For manager Tony La Russa, filling out the lineup card this deep into a season often means balancing when it’s the right time to give a player a day off.
The first two and a half months of the season are starting to take their toll physically and mentally, and guys who started the season hot are starting to cool off. And some are downright slumping.
Namely, Jose Abreu has struggled in June, hitting just .173 with one home run. The 2020 American League MVP had a slow start in April, but he hit .333 in May with six home runs, five doubles, and a triple.
La Russa believes that some of what is contributing to Abreu’s slump in June is the usual wear and tear of a season. Abreu has had some scary moments on the field this year, including a collision with Hunter Dozier in May, and those bumps and bruises add up. La Russa acknowledged this after Abreu went 0-for-3 in Friday’s 9-3 loss to the Mariners, but come Saturday, he had Abreu in the lineup again.
“The conversation went like, he’s ready to play,” La Russa said, explaining his choice. “He put his hand on a ball, which is the baseball bible, and assured me that he wasn’t being overly heroic. So I said ‘Great, you’re in there.’ That’s how it went.”
Getting Abreu to rest can be easier said than done; he was taking swings on the field Saturday morning less than twelve hours after Friday night’s game had ended.
“You’ve seen what he did over the years,” shortstop Tim Anderson said of his teammate. “He’s definitely working. I just saw him in the cage so I think that says a lot about what kind of guy he is and what type of work ethic he has.”
La Russa’s sustained faith in Abreu could pay off — he did hit a bloop single to shallow left field in his first at bat Saturday, before play was suspended due to rain. That was Abreu’s first hit since his seventh inning single on Tuesday in Pittsburgh.
“He’s sore but he’s not hurt. That’s the key,” La Russa said.
And Abreu isn’t the only player whose health La Russa is trying to take into consideration when he decides on his starting nine each day. He has had to have similar conversations with Yoan Moncada. In Friday’s game, Moncada rolled his ankle slightly taking a swing and then later had to be checked after running to first base. He remained in the game, but La Russa said Moncada iced the ankle immediately after the ninth inning ended.
Despite this, Moncada was also in Saturday’s lineup. Like with Abreu, La Russa is choosing to trust Moncada when he says he’s good to play.
“If it gets to where it’s detrimental to him or the team, I think he’ll speak up,” La Russa said.
During last weekend’s series in Houston, Moncada insisted he could play, even though he was battling a sinus infection at the time. Moncada went 0-for-3 that day, and his production has also slowed in June. His OPS is down to .663 this month after it was .892 in May.
Regardless, La Russa believes he and the team medical staff can manage the right amount of rest for Moncada, but like Abreu, Moncada’s name can be a hard one not to write on his lineup card.
“As long as we keep that communication honest and trust him,” La Russa said. “But there’s been a lot of times he’s gone to the post concerned about, we’ve been concerned about something and he gets the RBI that make you happy he played, because he was the difference, defensively, offensively. Just part of relationships and trust. And we trust if it’s not in his best interest, which is not in our interest, that he’s going to let us know.”
A 41-year-old man accused of “terrorizing downtown” after he allegedly attacked three women, killing one, over the course of nine days this month was held without bail Saturday.
Tony Robinson is facing a first-degree murder charge in the fatal stabbing of a Maryland graduate student in the Loop last weekend, as well as armed robbery and aggravated battery charges in connection to two other downtown attacks.
“This defendant has, for lack of a better term, [been] terrorizing downtown in regards to the crimes he’s now facing charges,” Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said during a bond hearing.
Judge Charles Beach later agreed that Robinson had been terrorizing the downtown area, saying, “I don’t think that’s an unfair statement in any way, shape or form.”
“These types of attacks and the randomness and violence cause a fear… The randomness of this is hard to explain and it’s hard to adapt to, and frankly, it is an act of terrorism on the community when it happens in this fashion,” Beach said.
About 4 p.m. June 19, Anat Kimchi, 31, was walking in the 400 block of South Wacker Drive when Robinson approached her from behind and stabbed her in the neck and upper back, Murphy said.
A witness, who was in a nearby park at the time of the murder, told investigators that initially it looked like Robinson was trying to rob Kimchi, though he only took a sweater, Murphy said.
The witness ran to help Kimchi and had a brief confrontation with Robinson, who told the bystander “he didn’t want any of what he had,” Murphy said. The wounded Kimchi gave her phone to the witness, who called 911 and held her until emergency personnel arrived.
Surveillance video captured Robinson running away southbound on Upper Wacker Drive before descending to Lower Wacker Drive, Murphy said.
Video also allegedly showed Robinson tossing a knife into the Chicago River, taking off the shirt he wore during the attack and leaving it near a small homeless encampment where he lived, about 200 feet away from the scene of the stabbing.
Investigators later found that shirt, which contained DNA samples matching Robinson, Murphy said.
Chicago police work the scene where a 31-year-old woman was fatally stabbed in the 400 block of South Wacker on June 19.Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Kimchi was the third woman Robinson allegedly attacked in nine days.
On June 13, Robinson allegedly jumped a St. Louis woman in town for a baseball game as she was on her way to get coffee. Robinson hit the 50-year-old woman with a “long black object” multiple times, making drop her belongings, near South Michigan Avenue and East Congress Parkway, Murphy said.
The woman didn’t see the weapon, but told investigators it felt like she was hit with a concrete block. She identified Robinson in a photo array.
Robinson stole her phone and some money before fleeing. The woman suffered a broken nose and needed nine stitches to the forehead and three staples to the back of her head, Murphy said.
And three days before that, Robinson allegedly hit a 25-year-old woman in the head with an unknown object as she walked on a sidewalk in the 500 block of South Franklin Street on June 10.
When he was arrested Thursday, Robinson was wearing the same cargo pants he allegedly was seen in after Kimchi’s stabbing.
During a search of his tent, officers recovered two knives and a black sock filled with rocks, according to Murphy. They also found black sneakers with a metal buckle on the shoe laces, the same shoes Kimchi’s attacker was seen wearing on surveillance footage before the fatal stabbing.
A Northwest Side apartment building owned by a landlord whose properties have been plagued by violence and building code violations — including a woman shot to death last year in another of his buildings — was raided Friday by Chicago police officers.
Karris Turner, 31, and Terrence Cole, 27, were arrested in an apartment in the building in the 4400 block of North Lawndale Avenue in Albany Park, where officers reported finding 26 grams of heroin, 13 grams of crack cocaine and $2,000 in a safe.
Both men are felons. Turner was on electronic monitoring while free on bail awaiting trial on weapon charges, including reckless discharge of a firearm, court records show.
Gary Carlson, who has dozens of rental properties in the area, also owns an apartment building in the 4400 block of North Francisco Avenue where Stephanie Brooks was fatally shot on Feb. 22, 2020.
Stephanie Brooks.Provided
A masked man entered the apartment during a home invasion, and Brooks was shot when at least one of her friends fired a handgun during the incident, according to a police report. The case was closed without any charges filed.
At the time, the police said they believed the incident could have been connected to a gang shootout that left a Chicago firefighter wounded in the leg outside another apartment building owned by Carlson. The firefighter was trying to put out a car fire outside the building in the 3300 block of West Wilson Avenue when he was caught in the crossfire.
Hollis Williams, 30, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery of a firefighter and illegal gun possession in that case and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Williams lived in Carlson’s building on Francisco where Brooks was killed, according to court records.
Hollis Williams.Illinois Department of Corrections
Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (33rd) and Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) and Cmdr. Ronald Pontecore Jr. of the Albany Park police district met with Carlson in February 2020 about their concerns about violence connected to his buildings. In her ward newsletter, Rodriguez Sanchez said Carlson promised to secure his buildings.
The Chicago Department of Buildings’ Strategic Task Force conducted a series of inspections at Carlson’s buildings earlier this year.In March, the task force inspected Carlson’s apartment buildings on Lawndale, Francisco and Wilson avenues and found numerous building code violations, though most of them didn’t directly involve security issues, city records show.
In a 2016 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Carlson said he doesn’t like to be called a slumlord and said “I don’t rent no garbage.” He said he evicts troublesome tenants.
“I don’t like the police coming to my buildings,” he said.
Firefighters battle a blaze as rescue workers search debris at the 12-story oceanfront condo, Champlain Towers South, Friday, June 25, 2021 in Surfside, Fla. | Al Diaz/Miami Herald via AP
A “very deep fire” hampered rescue efforts Saturday at the collapsed oceanfront condominium tower near Miami where authorities are racing to recover any survivors beneath a mountain of rubble, officials said.
SURFSIDE, Fla. — A “very deep fire” hampered rescue efforts Saturday at the collapsed oceanfront condominium tower near Miami where authorities are racing to recover any survivors beneath a mountain of rubble, officials said.
Rescuers were using infrared technology, water and foam to battle the blaze, whose source was unclear. Smoke has been the biggest barrier, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said during a news conference.
“We’re facing very incredible difficulties with this fire. It’s a very deep fire. It’s extremely difficult to locate the source of the fire,” she said.
One hundred fifty-nine people remain unaccounted for since Thursday’s collapse, which killed at least four.
Gerald Herbert/APLeo Soto, who created this memorial with grocery stores donating flowers and candles, pauses in front of photos of some of the missing people that he put on a fence, near the site of an oceanfront condo building that partially collapsed in Surfside, Fla., Friday, June 25, 2021.
Authorities also announced Saturday they are beginning an audit of buildings nearing their 40-year review — like the fallen Champlain Towers South — to make sure they’re safe.
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials have joined local and state authorities at the site, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
The news came after word of a 2018 engineering report that showed the building had “major structural damage” to a concrete slab below its pool deck that needed extensive repairs, part of a series of documents released by the city of Surfside.
While the report from the firm of Morabito Consultants did not warn of imminent danger from the damage — and it is unclear if any of the damage observed was responsible for the collapse — it did note the need for extensive and costly repairs to fix systemic issues with the building.
It said the waterproofing under the pool deck had failed and had been improperly laid flat instead of sloped, preventing water from draining off.
“The failed waterproofing is causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas. Failure to replaced the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially,” the report said.
The firm recommended that the damaged slabs be replaced in what would be a major repair.
The report also uncovered “abundant cracking and spalling” of concrete columns, beams and walls in the parking garage. Some of the damage was minor, while other columns had exposed and deteriorating rebar. It also noted that many of the building’s previous attempts to fix the columns and other damage with epoxy were marred by poor workmanship and were failing.
Beneath the pool deck “where the slab had been epoxy-injected, new cracks were radiating from the originally repaired cracks,” the report said.
Gregg Schlesinger, a former construction project engineer who is now a lawyer handling construction defect cases, said another area of concern in the report is cracks that were discovered in the tower’s stucco facade. Schlesinger said that could indicate structural problems inside the exterior that could have been critical in the collapse.
Gerald Herbert/APRescue personnel work in the rubble at the Champlain Towers South Condo, Friday, June 25, 2021, in Surfside. The seaside condominium building partially collapsed on Thursday.
“The building speaks to us. It is telling us we have a serious problem,” Schlesinger said in a phone interview Saturday.
He added that there are frequently “telltale signs” on oceanfront buildings indicating problems structurally largely from saltwater and salty air intrusion.
“This is a wakeup call for folks on the beach. Investigate and repair. This should be done every five years,” Schlesinger added. “The scary portion is the other buildings. You think this is unique? No.”
Abi Aghayere, a Drexel University engineering researcher, said the extent of the damage shown in the engineering report was notable. In addition to possible problems under the pool, he said several areas above the entrance drive showing signs of deterioration were worrisome and should have been repaired immediately because access issues prevented a closer inspection.
“Were the supporting members deteriorated to the extent that a critical structural element or their connections failed leading to progressive collapse?” he wrote in an email to the AP after reviewing the report. “Were there other areas in the structure that were badly deteriorated and unnoticed?”
On Saturday, a crane could be seen removing pieces of rubble from a more than 30-foot pile of debris at the collapse site. Scores of rescuers used big machines, small buckets, drones, microphones and their own hands to pick through the mountain of debris that had been the 12-story Champlain Towers South.
Levine Cava told WPLG there was no change in the number of people still unaccounted for: “We are at status quo,” she said. “I’m hopeful this will be a day that we have will have a breakthrough.”
Rachel Spiegel was anxious for any update on her missing mother, 66-year-old Judy Spiegel, who lived on the sixth floor.
“I’m just praying for a miracle,” Spiegel said. “We’re heartbroken that she was even in the building.”
Jeanne Ugarte was coming to grips with what she feared was a tragic end for longtime friends Juan and Ana Mora and their son Juan Jr., who was visiting his parents in their condo at the tower.
“I know they’re not going to find them (alive),” Ugarte said. “It’s been too long.”
While officials said no cause for the collapse early Thursday has been determined, Gov. Ron DeSantis said a “definitive answer” was needed in a timely manner. Video showed the center of the building appearing to tumble down first, followed by a section nearer to the beach.
The 2018 report was part of preliminary work by the engineering company conducting the building’s required inspections for a recertification due this year of the building’s structural integrity at 40 years. The condominium tower was built in 1981.
Condon reported from New York. Associated Press Terry Spencer in Surfside contributed to this report.
Gerald Herbert/APIn this aerial image search and rescue workers work the site of an oceanfront condo building that partially collapsed, in Surfside, Fla., Friday, June 25, 2021.
I was accepted into National Louis University last year and am now halfway done with my Master’s Degree! Ever since I took my first psychology class in high school, I have always had an interest in understanding why people do the things they do and what drives them. After becoming a mother to three daughters and then teaching in the early childhood field for almost twenty years, that inquisitiveness has deepened even more. I wrote in my personal statement for the application that “Dreams may go out of focus; however, they never truly go away.” I have wanted to attain my Master’s degree ever since I got my Bachelor’s degree; I just wanted a break first. That time off has turned into 35 years, but I am doing it now. I value education, and I consider myself a life-long learner whether learning through school, experiences, or reflection. This is one of many dreams I have had since I was young just like becoming a mother, traveling, and writing a book. Turning my dreams into goals and then making them reality has been an exciting yet challenging process at times. It is difficult some weeks to keep up with the reading and papers while working full-time, but I am so happy to be reaching for this goal. I am not sure where this will lead me, but I learned long ago that opportunities and life are unpredictable, in good ways as well as in bad. All I know is that this is a dream that I am so happy to be making a reality. There are still other dreams on my list since dreams really never go away even if I lose focus on them for a while. I want others to see me reaching and striving, so they know that they can create a life of their own making.
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While it is easy to focus on the negative aspects of life, I choose to continue looking for the good in people and in the world around me, and I want to share why they do what they do. I am the proud mother of three adult daughters and live in the Chicago area. I have worked in the Early Childhood Education field since 2001, and I write books when the inspiration comes.
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