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Red Sox notebook: Legendary 2004 skipper Terry Francona to retire after managing 23 seasons

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:00 GMT

Terry Francona, the manager who led the 2004 Red Sox to their first World Series championship in 86 years, will retire at the end of this season, his 11th managing the Cleveland Guardians.At 64 years old, the man known as “Tito” has spent his entire life in baseball, first as the son of Major League outfielder John Patsy Francona, who went by the same moniker, then as a big-leaguer in his own right for a decade. When years of playing in Montreal, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Milwaukee came to an end in 1990, he joined the ranks of minor league coaches. By 1997, he was the Philadelphia Phillies rookie manager. The gig lasted four seasons, during which the Phillies never finished better than 77-85.The second time was the charm for Tito. After a brief hiatus during which he spent a year as special assistant to Cleveland’s GM and a season apiece as the Rangers’ and Athletics’ bench coach, he took over the Red Sox in 2004. By season’s end, he’d led a beloved “Band of Idiots” to a ...

Dog day afternoon

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:00 GMT

Cori Copley, of the Fairmont Copley Plaza, had a play date with Liberty Hotel’s Benny. The pooches are synonymous with what makes both spots so homey. Everyone was wagging about this reunion.Joe Fallon introduces Cori Copley of the Fairmont Copley Plaza to Liberty Hotel’s Benny, with Mark Fischer for playdate. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)Cori Copley of the Fairmont Copley Plaza with Joe Fallon, right, welcomes Liberty Hotel’s Benny, with Mark Fischer for playdate. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)Cori Copley of the Fairmont Copley Plaza with Joe Fallon, welcomes Liberty Hotel’s Benny, with Mark Fischer for playdate. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)Boston, MA – September 26: Cori Copley of the Fairmont Copley Plaza with Joe Fallon, right, welcomes Liberty Hotel’s Benny, with Mark Fischer for playdate. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)

Top Red Sox international signing Yoeilin Cespedes turned heads in Dominican

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:00 GMT

Yoeilin Cespedes was already highly regarded by the time he joined the Red Sox this past January. The teenage shortstop signed with Boston for a $1.4 million bonus, the largest of the club’s international free agents, and was considered by scouts to be among the best pure hitters in his class.But when you’re talking about a 17-year-old, you never know how their skills will translate to the professional game. Fortunately, Cespedes didn’t need long to prove he could be the real deal.Cespedes more than lived up to the hype in his first year with the Red Sox, delivering a standout season as one of the top players in the Dominican Summer League. The 5-foot-9, 180-pound native of the Dominican Republic batted .346 with six home runs, 38 RBI and a .953 OPS in 43 games this summer, a performance that earned Cespedes recognition as the Red Sox Latin Program Position Player of the Year.“He put up some offensive numbers that normally for a first-year player you don̵...

Brooks Robinson, legendary Hall of Fame third baseman for the Orioles, dies at 86

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:00 GMT

Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson died Tuesday, his family said in a joint statement with the Orioles. He was 86.”An integral part of our Orioles Family since 1955, he will continue to leave a lasting impact on our club, our community, and the sport of baseball,” the statement said.Through much of baseball’s golden age, Brooks Calbert Robinson Jr. was a poster boy for the national pastime, a symbol of Americana whose visage was even captured in a 1971 Norman Rockwell painting.The face of the Orioles for nearly a quarter of a century, Robinson won the heart of the city that adopted the deft-handed kid from Arkansas in 1955 and never let go. Before Ripken, there was Robinson. Before Cal, there was Brooks. Before the Iron Man, there was the Human Vacuum Cleaner. As Oriole icons, no others come close.Robinson played 23 years in Baltimore, piling up numbers that made him one of the game’s greatest third basemen and which put him in the Hall of Fame in 198...

Massachusetts dog dies in alleged dog training scam in Connecticut: police

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:00 GMT

A 3-year-old French Bulldog died before returning to its owner in North Reading following training in Connecticut, according to authorities, who accuse the trainer of running a scam.The North Reading Police Department has secured a criminal summons against the trainer who authorities say made false and misleading statements during interviews, to hinder the investigation, Chief Mark Zimmerman said in a Tuesday release.The dog had been emaciated at the time it died, according to a necroscopy performed at the University of Connecticut.The trainer, who police have identified as a 27-year-old woman of Haddam, Conn., faces charges of larceny over $1,200 by false pretense, and obstruction of/misleading a police officer, both felonies.Authorities did not release the woman’s name.Initial investigation findings determined the dog died on or about Sept. 4, but authorities say the trainer sent photos that made the owner believe the training was continuing after that date.North Reading police re...

Cannabis control commission hits back at ‘endless string of scandals’ accusation

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:00 GMT

The Cannabis Control Commission is firing back at lawmakers accusing their agency of “an endless stream of scandals.”In a letter sent to the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy and shared with the Herald, Chief Communications Officer Cedric Sinclair says he would like to “respectfully reject” the notion the commission’s work has been clouded with controversy.“Hopefully, your own experiences working with our agency, and the new authority with which you entrusted us through the passage of Chapter 180 of the Acts of 2022, suggests you do, too,” Sinclair, writing on behalf of Executive Director Shawn Collins, told the committee.Sinclair’s letter comes in response to another sent to the same committee last week by a bipartisan group of lawmakers asking committee members to hold a hearing on the cannabis commission, which the lawmakers assert has been mired in a series of media-grabbing messes from its inception.“As we all know, the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) is no...

Las Vegas hospitality workers could be the latest major labor union to go on strike

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:00 GMT

By RIO YAMAT (Associated Press)LAS VEGAS (AP) — Las Vegas hospitality workers may be the latest major labor union in the U.S. to go on strike after tens of thousands of members voted Tuesday on whether to authorize a walkout that could impact some of the city’s most iconic casinos and hotels.The Culinary Workers Union, a political powerhouse in Nevada, hasn’t gone on strike in more than three decades. Results of the vote are expected to be released Tuesday night. The union said it has not yet set a deadline for a strike as it continues bargaining for better pay and benefits and improved working conditions with the top employers on the Las Vegas Strip, including MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts. A walkout could disrupt operations at more than three dozen resorts on the Strip and in downtown, the city’s economic backbone. “We are the glue that keeps these hotels together, and we should be paid what we deserve,” Deann...

Cuba’s ambassador to the US says Molotov cocktails thrown at Cuban embassy were a ‘terrorist attack’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Cuba’s ambassador to the United States says a weekend incident in which at least one incendiary device was thrown into the Cuban embassy compound was a “terrorist attack.”The Cuban embassy’s chief of mission, Lianys Torres Rivera, told The Associated Press in an interview on Tuesday that the Sunday night incident was part of a pattern of attacks directed at Cuban overseas missions over the course of the last ten years.“We think that it’s a terrorist attack that according to that and according to the history of a terrorist attack, that for decades it has been done against Cuban diplomatic missions,” she said.She could not comment on the motivation of the attacker, who remains at large, but said “we think that the origin, the roots, it’s in this case in this a policy of aggression and hatred against Cuba that for decades has been the one of the difference a U.S. administration against our country.”The incident remains under investigation by the Washington D.C. ...

California man who spent 28 years in prison is found innocent of 1995 rape, robbery and kidnapping

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:00 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man who spent nearly 30 years in prison for kidnapping, robbery and rape has been declared innocent and freed, Los Angeles County prosecutors announced Tuesday.DNA testing helped exonerate Gerardo Cabanillas in a 1995 attack on a couple sitting in a parked car in the city of South Gate, the county district attorney’s office said in a statement.Cabanillas’ case was reexamined by the Conviction Integrity Unit of the DA’s office, and last week a judge reversed his conviction, found him factually innocent and ordered his permanent release.“I extend my deepest apologies to Mr. Cabanillas for the miscarriage of justice and the failure of our criminal legal system,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement.Cabanillas was convicted in 1996 and spent 28 years in prison. He confessed to being one of two armed men who approached the couple, forced the man out and drove the woman to an abandoned house where both raped her. Another couple in a car in t...

California education chief Tony Thurmond says he’s running for governor in 2026

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:02:00 GMT

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s top education official, Tony Thurmond, on Tuesday announced his bid for governor in 2026, a move that comes amid debates about the rights of students and parents, and what role the state should play as school boards approve class materials.If elected, Thurmond, the state superintendent of public instruction, would be the first Black person to become California’s governor. He says he wants to address income inequality, ensure schools are better funded and speed up the state’s transition to renewable energy.“Our campaign isn’t about any one person. It’s about people who are struggling across our state,” the Democrat said in an advertisement announcing his campaign. “California should be a place where everyone has a chance to succeed.”He joins an already crowded race for governor, though the election is more than three years away. California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and former state Controller Betty Yee, both Democrats, ha...