Baseball

Wow. I just learned that Ted Turner died. In my mind he made his mark by founding CNN. It changed how we watch the news. At one point, he also owned the Atlanta Braves. He was also married to Jane Fonda for ten or so years. He was a great American.

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The featured photo is from a fundraiser for new State Senator Taylor Rehmet, District 9, on the right, last Friday night here in H-Town. The fundraiser was hosted by State Senator Carol Alvarado, Chair of the Texas State Senate Democratic Caucus. She is in the center of the photo. On the left is State Sen. Molly Cook.

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This was announced a couple of days ago. See this from the Chron:

Houston’s 2026 Fourth of July celebration will feature Country singer Keith Urban as the headliner with alternative group Collective Soul and Texas-based Los Lonely Boys as openers, Mayor John Whitmire announced Monday.

Freedom Over Texas will celebrate the country’s 250th birthday and will take place from 3 to 10 p.m. July 4 in Eleanor Tinsley and Sam Houston parks. It is hosted by Whitmire’s Office of Special Events.

I have never been to the Freedom Over Texas event. I watch it on the flat screen. This is one of the better lineups.

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I heard about this last night. See this from CBS Sports:

Benches cleared between the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on Tuesday. Tigers lefty Framber Valdez gave up back-to-back home runs to Willson Contreras and Wilyer Abreu, then hit Trevor Story up high with a 94 mph fastball on the first pitch of his at-bat. Story understandably took exception, and the benches cleared.

“Yes, I do think (it was intentional),” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said about Valdez hitting Story (via the Boston Herald).” I thought it was weak, and I thought everybody saw it. Their side, our side, I think everybody saw it. And yeah, it was weak.”  

“It was not intentional. It was not on purpose. It might look like that, but it wasn’t,” Valdez said through an interpreter after the game. “… I consider (the ejection) completely unfair given that, first of all, they should have given me a warning. And of course if it was on purpose, then I do it a second time or a third time, of course, I’m getting ejected.”

And this:

“I understand,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said about the incident (via MLB.com). “I understand the frustration. I understand the optics. I understand the whole thing.”

Valdez, who’s in his first year in Detroit, was the only player ejected from Tuesday’s game. If MLB determines he hit Story intentionally, he will be suspended. The Tigers are already without Casey Mize (groin), Reese Olson (shoulder), Tarik Skubal (elbow), and Justin Verlander (hip). They can ill-afford to lose Valdez for even one start.

The Red Sox tagged Valdez for 10 runs (seven earned) on nine hits and one walk in three innings. Prior to Tuesday, Valdez had never surrendered more than eight runs in a game. Boston went on to win the game 10-3 (box score).

As a member of the Houston Astros last September, Valdez denied intentionally crossing up his catcher after surrendering a grand slam. He ignored the catcher’s signal to step off and instead threw a fastball to his chest.

I always thought that too many times, Framber plays with his head up his arse. Bonehead plays. Now this. Not a good look. Grow up.

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Cinco de Mayo at Daikin Park was the place to be last night. Great crowd. There were a ton of Dodgers fans. A few were wearing Team Japan World Baseball Classic jerseys with Shohei Ohtani’s name on the back. There were many Astros fans in Cinco de Mayo Astros gear.

It was a great game. We got a 2-1 win that included two dingers off Ohtani. I also had a couple of dollar dogs. The final game of the series has a 1 pm start today.