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How Dansby Swanson’s 5-minute routine helps the Chicago Cubs shortstop — and other infielders — stay ready on defense

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:02:35 GMT

Nearly three hours before first pitch, Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson trekked from the outfield batting cages to the grass in front of the visitors dugout at Oakland Coliseum.He signaled to major-league coach Jonathan Mota, who already had two practice mitts ready for Swanson on top of a white towel, his blue Fungo bat laying adjacent.Over the next five minutes, Swanson progressed through a sequence of defensive drills and fielded roughly 55 hops off Mota’s Fungo. He incorporated a small tan glove and a black flat mitt to force precision, centering the ball to field it cleanly. The smaller surface doesn’t leave much room for error. Movements must be short with clean footwork. The short hops simulate the last hop an infielder could see off ground balls in a game.The drills help create confidence for different types of plays an infielder could encounter. It turns in-game reads into second-nature adaptability when a ball takes a tough hop.“It really gets you in...

Clayton Kershaw reminds Buck Showalter of Orel Hershiser after Dodgers ace dominates Mets for win No. 200

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:02:35 GMT

LOS ANGELES — The Mets were on the wrong end of Clayton Kershaw’s masterpiece in a 5-0 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.It was a vintage performance from a future Hall of Fame pitcher.The win was No. 200 for the 35-year-old left-hander. Kershaw (3-1) may not have the velocity that he once had but his command, pitch selection and pace flummoxed the Mets on Tuesday, much the way he’s flummoxed the entire league since his rookie season in 2008.“He threw a lot of strikes and he was missing barrels,” said outfielder Brandon Nimmo. “He got a lot of outs very quickly. He did a very good job and there’s a reason he’s going to be a Hall of Famer. There’s a reason he’s still in the game.”It reminded Buck Showalter of another Dodgers great.“I was thinking about Orel Hershiser,” Showalter said. “If you have command of three you can dominate, if you have command of two you can wi...

Julius Randle says late flagrant foul by Jarrett Allen was ‘A little unnecessary’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:02:35 GMT

CLEVELAND — A hard contest in garbage time led to a flagrant foul for Jarrett Allen and a soft warning from Julius Randle that the next game isn’t too far away.“We’ll go back to the Garden,” Randle said, " and see him there.”Randle flew for a breakaway dunk with 2:22 remaining and the Knicks trailing Tuesday’s Game 2 by 23 points. Allen, the Cavs center, trailed and met Randle at the rim, sending the Knicks power forward falling to the court on his back.The referees reviewed the play and assessed a flagrant, and Randle yelled at both Allen and toward the Cavs bench after standing up.“I thought it was a little unnecessary,” Randle said. “I understand playoff basketball. You don’t give up on plays and I respect that. I’m somebody who doesn’t give up on plays. Typically when you make those type of plays, you go across their body, not through them. But it’s fine. It’s irrelevant.”Randle,...

Grocery retailer Metro reports Q2 profits up 10% from year ago, as sales rise

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:02:35 GMT

MONTREAL — Metro Inc. says its profits rose 10.4 per cent to $218.8 million in its latest quarter, up from $198.1 million in the same quarter last year, as its sales rose 6.6 per cent.The grocery and drugstore retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to 93 cents per diluted share for the 12-week period ended March 11, up from 82 cents per diluted share a year earlier.Sales in what was the company’s second quarter totalled $4.55 billion, up from $4.27 billion in the same quarter last year.The increase in sales came as food same-store sales rose 5.8 per cent compared with a year earlier, while pharmacy same-store sales gained 7.3 per cent.On an adjusted basis, Metro said it earned 96 cents per diluted share, up from 84 cents per diluted share a year earlier.Analysts on average had expected an adjusted profit of 94 cents per share, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.“Our teams continued to deliver value to our customers in the current high food inflation ...

Austin hopes Turkey will act on Sweden NATO bid before July

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:02:35 GMT

MUSKO NAVAL BASE, Sweden (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday it’s important that Turkey makes its decision to allow Sweden to join NATO “sooner versus later,” and said he “feels confident” it will happen before the alliance summit in July.He declined, however, to say whether a recent U.S. deal to provide fighter jet upgrades to Turkey will provide enough incentive for Ankara to finally vote.Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson said he is hopeful Sweden will gain admittance by summer, and his country feels more secure with the additional U.S. military exercises and involvement with his nation.“We look forward to continuing to advocate for your swift admission to NATO, and we’ll work hard to get that done before the summit,” Austin said. The NATO summit will be in Lithuania in early July.Sweden’s bid to join NATO remains stalled by opposition from Turkey and Hungary, even weeks after both nations finally approved Finland’s application. Sweden and neighboring...

Ukraine: US-made Patriot guided missile systems arrive

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:02:35 GMT

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s defense minister said Wednesday his country has received U.S-made Patriot surface-to-air guided missile systems it has long craved and which Kyiv hopes will help shield it from Russian strikes during the war. “Today, our beautiful Ukrainian sky becomes more secure because Patriot air defense systems have arrived in Ukraine,” Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a tweet.Ukrainian officials have previously said the arrival of Patriot systems, which Washington agreed to send last October, would be a major boost and a milestone in the war against Moscow’s full-scale invasion. The Patriot can target aircraft, cruise missiles and shorter-range ballistic missiles. Russia has used that weaponry to bombard Ukraine, including residential areas and civilian infrastructure, especially the power supply over the winter.Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said late Tuesday that delivery of the system would be a landmark event, allowing Ukrainians to knock ...

Police: Maine man fired randomly on highway after killing 4

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:02:35 GMT

BOWDOIN, Maine (AP) — A Maine man killed four people in a home and then shot three others randomly on a busy highway, state police said, the latest in a string of mass shootings across the country that have shaken communities large and small.The shootings in Maine began in the small town of Bowdoin, where four people were killed Tuesday. Then a chaotic scene developed in which shots were fired at vehicles on an interstate highway over 20 miles away in the community of Yarmouth, police said. Three people were shot there, and one remained in critical condition Wednesday.“This is an active investigation with a lot of moving parts,” Shannon Moss, state police spokesperson, said Wednesday.The gunman, identified as Joseph Eaton, 34, of Bowdoin, was charged with four counts of murder but was not immediately charged in the highway shootings, she said. He was jailed while awaiting a court appearance. The names of the victims were not released, and state police didn’t discus...

Charges put focus on Jehovah’s Witnesses’ handling of abuse

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:02:35 GMT

YORK HAVEN, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania grand jury in recent months accused nine men with connections to the Jehovah’s Witnesses of child sexual abuse in what some consider the nation’s most comprehensive investigation yet into abuse within the faith.The sets of charges filed in October and February have fueled speculation the jury may make public more about what it has uncovered from a four-year investigation.A similar grand jury investigation into child sexual abuse by Catholic priests culminated in a lengthy 2018 report that concluded hundreds of priests had abused children in Pennsylvania over seven decades and church officials had covered it up, and more recently a similar report was issued in Maryland.But documents made public so far include nothing about what critics have long maintained has been a systemic cover-up and mishandling of child molestation within the Jehovah’s Witnesses.Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry, at a news conference in February announcing charge...

Inside Toronto’s confusing, chaotic, wide-open mayoral race

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:02:35 GMT

In today’s Big Story podcast, there are currently almost 50 candidates running to become Toronto’s next mayor. And with no incumbent, or clear front-runner, that means that at this point anyone’s got a shot.Momin Qureshi is a City Hall reporter for CityNews. He joins us today to walk us through some of the more notable candidates, and outline their respective visions for the future of Canada’s largest city. “One of the things that you’re going to hear again and again, regardless of what issue we’re talking about, whether it’s housing, mental health issues, homeless supports, transit, is that the city is in a real hole financially,” he said, “we have more than a billion dollar deficit in this city that they have to fill, because they can’t have an unbalanced budget in this city, by law.” So who’s in the race? Who might join them? And what issues will decide the fate of Canada’s largest city?You can subscribe to The Big Story podcast on Apple Podcasts, Go...

Poet Sandra Lim wins $85,000 Jackson Poetry Prize

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:02:35 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — An $85,000 literary prize has been awarded to Sandra Lim, a poet who has published three collections. Lin is this year’s winner of the Jackson Poetry Prize, given to an American poet of “exceptional talent.” The award was announced Wednesday by Poets & Writers, a nonprofit organization that publishes Poets & Writers Magazine and helps support hundreds of writers each year.“Wielding a striking combination of cool detachment and sly humor, Lim constantly points to the mundane aspects of the world and to how we nevertheless cling to them, always expecting something more,” the judges’ citation reads in part. “It’s a poetry of interrogation, whose fierceness lies, paradoxically, in its quiet steadiness and precision.”Lim’s books include “The Curious Thing,” “The Wilderness” and “Loveliest Grotesque,” and her work has appeared in a numerous publications. Joy Harjo, Henri Cole, Sonia Sanchez and Claudia Rankine are among the previous wi...