Henry Davis' go-ahead solo homer (4)
The drought is over, but the job's not done. For the first time since 2021, Terre Haute North baseball is a sectional champion again. Now, the Patriots are headed to iconic League Stadium in Southridge with a shot at their first regional crown since 2015. WTWO's Rick Semmler is joined by senior ace Kendall Gregg and junior infielder Nate Millington to break down the team's playoff run, what's fueling this special season, and how they're preparing for Saturday's clash with Franklin. The duo also shares some lighter moments — from team jokesters and top impersonations to what it would mean to cement their legacy as one of North's all-time great squads.
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USA Today
28 minutes ago
- USA Today
NFL QB rankings: Where every team's 2025 starter lands based on aura
NFL quarterbacks have been ranked by stats, accomplishments, fantasy scores and more, but it's about time we talk about the thing that truly matters – aura. It's something that can't be measured by numbers, but as the late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said about obscenity, "I know it when I see it." While some hit the film room, others spend their time on the aura farm – crafting some of the most ridiculous personas you've ever seen. There's no MVP award or Super Bowl ring for this honor, but maybe there should be. Without further ado, here are the official aura rankings for the 2025 NFL season's starting quarterbacks. DangeRuss. Mr. Unlimited. Plane workouts. Wannabe NYC influencer. Please, make it stop. Mr. Irrelevant is an appropriate nickname for Purdy off-the-field. Boring is better than cringy though and that allows the NFL-equivalent of the "9 to 5" influencer to avoid the last spot. He has a cool name, but it also signifies a call of distress. Patriots fans hope that won't be used unironically this year, but there is no real swagger or aura about Maye. The hairstyle is improved, but the skill level is a mystery. McCarthy gets an incomplete and lands near the back of the ranking until proven otherwise. A-Rich could have maximum aura. Instead he was too tired to show up for his team in a big moment and we're too tired to boost his ranking. A real shame for someone with such promise. Left handed QBs just look unnatural. The lack of personality on display makes it even worse. He comes across as someone that is trying too hard. The play style feels clunky and every throw looks like a fadeaway jumper. Love has to expand his bag in 2025. Against all odds, the fairly bland Darnold kept his career alive after a breakout 2024. It'll require a lot more effort to get rid of this guy – probably more ghosts, if we had to guess. Flacco has been around long enough to be cool again. In the league since 2008, he has the "get off my lawn" energy, but in a good way. He's short and far from flashy, but Young was aura farming to the max in the second half of 2024. Big things could be on the way. The soon-to-be 26-year-old rookie could've thrown the towel and went into corporate America after a career in college. His quest to be an outlier is applauded here. Concussions have made him the NFL version of the old dog at the shelter. You just can't help but feel bad about what has happened. The hair is doing the heavy lifting, but he could be a lot more exciting. In his defense, Jacksonville and the Jaguars aren't exactly oozing with aura though. Nix dragged the Broncos out of irrelevancy as a rookie and has a cool name. There's some untapped aura for him to uncover as an encore this season. Stafford is the more talented version of Flacco here. Accomplished, talented and still playing a kid's game for a living at 37. Say less. Quarterback or video game streamer? Murray can make some magic on the field, but he struggles to shake the label of someone that would rather be live on Twitch playing Call of Duty. The uncontrollable tears aren't helping Williams in what would've otherwise been a strong case of above average aura in the NFL. He beats to his own drum, but life isn't fair and the QB needs to realize that. One of the game's greatest QBs, Rodgers is now off the deep end. Those clashing realities make the middle a perfect spot. No aura on an individual level, but Goff has the city wrapped around his finger. Listen closely and you'll hear people chanting his name for no reason in a supermarket parking lot. A great QB with endless gifts from above helps his rating. The flopping is unbecoming and the complaining is even worse. Be better. If it looks like a great QB and moves like a great QB, then it must be a great QB. Fields is evidence that results may vary, but there's no denying his aura. He made football in the nation's capital cool again, but his mom can't be controlling his dating life forever and the rating takes a hit because of it. At some point, you have to sink or swim on your own. Being the starting quarterback for America's Team gives Prescott a ton of aura by default. A silent assassin that couldn't possibly be more nonchalant. Ward is all action, no talk. Herbert has mastered the look, even though the short hair does him no justice. He's a little too reserved for our liking, limiting his ceiling here. Everything says his career should be over, but it isn't. King of one-liners, the haters are still waiting for him to write back. A bit of a loose cannon, Mayfield has embraced his inner Florida man with his fiery personality and unlimited confidence. He's a QB with aura that has some serious gravitational pull. The best quarterback in the sport is one you don't want to play against. A combination of dad mode, Kermit voice and a family that creates unwanted headlines holds him back. Stroud is dripping with swagger that borders on arrogance and has almost single-handedly made the Texans a cool team. There's no denying his aura, or his talent. He has the smile and the charisma, but being a "tush push" merchant and speaking in clichés can only get you so far. A real contender for the top spot, Jackson is hurt by his playoff struggles. You can't be No. 1 if you struggle when it matters most. Swagger. Fashion. Confidence. Talent. In the aura department, Burrow whas hat everyone wants. Unless you want wins, then we'll have to transfer you.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
The 3 preseason San Francisco Giants predictions I wish I'd made
I once made a prediction that was accurate and amusing enough to be included on my Wikipedia page. Because of this, you might assume that I'm good at predictions. I am not. That was the only good prediction I have ever made. I am better at fixing transmissions than I am at making predictions, and you don't want me within 50 feet of your car. Advertisement It's probably for the best that I don't remember any of the predictions my corporate overlords forced me to make before this season, because I'm sure they're already shot to heck. What I do remember, though, are the educated guesses and half-baked hunches about the Giants that I had before the season. Some of them came close to happening. If I had any courage at all, I would have published them as predictions and ended up looking smart. I didn't. They're only the preseason predictions I wish I made. To be fair, I at least hinted at the idea in a predictions article, but that was even more wishy-washy than my normal stuff. These were the actual words that were in my brain all winter: This dude might struggle something fierce. Every time I clicked on his Baseball Savant page, it was like a blinking red siren. He wasn't just making weak contact; he was making some of the weakest contact in the league. He wasn't just swinging and missing; he had some of the worst strikeout and whiff rates in the league. Then there was his batted-ball profile, which has him as one of the most extreme pull hitters in baseball. It all adds up to the profile of a hitter the league will catch up with. Then you get to the evidence that the league already did catch up to him at the end of his breakout season: His OPS for September of last season was under .700, and his strikeout-to-walk ratio was all cattywampus. It's a shame, because there's so much already right with him as a player. His speed, instincts, pull-side power and versatility are all helpful to a major-league team right now, which helps explain why Baseball-Reference's WAR still has him as the fourth-most valuable position player on the Giants this season, behind only Matt Chapman, Mike Yastrzemski and Willy Adames. He's still young, and there's still time for him to make the adjustments he needs to. Advertisement It was always unlikely for him to repeat what he did last year, though. It was unlikely for him to come close, even. That's pretty much what's happened. His OPS vs. lefties is 22 points lower than his OPS against right-handers this year, which is both great and horrible news, but his overall production is roughly the same. His adjusted OPS was 25 percent better than the National League last season, and it's 22 percent better this season. He's still as streaky as hitters get, but he's at least shown that last season's second half was just a slump, not a result of the league solving him. The caveat to all this is that I did not see the defensive calamity coming. There have been rough defensive patches for Ramos throughout his Giants career, but nothing like the rough defense he's shown all season. Ramos is between Fitzgerald and Christian Koss in WAR this season, according to Baseball-Reference, which gives you an idea of just how much Ramos' defense is hurting him. And I can't disagree with the numbers, either. They match the eyeball test, and the eyeballs hurt. Still, the offense is a welcome not-surprise. Ramos is a healthy part of a balanced lineup, just like he was last year. Not only is that welcome for this season, but the Giants can start expecting it for future seasons, too. I'd imagine there's quite the generational split among Giants fans when it comes to expectations for pitching prospects. In one corner, you have the old guard, the ones who spent decades expecting doom. Between the Bob Knepper trade in 1980 and Matt Cain's debut in 2005, there wasn't a more dangerous job on the planet than 'exciting young Giants pitcher.' Every time a pitcher would start to fly, they'd fly too close to the sun on shoulders made out of wax. Can you believe there was a time when the Giants had five starting pitchers in the top-100 prospects, including the best pitching prospect in baseball? Only one of them lived up to expectations, and only after he was traded for A.J. Pierzynski. It was always doom for the young pitchers. Doom, doom, doom. Advertisement And in the other corner, you have newer fans, who watched the Giants thrive beyond their wildest dreams because of young pitching. They understand that pitching is a cruel profession, and they know that success can be fleeting, but they're not terrified of young pitchers in general. Sometimes they work. Look at Logan Webb over there. Came up, got good, stayed good for a long time. What's the big deal? That happens with young pitchers sometimes. I'll always be the one in the first example, though. It doesn't surprise me when other teams develop pitchers. The Mariners had a couple seasons where they were consistently making homegrown pitchers out of glowing dirt they dug up behind old Boeing test grounds, and that made sense to me. When it comes to the Giants, though, I always hold my breath. Young pitchers, you say? Sounds risky. There was a point this season where the Giants had too many young pitchers. They sent an incumbent starter to the minors. They had a battle for the one and final spot in the rotation. They had to use starting pitchers as relievers because, well, there were just too many young pitchers. I was scared for them. 'There's no way it will work,' the oldest, crustiest lobe of my brain croaked. And I nodded in agreement. For these were promising young Giants pitchers we were talking about. Except this prediction makes it in here because it's both correct and incorrect. Yes, Hayden Birdsong is caught in a developmental maelstrom right now, and Kyle Harrison is currently on the Pawtucket Red Sox, but Landen Roupp has been stellar. It's been enjoyable to watch his changeup develop as the season progresses, and you can see the curveball become even more effective the less he has to rely on it. Sometimes it's better to be wrong. Maybe there's a way to scoop this lobe of the brain out and replace it with something more optimistic. 'Oops! All Lincecums!' or something like that. I wish I were more wrong in public about the Giants' plan to rely on young pitchers, which I was quietly skeptical about. If the Giants make the postseason this year, young pitching will be a major reason why. Sometimes young pitchers end up helping, and they don't have to stop for a long time. (Top photo of Tyler Fitzgerald: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
Boston Globe
3 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Despite back-to-back 4-13 seasons, the Patriots are somehow the feel-good team of New England, and other thoughts
True fact. The Bruins are a mess and Spoked-B fans are calling for the heads of The Celtics won a championship a little more than a year ago, but Jayson Tatum is out for the year, two starters have been traded, another pair of regulars left via free agency, and the team is expected to sink to the middle of the Eastern Conference. The NBA's dreaded 'second apron' collective bargaining penalties have done more damage to the Green franchise than anything since John Y. Brown. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The interesting-but-annoying Red Sox gave us a nice summer lift with a Tomato-Can-infused Advertisement Which leaves us with the Patriots and a big bowl of optimism. Advertisement They have a real head coach again; Mike Vrabel, a non-nonsense, Patriot linebacker champion, and former NFL Coach of the Year. Josh McDaniels, the best offensive coordinator of this generation, a man who won rings here with Bill and Tom, is calling the plays again. Young, talented, athletic, and mature, Drake Maye is the Patriots' quarterback. He looked pretty good without much help in his rookie season. Can you imagine what he'll do with a real coordinator, a real offensive line, and NFL-caliber wide receivers? Desperate local fans (remember all those parades?) are bullish on this new team. Listen to talk radio and read dispatches from Fort Foxborough. Everything is awesome. Liberated from the Hoodie and Jordon, and Joe Judge and Matt Patricia … impacted no more by the naivete and boobery of Jerod Mayo and staff … the Patriots are operating in a controversy-free zone. It's as if Foxborough is a college town and Pete Carroll is back in charge. Boola-boola. Fans are pumped and jacked, geeked up for the preseason opener against a Washington Football Club The Patriots certainly felt the love when they opened up workouts to the public this past Wednesday. There were oohs and ahhs when Maye connected on his first pass to Stefon Diggs (who seemed to have his sea legs under him). First-round pick Will Campbell looked good with a rebuilt offensive line and charmed the media with his manners. I think his arms have grown a couple of inches since the draft. Advertisement Maye is so popular, he and his wife got credit for donating all of their wedding gifts to charity. The story turned out to be AI fabricated (which is not Maye's fault), but Patriots fans loved him for it anyway. In Wednesday's first open-to-the-public practice, the Patriots Foundation trotted out a parade of puppies, promoting dog adoptions from local animal rescue organizations. Who doesn't love puppies? Vegas has the Patriots at 8.5 wins, and nobody around here thinks that's too high. New England's schedule is fairly easy, the Patriots aren't facing a lot of top quarterbacks, the Krafts Vrabel is experienced. He's a wiseguy like Bill Parcells. He won three Super Bowls under Belichick, then beat Belichick twice (also losing twice) in head-to-head coaching competition. He's taken a team to an AFC Championship game. 'I want to galvanize our football team,' Vrabel said Tuesday. 'I want to galvanize this building. I want to galvanize our fans. There's going to be a brand of football that everybody associated with our team or our fans is going to be proud of.' Bob Kraft told the media he's hoping to 'start a new chapter.' 'I feel good about the foundation of what we have now,' said the 84-year-old owner. 'Now we have to go execute and make that happen.' Good vibes? Kraft is allowing Parcells to take a rightful place in the Patriots Hall of Fame in September. The overdue honor signifies a thaw in a 30-year feud between the owner and the coach that made the Patriots legit before Kraft bought the team. Advertisement It feels full-throttle. Maybe even Full Rochie. ⋅ Quiz: 1: Name the last five MLB players elected to the Hall of Fame in their final year of eligibility; 2: Name six Hall of Famers who hit 49 home runs in a season, but never 50; 3: Name seven Hall of Famers who were on the rosters for the 1995 World Series between Atlanta and Cleveland. ⋅ The Red Sox struck out 44 times in three games against the Phillies. While the Sox were having trouble scoring runs in Philly, Rafael Devers (good riddance to him, right?) went 7 for 14 with two home runs and five RBIs, and scored seven runs in three games against the Braves. Have fun with the narrative that dumping Devers's contract (a great move for ownership, but zero big league help for this year's team) turned the Sox' season around. The moribund Nationals and Rockies turned the Sox' season around. And the 2025 Red Sox go into this weekend with the same record (55-49) as last year's 81-81 team. ⋅ The Red Sox' Advertisement Catcher Carlton Fisk and the Red Sox had a beef with home plate umpire Larry Barnett in the 1975 World Series. ⋅ New pet peeve: Baseball players who get caught stealing or fail to tag a runner out, then instantly turn to the dugout and ask for an official review of the play. Too often, they turn out to be merely embarrassed … and wrong. And the team loses a challenge. ⋅ Standing in the batter's box, eyes wide open, intense expression, Trevor Story from the neck up looks a lot like Dustin Pedroia. ⋅ Three days of Pete Crow-Armstrong was enough to establish that he's fast, powerful, talented, and a hot dog on par with Kiké Hernández. Love the fact that Crow-Armstrong's mother, actress Ashley Diane Crow, played Jenny Heywood, Billy Heywood's mom, in the 1994 film 'Little Big League.' In the film, 12-year-old Billy became owner of the Twins. Pete Crow-Armstrong of the Cubs is powerful, talented, and a bit of a hot dog. David Berding/Getty ⋅ The Dodgers used 16 starting pitchers before the All-Star break. The stat made me think of the 2004 Red Sox, when Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, Derek Lowe, and Bronson Arroyo combined to start 157 of 162 regular-season games. This is unlikely to ever happen again. Advertisement ⋅ The Yankees' Mount Rushmore (Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, and Mickey Mantle) is appropriately etched in stone. Ian O'Connor of The Athletic posits that Aaron Judge someday will replace one of the Bronx Bomber gods and join the Pinstripe Pantheon. The author notes that Judge has a better career slugging percentage and OPS than DiMaggio and Mantle. Judge plans to play into his 40s, already has crossed the 350-home run mark, and is on course to surpass Gehrig (493) and Mantle (536). At this hour, Yogi Berra, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera are in the Yankees' second tier of immortality, but Judge has a chance to supplant one of the Big Four. Remember 'Seinfeld's' 'Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Costanza'? We now live in a world where Judge goes into that punchline. ⋅ Love the fact that Jon Lester compiled the same winning percentage (.636) and ERA (3.66) with both the Red Sox and Cubs. Lester went 110-63 in 242 games with Boston and 77-44 in 171 games with Chicago. He also won championships with both teams. When we get around to the Sox not competing for the long-term services of their homegrown stars (Mookie Betts, anyone?), it should be remembered that this all started when they wouldn't pay Lester and traded him to Oakland in the summer of 2014. Lefthander Jon Lester had 110 wins as a member of the Red Sox. Jim Davis/Globe Staff ⋅ Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and now Scottie Scheffler are the only golfers who've won the British Open, Masters, and PGA Championship before turning 30. Like Woods, Dallas native Scheffler went 1,197 days between his first and fourth major victories. ⋅ Forty-five-year-old Venus Williams beat 23-year-old Peyton Stearns at the Citi Open in Washington this past week. Venus won her first professional tennis match at the age of 14 in 1994. Venus Williams celebrated her win over Peyton Stearns at the Citi Open on Tuesday. Nick Wass/Associated Press ⋅ The Wall Street Journal reports that former tennis star Maria Sharapova and her husband are listing their Manhattan Beach, Calif., property for $24.995 million. The place features an ocean view and two bowling lanes, but no tennis court. ⋅ Anagram of the week: Giants acquire Devers — Grievances tire squad. ⋅ Best wishes to Eddie Doyle, 35-year boss/bartender at the Bull & Finch Pub (Cheers), and champion of children's charities, who's been battling health issues on Cape Cod. Eddie started the Falmouth Walk — held the day before the Falmouth Road Race, which was invented by the late Tommy Leonard. ⋅ RIP Garrett Haydon of Sudbury, gone too soon at the age of 29. Garrett was a local sportswriter, kind friend, and host of 'Not Your Average Boston Sports Podcast' despite his struggles with muscular dystrophy. He inspired all those who knew him. ⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Billy Wagner (2025), Larry Walker (2020), Edgar Martinez (2019), Tim Raines (2017), Jim Rice (2009); 2. Andre Dawson, Lou Gehrig, Todd Helton, Harmon Killebrew, Frank Robinson, Larry Walker; 3. Braves: Tom Glavine, Chipper Jones, Fred McGriff, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz; Indians: Eddie Murray, Jim Thome. (Dave Winfield was on the team but did not make Cleveland's roster.) Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at
