Glove-winning outfielder, has mastered the move too, helping the Dodgers to the cusp of their 12th division title in 13 seasons. However if Betts perfected the shift, Russell pioneered it.
“He was a great athlete,” said Steve Sax, Russell’s double-play partner his last five seasons. “He was maybe the fastest guy in the organization. The whole genesis of being able to move guys around was the thought they’re so athletic, why can’t they make the transition?
“And he proved that to be true.”
At 76, Russell is nearly four decades removed from his last of his 2,181 big-league games, all with the Dodgers. But he’s still fit, not far off his playing weight of 175 pounds. And while he was once among the fastest players in the majors, he now moves at a purposeful saunter rather than a sprint. Wire-rim glasses crease his once-boyish face and the mop of straw-blond hair he once tucked under his cap has gone white, leaving him looking more like a college English professor than a once-iconic athlete.
“I just enjoyed going to the park and being with the guys. They just make you feel young again,” said Bill Russell, who turns 77 in October.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
What hasn’t changed is his love for a game that has been his life and for a team that has become his family.
“I just enjoyed going to the park and being with the guys. They just make you feel young again,” said Russell, who often wears a wry smile that suggests he’s in on a joke no one else knows about.
“Billy’s very special,” said Peter O’Malley, the Dodgers’ owner and president throughout much of Russell’s career.
“He was stable. Popular with the fans for sure. He deserves more credit that he’s received.”
Russell grew up a short drive from both the Missouri and Oklahoma state lines in the kind of nondescript Kansas town where everybody knew their neighbors and hard work wasn’t a virtue, it was an expectation.
The middle child in a family of five children, he attended a high school so small it didn’t have a baseball team. So he played basketball during the winter and baseball on sandlots and with American Legion teams during the summer. He was the kind of player scouts once described as “an athlete,” meaning he was smart enough and talented enough to excel at any position, though the Dodgers listed him as an outfielder when they selected him in the ninth round of the second amateur draft in 1966.
He gave most of his $14,000 signing bonus to his parents, minus the money he needed to buy a second-hand Chevy like the one his best friend drove.
Russell shot up the minor-league ladder, playing just 221 games before making the jump from Class A Bakersfield to the majors in 1969, doubling in his first big-league at-bat.
The adjustment from the minors to the majors was far easier than the change from the tiny mining town of Pittsburg, Kan., to the technicolor sprawl of Southern California.
“Coming to Los Angeles, you’ve got to be kidding me. A big city like this?” said Russell, who had rarely traveled more than 30 miles from Pittsburg before signing with the Dodgers. “My town was only 10,000 people so I had to grow up fast.
“I’m 20 years old, I’m in the major leagues and the minimum salary is $10,000. It wasn’t even $1,000 a month. But that was more money than I’d ever thought of. And I’m playing in Hollywood.”
After playing 18 seasons with the Dodgers, Bill Russell managed the ballclub from 1996-98.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Playing exclusively in the outfield, too, although Monty Basgall, a fellow Kansan and the former minor league infield instructor who scouted Russell as an athlete, was already plotting the move to shortstop, the most challenging defensive position after catcher.
“Shortstop is a difficult position,” said Derrel Thomas, a former teammate who played everywhere but pitcher during a 16-year big-league career. “A lot of people don’t give Monty Basgall any credit for what he did helping with the infielders.”
After some preparation in the instructional league and the minors, Russell made his major league debut at shortstop on the final day of the 1970 season, then played 47 games as a middle infielder a year later. But the move didn’t become permanent until Russell’s fourth season when he replaced an aging Maury Wills.
“I wasn’t in a position to say anything, really,” said Russell, who still speaks with a noticeable Midwestern accent.
“I had doubts about it, no question. But I figured my longevity in the big leagues, if I had [any], would come with moving to the infield.”
In fact, the move nearly ended his career. Russell made his first poor throw seven games into the season and by the all-star break he had as almost as many errors as extra-base hits. By then, he was also looking over his shoulder, expecting the Dodgers to put an end to the experiment.
“I’m surprised they didn’t,” he says now. “The fans got involved too. It wasn’t a standing ovation when I was coming back to the dugout after making some errors.
“At that time people brought transistor radios to the stadium. You could hear [Vin Scully] doing the game. I could hear him say something about me at shortstop. Talk radio was just coming on board and they were on me. It was a lot of negative stuff.”
Quitting, however, wasn’t an option.
“Maybe I was too dumb, I don’t know,” Russell said with a shrug. “I never thought about giving up or going back home. What am I going to do back home? I did say to myself, ‘I’m going to show these people I can play this position.’
“And I did. For 13 years.”
Through hard work and determination, Russell turned his fielding from a liability into an asset and the Dodgers began to win, reaching the World Series four times over the next nine seasons. And while Russell never won a Gold Glove — he twice led the majors in errors — he finished in the top five in fielding percentage by an NL shortstop three times, was in the top five for putouts four times and in the top three for assists six times.
He was understatedly brilliant, so much so that Cincinnati Reds’ shortstop Dave Concepcion once mocked Russell’s critics saying he didn’t know who the best fielder was “but I sure watch Bill Russell in the playoffs a lot.”
“He would never quit. Never,” O’Malley said. “Making that transition at the major league level, he deserves extraordinary credit for that.”
Almost lost in the focus on his defense was the fact Russell was a tough out, hitting better than .271 six times and excelling in clutch situations.
“That went all the way back to high school,” said Russell, who hit the shot that took his underdog team to the final of the Kansas state tournament. “It’s just a calmness. You can’t describe it. You can’t teach it. It is something that comes over you and you get a calm feeling that you’re going to succeed.”
As a high school infielder at Arroyo High in El Monte, James Baker was given his choice of uniform numbers. He didn’t have to think long before selecting one.
“I wore No. 18,” he said. “Because of Bill.”
It was the same number he had worn in Little League and American Legion ball.
“He was Mr. Clutch,” Baker, 61, said of Russell. “He was the dean of the infield.”
“The great thing about Bill Russell,” added Rick Zubiate, 57, Baker’s brother-in-law “is he wasn’t flashy. He made all the plays he was supposed to. Not only that, he had a presence and he commanded everybody around him to be better and expect more of themselves.”
Russell may be little more than a face on an old baseball card to Generation Z. But for children of the ‘60s like Baker and Zubiate, he remains the archetypal Dodger, one with a Dodger Blue resume that is unassailable. Which is why Baker and Zubiate braved rush-hour traffic last week to drive to Ontario, where Russell was appearing at an event for the Dodgers’ newest minor league affiliate.
“I loved him,” Baker said after asking Russell for an autograph.
And what’s not to love? He played more games and has more World Series at-bats than any player in L.A. Dodger history. He trails only Willie Davis and Garvey in hits and only Clayton Kershaw has matched Russell’s 18 seasons at Dodger Stadium.
Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, right, hugs Bill Russell in the dressing room after the Dodgers beat the Phillies, 6-5, in Game 3 of the 1977 NLCS.
(Associated Press)
But he also managed in the team’s minor league system, was the bench coach under Lasorda for seven years, then managed the big-league team for parts of three seasons, posting the fourth-best winning percentage by a manager since the franchise left Brooklyn. And he still pulls on his old uniform — with the bright red 18 over his Dodger blue heart — several times a year to join former teammates including Garvey, Sax and Steve Yeager in reminiscing with fans at fantasy camps and clinics.
“We have fun out there,” he said. “People come from all over the country. [It’s] like you’re still involved in the whole scene of being a major league player.”
If the speed and power of Willie Mays is synonymous with the San Francisco Giants and the style and grace of Ted Williams is emblematic of the Boston Red Sox, Russell’s blue-collar work ethic and country-boy humility is the embodiment of the Dodgers since they moved to Southern California.
“Quintessential Dodger?” O’Malley said. “Absolutely right. From start to end, he deserves the credit. He was respected and liked by everybody.”
Russell stood out, O’Malley said, partly because he blended in.
“He was quiet,” he said. “But keen sense of humor. If he wanted to make a point or be heard, he could nail it with a comment. It was pretty darn funny.”
Yet Russell’s silent excellence often went unappreciated. A .263 lifetime hitter who had fewer home runs in his career than Shohei Ohtani has this year alone, he received just three Hall of Fame votes the only time his name appeared on the ballot. For a time, even his loyalty to the Dodgers went unrequited; for years after his last game as manager Russell felt unwelcome at Dodger Stadium, the result of a toxic stew of bruised egos, Machiavellian maneuvering and corporate mismanagement.
It began midway through the 1996 season when Lasorda, the manager who had groomed Russell in the minors then won with him in the majors, had a heart attack. A month later Lasorda stepped down and Russell took over on an interim basis, guiding the Dodgers to a playoff berth.
That earned him the job full time but it didn’t earn him unquestioned support throughout the organization. The low-key Russell was a striking contrast to the colorful and bombastic Lasorda, more Mr. Rogers than Bobby Knight.
“He’s named the manager following Tommy. That’s not easy,” O’Malley said. “And he did it in his own way.
“But things didn’t work out. Following Tommy was not an easy task.”
Critics who had preferred hitting coach Reggie Smith, Mets manager Bobby Valentine or triple A manager Mike Scioscia — all former Lasorda pupils — over Russell quietly worked to undermine him and 74 games into his second full season as manager, Russell was fired by the team’s new overlords at Fox, who also sacked general manager Fred Claire, replacing him with Lasorda.
By then a major rift had developed between Russell and his former manager, who privately questioned Russell’s performance to management and publicly questioned his qualifications to manage. As a result many pointed fingers for the firings at Lasorda, who strongly denied being involved.
Bill Russell observed umpires on behalf of MLB during Sunday’s Dodgers-Giants game at Dodger Stadium.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Either way, the relationship was irrevocably broken.
Russell left with a .537 winning percentage over parts of three seasons, a better mark — albeit over a far shorter span — than the one that took Lasorda to the Hall of Fame. After firing Russell, the Dodgers never made the playoffs under Fox, with the seven-season postseason drought matching the team’s longest since the late 1960s-early 1970s.
The hard feelings have softened some with the passing of both time and Lasorda, who died in 2021. (Russell, pointedly, was not invited to the funeral; Scioscia, Valentine, Garvey and Cey were.)
“I knew him better than anybody. I was like his son,” Russell said earlier this month, sitting at a patio table near the neat two-bedroom Valencia house where he’s lived for 20 years.
“I don’t want to bad mouth him but he wanted to keep managing. He just couldn’t accept not being there. That’s just the way it was.”
The slight wounded Russell, who took off his Dodger uniform for what he thought would be the final time. O’Malley, who was in the room when Bob Graziano, the former banker Fox put in charge of the team, fired the manager, invited Russell back to the stadium later that season. But the place where he had grown from a boy to man wasn’t the same.
So he went on to work as an advisor with a team in Taiwan, spent a season as bench coach in Tampa Bay and managed in the minors for both the Rays and Giants.
None of it felt comfortable.
“I was in the Dodger organization 30 years,” he said. “To go somewhere else, it wasn’t right.”
After managing the Shreveport Swamp Dragons to a last-place finish in the Texas League in 2001, he returned to Southern California — and Dodger Stadium — as an umpire observer for Major League Baseball, a job that lets him sit behind the plate and watch games.
As if he could imagine doing anything else.
“He’s brought a different perspective because he played at the highest level and he managed,” said Matt McKendry, MLB’s vice-president of umpire operations. “But, you know, Bill loves being at the ballpark and if he wasn’t doing what he’s doing for us, I think he’d be at Dodger Stadium almost every night anyway.”
Because for Russell it’s never been a stadium. It’s home.
Bryson DeChambeau, Russell Henley and Harris English have secured the final three automatic qualifying places on the US Ryder Cup team.
They join world number one Scottie Scheffler, US Open champion JJ Spaun and Xander Schauffele on captain Keegan Bradley’s team for next month’s contest against Europe at Bethpage, New York.
The six American qualifiers were confirmed following the conclusion of the last qualifying event, the BMW Championship, which was won by reigning US PGA Championship and Open champion Scheffler.
DeChambeau, who plays on the LIV Golf circuit, qualified thanks to three top-10 finishes in the majors this year.
Bradley will announce his six captain’s picks to complete the 12-man team on 27 August.
There is a chance that Bradley, 39, could pick himself to play after he finished in a tie for 17th at the BMW Championship, to cement 10th place in the US Ryder Cup standings.
Arnold Palmer was the Ryder Cup’s last playing captain, when he led the US team, aged 34, in 1963.
Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa were among those to miss out on automatic qualification for the US team.
Ben Griffin, Maverick McNealy and Andrew Novak are the other three Americans in the top-12, but none have appeared at a Ryder Cup before and Bradley may opt for the experience of Patrick Cantlay, who is 15th on the list but has picked up 5½ points in two previous appearances.
Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre finished second to Scheffler in Maryland despite leading by four shots going into the final day.
But that was enough to see him join Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood in qualifying for the European team.
The other three automatic slots are currently filled by Justin Rose, Tyrrell Hatton and Shane Lowry with the standings finalised after this week’s British Masters at the Belfry.
Captain Luke Donald will make his picks for the six other places on 1 September.
Martin would not be drawn on left-back Jefte’s future, amid reports the Brazilian is nearing a move to Palmeiras in his homeland, or Real Betis defender Nobel Mendy, who has been linked with a move to Ibrox.
“He’s in this morning,” Martin said of Jefte.
Rangers are yet to win a domestic game this season, having drawn 1-1 with Motherwell and Dundee in their opening two Scottish Premiership fixtures.
Tuesday’s loss in Plzen was Martin’s first as Rangers boss but he has secured home wins over the Czech side and Panathinaikos as well as a draw away to the latter.
Under Philippe Clement, Rangers were knocked out of last season’s Scottish Cup by lower league opposition as Queen’s Park triumphed at Ibrox. Alloa are one tier below Queen’s Park in League 1 and have won six out of seven games this term.
“It was last season, it’s completely gone some of them were probably part of that, I don’t see any benefit in me bringing it up, really,” Martin commented on the Queen’s Park result.
“We focus on this game but being better from Tuesday.”
Raskin started the first three games of Rangers’ season, but was left out of the starting XI for the first leg of the tie against Viktoria Plzen, which Martin’s side won 3-0 at Ibrox.
The 24-year-old was again benched for Saturday’s Premiership match against Dundee, but impressed as a substitute in the 1-1 draw.
Martin expressed his delight at how Raskin has responded to being dropped.
“He came out of the team for reasons that me and him spoke about, and his reaction has been top, like really, really brilliant,” he said.
“He’s a really fantastic player, and he’s a young man that I’m getting to know all the time, and actually I really like his character and personality.
“It’s my job to make sure, playing for this football club, whoever you are, the demands are really clear, in whatever position you play.”
Rangers head coach Russell Martin talks to BBC Scotland about his decision to leave out captain James Tavernier and midfielder Nicolas Raskin for the Champions League qualifier against Viktoria Plzen.
Before Motherwell found their late equaliser, former Rangers midfielder Derek Ferguson has expressed deep concern about his old side’s approach.
“At the moment there’s nothing coming from Rangers; it’s quite worrying,” he said on BBC Sportsound. “I’ve not got a clue what their tactic is. I don’t see it.”
After Motherwell netted the leveller their play more than merited, Ferguson added: “I’ve got a real worry after watching that second half. They players still have a lot to prove to that Rangers support.”
Speaking on Sky Sports, irate former Rangers striker Kris Boyd said: “It’s the same things that keep happening time after time after time.
“It’s early in the season. We know there are going to be players arriving. We know there are going to be players going out. But the alarming thing for is he’s calling them out so early on.”
Despite agreeing with Martin, former Celtic forward Chris Sutton was also taken aback by the Rangers boss’ comments, saying the remarks “were extreme”.
“For him to for him to do that first game of the season, he sees him every day in training, he must think they’re rank rotten,” he said on Sky Sports.
“Because why wouldn’t there be a bit more balance there? When have you ever seen a manager do that first game of the season? That was extreme as extreme.”
Russell Martin says the support he has had from Sir Alex Ferguson since taking over as Rangers head coach has been “incredible”.
The former Manchester United manager paid his first visit to the club’s Auchenhowie training centre on Friday, in the company of Rangers great John Greig.
Ferguson, 83, played for two seasons at Rangers from 1967-69, while Greig, 82, spent his entire career at Ibrox before a five-year spell as manager.
“Any team talk or message I give is done when those two speak about this club and what it means to them,” Martin told RangersTV.
“They are both really behind us and what we are doing. They are desperate for this team to do well.
“They feel the same way as the fans. They want to see a team that fights and works for everything and has a way about them on the pitch that exemplifies what they believe this club to be about.”
Martin played under Sir Alex’s son Darren Ferguson at Peterborough United who made him captain when he was just 21.
“He reached out and said his dad wanted to give me a call,” Martin added.
“I said ‘of course’ and since then Sir Alex has been in tough regularly. He’s been great. He’s been so supportive of me personally, which is incredible.
“It’s the first time he’s been here and it was just brilliant for everyone to see him.”
At last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said it was likelier that Russell would be at the team next season than Verstappen, but did not deny he was speaking to the world champion’s representatives.
Russell said: “I don’t take that personally because I made it clear from the beginning. I’m happy to be team-mates with anybody.
“I want to continue with Mercedes into the future. The fact is, Toto has never let me down. He’s always given me his word, but he’s also got to do what’s right for his team, which includes me. But it also includes the thousands of people who work for Mercedes.
“For me, it’s nothing to worry about because I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere. And whoever my team-mate will be, it doesn’t concern me either.
“I know where their loyalty lies. It doesn’t need to be public. It doesn’t need to be broadcast to everybody.
“I feel I’m performing better than ever. And it’s as simple as that really. Performance speaks for everything.”
Russell is fourth in the drivers’ championship, nine points behind Verstappen, and won last month’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Williams driver Alex Albon, who is a friend of Russell and a former team-mate of Verstappen, pointed to Russell’s performance as team-mate to Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes for three years, as well as the fact he has convincingly been ahead of his new team-mate Kimi Antonelli this season.
Albon said in a BBC Sport interview: “George is somehow underrated. I’m not just defending a friend here, but I don’t know a driver who can beat a seven-time world champion and be not sure of a seat.
“He’s doing a fantastic year this year as well.
“And as much as Kimi’s getting praise, George is still beating him pretty convincingly. So I guess you can sound me standing up for a friend of mine. But even if he wasn’t my friend, I’d still be saying the same words.
“I just hope the delay’s coming from him asking for a lot of money. And if he is, he deserves it.
“Otherwise, George is actually one of the most adaptable drivers on the grid. And wherever it ends up being, I think he should be considered as at the very least a top-three driver on the grid.”
In a stadium that has in its day danced to the tune of many different teams from many different sports – the Kangaroos and the Jillaroos, the Reds and the Roar, the Matildas, the Broncos and the Dolphins – it’s the Lions that will fill the place on Wednesday in Brisbane.
Formerly the site of a burial ground and then Lang Park sports stadium, named after a particularly fiery Presbyterian minister from Greenock in Renfrewshire, the Suncorp stands on some interesting terrain in the inner city.
When people say there’s an elephant in the room in this place they’re literally talking about an elephant. Carley, a circus animal, was a beloved performer on this land in the 1950s, so much so that they buried her here after the poor thing performed her last trick for the entertainment of the masses.
The Queensland Reds – coached by Les Kiss who for six years was an assistant with Ireland and for another three was the director of rugby with Ulster – will be looking to do a different kind of burial.
Much of the preamble to the Lions’ second game on Australian soil has, unsurprisingly, centred around the half-back partnership of Scotland’s Finn Russell and Ireland’s Jamison Gibson-Park, two players that serve as a constant reminder that rugby, though a playground for big beasts, can still be artistic and beautiful.
Their combination is one that will have people shifting forward in their seats with quickening pulses. Rugby is forever in danger of eating itself with its inexorable march towards grunt and aggression, but these two remind you of why you might have fallen in love with rugby in the first place.
Not many have ever had their rugby heart stolen by a one-dimensional big banger. But Russell and Gibson-Park and their potential to thrill? That’s different.
They’ve never played together, but Wednesday is the night it happens and if it’s all right then we’re going to be seeing a whole lot more of it in the Saturdays to come.
They’re very different people – Russell gregarious and charismatic, Gibson-Park quiet and laidback – but they’re one and the same when it comes to how the game should be played: fast and furious, off the cuff and adventurous.
Scrum-halves are supposed to be loud and bossy, but Gibson-Park isn’t either of those things. His Lions and Ireland coach Andy Farrell calls him horizontal, such is his unflappable personality.
His speed of thought is electrifying, his accuracy when firing passes that are so on the money that they can eliminate two and three defenders in an instant is unerring.
His quick taps bamboozle defences, his support lines mess with their heads, his ability to scan a field and know in an instant where the space is is a large part of the reason why Ireland have been so consistent over so many years. He’s a totem of that team – tiny but towering at the same time.
It’s said that there is only one Antoine Dupont, but that’s not really true. There’s one and three-quarters and the three-quarters is Gibson-Park. At his best, he’s very much in the same conversation as the great Frenchman.
And now we get to see him play with Russell, the great conductor at 10, a figure of growing authority on the back of a confidence-boosting and trophy-laden season with Bath.
The double threat is what Lions’ fans have wanted to see. Normally a coach wouldn’t necessarily play his first-choice 10 on Saturday and Wednesday, but Farrell is making an exception in Brisbane because he, as much as anybody else, is mustard keen to see how these two will gel. Why wait? Just crack on.
They’ve had a few training sessions but no game time together. Will the lack of familiarity get in the way or will it be chemistry from minute one? Intriguing.
Russell added to BBC Sport: “Toto has made it clear to me that how I’m performing is as good as anybody.
“There is only one driver that you can debate in terms of performance. These are his words and not my words, and that is why I have no concern about my future.
“But there are two seats to every team and I guess he needs to think who are those two drivers.”
Russell’s comments imply that his own contract talks with team principal Toto Wolff are being delayed by Mercedes’ conversations with the four-time champion.
Wolff said at the Austrian Grand Prix on Friday: “George has always performed to the expectations we set. We haven’t given him a car to win the world championship in the last three years and that’s on us.
“The times the car is good, he has been winning races. You know he is going to extract what’s in the car.
“In a normal business the contract discussions are not being held as town halls, everything is normal, everything is going to plan.”
In direct response to Russell’s comments on Verstappen, Wolff said: “You are going into territory I don’t want to discuss out there. People discuss and explore, and in our organisation people are transparent. But it doesn’t change a millimetre of my opinion of George.”
Verstappen refused to directly comment when he was asked on Thursday whether he would be staying with Red Bull next year.
“I don’t think we need to talk about that,” he said. “It’s not really on my mind. Just driving well, trying to push the performance, and then we focus on next year.”
It was a successful day all round for Mercedes with 18-year-old rookie Kimi Antonelli finishing third for his first podium in Formula 1.
Antonelli – at 18 years and 294 days old – becomes the third-youngest podium finisher of all time behind Verstappen and Lance Stroll.
Starting fourth, he overtook championship leader Piastri at the start and dealt with pressure from the Australian in the closing stages of the race.
“It was so stressful but super happy,” Antonelli said. “The last stint I pushed a bit too hard behind Max and I killed a bit of the front left and I struggled a bit at the end, but I’m really happy to bring the podium home.”
“This track has been good for us and the car has been incredible all weekend. Hopefully we can carry the same momentum into the next few races.”
Russell said Mercedes performed so strongly at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve because a “smooth” track and “low-speed” corners suited the characteristics of the car.
Next on the calendar is Austria from 27-29 June and the Red Bull Ring will be a very different challenge to Montreal.
“It’s going to be on old tarmac, more high-speed corners and it’s going to be hot as well,” Russell said.
“We’ve got three things working against us. I’m not going to sit here and say Mercedes is back because we were the quickest team here last year but we didn’t win the championship. We know where we need to improve.”
