From Maddie Lee: The second pitch Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz threw on Thursday night sailed above the strike zone, at about eye-height on Brewers hitter William Contreras. It was an early sign that Díaz was in for a brutal ninth inning.
By the end of his third blown save in four appearances, even Díaz wasn’t sure what his role would be going forward.
“Now I’ve just got to see what they want to do,” he said after the Dodgers’ 5-4 loss to the Brewers on Thursday. “I want to do the best thing for the team. At the end of the day, if they give me the ball in the ninth I will try to do my job. If they give me the ball in another inning, I will try to do my job. Got to get better, be consistent.”
Manager Dave Roberts, however, as he looked at the state of his bullpen as a whole, wasn’t ready to take the closer title from Díaz.
“Give me another option,” Roberts said. “…To be quite honest, none of those guys really are throwing the baseball great. So that’s just kind of the way it is.”
The series opener Thursday between the Dodgers and Brewers, two of the top teams in the National League, saw Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki battle command issues to salvage a two-run, six-inning start. It included a record-setting go-ahead home run from Max Muncy, No. 131 at Dodger Stadium, breaking a tie with Eric Karros for the most all-time.
Then Díaz, who has been working through an evolving set of issues since returning from the IL (arthroscopic elbow surgery) a couple weeks ago, took over with a two-run lead. And the game went sideways.
The Dodgers (73-49) fell to two games back of the Brewers (75-47) and half a game behind the Braves (73-48).
“A loss is a loss, but there’s certain losses that are more costly,” Roberts said. “And when you use five relievers and you lose a game, that’s costly.”
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Walbert Ureña gave up two hits in six innings, Mike Trout and Denzer Guzman led a 15-hit outburst with three singles and an RBI apiece, and the Angels beat the Texas Rangers 7-0 on Thursday night.
Josh Lowe added two hits and two RBIs, and Adam Frazier had two hits and an RBI for the Angels, who extended their win streak to three and had at least 10 hits in a game for the first time since July 8.
Ureña (8-8) struck out five and walked two while lowering his ERA to 2.67. The rookie right-hander has a 2.43 ERA in 18 games since May 1 and has given up no more than one run in 13 of those starts. José Fermin, Tayler Saucedo and Sammy Peralta each threw a scoreless inning to complete the five-hitter.
From Bill Shaikin: The Steinbrenner family has owned the New York Yankees for 53 years. Jerry Jones has owned the Dallas Cowboys for 37 years. The Buss family owned the Lakers for 46 years.
These trophy assets are few and far between. Walter had agreed to sell the Lakers after less than one year of ownership — and not through a comprehensive bidding process, but to an inquiring caller during the weekend?
“This has more red flags than a May Day parade,” an industry insider said, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize his professional relationships.
The deal, which valued the Lakers at $12.5 billion, was motivated by the spiraling price for an NBA expansion team in Las Vegas, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. After all, if Iger and Kushner might have to pay $10 billion for a startup team, why not call and see if Walter might accept a bit more for one of the marquee franchises in American sports?
Lakers again have most nationally televised games on their schedule
From Sam Farmer: Chargers running back Amar Johnson doesn’t have a ton of NFL experience, but he knows to make every moment count.
“You don’t get the most opportunities at practice, so you’ve got to maximize the opportunities that you do get,” said Johnson, who had two touchdowns and a successful conversion run Thursday in a 27-7 victory over the Houston Texans in a preseason opener.
“Every game you kind of hit the reset button like, yeah, I did something this week, but the next game is a new week.”
Jim Harbaugh said the urgency is palpable, especially for players looking to secure one of the last few roster spots.
“That’s why you play like your football life is at stake,” the Chargers coach said. “Because it kind of is.”
Johnson had a seven-yard touchdown run in the first half, then turned a short reception into a 55-yard gain in the second. He was tackled a yard short of the end zone. He smiled when asked about that, knowing he likely was going to take a ribbing from teammates.
“I had to punch it in one more time,” he said. And he did punch it in, scoring from the one on the following play.
Sabrina Ionescu scored 20 points and the New York Liberty avoided one of the biggest collapses in WNBA history, holding off the Sparks 85-81 on Thursday night.
New York (21-14) led 69-41 early in the fourth quarter and looked poised to cruise to an easy victory when the Sparks scored 21 straight points to get within striking distance.
The Sparks (12-21) only trailed 82-79 with 26.6 seconds left and were in position to match the Chicago Sky for the biggest comeback in league history. The Sky rallied from 28-down to beat Las Vegas in 2022. Rae Burrell got the Sparks within one on a reverse layup with 22 seconds left. Ionescu hit two free throws with 14.8 remaining to restore the three-point advantage.
The Sparks also lost Cameron Brink earlier in the fourth quarter. She helped key the game-changing run, drawing an offensive foul on Breanna Stewart. Brink was down on the floor for a few minutes before being helped to the locker room with a towel over her head. She took a shot to the stomach area from Stewart to get the offensive foul called. A few minutes earlier Brink and Burrell banged heads.
Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said Brink was being evaluated by doctors after a “brutal hit to the ribs”, but didn’t have an update other than that.
1903 — Jim Jeffries knocks out Jim Corbett in the 10th round to retain his world heavyweight title in San Francisco.
1936 — In Berlin, the U.S. wins the first Olympic basketball gold medal with a 19-8 win over Canada. The game is played outdoors on a dirt court in a driving rain. Joe Fortenberry leads the U.S. with seven points. James Naismith, the inventor of the game, presents the medals.
1959 — The formation of the American Football League is announced in Chicago. Play will begin in 1960 with franchises in six cities with the probability of adding two more teams.
1977 — Lanny Wadkins beats Gene Littler on the third hole of sudden death to take the PGA Championship.
1977 — The Cosmos, led by Pele, play before a Meadowlands crowd of 77,961 in East Rutherford, N.J., the most to see a soccer game in the U.S. The Cosmos beat the Fort Lauderdale Strikers 8-3 in an NASL quarterfinal playoff game.
1994 — Nick Price wins the PGA Championship, finishing at 11-under 269 for 72 holes, six strokes ahead of Corey Pavin. It is the lowest stroke total in an American major championship.
2005 — The U.S. 4×400 relay team, anchored by Jeremy Wariner, races to a record 14th gold medal for the United States at the field world championships.
2011 — Keegan Bradley wins the PGA Championship after trailing by five shots with three holes and then defeating Jason Dufner in a three-hole playoff. Bradley becomes the third player in at least 100 years to win a major championship in his first try.
2016 — South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk breaks Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old world record in the 400-meter final in Rio de Janeiro. Usain Bolt becomes the first to capture three straight 100-meter titles at the Olympics. He finishes in 9.81 — 0.08 seconds ahead of Justin Gatlin.
2019 — French woman Stephanie Frappart is the first woman to referee a major match in a European men’s tournament. UEFA Super Cup, Chelsea vs. Liverpool in Istanbul.
Compiled by the Associated Press
1919 — Chicago’s Happy Felsch tied the major-league record with four outfield assists in a game. The White Sox still lost to the Boston Red Sox 15-6.
1932 — Brooklyn’s John Quinn, 49, became the oldest pitcher to win a major league game. Quinn pitched the last two innings of a 2-1, 10-inning win over the New York Giants.
1933 — Jimmie Foxx of the Philadelphia Athletics hit for the cycle and drove in nine runs in an 11-5 win over the Cleveland Indians. The nine RBIs set an American League record for one game, breaking the 22-year-old mark set by Topsy Hartzell of the New York Highlanders.
1958 — Vic Power of the Cleveland Indians stole home twice, in the eighth and 10th innings, in a 10-9 win over Detroit. He had only three steals all year.
1960 — Bill White of the St. Louis Cardinals hit for the cycle in a 9-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the opening game of a doubleheader.
1971 — Bob Gibson of St. Louis pitched a no-hitter, blanking the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-0.
1987 — Oakland’s Mark McGwire set a major league rookie record with his 39th homer of the season to help the A’s to a 7-6, 12-inning victory over the Angels.
1998 — Baltimore’s Chris Hoiles became the ninth major leaguer and first catcher to hit two grand slams in one game.
2002 — Trevor Hoffman became the first reliever in major league history to have 30 or more saves in eight straight seasons in San Diego’s 6-2 win over the New York Mets.
2007 — Atlanta manager Bobby Cox was ejected after the fifth inning for arguing a called third strike in the Braves’ 5-4 victory over San Francisco. It was his 132nd ejection, breaking the mark set by Hall of Famer John McGraw.
2009 — Felix Pie became the fourth player in Orioles history to hit for the cycle, and Baltimore tied club records for extra-base hits and doubles in a 16-6 rout of the Angels.
2011 — Albert Pujols hit the longest home run at 6-year-old Busch Stadium in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 6-2 win over Colorado. Pujols’ two-run drive in the first inning was estimated at 465 feet.
2013 — Alfonso Soriano homered twice for the second straight night and drove in a career-high seven runs, giving him 13 RBIs in two games while powering the New York Yankees to an 11-3 victory over the Angels.
2015 — Matt Kemp hit a triple in the ninth for the first cycle in the history of the San Diego Padres, who beat the Colorado Rockies 9-5.
2018 — Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna Jr., 20, became the youngest major leaguer to homer in five straight games.
2021 — Arizona Diamondbacks Tyler Gilbert became the fourth pitcher and first in 68 years to throw a no-hitter in his initial big league start, leading Arizona over the San Diego Padres 7-0 with the record-tying eighth no-hitter of the season.
2024 — With a long ball off Chad Kuhl in the 8th inning, Aaron Judge reaches 300 home runs, doing so in fewer games (955) and at-bats (3,431) than anyone before him. The homer follows a rare intentional walk issued to Juan Soto and is part of an emphatic 10-2 win by the Yankees over the White Sox.
Compiled by the Associated Press
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
From Bill Plaschke: The Lakers are being sold … again?
The Lakers are being sold … by the Dodgers owner who was supposed to save them?
The Lakers are being sold … to one guy who owns an underachieving women’s professional soccer team and another guy who owns a piece of the hated San Francisco Giants?
What in the name of Luka is going on here?
Los Angeles sports fans awoke Wednesday to the news that one of their two crown jewels was being sold for the second time in a year, a transaction valued at $12.5 billion and accompanied by at least that many worries.
This doesn’t feel good. This doesn’t feel right. Something stinks here, and it might just be the future of a franchise that once seemed in such good hands.
On Wednesday it was stunningly and ingloriously fumbled, and for what?
There are two main unknowns here, and both should send shivers through a Laker fan base that could be watching their team become the Portland Trail Blazers.
First, why did Mark Walter sell just 10 months after buying? Yes, he made a $2.5 billion profit, but 10 months? Who owns a major sports franchise for just 10 months?
Second, what sort of owners will Bob Iger and Josh Kushner be? Iger is known for running Disney, and Kushner is known for running with President Trump’s son-in-law, who happens to be Kushner’s brother, Jared.
So crazy. So scary.
Bob Iger, Joshua Kushner to buy Lakers from Mark Walter’s ownership group for $12.5 billion
Swanson: Bob Iger could be the Imagineer to lead the Lakers back to glory
New Lakers co-owner Joshua Kushner is a lifelong Democrat with deep interest in sports
What Bob Iger’s Angel City ownership can illuminate about his impending Lakers acquisition
Lakers begin NBA Cup play at Warriors on Oct. 30
Buying the Lakers cements Bob Iger’s longtime dream of owning major sports franchises
Mark Walter has no plans to sell Dodgers after unloading Lakers
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From Maddie Lee: Dodgers left-hander Eric Lauer adjusted his cap and glanced into the stands as he walked off the field to a standing ovation.
In the Dodgers’ 4-2 win against the Kansas City Royals, completing a sweep at Dodger Stadium, Lauer held the Royals to two runs (one earned) in 6 ⅓ innings.
“It was really nice,” Lauer said, noting how much more enjoyable it was to pitch well at Dodger Stadium for the home team, instead of the opposition. “It always makes you feel good walking off the mound and having people appreciate what you did out there.”
The Dodgers (73-48) got home runs from Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Hunter Feduccia.
The Dodgers, with a short bullpen after playing extra innings twice in four games, needed Lauer to pitch deep into the game.
That plan seemed to be in jeopardy as he labored through the first three innings, his pitch count climbing to 64. But the next three, he only gave up just one walk.
“Wasn’t getting a ton of swing out of zone,” Lauer said. “So mentally I just had to lock in a little bit more in-zone, make sure I was throwing quality pitches in zone, and not try to be so fine. Give myself more plate to work with and try to get some quick soft contact.”
From Maddie Lee: Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman tracked Royals hitter Isaac Collins’ fly ball through foul territory to just outside the visiting dugout at Dodger Stadium.
He had a plan. With one out in the top of the eighth inning, Freeman was going to lean over the rail to make the catch.
He shuffled, shifted his weight, and the ground disappeared out from under him.
“Obviously there was no rail,” a sore but apparently not seriously injured Freeman said after the Dodgers’ 4-2 win against the Royals.
Mike Trout had three hits and two RBIs, Jose Siri keyed a three-run sixth inning with a pinch-hit RBI double, and George Klassen earned his first major league win in the Angels’ 5-2 comeback victory over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night.
Klassen (1-1) gave up two runs and five hits over six innings, striking out five and walking one in his fourth career start. Angels reliever Blake Weiman threw a scoreless seventh before giving up two hits and striking out one in the eighth.
Ryan Watson replaced Weiman and escaped the two-on, one-out jam. Ben Joyce, who missed most of the past two seasons because of shoulder injuries, retired the side in order in the ninth for his fifth career save and first since Sept. 1, 2024.
From Joaquin Ruiz: Coach Jim Harbaugh said roughly 15 starters won’t play in the Chargers’ preseason opener against the Houston Texans, and there are several spots on the depth chart that still need to be decided.
“The preseason games will give us a window of insight into where everybody is,” Harbaugh said.
Here are five position groups to monitor when the Chargers face the Texans on Thursday at 5 p.m. PDT (CBS, NFL+).
From Sam Farmer: His NFL playing career is over, but Derek Carr is far from done with football.
UCLA announced this week that it has hired Carr as a special advisor to football coach Bob Chesney, and that the four-time Pro Bowl quarterback will assist with the Bruins’ offensive staff in game-planning strategy.
“Coach Chesney is a leader of men,” said Carr, who was at Dodger Stadium on Monday evening and was on the field before the game. “So many guys get hired just based on scheme. This is a guy who stands up in front of the room and leads.”
“You can feel his presence,” Carr said of Chesney, hired in December after his rise to coaching prominence at Holy Cross then James Madison. “You can feel the team respond to him. … It wasn’t so much what he said, it was how he said it. He was so demanding of the team, yet so encouraging.
“He can demand, demand, demand, but also love them at the same time, to the point where they’re like, `OK, coach, whatever you want.’”
1919 — Upset scores a win against Man o’ War in the Sanford Memorial Stakes at Saratoga. The defeat is Big Red’s only loss in 21 starts.
1933 — Gene Sarazen wins the PGA Championship by defeating Willie Goggin 5 and 4 in the final round.
1935 — The first roller derby begins in Chicago by promoter Leo Seltzer.
1987 — Jackie Joyner-Kersee equals the world record in the women’s long jump — 24 feet, 5½ inches — in the Pan American Games at Indianapolis. She matches the mark set in 1986 by Heike Dreschler of East Germany.
1995 — Cuba’s Ana Quirot, severely burned in a 1993 kitchen accident, wins the 800 meters at the world championships at Gothenburg, Sweden.
1995 — Steve Elkington shoots a final-round 64 and birdies the first playoff hole to beat Colin Montgomerie and win the PGA Championship. The 64 is the lowest final round by a PGA Championship winner.
1997 — Wilson Kipketer topples Sebastian Coe’s 16-year-old record in the 800 meters, finishing in 1 minute, 41.24 seconds in Zurich, Switzerland. Haile Gebrselassie also shatters his own 5,000 record with a time of 12 minutes, 41.86 seconds.
2002 — Natalie Coughlin breaks the 100-meter backstroke world record, timed in 59.58 seconds at the U.S. national championships. She is the first American to hold the world record since Catherine Ferguson in 1966.
2008 — Michael Phelps swims into history as the winningest Olympic athlete with his 10th and 11th career gold medals and five world records in five events at the Beijing Games. He wins the 200-meter butterfly and swims leadoff for the U.S. 800 freestyle relay team.
2016 — The U.S. women’s 4×100-meter medley relay team of Kathleen Baker, Lilly King, Dana Vollmer and Simone Manuel — winners at the Rio Games — delivers the nation’s 1,000th gold medal in Summer Olympics history. Michael Phelps closes the Rio Olympics with a gold medal in the butterfly leg of the 4×100 medley relay. Phelps finishes his career with 28 medals, having won five golds and a silver at these games.
Compiled by the Associated Press
1910 — The Brooklyn Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates played to an 8-8 tie. Each team had 38 at-bats, 13 hits, 12 assists, two errors, five strikeouts, three walks, one hit batsman and one passed ball.
1921 — George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns became the first batter in American League history to hit for the cycle twice. Sisler went 5-for-5 and drove in three runs in a 7-5, 10-inning win over the Detroit Tigers.
1921 — John “Mule” Watson of the Boston Braves pitched two complete-game victories over the Philadelphia Phillies.
1931 — Tony Cuccinello of the Cincinnati Reds had six hits in six at-bats in the first game of a doubleheader at Boston. Cuccinello had a triple, two doubles and three singles to knock in five runs as the Reds won 17-3. Cuccinello hit a three-run homer in the eighth of the nightcap to give the Reds a 4-2 win.
1939 — The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Athletics 21-0 to equal the major-league record for lopsided shutouts. Every batter in the Yankees lineup hit safely. Joe DiMaggio and Babe Dahlgren had two home runs apiece, each hitting an inside-the-parker. Pitcher Red Ruffing had four hits and drove in three runs.
1948 — Satchel Paige, 42, pitched his first major league complete game against the Chicago White Sox. Paige gave up five hits en route to 5-0 Cleveland victory.
1957 — Milwaukee pitcher Lew Burdette hit his first two home runs to lead the Braves to a 12-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
1969 — Jim Palmer of the Orioles, plagued by arm trouble the year before, threw an 8-0 no-hitter against the Oakland A’s in Baltimore.
1979 — St. Louis’ Lou Brock reached 3,000 hits with an infield hit off Chicago Cubs pitcher Dennis Lamp. St. Louis won 3-2.
2004 — Kansas City rookies Abraham Nunez and John Buck hit grand slams to lead the Royals past the Oakland Athletics 10-3.
2005 — New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera blew his first save since April 6 in a 7-5 win over Texas. Rivera had converted a career-best 31 consecutive saves before allowing Kevin Mench’s two-run tying single in the ninth.
2013 — Paul Goldschmidt hit the first pitch of the 11th inning for a game-ending home run after leading off the ninth with a tying homer, to help Arizona beat Baltimore 4-3 with a winning blast for the second straight night.
2015 — The Toronto Blue Jays won their 11th straight game, beating the Oakland Athletics 4-2. The AL East leaders also won 11 in a row in June, becoming the first team with winning streaks of at least 11 since Cleveland in 1954.
2016 — Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge became the first teammates to hit home runs in the first at-bats of their major league debuts in the same game, sparking the New York Yankees to an 8-4 win over Tampa Bay.
2018 — Ronald Acuna Jr. hit leadoff homers in both games of a doubleheader for the Atlanta Braves.
2020 — Mookie Betts hits three home runs (the 6th of his career) in an 11-2 win over the Padres. the three home run game ties Betts with Johnny Mize and Sammy Sosa for the most all-time although Betts reached the total in 813 games while Mize needed 1,884 and Sosa 2,364.
Compiled by the Associated Press
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Spanish Olympic skateboarder Danny León performed a jump as a solar eclipse occurred, timing the trick with the moon passing in front of the sun. León shared the iconic stunt on his social media accounts and called it ‘the move of his life.’
Published On 13 Aug 202613 Aug 2026
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Benjamin Bycel, a civil rights attorney, law school dean and university president who took on the task of cleaning up Los Angeles politics as the city’s first ethics officer, died Aug. 2 in Santa Barbara. He was 84.
His son, Josh Bycel, said the death was due to complications from Parkinson’s disease.
Born in Brooklyn in 1942, Bycel moved to Huntington Park when he was 5. The son of a boxing manager and a teacher, he spent much of his childhood accompanying his father to downtown boxing gyms and the Olympic Auditorium. After graduating from Huntington Park High School, he earned a master’s in history from San José State University.
Bycel served with the Peace Corps in Uganda, taught at Manual Arts High School in L.A. and reported for the Associated Press in New York. As a law student at UC Davis, he was a press aide for San Francisco Mayor George Moscone’s campaign for governor of California.
After earning his law degree, Bycel worked as an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in Sacramento. As a civil rights lawyer in Santa Barbara, he successfully argued a landmark California Supreme Court case, which upheld the right of adults unrelated by blood, marriage or adoption to live together as a family. In 1986, Bycel took on the role of dean for the Santa Barbara and Ventura Colleges of Law, helping steer the ship after the former dean was accused of misappropriating funds.
Five years later, he took on his most high-profile role as founding director of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission.
The Times called it “a Herculean task.” The commission was created in 1990 after a wave of political corruption scandals engulfed Mayor Tom Bradley’s administration. When the City Council initially declined to pass tough anti-corruption laws, voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition H to create an independent watchdog tasked with enforcing a tough new set of regulations governing city officials’ conduct.
“The idea of getting paid to reform the system and make it better is a thrill,” Bycel told The Times when he was selected. He vowed not to “conduct any witch hunts.”
There was controversy from the get-go. In the commission’s first year, The Times reported, investigators raided the offices of City Attorney James K. Hahn after getting a tip that city workers were engaged in political activities. When the district attorney later dropped the investigation, citing lack of evidence, Hahn publicly condemned Bycel.
Zev Yaroslavsky, a former L.A. politician who served then as a City Council member representing district 5, said the new ethics role represented a “dramatic, profound cultural change in municipal government.” Bycel, he said, rose to the occasion.
“Institutionally, he was a new power, a new person with influence over the vitals of elected officialdom, and I thought he did an excellent job,” Yaroslavsky said, noting that Bycel did not go in with guns blazing. “He was very judicious and even-handed and he gave the new institutional credibility out of the starting gate.”
Still, some complained Bycel was a publicity hound, and he made powerful enemies. In 1995, Bycel told The Times that he feared for his job: Mayor Richard Riordan’s new appointee as the ethics commission president, UCLA law lecturer Raquelle de la Rocha, he said, had told him that she had decided he should be fired. De la Rocha denied his claim, but said that she had called a closed personnel hearing on Bycel’s status.
A few weeks later, the commission fired Bycel, taking a vote in closed session. They refused to say why.
“Though outspoken and at times overly aggressive, Bycel has made an important contribution to political reform here in Los Angeles,” The Times said in an editorial. “Under his tenure, the commission staff has worked rigorously to enforce the toughest local ethics laws in the nation, including a gift ban and restrictions on lobbyists.”
Josh Bycel said his father reveled in the challenge of cleaning up L.A. politics and was frustrated by his abrupt ouster.
“Even though he felt he made great progress and they were doing good things, I think he felt that the job was not done … There were forces that did not want him to do the job.”
In 1997, Bycel was appointed president of the University of West Los Angeles, and in 2001 he moved to Washington to serve as the vice president of Common Cause, the national advocacy group. Later, he served as the executive director of the Connecticut Office of State Ethics before moving back to Santa Barbara to practice law.
Bycel died at a memory center in Santa Barbara he had moved into just a few weeks earlier, Josh Bycel said. He was surrounded by his beloved longtime partner, children, grandchildren and dog, he said, in a room filled with photos and quotes of his longtime hero, boxing champion, Muhammad Ali.
“For good or for bad, my dad was a fighter and someone who would speak his mind,” Josh Bycel said, noting that was probably what got him in trouble at the ethics commission. “He always believed that you had to fight the righteous fight.”
From Sam Farmer: Tarik Skubal never located his best stuff Monday, missing the strike zone with his fastball far more frequently than usual.
The Dodgers found their way out of their recent downward spiral, though, and that was enough of a relief for their new ace and back-to-back Cy Young winner. Skubal pitched five innings, giving up four hits and three runs. He struck out six.
“I kind of sprayed the ball a little bit,” Skubal said after a 6-5 win over Kansas City in his Dodger Stadium debut. “That’s kind of unusual for me, especially with my command, but I thought I competed well and gave our team a chance to win.”
That was a welcome change for the down-on-their-luck Dodgers, who entered having lost eight of nine, including sweeps by the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs. The Dodgers had lost seven in a row before finally winning Saturday at Arizona, then promptly resumed the slide Sunday with a loss to the Diamondbacks.
So it’s hard to know whether Monday’s win marked a turnaround or simply another tourniquet to pause the bleeding. Tuesday, it’s Blake Snell’s turn. He underwent surgery on his left elbow and hasn’t pitched for the Dodgers since May 9.
The Dodgers (71-48) are hoping for an encore performance at the plate, where Monday there were some familiar flickers of life.Freddie Freeman had three of their 10 hits, driving in two runs. Shohei Ohtani had two hits and scored twice. And Max Muncy — on his bobblehead night — had a bases-loaded double that gave the Dodgers a 5-3 lead in the sixth and ignited the antsy crowd.
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Brandon Nimmo singled home the go-ahead run in the 10th inning and the Texas Rangers beat the Angels 4-1 on Monday night to snap a five-game road losing streak.
Texas (60-59) has won five of its last six overall and is a half-game behind AL West-leading Houston.
Nimmo and Elias Díaz each finished with two hits and an RBI.
Peyton Gray (6-0) pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to earn the win. Jacob Latz worked a scoreless 10th for his 23rd save.
Mike Trout hit a 418-foot shot for the Angels (45-74), his 20th home run this season, in the first inning. The three-time AL MVP was one for two and walked three times, one intentional.
Former NFL quarterback Derek Carr has joined UCLA’s coaching staff as a special advisor to coach Bob Chesney.
The Bruins announced the hiring Monday of the 35-year-old Carr, who is volunteering in his first major coaching role.
The longtime Raiders starter will help Chesney and the Bruins’ offensive staff with game planning and strategy, and he will work with UCLA‘s quarterbacks.
“His experience, leadership and football knowledge will be an incredible resource for our coaching staff and student-athletes,” Chesney said in a statement. “What stands out most is his passion for the game and his commitment to developing young people. Derek will have a tremendous impact on our players and is a great addition to our program.”
1919 — Green Bay Packers football club founded by George Calhoun and Curly Lambeau — named after sponsor Indian Packing Company.
1943 — Volo Song, driven by Ben White, wins the Hambletonian Stakes in the third heat.
1948 — Demon Hanover, driven by Harrison Hoyt, wins the Hambletonian Stakes in straight heats.
1974 — Lee Trevino beats Jack Nicklaus by one stroke to capture the PGA Championship.
1979 — Peter Haughton wins his second International Trot at Roosevelt Raceway by driving Doublemint to victory.
1984 — Carl Lewis duplicates Jesse Owens′ 1936 feat, winning his 4th Olympic gold medal as part of the US 4 x 100m relay team; world record (37.83).
1984 — Britain’s Sebastian Coe sets an Olympic record in the 1,500 meter with a 3:32.53 winning time.
1985 — Hubert Green beats defending champion Lee Trevino by two strokes to take the PGA Championship.
1986 — Bob Tway’s bunker shot on the final hole gives him the PGA Championship over Greg Norman.
1991 — John Daly, the last alternate to make the field, wins the 73rd PGA Championship with a 1-under 71 to finish three strokes ahead of Bruce Lietzke.
1995 — Michael Johnson wins the 200 meters in 19.79 seconds in the World Track & Field Championships to become the first runner to capture the 200 and 400 meters in a major championship.
1996 — Mark Brooks makes a 5-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff with Kenny Perry to win the PGA Championship.
2002 — Karrie Webb’s latest comeback establishes a new standard of excellence on the LPGA Tour: the Super Slam — winning the four tournaments currently regarded as majors as well as the du Maurier, which lost its major status in 2000 after 21 years. Webb shoots a 6-under 66, rallying from three strokes behind to the first three-time winner in the Women’s British Open.
2008 — The US 4 x 100m freestyle replay team of Michael Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones & Jason Lezak beats France by 8 seconds to win gold and smash world record at the Beijing Olympics.
2012 — Usain Bolt is a perfect 3 for 3 at the London Olympics — three events, three victories — just like Beijing four years ago. Almost even with the last U.S. runner when he gets the baton for the anchor leg of the 4×100 meters, Bolt steadily pulls away down the stretch to cap his perfect Summer Games by leading Jamaica to victory in a world-record 36.84 seconds. Allyson Felix wins her third gold medal, giving the United States a 20-meter lead after the second leg of the 4×400-meter relay. DeeDee Trotter, Felix, Francena McCorory and Sanya Richards-Ross bring home the victory for the Americans’ fifth straight Olympic title in the event.
2012 — Candace Parker scores 21 points and the heavily favored U.S. women’s basketball team wins a fifth straight Olympic gold medal with an 86-50 victory over France.
2013 — Ashton Eaton of the United States wins the decathlon world championship title to add to his Olympic gold medal. He completes his collection with a season-leading total of 8,809 points in a 10-event competition.
2013 — Jason Dufner wins his first major title with a two-stroke victory over Jim Furyk at the PGA Championship.
2016 — Michael Phelps wins his fourth gold medal of the Rio Olympics and 22nd overall with a victory in the 200-meter individual medley. It was the 13th individual gold and 26 medals overall.
2016 — Simone Biles soars to the all-around title in women’s gymnastics at the Rio Olympics. Her total of 62.198 is well clear of silver medalist and “Final Five” teammate Aly Raisman and Russian bronze medalist Aliya Mustafina.
2017 — The NFL suspends Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott six games after a yearlong NFL investigation of his domestic violence case in Ohio.
2021 — Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi confirms signing a rich 2-year contract with French Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain after leaving FC Barcelona.
Compiled by the Associated Press
1907 — In the second game of a doubleheader, shortened by agreement, Ed Karger of the St. Louis Cardinals pitched a seven-inning perfect game, beating the Boston Braves 4-0.
1926 — Tris Speaker of Cleveland hit his 700th career double but the Indians lost to the Chicago White Sox, 7-2. The double came in the third inning off Joe Edwards.
1929 — Babe Ruth hit his 500th career home run in the second inning off Willis Hudlin at Cleveland’s League Park. The homer was Ruth’s 30th of the year, but it wasn’t enough as the Indians beat the Yankees 6-5.
1951 — Robin Roberts of the Philadelphia Phillies beat the New York Giants 4-0, dropping the Giants 13 1/2 games behind the first-place Brooklyn Dodgers.
1961 — Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves scattered six hits to beat the Chicago Cubs, 2-1, for his 300th career victory.
1970 — Philadelphia’s Jim Bunning beat the Houston Astros 6-5 to become the first pitcher to win 100 games in both leagues since Cy Young.
1980 — Reggie Jackson hits his 400th career home run, off Britt Burns, in the Yankees’ 3-1 victory over the White Sox at Yankee Stadium.
1986 — Cincinnati player-manager Pete Rose, 45, singled four times and doubled to set a NL record with the 10th five-hit game of his career. Rose drove in three runs in a 13-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants, to move one ahead of Max Carey for the record.
1987 — Mark McGwire of the Athletics broke Al Rosen’s AL rookie record by hitting his 38th home run in Oakland’s 8-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners.
2004 — Randy Wolf homered twice and threw seven solid innings to lead Philadelphia to a 15-4 victory over Colorado. Wolf went 3-for-3 and scored three runs.
2007 — Rick Ankiel homered twice and drove in three runs, the latest power display by the former pitcher, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Dodgers 6-1.
2010 — Arizona tied a major league record by hitting four consecutive home runs, with Adam LaRoche, Miguel Montero, Mark Reynolds and Stephen Drew all connecting in the fourth inning of an 8-2 win over Milwaukee.
2013 — After Mariano Rivera blew a third straight save for the first time in his famed career, Brett Gardner homered with two outs in the ninth inning to give the New York Yankees a 5-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers. Rivera with a record 643 saves, had never failed three in a row in 936 relief appearances.
2018 — Oakland’s Ramon Laureano pulled off a spectacular double play and the Athletics beat the Angels 7-0. With one out and Eric Young Jr. on first, Laureano raced into the gap in left-center to haul in Justin Upton’s drive. The rookie center fielder then uncorked a 320-foot throw on a fly to first base to complete the double play. Marcus Semien homered twice and Khris Davis also connected for Oakland.
2022 — The Cubs win the second annual Field of Dreams Game, played in a temporary ballpark near Dyersville, IA, next to the site where the eponymous movie was shot, 4-2 over the Reds. Nick Madrigal leads the way, going 3 for 5 as both teams wear retro uniforms for the occasion. Before the game, Ken Griffey Sr. sets the tone by playing a friendly game of catch with his son, Junior, soon joined by a group of kids and then legendary players from both teams in a scene straight out of the iconic movie.
Compiled by the Associated Press
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
FabrikaCr
HSBC remained bullish on global equities, saying concerns around AI, rates, and geopolitics were increasingly reflected in market prices while fundamentals continue to improve.
“We remain comfortably bullish on global equities,” Alastair Pinder, HSBC’s head of EM and global equity strategy, and Pankaj
From Maddie Lee: It’s no secret that the Dodgers haven’t played their best baseball over the last nine days. But during their 4-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday, they exacerbated the trend.
Dodgers starter Justin Wrobleski remained in a rut, giving up four runs (three earned) in 3⅓ innings. The two-run homer he surrendered to Diamondbacks switch hitter Ketel Marte in the first inning was the ninth home run he has given up in three starts.
Before his recent struggles, Wrobleski hadn’t surrendered more than three homers in a three-game span this season.
He left a fastball belt-high to Marte, who entered Sunday with a .913 OPS against left-handed pitchers. Marte lined it into the Diamondbacks’ bullpen in the left-field corner.
After Wrobleski’s last start, manager Dave Roberts said the Dodgers (70-48) would look into whether the left-hander might be tipping pitches, but he said before the game Sunday that those suspicions seemed “unfounded.”
“I’m just not good enough right now,” Wrobleski said. “It’s kind of what it comes down to. It’s really frustrating. Execution just hasn’t been as good. I feel like [Sunday] just wasn’t good enough. And, again, I’ve got to be better. … I’m not the type to give up. So I’m ready to bear down. This is kind of where you can go two ways, and I’m excited to keep working, and I’m excited for my next one.”
Shaikin: The Shohei Ohtani Economy: A two-mile ride to Dodger Stadium, for $85
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Kyle Stowers tripled, singled and drove in two runs before exiting because of left hamstring discomfort in the fifth inning, and the Miami Marlins beat the Angels 12-3 on Sunday.
Griffin Conine homered twice and Javier Sanoja had two singles and three RBIs for the Marlins. Miami’s Otto López had two infield singles, giving him 46 multi-hit games.
From Gary Klein: A few hours after their season-ending defeat in the NFC championship game last January, the Rams boarded a plane for their flight home from Seattle.
Quarterback Matthew Stafford was seated a row in front of veteran receiver Davante Adams, who once again had fallen just short of finally reaching the Super Bowl.
“He’s turning around, he’s looking at me, like, ‘I’m sorry, man, I wanted that for you so bad,’” Adams recalled. “Not for him, but he wanted it for me.”
Adams, 33, is expected to get another shot at playing on the NFL’s biggest stage.
The star-studded Rams are favored to not only play in but win Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium.
Since the Green Bay Packers selected him out of Fresno State in the second round of the 2014 draft, Adams has played in and lost five NFC championship games, including last season’s 31-27 defeat by the eventual Super Bowl-champion Seahawks.
From Joaquin Ruiz: Chargers rookie wide receiver Brenen Thompson said he doesn’t love zipping around.
“To be fair, I really hate running,” Thompson, a former track star, said. “But I’m really good at it.”
Thompson has proven that so far in Chargers training camp, sprinting around defenders and maximizing his 5-foot-9, 170-pound frame in passing drills.
His speed and do-it-all attitude have made him one of Justin Herbert’s favorite targets, including on deeper routes, over the last two weeks.
“He’s going to be very good,” Herbert said of Thompson. “We saw it early on that he was going to be. He’s skilled. He’s fast. He’s going to make a lot of plays for us. So, I’m really excited about him.”
Added Thompson: “I know my speed is pretty much unmatched when I step on the field, and that’s something I take strong confidence in.”
From Ryan Kartje: As an aspiring young quarterback at Muleshoe High in the early 2000s, Lincoln Riley attended a football camp at Texas Christian University, run by a coach known even then as a mastermind of defense, a man whose ideas and 4-2-5 scheme would one day be disseminated across college football.
Gary Patterson had just been elevated from defensive coordinator to head coach at TCU, a job he would occupy for the next two decades. Around the same time, his staff saw something in Riley. They talked briefly about giving him a shot at safety on Patterson’s vaunted TCU defense.
“Needless to say,” Riley told The Oklahoman in 2018, “it didn’t turn out.”
But a quarter-century after first crossing paths at that camp, it’s now the young quarterback giving the old ball coach a chance to prove himself.
When USC announced it was hiring Patterson as Riley’s defensive coordinator in January, ears perked up across college football. On one hand, Patterson, 66, is a freshly minted College Football Hall of Famer and one of the great defensive minds of the modern era. On the other hand, he hasn’t led a college football team since 2021, when he was forced out at TCU, and a lot has changed in the sport since. Not to mention it’s been more than 25 years since Patterson last served as a coordinator.
Those were fair concerns, considering all that’s riding on Riley getting it right with Patterson, his third defensive coordinator in five seasons. But after seven months with him on the job, you won’t find anyone at USC — players, coaches or administrators alike — with an ounce of distress over Patterson’s stamina.
“I think I would have had more reservations had I not known him,” Riley said. “But that fire still burns very, very hot.”
From Marisa Ingemi: Coming off their best win of the season in Minnesota on Thursday, the Sparks didn’t have much of that same energy to start their first home game since the trade deadline.
The fourth quarter, though, looked a lot like the best basketball they’ve played all season.
The Sparks came out flat and gave up 29 first-quarter points from the Golden State Valkyries in an 84-78 loss Sunday, their eighth in the last 10 games. They made it a game in the fourth with a 16-5 run but were too far back and it took just a couple of Valkyries shots to put the game out of reach.
The Seattle Reign and Angel City played to a 2-2 draw after visiting Angel City (7-7-4) rallied late in the second half Sunday.
With Angel City down 2-1 in the 72nd minute, Evelyn Shores — who entered as a substitute in the 69th — played a long ball to Prisca Chilufya, who also entered in the 69th. Chilufya finished with ease.
The Reign (7-7-4) fell behind in the 32nd minute when 20-year-old Angel City defender Gisele Thompson got around Seattle’s defense and slotted a shot past goalkeeper Claudia Dickey.
1900 — The first Davis Cup is held with the United States beating Britain, 3-0.
1949 — Ezzard Charles knocks out Gus Lesnovich in the eighth round at Yankee Stadium in his first world heavyweight title defense.
1975 — Jack Nicklaus wins the PGA Championship for the fourth time with a two-stroke victory over Bruce Crampton and Tom Weiskopf.
1980 — Jack Nicklaus wins his fifth PGA Championship with a record score of 274, seven strokes ahead of Andy Bean.
1984 — The US beats Spain 96-65 to win the men’s basketball gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics; future ‘dream team’ members Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin star.
1984 — The much anticipated matchup between American world champion Mary Decker and South African Zola Budd in the women’s 3000-meter race at the Los Angeles Olympics ends in controversy. Just past the midpoint of the race, Decker steps on Budd’s heel, causing Budd to stumble and Decker to trip over Budd. Budd gets back into the race and Decker goes down with an injured thigh. Romania’s Maricica Puica, who had set the fastest time in 1984, wins the race and Budd finishes seventh.
1995 — Michael Bradley, a third-year pro without a tour victory, shoots a record-tying 63 in his first PGA round to lead the PGA Championship.
1996 — Cigar’s bid for a 17th straight victory ends when longshot Dare and Go passes the super horse in the upper stretch and pulls away to win the Pacific Classic at Del Mar. Cigar, 3 1-2 lengths behind Dare and Go, fails to break a tie with Citation for the record winning streak by a North American-based horse this century.
2008 — In Beijing, Michael Phelps begins his long march toward eight gold medals by winning the 400-meter individual medley in 4:03.84 — smashing his own world record. The U.S. women’s 400-meter freestyle relay team, anchored by 41-year-old Dara Torres, takes the silver behind the Netherlands’ Olympic record effort. It’s the 10th medal of Torres’ career.
2008 — Ireland’s Padraig Harrington rallies from three shots behind to win the PGA Championship, closing with a 4-under 66 at Oakland Hills to become the fourth player to win the British Open and PGA in the same year. Harrington, the first European to win consecutive majors, closes out Sergio Garcia with a 15-foot par on the 18th for a two-shot victory.
2012 — The United States wins the women’s 4×100-meter track relay in a world-record time of 40.82 seconds to give the Americans their first Olympic victory in the event since 1996. Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and Carmelita Jeter combine for a perfect trip around the track that ends a string of disappointments for the U.S. in the marquee relay.
2012 — Maurice Purify catches a record seven touchdown passes and the Arizona Rattlers win the Arena Bowl with a 72-54 win over the Philadelphia Soul.
2014 — Rory McIlroy wins his second straight major championship and fourth of his young career, rallying on the back nine in the PGA Championship. The tournament finishes in near-darkness at Valhalla Golf Club, with the final two groups essentially morphing into a foursome as they race to beat nightfall. McIlroy rallies from a three-shot deficit at the turn, to shoot a 3-under 68 to beat Phil Mickelson by one stroke. McIlroy finishes at 16-under 268.
2016 — Daryl Homer becomes the first American to win an Olympic silver medal in men’s individual sabre in 112 years.
2016 — Kristin Armstrong wins the road cycling individual time trial, finishing with a time of 44:26.42 for her third consecutive gold in the Olympic event.
Compiled by the Associated Press
1901 — Frank Isbell of the Chicago White Sox set an AL record by stranding 11 teammates on the basepaths.
1944 — Charles “Red” Barrett of the Boston Braves threw only 58 pitches to beat the Cincinnati Reds 2-0 in a nine-inning game.
1957 — Mickey Mantle became the first player to clear the center-field hedge at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium when his 460-foot homer hit the base of the scoreboard. The Yankees beat the Orioles, 6-3.
1969 — Cesar Tovar of Minnesota broke up the second no-hit bid against the Twins by a Baltimore pitcher. Tovar singled with no out in the ninth off Mike Cuellar. Earlier in the year, Tovar singled with one out in the ninth to spoil Dave McNally’s bid.
1971 — Harmon Killebrew of the Minnesota Twins hit his 500th home run in the first inning off Baltimore’s Mike Cuellar to become the 10th player to hit 500 or more in a career. Killebrew also hit No. 501 off Cuellar but the Orioles won 4-3.
1981 — Major league baseball resumed play after a two-month strike. In the St. Louis Cards-Phillies game at Philadelphia, attended by 60,561 fans, Pete Rose broke Stan Musial’s NL hit record when he singled for his 3,631st hit. It came off Mark Littell in the eighth inning.
1987 — Philadelphia’s Kevin Gross was ejected in the fifth inning after umpires discovered a strip of sandpaper glued to the heel of his glove to scuff balls. The Phillies had a 4-2 lead over the Chicago Cubs. Gross would be suspended for 10 games the next day.
1995 — Ball Night at Dodger Stadium turned into the first forfeit in the majors in 16 years. The Dodgers forfeited a game to the St. Louis Cardinals after fans threw souvenir baseballs onto the field three times. The game was called with one out in the bottom of the ninth.
2003 — Atlanta Braves shortstop Rafael Furcal turned the 12th unassisted triple play in major league history against the St. Louis Cardinals. With runners on first and second in the fifth inning, Furcal made a leaping grab of pitcher Woody Williams’ liner. The runners were going, and Furcal stepped on second base to double up Mike Matheny before tagging out Orlando Palmeiro.
2004 — Barry Bonds became the first player in major league history to hit 30 home runs in 13 consecutive seasons, hitting a solo shot off John Grabow in the seventh inning of San Francisco’s 8-7 loss to Pittsburgh. Bonds has now hit 30 homers in 14 seasons, one shy of Hank Aaron’s record.
2006 — Boston’s Curt Schilling tied the AL record by allowing 10 extra-base hits in a 5-4 loss to Kansas City. Schilling gave up nine doubles and a home run, matching the mark set by Washington’s Dale Gear in 1901 and equaled by Cleveland’s Luis Tiant in 1969.
2009 — Troy Tulowitzki had five hits, hit for the cycle and had a career-high seven RBIs to help Colorado beat the Chicago Cubs 11-5.
2018 — Kole Calhoun and Justin Upton hit two-run homers, Albert Pujols reached another milestone and the Angels rallied past Oakland for 4-3 win. With a single in the sixth inning, Pujols recorded his 1,000th hit with the Angels. He became the ninth player all-time with at least 1,000 hits in each league after getting 2,073 with St. Louis.
2018 — The Orioles’ awful season continues as they blow an early 8-3 lead against Boston to lose, 19-12. This puts them 46 1/2 games back of the division-leading Red Sox, with 46 games remaining, meaning they are mathematically eliminated. It matches the earliest date this has happened in baseball history, set by the 1932 Red Sox and copied by the 1962 Mets, two notoriously awful teams, and the 46 games left to play at the time of elimination is a new record in the divisional era.
Compiled by the Associated Press
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Welcome back to the Times of Troy newsletter, where we are just deep enough into USC’s fall football camp to ask the same question we ask every year around this time:
Might this be the year that Lincoln Riley actually fields a good defense at USC?
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Under D’Anton Lynn, the Trojans had unequivocally improved on that side of the ball. Lynn took the disaster that was USC’s defense under Alex Grinch and turned it into a respectable outfit, albeit one with limitations. There was no dominant, or even consistent, pass rusher. The run defense was regularly run over by good teams. And too often, in the biggest moments, there were mental lapses or self-inflicted mistakes on the back end of Lynn’s defense.
At the time, he pointed to the team’s youth as the problem.
“This team is more talented, but they’re just young,” Lynn said last November. “It’s just guys who haven’t played before. There are certain mistakes you have to live through.”
Almost a year later, USC has a new defensive coordinator. And kind of the same problem.
There are two things I think we can safely assume about this defense, compared to its 2025 counterpart: That Gary Patterson, as a newly minted College Football Hall of Famer, should be a significant upgrade from Lynn. And that the influx of five-star talent on USC’s defense should be too.
Because the hard truth, from the past four seasons, is that the Trojans just haven’t had enough talent on defense. Say what you will about the defensive coaching — and it has ranged from above average to horrendous during Riley’s tenure — but outside of Tuli Tuipulotu, who was only with Riley in 2022, USC just hasn’t had any true difference-makers capable of blowing up drives or taking over games on that end.
That’s beginning to change. The 2025 class had one defensive player I believe to be truly special in defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart, plus a couple others who have flashed some potential, such as defensive back Alex Graham and defensive tackle Floyd Boucard.
The 2026 class could be a different animal, if early reviews are to be believed. Five-star Luke Wafle already looks the part of a dominant defensive end and doesn’t have much standing in his way if he decides to take over this season. Elbert “Rock” Hill should be a starting cornerback in short order, either this season or next, and guys such as linebacker Talanoa Ili and defensive tackles Tomuhini Topui and Jaimeon Winfield look like future starters too.
But are any of those players poised to make a difference this season? They may have to, if USC has any hope of taking a real step forward on that side of the ball.
Otherwise, the Trojans are going to need some other defenders to make the leap in their second or third seasons, guys such as linebacker Desman Stephens or defensive linemen Jide Abasiri and Kameryn Crawford who have the potential but have never delivered on it consistently. They’re also going to need the secondary to stay healthy and top corners Jontez Williams and Chasen Johnson to live up to their billing from the portal.
But while all that might seem like reason to believe USC’s defense won’t be better in 2026, I actually think there are more such reasons than in recent years.
The front is clearly deeper, and if Wafle and Stewart can break through, USC could have two difference-makers along the defensive line for the first time in years. The secondary has two possible shutdown corners for the first time too.
The main cause for concern comes at linebacker, where USC still doesn’t have much in the way of high-level options. But if Stephens and Jadyn Walker can stand up better against the run in their third seasons, which Patterson seems convinced they can do, then those long standing problems could be at least somewhat mitigated this season.
The truth is there’s no real way of knowing how USC’s defense will look when it rolls out later this month. Patterson hasn’t coached since 2021. He has told us on several occasions that his defense will look different, blending concepts from other schools he observed and from USC’s previous defense.
But on paper, at least, the potential is at least there for Patterson to put together the best defense Riley has had as USC’s coach, complete with difference-makers in the defensive front and defensive backfield. Which, when paired with a top-10 offense, could be a pretty powerful thing.
The USC Bloom Football Performance Center.
(Allen Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
It’s extremely … functional. I know that’s not the sexiest answer. But it’s not the sexiest building.
And I mean that as a compliment!
It’s clear how much the design reflects the input of Riley and his staff, as well as others who understand what USC has been dealing with for years at the John McKay Center. Eighty percent of that facility was underground. So it’s notable when you see the natural light pouring in through the atrium from the ground floor or the 30-foot garage doors opening from the weight room to the practice field.
Amenities such as pickleball courts or infrared saunas or sensory deprivation tanks are cool, but I was more impressed by the heavy emphasis put on player recovery. Which was something else that Riley trumpeted in talking with reporters after our tour. The players themselves said that their favorite part so far was the zero-gravity recliners at their lockers.
The most impressive part, to me, is how everything withing Bloom feels so big, even as space had for so long been seen as a major problem on USC’s campus. For years, administrators told me and other reporters that they’d never be able to build a new facility on campus. But Bloom checked in at three floors and 163,000-square feet and at no point does any of it feel cramped.
In fact, there’s extra space in the building. Designed for the program to have room to grow.
“My goal with this building,” Riley said Thursday, “is I hope 50 years from now, when I’m really, really, really old, that whoever is in this thing, it’s still one of the top facilities and still is the home of USC football and still gives this program every possible advantage it could.”
Fifth-year senior Kilian O’Connor went down with a non-contact injury last Wednesday, ending his season and presumably his tenure with the Trojans. On an emotional level, it’s a tough pill for the team to swallow.
“[He’s] certainly one of the leaders and kind of heartbeats of this program,” Riley said Thursday of the former walk-on.
But from a football standpoint, the offensive line is one of the few places where USC may actually be able to weather a loss such as O’Connor. It’s possible that he might not have started the whole season at center, anyway.
With O’Connor out, Tobias Raymond, who took reps at center in the spring, could shift there full time. That would open up another spot at guard, where the best combination of Alani Noa, Hayden Treter, Breck Kolojay or even Justin Tauanuu could fit in.
There are options. Which is not a luxury USC has at a lot of other positions. It has offensive line coach Zach Hanson to thank for that.
—USC transfer center Eric Reibe is out for the foreseeable future after foot surgery. A Trojan transfer with high expectations got hurt before playing a single game at USC? You don’t say? Once again, USC starts a season stricken with the worst injury luck. It wasn’t clear yet this week how long Reibe will be out, but I expect it’ll be a while. The Trojans have already been in the mix for former Villanova center Duke Brennan, who got an extra, fifth year of eligibility after the NCAA changed its rules, and they could go after others if he goes elsewhere. USC only has one other true center on the roster, freshman Darius Ratliff. And while he — and his brother — are very talented, the ideal trajectory for both would’ve been to bring them along slowly behind more established players.
—Alani Noa was away from the team last bowl season “to deal with some personal stuff” at home. But the Trojans incumbent starting guard said last week that “there was never a question whether I was going to play at USC” and that the staff was totally supportive at the time. Whether Noa is able to return his starting spot at guard may be another story. As noted above, he’ll have a lot of worthy competition.
—Lincoln Riley has offered a quarterback from the 2028 class. Riley doesn’t usually offer more than one, meaning his choice for 2028 is Lone Star (Texas) High dual threat Trey Wright. Wright is 5 foot 11, 180 pounds as a sophomore and already has offers from the likes of Oregon, Oklahoma and Michigan, among several others.
Robert Pattinson and Zendaya in a scene from “The Drama.”
(A24)
Robert Pattinson is on a truly epic run this year, and after recommending one of his films last week (“The Odyssey”), I’m bringing us back to the Pattinson well this week with a very, very different movie and very, very different role for the long-ago Twilight vampire.
“The Drama” stars Pattinson and Zendaya as a couple on the verge of getting married, who decide, one night, to confess with their two closest friends the worst thing they’d done in their lives. One of their answers, let’s just say, isn’t received all that well. And what follows is a cringy, funny, tense, propulsive roller coaster that’s definitely worth your time. Especially since it’s now available on HBO Max.
USC’s Gary Patterson out to prove college football hasn’t passed him by
From napkin sketch to crown jewel: Inside USC’s ‘magical’ football training center
New NCAA eligibility rules should help USC — and its No. 1 freshman class — flourish
USC, Notre Dame rivalry series renewed with key detail Trojans would not compromise
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at ryan.kartje@latimes.com, and follow me on X at @Ryan_Kartje. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. Drum roll, please. With the high school football season set for zero week Aug. 20-21, The Times begins a nine-part series profiling some of the area’s top players with a top 10 position list.
Quarterback Chris Fields III of Carson passed for two touchdowns and ran for three touchdowns in loss to Delano Kennedy.
(Craig Weston)
The Times’ nine-part series previewing top high school football players begins Tuesday with a profile of Carson quarterback Chris Fields III, the reigning City Section player of the year. Headed to Georgetown, he has risen from the bottom to earn his place as a top quarterback.
Here’s the other profiles:
Running back AJ McBean of Mira Costa ran a 10.61 100 meters in his first meet of the season.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Wednesday: Running back AJ McBean of Gardena Serra worked hard when no one was watching to gain a scholarship to Stanford and establish himself as a bruising ball carrier.
Austin Miller a 15-year-old sophomore receiver, is helping bring attention to Bellflower’s football program.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Thursday: Sophomore receiver Austin Miller of Bellflower decided to earn respect by attending his local public school and proved his point by earning a scholarship offer from Ohio State, then committing.
Luke Gazzaniga is a tight end for Santa Margarita who dares people to try to tackle him.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Friday: As the youngest of three brothers, tight end Luke Gazzaniga of Santa Margarita used to engage in the Oklhoma drill with his brothers growing up, showing his toughest that he retains.
Offensive tackle Vincent Shields of Murrieta Valley in the middle.
(Sandy Huffaker/for The Los Angeles Times)
Saturday: Offensive lineman Vincent Shields of Murrieta Valley is rising fast as a college prospect, and if you like dogs, you’ll love Shields, whose family owns a dog-training business.
Godschoice Eboigbodin of JSerra is a basketball player turned football player at JSerra.
(Craig Weston)
Sunday: Defensive lineman Godschoice Eboigbodin of JSerra is a native of Nigeria learning the sport and becoming more than good.
Crenshaw wide receiver Deance’ Lewis (11) celebrates his touchdown with tight end De’Andre Kirkpatrick (10).
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Monday, Aug. 17: Linebacker De’Andre Kirkpatrick of Crenshaw has overcome family tragedy to become one of the best in the City Section.
Orange Lutheran quarterback TJ Lateef goes airborne hurdling over Wesley Ace (18) of Gardena Serra.
(Craig Weston)
Tuesday, Aug. 18: Defensive back Wesley Ace of Gardena Serra is switching to cornerback and can’t wait to show off his speed.
Kicker Gabriel Goroyan of Westlake enters the 2026 football season as one of the best for his position.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Wednesday, Aug. 19: Kicker Gabriel Goroyan of Westlake has a 4.7 GPA, a scholarship to Stanford and can kick or punt with the best.
Special teams is important for winning football games, so let’s take a look at kickers/punters to watch for this season.
Westlake’s Gabriel Goroyan has distinguished himself with his strong leg, making him an outstanding kicker and punter. He’s committed to Stanford.
Ethan Miller of San Clemente had nine field goals last season and was cool under pressure. Jerry Shifman of Mater Dei should be a candidate for a field goal beyond 50 yards. Carter Sobel of Sierra Canyon had nine field goals. Caleb Sylvia of Mission Viejo made a 49-yard field goal in 2025.
Colin Elia of Temecula Valley was 10 of 11 on field goals. Ayden Brannum of Fontana averaged 48 yards on punts. Noah Ahari of Chino Hills had nine field goals. Peter Batsaras of Cypress earned an invitation to an all-star game with his kicking skills. Jackson Hauducoeur of Upland is a returning All-CIF kicker. Kasra Maghami of Harvard-Westlake showed potential as a freshman. Dylan Moreno of San Pedro is back for his senior year trying to return to his All-City form as a sophomore.
Notably not mentioned in CIF participation survey media release for 2025-26 in California is a drop in high school football players to 87,718, the fewest since 2022. Should be a concern. pic.twitter.com/utOtGfSflg
— eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) August 5, 2026
If you look closely at the CIF participation survey for 2025-26, there’s a notable stat. While there’s record overall participation of 835,088 for boys and girls sports, the number for the most popular sport, football, dropped to its lowest level since 2022 at 87,718.
The CIF looks for trends, so next year’s numbers will be the most important.
There is a rise in eight-man football, but that also shows how schools might be struggling to field 11-man teams. Lots of City Section teams have failed to recover since the 2021 COVID season in no longer having junior varsity programs.
Another crazy story from LAUSD football teams. The school nurses are supposed to clear physicals to allow players to practice. There’s money to pay them to come in early. And yet, the struggle continues This happens every year. Lack of cleared players at certain schools. Not…
— eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) August 7, 2026
LAUSD teams began practices last week but some have struggled to get players cleared because school nurses have to clear physicals and some aren’t around. The LAUSD has money to pay the nurses to come in early before school starts but this issue continues to happen seemingly every season, disrupting teams’ practice schedules.
Oxnard Pacifica’s Alijah Royster and Darius Smith discuss team’s hopes and lessons from playing in state game last season. pic.twitter.com/2odk3Gglju
— eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) August 7, 2026
Crenshaw has received a new football locker room courtesy of Nike.
Reseda, Eagle Rock and Canoga Park are having their fields worked on and will be all road games this season.
Corona Centennial and De La Salle have finalized an agreement to play their football game at Cal’s Memorial Stadium on Sept. 26 at 2 p.m.
Bishop Diego has 370-pound tackle Donovan Tupa’i (left) and 270-pound tackle Terrence Tasila.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
The Marmonte League is filled with big linemen, which should make for some interesting clashes. Bishop Diego has perhaps the biggest in 6-foot-3, 370-pound Donovan Tupa’i. Teammate Terrence Tasila can hold his own in the buffet line at 6-1, 270 pounds. Speaking of buffets, Tupa’i said he once went for five visits to the buffet, filling each plate. Call him the Buffet Buster.
Teams traveling to Hawaii will be playing Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week to open their seasons. Here’s this week’s schedule.
JSerra High quarterback Kate Meier threw for 3,729 yards and 58 touchdowns as a freshman last fall when the Lions went 28-0.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Flag football action begin on Saturday, with Oxnard and Oaks Christian among the teams opening with wins.
One of the best tournaments of the year is set for Friday and Saturday in Costa Mesa, bringing out most of the top teams in the Southern Section and City Section. It’s first look at Sierra Canyon joining flag football with a new coach and lots of top transfer students from Orange County.
Dorsey High alum and former major league Don Buford sits under a towering ficus tree on campus Saturday during the school’s all sports reunion.
(Caleb Otte / For The Times)
A reunion of those who attended Dorsey High and played sports took place Saturday. It was organized by Hall of Fame football coach Paul Knox and drew plenty of alumni.
Here’s a look at the activities.
Former Orange Lutheran baseball coach Eric Borba has been hired as the new head coach at Servite. He served 16 years as coach at Orange Lutheran before stepping down in 2024….
Former San Fernando football coach Bill Marsh died last Monday. He was 79. It was his wishbone offense that led the Tigers to back-to-back City titles in 1974 and 1975. Here’s the report.
Safety Sean Byrnes from Villa Park has committed to Idaho State….
Former UCLA softball player Anna Vines is the new softball coach at Village Christiain….
Aiden Echavarria of Whittier Christian has committed to Pepperdine baseball….
Outfielder Dru Wilson from Sherman Oaks Notre Dame has transferred to Sierra Canyon, joining Mateo Mier, who came from Harvard-Westlake….
Sophomore Brett Burnor has been named the starting quarterback at Mission Viejo….
Infielder Sebastian Navarro of Mater Dei has committed to UC Davis….
Pitcher Carson Caras from Harvard-Westlake has committed to Pepperdine….
Jackson Alba of Palos Verdes has committed to UC Irvine baseball…..
Pitcher Mac Kennedy from Sierra Canyon has committed to Santa Clara….
Catcher Logan Miller from Mater Dei has committed to San Diego State….
Vaughn Sharp from Yorba Linda has committed to Cal State Northridge baseball….
Standout left-handed pitcher Roy Kim from Great Oak has transferred to Norco, the likely No. 1 baseball team in preseason rankings in 2027. Kim is committed to Stanford and gives Norco three top pitchers with the return of Jordan Ayala and Jacob Melendez.…
Defensive back Jacob Whitehead from Crean Lutheran has committed to Arizona. He’s the fifth Crean Lutheran player to commit to Arizona, joining Braylen Ross, Caden Jones, Evan Mack and Ty Johnson.…
Noelle Quinn is returning to UCLA women’s basketball to be an assistant coach. She was a standout guard for the Bruins, played 12 years in the WNBA, became head coach at Bishop Montgomery, then left to be head coach of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm….
Eva Madarang is the new girls soccer coach at Agoura….
The 13U PONY baseball team from Placentia won the World Series championship, the fourth time in five years that the group of players have won a title. The MVP was eighth-grader Finn Knapp, who had 71 stolen bases on the season and had three triples and three doubles in the tournament. He has a brother who plays for El Dorado High….
Justin Siegel has resigned as softball coach at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame to become an assistant coach at Loyola Marymount. Assistant Brian Luderer is the leading candidate to take over. Luderer has two daughters in the program….
The girls volleyball season picks up steam this week with a number of local teams traveling to Hawaii for the Ann Kang tournament, including Division 1 powers Sierra Canyon and Mira Costa.
Jordin Canada in 2022.
(Kamil Krzaczynski / Associated Press)
Back during her days playing basketball for Windward, Jordin Canada said one goal was to become a nurse. But she became so good at basketball, from UCLA to the WNBA, the nursing days were put on hold.
Playing for Atlanta this season, she’s averaging 11.3 points and 7.7 assists. She graduated from UCLA in 2018 after a standout career at Windward, where she was a two-time player of the year by The Times in 2013 and 2014.
Here’s a story from 2013 about her magic on the court.
From The562.org, a look at Moore League football.
From the Star-Telegram, a story on a Texas high school football coach being suspended for the season for conducting illegal practices in May.
From the Los Angeles Times, a story on former Gardena Serra defensive back Rodrick Pleasant.
They’ve got some pretty good youth baseball players in Placentia. They won the PONY 13U World Series. The same group of boys have won four World Series titles in five years. This year, the MVP was Finn Knapp. 71 stolen bases on year. Had three triples, three doubles in…
— eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) August 6, 2026
Harvard-Westlake is playing its first flag football season and has been able to recruit girls soccer star Amada Rodriguez to play. She was on a Mexican national soccer team. Maybe she can whisper into the ear of freshman soccer player Zoe Thompson to try flag football. She’s a…
— eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) August 9, 2026
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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UCLA players are working to live up to the immense hype building around new head coach Bob Chesney.
From the Curt Cignetti similarities, to the competition-centric practice plans to the family-oriented coaching staff, all signs point to a bounce-back year for UCLA after going 3-9 last season.
But how much better will the Bruins be?
Let’s take a closer look at the changes Chesney and has staff have made to UCLA’s offensive personnel.
For the second straight year, UCLA’s attack will run through senior quarterback Nico Iamaleava. The former five-star prospect experienced a tumultuous exit from Tennessee in the spring of 2025 and the challenges followed him to Westwood, where Iamaleava ranked outside the top 10 in the Big Ten in passing yards and passing touchdowns en route to the program‘s worst record since 2018.
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But with a full year at UCLA under his belt, and a full offseason working with Chesney and offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy, Iamaleava should be poised for his best year yet — particularly with the weapons Chesney added.
The running backs are the strongest offensive group, with the Bruins boasting three potential starters in senior Jaivian Thomas and fifth-year pair Anthony Woods and Wayne Knight. While Knight was injured for the majority of the spring, Chesney said he is now healthy.
UCLA — which is historically known for its premier tailbacks such as Jackie Robinson, DeShaun Foster, Maurice Jones-Drew and Zach Charbonnet — finished third worst in the nation in rushing yards in 2024 and No. 13 in the Big Ten in 2025.
And while Iamaleava finished as the team’s leading rusher last season, that will not be the case with the three-headed attack the Bruins boast this season. The trio have all cycled through the first team throughout preseason camp, and given Chesney’s emphasis at depth and the likelihood of injury at that position, it looks as though all three will be dividing top running back duties in 2026 — at least to start.
“That room, I’m really looking forward to just seeing how they continue to jell together and grow, and see who starts to emerge a little more,” Chesney said of the running backs. “But at that position, it’s very rare to make it through a whole season as a running back, so we’re going to need them all.”
On the boundaries, Chesney also brought in reinforcements to fortify a wideout room that finished 2025 ranked No. 16 and No. 14 in the conference in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns, respectively.
James Madison transfer Landon Ellis and South Carolina transfer Brian Rowe Jr. have consistently lined up with the Bruins’ starting outside receivers, with the latter praised by Chesney and teammates at Big Ten media days as a player who has “popped off the screen.”
Florida transfer Aidan Mizell also took reps with the starters in the first three days of camp, and could give the Bruins a speedy, downfield, deep-shot receiver who could unlock Iamaleava’s big arm that was largely invisible in 2025.
San José State transfer Leland Smith gives Iamaleava a big-bodied receiver that can make contested catches on the boundaries or hang on to balls over the middle of the field.
Senior wideout Mikey Matthews emerged as the starting slot option over Michigan transfer Semaj Morgan during the first three days of camp, but expect the battle for this spot to continue. Matthews and Morgan are proven contributors from the inside while also offering services in the return game as well.
Just two tight ends — Molokai Matavao and Greg Dulcic — have had more than 300 receiving yards since 2020. And that trend could continue into 2026. The Bruins’ projected starter, JMU transfer Josh Phifer, is more of a blocking body than a receiving threat, and when they went to 12 personnel at preseason camp, Kennedy turned to Kansas State transfer Brayden Loftin and sophomore Noah Fox-Flores — both of whom lack production in the passing game.
UCLA coaches had to address a weak offensive line immediately after taking over the program. Iamaleava took 27 sacks last season, which ranked fourth in the Big Ten and No. 24 in the nation. With Iamaleava’s love of scrambling and reluctance to slide, a fortified front five is integral to offensive success.
After three days of camp, the center and tackles look to be solidified with 2025 second-team All-Sun Belt selection Riley Robell in the middle, South Alabama transfer Jordan Davis at left tackle and Boise State transfer at Hall Schmidt at right tackle.
The main offensive position battle, alongside slot receiver, are the two guard spots, with the Bruins’ lone returning starter from last year’s offensive line, junior Eugene Brooks, returner Julian Armella and 2025 third-team All-Sun Belt selection Carter Sweazie all competing for two spots. All three cycled through with the other starters during the first three days of camp.
While it seems like the majority of the starting offense is settled, question marks surround a team that features such little continuity and so many new faces.
But on paper, the Bruins’ offense seems poised for a breakout year.
If the offensive line holds up, at least better than the year before, then the ground game should be able to win the time-of-possession battle, wear down opponents and open up the passing game.
Preseason MVP pick (non-QB): Wayne Knight. He’s healthy, returning from an Associated Press second-team All-American season, and has three capable runners in Thomas, Woods and Iamaleava to balance the attack.
Breakout pick (non-Brian Rowe): Everybody is picking Brian Rowe Jr. to be the Bruins’ biggest breakout on either side of the ball. But Jaivian Thomas is another tailback to watch. The California transfer ran for 626 yards and seven touchdowns in just 100 touches at California in 2024, but ran for only 294 in 81 carries last season. He looks better than ever during preseason camp and should flourish with a revamped offensive line and additional capable runners in the room.
Biggest question mark: Tight end/offensive line. For the former, the group features a hodgepodge of transfers and returners, all of them with little proven production. For the latter, there’s a lot of talent and depth, but little continuity. Can the transfers make the jump to the Big Ten and what does the chemistry look like for a line where a maximum of two have lined up together before?
Bold prediction: UCLA finishes the season ranking top three in rushing yards and scores in the Big Ten.
UCLA senior Rodrick Pleasant is driven to lead, pay forward help others gave him
UCLA coach Bob Chesney works to make Bruins uncomfortable as preseason camp kicks off
UCLA Unlocked: Maurice Jones-Drew hopes his son helps put Bruins on top
Bob Chesney, UCLA top players share their belief Bruins will win at Big Ten media days
Plaschke: Bob Chesney is going to do the impossible at UCLA — win
Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email newsletters editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Walter Russell Mead is the author of “Mortal Splendor: The American Empire in Transition” (Houghton Mifflin). He interviewed Gingrich in the congressman’s Capitol Hill office
WASHINGTON — After a generation of comfortable Democratic majorities in the House, Republican congressmen seemed resigned to life in the minority–until Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and the Congressional Opportunity Society began using House rules to wage guerrilla war against the entrenched leadership.
Dismissed at first as gadflies and ideologues, the young Republicans gradually developed political muscles. Two landmark events marked their coming of age: the resignation of Speaker Jim Wright following Gingrich-backed charges of ethics violations, and the election of Gingrich as whip, the second-ranking post in the House minority leadership.
Gingrich’s rise to prominence coincided with a major change in Washington’s political climate. In the 1980s, Washington was a town with clearly marked ideological divides. Issues such as Nicaragua and abortion dominated the agenda; battle lines were clear. The 1990s look quite different. With communism in retreat, the old foreign-policy battles no longer seem so important. After 10 years of a GOP White House, conservatives seem less opposed to strong government, and liberals less committed to it.
In retrospect, Gingrich’s call for sanctions against South Africa’s minority-white government seems a turning point in the emergence of the still unsettled Washington picture. Here was a leading conservative taking a position closer to that of Jesse Jackson than Margaret Thatcher.
If Washington has changed as the result of Gingrich’s challenges, Gingrich is changing as he becomes part of the Washington Establishment he once scorned. Like many political challengers before him, Gingrich seems to be finding that Establishments aren’t so bad–once the club lets you in.
This shift may cause him trouble down the road–Hell hath no fury like a right-wing scorned–but for now Gingrich has the best of both worlds: the support of conservatives and, increasingly, the respect and even friendship of moderates and some liberals.
During a relaxed and casual meeting, Gingrich seemed eager to talk about history and ideas. At times he seemed more like a popular college history teacher–a job he once held–than a powerful member of the congressional leadership. He seems comfortable with himself and his ambitions; confident of making his mark and willing to run risks.
He also has a quality that is rarer in Washington than it should be. For all the huge egos in Washington, there are relatively few people who see themselves against the backdrop of history. Gingrich is one. Men like Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill are often in his speech–perhaps this says something about the scale of his ambition. That both these men were mavericks who changed parties and allies during their careers says something else about Gingrich. He will be hard to pin down in the political battles of the future–his loyalty seems given more to a vision than to people or parties.
Question: What is your foreign-policy vision for the United States?
Answer: Well, I think first of all you have to start with the presumption that there are three huge changes under way. There’s the rise of the true world market, where competitiveness and the speed of information flow and ease of transportation means that you are beginning to be connected internationally in the sense that in the 19th Century you had a national economy.
Second, there is the spread of the technology of destruction in such ways that you’re going to have, by the end of the century, places like Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria that are capable, at a minimum, of threatening European cities with ballistic missiles and chemical and nuclear warheads. By the year 2000 to 2010, they may be able to attack the United States directly. That is a whole level of combat and conflict that we are not used to.
Third, you are living through a fundamental change in the Soviet empire. This clearly destabilizes the whole planet in the sense that for 45 years we had a bipolar world, with a Western coalition containing the Soviets . . . .
You have to start with a fundamental reassessment of America’s role, as decisive in some ways as the late ‘30s decision to commit us to stopping Japan and Germany or as decisive as the late ‘40s decision to contain the Soviet empire.
But we’ve got to reformulate a new image of where the planet is going. What does America want in the world–and then what is America’s role in trying to get it?
Q: It’s interesting that you mentioned those two periods, the ‘30s and the ‘40s, as times of great change because in both those times the conservative movement tended to take a more isolationist stance.
A: If you go back before 1937 and 1938, conservatism, from say 1860 to 1928, was the internationalist movement. And it was the Democrats, the (William Jennings) Bryan wing of the Democratic Party that was isolationist . . . .
Then, beginning in the ‘20s, you had a role reversal. And as the conservatives became less the government and more oppositional, they also became less internationalist and more isolationist. What you had, beginning with Eisenhower, and Nixon in all fairness–Nixon was one of the people who voted for the Marshall Plan–you had the emergence of first, an internationalist anti-communist Republicanism and then under Reagan and Bush that has broadened . . . .
I think that today there is much more isolationism in the Democratic Party than in the Republican Party . . . (where) there’s much more internationalism and much more of a commitment to the world market . . . .
Q: How would you define the differences between your view and that of the Democratic Party?
A: Well, there’s a difference about the question of safety, a difference about the question of international competition and a difference about the speed of transition–if I can break them down like that.
First of all, safety. The liberal Democrats basically are myopically focused on Central Europe and on Gorbachev, and their basic theme is, since Gorbachev seems to be succeeding and Soviet power seems to receding from East Germany, the world is safer. Therefore, we can demilitarize.
I would argue that we’re caught in the tragic irony that the curve, if you will, of threat from Iraq, Iran and Syria is rising at a rate about as fast as–or faster than–the curve of Soviet threat is declining . . . .
Now the question I would pose is: Is the world still going to be dangerous–even if Gorbachev succeeds? My answer would be yes. In fact, the world’s going to be more dangerous than people think. Dictators are going to have higher-power weapons that are more sophisticated than people think. And some of these dictatorships are very big. The Syrian Army has more artillery than the American Army. So when you say, “Gee, we can shrink dramatically,” my answer is fine–if you’re willing to allow the Iraqis to threaten American cities without SDI. If you’re willing to allow the Iraqis and the Iranians to seize the oil fields, and if you’re willing to give up Israel . . . . And I think most of my Democratic friends on that are just sophomoric. I don’t think they’d even look at the data base, because it conflicts with their ideology.
And the second big question is the world market . . . . The bureaucratic welfare state and permissive attitudes are incapable of competing in the world market. The correct answer is to reform and revitalize America, not to retreat . . . .
And I think a lot of my Democratic friends, because they have to bear the burden of the public-school bureaucracy in the inner city, and they have to bear the burden of the big-city machines, and they have to bear the burden of union work rules–their reaction is to say, “Gee, we have to find ways to withdraw from the world market, and to somehow build a self-sustaining America.” I think that’s crazy and I think in the long run it means a lower standard of living and fewer jobs for Americans.
Lastly, there is the question of speed. I thought it was almost funny that George Mitchell and Dick Gephardt decided that George Bush wasn’t moving fast enough. If you look historically over the Bush Presidency and you look at the change in Panama, Nicaragua, East Germany, Hungary, Poland . . . this has been unbelievable . . . .
I say this: I’m a conservative and I’m willing to criticize George Bush, and I voted to override on the Chinese student veto, but I have to say overall that they get A-plus marks on managing a transition of unbelievable complexity. And getting freedom further in 18 months than anyone would have thought possible.
Q: Among the Soviet Republics, Lithuania is an easy call in that we never recognized the annexation, but then you start looking at other separatist movements–including Russia. Isn’t there a fear of a nuclear Lebanon in the Soviet Union?
A: You have a fear of the unknown there. You’ve also got to recognize objective realities. There’s an Indian reservation in northern Vermont that claims it’s not in the United States. Now what if Gorbachev decided next Thursday to recognize it? I mean, you’ve got to decide, all right, what are the ground rules here. The Soviet Union does exist . . . . I think it’s now an empire in transition, but it exists. And it is going to have to decide inside itself how it allows itself to dismember. If they adopt a rule that says if the Georgians vote 70% to secede, that is frankly a more open rule for withdrawal than we have in the United States . . . .
Of course, if Russia does declare itself independent or sovereign it will be the first time that the mother country declared herself free from the empire. So it would be a dramatic change. And I think our position is that all of these republics have the right of self-determination and we would certainly encourage the Soviet government to tolerate and negotiate with all of these republics.
Q: As an American Georgian, you would know that.
A: Yeah, that’s right. I mean, we Georgians, we’ve already had this argument. Now, you can make the argument in their case that it wasn’t a voluntary collection (of republics); it’s the late 19th Century empire. That’s a good argument. But you are seeing Gorbachev take what is, after all, a pretty radical position and saying, look, we’re going to figure out a legal formula for you to get out of here. Well, that’s pretty amazing . . . .
And I think it’s a little unfair to say yeah, he did all that, but boy now I have this new excuse to get mad at him. And as long as he doesn’t use military force, it seems to me that we owe him the opportunity to try to lead his own country to sort itself out . . . .
Q: How is the Administration responding?
A: Well I think that the decision by the Soviet government to open up some economic activity in Lithuania is a victory for Bush. And I think if he can continue to encourage and nudge Gorbachev in the direction of re-establishing economic patterns with Lithuania, I think it will be a very big plus for him.
Q: Earlier you remarked that, in talking to the President about Lithuania, you said we need Winston Churchill, not Stanley Baldwin. Does that still apply?
A: Well, I think the President convinced me that it wasn’t the same kind of situation; that who we may need is George Bush, and that, in fact, he is negotiating and maneuvering his way through a very complicated situation with considerable skill.
Q: OK, let’s talk now about some of the global economic issues, because I think it’s clear to all of us that they are going to be dominant. Some people think that the economic competition among the former Western allies may become very, very fierce. Do you?
A: Not necessarily fierce, but it will become intense. But . . . it’s not that we’re competing for the same pie. We’re competing to build bigger bakeries . . . . The world market is extraordinarily underdeveloped and there is an enormous amount of money to be made over the next century helping the entire planet achieve a high standard of living. So there ought to be intense competition for how we build the bigger bakery. But we don’t have to have any kind of competition over who gets bread, because everybody ought to be getting bread . . . .
Q: Do you think that the world economy is breaking up into blocs or that there is a danger of this?
A: There’s a permanent danger of breaking up into blocs, but I wouldn’t exaggerate that. I think there is much, much more to be gained in the long run by actively building global countries and global companies. We are much better off to have more IBMs and more General Motors and Fords and AT&Ts; that are able to be everywhere. And we’re much better off to have thousands of new, small businesses that compete everywhere a jet airplane goes, and anywhere a fax machine can receive their latest advertisement. And I think we want to encourage this, more than anybody else, because we are perfectly suited for the world economy.
Q: More than any other country?
A: More than any other country. I mean geographically, we can reach both Europe and Asia simultaneously and Latin America. And in terms of our own cultural background. We are the only universal country of the planet, the only country that has people from everywhere. And therefore, we ought to be the advocates of the widest global market.
Q: Does that suggest the possibility that other countries may not be as enthusiastic for this as we are–for example, Europe?
A: They may not be. I mean, the Europeans don’t even have a real concern about that. On the other hand, the Europeans need us to balance off the Germans . . . . The price of having a market of nations that really do compete with each other, is that you have got to be able to sit down for long negotiations, and you just have to go in and tough it out.
Q. This sounds a lot like what used to be called liberal internationalism in the 1940s. So is it true that the liberalism of today is the conservatism of tomorrow?
A. Could be. I think that it’s that and an ongoing sense of thesis, antithesis, synthesis to some of that . . . . But if you would have interviewed a Democrat back in 1948, he would have said, “Gee, this sounds like Theodore Roosevelt.” Theodore Roosevelt’s wing of the Republican Party has consistently been the dominant dynamic in American life for most of the last century.
Q: So would you say Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Newt Gingrich is the line of succession?
A: No . . . . To be honest, I’d say Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Reagan. It’s important to remember that Reagan was an FDR Democrat, and that when the Democratic Party moved to the left, Reagan left.
From Ryan Kartje: The initial concept for USC’s Bloom Football Performance Center was first born on the back of a napkin. It was late November 2021, and Lincoln Riley was on a plane to Los Angeles, where he was slated to be introduced as USC’s coach.
The then-hypothetical facility had been a critical contingency for Riley, who never toured USC’s facilities, but knew — like most people around college football — that the Trojans were seriously lacking in that department. For years, USC officials had resisted doing anything about it. The John McKay Center hadn’t even been around a decade, they’d inevitably say. Plus, there was the not-so-insignificant problem of where to build a new facility on campus.
Riley knew that. And he asked anyway.
“That was a little bit, in that moment, my way to test how committed SC was,” Riley said Thursday. “This honestly was probably the biggest test of commitment for, ‘How invested are we to get this program back?’ When that was met with no hesitations, that was a pivotal part of me taking this job. I think it’s fair to say, if that commitment hadn’t been made, I probably wouldn’t be here.”
Almost five years later, the plans Riley sketched out that morning have been brought to life in one of college football’s finest facilities, the towering jewel of a $225-million capital project at USC that also includes a new baseball stadium (Dedeaux Field) and a women’s soccer and lacrosse field (Rawlinson Stadium).
Bronze plaques of previous USC players adorn the wall of the Mark and Mary Stevens Trojan Legacy Wall at the USC Bloom Football Performance Center.
(Allen Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The three-story, 163,000-square-foot football-only facility opened Wednesday night, with Riley reflecting back on that napkin and marveling at how far the program had come since. But this gleaming building and its array of amenities had far exceeded his initial expectations, he said.
He called it “magical.”
“You can say or promise that you’re gonna build a facility, and then you can halfway do it or you can do it right and just go over the top and just really not hold back in any way, and that’s what our university has done,” Riley said. “I’m proud and thankful for the university for making this happen.”
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From Connor Dullinger: You compete. Or you complain.
UCLA head coach Bob Chesney coined it at the beginning of preseason camp last year in Harrisonburg, Va., before leading James Madison to a 12-2 record, a Sun Belt championship and its first College Football Playoff appearance.
“You either compete or complain, you can’t do both,” Chesney said on Aug. 5, 2025. “You are either full of pride and won’t allow yourself to have mental, physical and emotional lack of discipline and toughness, or you fill yourselves with pity and you have a lack of all three of those things.”
Chesney carried that same tune on his first day of fall camp in Westwood, leading his new team.
The Bruin faithful got its first taste of their newly minted head honcho at his introductory news conference on Dec. 9, where he made promises of turning around the football program, elevating it to its height of the past, and reengaging the Bruin community.
And Chesney has not wavered since.
And that consistency includes the way he is training his players leading up to UCLA’s opener against California, where the former Pac-12 rivals will meet for a night game between two first-year head coaches.
From Gary Klein: Rams coach Sean McVay said Thursday that he and Aaron Donald “probably talk every day.”
But it’s apparently still wait and see as to whether the star defensive lineman will return from a two-year retirement and rejoin a Rams team that is favored to win the Super Bowl.
McVay said Donald, a three-time NFL defensive player of the year, “looked great” during a workout on Tuesday at Loyola Marymount with defensive line coach Giff Smith and team trainers, and that Donald was continuing to go through his decision-making process.
“Things are going in the right direction,” McVay said. “He’s feeling good but we’re not to where we’re able to say whether or not he is or isn’t ready to do it.”
Zach Neto hit a three-run home run to lift the Angels over the Baltimore Orioles 4-1 in the final game of the series on Thursday afternoon.
Wade Meckler singled on a ground ball in the third inning that was overthrown by Orioles starting pitcher Brandon Young at first, advancing him to second. Nolan Schanuel was then walked to set up Neto’s 411-foot homer that went over the center-field wall.
Schanuel hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh for Meckler to score the fourth run of the game.
Rae Burrell scored 17 points, and Erica Wheeler had four in a game-ending 8-0 run and the Sparks ended Minnesota’s 10-game winning streak, beating the WNBA-leading Lynx 89-82 on Thursday night.
Kayla McBride hit a three-pointer to give Minnesota (25-7) an 82-81 lead, but the Lynx missed their final seven shots and went scoreless over the final 4:53.
Nneka Ogwumike had a go-ahead layup, Wheeler hit a pull-up 10-footer, and Monique Akoa Makani and Wheeler had the final two baskets in the late run for the Sparks (12-18). The Sparks beat the Lynx for the first time in three tries this season.
Nneka Ogwumike says she isn’t giving up on Sparks’ season despite adversity
1952 — Bion Shively, 74, drives Sharp Note to victory in the third heat of the Hambletonian Stakes.
1982 — Speed Bowl wins the Hambletonian Stakes in straight heats with 25-year-old Tom Haughton in the sulky, the youngest to win the Hambletonian.
1992 — Sergei Bubka, the world record-holder and defending Olympic champion, fails to clear a height in the pole vault.
2005 — Justin Gatlin dominates the 100 meters at the track and field championships in Helsinki. The Olympic champion wins in 9.88 seconds, finishing 0.17 seconds ahead of Michael Frater of Jamaica. The margin of victory is the largest in the 10 world championships held since the meet’s inception in 1983.
2012 — Aly Raisman becomes the first U.S. woman to win Olympic gold on floor. She picks up a bronze on balance beam on the final day of gymnastics at the London Olympics and just misses a medal in the all-around.
2016 — Jim Furyk becomes the first golfer to shoot a 58 in PGA Tour history. Three years after Furyk became the sixth player on tour with a 59, he takes it even lower in the Travelers Championship with a 12-under 58 in the final round.
2016 — American swimmer Katie Ledecky sets a new world record with a time of 3:56.46 to win the gold medal in the women’s 400m freestyle at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
2021 — Kevin Durant with 29 points leads USA to his third and the team’s fourth consecutive Olympic men’s basketball gold medal with an 87-82 win over France in Tokyo.
2021 — Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra wins his country’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.
Compiled by the Associated Press
1907 — Walter Johnson won the first of his 417 victories, leading the Washington Senators past the Cleveland Indians 7-2.
1922 — Ken Williams of the St. Louis Browns hit two home runs in the sixth inning of rout over the Washington Senators.
1923 — Cleveland’s Frank Bower went 6-for-6 with a double and five singles as the Indians routed the Washington Senators 22-2.
1956 — The largest crowd in minor league history, 57,000, saw 50-year-old Satchel Paige of Miami beat Columbus in an International League game at the Orange Bowl.
1963 — Jim Hickman of the New York Mets hit for the cycle in a 7-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at the Polo Grounds. Hickman’s cycle came in single-double-triple-homer order.
1985 — The strike by the Major League Baseball Players Assn. ended with the announcement of a tentative agreement. The season resumed Aug. 8.
1999 — Wade Boggs became the first player to homer for his 3,000th hit, with a two-run shot in Tampa Bay’s 15-10 loss to Cleveland. Boggs already had a pair of RBI singles when he homered off Chris Haney in the sixth inning.
2004 — Greg Maddux became the 22nd pitcher in major league history to reach 300 victories, leading the Chicago Cubs to an 8-4 victory over San Francisco.
2007 — San Francisco’s Barry Bonds hit home run No. 756 to break Hank Aaron’s storied record with one out in the fifth inning, hitting a full-count, 84-mph fastball from Washington’s Mike Bacsik. Noticeably absent were Commissioner Bud Selig and Aaron. The Nationals won 8-6.
2016 — Ichiro Suzuki tripled off the wall for his 3,000th hit in the major leagues, becoming the 30th player to reach the milestone as the Miami Marlins beat the Colorado Rockies 10-7.
2016 — Baltimore’s Manny Machado became the second player in major league history to homer in the first, second and third innings, driving in a career-high seven runs in a 10-2 victory over Chicago.
2018 — Bartolo Colon of Texas became the winningest pitcher from Latin America in the Rangers’ 11-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners. After six tries, the 45-year-old right-hander got his 246th victory and finally broke the tie with Nicaragua’s Dennis Martinez. Colon gave up four runs and eight hits in seven innings and improved his record to 6-10.
2021 — Host nation Japan wins its first ever gold medal in Olympic baseball by defeating the United States 2-0.
Compiled by the Associated Press
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Tobias Farris could hardly believe his eyes.
As Farris and others trying out for the Los Angeles High football team huffed and puffed through conditioning drills in preparation for the 1996 season, Coach John Watson barked encouragement while matching his players push-up for push-up, sit-up for sit-up and sprint for sprint.
“I was shocked,” said Farris, now a senior defensive end. “I was like, ‘How old is this guy?’ ”
Watson, the dean of Los Angeles City Section football coaches, will be 57 in December. But the only hint of age is some slight graying at the temples.
In his 25th season at L.A. High, the district’s oldest high school, Watson is a fitness fanatic. He is also a dinosaur of sorts: a City Section coach who has spent his entire career at one inner-city school.
“It’s almost unbelievable,” said Peter Duffy, in his second season as coach at Fremont. “To coach in the inner-city, at one school, for that long, takes a special person.”
By all accounts, Watson is one.
Never mind that his teams have not won a City championship and have played in only one final.
Watson, L.A. High’s dean of students, has endured through five school administrations and the changing demographics of the Pico-Union area that make fielding a team a yearly challenge. While many of his colleagues are designing complicated offensive and defensive schemes, much of Watson’s time is spent teaching the most elementary principles of the game.
“I still really love to work with the kids and I’m as enthusiastic as I was 20 years ago,” said Watson, who has coached the Romans to five league titles since succeeding Ollie Matson in 1973. “I’ve been offered opportunities at other schools, but why would I want to go anywhere else? I get to know the players here and really like them. It’s more than just coaching some guys. Our teams are close.”
They also are small in numbers.
This year’s squad has only 26 players. The Romans are 5-4 overall and 4-2 in the Coastal Conference going into Friday’s regular-season finale against unbeaten Westchester, The Times top-ranked team in the section.
“John has the right temperament because L.A. High is certainly not the Nebraska of high school football,” said Palisades Coach Ron Price, who has coached at various schools in the district for 30 years. “It’s hard to put kids on the field sometimes, but L.A. is always competitive. He has some good athletes and he gets the most out of them.”
Larry Brown, the 1996 Super Bowl most valuable player for the Dallas Cowboys, played for Watson. So did several other talented skill-position players who have gone on to four-year colleges.
But Watson’s trademark is taking inexperienced players and turning them into one of the most competitive–and fittest–teams in the City.
“With small numbers, you have to play a lot of kids both ways, and John makes sure those kids can do it physically for four quarters,” Manual Arts Coach Glenn Bell said. “The thing is, he’s probably in better shape than any of his players.”
Watson’s personal training regimen began as a reaction to his own first experience as a high school football player in Arkansas.
“When I was in 10th grade, my coach made us put on full gear and run 20 laps around the track–and it must have 90 degrees in that humidity,” said Watson, who played at Texas College and later in the Continental Football League. “I said to myself, ‘I will never let a coach get me in shape again.’ I’ve been working out on my own every day since.”
Watson does 700 to 1,000 push-ups and sit-ups daily and has run the stadium steps on campus almost every school day since he was hired as a teacher at L.A. High 28 years ago. He plays full-court, three-on-three basketball with students and regularly challenges his football players and assistants to passing contests.
Until this year, Watson was out the door of his Carson home every morning at 4 for a six-mile run.
“I did that for 20 years, but my wife finally stopped me,” Watson said. “I guess she’s right. A man almost 60 years old doesn’t have to run in the morning and afternoon.”
Watson’s example inspires his players.
“If he can do the push-ups and all the work, then we should be able to do it too,” Farris said. “We have a lot of rag-tag guys, but he puts them out there and we win. He’s got to be a good coach to do that.”
The Romans have been led this season by quarterback-defensive back Terrence Brown, the son of Tony Brown, a lineman for Watson’s league championship teams in 1974 and ’75. Farris, fullback-linebacker Chris Rogers and wide receiver-cornerback Chris Elize also have performed well for the Romans.
But Watson has no illusions about Friday’s game against Westchester.
“I’m realistic,” Watson said. “I tell them they’re a better team than we are. But we’re going to play as hard as we can. If we do that we’re going to be better ballplayers when the game is over. We might not beat Westchester, but the experience is going to improve us for when we play someone else in the playoffs.”
After 25 seasons, he has no plans to stop coaching any time soon. As long as there are kids who want to play football, Watson will be there to teach them.
“I’ve lasted this long because I’ve been able to make adjustments to whatever I have to work with,” he said. “You have to be flexible enough to change with the times or you should get out. It’s that simple.”
Ryanair has strict rules when it comes to their luggage allowance (stock image)(Image: Placebo365 via Getty Images)
A Ryanair passenger claims she was forced to pay a £75 fee at the airport terminal for a bag she has travelled fine with ‘more than 30 times’. The flyer, named Laura, shared her frustration on X after the unexpected luggage charge.
Laura, who had been flying through Manchester Airport, posted: “Hey @Ryanair I want a refund for the £75 that the absolute jobsworth at Manchester Airport this afternoon took from me for an ‘oversized’ bag i’ve used and never had an issue with on this exact journey maybe 30+ times over the last seven years.” She included a photograph showing the bag apparently fitting into the 40 x 30 x 20 cm slot which is permitted.
In a follow-up to her initial post, she explained: “I asked a staff member, ‘have the measurements changed recently?’ and they said no, but that the enforcement was more stringent.”
One person responded: “This happened to me last year! Baring in mind I’ve just come back from a holiday 2 weeks before and had no problems.
“Their argument was that it was sticking out (being too wide). It wasn’t at all and is the same as yours is in the picture. Poor behaviour.”
Another user chimed in: “You’re so right, they’re trying to get money as much as they can, I had to buy a new bag as the one I’ve been using for the last 14 years is ‘too big’ and they also made me pay. They want to take money as much as possible.”
A third also added: “I hate that but there is no winning. The only way I found is to ask for the measure and have them measure it, if it checks out then it’s fine if not, then it’s on you.”
Not everyone was sympathetic, however, with some siding with Ryanair over the bag’s size. One user wrote: “The depth of your suitcase goes over the line that clearly says too big. What makes you think you are entitled to this over the other millions of passengers who don’t do this?”.
Another commented: “Looks like you owe Ryanair £2,250 for those 30 flights. Double it if they were returns.”
While one user simply stated: “It’s oversized.”
Several others urged Laura to switch airlines if she was unhappy with Ryanair’s policies.
She responded, however: “Unfortunately they’re the only airline operating on that route.”
A representative for Ryanair said: “This passenger booked a Regular Fare for this flight from Manchester to Göteborg Landvetter (Aug 4), which allowed them to carry a small personal bag and 10kg cabin bag measuring up to 55 x 40 x 20 cm onboard.
“As this passenger’s cabin bag exceeded the permitted size, she was correctly required to pay a standard gate baggage fee by the gate agent at Manchester Airport.”
Ryanair’s baggage fees vary dynamically depending on the route, date of travel, and when you purchase the allowance. Buying baggage online during your initial flight booking is always the cheapest option.
Cabin and hand luggage fees
Every passenger is allowed one small personal item for free (e.g., laptop bag, small backpack) that must fit under the seat in front of you (max 40 x 20 x 25 cm).
Priority and 2 cabin bags: Allows you to bring the free small bag plus a 10kg overhead cabin bag (max 55 x 40 x 20 cm).
Gate baggage fee: If your non-priority cabin bag is oversized at the gate, it will be placed in the hold for a fee of €/£50 to €/£69.99.
Checked baggage fees
From Maddie Lee: Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel went directly to Shohei Ohtani’s competition for NL MVP with his gripe.
Ebel, who coached Cubs star center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong with Team USA in the World Baseball Classic this year, gave him grief for serving as the designated hitter on Wednesday. He couldn’t play center field every day?
Ohtani and Crow-Armstrong had just traded leadoff home runs, so Crow-Armstrong told reporters that he shot back with: “Well, it took your guy 10 pitches, it only took me one.”
He was exaggerating slightly. Ohtani’s leadoff homer came on the seventh pitch of the at-bat against Cubs left-hander Shota Imanaga. And that, of course, wasn’t really how Crow-Armstrong felt.
“A [seven]-pitch at-bat to start the game and finish it off with a 110 [mph] ball at 20 degrees is pretty ridiculous,” Crow-Armstrong said.
The National League MVP race transformed into a head-to-head showdown between the frontrunners at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, as the Dodgers fell to the Cubs 7-6, which extended their season-high losing streak to six games.
From Maddie Lee: The Dodgers ended up with an acute need at the trade deadline after all.
Catcher Dalton Rushing’s elbow injury was diagnosed as a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament, as manager Dave Roberts first told AM 570’s David Vassegh.
“It’s a bummer because he has made a lot of strides,” Roberts said “Even just this right here, you’re talking about over 125 plate appearances that you’re missing out on, and also opportunities to catch major league innings. So I feel for Dalton.”
He’ll be shut down from throwing for four to six weeks, Roberts said. But the plan is for him to resume hitting before then. Asked if Rushing could catch again this season, Roberts said he believed there was a “very small” chance.
“I hope I’m wrong,” Roberts said. “He’s a tough kid, and so for him to go through this speaks a lot. So I think that would be great if he can. Certainly a possibility with the time, but we’re certainly trying to keep the bat alive, for sure.”
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Tyler O’Neill and Coby Mayo hit successive homers in the fourth inning, Trevor Rogers took a two-hitter into the seventh and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Angels 5-2 Wednesday night.
Despite unloading several key players before Monday’s trade deadline, the Orioles remain in the thick of the AL wild-card race after winning the first two games of this series against the last-place Angels.
Baltimore (56-58) will seek to complete a three-game sweep on Thursday. With a victory, the Orioles will move within a game of .500 for the first time since April 30.
Jose Siri homered for the Angels, who have lost 10 of 12.
From Marisa Ingemi: The Sparks couldn’t build off of Sunday’s win Wednesday and dropped to seven games under .500 with a 95-88 loss in Chicago. It aligned with the story of the 2026 Sparks, where being fully competitive has been just out of reach except for a few flashes.
A decent middle of the game was overwhelmed by a bad opening and closing. Chicago scored 33 points in the first quarter and 34 in the fourth to keep the Sparks from fully closing in. Dearica Hamby led the Sparks with 22 points and 13 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season.
The Sparks (11-18) fell into a 15-point hole in the first after Chicago rattled off five three-pointers. The Sky (12-19) led 48-38 at the half.
From Sam Farmer: This is where it all started for Jim Harbaugh, this idyllic hilltop University of San Diego campus with its sweeping views of the city and ocean, Spanish Renaissance architecture and courtyards lined with palm trees.
Harbaugh had been an assistant coach elsewhere, learning the ropes as an offensive consultant at Western Kentucky and quarterbacks coach for the Oakland Raiders, but this was his first chance to be a head coach. It launched a second career for the longtime NFL quarterback, taking him to Stanford, the San Francisco 49ers — where his team fell just short of a Lombardi Trophy — to a national championship at Michigan, and now to the Chargers, with whom he’s beginning his third season.
The Chargers have moved training camp to USD for Tuesday and Wednesday this week, reuniting Harbaugh with a place legendary Raiders owner Al Davis advised him not to come.
“Awww, Jimmy, Jimmy, I thought you wanted to be a pro coach,” Davis, voice dripping with disappointment, told him in 2004 when he learned Harbaugh was leaving his Raiders gig.
“But Mr. Davis, you coached college football,” Harbaugh countered.
“Yeah,” Davis said, “but that was at USC, not U-S-D.”
Chargers assistant coach Max McCaffrey is making a name for himself
From Gary Klein: NFL training camps are two weeks of hot practices.
Two weeks of dorm life and meetings. Separation from family.
For the Rams, under coach Sean McVay, it’s also apparently something else.
“How he runs it,” safety Kam Curl said, “it’s love.”
Love?
Let’s be clear: Training camps no longer are the two-a-day-workout, full-contact slogs of decades past.
From Ryan Kartje: During his eight seasons as a head college football coach, Lincoln Riley often faced a frustrating conundrum when it came to playing freshmen: Were a handful of plays at the end of a blowout really worth burning a whole year of eligibility?
“I can remember at times going to a player in the game,” Riley said Tuesday. “‘We can probably play you like five to 10 plays at the end of the game. But if you do that, we can’t play you anymore, or we’re going to have to take your redshirt.’ We’re having to talk about that in-game. … You had to be ready to adjust on the fly.”
But after years of meticulously monitoring that playing time, those adjustments will no longer be necessary, after the NCAA adopted new eligibility rules in June. The new model gives athletes a blanket five years to compete, effectively eliminating the need for redshirts or special waivers. It also could alter how rosters are constructed.
1958 — Glen Davis of Columbus, Ohio, sets a world record in the 400 hurdles with a time of 49.2 in Budapest, Hungary.
1966 — Muhammad Ali knocks out Brian London in the third round to retain his world heavyweight title.
1972 — South African Gary Player wins his second PGA golf championship with a two-stroke victory over Jim Jamieson and Tommy Aaron.
1978 — John Mahaffey beats Tom Watson and Jerry Pate on the second playoff hole to win the PGA Championship.
1984 — American athlete Carl Lewis wins long jump (8.54m), his second of four gold medals at Los Angeles Olympics.
1991 — Debbie Doom of the U.S. pitches her second consecutive perfect game in women’s softball at the Pan American Games. Doom threw a perfect game at the Netherlands Antilles in the opener and matches that performance against Nicaragua, winning 8-0.
1992 — Carl Lewis leads a U.S. sweep in the long jump in the Olympics with a mark of 28 feet, 5 1-2 inches on his first attempt. Mike Powell takes the silver and Joe Greene the bronze. Kevin Young demolishes one of track’s oldest records with a time of 46.78 seconds in the 400 hurdles. Bruce Baumgartner becomes the first American wrestler to win medals in three straight Olympics, taking the gold in the 286-pound freestyle division.
1994 — Jeff Gordon wins the Brickyard 400, the first stock car race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
1995 — Canada’s Donovan Bailey wins the 100 meters at World Track and Field Championships in Goteborg, Sweden, marking the first time since 1976 an American fails to win a medal in the event at a major meet.
2001 — Two-time champion Marion Jones is disqualified and has her string of 42 consecutive 100m final victories snapped by Zhanna Pintusevich-Block of Ukraine at the World Athletics Championships in Edmonton, Canada.
2006 — Tiger Woods (30) becomes the youngest player with 50 PGA Tour wins with a three-stroke victory over Jim Furyk in the Buick Open.
2006 — Floyd Landis is fired by his team and the Tour de France no longer considers him its champion after his second doping sample tested positive for higher-than-allowable levels of testosterone.
2006 — Sherri Steinhauer wins the Women’s British Open for the third time, and the first since it became a major.
2008 — Sammy Villegas, a former University of Toledo basketball player, is charged with point shaving. Villegas is accused of shaving points during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons.
2008 — Kim Terrell-Kearney wins the first professional championship match featuring two Black bowlers, beating Trisha Reid 216-189 in the U.S. Bowling Congress’ U.S. Women’s Open. Terrell-Kearney collects her second U.S. Women’s Open title and third career major title.
2010 — Tyson Gay upsets the defending world and Olympic champion Usain Bolt in a race between the two fastest runners in history. Gay beats the Jamaican at the DN Galan meet in 9.84 seconds at the same stadium where Bolt last lost a race two years ago. Bolt finishes second in 9.97.
2015 — Ryan Lochte becomes the first man to win the 200-meter individual medley four consecutive times at the world swimming championships. Lochte comes home strong on the freestyle lap and touches first in 1:55.81 in Kazan, Russia.
2017 — I.K. Kim won the Women’s British Open, hanging on with a 1-under 71 for a two-shot victory over Jodi Ewart Shadoff and her first major championship.
Compiled by the Associated Press
1908 — John Lush threw a six-inning, rain-shortened no-hitter for the St. Louis Cardinals, who beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 2-0. It was Lush’s second no-hitter against the Dodgers.
1933 — Pinky Higgins of the Philadelphia Athletics hit for the cycle and drove in five runs in a 12-8 win over the Washington Senators.
1952 — Satchel Paige, 46, became the oldest pitcher in major league history to pitch a complete game or a shutout when he beat Virgil Trucks and the Detroit Tigers 1-0 in 12 innings.
1972 — Hank Aaron hit his 660th and 661st career home runs to break Babe Ruth’s record for most home runs with one club. The 661st came in the 10th inning to give the Atlanta Braves a 4-3 triumph over the Cincinnati Reds.
1981 — As a result of a seven-week strike, major league baseball players approved a split-season format. The New York Yankees, Oakland A’s, Philadelphia Phillies and Dodgers were declared the first-half champions and automatically qualified for the divisional series.
1985 — The Major League Baseball Players’ Assn. went on strike.
1986 — The Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles 13-11 in a record-setting battle of grand slams. Texas’ Toby Harrah hit a grand slam in the second inning before Larry Sheets and Jim Dwyer connected for grand slams in Baltimore’s nine-run fourth.
1988 — Rich Gossage registered his 300th save, and the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-4.
1999 — Tony Gwynn went 4-for-5, singling in his first at-bat to become the 22nd major leaguer to reach 3,000 hits, as the San Diego Padres beat the Montreal Expos 12-10.
2001 — Boston’s Scott Hatteberg performed the ultimate baseball opposite. Hatteberg hit a grand slam one at-bat after lining into a triple play as the Red Sox defeated the Texas Rangers 10-7. Hatteberg lined into a triple play in the fourth inning and in the sixth he hit his second career grand slam to move Boston ahead for good.
2002 — At 32, Robb Nen became the youngest player to record 300 saves, as San Francisco beat the Chicago Cubs 11-10. Nen became the 16th member of the 300-save club.
2007 — St. Louis tied a major league record with 10 straight hits in a 10-run fifth inning, with pitcher Braden Looper and Aaron Miles getting two apiece in a 10-5 victory over San Diego.
Compiled by the Associated Press
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
From Maddie Lee: Southpaw Tarik Skubal’s experience pitching in the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field came with a hostile reception. Cubs fans booed him as he approached the bullpen gate in right field to warm up before the game. They jeered even louder and longer as he took the mound in the bottom of the first inning.
That’s what came with the “Los Angeles” scrawled across the chest of his new blue jersey. Over the weekend he’d gone from the top trade candidate in baseball, to a symbol of the Dodgers’ evil reign.
A sports betting site even seized on the moment and paid for an airplane to fly a “THE DODGERS RUINED BASEBALL” banner over Wrigley Field a few hours before the game Tuesday — although it was upside down.
As the boos quieted, he authored a quality start in his Dodgers debut. But that wasn’t enough to serve as the team’s new stopper, as the Dodgers’ offense fell flat. They stumbled to a 5-1 loss and extended their skid to a season-high five games and ensured a second straight series loss.
“There’s certainly no panic,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We’ve been through a lot of these things, this core group of guys. I think that you just got to kind of reset, flush it, find a way to win a game, and not let it just compound. But it never feels good to lose.”
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Pete Alonso hit a two-run single, Tyler O’Neill had his third pinch-hit homer of the season, and the trade-depleted Baltimore Orioles beat the Angels 3-1 on Tuesday night.
Cade Povich pitched six scoreless innings in his first start in nearly three months for the Orioles, who traded Adley Rutschman, Taylor Ward, Tyler Wells and Dean Kremer at the deadline but remain in contention for a wild-card playoff berth.
Christian Franklin made his major league debut, starting in Ward’s former spot in left field, and scored on Alonso’s third-inning single against former Oriole Grayson Rodriguez (3-4).
The Angels had 11 hits but went one for 12 with runners in scoring position.
Rodriguez pitched a season-high seven innings, giving up two runs and three hits to lower his ERA to 7.24. The Orioles traded him to the Angels in the offseason for Ward, who was shipped to Seattle at the deadline.
From Kevin Baxter: When Gianni Infantino was chosen to replace Sepp Blatter as president of FIFA, he was seen as a reformer, someone who would bring transparency and openness to soccer’s international governing body, which had long been mired in scandal and deceit.
A decade later the reformer has been exposed, hoisted by his own petard after a secret partnership with a member of President Trump’s family circle to sell 20% of the World Cup to private investors was exposed. It was a deal so brazen it made past FIFA transgressions seem quaint by comparison.
Less than two weeks after Infantino closed one of the most successful World Cups in history, one that brought in a record $15 billion in revenue, The Times of London revealed that Infantino had begun bribing FIFA’s 211-member associations, giving them until Sept. 19 to accept his plan to sell a stake in the commercial and tournament rights to the World Cup and other FIFA tournaments to a private equity firm headed by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and an inveterate White House counselor.
Sign on, the federations were told, and you’ll get $20 million. Decline, and FIFA will give you just a fraction of that.
Under pressure, Infantino announced Friday he was withdrawing the plan, known as the FIFA Forward Enterprise. But it turns out there was more to the proposal than originally thought.
Much, much more.
1936 — At the Berlin Olympics, Jesse Owens wins his third of four gold medals, winning the 200-meter race in an Olympic-record 20.7 seconds.
1954 — The first election for the Boxing Hall of Fame is held. Twenty-four fighters are elected, with the most noteworthy from the modern era Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Henry Armstrong. Fifteen are selected from the pioneer era including John L. Sullivan, Gentleman Jim Corbett and Jack Johnson.
1967 — The Denver Broncos beat the Detroit Lions, 13-7, in a preseason game, for the first AFL victory over an NFL team.
1984 — American Joan Benoit wins the first Olympic marathon for women in 2:24:52, finishing 400 meters ahead of Norway’s Grete Waitz.
1991 — Sergei Bubka becomes the first to clear 20 feet outdoors in the pole vault, breaking his own world record by a half-inch at the Galan track meet in Malmo, Sweden.
1997 — Michael Johnson wins his third straight 400-meter title at the world championships in Athens, Greece, capturing the gold medal in 44.12 seconds.
2005 — Jason Gore shoots a 12-under 59 in the second round of the Nationwide Tour’s Cox Classic in Omaha, Nebraska.
2006 — Warren Moon becomes the first Black quarterback to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio; joined by Troy Aikman, John Madden, Rayfield Wright, Harry Carson and Reggie White.
2007 — Lorena Ochoa wins the Women’s British Open — the first women’s pro tournament played at venerable St. Andrews — for her first major title.
2012 — Jamaica’s Usain Bolt claims consecutive gold medals in the marquee track and field event at the Summer Games in London. Only about fifth-fastest of the eight runners to the halfway mark, Bolt erases that deficit and overtakes a star-studded field to win the 100-meter dash final in 9.63 seconds, an Olympic record that lets him join Carl Lewis as the only men to win the event twice.
2012 — Britain’s Andy Murray cruises past Roger Federer 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 in the Olympic tennis singles final at Wimbledon. Serena and Venus Williams win the doubles title, as Serena becomes tennis’ first double-gold medalist at an Olympics since Venus won singles and doubles at the 2000 Sydney Games. Ben Ainslie earns another gold medal in the Finn class to become the most successful sailor in Olympic history.
2014 — The San Antonio Spurs hire WNBA star Becky Hammon as an assistant coach, making her the first woman to join an NBA coaching staff.
2017 — Justin Gatlin spoils Usain Bolt’s farewell beating him in the 100 meters at the world track championships in London. Bolt gets off to a slow start and Gatlin holds him off at the line in 9.92 seconds. American sprinter Christian Coleman takes silver in 9.94 seconds and Bolt took bronze in 9.95.
2018 — The Springfield Lasers win their first World TeamTennis title edging the Philadelphia Freedoms 19-18. The Lasers were 0-5 in WTT championship finals and winless in three meetings with the Freedoms during the 2018 regular season.
2018 — Georgia Hall of England catches Pornanong Phatlum in a final-round duel at Royal Lytham & St. Annes to win the Women’s British Open for her first major title.
Compiled by the Associated Press
1921 — Pittsburgh radio station KDKA and announcer Harold Arlin provided listeners with the first broadcast of a major league game. The Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-5.
1927 — Philadelphia’s Cy Williams hit for the cycle, drove in six runs and scored three times to lead the Phillies to a 9-7 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
1931 — For the second time in his career, Jim Bottomley got six hits as the St. Louis Cardinals beat Pittsburgh 16-2 in the second game of a doubleheader.
1932 — Detroit pitcher Tommy Bridges lost his bid for a perfect game on a bloop single by the 27th Washington batter, pinch-hitter Dave Harris. The Tigers beat the Senators 13-0.
1933 — Sammy West of the St. Louis Browns had four extra-base hits in a 10-9, 12-inning win over the Chicago White Sox.
1942 — Don Kolloway’s two-out steal of home in the fifth inning was the only run as the Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers 1-0.
1969 — Pittsburgh’s Willie Stargell became the only player to hit a ball out of Dodger Stadium. Stargell’s shot off of Alan Foster cleared the right-field pavilion and landed 506 feet from home plate.
1973 — Phil Niekro of the Atlanta Braves pitched a 9-0 no-hitter against the San Diego Padres. He walked three and struck out four in recording the first no-hitter by the franchise in Atlanta.
1975 — The first eight batters for Philadelphia Phillies got hits for a major league record, en route to a 13-5 win over the Chicago Cubs.
1984 — Cliff Johnson of the Blue Jays hit his 19th career pinch homer to set a major league record as Toronto beat the Orioles 4-3 at Memorial Stadium.
1999 — Mark McGwire became the 16th member of the 500 home run club, hitting two homers — Nos. 500 and 501 — in the St. Louis Cardinals’ loss to San Diego.
2001 — The Cleveland Indians tied a major league record and became the first team in 76 years to overcome a 12-run deficit to win, defeating the Seattle Mariners 15-14 in 11 innings.
2005 — Albert Pujols became the first player in major league history to hit 30 home runs in each of his first five seasons, helping the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves 11-3.
2006 — Trevor Hoffman set a major league record with his 11th 30-save season and the San Diego Padres defeated the Washington Nationals 6-3.
2007 — Tom Glavine earned his 300th victory in an 8-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs. The 41-year-old left-hander became the 23rd pitcher with 300 victories and only the fifth lefty to win 300.
2013 — Alex Rodriguez was suspended through 2014 (211 games) and All-Stars Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta and Everth Cabrera were banned 50 games apiece when Major League Baseball disciplined 13 players in a drug case — the most sweeping punishment since the Black Sox scandal nearly a century ago. Ryan Braun’s 65-game suspension last month and previous punishments bring to 18 the total number of players disciplined for their relationship to Biogenesis of America, a closed anti-aging clinic in Florida accused of distributing banned performing-enhancing drugs.
2019 — Jonathon Villar of the Orioles hits for the cycle in a 9-6 loss to the Yankees.
2021 — Team USA is headed to the Olympic Gold Medal Game for the first time in 21 years, beating South Korea, 7-2 at the 2020 Olympics (held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Teenager Eui-lee Lee holds the U.S. to two runs in five innings, one a mammoth homer by Jamie Westbrook, but five relievers are called on in the sixth when the US scores five times. Jack López drives in two for the US while Hye-seong Kim goes three for three in a losing cause. Ryder Ryan gets the win in relief of Joe Ryan.
Compiled by the Associated Press
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Miami authorities on Tuesday night responded to a residence after a disturbing video was posted on social media that appeared to involve celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.
The Times has not confirmed the authenticity of the video. But the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said in an emailed statement that authorities had received an influx of calls on Tuesday reporting that an individual was livestreaming acts of self-harm on social media.
After surrounding the Miami residence of a man who was not named, the Sheriff’s Office said around 9 p.m. that he had been “safely recovered and transported by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue to a local hospital, where he is receiving medical attention.”
Deputies had arrived earlier and said they spoke with family members at the scene and confirmed that the man was alone inside the home.
“In many incidents involving a person experiencing a mental health crisis or actively harming themselves, deputies prioritize de-escalation by creating time, distance and opportunities for communication,” the statement read. “Unless there is an immediate threat to others, slowing the situation and utilizing crisis intervention techniques can reduce the likelihood of a suicide-by-cop encounter and minimize the risk of injury to the individual, deputies and the public.”
Authorities said they had “tactically disengaged while continuing to monitor the situation.” In their later update, the Sheriff’s Office said that after the man had been transported to a hospital, mental health professionals were at the scene “providing support and resources to the individual’s family.”
A representative for Hilton did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
In the TikTok live video, a person who seems to be in distress harms himself. The video has since been removed from the platform.
Police and fire personnel converged on the Miami home Tuesday night. NBC6 News reported that some neighbors said Hilton lived at the home, but police would not confirm that.
Hilton, born Mario Lavandeira Jr., has been a pop culture personality since the early aughts when he launched his eponymous celebrity gossip rag. The venture garnered the columnist social status but also made him persona non grata among many celebrities who weren’t fans of his controversial coverage, which was often deemed disparaging, especially toward women.
Suicide prevention and crisis counseling resources
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, seek help from a professional or call 988. The nationwide three-digit mental health crisis hotline will connect callers with trained mental health counselors. Or text “HOME” to 741741 in the U.S. and Canada to reach the Crisis Text Line.
Maurice Jones-Drew will forever be etched into the memories of the Bruin faithful.
Whether it was his 322 rushing yard and five-touchdown performance against Washington in 2004.
Or his electrifying punt returns — boasting a career average of 23.2 yards per return which ranks second in NCAA history.
Or his unanimous All-American selection as an all-purpose back and returner in 2005.
The tailback captured the hearts and eyes of everyone who watched.
And while the current generation of Bruins never saw the three-time Pro Bowler play in the blue and gold, they will see the same surname stitched on the back of a UCLA jersey in 2027 with three-star recruit Duece Jones-Drew, who committed to his father’s alma mater on May 3.
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Despite Maurice’s affinity for the place he once called home, he hoped that his son would not follow his footsteps to Southern California.
“I wanted to push him away from UCLA as much as possible because I wanted him to go there because he wanted to go there,” Maurice said. “I wasn’t really involved in the recruitment as much because I wanted him to enjoy and go through this process like I did. I wanted him to go to a school that he wanted to go to because it’s his football career. It’s his life. It’s going to be his journey, and I wanted him to feel comfortable wherever he went.”
So the 2017 UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame inductee stuck to his word.
Duece talked to all the coaches. The 5-foot-8 De La Salle running back visited other schools without his father to eliminate any bias or influence. He even drove down by himself from the Bay Area to Los Angeles for UCLA’s Junior Day.
And initially, it looked like Duece was going to stay away from his father’s alma mater after the firing of head coach DeShaun Foster and the potential exit of running backs coach AJ Steward.
But new head coach Bob Chesney retained Steward and the running backs coach encouraged Duece to attend Junior Day.
And shortly after Duece visited UCLA, he knew where he wanted to play — so much so that his parents had to stop him from committing too early.
“Coach Chesney came in and he really changed my mind on what UCLA was, and coach Steward really was on me about getting to campus and experiencing what the new coaching staff was like,” Duece said. “I went there for the Junior Day in January and I fell in love. I love what they believe in and how they compete every day to be the best version of themselves.”
Despite the urge to commit on the spot, the three-star prospect heeded his parents’ advice and took his final visits to the other schools on his list, which included California, Arizona and Utah.
And after juxtaposing his experiences on all his other visits to his experience in Westwood, he had a clear decision.
“My parents always taught me to be myself, and I knew that UCLA was the best school for me, education-wise, and having my dad be there and be such a great player there as well,” Duece said. “I wanted to commit when I went down there in January, but I listened and waited, and I feel like that was the best decision for me. To go visit other schools and see where UCLA stood on my board, and they stood leaps and bounds above Cal and Arizona.”
Throughout the recruitment process, Maurice worried that it would be easy for people to assume that his son only got offered by UCLA because of his legacy there or that he pushed him to commit to the Bruins.
But despite all of the encouragement he gave his son to not hastily pick UCLA, when Duece made his commitment official, there was no one more ecstatic.
“When he picked UCLA, I was excited. I don’t know what the word would be. It’s probably more than that,” Maurice said. “But I was happy that he felt comfortable going somewhere because these next three, four years are where you’re going to make the most leaps and bounds going from a young man to a man, and to be able to pick a school and feel the same way that I felt when I picked UCLA, it was everything I thought it would be.”
Maurice also noted that his son has the same opportunity he had when he committed to former UCLA head coach Karl Dorrell in 2002 — to turn around a struggling program and create a long-lasting legacy.
But that would only be possible with the right people at the top.
And for Maurice, it felt right with Chesney.
“We preach certain things in our household, and coach Chesney preaches and practices those things,” Maurice said. “Hearing coach Chesney talk, hearing all the coaches talk, their strength staff, their training staff — everybody’s on the same page. It’s constant communication. They have a plan of how they operate, how they raise young men on and off the field. It’s a great opportunity to go to a place that needs to be put back where it needs to be.”
Above all, Maurice is looking forward to being a fan.
“I know he’s a terrific player, he’s a great student and I’m excited to see what he can do,” Maurice said of his son. “I don’t know if I still have any records, but if I do, I’m sure they’ll be broken by the time he’s out of there. I can’t wait to watch him and cheer for him and love him up and hug him and do all the stuff that dads get to do when they watch their boys.”
UCLA preseason camp kicks off on Thursday on the UCLA campus. Chesney and his staff will lead the Bruins through workouts at Great Park Sports Complex in Irvine from Aug. 10-14. Many coaches opt to spend at least a few days away from campus during preseason workouts to promote more team bonding. UCLA will kick off Chesney’s debut season at Cal on Sept. 5.
UCLA center Lauren Betts shoots over Duke’s Toby Fournier during an Elite Eight game in Sacramento on March 29.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Former UCLA All-American Lauren Betts earned one more award to cap her successful run as a Bruin.
Betts was named 2026 Honda Cup winner at the Collegiate Women Sports awards last week, becoming the seventh Bruin and 20th basketball player to win the top award in college women’s sports. Honda awards are presented to top performers in 12 NCAA sports and they compete for the top overall prize — the Honda Cup.
Betts helped UCLA win its first women’s basketball NCAA national championship, earning the tournament’s most outstanding player award. She led UCLA in scoring (17.1) and rebounding (8.8) while averaging 27.7 minutes per game.
Bob Chesney, UCLA top players share their belief Bruins will win at Big Ten media days
Plaschke: Bob Chesney is going to do the impossible at UCLA — win
Big Ten commissioner pushes back on talk of breaking away from NCAA with SEC
UCLA Unlocked: Are you ready to make room on the Bob Chesney bandwagon?
Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email newsletters editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
From Maddie Lee: The Dodgers came away from the trade deadline with major wins — a two-time Cy Young Award winner in Tarik Skubal, necessary catching depth with Ben Rortvedt and Hunter Feduccia, and a 2025 All-Star in pitcher Kris Bubic.
All of that momentum, and the staggering amount of talent on the roster, have overshadowed the Dodgers’ recent poor play. A clean slate against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field was a chance to set a new tone after being swept by the Boston Red Sox at home. Instead, they lost 10-5, extending their losing streak to a season-high tying four games.
“This is a playoff-contending team,” manager Dave Roberts said of the Cubs before the game. “We’ve got to play well. Like I said [Sunday], we got outplayed. Outcompeted against. So we need to play better. We’re going to play better this series. I don’t know the results, but we will play with more urgency.”
The Dodgers (69-44) essentially played out that prophecy to begin the game. Against left-hander Matthew Boyd, Shohei Ohtani and Andy Pages hit back-to-back singles, and Tommy Edman roped a three-run homer to left.
Then Boyd settled in. He got out of the inning with three straight flyouts — Cubs fans enthusiastically booing Kyle Tucker, who was never expected to re-sign with the team when he hit free agency after one season in Chicago, when he flied out to right field.
‘Dodgers do all the right things.’ Tarik Skubal dismisses the ‘ruining baseball’ critics
Get the latest on L.A.’s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
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From Ryan Kartje: One of college football’s most hallowed rivalries will continue on, after all.
After months of back-and-forth negotiations, USC and Notre Dame announced Monday that they’ve agreed to a four-year series beginning in 2030 when the Irish will open the season against the Trojans at the Coliseum. The following year, the teams will play in Week 1 at Notre Dame Stadium and the two games after that will be played somewhere between Week 1-3 of the 2032 and 2033 seasons.
USC ended up getting exactly what it asked of Notre Dame more than a year ago, when the two sides first sat down to talk about renewing their rivalry series. USC’s leadership sought to shift the game to the beginning of the season, first offering to play during Week 0 of the 2027 season. But Notre Dame rejected multiple scheduling offers.
That changed in recent weeks, as Notre Dame opted to cancel a home-and-home series with Indiana in 2030 and 2031 to accommodate their longtime rival.
From Bill Shaikin: No date will ever top Oct. 27, 2002, the date the Angels won their lone World Series.
We could talk about Sept. 30, 1984, the date Mike Witt threw the Angels’ lone perfect game. Or June 9, 2009, the date the Angels drafted the best player in franchise history, Mike Trout. Or July 29, 2018, the date Vladimir Guerrero became the first player to wear an Angels cap on a Hall of Fame plaque.
Or, if you care to look at it from a cynical angle, that fateful fall day in 1979 when then-general manager Buzzie Bavasi said he could replace Nolan Ryan, who had just gone 16-14 in his final year in Anaheim, with “two 8-7 pitchers.”
This isn’t about trivia. This is to say that Monday might well be remembered as one of those significant dates in Angels history.
In recent years, the Angels have deluded themselves and their fans with such beliefs as: they had assembled a young core that could win; Shohei Ohtani really wanted to stay; and the universally and consistently poor rankings of their minor-league system should be dismissed.
On Monday, John Mozeliak changed all that. The Angels’ interim general manager traded seven players off the major-league roster ahead of the trade deadline, including five within the final nine hours. Mozeliak imported nine prospects, only one of which will report to the major-league team.
From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: Like most good stories, this one requires planning. Organizers with the L.A. Sports and Entertainment Commission spent nearly nine years preparing to bring the FIFA World Cup to L.A. The most popular sporting event in the world was just the start of a mega-event trilogy that turns the page to Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium and will culminate with the largest Olympics ever in 2028.
“We are on the international stage for three years,” said Kathryn Schloessman, president and chief executive officer of L.A. Sports and Entertainment Commission, or LASEC, said. “What story are we telling and how are we doing that?”
The World Cup was a riveting first chapter. The 39-day tournament brought more than 560,000 fans to SoFi Stadium for eight matches, 250,000 fans to 10 official fan zones and a projected $892 million in economic impact across L.A. County, according to LASEC.
The expanded World Cup, with 48 teams and 104 matches over 16 venues in three countries, is only a logistical qualifying match compared to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The first Olympics in L.A. in 44 years will welcome 11,198 athletes across 51 sports from more than 200 countries competing over 20 days. The 2028 Paralympics will come to L.A. for the first time with a 23-para sport schedule that will begin competition before the opening ceremony for the first time.
Despite the difference in scale, John Harper, chief operating officer of LA28, called the successful World Cup’s local matches “an immense learning opportunity for us in a lot of ways.”
From Kevin Baxter: Larry Berg, the co-managing owner of LAFC, was chosen Monday to become the third commissioner in MLS history when Don Garber retires in December.
Berg has been with LAFC since the club’s founding, helping build the team into the league’s most successful franchise since entering MLS in 2018. He has held ownership stakes in Italy’s AS Roma and Welsh club Swansea City and has served MLS as co-chair of the league’s sporting and competition committee.
Berg, 60, also spent more than three decades in private equity, serving as a senior partner at Apollo Global Management before retiring in 2022.
“I’m honored to lead Major League Soccer into its next era,” Berg, a lifelong soccer fan and player, said in a statement released by the league. “Thanks to the vision and commitment of so many people, Major League Soccer has achieved tremendous success, but I believe our greatest opportunities are still ahead.
Mauricio Pochettino stays as U.S. coach, agrees to 4-year extension through 2030 World Cup
1936 — American athlete Jesse Owens wins his 2nd gold medal at the Berlin Olympics; beats German Luz Long in the long jump final with an Olympic record.
1945 — Byron Nelson wins his 11th consecutive PGA Tour event, beating Herman Barron by four strokes. Nelson finishes the year with a record for most tournament wins (18) in a season.
1984 — Carl Lewis wins the 100-meter dash in 9.99 seconds at the Los Angeles Summer Games. U.S. teammate Sam Graddy wins the silver in 10.19 and Canada’s Ben Johnson gets the bronze with a time of 10.22.
1996 — Laura Davies shoots a 6-under 66 for a two-stroke victory over Nancy Lopez and Karrie Webb in the du Maurier Classic.
1996 — The Atlanta Olympic Games end with U.S. boxer David Reid’s stunning gold-medal knockout, and the women Dream Team’s romp over Brazil. Reid captures America’s only boxing gold, knocking down Cuban Alfredo Duvergel, while the U.S. women roll to a 111-87 victory behind Lisa Leslie’s 29 points. A record 11,000 athletes from 197 countries make it the biggest Olympics.
2011 — Cappie Pondexter scores 15 points to lead New York past Chicago 59-49, and the Liberty hold the Sky to a WNBA-record one point in the fourth quarter.
2012 — Michael Phelps wins another gold medal as the United States wins the medley relay at the London Olympics. Phelps leaves the sport with a record 18 golds and 22 medals overall. At these games, he wins four golds and two silvers.
2012 — Serena Williams beats Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 to join Steffi Graf as the only women to complete the Golden Slam — winning the Olympics and the four majors. In a men’s semifinal match, Roger Federer outlasts Juan Martin del Potro in a 19-17 final set and clinches his first Olympic singles medal. Canadian equestrian Ian Millar rides into Olympic history by competing in his 10th games — the most of any athlete.
2013 — Missy Franklin claims her record sixth gold medal on the final day of the world championships in Barcelona, becoming the most successful female swimmer ever at a world meet. Franklin eclipses the record shared by Tracy Caulkins — who won five times in 1978 — and Libby Trickett, who did it in 2007.
2013 — Stacy Lewis wins the Women’s British Open after a marathon final day. Lewis finishes with a pair of birdies on the Old Course at St. Andrews and closes with an even-par 72. It’s her second major on the LPGA Tour, and it ends a record streak of 10 straight majors won by Asian players. Forced to play 36 holes, Lewis is the only player at par or better from the last 21 groups that tee off.
2018 — British swimmer Adam Peaty improves his own world record in the 100-meter breaststroke to 57.1 seconds at the European Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
2021 — Sydney McLaughlin sets a world record in in the women’s 400m hurdles, 51.46s, for a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
2024 — At the Paris Olympics Noah Lyles becomes the first American sprinter to win the 100m gold medal in 20 years; his time 9.784s edges Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by 0.005s
Compiled by the Associated Press
1884 — Pud Galvin pitched the most lopsided no-hitter in major league history as the Buffalo Bisons routed the Detroit Wolverines 18-0. It is the second career no-hitter for Galvin.
1910 — Jack Coombs of the Philadelphia A’s and Ed Walsh of the Chicago White Sox hooked up in a 16-inning scoreless tie. Coombs struck out 18 and allowed three hits.
1945 — Bill Salkeld of Pittsburgh hit for the cycle in a 6-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. The Pirate catcher went 5 for 5 and drove in all five runs.
1945 — Boston’s Tom McBride became the third player to drive in six runs in an inning as the Red Sox pounded Washington 15-4. McBride had a bases-loaded double and triple during the Red Sox’s 12-run fourth inning.
1953 — New York’s Vic Raschi set a record for a pitcher by driving in seven runs in a 15-0 win over the Detroit Tigers.
1963 — New York’s Mickey Mantle, batting for the first time in two months after breaking his left foot, hit a pinch home run as the Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 11-10 for a split of a doubleheader.
1973 — John Briggs of the Milwaukee Brewers went 6-for-6 in a 9-4 win over the Cleveland Indians.
1979 — Atlanta knuckleballer Phil Niekro set modern major league records with four wild pitches in one inning (fifth) and six in one game. The Braves lost to Houston 6-2.
1982 — Joel Youngblood became the first player in major league history to play and get a base hit for two different teams in two different cities in the same day. In the afternoon, his hit drove in the winning run for the New York Mets in a 7-4 victory at Chicago. After the game, he was traded to the Montreal Expos and played that night in Philadelphia. He entered the game in right field in the fourth inning and later got a single.
1985 — Tom Seaver, 40, became the 17th 300-game winner in major league history with a six-hitter — all singles — as the Chicago White Sox defeated the New York Yankees 4-1 on Phil Rizzuto Day.
1985 — Rod Carew of the Angels got his 3,000th hit in a 6-5 win over the Minnesota Twins, his first major league team.
2006 — Chase Utley went 0-for-5 night in Philadelphia’s 5-3 victory over the New York Mets, ending a 35-game hitting streak that tied him for the 10th longest in major league history and the fourth longest in National League history.
2007 — In the second inning of a 3-2 loss to the Padres, Barry Bonds hits his 755th career home run to tie Hank Aaron for the all-time record.
2007 — Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player in major league history to hit 500 home runs with a first-inning homer in a 16-8 victory over Kansas City.
2010 — Alex Rodriguez hit his 600th home run and became the youngest player to attain the milestone. His two-run, first-inning drive off Toronto’s Shaun Marcum put New York ahead, and the Yankees coasted to a 5-1 victory over the Blue Jays.
2021 — Japan moves into the gold medal game in the Tokyo Olympics.
2022 — The Angels tie a record by hitting seven homers but still losing the game, 8-7 to the A’s, also setting a record for most runs scored in a game, all on solo homers. Shohei Ohtani hits a pair, followed by Kurt Suzuki, Taylor Ward, Jo Adell, Jared Walsh and Mickey Moniak. However, Oakland scores six times in the 3rd and adds a two-run blast by Ramon Laureano in the 4th to negate the Angels’ long balls.
2024 — With a 13-7 loss to the Twins, the White Sox’s losing streak reaches historic proportion at 20 games. It is a new franchise record and tied for third all-time, trailing only the 21 losses by the 1988 Baltimore Orioles to start that season, and the 23 consecutive losses by the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies.
Compiled by the Associated Press
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
When Gianni Infantino was chosen to replace Sepp Blatter as president of FIFA, he was seen as a reformer, someone who would bring transparency and openness to soccer’s international governing body, which had long been mired in scandal and deceit.
A decade later the reformer has been exposed, hoisted by his own petard after a secret partnership with a member of President Trump’s family circle to sell 20% of the World Cup to private investors was exposed. It was a deal so brazen it made past FIFA transgressions seem quaint by comparison.
Less than two weeks after Infantino closed one of the most successful World Cups in history, one that brought in a record $15 billion in revenue, The Times of London revealed that Infantino had begun bribing FIFA’s 211-member associations, giving them until Sept. 19 to accept his plan to sell a stake in the commercial and tournament rights to the World Cup and other FIFA tournaments to a private equity firm headed by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and an inveterate White House counselor.
Sign on, the federations were told, and you’ll get $20 million. Decline, and FIFA will give you just a fraction of that.
Under pressure, Infantino announced Friday he was withdrawing the plan, known as the FIFA Forward Enterprise. But it turns out there was more to the proposal than originally thought.
Much, much more.
Which is why Infantino’s campaign for reelection to a fourth term as FIFA president next March, a campaign which had the support of more than 200 FIFA members two weeks ago, now appears doomed.
The national federations of Serbia, Sweden and Wales on Monday withdrew their support for Infantino and England’s FA is expected to do the same. UEFA, the governing body for European soccer and the largest and most powerful of FIFA’s six continental confederations, is threatening legal action while two other confederations — CONCACAF, the largest of FIFA’s two confederations in the Americans and the AFC, which manages soccer in Asia — have issued condemnations.
Those three confederations together represent nearly 140 FIFA members, meaning if they hold together there is no path for Infantino to get the 106 votes he would need to win reelection.
So how did we get here? How did Infantino go from progressive reformer, the overseer of newly transparent and accountable FIFA, to the man who literally tried to sell the World Cup? The journey may not have been as long as it seemed because Infantino may never have been the Boy Scout he was initially perceived to be.
Days after his first election as president in 2016, his name surfaced in leaked documents indicating that, while a senior legal official at UEFA, he had co-signed a broadcast deal with a company subsequently linked to a U.S. investigation into FIFA corruption. Later that same year, a FIFA committee opened an investigation into whether Infantino breached the organization’s Code of Ethics.
Infantino was eventually cleared by that probe but another pattern soon emerged, one that saw the president morph from a soccer bureaucrat into someone who believes he should be mixing with presidents and kings.
Infantino inherited World Cups that had already been awarded to Russia and Qatar, but he aggressively downplayed the human rights abuses in the two countries. Russian President Putin rewarded that by presenting the FIFA chief with the Order of Friendship medal. Qatar did better than that, giving Infantino use of a luxury Gulfstream G650 jet from its government fleet.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino, far left, takes a selfie with (from left) President Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during the World Cup draw in Washington on Dec. 5.
(Andrew Harnik / Getty Images)
If Infantino, born to blue-collar Italian parents in Switzerland, had previously been driven by a desire for power and money, one former close associate told The Times of London that the FIFA president “views himself as one of the oligarchs now.”
And no government gave Infantino more access to the corridors of power than the Trump administration. Infantino rented office space in Trump Tower, attended Trump’s second inauguration, mingled with him and his guests at Mar-a-lago, accompanied him on diplomatic missions to the Middle East and was a frequent visitor to the White House.
Last October, Infantino took to Instagram to say that Trump “definitely deserves” the Nobel Peace Prize. When he didn’t get it, Infantino simply created his own award, presenting Trump with first FIFA Peace Prize last December.
But the access to the top levels of the U.S. government may have created Infantino’s Icarus moment. The beginning of Infantino’s fall may have started last year at the White House when he and Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo attended a black-tie dinner to honor Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Five days earlier Ronaldo had been given a red card and a three-game suspension for a serious foul, a penalty that would have forced him to miss the start of the World Cup. After the White House event, FIFA announced Ronaldo’s suspension had been lifted, allowing one of the World Cup’s star attractions to play in the tournament.
That was an incident Trump remembered last month when he personally — and successfully — petitioned Infantino to lift a red-card suspension for U.S. striker Folarin Balogun the day before a World Cup round-of-16 game with Belgium. It was just the second time in history a suspension was overturned during a World Cup.
Infantino also pushed through a number of other World Cup firsts for this summer’s tournament. He added three-minute hydration breaks each half, upsetting more than a century and a half of soccer tradition while giving six more minutes of advertising space to broadcasters; he introduced a halftime show for the final, nearly doubling the intermission break for the tournament’s most important game; and he pioneered a dynamic pricing scheme that more than doubled the cost of tickets from 2022.
Those moves were designed to boost FIFA revenues, and they did — as did Infantino’s push to expand the 2026 World Cup to 48 teams and 104 games. But his luck ran out with his plan to give outside investors a share of the tournament, a scheme known to the White House — Jared Kushner was originally involved, according to reports — but few others.
One damning part of the plan involved a potential future role for Infantino in the investment fund. As FIFA’s president, Infantino earns an annual salary of $6 million, but if reelected, he can serve just one more term, meaning he’d be out of a job in 2031. However, multiple reports, citing unnamed sources, said Infantino was positioned to be chief executive of the investment arm in his post-FIFA days, a job that pays $30 million a year.
FIFA said that idea was never discussed. It also denied reports that Infantino had been rebuffed Monday in efforts to contact Trump for help in saving his presidency. But should he be pushed aside and should his days as a private equity manager never come to pass, there is another job Trump thinks he could do.
The president is reportedly considering pushing Infantino to become the next United Nations secretary-general when António Guterres’ term expires in December.
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
Just over one month into the war on Iran, US President Donald Trump made an apocalyptic threat that raised the alarm in Washington and Middle Eastern capitals alike, attached to a tight deadline.
If Iran didn’t immediately reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz, Trump warned on April 7, “a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again”.
Tehran didn’t blink. And with two hours to the deadline, Trump walked back the threat and instead announced a two-week ceasefire, brokered by Islamabad.
Since then, the US president has repeated this pattern multiple times. It goes like this: Trump ups the ante, shaking up the markets, and then dials it back down at the 11th hour, apparently hoping this strategy will influence negotiations.
On Monday, Trump again insisted that negotiations were close to ending the war – and, yet again, gave “duplicitous” Iran “one last chance” to make a deal or suffer catastrophic strikes.
For its part, Tehran denies any ongoing talks with the US, saying it is only talking to Oman about how to manage the Hormuz strait, the closure of which has caused oil prices to soar amid havoc in energy markets around the world.
The war is now in its 23rd week, with no end to hostilities in sight, and both Washington and Tehran are more entangled than before, with additional variables in the conflict that could determine its direction.
So, how many times has Trump given Iran “one last chance” to make a deal or suffer the consequences, before walking his threat back? And how many times have we heard from the US president that a deal is just around the corner?
There have been several times since February 28, when the US and Israel launched their first joint attacks on Iran, that Trump has threatened an attack but did not follow through.
Less than a month into the war, Trump threatened Tehran over its closure of the Strait of Hormuz, saying the US would strike Iran’s power plants if the critical waterway was not reopened. Two days later, he postponed the strikes for five days, citing “progress” in talks.
As the delayed deadline neared on March 26, Trump delayed the strikes again, this time for 10 days, claiming that Tehran requested it.
Then came the April 7 threat that a whole “civilisation will die”, before Trump called off those strikes and announced a two-week ceasefire, to give Iran a chance to reach a peace deal.
No deal emerged. And then, after threatening to strike Iran “harder”, and in the final hours of the ceasefire, on April 21, Trump announced an indefinite ceasefire, saying Pakistani mediators had asked him to do so.
With those talks making no progress, Trump returned to his threats to strike Iran on May 17, saying “nothing will be left” of Iran if Tehran did not make a deal with the US.
But the next day, Trump again told reporters that he had decided to “put it off for a little while, hopefully maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, because we’ve had very big discussions with Iran”.
By May 27, US strikes were back on after negotiations faltered, once again.
On June 11, after two days of back-and-forth strikes, Trump threatened the US would take “total control” of Iran’s oil and gas industries. But then, a few hours later, he posted on social media, claiming there had been a breakthrough in negotiations and called off the attacks.
On June 17, the US and Iran signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), announcing a ceasefire and a 60-day period to complete negotiations for a lasting peace. Within days, that had fallen apart over the glaring gaps in the two sides’ positions over the contents of the MoU, triggered mainly by who had control of the Strait of Hormuz – and both sides returned to tit-for-tat, widening strikes.
On July 27, Trump halted the strikes, claiming the “perimeters of a deal” had been agreed to, but noting that Washington “is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II”.
On Monday this week, Trump told reporters again that negotiations were close to ending the war and that this was Iran’s “last chance before decapitation”. The US has not followed up on this latest threat yet.
Iran denies it is talking to the US, although it may be holding indirect talks via mediators, analysts say.
![US President Donald Trump looks on during an announcement about Dulles International Airport renovations in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on July 29, 2026 [AFP]](https://i0.wp.com/occasionaldigest.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/afp_6a6abc6f49c9-1785379951.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)
Trump has insisted that Iran is “desperate” to cut a deal, or that a deal is imminent, multiple times since the start of the war.
Two days after launching the first attacks on Tehran on February 28, which the US initially appeared to believe would be a quick operation, Trump seemingly conceded it might take a bit longer when he said at the White House: “We projected four to five weeks [to end Iran war], but we can go far longer than that.”
The US president changed tack again on March 9, when he told CBS that “the war is very complete, pretty much”, and that the US military operation was “way ahead of schedule”.
Later the same day, he shifted his stance again, saying the war is “both complete and just beginning”. And later that day again, he said: “We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough.”
On March 23, Trump told reporters outside Air Force One that “major points of agreement, I would say – almost all points of agreement” had been reached with Iran. Tehran was denying that it was party to negotiations at this point.
Two days after that, Trump repeated that Iran wanted to “make a deal so badly”. The next day, he also told a cabinet meeting that Iran was “begging to make a deal”.
On April 7, Trump said, again, that Washington was “very close to a deal” with Iran, before threatening to blow up a “whole civilisation”, but then walked back on that to announce a ceasefire the next day.
Over the following days, throughout April, Trump reiterated that the war was, in fact, pretty much over. But it continued.
Trump repeatedly claimed on separate occasions that Iran had “agreed to everything”, that “I think we will get a deal in the next day or two”, and that “I don’t think there’s too many significant differences” between the US and Iranian positions.
On May 23, Trump said the administration was “getting a lot closer” to a deal, which was “largely negotiated, [and] subject to finalisation”.
On June 8, Trump called for “total victory” in the next two weeks and claimed Iran was “willing to give us everything”. Still, no peace deal has materialised and the conflict began again in July.
On Monday this week, Trump again told reporters that Iran was “desperate” for a deal and warned Tehran it had “one last chance” before “decapitation” to make an agreement. Iran denies it is even holding talks with the US, saying that it is only speaking with Oman about management of the Strait of Hormuz.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. Let’s examine some top linebackers and running backs to watch.
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Los Alamitos’ Kamden Tillis, right, celebrates a touchdown with teammate Ashton Gogue (13) against Edison on Thursday in an Alpha League football game at SoFi Stadium.
(Craig Weston)
Top teams have top linebackers, and representing the City Section is De’Andre Kirkpatrick from Crenshaw, a San Diego State commit who one day has the chance to be compared to former Crenshaw standouts Hayes Pullard and Daiyan Henley.
Kirkpatrick is 6 feet 3, 220 pounds and doesn’t like running backs. He throws them to the turf like a rag doll.
Another outstanding City Section linebacker/defensive end is Elyjah Staples of Marquez, a Cal commit who plays wherever his team needs him.
One school with multiple top linebackers is Servite with Allen Kennett and Isaiah Leilua. St. John Bosco’s Josiah Poyer has improved so much that he’s a USC commit and now covers offensive players going out for passes with expertise and confidence.
Isaiah Phelps of Oxnard Pacifica is a tackling machine. George Hastings of Agoura is only 5-11 but versatile, smart and repeatedly making an impact. Sevelino Taliauli of Long Beach Poly is a Colorado State commit. Noah Curtin of Chino Hills had 122 tackles.
Kane Casani of Loyola has worked nonstop in the weight room to become stronger and faster after averaging 13 tackles a game. Matthew Charles of Chaminade is ready for a breakout junior season, and the Eagles also have Washington State commit Josiah Rand. Wyatt Bogdan, 6-3, 220 pounds, had 81 solo tackles for Laguna Beach as a junior.
Among running backs, Stanford-bound AJ McBean has moved from Mira Costa to Gardena Serra and will have five returning starters up front to help him look good.
Noel Washington of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame showed flashes of brilliance as a sophomore. Malachi McFarland of Damien is going to get the chance to handle the ball much more to take advantage of his speed.
Jaxsen Stokes of Sierra Canyon has convinced his coach that there’s no smarter play call than giving him the ball. Kamden Tillis of Los Alamitos is coming off a 1,500 yards season. Sophomores Adrian Petero of Santa Margarita and Asir Nembhard of Mater Dei picked up valuable experience as freshmen contributors.
Malaki Davis of Corona Centennial is 215 pounds with speed. Maliq Allen of St. John Bosco came back after transferring to Inglewood and adds experience and speed to the backfield. Malaki Buchanan of Victor Valley is a sophomore with a 10.37 100 meters time. Kevika Mata’utia-Martinez of La Habra rushed for more than 1,400 yards as a junior.
Aidan Crecion (left) has grown to 6 feet 5 and passed his father, Gabe, who was a tight end at Chaminade and UCLA. Aidan will be a junior receiver at Oaks Chrisitan.
(Crecion family)
The opening game between Oaks Christian and Chaminade on Aug. 21 will have special meaning for Gabe Crecion, who was a star tight end and baseball player at Chaminade before moving on to UCLA. His son, Aidan, has grown to 6 feet 5 and is a promising junior receiver for Oaks Christian.
Orange Lutheran has recently added two highly regarded transfers in tight end Hudson Ploog from Troy and offensive lineman Austin Attalah from Cajon. But remember, first-year coach Ray Fenton talked last season at Los Alamitos how much fun it was coaching neighborhood kids instead of transfers. Unfortunately, this is what the Trinity League has become known for — transfers. Coaches get fired for losing records in the Trinity League.
Junior receiver and 100 meters standout Benjamin Harris of Servite has committed to Oregon State.
First-year St. Bernard coach Dean Herrington is getting used to his new drive from Valencia to Playa del Rey. Once school starts, he’ll be leaving at 5 a.m. trying to beat the traffic. Asked how his new team was doing, Herrington said, “It’s trying to change the culture and gets to practice all the time.” Herrington’s 13-year-old grandson, Bradley Rees, is a quarterback in waiting and two years away from high school.
Former Edison standout Hunter White has returned to take over coaching defensive backs at his alma mater. It’s the first time he’s been coaching since helping out his father, Dave, some 10 years ago.
With the arrival of quarterback Ethan Grant from Los Angeles, Crenshaw has the luxury of having two competent quarterbacks. Danniel Flowers started as a junior but also could see action as a receiver this season.
The Moore sisters, Nylah (left), a senior, and freshman Cinzia will be standouts at Eagle Rock in flag football and basketball.
(Eristheo Raif)
The arrival of freshman Cinzia Moore to join her sister, Nylah, at Eagle Rock is big news in City Section flag football. Nylah is Eagle Rock’s returning quarterback. Cinzia is 5 feet 9. Both will also be standouts for the girls basketball team.
Here’s the report.
Flag football practices officially begin for Southern Section teams Monday, with first games allowed Saturday.
Sierra Canyon, which has a team for the first time this season, keeps picking up transfers from Orange County (maybe the housing is cheaper in Chatsworth). The latest is sophomore Angelina Dubois from Orange Lutheran. She joins Orange Lutheran teammate, quarterback Makena Cook, at Sierra Canyon, along with last year’s Division 1 player of the year, Ava Irwin from JSerra.
The NFL Chargers are hosting a huge flag football tournament Aug. 14 and 15 that will provide an early look at top teams.
Jaden Soong of St. Francis High added the Junior PGA Championship on Friday to his golf resume.
(Courtesy Chris Soong)
Jaden Soong, who will be a junior golfer at St. Francis this fall, won the Junior PGA Championship last week, continuing to build upon a resume that’s off the charts. He won the CIF state championship as a freshman. Here’s the report.…
Call it the passing of the high jump torch. Former Olympic high jump Dwight Stones presents JJ Harel of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame the high school player of the year award from the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame .
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame high jumper JJ Harel, the two-time state champion, announced he will compete for Israel at the U20 World Championships. That means he will probably represent Israel for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He will be a freshman at USC this coming school year….
Harvard-Westlake is nearing completion of its $200-million River Park Sports Complex that began construction in 2024. Here’s the report and video...
Rolling Hills Prep, under basketball coach Harvey Kitani, left for China last week for a 10-day trip that will have the team playing three exhibition games….
Narbonne is appealing its three-year playoff ban in football for City Section rules violations. Last year was the first season of no playoffs. The appeal is expected to be heard in September….
Fountain Valley and Edison have played football games against each other for 57 consecutive years. Fountain Valley is pausing that game this season as it tries to build up its program. It’s not unusual. Crespi paused playing rival Sherman Oaks Notre Dame for the last two years and will resume the rivalry this season after going from 0-10 in 2022 to 10-1 last season….
Pitcher Timmy Carey from Cypress has committed to Pepperdine….
Former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and UCLA pitcher Justin Lee signed with the Phillies after being selected in the 20th round of the amateur draft. Former Loyola and USC catcher Augie Lopez signed with the Padres….
Baseball player Grant Horsley from Newport Harbor has committed to Navy….
Camren Hughes of Palos Verdes came on strong last spring running the 200 and 400 and now he’s headed to UCLA in September. He’d be a first-round pick for intramural football.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. poses for a photo with his sister Gabriela Jaquez in 2021.
(UCLA Athletics/UCLA Athletics)
Time is flying by with lots of changes for Jaime and Gabriela Jaquez, the brother/sister duo from Camarillo who became stars at UCLA and are now pro basketball players.
Jaime was was sent to the Milwaukee Bucks from Miami in the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade. After helping UCLA’s women’s team win the NCAA championship, Gabriela was a first-round WNBA draft pick by the Chicago Sky and is averaging 8.3 points in her rookie season.
Here’s a story from 2022 on how Gabriela would not be denied getting a scholarship from her dream school.
Here’s a story from 2025 of Jaime returning to Camarillo to have his jersey number retired.
From the562.org, a story on Lakewood dropping boys and girls lacrosse after failing to find coaches.
From the Orange County Register, a story looking at JSerra first-year football coach Hardy Nickerson, the first Black head coach in the Trinity League.
From Athlon sports, a story on St. Francis phenom golfer Jaden Soong.
From USA Baseball, a story on Harvard-Westlake pitchers Justin Kirchner and James Venick.
Derwin Henderson, the head football coach at Rialto, had 112 kids out for football on Monday. Last game before he arrived 20 were suited up in 2024. That’s progress.
— eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) July 28, 2026
Any football program practicing special teams on opening day of fall practice lets me know they are serious about winning games.
— eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) July 28, 2026
Who is Ryder Williams, the heroic 16-year-old lifeguard who saved a boy from drowning in three-meter waves? https://t.co/eSfKL6lpXm
— eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) July 28, 2026
The father of Michigan freshman QB Brady Smigiel, Joe, reports that “Brady is officially cleared from ACL.” He had surgery after knee injury last fall in Newbury Park game. Recovery close to nine months. Now returns to playing football. Hard work with a lot of help paid off.
— eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) July 30, 2026
Let’s not forget how a good a QB Brady Smigiel was at Newbury Park. This is him and Shane Rosenthal hooking up as a freshman in 2022. pic.twitter.com/Wqj1WQ9onU
— eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) July 31, 2026
Student Body President, too. Laguna Beach. The neighborhood school where players play together since middle school. https://t.co/jIzOZuLLor
— eric sondheimer (@latsondheimer) August 2, 2026
Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.
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