BERLIN — Emergency workers in western German and Belgium rushed Friday to rescue hundreds of people in danger or still unaccounted for as the death toll from devastating floods rose to more than 120 people.

Authorities in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate said 63 people had died there, including 12 residents of an assisted living facility for disabled people in the town of Sinzig who were surprised by a sudden rush of water from the nearby Ahr River. In neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia state officials put the death toll at 43, but warned that the figure could increase.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was “stunned” by the devastation caused by the flooding and pledged support to the families of those killed and to cities and towns facing significant damage.

“In the hour of need, our country stands together,” Steinmeier said in a statement. “It’s important that we show solidarity for those from whom the flood has taken everything.”

Rescuers sought to save people trapped in their homes in the German town of Erftstadt, southwest of Cologne. Regional authorities said several people had died after their houses collapsed when the ground beneath them sank suddenly. Aerial photos showed what appeared to be a massive sinkhole.

“We managed to get 50 people out of their houses last night,” county administrator Frank Rock said. “We know of 15 people who still need to be rescued.”

Speaking to German broadcaster n-tv, Rock said authorities had no precise number yet for how many had died in the flash floods that turned roads into wild raging torrents, ripping up cobblestones, collapsing homes and flipping parked cars into piles of rubble.

“One has to assume that under the circumstances some people didn’t manage to escape,” he said.

Authorities were still trying to account for hundreds of people listed as missing, but cautioned that the high number could be due to duplicated reports and difficulties reaching people because of disrupted roads and phone service.

After Germany, where more than 100 people have died, Belgium was the hardest hit by the floods that caused homes to be ripped away. Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told the VRT network Friday that the country’s official confirmed death toll had grown to 20, with 20 other people still missing.

Water levels on the Meuse Rriver that runs from Belgium into the Netherlands remains critical, and several dikes were at risk of collapsing, Verlinden said. Authorities in the southern Dutch town of Venlo evacuated 200 hospital patients due to the looming threat of flooding from the river.

Flash floods this week followed days of heavy rainfall in Western Europe. Thousands of people remained homeless in Germany after their houses were destroyed or deemed at-risk by authorities.

The governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, who is hoping to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel as the nation’s leader after Germany’s election on Sept. 26, said the disaster had caused immense economic damage to the country’s most densely populated state.

“The floods have literally pulled the ground from beneath many people’s feet,” Gov. Armin Laschet said at a news conference. “They lost their houses, farms or businesses.”

Federal and state officials have pledged financial aid to the affect areas, which also includes the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, where at least 60 people died and entire villages were destroyed.

Malu Dreyer, the governor of Rhineland-Palatinate state, said the disaster showed the need to speed up efforts to curb global warming. She accused Laschet and Merkel’s center-right Union bloc of hindering efforts to achieve greater greenhouse gas reductions in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and a major emitter of planet-warming gases.

“Climate change isn’t abstract anymore. We are experiencing it up close and painfully,” she told the Funke media group.

Steinmeier, the German president, echoed her calls for greater efforts to combat global warming.

“Only if we decisively take up the fight against climate change will we be able to limit the extreme weather conditions we are now experiencing,” he said.

Experts say such disasters could become more common in the future.

“Some parts of Western Europe … received up to two months of rainfall in the space of two days. What made it worse is that the soils were already saturated by previous rainfall,” World Meteorological Organization spokesperson Clare Nullis said.

While she said it was too soon to blame the floods and preceding heat wave on rising global temperatures, Nullis added: “Climate change is already increasing the frequency of extreme events. And many single events have been shown to be made worse by global warming.”

Defense Ministry spokesman Arne Collatz said the German military had deployed over 850 troops to help with flood effeorts but the number is “rising significantly because the need is growing.” He said the ministry had triggered a “military disaster alarm.”

Italy sent a civil protection officials, firefighters and rescue dinghies to Belgium to help in the search for missing people from the devastating floods.

In the southern Dutch province of Limburg, which also has been hit hard by flooding, troops piled sandbags to strengthen a 0.7 mile stretch of dike along the Maas River and police helped evacuate low-lying neighborhoods.

Caretaker Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the government was officially declaring flood-hit regions a disaster area, meaning businesses and residents are eligible for compensation. Dutch King Willem-Alexander visited the region Thursday night and called the scenes “heart-breaking.”

Meanwhile, sustained rainfall in Switzerland has caused several rivers and lakes to burst their banks. Public broadcaster SRF reported that a flash flood swept away cars, flooded basements and destroyed small bridges in the northern villages of Schleitheim und Beggingen late Thursday.

Erik Schulz, the mayor of the hard-hit German city of Hagen, 50 kilometers (31 miles) northeast of Cologne, said there had been a wave of solidarity from other regions and ordinary citizens to help those affected by the floods.

“We have many, many citizens saying ‘I can offer a place to stay, where can I go to help, where can I registered, where can I bring my shovel and bucket?’,” he told n-tv. “The city is standing together and you can feel that.”

____

Associated Press writers Geir Moulson and Emily Schultheis in Berlin, Raf Casert in Brussels, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Angela Charlton in Paris, Mike Corder in The Hague and contributed to this report.

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ISLAMABAD — Afghan government forces battled Friday to retake a border crossing with Pakistan from Taliban insurgents, and the Reuters news agency said one of its photographers was killed in the area.

The Taliban had overrun the Spin Boldak crossing earlier in the week. On Friday, witnesses on the Pakistan side of the border said they saw intense fighting and reported seeing bodies.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian later tweeted that the government had retaken control of Spin Boldak.

Reuters said Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Danish Siddiqui, who was embedded with the Afghan special forces, was killed as the commando unit sought to recapture Spin Boldak.

The agency said Siddiqui and a senior Afghan officer were killed in what they described as Taliban crossfire. “We are urgently seeking more information, working with authorities in the region,” Reuters President Michael Friedenberg and Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni said in a statement.

Siddiqui was an Indian national. Afghanistan’s ambassador to India, Farid Mamundzay, tweeted his condolences.

The Taliban have overrun dozens of districts in Afghanistan since the start of the final phase of the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops, after a 20-year military presence. The U.S. says its withdrawal is 95% complete.

The fighting at Spin Boldak was confirmed by Fawad Aman, Afghanistan’s deputy defense ministry spokesman. The Associated Press also obtained footage of fighters, apparently Taliban, receiving treatment in a hospital in the Pakistani border town of Chaman.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan are fraught with suspicion. Afghanistan routinely accuses Pakistan of giving safe haven to the Afghan Taliban, whose leadership is headquartered in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan provincial capital of Quetta. The Chaman border crossing opposite Spin Boldak is also in Baluchistan province.

Afghanistan and the United States have criticized Pakistan in the past for allowing Taliban fighters to cross into Pakistan to receive medical treatment. Nearly 2 million Afghan refugees also live in Pakistan, having fled decades of war in their homeland.

Pakistan has used its influence over the Taliban to press the insurgents into talks with the U.S. and the Afghan government.

In the latest round of accusations, Afghanistan’s vice-president, Amrullah Saleh, tweeted that Pakistan’s air force warned the Afghan army and air force against trying to dislodge Taliban from Spin Boldak, an accusation Pakistan dismissed.

In response, Pakistan issued a statement saying 40 Afghan soldiers slipped across the border to Pakistan during the Taliban takeover of the crossing earlier this week.

The soldiers were returned to Afghanistan “with respect and dignity,” said the statement, which added that Pakistan also offered Afghanistan’s security force any logistical support it needed.

___

Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report

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ROME — Pope Francis cracked down Friday on the spread of the old Latin Mass, reversing one of Pope Benedict XVI’s signature decisions in a major challenge to traditionalist Catholics who immediately decried it as an attack on them and the ancient liturgy.

Francis reimposed restrictions on celebrating the Latin Mass that Benedict relaxed in 2007, and went further to limit its use. The pontiff said he was taking action because Benedict’s reform had become a source of division in the church and been exploited by Catholics opposed to the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church and its liturgy.

Critics said they had never before witnessed a pope so thoroughly reversing his predecessor. That the reversal concerned something so fundamental as the liturgy, while Benedict is still alive and living in the Vatican as a retired pope, only amplified the extraordinary nature of Francis’ move, which will surely result in more right-wing hostility directed at him.

Francis, 84, issued a new law requiring individual bishops to approve celebrations of the old Mass, also called the Tridentine Mass, and requiring newly ordained priests to receive explicit permission to celebrate it from their bishops, in consultation with the Vatican.

Under the new law, bishops must also determine if the current groups of faithful attached to the old Mass accept Vatican II, which allowed for Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular rather than Latin. These groups cannot use regular churches; instead, bishops must find alternate locations for them without creating new parishes.

In addition, Francis said bishops are no longer allowed to authorize the formation of any new pro-Latin Mass groups in their dioceses.

Francis said he was taking action to promote unity and heal divisions within the church that had grown since Benedict’s 2007 document, Summorum Pontificum. He said he based his decision on a 2020 Vatican survey of all the world’s bishops, whose “responses reveal a situation that preoccupies and saddens me, and persuades me of the need to intervene.”

The pope’s rollback immediately created an uproar among traditionalists already opposed to Francis’ more progressive bent and nostalgic for Benedict’s doctrinaire papacy.

“This is an extremely disappointing document which entirely undoes the legal provisions,” of Benedict’s 2007 document, said Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales.

While Latin celebrations can continue, “the presumption is consistently against them: bishops are being invited to close them down,” Shaw said, adding that the requirement for Latin Masses to be held outside a parish was “unworkable.”

“This is an extraordinary rejection of the hard work for the church and the loyalty to the hierarchy which has characterized the movement for the Traditional Mass for many years, which I fear will foster a sense of alienation among those attached to the church’s ancient liturgy,” he said.

Benedict had issued his document in 2007 to reach out to a breakaway, schismatic group that celebrates the Latin Mass, the Society of St. Pius X, and which had split from Rome over the modernizing reforms of Vatican II.

But Francis said Benedict’s effort to foster unity had essentially backfired.

The opportunity offered by Benedict, the pope said in a letter to bishops accompanying the new law, was instead “exploited to widen the gaps, reinforce the divergences, and encourage disagreements that injure the Church, block her path, and expose her to the peril of division.”

Francis said he was “saddened” that the use of the old Mass was accompanied by a rejection of Vatican II itself “with unfounded and unsustainable assertions that it betrayed the Tradition and the ‘true Church.'”

Christopher Bellitto, professor of church history at Kean University, said Francis was right to intervene, noting that Benedict’s original decision had had a slew of unintended consequences that not only created internal divisions but temporarily roiled relations with Jews.

“Francis hits it right on the head with his observation that Benedict’s 2007 loosening of regulations against the Latin rite allowed others to use it for division,” he said. “The blowback proves his point.”

The blowback was indeed fierce, though it’s also likely that many will simply ignore Francis’ decree and continue on as before with sympathetic bishops. Some of these traditionalists and Catholics already were among Francis’ fiercest critics, with some accusing him of heresy for having opened the door to letting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receive Communion.

Rorate Caeli, a popular traditionalist blog run out of the U.S., said Francis’ “attack” was the strongest rebuke of a pope against his predecessors in living memory.

“Francis HATES US. Francis HATES Tradition. Francis HATES all that is good and beautiful,” the group tweeted. But it concluded: “FRANCIS WILL DIE, THE LATIN MASS WILL LIVE FOREVER.”

Messa in Latino, an Italian traditionalist blog, was also blistering in its criticism.

“Mercy always and only for sinners (who are not asked to repent) but no mercy for those few traditional Catholics,” the blog said Friday.

For years, though, Francis has made known his distaste of the old liturgy, privately labeling its adherents self-referential naval-gazers who are out of touch with the needs of the church. He has cracked down on religious orders that celebrated the old Mass exclusively and frequently decried the “rigidity” of tradition-minded priests who prioritize rules over pastoral accompaniment.

Traditionalists have insisted that the old liturgy was never abrogated and that Benedict’s 2007 reform had allowed it to flourish.

They point to the growth of traditionalist parishes, often frequented by young, large families, as well as new religious orders that celebrate the old liturgy. The Latin Mass Society claims the number of traditional Masses celebrated each Sunday in England and Wales had more than doubled since 2007, from 20 to 46.

But for many, the writing was on the wall as soon as Francis stepped out onto the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica after his 2013 election without the ermine-trimmed red velvet cape that was preferred by Benedict and is a symbol of the pre-Vatican II church.

The restrictions went into immediate effect with its publication in Friday’s official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

Read More

An off-duty Chicago Police officer who struck and killed a 9-year-old boy on a bicycle in West Rogers Park has been issued a citation.

The officer, 48, was cited for failure to exercise due care for a pedestrian in the road, police said, adding that the investigation continued.

The officer was driving a pickup truck Wednesday evening when he struck Hershel Weinberger in a crosswalk in the 7300 block of North Sacramento Avenue, according to police.

The officer said he stopped at Chase and Sacramento and looked right, left and right again before proceeding, according to a traffic report.

Hershel, who lived nearby, was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston where he died.

After the crash, Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th) wrote a letter to constituents urging them to practice safe driving.

“I have no words to express my deep sympathy for his family, and I cannot even comprehend the sorrow his loved ones are going through as our community struggles with this horrific tragedy,” Silverstein wrote.

“We must all take this as a stark reminder to always drive safely–especially on residential streets,” she said. “Drive slowly and always come to a complete stop at stop signs and traffic lights. Be extra cautious around schools, parks, and places of worship.”

The officer said he didn’t see Hershel, Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara Jr. told the Sun-Times Thursday. The officer took a Breathalyzer test that was negative, according to Catanzara.

The family told police Hershel was heading home after playing at a friend’s house. The boy’s father rushed to the scene and held him until paramedics arrived, a family friend said.

Hershel was a twin and had two other brothers. Baruch Hertz, a rabbi at Congregation B’nei Ruven, said Hershel “was a loved kid. He was a very nice boy, had a smile on his face at all times … It’s a huge shock for the community.”

Ruth Lee, a close friend of the Weinberger family, said the boy had a “sweet energy.”

“He was bright…kind looking, he had very vibrant blue eyes,” Lee, who taught Hershel in various subjects from music to religion, told the Sun-Times.

The off-duty officer was scheduled to appear in traffic court Aug. 5.

Read More

Chance the Rapper on Friday released the official trailer for his upcoming concert film “Magnificent Coloring World.” Also announced is the Aug. 13 release date at select AMC theater locations, including Chicago venues.

Tickets for the film, directed by Jake Shreier and released via Chance’s House of Kick’s “creative pod” umbrella, go on special pre-sale July 16. Information is available at amctheatres.com.

“Seeing movies together on the big screen is an essential part of summertime and something I deeply missed over the last year, so I am extremely excited and honored to partner with AMC to safely bring fans back to the theater,” Chance The Rapper said in May when the film enjoyed an advance screening in Chicago.

The movie was filmed in 2017 following the singer’s history-making Grammy win for best rap album for “Coloring Book,” the first time the honor went to a streamed-only album. Chance picked up three Grammys in all for his work featured on the album, including best new artist and best rap performance for “No Problem” with 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne.

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The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor

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Washington Post, Sen Durbin get marching orders: Nail Tucker Carlson.

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By Dennis Byrne,
today at 10:53 am

They both blow it.

He’s an anti-vaxer.  He’s the face of white grievance! He was a rich kid; white privilege!! He’s insensitive!!!

Well, you can read it fall or yourself. Here’s the Washington Post’s “deep dive” into the popular Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson.

Illinois Democratic Sen.Dick Durbin took to the Senate floor to nail Carlson for being against the Covid-19 vaccine here. 

Of course, the story got a rave review (here) from Tom Jones, senior media writer for Poynter, the reliably rubber stamp for all things liberal in the media.

All right on schedule.

Let’s take a look at the worst of the accusations that’s described in the story’s opening, where the most shocking stuff usually goes.

He didn’t cry.

Oh, dear.

It happened in 2003 in an historic African dungeon that was the holding pen for people heading for enslavement in America. Carlson was there with civil rights leaders who, prayed, sang “We shall overcome” and broke into tears.

One of the civil rights leaders, the Rev. Albert Sampson, then described “the tragedy of Carlson:

He did not cry. He did not have any intellectual response. He didn’t give any verbal response. It was a total detachment from the reality of the event.

Carlson’s supposedly sterile response to the great tragedy of slavery thus, according to Post reporter Michael Kranish, was

an early sign of sentiments that he had been expressing for years — and that would ultimately help transform him into the preeminent voice of angry White America. It is that role that Carlson, 52, now plays every weeknight from his prime-time perch on Fox News.

Actually, Kranish’s interpretation presages the loopy, emotional and irrational emergence of the woke culture. Characteristically, the wokesters believe they can read minds and judge someone’s worth not by the quality of his argument but by his emotional response. Crying included. It is a pitiful excuse for journalism.

I’m not afraid to “admit” that I’ve watch Carlson’s nightly hour-long show—enough to know that Kranish’s summation of Carlson’s positions is an exaggeration. Contrary to the assertion that Carlson is anti-vaccine, he, in fact, doesn’t oppose the vaccine or its efficacy. But he does support the right of Americans to not get it. There’s a vast difference that Kranish and Durbin fail to understand.

Then there’s the story’s declaration that, “But on many nights, it is Carlson’s White grievance that dominates the show.” Kranish poisons the discussion by labelling Carlson’s position as “White grievance.”

Carlson’s argument, as is so many conservative’s, is as clear and easily understood as the Rev. Martin Luther King’s dream pronounced at the 1963 March on Washington: “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Carlson is challenging the far left’s assertion, as enunciated by progressives and Black Lives Matter, of a principle that defies King’s dream. That the color of your skin announces your beliefs. Your skin color drives your actions. Defines whom you are.

I’ll leave for readers to decide the conflicting story of Carlson trashing the reputation of his first grade teacher, the poisoning of his character by his “elite upbringing,” the consistency of his beliefs, his character flaws and other items.

But what I see and hear from Carlson are deep dives—if I can borrow that term—into legitimate public policy issues. Illegal immigration. Racism. Public health and Covid-19. Freedom of speech. Religious and other liberties. Crime. And more. 

The far left, as reflected so well by this story, too often accuses people who take one side—the conservative side—of being irrational, uncaring and deeply flawed. It deflects legitimate disagreement. It focuses on the messenger instead of the message. It relies on argument from authority instead of logic and facts.

Profiles of people who have emerged as visible leaders is legitimate journalism. Profiles intended to knife someone because of his policy positions is a weak and failed response. Not surprising, coming as it is from the Washington Post. 

To subscribe to the Barbershop and be notified when I post, type your email address in the box and click the “create subscription” button. My list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.

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Daily Cubs Minors Recap: Cubs trade Pederson; Young and Davis reach 4 times; Jensen lights out again to lead a number of strong pitching performances

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By Michael Ernst,
today at 11:35 am

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The sell off has begun. In a bit of a surprise, Joc Pederson ends up being the first to go, as he heads to Atlanta in a one-for-one swap for mammoth first base prospect Bryce Ball. I have to say, that return isn’t too bad. Ball was an overslot 24th round pick in the 2019 MLB Draft by the Braves (signed for just shy of $200K).

A sleeper prospect who carries immense power potential. He went undrafted out of a small Iowa high school and then played two years at a local community college, where he annihilated the competition and first began to draw some draft interest. But after going unselected in 2018, he transferred to Dallas Baptist for his junior season in order to face higher quality pitching. Ball didn’t stop mashing.

After leading the Missouri Valley Conference in home runs, RBI and walks there was some belief Ball would get picked on Day 2 of the draft. He ended up slipping into Day 3, most likely over concerns with his defensive abilities. At 6’6″ and 245 pounds, Ball is a good athlete for his size, but his size still limits him. There is only so much agility you can wring out of that body, and it is unlikely to improve as he ages.

Still, the Braves took the chance on him, and it paid immediate dividends, as Ball went first to the Appy League post-draft, where he slashed .324/.410/.676 and smashed 13 homers in just 41 games to earn league MVP honors. He also received a late season call up to Low-A Rome. He continued to rake there to the tune of .337/.367/.547.

That performance earned him a non-roster invite to the Braves camp last fall, something none of their other draftees from the previous year earned outside of their 1st rounder. He impressed everyone with not just his power potential, but his feel to hit and approach at the plate. Obviously, the 2020 season was wiped out, which killed the momentum he was building.

Coming out of the layoff this season, he’s struggled a bit in High-A, hitting .206/.350/.394 with 6 homers and 59 Ks in 54 games, but he’s begun to pick up the pace a bit in July after suffering through a rough June. Hopefully this means he’s making the necessary adjustments.

It is a bat first profile for Ball given he’s adequate at best at 1B, so he needs to hit, a lot, if hehopes to make it as a full time big leaguer. Even if the DH comes to the NL in the future he’ll still have to hit a ton to earn a full time role, as many teams prefer to rotate their starting position players through that spot in an effort to keep them fresh throughout the season.

Ball was ranked in the teens among Braves prospects and likely falls into a similar range with the Cubs, perhaps a bit further down. He does give the Cubs their only 70 raw power in the system, and the hope is given the patience and flashes of all fields approach he shown, that Ball can develop into an all around force at the plate and not just a home run hitter with contact issues.

AAA

Iowa 6, Toledo 0

Top Performers

• Joe Biagini: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K (5.34)
• Michael Rucker: 2 IP, H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K (W, 2-0, 5.24)
• Nick Martini: 3-4, R, HBP, SB (1) (.229)
• Alfonso Rivas: 2-4, R, RBI, BB (.284)
• Ian Miller: 1-3, R, RBI, BB, HBP, SB (7) (.276)
• Tyler Ladendorf: 1-5, HR (3), R, RBI (.227)
• Abiatal Avelino: 2-5, 2 RBI (.273)

Injuries, Updates, and Trends

Matt Duffy went 1-for-4 while playing the majority of the game at 3B as he begins getting his rehab into full swing.

AA

Tennessee 10, Mississippi 2

Top Performers

• Jared Young: 4-5, 2 R, 3 RBI (.417)
• Brennen Davis: 2-3, HR, 3 R, 2 BB (.284)
• Chase Strumpf: 1-4, HR (4), R, 3 RBI, BB (.169)
• Zach Davis: 2-5, HR (1), R, RBI (.279)
• Edwin Figuera: 2-4, BB (.455)
• Nelson Maldonado: 2-5, RBI (.294)
• Peyton Remy: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 3 HBP, 6 K (5.76)
• Bryan Hudson: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K (W, 3-2, 3.58)
• Wyatt Short: 2 IP, H, 0 R, BB, 0 K (5.18)

Injuries, Updates, and Trends

Nelson Maldonado is hitting .361 in July thanks to 5 multi-hit games.

After hitting just .232/.351/.354 in June, Brennen Davis has discovered a new level of comfort in AA this month. He’s showing good patience to wait for pitches to drive and then isn’t missing them often when the opportunity presents itself. He is locked in right now, not only hitting two bombs to earn the Future’s Game MVP award, but batting .412/.524/.794 with Tennessee in July.

No one is as red hot at the plate as Jared Young (.444/.479/.733) though. He’s failed to get a hit in just 2 of his 13 starts this season. He has reached base multiple times in 9 of them. The 26 year old had lost momentum over the past two years but is hitting his way back into the picture so far this year.

He’s doing a better job of using the middle of the field and looking to drive the ball into the gaps rather than pull the ball (which led to him rolling over and hitting a lot of grounders to the right side). His current pace is unsustainable, but if he can maintain this approach and show he can be a viable option at 1B/LF/RF defensively then it is possible Young could earn a bench role down the road, or at least offer the team some depth on the AAA/MLB shuttle.

High-A

South Bend 2, Cedar Rapids 1 (10 Innings)

Top Performers

• Ryan Jensen: 6 IP, 2 H, R, BB, 8 K (4.99)
• Hunter Bigge: 2 IP, H, 0 R, 0BB, K (3.38)
• Bradford Deppermann: 2 IP, H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K (W, 1-2, 4.45)
• Tyler Durna: 1-4, 2B, RBI (.240)
• Edmond Americaan: 2-4 (.210)
• D.J. Artis: 0-2, R, BB, HBP, SB (7) (.130)

Injuries, Updates, and Trends

A terrific July for Ryan Jensen continued with perhaps his finest pro performance last night. He worked the edges of the zone more consistently and set a career high with 8 Ks. A couple more good starts and he could get a promotion to Tennessee. His 3 July starts:

6 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K

5 IP, H, R, BB, 6 K

6 IP, 2 H, R, BB, 8 K

I don’t have time to do a full breakdown of his recent performances right now, but I know Bryan Smith over at Bleacher Nation intends to do a write up on him today, so keep an eye out for that.

New acquisition Bryce Ball has been assigned to South Bend. I wonder if this could trigger a promotion for Tyler Durna to Tennessee and Jared Young to Iowa.

Low-A

Myrtle Beach 5, Columbia 0

Top Performers

• Luis Verdugo: 2-3, 2B, HR (3), R, 3 RBI, BB,SB (2) (.169)
• Jordan Nwogu: 1-3, HR (5), R, RBI, BB (.182)
• Kevin Made: 2-3, R, BB (.200)
• Yohendrick Pinango: 1-3, BB (.264)
• Ezequiel Pagan: 1-4, 2B, R, BB (.293)
• Matt Mervis: 0-2, R, 2 BB (.216)
• Jose Miguel Gonzalez: 4.2 IP, H, 0 R, 5 BB, 6 K (4.25)
• Jose Almonte: 2.2 IP, H, 0 R, 2 BB, K (W, 1-1, 0.79)
• Gabriel Jaramillo: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K (1.80)

Injuries, Updates, and Trends

Luis Verdugo is beginning to break out of his awful early season slump. It started with working better counts in June, but now over his last 9 games in July he is batting .273/.294/.424

ACL

Cubs 1, White Sox 0

Top Performers

• Tyler Schlaffer: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, BB, 7 K (W, 2-1, 4.40)
• Wilfri Figuereo: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, BB, K (0.00)
• Johzan Oquendo: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K (S, 1, 0.00)
• Owen Caissie: 1-2, HR (2), R, RBI, BB (.348)
• Yeison Santana: 1-2, BB (.200)
• Ismael Mena: 1-3 (.205)

DSL

Cubs Blue 9, Rays2 4

Cubs Red 11, Phillies White 9

Two big IFA catcher signings, Brayan Altuve and Moises Ballestreros, had big days. Altuve who has been seeing time at the corner infield spots, had just one hit in five trips, but it was a grand slam. Ballesteros reached four times, twice on doubles, and twice on walks.

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Actor Jason Sudeikis showed his support for the three England soccer players who faced racist abuse in the aftermath of the Euro 2020 final during Thursday night’s “Ted Lasso” Season 2 premiere at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, California.

Sudeikis wore a shirt with the words “Jadon & Marcus & Bukayo” on the front. Those are the first names of the three Black players — Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka — who were racially abused online after missing kicks for England in the decisive penalty shootout against Italy in the European Championship final at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday.

Saka, who is 19 years old, had his penalty kick attempt saved by Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, a moment that ended England’s hopes of winning winning its first-ever European Championship and first major international tournament since the 1966 World Cup. Four people have been arrested for directing racial abuse online toward Rashford, Saka and Sancho.

Thursday’s “Ted Lasso” premiere isn’t the first instance of Sudeikis using his attire to make a point. During the SAG Awards in April, Sudeikis accepted his award for best male actor in a comedy series wearing a sweater saying “My Body My Choice.”

Sudeikis’ “Ted Lasso” character, first used in 2013 to promote NBC Sports’ coverage of the Premier League, is an American football coach who led Wichita State to a Division II national championship and then took a coaching job with fictional Premier League side AFC Richmond. Season 1 of “Ted Lasso” turned into a surprise hit, earning 20 Emmy nominations when those award nominations were announced Tuesday.

The 12-episode second season of “Ted Lasso” debuts July 23 on Apple+.

Read more at usatoday.com

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LOS ANGELES — Dennis Murphy, a sports entrepreneur who co-founded professional leagues in basketball, hockey, tennis and roller hockey that featured innovations in marketing, rules and playing style, died Thursday. He was 94.

Murphy died of congestive heart failure at an assisted living facility in the Orange County city of Placentia, California, according to his son, Dennis Jr.

The elder Murphy co-founded the American Basketball Association, World Hockey Association, World Team Tennis and Roller Hockey International.

Each of the leagues used groundbreaking marketing and promotional tactics, new rules, and a style of play that forced the evolution of already established leagues.

“He just always had a vision for sports,” Dennis Jr. said. “He was kind of like the underdog, so he always wanted to bring a new league in.”

The ABA began in 1967 and lasted until its merger with the National Basketball Association in 1976, leading to four ABA teams joining the NBA and the introduction of the 3-point shot in 1979. Other ABA concepts pioneered by Murphy included the league’s red-white-and-blue basketball, a slam-dunk contest, and team cheerleaders.

“Dennis Murphy was a close friend of my father, Dr. Jerry Buss,” said Jeanie Buss, co-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers. “Dennis always had new ideas he would brainstorm with my dad. He was a creative visionary and many of the innovations in the NBA — like the 3-point shot and slam dunk contest — came from the ABA.”

The WHA existed from 1972-79 and although it wasn’t the first league to challenge the National Hockey League’s dominance, it was easily the most successful.

Nearly 70 players jumped from the NHL to the WHA in its first year, led by Bobby Hull, who signed an unprecedented $1 million contract. Gordie Howe soon followed.

“The players really liked my dad a lot,” Dennis Jr. said, citing their richer contracts. “I don’t know if the owners really liked him.”

The WHA also signed European players, paving the way for a new era in North American hockey. Hall of Famers Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier began their careers in the WHA. Murphy served as commissioner for three years.

He co-founded World Team Tennis in 1973 with Larry King, Fred Barman and Jordan Kaiser, and league play began in 1974 with 16 teams, a four-color tennis court, and teams made up of two men and two women. It was the first pro sports league in which men and women competed on equal terms. It lasted until 1978, but was later resurrected and continues today.

In 1988, Murphy came up with the 12-team International Basketball Association which featured players 6-foot-4 and under.

Murphy’s last pro league was Roller Hockey International from 1992-99. He was inspired after seeing kids playing roller hockey on concrete instead of ice. King joined Murphy and Alex Bellehumeur in developing the league.

Murphy and King produced the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” made-for-TV tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King, who was married to Larry King, at the Houston Astrodome

Born Sept. 4, 1926, in Shanghai, China, where his father worked for Standard Oil, Murphy and his family moved to California in 1941.

Murphy served as an Army staff sergeant in World War II and as a captain in the Korean War. He majored in economics at the University of Southern California. He served one term as mayor of Buena Park, California, in the late 1950s before becoming a marketing executive for a civil engineering firm.

Besides his son, he is survived by daughters Dawn Mee and Doreen Haarlamert, nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. His wife, Elaine, died in 1985.

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Late at night on June 30, the Cubs on a six-game losing streak that would grow to 11 and sink their season, Joc Pederson sent a text: He was ready to talk.

He was back home from Milwaukee and feeling encouraged. The team was having a brutal go of it, but he was more hopeful than he’d been in a long time about the biggest weakness in his game: hitting lefties.

In the ninth inning of a 2-1 loss the night before, he’d roped a 1-2 slider to right-center for a base hit off Brewers closer Josh Hader, the ultimate left-handed beast. Two days before that, he’d doubled off the great lefty Clayton Kershaw in a 7-1 loss at the Dodgers.

To Pederson, it meant a ton.

“I still haven’t even hit my prime,” the 29-year-old, on a one-year free-agent deal with the Cubs, said. “I still feel like I’ve got a lot of years left. It’s why I bet on myself and came here.”

He signed with the Cubs to unburden himself of a dirty descriptor: “platoon.” Not since 2015, when he made the All-Star team as a Dodgers rookie, had he gotten more than scattered opportunities to start against fellow lefties. Of the 62 games he has started against lefties in his career — 2015 to 2020 with the Dodgers and 2021 with the Cubs until Thursday’s trade to Atlanta — 23 came as a rookie and 11 came with the Cubs. That’s more than half.

Pederson has more than five times as many career plate appearances against righties, and the home run gap is 132-9. But six of those homers off lefties happened in 2015.

“From there, it just went downhill,” he said. “It spiraled because I never faced them. It made things more difficult. Where I’m at now is I’m extremely impressed with myself, and there’s still so much growth [to come] there. I feel comfortable in the box against lefties.”

Pederson can’t know yet if the Braves — without injured star outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. for the rest of the season — will give him a full chance. If they don’t, this trade will hurt him. If he’s right about where he was headed, this trade will be regretted by the Cubs.

“It’s not like I’m going to be a superstar against lefties now; I haven’t played in five years against them,” he said. “But it’s something I haven’t even tapped into. I took five years off, not by choice.

“If eventually I do the same thing [against lefties] as against righties, that’s an MVP. If I don’t do as much but I improve, that’s an All-Star. What I do against righties is elite. If I can do the same or a little less against lefties, who knows?”

Pederson hit .271 — with no homers — against lefties as a Cub before being traded for prospect Bryce Ball. He hit .218 — with 11 homers — against righties. All told, he bounced back from a terrible April and became a dangerous hitter. And Chicago got under his skin.

“I love Chicago,” he said. “It’s been amazing. The fans are awesome. Wrigley Field is awesome. It’s been a great experience. I’m really glad that I signed here, and I enjoy everything.”

His time with the Dodgers took a toll on him. Their determination that he wasn’t an everyday player never felt fair or just.

“It was the first time I’d really failed,” he said. “Baseball is an interesting game when it’s not that you’re not as skilled or anything, it’s just the frustration builds and builds and you care so much that you want to do something. It makes you play worse.”

Along the way, an interaction with Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman offended him. By 2018, Pederson was striking out far less than he had earlier on. Friedman said to him in the dugout one day, “Oh, man, the growth you’ve had. If someone told me you’d make such a crazy improvement putting balls in play, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

Pederson replied, “Well, I could’ve made that kind of improvement against lefties if I had the opportunities.”

Around that time, Pederson hired a mental-skills coach whom he still employs. He has learned a great deal.

“I have a lot of fun out there,” he said. “I think when I was younger, I took it so seriously and stressed about it so much that my life wasn’t fun. Not that I was depressed, but I was grinding all the time where I was like, ‘I’m not going to play baseball and be like that. I’m going to enjoy myself or I’m not going to be able to put the uniform on.’ “

It’s a Braves uniform for him now. The Cubs just might rue the day they traded him.

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