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Boston Globe
11-07-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
After a visit to the White House, the Red Sox have been in command, and other thoughts
So. Much. Winning. Back in the 1980s, Globe teammate Kevin Paul Dupont dubbed Hartford's NHL team Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Until now. Advertisement Anchored by Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello, and Lucas Giolito, the rotation is clicking. Boston's lineup just scored 100 runs in a dozen games. Kids Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Marcelo Mayer (they knocked in all four runs Thursday) have given the locals an infusion of enthusiasm and offense. Trevor Story is finally playing like the guy the Sox thought they were getting when they signed him 3½ years ago. Aroldis Chapman has been dominant at the back end of the bullpen. The Sox even managed to win a one-run game (4-3) with only four hits Thursday. Advertisement 'We've been playing good baseball for a while now,'' manager Alex Cora said after the thrilling series-opener victory. And now they are getting team leader Alex Bregman (quad) back after a six-week hiatus. Since 2020 the Sox have one playoff appearance and three last-place finishes — annually selling the illusion of contention in a watered-down postseason format (six of 15 teams qualify in each league) that makes it almost impossible not to be in contention in July/August. Dare we speculate that this cycle of abject mediocrity is about to change? Are the '25 Red Sox going to do what the '22, '23 and '24 Sox could not do? Are they finally going to make significant additions at the deadline, roar into a wild-card spot, and play deep into October? If the Sox make a big run, I'm expecting our commander in chief to take credit. It's going to be noted that the Sox' winning streak started the day after their visit in the Oval Office. It was one of the strangest, least-publicized sideshows in Boston sports history. On a off day when a bunch of players opted for a White House tour, 10 of them wound up saying hello to the President. A video posted on X by White House press assistant Margo Martin shows Story, Justin Wilson, Abraham Toro, Romy Gonzalez, Connor Wong, Greg Weissert, Wilyer Abreu, Garrett Whitlock, Brennan Bernardino, and Rob Refsnyder, casually dressed, parading through the Oval Office, shaking hands with the President, who greeted them while standing behind his desk. There was a hilarious moment when Bernardino introduced himself and Trump said, 'I know that.'' (Another whopper from No. 47.) Advertisement President — Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) The Red Sox PR staff made no mention of the Trump encounter in the the next day's notes. NESN played the video in its pregame show, but folks in the booth didn't talk about the presidential encounter during the three games broadcast from D.C. over the weekend. If was as if it never happened — sort of like the Loch Ness Monster meeting Keyser Soze in Area 51. But it happened. And then the Red Sox ripped off their longest winning streak in more than two years. They got to feast on Tomato Cans from Washington and Colorado. The Nationals fired their GM and manager within minutes after getting swept by the Sox and the Rockies are going to be the worst team of the last 125 years. Then came Thursday when Cash lifted a stellar starter who'd just retired 10 of 11 and had a 3-1 lead after six. So. Much. Winning. Related : This is the hot-hitting Trevor Story the Red Sox thought they were getting in 2022. Barry Chin/Globe Staff ⋅ Homerlicious Quiz: 1. Name five big leaguers who had eight or more 40-home run seasons; 2. Name the top five all-time switch-hitting home run leaders (answers below). ⋅ Bob Cousy, who'll turn 97 on Aug. 9, called to say, 'The league has done what no NBA team or players could do — decimate the Celtics.' ⋅ Sorry, but I am out on the Savannah Bananas. It's entertaining (I guess), but so is the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus. It's simply got nothing to do with sports. The Savannah Bananas may be entertaining, but is what they do really a sport? Barry Chin/Globe Staff ⋅ Close your eyes and imagine Cubs baseball boss Jed Hoyer — a Theo Epstein protégé who was part of the curse-busting 2004 Red Sox and 2016 Cubs — dealing prospects to the Red Sox in exchange for closer Aroldis Chapman later this month. Like Hoyer, Chapman has a Cubs 2016 championship ring. Advertisement ⋅ Kudos to NESN for its spectacular celebration of the 1975 World Series when the Reds came to Fenway at the start of July. The rain-shortened July 1 telecast gave the network a chance to go deep on the 50-year-old memories of one of the greatest World Series ever played. Great job all around. ⋅ Bruins enforcer-turned-media-guy Byers grew up fighting in Nipawin, Saskatchewan. 'Whenever anything happened in Nipawin, there wasn't any hesitation to stop at my house and check my whereabouts,' he said. I asked him what it was like playing for the Bruins. 'Awesome. Anyone that ever played here wishes they were still here. Coaches, management, everybody. There's tradition in this organization you read about. I've had so much fun . . . I always think about what it's going to be like later for me to look back and say that Ray Bourque was my teammate.' Advertisement ⋅ Dry Heaving Dept.: The NBA this summer is ⋅ New Celtic Luka Garza played his high school ball at Maret in Washington D.C., where his coach was Chuck Driesell, son of legendary Lefty Driesell, who was Len Bias's coach at Maryland. ⋅ Newton South's Veronica Burton (daughter of Steve, sister of Kayla) had pretty fair success against Caitlin Clark while playing at Northwestern against Clark's Iowa teams in the Big Ten. It has continued in the WNBA. Wednesday afternoon in Indianapolis, Burton scored 21 points with 8 rebounds and 6 assists, while Clark was held to 10 points ⋅ According to The Athletic, Texas quarterback prodigy Arch Manning (his grandfather is Archie Manning and his uncles are Peyton and Eli) has been made available for interviews only five times in his 2½ years with the Longhorns. Advertisement ⋅ Look for the Los Angeles Kings to make it to the 2026 Stanley Cup Final now that they have signed right wing Corey Perry. Perry won the Cup with the Ducks in 2007, but has played on five of the last six teams that lost in the Cup Final. ⋅ All this time I believed that if a batter struck a baseball off Fenway's left field ladder he would be awarded a triple. That turned out to be a myth. It's a double. Just ask Nate Eaton. ⋅ Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, a.k.a. 'Big Dumper,' is right there with Aaron Judge in the conversation for American League MVP. Since 1951, the only catchers who've been MVP are Yogi Berra (three times), Roy Campanella (three times), Elston Howard, Johnny Bench (twice), Thurman Munson, Ivan Rodriguez, Joe Mauer, and Buster Posey. ⋅ From 1964-96, only six men started at third base for the American League All-Star team. Wade Boggs did it 11 times, Brooks Robinson and George Brett nine times each, Graig Nettles twice, and Sal Bando and Harmon Killebrew once each. ⋅ The New York Times named Bill Belichick's muse, Jordon Hudson, one of its 33 Most Stylish People of the Year So Far. ⋅ Big congrats on a job very well done by the indefatigable and incomparable Danny Ventura, who is retiring after 40 years of high school sports coverage for the Boston Herald. ⋅ Check out the Globe's ⋅ ⋅ RIP Westford's Jim Kazeniac, sports fan, probation officer, family man, and sculptor of young souls in his early career days as a social studies teacher and basketball coach at Groton High School in the 1970s. ⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Babe Ruth (11 times), Killebrew, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez; 2. Mickey Mantle (536), Eddie Murray (504), Chipper Jones (468), Carlos Beltrán (435), Mark Teixeira (409). Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at
Boston Globe
10-07-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Red Sox riding high after sweeping Nationals and Rockies, but schedule gets tougher the rest of July
The lopsided results came against the lowly Nationals (38-54) and Rockies (21-72), but the Red Sox will take the positive results against any opponent. Advertisement Now, the Sox' task is to translate that success as the schedule stiffens ahead of next week's All-Star break and the Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Beginning on Thursday, the Sox will welcome in the Rays for a four-game set before the break, with Tampa Bay currently holding a two-game edge in the division and wild-card races. Then, immediately after the break, the Sox will have three straight series against the National League's current division leaders — the Cubs (54-38), Phillies (54-39), and Dodgers (56-38). Related : 'There's a lot of energy right now,' Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. 'Obviously that comes with winning and with swinging the bat well, but we just got to be ready for tomorrow. You got a big series against the Rays.' Advertisement Before the Sox' series in Washington last week, Cora cited the AL-leading Tigers' unexpected series loss to the Nationals just days prior as a cautionary example. And over the entire week-long stretch, Cora was pleased with the team's attention to detail. 'Any given night at this level, somebody will be on the mound, and they are going to be throwing 97-98 [m.p.h.], and if they execute, you'll have trouble,' Cora said earlier this week. 'And I think watching Detroit right before us in Washington, that was kind of like, 'Hey, you better show up.' ' The Sox' aggression and focus was exemplified in the first inning on Wednesday, when leadoff hitter Jarren Duran hustled all the way to third after a pair of defensive miscues by the Rockies led to the ball kicking around the outfield grass. 'Overall, the effort was great,' Cora said. 'The way this game started — I always say, when that guy [Duran] is leading off, you better be here early, because something special might happen. I haven't seen that in my career as a baseball player or manager.' Now, the challenge for the Sox is to keep their groove against tougher teams. One source of encouragement: The Sox are 23-23 this season against teams with winning records, and before this recent run against Washington and Colorado, the Sox faced winning teams in seven of eight series and went 13-8 over that span. Each of the Rays' scheduled starters this weekend hold ERAs under 5.00, and two are beneath 4.00. Those numbers aren't remarkable, but consider that over the past six games against Washington and Colorado, the Sox faced only one starter with a sub-5.00 ERA. Advertisement The Sox are 4-2 against Tampa Bay this season, most recently taking two of three at Fenway Park from June 9-11. 'We're going to lock in. That's the division contender, and we're in a really good moment,' said Carlos Narvaez. 'We'll give 200 percent these next four games, and we get a little break next week. So it's going to be a fun series.' And while the offense's hot streak has taken pressure off the starters of late, the Sox will need strong performances from their staff. Boston will start Walker Buehler on Thursday, 'The way that we're swinging the bat right now, you don't have to be perfect out there on the mound,' Giolito said. 'They're making it a lot easier on us starting pitchers.' As for the Sox' confidence level as they turn the page to the critical Rays series, Narvaez summed it up swiftly: 'We swept the last two series, and we're looking forward to sweeping the next one, too.'
Boston Globe
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Inside the Globe's new Best of the Best list
Write to us at . To subscribe, . TODAY'S STARTING POINT Confession: I'm pretty bad at shopping for clothes. I have little sense of style (something dedicated Starting Point readers might remember from But there's something about thrifting that I love. It might be the thrill of discovery. It might be the experience reminds me of a more analog era, before much of our shopping (indeed, much of our experience of the world) happened via online ads, influencer content, and other things pushed to our devices. It might be that rifling through trendy secondhand T-shirts can make even a stodgy fashion criminal like me feel cool, at least for a few minutes. And of course I appreciate the prices, too. So over the weekend I popped into Advertisement Thrift stores are one of seven new categories in the Globe's current Best of the Best list, supplementing the cheap eats, bookstores, and other categories that appeared in Advertisement Below you'll find a teaser from the six other new categories in this year's list, spanning record stores to doughnuts. If you like what you see, explore Best sandwiches Sandwiches from All Star Sandwich Bar in Cambridge Handout All-Star Sandwich Bar: With its retro vibe and menu of outrageous comfort food, this Inman Square staple exudes devil-may-care largesse. Try a grilled meatloaf sandwich blanketed in melted Jack cheese on sourdough or a sinfully thick grilled cheese on white, further corrupted by béchamel sauce. 1245 Cambridge Street, Cambridge. Bakeries Colette Bakery: Expanded from Medford to Melrose and now the South End, this French bakery practices culinary diplomacy wherever it goes. This is thanks to eggy, burnt sugar-y canelés, perfectly buttery croissants, and baguettes to carry home like a real French person. 517 Columbus Avenue, South End. Advertisement Doughnuts Mass Hole Donuts' Pink Papi doughnut hole has lemon poppy with pink lemonade glaze and crunchy white chocolate and strawberry sprinkles. Dan Parcell Mass Hole Donuts: A cheeky riff on the unofficial Massachusetts state dessert, these cleverly composed doughnut holes are orb-only fever dreams with more ingredients than Market Basket, with varieties including crushed potato chips, candied lemons, churro chunks — why not? 1157 Broadway, Somerville. Cocktail bars Parla: With its dark, wood paneled walls and cozy footprint, entering Parla feels a little like stepping inside an old fashioned: Like the drink, it packs a punch. 230 Hanover Street, North End. Record stores Village Vinyl & Hi Fi: This Coolidge Corner spot is the place to find that record you never knew you needed until you got there. Congolese jazz? A Disney animated movie soundtrack? A throwback compilation of Soul Train hits? Check. Check. Check. 307 Harvard Street, Brookline. Neighborhood restaurants Delux Cafe in the South End Mona Miri for the Boston Globe Delux Cafe: In this kitschy, kaleidoscopic jewel box of a bar, '50s and '60s paraphernalia adorn the walls and a jukebox emits a soft glow from the corner. But for a restaurant that resembles an Elvis impersonator's fever dream (in a good way), the food is shockingly great. 100 Chandler Street, South End. 🧩 2 Down: 75° POINTS OF INTEREST Fishing boats tied up at New Bedford's State Pier. The industry relies on immigrant labor. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff/David L Ryan, Globe Staff Phones away: Massachusetts lawmakers advanced a bill that would ban students in the state from White Stadium renovation: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu acknowledged that the cost of the project will likely exceed $91 million, citing higher prices of materials. The price tag Advertisement Karen Read: Read's lead defense attorney said that his firm In mourning: Samantha, a 24-year-old zebra at the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, died after she AI imposter: Someone pretending to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio contacted foreign ministers, a governor, and a member of Congress using artificial intelligence to mimic Rubio's voice and writing style. ( Russia-Ukraine war: President Trump criticized Vladimir Putin and pledged more weapons to Ukraine, reversing a pause on US ammunition shipments. Trump said he didn't know who in his administration had ordered the pause. ( Local impacts: Baystate Health, Western Massachusetts' largest health care system, is already struggling financially and estimates the cuts to Medicaid in Trump's tax law Wear away: TSA will no longer require travelers to take off their shoes during airport security screenings. ( Labor deal: The NHL and NHL Players' Association formally extended their collective bargaining agreement through 2030. ( Shipping attacks: Yemen's Houthi rebels are renewing their attacks on ships in the Red Sea. After sinking a Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned cargo vessel on Sunday, the rebels targeted another yesterday, killing three people. ( Advertisement BESIDE THE POINT ❤️ Love Letters: She loves her boyfriend but 🇮🇹 Holy sightsee: Check out the hilltop Italian town where Pope Leo XIV is staying cool this summer. ( 🧑🍳 Cooking for one? Despite Costco's reputation for bulk, you can still save money there as a single shopper. 💀 Body politic: Philadelphia's Mütter Museum houses preserved human fetuses, skulls, and other unusual bodily artifacts. Now its new management is navigating an ethical and political minefield. 🎙️ A very Boston episode: 'The Bear' actress Ayo Edebiri 👪 Family dynamics: TikTok is abuzz about how being a 'living room family' (where everyone hung out together) versus a 'bedroom family' (where kids spent time in their bedrooms) can influence children's behavior. Which was yours? ( 🎵 Live Aid: From Queen to Bowie, Globe reporter Mark Shanahan revisits Thanks for reading Starting Point. This newsletter was edited by ❓ Have a question for the team? Email us at ✍🏼 If someone sent you this newsletter, you can 📬 Delivered Monday through Friday. Ian Prasad Philbrick can be reached at
Boston Globe
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
‘A little late': Mark Ruffalo slams Joe Rogan's complaints about Trump's ICE raids
'We were told there would be no, — well, there's two things that are insane,' said Rogan, a Newton South High School alum who attended (but didn't graduate from) UMass in the late '80s. 'One is the targeting of migrant workers. Not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers. Just construction workers. Showing up at construction sites, raiding them. Gardeners. Like, really?' Rogan, who Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up On his podcast, Rogan said he felt misled by Trump. Advertisement 'Bro, these ICE raids are [expletive] nuts, man,' he said. 'Well, I don't think if they, the Trump administration, if they're running and they said, we're gonna go to Home Depot and we're gonna arrest all the people at Home Depot, we're gonna go to construction sites, and we're gonna just, like, tackle people at construction sites, I don't think anybody would have signed up for that. They said, we're gonna get rid of the criminals and the gang members first, right? And now we're seeing, like, Home Depots get raided. Like, that's crazy.' Advertisement But Ruffalo, a four-time Oscar nominee who's been active in progressive causes for many years, thinks that's either naive or disingenuous. 'Dear @joerogan. It's a little late now to pretend like This is the second time in recent weeks that Rogan has expressed frustration with the actions of the Trump administration. After the Mark Shanahan can be reached at
Boston Globe
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
From Christopher Columbus to Alex Trebek, Trump is spending millions on statues of ‘American heroes' while slashing arts funding
It's a typically grandiose plan from a former real estate mogul who has Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The statues must be 'lifelike or abstract or modernist' representations of 'historically significant Americans," according to Advertisement They will be displayed in a yet-to-be-named 'site of natural beauty' with a stated deadline ofJuly 4, 2026. It was a highly ambitious timetable given the deadline to submit Advertisement Artists can receive as much as $200,000 per statue, which can be in marble, granite, bronze, copper, or brass. The project already had $34 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, and received another $40 million in Trump's massive domestic policy bill approved on Thursday. The funneling of so much money into the statue garden while other arts projects have lost support has 'outraged' Representative Chellie Pingree, a Maine Democrat and leading congressional advocate for the arts. 'I think this is illegal for the president to transfer funds that were already granted to arts agencies all over the country to use for a project of his own making and his own purpose that wasn't approved by any broader authority,' she told the Globe. 'It's just his big idea of what he wants to do.' Urbanity Dance, a Boston non-profit contemporary dance company, was told in early May that a $15,000 grant from the NEA was being canceled, even though they had already completed the performance the grant was meant to support. The message said the NEA would now 'prioritize' other projects, including those that 'celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence.' 'It was something we had come to rely upon over the years in order to produce community-based dance, which is really our focus,' Urbanity founder and director Betsi Graves said. The money was meant to help fund a March 28 dance performance with high school students from Boston Arts Academy that Graves described as 'all about standing up for others, especially in the face of cruelty and bully behavior.' Advertisement 'We received the offer, we put on the show that we said we were going to do, and then we had the rug pulled out from they don't even know what city they're going to be bringing [the sculpture garden] to yet?' Graves said. 'To hurt neighborhood community arts organizations to be able to fulfill a request from one person, or those closest to him, feels incredibly ego-fulfilling and selfish.' Trump unveiled the statute garden during 'Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities,' Trump said, standing in front of the mountain's carved faces of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. He described the statute garden as 'a new monument to the giants of our past...a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live.' In addition to an The order specifically named an eclectic group of 31 —among them Washington, Lincoln, abolitionist Frederick Douglas, World War II hero Audie Murphy, and the Wright Brothers, with the task force adding to it. Advertisement It also said that non-Americans such as Christopher Columbus (who never set foot in what is now the United States) were eligible if they 'made substantive contributions to America's public life or otherwise had a substantive effect on America's history.' That opened the door to the Canadian-born Trebek, Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman, and French general Marquis de Lafayette, who all made the final list. The goal was 250 statues for America's 250th birthday, but the NEH is working off list has not been updated publicly since. Some choices are controversial. They include Columbus, whose explorations helped launch colonization in the Americas; President Andrew Jackson, who forced Native Americans to march hundreds of miles from their land to open it up for US settlers; and automotive pioneer Henry Ford, who publicly espoused antisemitic views. 'There are lots of people on this list who would refuse to be in the same room with one another,' said Kirk Savage, a University of Pittsburgh art history professor who studies American monuments. 'But they're being, in a sense, conscripted into this project because of somebody else's idea of what America is supposed to look like in 2026.' He also foresaw logistical problems, including the 'unbelievably quick' July 4, 2026, timetable, the 'low ball" maximum $200,000 price per statue, and the undetermined location and installation process. 'As an art historian, I was kind of shocked at the lack of detail in the call for proposals,' he said. 'The artists are designing statues without knowing where they're going to be located.' Advertisement The governor of The project moves forward as the NEA has 'They've broken all these contracts at the NEA and the NEH that were going to legitimate small groups in every single state that really benefit each of our communities,' Pingree said. 'It's just repurposing the funds because he thinks it's a good idea.' This spring, Lee Blake, president of the New Bedford Historical Society, was about to notify people who had been accepted into the society's program funded by a $180,000 NEH grant when she learned it had been cancelled. The money would have underwritten an educational program for 80 teachers, mostly from waterfront communities, about the maritime underground railroad that ran through New Bedford. The historical society first received NEH funding for the program 15 years ago, Blake said. Now that money could go to a garden in a single location instead of a history course that reaches innumerable communities. 'You're going to have this hero park. How are people going to get there?' she said. 'It's not like it's democratic and spread throughout the country. It's going to become a tourist place where only a few people are going to be able to afford to go.' Advertisement Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at
