year

Barbara Boxer decided she was done. Entering her 70s, fresh off reelection to the U.S. Senate, she determined her fourth term would be her last.

“I just felt it was time,” Boxer said. “I wanted to do other things.”

Besides, she knew the Democratic bench was amply stocked with many bright prospects, including California’s then-attorney general, Kamala Harris, who succeeded Boxer in Washington en route to her selection as Joe Biden’s vice president.

When Boxer retired in 2017, after serving 24 years in the Senate, she walked away from one of the most powerful and privileged positions in American politics, a job many have clung to until their last, rattling breath.

(Boxer tried to gently nudge her fellow Democrat and former Senate colleague, Dianne Feinstein, whose mental and physical decline were widely chronicled during her final, difficult years in office. Ignoring calls to step aside, Feinstein died at age 90, hours after voting on a procedural matter on the Senate floor.)

Now an effort is underway among Democrats, from Hawaii to Massachusetts, to force other senior lawmakers to yield, as Boxer did, to a new and younger generation of leaders. The movement is driven by the usual roiling ambition, along with revulsion at Donald Trump and the existential angst that visits a political party every time it loses a dispiriting election like the one Democrats faced in 2024.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has become the highest profile target.

Last week, she drew a second significant challenger to her reelection, state Sen. Scott Wiener, who jumped into the contest alongside tech millionaire Saikat Chakrabarti, who’s been campaigning against the incumbent for the better part of a year.

Pelosi — who is 85 and hasn’t faced a serious election fight in San Francisco since Ronald Reagan was in the White House — is expected to announce sometime after California’s Nov. 4 special election whether she’ll run again in 2026.

Boxer, who turns 85 next month, offered no counsel to Pelosi, though she pushed back against the notion that age necessarily equates with infirmity, or political obsolescence. She pointed to Ted Kennedy and John McCain, two of the senators she served with, who remained vital and influential in Congress well into their 70s.

On the other hand, Boxer said, “Some people don’t deserve to be there for five minutes, let alone five years … They’re 50. Does that make it good? No. There are people who are old and out of ideas at 60.”

There is, Boxer said, “no one-size-fits-all” measure of when a lawmaker has passed his or her expiration date. Better, she suggested, for voters to look at what’s motivating someone to stay in office. Are they driven by purpose — and still capable of doing the job — “or is it a personal ego thing or psychological thing?”

“My last six years were my most prolific,” said Boxer, who opposes both term limits and a mandatory retirement age for members of Congress. “And if they’d said 65 and out, I wouldn’t have been there.”

Art Agnos didn’t choose to leave office.

He was 53 — in the blush of youth, compared to some of today’s Democratic elders — when he lost his reelection bid after a single term as San Francisco mayor.

“I was in the middle of my prime, which is why I ran for reelection,” he said. “And, frankly,” he added with a laugh, “I still feel like I’m in my prime at 87.”

A friend and longtime Pelosi ally, Agnos bristled at the ageism he sees aimed at lawmakers of a certain vintage. Why, he asked, is that acceptable in politics when it’s deplored in just about every other field of endeavor?

“What profession do we say we want bright young people who have never done this before to take over because they’re bright, young and say the right things?” Agnos asked rhetorically. “Would you go and say, ‘Let me find a brain surgeon who’s never done this before, but he’s bright and young and has great promise.’ We don’t do that. Do we?

“Give me somebody who’s got experience, “ Agnos said, “who’s been through this and knows how to handle a crisis, or a particular issue.”

Pete Wilson also left office sooner than he would have like, but that’s because term limits pushed him out after eight years as California governor. (Before that, he served eight years in the Senate and 11 as San Diego mayor.)

“I thought that I had done a good job … and a number of people said, ‘Gee, it’s a pity that you can’t run for a third term,’ ” Wilson said as he headed to New Haven, Conn., for his college reunion, Yale class of ’55. “As a matter of fact, I agreed with them.”

Still, unlike Boxer, Wilson supports term limits, as a way to infuse fresh blood into the political system and prevent too many over-the-hill incumbents from heedlessly overstaying their time in office.

Not that he’s blind to the impetus to hang on. The power. The perks. And, perhaps above all, the desire to get things done.

At age 92, Wilson maintains an active law practice in Century City and didn’t hesitate — “Yes!” he exclaimed — when asked if he considered himself capable of serving today as governor, even as he wends his way through a tenth decade on Earth.

His wife, Gayle, could be heard chuckling in the background.

“She’s laughing,” Wilson said dryly, “because she knows she’s not in any danger of my doing so.”

Pregnancy centers in the U.S. that discourage women from getting abortions have been adding more medical services — and could be poised to expand further.

The expansion — including testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and even providing primary medical care — has been unfolding for years. It gained steam after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade three years ago, clearing the way for states to ban abortion.

The push could get more momentum with Planned Parenthood closing some clinics and considering shutting others after changes to Medicaid. Planned Parenthood is not just the nation’s largest abortion provider, but also offers cancer screenings, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, and other reproductive health services.

“We ultimately want to replace Planned Parenthood with the services we offer,” said Heather Lawless, founder and director of Reliance Center in Lewiston, Idaho. She said about 40% of patients at the antiabortion center are there for reasons unrelated to pregnancy, including some who use the nurse practitioner as a primary caregiver.

The changes have frustrated abortion rights groups, who, in addition to opposing the centers’ antiabortion messaging, say they lack accountability; refuse to provide birth control; and offer only limited ultrasounds that cannot be used for diagnosing fetal anomalies because the people conducting them don’t have that training. A growing number also offer unproven abortion-pill reversal treatments.

Because most of the centers don’t accept insurance, the federal law restricting release of medical information doesn’t apply to them, though some say they follow it anyway. They also don’t have to follow standards required by Medicaid or private insurers, though those offering certain services generally must have medical directors who comply with state licensing requirements.

“There are really bedrock questions about whether this industry has the clinical infrastructure to provide the medical services it’s currently advertising,” said Jennifer McKenna, a senior advisor for Reproductive Health and Freedom Watch, a project funded by liberal policy organizations that researches the pregnancy centers.

Post-Roe world opened new opportunities

Perhaps best known as “crisis pregnancy centers,” these mostly privately funded and religiously affiliated centers were expanding services such as diaper banks ahead of the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, which overturned Roe.

As abortion bans kicked in, the centers expanded medical, educational and other programs, said Moira Gaul, a scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of SBA Pro-Life America. “They are prepared to serve their communities for the long term,” she said in a statement.

In Sacramento, for instance, Alternatives Pregnancy Center in the last two years has added family practice doctors, a radiologist and a specialist in high-risk pregnancies, along with nurses and medical assistants. Alternatives — an affiliate of Heartbeat International, one of the largest associations of pregnancy centers in the U.S. — is some patients’ only health provider.

When the Associated Press asked to interview a patient who had received only non-pregnancy services, the clinic provided Jessica Rose, a 31-year-old woman who took the rare step of detransitioning after spending seven years living as a man, during which she received hormone therapy and a double mastectomy.

For the last two years, she’s received all her medical care at Alternatives, which has an OB-GYN who specializes in hormone therapy. Few, if any, pregnancy centers advertise that they provide help with detransitioning. Alternatives has treated four similar patients over the last year, though that’s not its main mission, director Heidi Matzke said.

“APC provided me a space that aligned with my beliefs as well as seeing me as a woman,” Rose said. She said other clinics “were trying to make me think that detransitioning wasn’t what I wanted to do.”

Pregnancy centers expand as health clinics decline

As of 2024, more than 2,600 antiabortion pregnancy centers operated in the U.S., up 87 from 2023, according to the Crisis Pregnancy Center Map, a project led by University of Georgia public health researchers who are concerned about aspects of the centers. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 765 clinics offered abortions last year, down more than 40 from 2023.

Over the years, pregnancy centers have received a boost in taxpayer funds. Nearly 20 states, largely Republican-led, now funnel millions of public dollars to these organizations. Texas alone sent $70 million to pregnancy centers this fiscal year, while Florida dedicated more than $29 million for its “Pregnancy Support Services Program.”

This boost in resources is unfolding as Republicans have barred Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds under the tax and spending law President Trump signed in July. While federal law already blocked the use of taxpayer funds for most abortions, Medicaid reimbursements for other health services were a big part of Planned Parenthood’s revenue.

Planned Parenthood said its affiliates could be forced to close up to 200 clinics.

Some already had closed or reorganized. They have cut abortion in Wisconsin and eliminated Medicaid services in Arizona. An independent group of clinics in Maine stopped primary care for the same reason. The uncertainty is compounded by pending Medicaid changes expected to result in more uninsured Americans.

Some abortion rights advocates worry that will mean more healthcare “deserts” where the pregnancy centers are the only option for more women.

Kaitlyn Joshua, a founder of abortion rights group Abortion in America, lives in Louisiana, where Planned Parenthood closed its clinics in September.

She’s concerned that women seeking health services at pregnancy centers as a result of those closures won’t get what they need. “Those centers should be regulated,” she said. “They should be providing information which is accurate, rather than just getting a sermon that they didn’t ask for.”

Thomas Glessner, founder and president of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, a network of 1,800 centers, said the centers do have government oversight through their medical directors. “Their criticism,” he said, “comes from a political agenda.”

In recent years, five Democratic state attorneys general have issued warnings that the centers, which advertise to people seeking abortions, don’t provide them and don’t refer patients to clinics that do. And the Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether a state investigation of an organization that runs centers in New Jersey stifles its free speech.

Different services than Planned Parenthood

Choices Medical Services in Joplin, Mo., where the Planned Parenthood clinic closed last year, moved from focusing solely on discouraging abortion to a broader sexual health mission about 20 years ago when it began offering STI treatment, said its executive director, Karolyn Schrage.

The center, funded by donors, works with law enforcement in places where authorities may find pregnant adults, according to Schrage and Arkansas State Police.

Schrage estimates that more than two-thirds of its work isn’t related to pregnancy.

Hayley Kelly first encountered Choices volunteers in 2019 at a regular weekly dinner they brought to dancers at the strip club where she worked. Over the years, she went to the center for STI testing. Then in 2023, when she was uninsured and struggling with drugs, she wanted to confirm a pregnancy.

She anticipated the staff wouldn’t like that she was leaning toward an abortion, but she says they just answered questions. She ended up having that baby and, later, another.

“It’s amazing place,” Kelly said. “I tell everybody I know, ‘You can go there.’”

The center, like others, does not provide contraceptives — standard offerings at sexual health clinics that experts say are best practices for public health.

“Our focus is on sexual risk elimination,” Schrage said, “not just reduction.”

Mulvihill and Kruesi write for the Associated Press.

In the context of the US-China competition and the post-COVID-19 global economic recession reshaping the international order, Vietnam has emerged as a stable and dynamic bright spot in Southeast Asia. The concept of “the era of the Vietnamese nation’s rise,” first mentioned by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam To Lam at the 10th Central Conference of the 13th tenure, reflects the aspiration to enter a new stage of development from “renovation” to “rise.” In fact, over the past year, Vietnam has achieved a growth rate of about 5.5-6%, higher than the average of many other countries in the region. Record FDI inflows, led by technology projects of technology companies Samsung, Apple, and Intel, as the expanding “China+1” trend helps Vietnam become an important link in the global supply chain. Inflation is maintained at 3-4%, and exports and domestic consumption recover strongly, while digital transformation, green development, and the semiconductor industry are considered new growth pillars.

One of the important milestones of the year is the program of reorganizing and merging administrative units, helping to streamline the apparatus and improve the efficiency of state administration. The reduction of nearly 30% of commune-level units and more than 10% of district-level units not only saves budget costs but is also considered a step forward in institutional quality towards a professional administration.

In foreign affairs, Vietnam has shown an increasingly confident role as a middle power expanding its strategic space. The upgrade of relations with the United States to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership puts Hanoi among the few countries that maintain special relations with both Washington and Beijing. Relations with Japan, South Korea, India, and Australia continue to be strengthened, while cooperation channels and mechanisms for controlling maritime disputes with China are maintained stably.

Multilaterally, Vietnam has shown a more proactive role in ASEAN and actively participated in global initiatives on climate and energy. Its image as a trustworthy, constructive, and balanced country has been reinforced, helping Vietnam to enhance its position in the reshaping regional structure.

However, despite many positive results, Vietnam’s growth still relies heavily on capital flows from the FDI sector, while domestic enterprises lack competitiveness. Labor productivity growth is slow, the efficiency of state-owned enterprises is still low, and institutional reforms have not created breakthroughs. These are barriers that put Vietnam at risk of being stuck in the “middle-income trap.”

On the social front, Vietnam faces challenges of climate change, development disparities, and rapid population aging. The Mekong Delta is being severely impacted by rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion. These pressures require more inclusive and sustainable development policies.

Politically, the anti-corruption campaign continues to strengthen the legitimacy of the regime and national leadership. However, fear of accountability and slow decision-making are hampering the effectiveness of administrative unit mergers. Vietnam still needs extensive institutional reforms to promote transparency, innovation, and accountability to the people as the foundation for modern state governance.

In the coming time, Vietnam’s “rising” prospects in the period 2025-2030 depend on the ability to take advantage of opportunities from the wave of global supply chain shifts. The shift of supply chains away from China, along with trade agreements such as CPTPP, EVFTA, and RCEP, significantly expands the economic space. The young population base and expanding middle class give Vietnam the potential to maintain strong growth momentum in the coming decade.

However, opportunities always come with risks. Over-reliance on FDI can lead to the situation of the “FDI dependency trap.” Therefore, strong investment priority should be given to supporting industries, education, and science and technology as key factors to enhance self-reliance and domestic value.

On the foreign front, Hanoi will need to continue to maintain a delicate balance between the great powers. Deepening ties with the US and the West in technology and energy must go hand in hand with maintaining stable relations with China, its largest trading partner and strategic challenge. The East Sea, maritime security, and strategic supply chains will continue to be a test of Vietnam’s diplomatic mettle of “multilateralization and diversification.”

In conclusion, Vietnam’s “Era of Rising Power” can only be realized if the country turns its current momentum into long-term competitiveness. This requires institutional reform, productivity enhancement, and a shift to an inclusive growth model. If successful, Vietnam can position itself as a dynamic middle-class economy and contribute to the formation of a more balanced regional order in the coming decade.

The past year has shown that Vietnam is at a pivotal moment with great potential but also full of challenges. The “era of rising up” is therefore not just a political slogan but a real test of Vietnam’s leadership, reform, and integration capacity in a turbulent world.

Lío Mehiel has been working for a moment like “After the Hunt” for a long time.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, this thorny morality play of a film set at Yale University pits well-liked professor Alma (played by Julia Roberts) against both her protegé, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), as well as her longtime friend and colleague Hank (Andrew Garfield) during a scandal that risks her entire academic career.

Amid that starry A-list cast, the actor plays Maggie’s partner, Alex. The film, which had its world premiere in August at the Venice Film Festival, is Mehiel’s most high-profile project yet.

“There is so much time as an artist where you are doing the work and nobody cares and you have to find within yourself the motivation and the commitment and the drive to keep going,” Mehiel tells The Times. “Because you know that when you are going to be able to reach people, it will be worth it.”

Such a step has been years in the making. Mehiel, who lived in Puerto Rico until they were 5 years old, began their creative endeavors almost as soon as they arrived in New York City, first as a salsa dancer and later as an actor. By the time they were in fifth grade they were attending Broadway auditions, eventually booking a role in the 2003 revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” starring Ashley Judd and Jason Patric.

(L to R) Lio Mehiel as Alex and Ayo Edebiri as Maggie in AFTER THE HUNT, from Amazon MGM Studios.

(Yannis Drakoulidis / Yannis Drakoulidis © 2025 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved)

But as they began finding their own sense of self and body, they also found the kind of opportunities that led them to “After the Hunt.” That began in earnest back in 2023, when they starred in Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s film “Mutt” as Feña, a role they booked after cold-emailing the director and telling them they’d do anything to win that part. The film chronicled a particularly hectic day in the life of a young trans man in New York City, as he struggles to rekindle old relationships he’d severed since he’d transitioned. Mehiel’s soulful performance won them a Special Jury Award for Acting at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, putting them on the map as a trans Latine performer to watch.

“Moving forward from ‘Mutt,’ I was really interested in building on that momentum to what’s next,” they say. Not just in terms of their career but in the broader cultural conversation around contemporary queer and trans representation. The following year, they returned to Sundance with Alessandra Lacorazza’s “In the Summers,” which walked away from the festival with the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury prize — the first for a film directed by a Latina director. Like “Mutt,” that sun-dappled film found Mehiel breathing life into a trans character navigating a thorny relationship with their father (played by renowned Puerto Rican rapper Residente).

Mehiel has long been building a body of work that centers on the very work of having a body. Just this past summer, they visited the Salton Sea for a performance installation titled “angels of a drowning myth.” In photos from that day, Mehiel is seen naked and half-submerged into that so-called sea, posing alongside a bust of their own chest made six months after they’d received top surgery. A portrait of a body twice represented, Mehiel’s piece stressed the solidity and malleability of their own body, and the beauty they find within and around it. Their work moves past familiar ideas of the body in transition, gleefully embracing the messiness of the queer experience and refusing the easy siren call of visibility.

“‘After the Hunt,’ is such a beautiful example of that because Alex is a queer and trans character, but we just see them getting home from a run, taking their shirt off, being with their partner, dealing with stuff that has nothing to do with their queerness,” Mehiel says.

That moment Alex first appears on screen is quintessential Mehiel. Not just because of the honeyed intimacy their sweaty, bare chest exudes. But because their appearance immediately reframes everything audiences have heard about this seemingly militant, radical social justice warrior. Alex at first appears as a figure of “woke” culture there to defy the older generation Roberts’ Alma comes to stand for. But there’s more to them than that.

“Alex doesn’t represent all queer people who have a political orientation in the world, all queer people who might attend a protest,” they explain. “I think what Luca did and what Nora did in the script was to give us all an opportunity to move away from identity politics. Instead, they gave each of the characters enough meat on their bones that they get to be complex, messy characters.”

“After the Hunt” may focus on complicated ethical questions surrounding sexual assault allegations at a university, but within that plot, Mehiel sees also a chance for viewers to catch a glimpse of characters like Maggie and Alex who may not otherwise be centered in such stories.

“I’m just excited that there is more exposure that people are having to queer and trans people and to queer relationships, and how that can fit in the context of a ‘normative’ world,” they add. “This is a movie with Julia Roberts, one of our biggest stars and crown jewels of Hollywood and of American cinema. There’s going to be a lot of folks that are going to see it because Julia is in it. And then they’re also going to get to experience a queer and trans person on screen who is likable in some moments and unlikable in others, just as much as every other character.”

That’s been Mehiel’s purpose for years now: to expand what queer and trans characters can look like on stage, on screen and, in turn, in real life. At a time when these communities are vilified by those who wish to harm them, Mehiel insists on the importance of such normalized visibility.

Lio Mehiel seen at the Los Angeles Premiere of Amazon MGM Studios’ “After The Hunt” at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on October 04, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

(Photo by Stewart Cook / Amazon MGM Studios via Getty Images)

“Honestly, exposure to these experiences creates connection more than anything and allows people to feel comfortable,” they add. “Because the political climate right now — for the Latine community and for the trans community — is really hard and heartbreaking and challenging. And I think so much of it has to do with people feeling like they don’t know who these people are.”

A central kernel of the premise of “After the Hunt” is that you never know what someone is going through. And, more to the point, that making assumptions about other people’s experience can be extremely dangerous.

“This movie really serves as a mirror to the people that are watching it,” Mehiel insists. The film confronts audiences with their own biases and refuses any tidy conclusions.

But for Mehiel, the film will forever be remembered as a highlight of a career that is only bound to get bigger and more exciting. Just this year, they spent the summer at the Williamstown Theatre Festival starring in Jeremy O. Harris’ new play as well as serving as head of production for “Mother, Daughter, Holy Spirit,” a grassroots fundraiser for the Trans Justice Funding Project, all while continuing to pursue their various interests as artist, writer, and filmmaker. In that context, “After the Hunt” stands now less as a calling card than as a reminder of how far they’ve come and yet how much further they want to go. That film, now playing in theaters and coming soon to Prime Video, will widen the scope and reach of their artistry.

“Watching it, I was like, ‘I fit right into the fabric of the movie,’” they say. “On a personal journey level, I feel confident that I have the skill, the talent and the experience at this point to work with the masters that I dream of working with (if the sexy French filmmaker, Julia Ducournau, ever reads this interview, she should know that I want to work with her).”

Or, in much simpler terms that echo an ethos they’ve brought to bear on and off screen: “I just feel ready and able to actualize the things that I have been dreaming about for a long time.”

TORONTO — As Shohei Ohtani leads a wave of international baseball popularity, major league officials are working with the players’ union and LA28 officials to conclude an agreement for major league players to participate in the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

The concepts on the table include an extended Olympic break during the 2028 season, which could include an All-Star Game in San Francisco to keep baseball’s best players on the West Coast for two weeks rather than shuttling them around the country, and an Olympic baseball schedule that could start before the opening ceremony.

There is no final deal. But, for the first time over years of discussions, commissioner Rob Manfred said publicly that the owners have stopped wavering about whether to interrupt the major league season for a week so that baseball’s biggest stars can play in the Olympics.

“I am positive about it,” Manfred said Saturday at the World Series. “I think the owners have crossed the line in terms of, we’d like to do it if we can possibly make it work, but there are logistical issues that still need to be worked through.”

Manfred suggested that major leaguers participating in the Olympics might be a one-time event. Stopping the season for one week and flying players to Los Angeles, he said, would be very different than stopping the season for two weeks in 2032 and flying players to Australia.

“The chances that we’re playing in Brisbane? Difficult,” Manfred said. ‘“Way more difficult than being in L.A.”

Manfred said the World Baseball Classic would “remain our centerpiece” for international competition. With a Canadian team in the World Series, and with Ohtani as the face of the sport, ratings and merchandise sales are soaring outside the United States.

In the Olympics, Ohtani would play at Dodger Stadium.

“Shohei has just absolutely been the greatest benefit to the game you can imagine throughout the year,” Manfred said. “In the LCS, he had probably the greatest game of all time, and we are fortunate to have him here in the World Series.”

There was probably no Dodgers fan more grateful to see the Blue Crew lose badly in the opening game of the World Series than Conrado Contreras. See, the 75-year-old was happy to enjoy any Fall Classic at all.

A year ago tomorrow , the Zacatecas native suffered a heart attack and mild stroke in the moments after seeing his Dodgers win Game 2 of the World Series against the New York Yankees. He spent three days in a medically induced coma at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood and regained consciousness to news from jubilant nurses that the Dodgers had won the championship.

The lifelong baseball fan had no idea what they were talking about. His passion for the sport was lost along with his memory.

When family members put on highlights from the 2024 championship during his rehabilitation at a clinic in Gardena throughout the end of the year, the former carpenter would shrug and change the channel. When someone told him that legendary Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela had died, Contreras swore that he had just seen his fellow Mexican pitch at the stadium.

It wasn’t until the 2025 baseball season came along that Contreras’ mind began to truly rebound. He watched games from his longtime home in the unincorporated Florence-Graham neighborhood and learned to love the Dodgers anew. But he didn’t cheer like before. Contreras followed doctor’s orders to stay calm when the Dodgers were losing instead of cursing like the past and quietly applaud when the team was winning when he would’ve previously roared.

He’s the father-in-law of my sister Alejandrina. And I wanted to hang out with Don Conrado for Game 1 of this year’s World Series to experience fandom in all its mortality.

Wearing a flat-brimmed fedora and a blue Dodgers 2024 World Series champion, I caught Contreras just as he was entering my sister’s Norwalk home holding on to his walker with the help of Alejandrina’s husband, Conrad. His father talks slower than he used to and can’t drive anymore, but Contreras is once again the same man his family knows: witty, observant and baseball-crazy.

A schoolyard pitcher in his hometown of Monte Escobedo, Contreras fell in with the Dodgers almost as soon as he migrated to the United States in 1970 to join a brother in Highland Park. He used to attend games every week “when $10 got two people into the stadium and you could also eat a hot dog,” Contreras told me in Spanish before Game 1 began.

His stories from those years were immaculate. Don Sutton throwing a shutout. The Cincinnati Reds always “ready to play to the death.” Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Willie Stargell hitting a home run out of Dodger Stadium in 1973 “and all of us just staring above our heads in awe.”

Contreras was such a fan that he took his pregnant wife Mary to watch Valenzuela pitch on the day in 1983 that Conrad was due because they were giving out “I (Heart) Fernando” T-shirts, an anecdote that left their son flabbergasted.

“What happened to the shirt?” Conrad asked his mom in Spanish.

“I threw it away,” replied the 61-year-old Mary.

“They’d cost a lot of money now!” he groaned.

“They were cheap! The color really faded fast.”

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani hits a two-run home run during the seventh inning of Game 1 of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays at Roger Centre on Friday in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Jays won, 11-4.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

The family continued to attend games through Conrad’s teenage years but stopped “when even the birds couldn’t afford to attend,” Mary said. Conrad, 42, thinks the last time he went to a game with his dad was “at least” 20 years ago. But they regularly watched games on television. It was he who administered the CPR a year ago that saved his dad’s life.

“He was walking around the house angry all that game,” Conrad said.

“No, well, Roberto was making me mad,” Conrado replied, his nickname for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “But I can’t get mad anymore.”

I asked how he thought this year’s series would go. He mentioned Shohei Ohtani, whom he kept calling el japonés in a respectful tone because, well, his memory can be fuzzy.

“He strikes out too much, but when he hits it, he hits it. If he plays like that, they win the series. But if Toronto hits, forget it.”

One more question before game time, the one too many liberal Latino Dodgers fans are belly-aching over right now: is it ethical to root for the team considering they haven’t been too vocal in opposing Donald Trump’s deportation campaign and owner Mark Walter has investments in companies that are profiting from it?

“Sports shouldn’t get into politics, but all sports owners are with Trompas,” he said, using a nickname I’ve heard more than a few rancho libertarians use for Trump. He shrugged.

“So what’s one to do? They kept la migra out of the stadium,” referring to an unsuccessful June attempt by federal agents to enter the stadium parking lot. “If the team had allowed that, then there’d be a huge problem.”

Mary wasn’t as sympathetic. “Latinos shouldn’t let the Dodgers off so easy. But when Latinos surrender, they surrender.”

It was game time.

Conrad slipped into a gray Dodgers away jersey to match his black team cap. My sister, an Angels follower for some reason, wore a Kiké Hernández T-shirt “because he stands with immigrants.”

“The only good thing about the Dodgers is that they aren’t winning with a gringo,” said Mary, who actually doesn’t care much about baseball because she finds it boring. “It’s someone [Ohtani] who doesn’t want to speak English who’s winning it for them.”

Her husband smiled.

“Let’s see if Mary gets into baseball.”

“That’ll be the real miracle,” she snapped back.

Contreras rubbed his hands in glee as the Dodgers went up 2-0 in the top of the third and merely frowned when the Blue Jays tied it in the bottom of the fourth while we were enjoying takeout from Taco Nazo. “His anger comes in waves, it’s a trip,” Conrad said. “He’s calmer but se enoja.”

“Who?” Conrado deadpanned.

When Dodger starting pitcher Blake Snell left the game with the bases loaded and no one out in the bottom of the sixth, Contreras shook his head in disgust but kept his voice calm.

“This is what gets me mad. They should’ve taken him out long ago, but Roberto didn’t. This is what I was afraid of. When Toronto get on, they get on. They won’t stop until they destroy.”

Sure enough, the Blue Jays erupted for nine runs that inning, including a two-run blast by catcher Alejandro Kirk, who had sparked the Jays’ initial rally a few innings earlier.

Earlier in the game, Alejandrina had told Conrado that Kirk was a Tijuana native. The pride in shared roots, albeit generations apart, took a little bit of sting off his home run, which made the score a humiliating 11-2.

“Thank goodness he’s Mexican,” Conrado told his son, patting his knee. “That’s what’s left for us” to be happy about the game.

An inning later, Contreras began to feel woozy. His sugar level was elevated. Mary took off his jacket to fix his insulin device. My sister’s corgi, Penny, jumped onto the couch and lay on his lap.

“They do know when someone someone’s ill, right?” he said to no one before scratching Penny’s tummy and cooing, “You know I’m ill, right? I’m ill!”

When the “massacre” finally ended, Contreras remained philosophical.

“It’s incredible that I’m able to see this. But I’m still malo. My feet hurt, my memory isn’t what it used to be, my sense of balance isn’t there. But there’s the Dodgers. But they need to win.”

Conrad went to the bedroom to grab his father’s walker.

“Do you want a Toronto shirt now?” he joked.

His dad stared silently. “No, that would give me another heart attack.”

When any basketball coach is raving about an opposing player, that sets off an alarm bell for sportswriters to pay attention and investigate.

It turns out all the good things coaches are beginning to say about 6-foot-4 junior guard Donovan Webb of Golden Valley High are true. Canyon Country Canyon coach Ali Monfared said Webb might be the best player in the Foothill League, which held its media day at Canyon on Saturday.

Webb is one of those players who worked hard when nobody was watching. His focus was on improving his three-point shooting, and all those hours in the gym could pay off.

“I’m a gym rat,” he said.

Last season, he was moved to point guard and kept deferring to other players. This season, he got the message to take charge. “We put the keys to the car in his hands,” first-year coach Scott Barkman said.

With a 4.3 grade-point average, Webb said he understands what his role needs to be.

“I needed to take my game to the next level,” he said.

Golden Valley and Valencia will be the co-favorites because of the experience each team has with returning players.

Valencia has its own much-improved player in junior Steven Irons. Last season he was 6-5, 170 pounds. Now he’s 6-7, 210 pounds after eating lots of chicken and rice while working on strength.

“The day we lost the playoff game, I started lifting,” he said.

Said coach Greg Fontenette: “His development has been like night and day.”

Double-doubles are in his future, and it’s not about In-N-Out. He’ll be scoring and providing rebounds to support Valencia’s talented class of 2027 players.

Saugus returns Braydon Harmon, who had a 43-point performance against West Ranch last season.

Hart coach Tom Kelly is in his 26th season for the Newhall school and 36th overall (he was head coach at Burbank Burroughs for 10 years).

Canyon won a 2A championship last season and lost most of its players, but returning is standout point guard Isaac Yuhico, who delivered clutch baskets in the Cowboys’ triple-overtime championship game win over St. Bonaventure.

Former Golden Valley coach Chris Printz has become an assistant principal, but his son, Wyatt, remains on the team. Asked if his father got a pay raise, Wyatt said, “I hope so.”

Conner Peterson of West Ranch was asked about playing against friends in the league. “It’s the same thing playing against your brother,” he said. “You want to beat them.”

Castaic coach Louis Fernando offered optimism about his team, saying, “I don’t have to coach ego and I don’t have to coach effort this year.”

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

June Lockhart, the perennial TV mom who consoled her son Timmy and his faithful pet collie in “Lassie” and explained the unfolding galaxy to her children in the kitschy prime-time sci-fi show “Lost in Space,” has died.

Active in Hollywood well into her 90s, Lockhart died Thursday in Santa Monica of natural causes, with daughter June Elizabeth and granddaughter Christianna by her side, said her publicist, Harlan Boll.

She was 100.

Upbeat and bubbly, Lockhart happily accepted playing second-fiddle to children, animals and even a robot. In “Lassie,” she was most often seen teaching her son small life lessons extracted from his misadventures, often saved from peril by his faithful dog. In “Lost in Space,” she was a biochemist who seemed to spend most of her time prepping meals in the galley or tending to the children as the “Swiss Family Robinson”-like clan drifted randomly in space.

“Motherhood has been a pretty good dodge for me,” Lockhart told The Times, years after the shows went off the air. “I seem to have outlasted most of my colleagues because of it.”

Cast members of the TV show “Lost in Space” pose in costume in this 1965 publicity photo. Seated is Marta Kristen; standing, from left, is Mark Goddard, June Lockhart and Guy Williams.

(AP / CBS)

June Kathleen Lockhart was born on June 25, 1925, in New York City and grew up in a family steeped in the arts. Her father was a Broadway actor and her mother a singer. For years the family staged a seasonal production of “A Christmas Carol” in their home, inviting neighbors, friends and relatives to attend.

In 1938, the family went a step further and took their by now well-polished version of the Charles Dickens classic to film with a young Lockhart cast as Belinda Cratchit. The movie was all of one hour and nine minutes long.

Lockhart attended the Westlake School for Girls after the family moved to Los Angeles, where her father hoped to find a career as a film actor. But it was Lockhart who cracked Hollywood by landing modest but frequent roles on popular television shows such as “Wagon Train,” “Gunsmoke” and “Rawhide.”

In 1958, she was cast as Ruth Martin, the patient and good-natured mother on “Lassie,” a role that earned her an Emmy nomination. The show ran for 17 seasons, making it one of the longest-running prime-time shows on television. Lockhart left the series in 1964 to pursue other opportunities.

Lockhart realized the show had its limitations. “It was a fairy tale about people on a farm in which the dog solves all the problems in 22 minutes, just in time for the last commercial,” she told The Times.

The scripts were only slightly more challenging in “Lost in Space,” which followed the adventures of a family aboard a saucer-shaped spaceship headed to an Earth-like planet circling a faraway star. She left the show after three years and joined the cast of “Petticoat Junction” as a medical doctor who sets up practice in a worse-for-wear hotel in the middle of nowhere.

Earlier in life, Lockhart had been a regular on the news quiz show “Who Said That?” in which contestants were read a quote and asked to guess who said it. Lockhart had been absorbed by journalism and newsmakers since childhood, when she started a neighborhood newspaper. As an adult she subscribed to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, reading them from beginning to end.

To prep for the show, she began cutting out quotes from the newspapers and memorizing them. One of the panelists on the show, a White House reporter for United Press International, was so impressed with Lockhart‘s grasp of politics that he invited her to a White House briefing.

Lockhart went on to become an unofficial member of the White House press corps, attending briefings, traveling with the Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy entourages during their presidential showdown and hitting the campaign trail with Ronald Reagan.

June Lockhart in 1965.

(CBS via Getty Images)

During her years as an informal White House correspondent, she was called on only once to ask a question during a presidential briefing, asking President George W. Bush for the name of the veterinarian who cared for the first family’s dog, Barney. Bush chuckled and said it was top secret.

Though she never had another prime-time role as big as in “Lassie” or “Lost in Space,” her career was remarkably long. She was the kindergarten teacher on “Full House,” James Caan’s mother on “Las Vegas,” a mother once again on “The Drew Carey Show” and a hospice worker on “Grey’s Anatomy.” For years she hosted coverage of the Rose Parade on CBS.

Her final credit arrived in 2018, when she voiced a radio communications officer in the “Lost in Space” reboot on Netflix. Twice married and divorced, Lockhart is survived by daughters June Elizabeth and Anne, as well as four grandchildren, said longtime family friend, Lyle Gregory.

The service will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Actors Fund, ProPublica and International Hearing Dog Inc.

Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Rebecca Ellis, with an assist from David Zahniser, Noah Goldberg and Matt Hamilton, giving you the latest on city and county government.

There is no shortage of budget-busting costs facing Los Angeles County, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath recently told guests at this week’s Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum luncheon.

There’s the costly fire recovery effort. And the deep cuts from the federal government. And a continuing homeless crisis.

As Horvath wrapped up her remarks, Emma Schafer, the host of the clubby luncheon, asked about yet another expenditure: What was up with that $2-million settlement to the county’s chief executive officer Fesia Davenport?

“We were faced with two bad options,” Horvath told the crowd dining on skewered shrimp.

Horvath said she disagreed with Davenport’s demand for $2 million, but also believed “that we have to focus on a functional county government and saving taxpayer money.”

Three months ago, all five supervisors quietly voted behind closed doors to pay Davenport $2 million, after she sought damages due to professional fallout from Measure G, the voter-approved ballot measure that will eventually eliminate her job.

Measure G, which voters passed in November, reshaped the government, in part, turning the county’s chief executive into an elected position — not one selected by the board. The elected county executive, who would manage the county government and oversee its budget, will be in place by 2028. Davenport, a longtime county employee, had been in her post since 2021.

Davenport, as part of her financial demand, said Measure G caused her “reputational harm, embarrassment, and physical, emotional and mental distress.”

Critics contend unpleasant job changes happen all the time — and without the employee securing a multimillion dollar payout.

“Los Angeles County residents should be outraged,” said Morgan Miller, who worked on the Measure G campaign and called the board’s decision a “blatant misuse of public money.”

Horvath, who crafted Measure G, promised during the campaign it would not cost taxpayers additional money. More recently, she voiced dissatisfaction with Davenport’s settlement, saying the agreement should have had additional language to avoid “future risk.”

Horvath said in a statement she considered having the settlement agreement include language to have Davenport and the county part ways — to avoid the risk of litigating additional claims down the road.

Supervisor Janice Hahn, who pushed for Measure G alongside Horvath, said she voted for the settlement based on the advice of county lawyers.

“In the years I worked to expand the board and create an elected county executive, I never disparaged our current CEO in any way,” she said in a statement. “I always envisioned the CEO team working alongside the new elected county executive.”

Davenport has been on medical leave since earlier this month and did not return a request for comment. She has told the staff she plans to return at the start of next year.

It’s not unusual for county department heads to get large payouts. But they usually get them when they’re on their way out.

Bobby Cagle, the former Department of Children and Family Services head who resigned in 2021, received $175,301. Former county counsel Rodrigo Castro-Silva got $213,199. Adolfo Gonzales, the former probation head, took in $172,521. Mary Wickham, the former county counsel, received $449,577.

The county said those severance payments, all of which were obtained through a records request by The Times, were outlined in the department heads’ contracts and therefore did not need to be voted on by the board.

Sachi Hamai, Davenport’s predecessor, also received $1.5 million after saying she faced “unrelenting and brutal” harassment from former Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

Davenport’s settlement was voted on, but not made public, until an inquiry from LAist, which first reported on the settlement.

David Loy, legal director for the First Amendment Coalition, says the county is required under the Brown Act to immediately report out a vote taken on a settlement if the deal is finalized and all parties have approved it. But if it’s not, he says, they don’t need to publicly report it — they just need to provide information when asked.

“You don’t have to proactively report it out in that meeting. You still have to disclose it on request,” said Loy. “ I don’t think that’s a good thing — don’t get me wrong. I’m telling you what the Brown Act says.”

State of play

— DEMANDING DOCUMENTS: Two U.S. senators intensified their investigation into the Palisades fire this week, asking the city for an enormous trove of records on Fire Department staffing, reservoir repairs and other issues. In their letter to Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) showed much less interest in the Eaton fire, which devastated Altadena but did not burn in the city of Los Angeles. An aide to County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, said neither she nor other county offices had received such a document request.

— BUMPY BEGINNING: The campaign of City Council candidate Jose Ugarte is off to a rocky start. Ugarte, who is backed by his boss, Councilmember Curren Price, recently agreed to pay a $17,500 fine from the Ethics Commission for failing to mention his outside consulting work on his financial disclosure forms, But on Wednesday, two ethics commissioners blocked the deal, saying they think his fine should be bigger. (Ugarte has called the violation “an unintentional clerical error.”) Stay tuned!

— A NEW CHIEF: Mayor Karen Bass announced Friday that she has selected Jaime Moore, a 30-year LAFD veteran, to serve as the city’s newest fire chief. He comes to the department as it grapples with the continuing fallout over the city’s response to Palisades fire.

— LAWSUIT EN ROUTE: Meanwhile, the head of the city’s firefighter union has accused Bass of retaliating against him after he publicly voiced alarm over department staffing during the January fires. Freddy Escobar, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, said he’s preparing a lawsuit against the city. Escobar was suspended from his union position earlier this year, after an audit found that more than 70% of the transactions he made on his union credit card had no supporting documentation.

— HE’S BACK! (KINDA): Former Mayor Eric Garcetti returned to City Hall for the first time since leaving office in 2022, appearing alongside Councilmember Nithya Raman in the council chamber for a celebration of Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. Garcetti, a former U.S. ambassador to India, described Diwali as a “reawakening,” saying it may be “the longest continuous human holiday on earth.”

— GENERATIONS OF GALPIN: The San Fernando Valley auto dealership known as Galpin Motors has had a long history with the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, the civilian oversight panel at the LAPD. On Wednesday, the council approved the nomination of Galpin vice president Jeffrey Skobin, to serve on the commission — making him the third executive with the dealership to serve over the past 40 years.

— AIRPORT OVERHAUL: Los Angeles World Airports is temporarily closing Terminal 5 at Los Angeles International Airport, carrying out a “complete demolition” and renovation of the space in the run-up to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. During construction, JetBlue will be operating out of Terminal 1, Spirit shifts to Terminal 2 and American Airlines lands in Terminal 4, the airport agency said.

— OUT THE DOOR: Two of the five citizen commissioners who oversee the Department of Water and Power have submitted their resignations. DWP Commissioner George McGraw, appointed by Bass two years ago, told The Times he’d been laying the groundwork for a departure for six months. McGraw said he found he could no longer balance the needs of the commission, where he sometimes put in 30 to 40 hours per week, with the other parts of his life. “I needed extra capacity,” he said.

— NO MORE MIA: DWP Commissioner Mia Lehrer was a little more blunt, telling Bass in her Sept. 29 resignation letter that her stint on the board was negatively affecting her work at Studio-MLA, her L.A.-based design studio. Lehrer said the firm has been disqualified from city projects based on “misinterpretations” of her role on the commission.

“As a result, I am experiencing unanticipated limitations on my professional opportunities that were neither expected nor justified under existing ethical frameworks,” she wrote. “These constraints not only affect my own business endeavors but also carry significant consequences for the forty-five professional and their families who rely on the continued success of our work.”

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to address homelessness went to Cotner Avenue near the 405 Freeway in Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky’s Westside district.
• On the docket next week: The board votes Tuesday on an $828-million payout to victims who say they were sexually abused in county facilities as children. The vote comes months after agreeing to the largest sex abuse settlement in U.S. history.

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

Hi and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. Gee, the Dodgers haven’t lost a World Series game this badly since…. let’s see, do the archives go back that far? Oh yes, here it is: Since Game 4 of last year’s World Series, which they lost, 11-4.

Musings while Game 1 was happening:

Pre-game

—Pharrell Williams and the Voices of Fire provided the pregame entertainment. Apparently, Anne Murray was unavailable.

—Cito Gaston threw out the first pitch. Apparently Garth Iorg and Rance Mulliniks were unavailable.

—Joe Davis and John Smoltz are the game announcers. They are good. Coincidentally, the Dodgers’ announcer is also named Joe Davis. I wonder if they are related.

—Is it really necessary to have a long hype video for the World Series? I mean, we’re already tuned in and watching. Who is this for?

First inning

—The Toronto crowd is LOUD. Good for them.

—Toronto starter Trey Yesavage is the second-youngest World Series Game 1 starter ever, trailing only Ralph Branca. He doesn’t seem nervous.

—The Dodgers went down quietly in the top half. They need to do the same to Toronto in the bottom half to keep the crowd under control.

—Blake Snell doesn’t have the command he has had this postseason. Is it because of the long layoff? Just amped up?

—George Springer leads off. Is that a trash can I hear?

—And the Blue Jays did not go quietly, but at least they didn’t score.

—The Blue Jays are like the Dodgers in that they take a lot of pitches, which is bad for the Dodgers. It’s going to be a lot harder for the starters to pitch into the seventh, eighth or ninth inning, meaning more exposure for the weaker elements of the bullpen.

Second inning

—Can some scientists get together and study how Kiké Hernández becomes so much better in the postseason? Perhaps reduce it to a serum we can all take before pressure situations.

—Bases loaded and one out and the Dodgers don’t add any runs. That could come back to bite them.

—The Blue Jays are letting Snell lock in, unable to take advantage of his early shakiness.

—Where were the middle infielders when Freddie Freeman was looking to throw the ball there for a force? And Snell had great presence to whirl and throw to third. A lot of pitchers would have been upset they missed the bag at first.

Third inning

—Yesavage lost his fastball and suddenly seems a lot more nervous.

—A rare baseunning error by Freeman.

—The Dodgers have four hits and three walks but only two runs. That could be important later.

—Yasavage has thrown 71 pitches in three innings. That’s a lot.

—Davis Schneider looks like he should be working at Jiffy Lube.

Fourth inning

—The Dodgers chased pitches this inning, going away from what makes the so successful on offense. As a result, Yesavage felt no pressure and could even go one more inning.

—OK, maybe Snell wasn’t quite as locked in as I imagined. Daulton Varsho smoked that ball for a two-run homer.

—Do you know how many homers Snell had given up to a left-hander this season? Counting Varsho’s, one.

Fifth inning

—The Blue Jays take Yesavage out after four innings.

—Nature called and I missed Fluharty’s entire appearance!

—I once got an angry email from a ready who was upset the Joe Davis always says “We are halfway home” after the top of the fifth inning, because that’s not right, saying it was after the bottom of the fifth. The person was irate! But Davis is right.

—Why are ads featuring baseball players the most boring ads in the world? They haven’t had a good campaign since “Chicks Dig the Long Ball!” It’s as if all the people who come up with these ads hate baseball.

—Freeman is the best Dodgers first baseman at digging balls out of the dirt since Steve Garvey.

—The Capital One school career day ad with Derek Jeter and Karen Nyberg is great. I mean, it’s no Limu Emu (and Doug), but it’s great.

Sixth inning

—Seranthony Dominguez has the best first name in baseball.

—The split-screen ad during the game? Not a fan.

—Seranthony seemed a bit fired up out there.

—A walk to Bo Bichette. Snell is not long for this game. I’m surprised they wanted until now to have someone warm up. I would have had someone up when the inning started.

—Bases loaded, nobody out. Game changing moment. And Emmet Sheehan will be on the mound.

—And the wheels are coming off.

—I do believe the Dodgers are going to lose this game. Time to get in players who may not ever get a chance to play in a World Series again.

—I think the Dodgers postseason ERA is going to go up a bit.

Seventh inning

—Ohtani rounded the bases faster than Mickey Hatcher on that home run, almost as if he was saying “We’re still down by seven, let’s not get carried away here.”

—Justin Wrobleski is the answer!

Eighth inning

—Remember, the Dodgers lost Game 4 of last season’s World Series 11-4 and everything seemed to work out OK. They lost Game 1 of the 1959 World Series 11-0 and everything worked out OK there. Some athletes will tell you it’s easier to shake off a rout than it is losing a close game, because you can’t really say “If only I had done this….”

—For those of you who remember an earlier newsletter this postseason….. Mason and Hannah weren’t able to watch this game, so the loss is entirely their fault.

Ninth inning

—Is the game still going on? My mind is wandering, and it’s too little to be out by itself.

—The Dodgers had multiple chances to put more runs on the board early in the game and didn’t do it. You have to capitalize on almost every opportunity in the World Series.

—Being picked off first would have been an appropriate way to end that game.

—All you can do is shake this game off and come out strong tomorrow. It’s only one game. I have a feeling Yoshinobu Yamamoto is going to be very sharp in Game 2.

—My prediction remains, Dodgers in five.

—More importanly, we wish Alex Vesia and his wife the best as they go through a trying time.

In case you missed it

Plaschke: After Dodgers’ disastrous World Series Game 1 loss, doubt has crept in

‘Guys kind of felt the velocity a little bit more.’ Was rust a factor in Dodgers’ loss?

Dodgers will keep Alex Vesia off World Series roster: ‘So much bigger than baseball’

Meet Baby Shohei? These parents named their kids after Dodgers players

25 Dodgers food and drink specials for the World Series

Where to watch the World Series near Dodger Stadium

Hernández: MLB needs Shohei Ohtani as a two-way player. Game 4 of the 2025 NLCS was a reminder

And finally

“Highlights” from Game 1 of the World Series. Watch and listen here.

Until next time…

Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Comedian Becky Robinson’s life has turned into the most insanely fun reality show. One minute she’s screaming into a closet mirror, feeling defeated back in her parents’ house, and a few viral moments later, she’s on The Members Only tour, zipping around country clubs in Oakleys with her tricked-out Streetrod Golf Cart, “sauvi B,” and a sun visor clamped on her blond bob like it’s couture. Her bestie Trish is one call away, her kids Macabee and Dashiell are wrecking the house, her husband Scott isn’t listening (shocker), but her fans-turned-friends, the “Gieurlz,” are. Welcome to the world of the Entitled Housewife. No fancy membership required here because none of it is real, but it’s all so real.

Every story, and character, has a beginning and before she was taking rides on custom carts, she was riding an emotional roller coaster during the pandemic. “So during the pandemic I was with my sister, and she was working at an ER,” says Robinson. “She was in the trenches trying to help people and coming home and you know, might die, and I was terrified because she was coming home from work every day and — who knows? I grew up around Portland, so I had packed up my wigs to go there in case I was going to have a proper ‘Menty-B’ [mental breakdown]. Then even she was like, why don’t you go to mom and dad’s and try to find some form of happiness. So many people were depressed during that time, but I didn’t realize how much I needed to perform.”

While she was stuck at a low point, her parents were somehow in peak vacation mode. “My dad was like, ‘Golf is all we have! You know, we’re golfing all day,’” Becky says, impersonating her father. “He was wearing a golf glove on both hands, kind of like COVID protection, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m doing my part, you know, I’m not wearing a mask, but I got a golf glove on both hands!’”

Becky Robinson takes the stage as the Entitled Housewife

(Megan Rego)

Her mom shared the same sentiment — not for double-fisting gloves — but she too needed to live. “My mom has kind of been through it health-wise, and so she was like, ‘I don’t want to be locked down. I want to go to happy hour with the gieurlz.’ I just sat there and watched them like, you guys are out of your f— minds. Then one day they left the house, and I just felt inspired. So I put a wig on.”

Robinson went into her parents’ closet and dressed herself in a polo, a skort and a visor. “I put on the Oakleys and the Air Pods and the second I looked in the mirror, I just started improvising. She was like, SCOTT! DASHIELL! MACABEE! [My character] had this element of, she could get frustrated very fast.”

That day, in her parents’ closet, Robinson turned lemons into hard lemonade, and with a visor high on her head like a regal crown, a new version of herself emerged — an entitled one. “I improvised for, like, five hours in character. It might have been a manic episode, I don’t know, but I just remember when the whole thing was assembled that day and I started filming, it was making me laugh and I was like, maybe it’ll make someone else laugh too.”

Initially, she hadn’t planned on posting videos of her in character on TikTok but considering how much she was making herself laugh, it was only a matter of time.

“When I made the first , I was like, ‘I can’t post this. It’s dark times and I’m going to look like such a fool for trying to be funny.’ But then I took an edible and showed my sister to see if it made her laugh because I figured she’s experiencing it every day, in the middle of it, and she told me to post it.”

The debut video of Entitled Housewife got millions of views on social media. As it would turn out, other people needed to laugh at the exact same time. “All these celebrities started messaging me and then Chris Pratt DM’d me and is like, ‘If you make a movie with these characters, I have to be Scott!’”

Robinson’s parents weren’t quite as enthusiastic when she showed them her content for the first time. “I think my dad walked out and my mom was like, ‘You know, Beck, this hits a little close to home.’ She was actually pissed at first because I used the real name of my dad’s country club, and it was so vulgar, so she was worried about him getting kicked out.”

Fast forward to now, and many of these types of golf clubs have booked her for shows and actually pay for her to be vulgar. “So they love it now!,” Robinson said. “People come up to my dad in the store like, ‘Are you Entitled’s dad?!’ He definitely loves the perks because he’s a huge golfer.”

“Some people really think I’m this 50-year-old golf lady with kids, and I think a lot of people think that I started when my character started,” Robinson said.

(Megan Rego)

With her family on board and fans worldwide cheering her on, she’s taking off the wig and going back to her stand-up, but with a touch of Entitlement. Shot at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, her debut comedy special, “Becky Robinson: Entitled,” comes out Friday exclusively on her website and shines a massive spotlight on the fact that Robinson has never needed to lean on props to be funny.

“We’re definitely excited to be releasing on our own platform with entire creative control. The team I work with is so bad ass and they’re really the reason it was all brought to life. I wanted something to give to the fans, and I wanted them to be able to watch it without ads. I want them to see how much they lift me up, so I’m excited to get to release this exactly the way we want it. You know, it’s a little longer than an hour, which streamers don’t like, but the Gieurlz will.”

Robinson has been doing stand-up for 13 years, and that experience shows the second she hits any stage (or bar top). In “Entitled,” you see her stand-up carries the same raw, fearless charge that made her Entitled Housewife sketches a phenomenon. Similar, yet clearly distinct, the two share a flair for the dramatic and an energy that feels almost superhuman. “People are always asking, is it drugs? IS IT?,” Robinson laughs. “In the last couple of years, I got this trainer who is like, ‘You gotta treat this like you’re a professional athlete, OK, because that’s what you’re doing up there!’ For a while, I never listened because we were having fun and it’s just stand-up! And for the first couple of years of touring I would have some drinks and stuff, but now, we’re playing at a level where there are acrobatics involved and cues and high kicks and all these things where injury is very possible. Still, though, when I go out there, I just can’t give them anything less than 200%. Then when I get home, I sleep for 24 hours and then, I’m a person again.”

Should there still be any confusion about Robinson versus Entitled Housewife, in addition to her special, she also released a 30-minute documentary that goes behind the scenes of “Becky Robinson: Entitled.” Also available on her website, Robinson couldn’t be more grateful for her Gieurlz who make this world of hers possible, even if some of them think she’s a bit “seasoned.”

“It took me a while to realize that people see videos and just buy tickets, and that they didn’t even know I was this person who’s done stand-up for 13 years,” says Robinson. “Some people really think I’m this 50-year-old golf lady with kids, and I think a lot of people think that I started when my character started. I feel my funniest when I’m doing characters, and I love that people come out dressed like Entitled, but now more and more people are saying they came for the character, and now they like my stand-up too. You love to hear that so that’s been really great!”

“I wanted something to give to the fans,” Robinson said about her new special. “I want them to see how much they lift me up, so I’m excited to get to release this exactly the way we want it.”

(Tara Johnson)

In no way does that signal the end of the fun with Entitled. This fall, Robinson is taking her skort-wearing alter ego global with her very own golf tournament. From Nov. 6 to Nov. 9, “She Gone Golfing: The Entitled Housewife Tulum Classic” hits the PGA Riviera Maya, Mexico’s No.1-ranked course, with PXG backing the madness. It’s a full-blown Gieurlz escape with golf by day, and karaoke-fueled chaos by night in Mexico’s Riviera Maya.

“This trip is probably gonna take years off my life, but we’re gonna turn it up in Mexico, baby! Let’s get international! We’re gonna get that tequila flowing!” Though the idea of being a golfer may have started out as a joke for Robinson, she’s now become fully addicted to the sport.

“It’s such a fun game and it can relax you when you’re just out there waxing those balls! I really want to introduce more people to it so this will be a fun way to do that. The only reason I’m able to do all of these things is because of the fans coming to see the show, buying the merch, and showing up in the visors. They really are the best!”

ONE of the easiest ways to travel around Europe is by train – and a new vintage train in Spain will take you to some of the most popular cities.

The distance between Madrid to Seville is around 300 miles long, but if you’re onboard a retro luxury train, the travel is isn’t a chore at all.

Al Andalus will begin a seven-day route from southern Spain to the capital from spring 2026.

The train doesn’t just trundle straight through from one destination to the other either, as there are plenty of stops along the way.

Stops include Córdoba, Alcázar de San Juan, Mérida, Jerez and Aranjuez as well as visits to UNESCO sites and beach towns.

Another of the stops along the way is to Cádiz, a pretty port city in Andalusia.

TRIP OR TREAT

Bargain deals for half-term holidays from just £109pp with balmy 28C temps

HOT TROPICS

Cheapest tropical destinations you can fly to on budget airlines – from £68

There’s a huge cathedral and Roman amphitheatre next to the city’s promenade as well as La Caleta – one of the local beaches, and outdoor market, Mercado Central.

Sun Writer Hope Brotherton visited previously visited the city and you can find out more on what she thought about these attractions here.

The luxury and vintage train is the longest on the Spanish tracks and is 450 metres in length.

It’s made up of 14 carriages, which accommodate a total of 64 people – there are two restaurant cars, a kitchen car, a bar car, playroom car, seven bed cars, as well as one for crew, and another for machinery.

Onboard are four lounges based on the 1920s which serve traditional Andalusian dishes and drinks.

Breakfast is served daily in the Alhambra and Gibralfaro restaurants where passengers can enjoy both an a la carte and buffet meal.

The Grand Class Room is the smaller of the room options and is fitted with two single beds.

It has a wardrobe, safe, luggage compartment, minibar, air con and a private bathroom with a shower.

It’s not just for sleeping in either, during the day, the cabin can be transformed into a living room.

The beds fold into armchairs and guests can sit to watch the views from the window.

A Grand Class Room for two people is €13,200 (£11,456), or for one individual is €11,200 (£9,722).

Meanwhile, the Deluxe Suite Room is larger at 89 square foot with a large double bed.

It comes with all the amenities that the Grande Class Room has, and the private bathroom has a hydromassage shower.

The day bed turns into a comfortable sofa and each of the suites has 24-hour room service.

For a Deluxe Suite Room, it’s €15,800 (£13,715) for two people, or €13,800 (£11,978) for an individual.

JAB HACK

I’ve lost 6st in six months on Mounjaro & ‘cured’ the horrible side effect

CASH BOOST

Clever tools to help you find lost cash in time for Xmas – you could get £3,141

Here are the list of stops along the new route from Seville to Madrid…

Day One – Seville – Cordoba

Day Two – Córdoba – Cádiz – Jerez

Day Three – Jerez – Zafra

Day Four – Zafra – Cáceres – Mérida

Day Five – Mérida – Alcázar de San Juan

Day Six – Alcázar de San Juan – Toledo – Aranjuez

Day Seven – Aranjuez – Madrid

Here’s more on where to visit in Spain by one writer who goes there every month.

Plus, a new overnight sleeper train to connect 100 European cities with private cabins and panoramic views.

Hi and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell, and judging by the numerous emails on the topic I’ve received, fans really want to beat George Springer.

Springer was the MVP of the 2017 World Series that was won by the cheating Houston (no relation) Astros.

—Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. are the best hitters on the Blue Jays and have been playing very well this postseason.

—Actually, the whole Blue Jays offense is doing well, hitting 296/.355/.523 and averaging 6.45 runs per game. They haven’t faced a starting rotation as good as the Dodgers’ however.

—Even if you discount his 2017 postseason stats, Springer remains one of the best postseason hitters of all time.

—The Dodgers will go with Blake Snell in Game 1 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2.

A quick chart for those of you who miss the days of starting pitchers pitching deep into games:

Most innings pitched by starters in a four-game LCS:

1979 Orioles: 33.1
1974 A’s: 29.2 IP
1983 White Sox: 29.1 IP
1990 A’s: 29.1 IP
2025 Dodgers: 28.2 IP
1983 Orioles: 28.2 IP

—Dodger pitchers have given up four home runs this postseason. Blue Jays pitchers have given up 18.

—How humble and cool is Shohei Ohtani? In the clubhouse after he was named NLCS MVP, he covered up his name on the trophy and replaced it with something that said Team Effort. You can see a picture of it here.

—Some bad news for the bullpen: Alex Vesia might miss the World Series because he and his wife are dealing with a “a deeply personal family matter.” From Jack Harris’ story:

“We have a little bit of time — I think 10 o’clock tomorrow or something like that — to finalize our roster,” Dave Roberts said. “But, yeah, we’re going through the process of trying to backfill his spot on the roster.”

One potential option for the Dodgers would be to place Vesia on MLB’s Family Medical Emergency List, which would require him to miss a minimum of three days but make it possible for him to rejoin the active roster later in the World Series.

—That would be a big blow to the Dodger bullpen. Vesia was one of the handful of guys they counted on this postseason. I would imagine Anthony Banda would fill his role as the main left-hander out of the pen.

—But the important thing is not how it hurts the Dodgers, it’s that Vesia and his wife come through this OK. Our best wishes to them.

—Which unlikely player will rise up to be a star this World Series? I’m going with Andy Pages, who is overdue to break his slump.

—The dream scenario: Dodgers win it at home, and have a big enough lead that Clayton Kershaw comes in to pitch the final inning.

—Because I had “4-0” and “4-3” on the mind (or, I’m just dumb), in the last newsletter I had the Dodgers defeating the A’s 4-3 in the 1988 World Series. It was 4-1 of course.

—What do the Dodgers need to do to win? Cool off Springer and Guerrero. Work the count and tire out the pitching staff, which pays off even more as the series progresses. The pitchers need to attack hitters and not just nibble around the corner. All of that is easier said than done though.

—Whichever team wins, Jose Ureña is guaranteed a World Series ring. He pitched for the Dodgers and Blue Jays this season. For the Dodgers he gave one run in three innings, for the Blue Jays, five runs in 12.1 innings. The Dodgers signed him on June 3 and released him on June 13.

—Familiar face Don Mattingly is the bench coach for the Blue Jays. Believe it or not, in his long, illustrious career, this is the first time he has been in a World Series.

—One thing the Dodgers have working in their favor: The Blue Jays don’t have many strong left-handed pitchers. They can’t just pound them with lefties like the Brewers did.

—The series won’t be easy. The Dodgers have made winning in the postseason look easy, but it isn’t. But there are four more wins left in them.

Prediction: Dodgers in 5.

Let’s take a look at how the teams compare and where they ranked among the 30 teams:

Batting

Runs per game
Dodgers, 5.09 (2nd)
Blue Jays, 4.93 (4th)
MLB average, 4.45

Batting average
Blue Jays, .265 (1st)
Dodgers, .253 (5th)
MLB average, .245

On-base %
Blue Jays, .333 (1st)
Dodgers, .327 (5th)
MLB average, .315

Slugging %
Dodgers, .441 (2nd)
Blue Jays, .427 (7th)
MLB average, .404

Doubles
Blue Jays, 294 (3rd)
MLB average, 258
Dodgers, 257 (13th)

Triples
Dodgers, 21 (T12th)
MLB average, 21
Blue Jays, 13 (26th)

Home runs
Dodgers, 244 (2nd)
Blue Jays, 191 (T11th)
MLB average, 188

Walks
Dodgers, 580 (2nd)
Blue Jays, 520 (13th)
MLB average, 513

Strikeouts
MLB average, 1,355
Dodgers, 1,353 (16th)
Blue Jays, 1,099 (29th)

Stolen bases
MLB average, 115
Dodgers, 88 (T21st)
Blue Jays, 77 (28th)

Sacrifice bunts
Blue Jays, 35 (3rd)
MLB average, 19
Dodgers, 13 (T20th)

Batting average with two out and runners in scoring position
Dodgers, .271 (1st)
Blue Jays, .264 (4th)
MLB average, .233

Pitching

ERA
Dodgers, 3.95 (16th)
MLB average, 4.15
Blue Jays, 4.18 (19th)

Team ERA after All-Star break
Dodgers, 3.45 (2nd)
Blue Jays, 4.23 (17th)
MLB average, 4.28

Rotation ERA
Dodgers, 3.69 (5th)
MLB average, 4.21
Blue Jays, 4.34 (20th)

Bullpen ERA
Blue Jays, 3.98 (16th)
MLB average, 4.08
Dodgers, 4.27 (21st)

FIP (click here for explainer)
Dodgers, 3.93 (7th)
MLB average, 4.16
Blue Jays, 4.27 (23rd)

Walks
Dodgers, 563 (5th)
Blue Jays, 517 (15th)
MLB average, 513

Strikeouts
Dodgers, 1,505 (1st)
Blue Jays, 1,430 (6th)
MLB average, 1,355

Saves
Dodgers, 46 (5th)
Blue Jays, 42 (T12th)
MLB average, 40

Blown saves
Dodgers, 27 (T7th)
MLB average, 24
Blue Jays, 23 (T14th)

Inherited runners who scored %
Dodgers, 26.1% (3rd)
Blue Jays, 27.6% (8th)
MLB average, 31.8%

Relief innings
Dodgers, 657.2 (1st)
Blue Jays, 597.1 (13th)
MLB average, 595

Relief wins
Dodgers, 44 (T1st)
Blue Jays, 44 (T1st)
MLB average, 33

Relief losses
Dodgers, 33 (T7th)
MLB average, 29
Blue Jays, 22 (T26th)

Fielding

Errors
Blue Jays, 86 (12th)
MLB average, 82
Dodgers, 68 (25th)

The players

When comparing the main players on the teams, keep in mind that players can move around depending on who is starting and managerial whim. For a full look at the Blue Jays statistically, click here.

DH
Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani. .282/.392/.622, 25 doubles, 55 homers, 102 RBIs
Blue Jays, George Springer, .309/.399/.500, 27 doubles, 32 homers, 84 RBIs

The best hitter on both teams bats leadoff. Far cry from the days when the DH would be the slow, aging, plodding slugger, batting fourth or fifth.

Catcher
Dodgers, Will Smith, .296/.404/.497, 20 doubles, 17 homers, 61 RBIs
Dodgers, Ben Rortvedt, .224/.309/.327, 2 doubles, 1 homer, 4 RBIs
Blue Jays, Alejandro Kirk, .282/.348/.421, 8 doubles, 3 homers, 20 RBIs
Blue Jays, Tyler Heineman, .289/.361/.416, 3 doubles, 3 homers, 17 RBIs

Don’t expect Rortvedt or Heineman to get too much, if any, playing time.

First base
Dodgers, Freddie Freeman, .295/.367/.502, 39 doubles, 24 homers, 90 RBIs
Blue Jays, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., .292/.381/.467, 34 doubles, 23 homers, 84 RBIs

Guerrero is red hot. He was named ALCS MVP after hitting .385 with three homers and he hit .529 in the ALDS. He has six home runs and 12 RBIs in 11 postseason games this season. Priority one will be slowing him down some.

Second base
Dodgers, Miguel Rojas, .262/.318/.397, 18 doubles, 7 homers, 27 RBIs
Dodgers, Tommy Edman, .225/.274/.382, 13 doubles, 13 homers, 49 RBIs
Blue Jays, Andrés Giménez, .210/.285/.313, 11 doubles, 7 homers, 35 RBIs
OR
Blue Jays, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, .262/.297/.334, 21 doubles, 2 homers, 40 RBIs

When I see good glove, no hit guys like Giménez in a World Series lineup and begin to think “easy out,” I stop myself and start thinking about Brian Doyle in the 1978 World Series. He was a career .161 hitter who hit .438 in that series.

Third base
Dodgers, Max Muncy, .243/.376/.470, 10 doubles, 19 homers, 67 RBIs
Blue Jays, Ernie Clement, .277/.313/.398, 35 doubles, 9 homers, 50 RBIs

Shortstop
Dodgers, Mookie Betts, .258/.326/.406, 23 doubles, 20 homers, 82 RBIs
Blue Jays, Andrés Giménez, .210/.285/.313, 11 doubles, 7 homers, 35 RBIs
OR
Blue Jays, Bo Bichette, .311/.457/.483, 44 doubles, 18 homers, 94 RBIs

The Blue Jays’ middle infield depends entirely on the health of Bichette. He has been out for six weeks because of an injured left knee, but says he will be ready for the World Series. If he is, then Giménez slides over to second. If not, the Giménez plays short and Kiner-Falefa plays second.

Left field
Dodgers, Kiké Hernández, .203/.255/.366, 8 doubles, 10 homers, 35 RBIs
Blue Jays, Nathan Lukes, .255/.323/.407, 19 doubles, 12 homers, 65 RBIs

Center field
Dodgers, Andy Pages, .272/.313/.461, 27 doubles, 27 homers, 86 RBIs
Blue Jays, Daulton Varsho, .238/.284/.548, 13 doubles, 20 homers, 55 RBIs

Right field
Dodgers, Teoscar Hernández, .247/.284/.454, 29 doubles, 25 homers, 89 RBIs
Blue Jays, Addison Barger, .243/.301/.454, 32 doubles, 21 homers, 74 RBIs

Barger is Max Muncy, if Muncy didn’t draw any walks.

Of the Blue Jays, Giménez, Lukes, Varsho and Barger bat left-handed. Heineman is a switch-hitter.

Starting pitchers

Dodgers
*Blake Snell, 5-4, 2.35 ERA, 61.1 IP, 51 hits, 26 walks, 72 K’s
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 12-8, 2.49 ERA, 173.2 IP, 113 hits, 59 walks, 201 K’s
Shohei Ohtani, 1-1, 2.87 ERA, 47 IP, 40 hits, 9 walks, 62 K’s
Tyler Glasnow, 4-3, 3.19 ERA, 90.1 IP, 56 hits, 43 walks, 106 K’s

Blue Jays
Kevin Gausman, 10-11, 3.59 ERA, 193 IP, 155 hits, 50 walks, 189 K’s
Shane Bieber, 4-2, 3.57 ERA, 40.1 IP, 34 hits, 7 walks, 37 K’s
Trey Yesavage, 1-0, 3.21 ERA, 14 IP, 13 hits, 7 walks, 16 K’s
Max Scherzer, 5-5, 5.19 ERA, 85 IP, 87 hits, 23 walks, 82 K’s

These are the four pitchers who started for the Blue Jays in the ALCS. It’s conceivable they could use left-hander Eric Lauer as a starter, or as an opener, to help neutralize Ohtani and Freeman. He started for them during the season before going to the bullpen when Bieber joined the rotation.

The main relievers

Dodgers
*Alex Vesia, 4-2, 3.02 ERA, 5 saves, 59.2 IP, 37 hits, 22 walks, 80 K’s
Emmet Sheehan, 6-3, 2.82 ERA, 73.1 IP, 49 hits, 22 walks, 89 K’s
Blake Treinen, 2-7. 5.40 ERA, 26.2 IP, 30 hits, 19 walks, 36 K’s
Roki Sasaki, 1-1, 4.46 ERA, 36.1 IP, 30 hits, 22 walks, 28 K’s
*Anthony Banda, 5-1, 3.18 ERA, 65 IP, 45 hits, 34 walks, 61 K’s

Blue Jays
Jeff Hoffman, 9-7, 4.37 ERA, 33 saves, 68 IP, 54 hits, 27 walks, 84 K’s
Louis Varland, 1-0, 4.94 ERA, 23.2 IP, 24 hits, 9 walks, 28 K’s
*Mason Fluharty, 5-2, 4.44 ERA, 1 save, 52.2 IP, 36 hits, 24 walks, 56 K’s
*Eric Lauer, 9-2, 3.18 ERA, 104.2 IP, 90 hits, 26 walks, 102 K’s
Seranthony Dominguez, 2-1, 3.00 ERA, 21 IP, 12 hits, 12 walks, 25 K’s

*-left-handed

Postseason numbers

How the Dodgers and Blue Jays have done this postseason:

Batting

Alex Call, .750/.857/.750, 3 for 4, 2 walks
Ben Rortvedt, .429/.500/.571, 3 for 7, 1 double, 1 RBI, 3 K’s
Miguel Rojas, .375/.444/.375, 3 for 8, 1 RBI
Kiké Hernández, .306/.375/.417, 11 for 36, 4 doubles, 4 RBIs, 4 walks, 9 K’s
Mookie Betts, .293/.370/.439, 12 for 41, 4 doubles, 1 triple, 6 RBIs, 4 walks, 4 K’s
Tommy Edman, .286/.306/.486, 10 for 35, 1 double, 2 homers, 6 RBIs, 1 walk, 12 K’s
Will Smith, .286/.375/.286, 8 for 28, 2 RBIs, 3 walks, 10 K’s
Teoscar Hernández, .268/.302/.585, 1 double, 4 homers, 11 RBIs, 2 walks, 11 K’s
Freddie Freeman, .231/.333/.410, 9 for 39, 4 doubles, 1 homer, 1 RBI, 5 walks, 11 K’s
Shohei Ohtani, .220/.333/.634, 9 for 41, 1 triple, 5 homers, 9 RBIs, 7 walks, 17 K’s
Max Muncy, .214/.389/.357, 6 for 28, 1 double, 1 homer, 1 RBI, 7 walks, 6 K’s
Andy Pages, .086/.135/.114, 3 for 35, 1 double, 1 RBI, 9 K’s
Dalton Rushing, 0 for 1, 1 K
Team, .256/.340/.430, 17 doubles, 2 triples, 13 homers, 35 walks, 93 K’s, 4.6 runs per game

Blue Jays

Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., .442/.510/.930, 19 for 43, 3 doubles, 6 homers, 12 RBIs, 6 walks, 3 K’d
Ernie Clement, .429/.444/.619, 18 for 42, 3 doubles, 1 triple, 1 homer, 7 RBIs, 1 walk, 2 K’s
Nathan Lukes, .333/.381/.410, 13 for 39, 3 doubles, 7 RBIs, 3 walks, 5 K’s
Addison Barger, .286/.375/.514, 10 for 35, 2 doubles, 2 homers, 4 RBIs, 5 walks, 7 K’s
Daulton Varsho, .273/.304/.500, 12 for 44, 4 doubles, 2 homers, 8 RBIs, 2 walks, 12 K’s
Andrés Giménez, .263/.317/.447, 10 for 38, 1 double, 2 homers, 8 RBIs, 2 walks, 5 K’s
George Springer, .239/.321/. 609, 11 for 36, 5 doubles, 4 homers, 9 RBIs, 5 walks, 11 K’s
Isiah Kiner-Falefa, .238/.238/.333, 5 for 21, 2 doubles, 1 RBI, 1 K
Alejandro Kirk, .222/.286/.467, 10 for 45, 2 doubles, 3 homers, 7 RBIs, 4 walks, 7 K’s
Myles Straw, .222/.300/.222, 2 for 9, 1 RBI, 1 walk, 2 K’s
Anthony Santander, .200/.250/.200, 3 for 15, 2 RBIs, 1 walk, 5 K’s
David Schneider, .200/.385/.300, 2 for 10, 1 double, 3 walks, 4 K’s
Joey Loperfido, 0 for 1
Team, .296/.355/.523, 26 doubles, 1 triple, 20 homers, 33 walks, 64 K’s, 6.45 runs per game

Pitching

Anthony Banda, 0.00 ERA, 1.2 IP, 2 walks, 1 K
Jack Dreyer, 0.00 ERA, 2.2 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, 3 K’s
Tyler Glasnow, 0.68 ERA, 13.1 IP, 7 hits, 1 ER, 8 walks, 18 K’s
Blake Snell, 3-0, 0.86 ERA, 21 IP, 6 hits, 2 ER, 5 walks, 28 K’s
Roki Sasaki, 1.13 ERA, 3 saves, 8 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER,, 2 walks, 6 K’s
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 2-1, 1.83 ERA, 19.2 IP, 13 hits, 4 ER, 4 walks, 18 K’s
Shohei Ohtani, 2-0, 2.25 ERA, 12 IP, 5 hits, 3 ER, 4 walks, 19 K’s
Alex Vesia, 2-0, 3.86 ERA, 4.2 IP, 3 hits, 3 ER, 3 walks, 4 K’s
Blake Treinen, 7.36 ERA, 3.2 IP, 5 hits 3 ER, 2 walks, 5 K’s
Emmet Sheehan, 10.80 ERA, 3.1 IP, 6 hits, 4 ER, 2 walks, 2 K’s
Clayton Kershaw, 18.00 ERA, 2 IP, 6 hits, 4 ER, 3 walks
Edgardo Henriquez, infinity, 0 IP, 1 hit, 1 ER, 2 walks
Team, 9-1, 2.45 ERA. 4 saves, 92 IP, 56 hits, 25 ER, 38 walks, 104 K’s

Blue Jays

Chris Bassitt, 0.00 ERA, 2.2 IP, 3 K’s
Jeff Hoffman, 1.23 ERA, 2 saves, 7.1 IP, 3 hits, 1 ER, 2 walks, 12 K’s
Kevin Gausman, 2-1, 2.00 ERA, 18 IP, 10 hits, 4 ER, 9 walks, 12 K’s
Max Scherzer, 1-0, 3.18 ERA, 5.2 IP, 3 hits, 2 ER, 4 walks, 5 K’s
Louis Varland, 0-1, 3.27 ERA, 11 IP, 8 hits, 4 ER, 1 walk, 13 K’s
Seranthony Dominguez. 1-0, 4.05 ERA, 6.2 IP, 3 hits, 3 ER, 5 walks, 5 K’s
Trey Yesavage, 2-1, 4.20 ERA, 15 IP, 10 hits, 7 ER, 7 walks, 22 K’s
Shane Bieber, 1-0, 4.38 ERA, 12.1 IP, 16 hits, 6 ER, 3 walks, 15 K’s
Mason Fluharty, 6.23 ERA, 4.1 IP, 5 hits, 3 ER, 2 walks, 7 K’s
Braydon Fisher, 7.36 ERA, 3.2 IP, 7 hits, 3 ER, 1 walk, 6 K’s
Eric Lauer, 9.00 ERA, 3 IP, 4 hits, 3 ER, 1 walk, 5 K’s
Yariel Rodríguez, 10.13 ERA, 2.2 IP, 2 hits, 3 ER, 4 walks, 1 K
Brendon Little, 0-1, 12.00 ERA, 3 IP, 5 hits, 4 ER, 4 walks, 2 K’s
Tommy Nance, 13.50 ERA, 1.1 IP, 5 hits, 2 ER, 1 walk
Justin Bruihl, 54.00 ERA, 0.1 IP, 3 hits, 2 ER
Team, 7-4, 4.36 ERA, 2 saves, 97 IP, 84 hits, 47 ER, 44 walks, 108 K’s

Poll results

We asked, “Who will win the World Series?”

After 13,296 votes:

Dodgers in five, 44.5%
Dodgers in six, 40.7%
Dodgers in four, 6.3%
Dodgers in seven, 4.5%
Blue Jays in six, 1.9%
Blue Jays in seven, 1.2%
Blue Jays in five, 0.6%
Blue Jays in four, 0.3%

Up next

Friday: Dodgers (Blake Snell, 5-4, 2.35 ERA) at Toronto (Trey Yesavage, 1-0, 3.21 ERA), 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

Saturday: Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 12-8, 2.49 ERA) at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

Monday: Toronto at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

Tuesday: Toronto at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

x-Wednesday: Toronto at Dodgers, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

x-Friday, Oct. 31: Dodgers at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

x-Saturday, Nov. 1: Dodgers at Toronto, 5 p.m., Fox, AM 570, KTMZ 1220, ESPN radio

x-if necessary

In case you missed it

Alex Vesia might not pitch in World Series because of personal matter

‘It’s just in our DNA’: Why Dodgers treat title pressure as routine while chasing dynasty

Dave Roberts doesn’t think the Dodgers are villains

Hernández: Yamamoto’s interpreter almost quit after 2 days. Now he’s hoping his underwear can help in World Series

Cuban Andy Pages’ Dodgers success is bittersweet due to family separation

How a difficult season transformed Blake Snell into the Dodgers’ October ace

Shaikin: ‘I let down an entire nation.’ Canadians wanted Ohtani. They got a ‘Shark Tank’ star instead

Dodgers’ Justin Dean has not batted yet in the playoffs. Here’s how he still contributes

And finally

Freddie Freeman hits a walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. Watch and listen here.

Until next time…

Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

Let’s just kick the elephant out of the room right away. It’s hard to write a guide to Highland Park without addressing the “G” word. The neighborhood has been described as a poster child of gentrification, and for anyone who spends time there, it’s easy to see why.

Get to know Los Angeles through the places that bring it to life. From restaurants to shops to outdoor spaces, here’s what to discover now.

Within the Northeast neighborhood nestled between downtown L.A. and Pasadena, you’ll see the Highland Park of the past: find remnants like the stone castle that was once the home of Charles F. Lummis, a poet and journalist who famously walked from Cincinnati to Highland Park — yes, you read that correctly — to accept a job at the Los Angeles Times in the mid 1880s. (He later went on to found the Southwest Museum, L.A.’s first museum, close by.)

You’ll see the Highland Park that remains: a working-class hub where bandas practice outside for all to hear, the smell of street tacos fills the air, multigenerational families play together at the park and iconic fixtures like the 22-foot-tall Chicken Boy statue that hovers over North Figueroa like a friendly mascot.

And you’ll see the Highland Park that’s emerging: an L.A. hot spot where young people flock to sip on fancy cocktails along York Boulevard and hang out at a chic Prohibition-era bowling alley.

Somehow, all these versions exist together. These days, it’s common to see luxury companies like Le Labo, which sells candles for upward of $90, move next door to small businesses such as the beloved Mexican family-owned Delicias Bakery & Some that has been serving fresh pan dulce for nearly 35 years. The community collectively mourned when its 100-year-old historic movie theater closed last March.

As one of L.A.’s first suburbs, Highland Park began the 20th century as an artsy oasis that was dotted with charming Craftsman homes. By the 1960s, the neighborhood had transformed into an epicenter for Latino life. The evolution of Highland Park has brought all the usual tensions between longtime residents and newcomers, many of whom were priced out of areas like Silver Lake and South Pasadena.

In spite of that, Highland Park has managed to hold onto its roots and small-town charm. This is in part thanks to nonprofits like the Highland Park Heritage Trust and community members who have been working to preserve the neighborhood’s rich history and cherished cultural hubs.

“A lot of the identity is still here, things that just make it feel like home,” says Michael Nájera, 35, whose family has lived in the neighborhood for three generations. He and his wife co-founded a running club called Tofu Scramble that meets at local coffee shops on Friday mornings.

“There’s a strong sense of community here. Even with everything going on these days, it’s amazing to see people out — some of us because we can, and others at risk because they have to,” he adds, referring to the recent ICE raids. “And still, this feels like a place where it’s OK to be brown and to be outside.” It’s common to see local businesses displaying Know Your Rights cards in support of their neighbors.

Rocio Paredes, a director and photographer who attended Franklin Middle School and High School in Highland Park, adds that “Chicanoism is very engraved in our DNA here.” You can see the culture’s influence in spaces like the Centro de Arte Público and the Mechicano Art Center, both of which were home to Highland Park’s Chicano Arts Collective, an organization that helped advance the political aims of L.A.’s Chicano movement in the 1970s. And also at local restaurants. At Las Cazuelas, a family-run Salvadoran pupuseria that’s been open since 1985, Parades says, “It’s like a f— time capsule.”

From historic Craftsman homes, beautiful hills, bountiful green spaces, cuisine from various cultures, vintage shops of varied prices and a vibrant nightlife scene, there’s so much to appreciate about Highland Park.

WHEN Brits think about the best cities in the UK, the ones that come to mind are probably the likes of York, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Brighton or London.

But according to National Geographic, one of ‘best places in the world to travel to in 2026’ is Hull – all thanks to its lively bar scene, award-winning aquarium, and completion of a huge project costing millions.

Hull, is a port city in East Yorkshire that sits on the north bank of the river Humber.

National Geographic has named it as one of the best places in the entire world to visit next year, but it’s not always been so up and coming.

For example in Hull took top spot in the book Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places to Live in the UK back in 2003.

However, it’s set to become more popular in 2026, and National Geographic mentioned that one of the reasons why is Hull’s investment into conserving its rich maritime history.

YULE DO

Travel expert reveals cheap UK holiday parks with Xmas breaks from £9pp a night

CHRIMBO WIN

Enter these travel comps before Xmas to win £2k holidays, ski trips & spa stays

Hull was a very important trade route during the 13th and 14th centuries.

Thanks to this, you can see Dutch-influenced architecture buildings that line the streets of the quaint Old Town. 

Since 2020, the Maritime Museum has been undergoing a huge revamp worth £11million, but it will finally reopen to the public next year.

This has been part of a wider £27.5 million project to promote Hull’s maritime history which has gone into restoring the museum and ships.

Another reason is the city’s new leisure spots that have transformed warehouses and the old waterside Fruit Market to become bars, restaurants, and art galleries.

The publication added: “There’s also a spectacular performance amphitheater, called Stage@TheDock, overlooking River Hull where it meets the Humber Estuary.”

It continued: “And a former shipyard has for over 20 years been the base for The Deep, one of the United Kingdom’s most highly respected aquariums and marine conservation centers.”

The Deep is one of the country’s best aquariums, and the attraction is listed as one of top thing to do on Hull’s TripAdvisor.

Inside, visitors will be able to see sharks, turtles, penguins, and the UK’s only Green sawfish.

Head into the city and you’ll find the towering Hull Minster, the largest parish church in England (by floor area), it’s over 700 years old and is known to have some of the finest medieval brickwork in the country.

If visitors want to get a panoramic view of Hull, they can choose to climb the 180 steps up the spiral staircase.

It’s not just all about history, as Hull is a star of the screen having been used in the backdrop of lots of well-known TV shows and movies.

It even has its own showbiz trail called ‘It Must Be Hullywood‘, a walking route designed for tourists to see sites of their favourite shows.

And they’re big shows too like The Crown, Bodies, Enola Holmes 2 and ITV‘s Victoria starring Jenna Coleman.

Visitors to Hull can download a guide or grab a leaflet to follow the trail at their own pace.

It’s not the first time Hull has been revealed to be a city on the rise, it was even named one of Time Out’s best places to visit in 2024. In 2017, Hull was named the UK City of Culture.

Last year, Sun Travel explored Hull as part of Sun Travel’s Best of British series, and writer Hope Brotherton went to explore the city, here’s what she discovered.

For shopping, Hope suggested heading to Humber Street which used to be lined with fruit and veg traders but now has cool independent clothing and homeware shops, an art gallery and some of the city’s trendiest restaurants.

When it comes to things to do, head to Dinostar, an interactive dinosaur museum designed specifically for inquisitive kids where there’s everything from yrannosaurus Rex skull to Triceratops bones.

Other stops include the William Wilberforce House Museum and the Hull & East Riding Museum of Archaeology.

Hull has plenty of pubs and in 2023 was crowned the UK’s cheapest place for beers last year – some of Hope’s favourite included The Minerva pub and the Lion and Key.

The city is also rightfully proud of their Hearth Restaurant & Bakery, which is even listed in the Michelin Guide. 

STRICTLY NEWBIES

All the stars in line to replace Tess and Claudia on Strictly

TUM HELP

The 30g diet hack that ‘PREVENTS deadly bowel cancer’… as cases surge in under-50s

After spending a weekend in the city, Hope said: “From its maritime history to its free walking tours and other cultural attractions, Hull has it all for a great weekend break.

After 48 hours in the city, I could see why the locals I met are so proud to come from Hull – I would be, too.”

National Geographic’s ‘best places in the world to travel to in 2026’…

The Dolomites, Milan, Italy

Québec, Canada

Beijing, China

Dominica

Rabat, Morocco

Hull, Yorkshire, England

North Dakota Badlands, U.S.

Manila, Philippines

Black Sea Coast, Türkiye

Khiva, Uzbekistan

Akagera National Park, Rwanda, East Africa

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Yamagata Prefecture, Japan

Route 66: Oklahoma, U.S.

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Australia

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Oulu, Finland

South Korea

Guimarães, Portugal

Basque Country, Spain

Maui, Hawaii, U.S.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.

Coastal Oaxaca (Costa Chica), Mexico

Fiji

Medellín, Colombia

Banff, Canada

AI is driving the stock market to record highs, dominating countless debates about the value of human labor, and radically rewiring the way schools approach education. It’s also causing a stir in the art world, with media artist Refik Anadol poised to open Dataland, the world’s first museum of AI arts, inside the Frank Gehry-designed Grand L.A. complex in downtown Los Angeles next spring.

A first-look at the Infinity Room gallery at Dataland.

(Dataland)

The 25,000-square-foot museum was originally scheduled to open this year, but Anadol announced Thursday that the opening has been pushed back to spring 2026. Anadol also unveiled a sneak peak at the Infinity Room, one of the museum’s five discrete galleries. The immersive room features Anadol’s distinct swirling colors and images and will be infused with AI-generated scents, creating a multisensory experience powered by its very own AI model, called the Large Nature Model.

The Infinity Room design dates back to 2014 when Anadol created his first immersive data sculpture at UCLA. He described it as an exploration into the future of the Light and Space movement. It was essentially a 12-by-12-foot cube, with mirrored walls, ceiling and floors. Projectors emitted pulses of black-and-white imagery that used data as a pigment. To date, the Infinity Room has toured 35 cities and been viewed by more than 10 million people.

Another look at the Infinity Room, which has been viewed by 10 million people on tour.

(Dataland)

“The work emerged from my exploration of the idea that information can become a narrative material capable of transforming architectural space into a living canvas. The question driving me was simple but profound: What happens if there is no corner, no floor, no ceiling, no gravity?” Anadol wrote about his concept for the Infinity Room in a blog post on his website. “At DATALAND, Infinity Room enters a new era. This iteration embodies the technical and conceptual leaps our studio has made over the past decade. Where the original used generative algorithms, this new incarnation incorporates our decade-long research into what I call “machine hallucinations” — the dreamlike, surreal realities an AI can generate from vast datasets.”

The Infinity Room is meant to be a multisensory experience.

(Dataland)

In an interview last year, Anadol said “ethical AI” is essential to his practice. Unlike most large AI models, Anadol secured permission to use all of his sourced material, and said all of the studio’s AI research was performed on Google servers in Oregon that use only renewable energy.

Walt Disney Co. is alerting viewers that its channels may go dark on YouTube TV amid tense contract negotiations between the two television giants.

The companies are struggling to hammer out a new distribution deal on YouTube TV for Disney’s channels, including ABC, ESPN, FX, National Geographic and Disney Channel. YouTube TV has become one of the most popular U.S. pay-TV services, boasting about 10 million subscribers for its packages of traditional television channels.

Those customers risk losing Disney’s channels, including KABC-TV Channel 7 in Los Angeles and other ABC affiliates nationwide if the two companies fail to forge a new carriage agreement by next Thursday, when their current pact expires.

“Without an agreement, we’ll have to remove Disney’s content from YouTube TV,” the Google Inc.-owned television service said Thursday in a statement.

Disney began sounding the alarm by running messages on its TV channels to warn viewers about the blackout threat.

The Burbank entertainment company becomes the latest TV programmer to allege that the tech behemoth is throwing its weight around in contract negotiations.

In recent months, both Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp. and Comcast’s NBCUniversal publicly complained that Google’s YouTube TV was attempting to unfairly squeeze them in their separate talks. In the end, both Fox and NBCUniversal struck new carriage contracts without their channels going dark.

Univision wasn’t as fortunate. The smaller Spanish-language media company’s networks went dark last month on YouTube TV when the two companies failed to reach a deal.

“For the fourth time in three months, Google’s YouTube TV is putting their subscribers at risk of losing the most valuable networks they signed up for,” a Disney spokesperson said Thursday in a statement. “This is the latest example of Google exploiting its position at the expense of their own customers.”

YouTube TV, for its part, alleged that Disney was the one making unreasonable demands.

“We’ve been working in good faith to negotiate a deal with Disney that pays them fairly for their content on YouTube TV,” a YouTube TV spokesperson said in a statement. “Unfortunately, Disney is proposing costly economic terms that would raise prices on YouTube TV customers and give our customers fewer choices, while benefiting Disney’s own live TV products – like Hulu + Live TV and, soon, Fubo,” YouTube TV said.

Disney’s Hulu + Live TV competes directly with YouTube TV by offering the same channels. Fubo is a sports streaming service that Disney is in the process of acquiring.

YouTube said if Disney channels remain “unavailable for an extended period of time,” it would offer its customers a $20 credit.

The contract tussle heightens tensions from earlier this year, when Disney’s former distribution chief, Justin Connolly, left in May to take a similar position at YouTube TV. Connolly had spent two decades at Disney and ESPN and Disney sued to block the move, but a judge allowed Connolly to take his new position.

YouTube TV launched in April 2017 for $35 a month. The package of channels now costs $82.99.

To attract more sports fans, YouTube TV took over the NFL Sunday Ticket premium sports package from DirecTV, which had been losing more than $100 million a year to maintain the NFL service. YouTube TV offers Sunday Ticket as a base plan add-on or as an individual channel on YouTube.

Last year, YouTube generated $54.2 billion in revenue, second only to Disney among television companies, according to research firm MoffettNathanson.

The dispute comes as NFL and college football is in full swing, with games on ABC and ESPN. The NBA season also tipped off this week and ESPN prominently features those games. ABC’s fall season began last month with fresh episodes of such favorite programs as “Dancing with the Stars” and “Abbott Elementary.”

ABC stations also air popular newscasts including “Good Morning America” and “World News Tonight with David Muir.” Many ABC stations, including in Los Angeles, run Sony’s “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!”

“We invest significantly in our content and expect our partners to pay fair rates that recognize that value,” Disney said. “If we don’t reach a fair deal soon, YouTube TV customers will lose access to ESPN and ABC, and all our marquee programming – including the NFL, college football, NBA and NHL seasons – and so much more.”

From the hot tub in the Dodger Stadium clubhouse, Yoshinobu Yamamoto saw his interpreter on his way to take a shower.

Yamamoto called out to him.

“What are those colors?” Yamamoto asked him.

Yoshihiro Sonoda, 48, wore only a pair of boxers that depicted a rabbit with rainbow-colored lasers shooting out of its eyes.

Sonoda explained bashfully, “These are my shobu pantsu.”

For more than a year, Sonoda had worn shobu pantsu — or game underwear — for each one of Yamamoto’s starts.

Sonoda chuckled as he recalled the incident. Several weeks have passed since then, and the superstitious interpreter still wears his lucky boxers on days Yamamoto pitches.

When Yamamoto takes the mound for the Dodgers against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday in Game 2 of the World Series, beneath Sonoda’s team-issued sweatpants will be the rabbit and rainbow-colored lasers.

The kid is a little different.

Sonoda recalled thinking that last year on the first day of spring training. On a grass field near the players’ parking lot, he watched Yamamoto throw javelins as part of his workout routine.

When the Japanese right-hander was finished, Sonoda started collecting the projectiles.

Yamamoto stopped him.

“Please, you’re my interpreter,” he said. “You’re not my servant.”

Yamamoto picked up his javelins and carried them back to the clubhouse.

In the months that followed, Sonoda noticed how Yamamoto treated others. He wasn’t kind only to other players. He was also conscientious of the organization’s rank-and-file employees.

“He pretends he’s not watching, but he’s watching,” Sonoda said. “He seems like he’s not listening, but he’s listening.”

Every day the Dodgers are on the road, Yamamoto has Starbucks coffee delivered to the team hotel. He always orders something for Sonoda.

“I think Yamamoto is quite the gentleman, quite the high character,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He treats everyone from Hiro to myself to all the support staff with the highest of respect.”

Two days into the job as Yamamoto’s interpreter, Sonoda wanted to resign.

A former collegiate judo standout in Japan, Sonoda spent the previous two decades working in the entertainment industry as a lighting engineer, his credits including “Men in Black,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “Succession” and “Nurse Jackie.”

He had no previous experience as an interpreter and was by no means a baseball expert. He was apart from his wife, who remained in her native Texas.

“I don’t want to quit, but I can’t do this,” Sonoda told traveling secretary Scott Akasaki.

Akasaki, who was once an interpreter for Hideo Nomo, asked Sonoda to reconsider.

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, left, speaks to reporters with his interpreter, Yoshihiro Sonoda, in a press conference before Game 1 of the 2024 NLDS against the San Diego Padres.

(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)

“You can learn about baseball if you study it,” Sonoda recalled being told by Akasaki. “But Yoshinobu chose you for a reason, and that’s something no other person has.”

Sonoda never shared his insecurities with Yamamoto, instead throwing himself head first into his work. He was taught how to interpret ball-tracking data by assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness and performance science manager Tyler Duncan. He consulted with veteran interpreters, including Shingo Horie of the San Diego Padres and Hiro Fujiwara of the New York Mets.

Last year at World Series media day, Yamamoto was asked about Sonoda.

“We were both rookies this year,” Yamamoto said. “Sonoda-san especially, he came from a different industry and I would think he endured a lot of hardship. But he didn’t let on about that being the case.”

Standing by Yamamoto’s side, Sonoda fought back tears.

Sonoda has a small notebook in which he tracks every pitch thrown by Yamamoto. In a night game in Baltimore last month, Sonoda took notes as usual, jotting down pitches types and their locations.

Yamamoto carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning.

When there were two outs, Sonoda had Shohei Ohtani on one side of him and trainer Yosuke Nakajima on the other.

Sonoda stopped taking notes.

“I thought I should prepare to celebrate,” he said.

Jackson Holliday homered, and the no-hitter was gone.

Sonoda blamed himself.

“If only I had taken notes on that at-bat …” he said.

Sonoda was a significantly better interpreter this season than he was last season. On his commutes to Dodger Stadium, he listens to audio of Horie interpreting for Yu Darvish or Fujiwara for Kodai Senga.

Yamamoto noticed.

“His efforts in the shadows have been to where I can feel them,” Yamamoto said. “He’s a very pure and straightforward person. I think he’s really wonderful.”

Last year, Sonoda received a set of national-park-themed underwear from his wife, who knew of his affinity for the outdoors. The Yellowstone Park pair featured a roaring bear, which reminded Sonoda of Yamamoto screaming on the mound. Sonoda started wearing the boxers on days Yamamoto pitched, switching to a different pair for the next start if he lost or didn’t pitch well.

A new season called for a new set of underwear, but a stretch of inadequate run support prompted Sonoda to unretire a pair he wore on the Dodgers’ World Series run last year, the ones with the rainbow-emitting rabbit.

“I’m very superstitious,” Sonoda said.

Sonoda is also grateful.

“I think there are 14 or 15 Japanese interpreters in the majors leagues,” he said. “I feel like I’m the most blessed.”

Blessed because Akasaki talked him out of resigning. Blessed because of the baseball education he received from McGuiness and Duncan. Blessed because he has mentors such as Horie and Fujiwara. And above all, blessed because he was paired with a player whom he considers as good a person as he is a pitcher, the kind of high-character individual for whom he would wear radiant underwear in the off chance it could improve his fortune.

WASHINGTON — The government shutdown has reopened debate on what has been a central issue for both major political parties in the last 15 years: the future of health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

Tax credits for people who get health insurance through the marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, expire at the end of the year.

Democrats say they won’t vote to reopen the government until Republicans negotiate an extension of the expanded subsidies. Republicans say they won’t negotiate until Democrats vote to reopen the government. Lawmakers in both parties have been working on potential solutions behind the scenes, hoping that leaders will eventually start to talk, but it’s unclear if the two sides could find compromise.

As Congress circles the issue, a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 6 in 10 Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about their health costs going up in the next year. Those worries extend across age groups and include people with and without health insurance, the poll found.

A look at the subsidies that are expiring, the politics of the ACA and what Congress might do:

Enhanced premium help during the pandemic

Passed in 2010, the ACA was meant to decrease the number of uninsured people in the country and make coverage more affordable for those who don’t have private insurance. The law created state by state exchanges, some of which are run by the individual states, to try to increase the pool of the insured and bring down rates.

In 2021, when Democrats controlled Congress and the White House during the COVID-19 pandemic, they expanded premium help that was already in the law. The changes included eliminating premiums for some lower-income enrollees, ensuring that higher earners paid no more than 8.5% of their income and expanding eligibility for middle-class earners.

The expanded subsidies pushed enrollment to new levels and drove the rate of uninsured people to a historic low. This year, a record 24 million people have signed up for insurance coverage through the ACA, in large part because billions of dollars in subsidies have made the plans more affordable for many people.

If the tax credits expire, annual out-of-pocket premiums are estimated to increase by 114% — an average of $1,016 — next year, according to an analysis from KFF.

Democrats push to extend subsidies

Democrats extended those tax credits in 2022 for another three years but were not able to make them permanent. The credits are set to expire Jan. 1, with Republicans now in full control.

Lacking in power and sensing a political opportunity, Democrats used some of their only leverage and forced a government shutdown over the issue when federal funding ran out on Oct. 1. They say they won’t vote for a House-passed bill to reopen the government until Republicans give them some certainty that the subsidies will be extended.

Democrats introduced legislation in September to permanently extend the premium tax credits, but they have suggested that they are open to a shorter period.

“We need a serious negotiation,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has repeatedly said.

Republicans try to scale the ACA back, again

The Democratic demands on health care have reignited longstanding Republican complaints about the ACA, which they have campaigned against for years and tried and failed to repeal in 2017. Many in the party say that if Congress is going to act, they want to scrap the expanded subsidies and overhaul the entire law.

The problem is not the expiring subsidies but “the cost of health care,” Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said Tuesday.

In a virtual briefing Tuesday, the libertarian Cato Institute and the conservative Paragon Health Institute branded the subsidies as President Joe Biden’s “COVID credits” and claimed they’ve enabled fraudsters to sign people up for fully subsidized plans without their knowledge.

Others have pitched more modest proposals that could potentially win over some Democrats. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has said he is open to extending the subsidies with changes, including lower income limits and a stop to auto-enrollment that may sign up people who don’t need the coverage.

The ACA is “in desperate need of reform,” Thune has said.

House Republicans are considering their own ideas for reforming the ACA, including proposals for phasing out the subsidies for new enrollees. And they have begun to discuss whether to combine health care reforms with a new government funding bill and send it to the Senate for consideration once they return to Washington.

“We will probably negotiate some off-ramp” to ease the transition back to pre-COVID-19 levels, said Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, the head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, during a virtual town hall Tuesday.

Is compromise possible?

A number of Republicans want to extend the subsidies. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said most people who are using the exchanges created by the ACA “don’t really have another option, and it’s already really, really expensive. So I think there are things we can do to reform the program.”

Hawley said he had been having conversations with other senators about what those changes could be, including proposals for income limits, which he said he sees as a “very reasonable.”

Bipartisan groups of lawmakers have been discussing the income limits and other ideas, including making the lowest-income people pay very low premiums instead of nothing. Some Republicans have advocated for that change to ensure that all enrollees are aware they have coverage and need it. Other proposals would extend the subsidies for a year or two or slowly phase them out.

It’s unclear if any of those ideas could gain traction on both sides — or any interest from the White House, where President Donald Trump has remained mostly disengaged. Despite the public stalemate, though, lawmakers are feeling increased urgency to find a solution as the Nov. 1 open enrollment date approaches.

Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire has been talking to lawmakers since the shutdown began, trying to find areas of compromise. On Tuesday, she suggested that Congress could also look at extending the enrollment dates for the ACA since Congress is stalled on the subsidies.

“These costs are going to affect all of us, and it’s going to affect our health care system,” she said.

Jalonick writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Lisa Mascaro and Joey Cappelletti in Washington and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

SAO PAULO — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Thursday he will run for reelection next year, seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term.

“I’m turning 80, but you can be sure I have the same energy I had when I was 30. And I’m going to run for a fourth term in Brazil,” Lula told reporters during his official visit to Indonesia.

The Brazilian leader is traveling across Asia. After his visit to Indonesia, where he met with President Prabowo Subianto, Lula will head to Malaysia to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit.

Brazilian media reported that he is expected to meet for the first time with President Trump in Malaysia on Sunday, following a conciliatory phone call earlier this month. The two leaders are expected to discuss the 50% trade tariff Trump imposed on Brazil.

Brazil’s constitution allows presidents to serve only two consecutive terms. Lula returned to office in 2023 after 13 years out of power and remains eligible to run again.

Before defeating Jair Bolsonaro in 2022 to win a third nonconsecutive term, Lula had said that would be his final campaign both because of his age and because he believed the country needed political renewal. But early in his current term, he began hinting that he might run again.

In February 2023, the president said he could seek reelection in 2026, adding that his decision would depend on the country’s political context and his health.

A dominant figure on Brazil’s left, Lula is the country’s longest-serving president since its return to democracy 40 years ago.

Some Brazilian politicians have expressed concern about Lula’s age and recent health issues. He underwent emergency surgery to treat a brain bleed late last year after a fall in the bathroom. Still, Lula frequently insists he remains healthy and energetic, often sharing workout videos on social media.

Lula currently leads all polls for the 2026 election, though roughly half of voters say they disapprove of him. Trump’s tariffs reenergized the Brazilian leader and pushed his popularity up.

His main political rival, Bolsonaro, has been barred from running for office and sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup. While no strong opposition candidate has yet emerged, analysts say a viable contender is likely to depend on Bolsonaro’s backing as he serves his sentence under house arrest.

Pessoa writes for the Associated Press.