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Norman Powell pens official goodbye to Toronto in touching essay – Yahoo Canada Sports

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3 years ago

March 31, 2021

The Canadian Press

3 high school teammates become MLB opening day starters

Lucas Giolito, Max Fried and Jack Flaherty were teammates nine years ago at Harvard-Westlake, a prestigious prep school in Los Angeles. On Thursday, all three will be opening-day starting pitchers in the major leagues. And they didn’t even win a California state title the year they all played together. “If you point at a particular high school and ask: What is the probability that three baseball players graduating this year will wind up pitching for MLB teams, and get selected to be this year’s starters on opening day? The probability is less than one in a billion,” said James E. Corter, professor of statistics and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “But if you assume that there are maybe 10,000 high schools in the U.S., and elsewhere in the hemisphere that field baseball teams who play at a level that might get them noticed and recruited, the odds that it could happen somewhere, with some high school, rise considerably,” Corter said. “So now we’re talking more like one in 100,000. Still, pretty unusual.” Giolito becomes the first White Sox right-hander to make consecutive opening-day starts since Jaime Navarro in 1997 and ’98 when Chicago opens under new manager Tony La Russa at the Los Angeles Angels, and Flaherty will start his second opener in a row when the St. Louis Cardinals are at the Cincinnati Reds. Fried takes the mound in an opener for the first time when Atlanta plays at Philadelphia. “It’s pretty cool when you know 10% of the league is starting opening day from the same high school,” Giolito said. “We’ve been working together for a long time, pumping each other up. It’s pretty weird and wild. I don’t think that’s ever happened before in any professional sport where you’ve got three guys from the same high school all competing on the big stage.” Flaherty was 6-1 with a 1.77 ERA and a save as a sophomore for the Wolverines and Fried was 8-2 with a 2.02 ERA as a senior. Giolito got hurt early his senior season and finished 2-1 with a 0.84 ERA. Harvard-Westlake’s baseball team went 24-5-1 in 2012 and lost to Valencia 3-1 in the second round of the playoffs. One year later, Flaherty pitched a six-hitter and had an RBI single to beat Marino 1-0 in the 2013 California Interscholastic Federation championship game at Dodger Stadium. “The most fun was getting to go to bed the night before and knowing that I had somebody really good going to the mound the next day. There wasn’t a whole lot of sleepless nights during that that period of our program’s history,” said Matt LaCour, Harvard-Westlake’s baseball coach from 2002-15 and now one of its athletic directors. “It was pretty easy to tell by the time they got into their junior, senior years that they were all going to be the type of high-profile, highly sought-after draft picks that they became. I guess with Jack it was a little bit different than the other two. We weren’t quite sure if he was going to be an offensive player or a defensive player when it came to pro baseball.” Fried first attended Montclair Prep in Van Nuys, then transferred after his school eliminated baseball and other extracurricular activities. Flaherty was entering his sophomore year in 2011-12, considering himself a shortstop, and Giolito was starting his senior season. By 2012, Giolito had reached 100 mph in a winter league game and was projected as a possible No. 1 pick before spraining the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow, which led to Tommy John surgery that Sept. 13. “I knew they were going to be successful based on the talent, the work ethic. Did I think that all three of them would be starting opening day? No, I couldn’t imagine that,” said pitching coach Ethan Katz, then with Harvard-Westlake and now starting his first season with the White Sox. Flaherty viewed the others as potential opening-day starters but not himself — because he didn’t foresee his future on the mound. “We definitely knew that Lucas and Max we’re going to start on opening day together at some point, and I think I was the third one that was kind of added to that,” he said. “Those guys have been studs in the last couple of years. It’s fun to be surrounded by guys of that calibre and have relationships with them.” Confidence was not lacking: the trio viewed themselves as future big leaguers. “That’s something that we talked about all the time. We’re going to motivate each other. We’re all going to get to the big leagues. We’re all going to be mainstays in the big leagues,” Giolito said. “For us, that was stuff that we had to talk about because if you set those goals high and you’ve got guys in your corner to motivate you to get there, then they’re much more reachable than if you’re just kind of on your own and hoping and wishing.” And, indeed, all three became first-round draft picks. Fried was selected seventh by San Diego in 2012 and Giolito 16th, while Flaherty was taken 34th by St. Louis in 2014. And all three were bonus babies, with Fried signing for $3 million, Giolito $2,925,000 and Flaherty $2 million Giolito, a 26-year-old right-hander, became an All-Star in 2019. He was 4-3 with a 3.48 ERA last year and is 31-29 in four seasons. Fried, a 27-year-old lefty, went 7-0 with a 2.25 ERA last year, improving to 26-11 in four seasons. He won a Gold Glove and finished fifth in NL Cy Young Award voting. Flaherty, a 25-year-old right-hander, was 4-3 with a 4.91 ERA, leaving his record at 23-22 in four years. During offseasons, Fried and Flaherty still work out at Harvard-Westlake. “I’m really happy and really excited for those guys,” Fried said. “They’ve worked extremely hard to be able to put themselves in that position. To kind of share that and be able to be pitching at the same day as those guys is pretty cool.” ___ More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Ronald Blum, The Associated Press

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Flames re-sign defenceman Ilya Solovyov, centre Cole Schwindt

Published

1 hour ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

CALGARY – The Calgary Flames have re-signed defenceman Ilya Solovyov and centre Cole Schwindt, the NHL club announced Wednesday.

Solovyov signed a two-year deal which is a two-way contract in year one and a one-way deal in year two and carries an average annual value of US$775,000 at the NHL level.

Schwindt signed a one-year, two-way contract with an average annual value of $800,000 at the NHL level.

The 24-year-old Solovyov, from Mogilev, Belarus, made his NHL debut last season and had three assists in 10 games for the Flames. He also had five goals and 10 assists in 51 games with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers and added one goal in six Calder Cup playoff games.

Schwindt, from Kitchener, Ont., made his Flames debut last season and appeared in four games with the club.

The 23-year-old also had 14 goals and 22 assists in 66 regular-season games with the Wranglers and added a team-leading four goals, including one game-winning goal, in the playoffs.

Schwindt was selected by Florida in the third round, 81st overall, at the 2019 NHL draft. He came to Calgary in July 2022 along with forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenceman MacKenzie Weegar in the trade that sent star forward Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

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Oman holds on to edge Nepal with one ball to spare in cricket thriller

Published

1 hour ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

KING CITY, Ont. – Oman scored 10 runs in the final over to edge Nepal by one wicket with just one ball remaining in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 play Wednesday.

Kaleemullah, the No. 11 batsman who goes by one name, hit a four with the penultimate ball as Oman finished at 223 for nine. Nepal had scored 220 for nine in its 50 overs.

Kaleemullah and No. 9 batsman Shakeel Ahmed each scored five in the final over off Sompal Kami. They finished with six and 17 runs, respectively.

Opener Latinder Singh led Oman with 41 runs.

Nepal’s Gulsan Jha was named man of the match after scoring 53 runs and recording a career-best five-wicket haul. The 18-year-old slammed five sixes and three-fours in his 35-ball knock, scoring 23 runs in the 46th over alone when he hit six, six, four, two, four and one off Aqib Ilyas.

Captain Rohit Paudel led Nepal with 60 runs.

The 19th-ranked Canadians, who opened the triangular series Monday with a 103-run win over No. 17 Nepal, face No. 16 Oman on Friday, Nepal on Sunday and Oman again on Sept. 26. All the games are at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground.

The eight World League 2 teams each play 36 one-day internationals spread across nine triangular series through December 2026. The top four sides will go through to a World Cup qualifier that will decide the last four berths in the expanded 14-team Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Canada (5-4) stands second in the World League 2 table. The 14th-ranked Dutch top the table at 6-2.

Oman (2-2 with one no-result) stands sixth, ahead of Nepal (1-5).

Canada won all four matches in its opening tri-series in February-March, sweeping No. 11 Scotland and the 20th-ranked host Emirates. But the Canadians lost four in a row to the 18th-ranked U.S. and host Netherlands in August.

Canada which debuted in the T20 World Cup this summer in the U.S. and West Indies, is looking to get back to the showcase 50-over Cricket World Cup for the first time since 2011 after failing to qualify for the last three editions. The Canadian men also played in the 1979, 2003 and 2007 tournaments, exiting after the group stage in all four tournament appearances.

The Canadian men regained their one-day international status for the first time in almost a decade by finishing in the top four of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff in April 2023 in Bermuda.

—

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024

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Vancouver Canucks will miss Demko, Joshua, others to start training camp

Published

2 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

PENTICTON, B.C. – Rick Tocchet has already warned his Vancouver Canucks players — the looming NHL season won’t be easy.

The team made strides last year, the head coach said Wednesday ahead of training camp. The bar has been raised for this year’s campaign.

“To get to the next plateau, there are higher expectations and it’s going to be hard. We know that,” Tocchet said in Penticton, B.C., where the team will open its camp on Thursday.

“So that’s the next level. It starts day one (on Thursday). My thing is don’t waste a rep out there.”

The Canucks finished atop the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record last season, then ousted the Nashville Predators from the playoffs in a gritty, six-game first-round series. Vancouver then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-game second-round set.

Last fall, Jim Rutherford, the Canucks president of hockey operations, said everything would have to go right for the team to make a playoff push. That doesn’t change this season, he said, despite last year’s success.

“The challenges will be greater, certainly. But I believe the team that we started with last year, we have just as good a team to start the season this year and probably better,” he said.

“As long as the team builds off what they did last year, stick to what the coaches tell them, stick to the system, stick together in good times and bad times, this team has a chance to do pretty well.”

Some key players will be missing as Vancouver’s training camp begins, however.

Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced Wednesday that star goalie Thatcher Demko will not be on the ice when the team begins it’s pre-season preparation.

Allvin did not disclose the reason for Demko’s absence, but said the 28-year-old American has been making progress.

“He’s been in working extremely hard and he seems to be in a great mindset,” the GM said.

Demko missed several weeks of the regular season and much of Vancouver’s playoff run last spring with a knee injury.

The six-foot-four, 192-pound goalie has a career 213-116-81 regular-season record with a .912 save percentage, a 2.79 goals-against average and eight shutouts across seven seasons with the Canucks.

Allvin also announced that veteran centre Teddy Blueger and defensive prospect Cole McWard will also miss the start of training camp after each had “minor lower-body surgery.”

Vancouver previously announced winger Dakota Joshua won’t be present for the start of camp as he recovers from surgery for testicular cancer.

Tocchet said he’ll have no problem filling the holes, and plans to switch his lines up a lot in Penticton.

“Nothing’s set in stone,” he said. “I think it’s important that you have different puzzles at different times.”

The coach added that he expects standout centre Elias Pettersson to begin on a line with Canucks newcomer Jake DeBrusk.

Vancouver inked DeBrusk, a former Boston Bruins forward, to a seven-year, US$38.5 million deal when the NHL’s free agent market opened on July 1.

The glare on Pettersson is expected to be bright once again as he enters the first year of a new eight-year, $92.8 million contract. The 25-year-old Swede struggled at times last season and put 89 points (34 goals, 55 assists) in 82 games.

Rutherford said he was impressed with how Pettersson looked when he returned to Vancouver ahead of camp.

“He seems to be a guy that’s more relaxed and more comfortable. And for obvious reasons,” said the president of hockey ops. “This is a guy that I believe has worked really hard this summer. He’s done everything he can to play as a top-line player. … The expectation for him is to be one of the top players on our team.”

A number of Canucks hit milestones last season, including Quinn Hughes, who led all NHL defencemen in scoring with 92 points and won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top blue liner.

Several players could once again have career-best years for Vancouver, Tocchet said, but they’ll need to be consistent and not allow frustration to creep in when things go wrong.

“You’ve just got to drive yourself every day when you have a great year,” the coach said. “You’ve got to keep creating that environment where they can achieve those goals, whatever they are. And the main goal is winning. That’s really what it comes down to.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

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