Episode 1: Oscars, Super Bowl, Music From This Week
Episode 2: Super Bowl LI Recap, Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Grammy Awards Preview
Episode 3: Grammys Recap, LaMelo Ball is Fake News and a Jeter Surprise
Episode 4: Movies From This Week, Oscars Preview, The Bachelor Final Four and The Latest Sports News
Episode 5: That Oscars Blunder, Music News with a Special Intro from M.O.M. plus Tebow’s BP Homers
By Kody Acevedo
It’s an exciting time to be a soccer fan in the Valley right about now.
Phoenix Rising FC, the highest level professional soccer franchise in Arizona, is putting on quite the show in 2017.
It began with a highly successful re-branding effort capped off with the opening of a new 5,000 seat stadium on McClintock Drive and Loop 202 near the Tempe/Scottsdale border.
But flashy new uniforms and a new soccer-only facility are only part of the excitement. All of the hype means very little without a quality team to put on the field.
Phoenix Rising has solved that problem too. Throughout the summer, the team has turned heads across the Valley.
It started with the signing of Didier Drogba, a former MLS striker who is most famous for playing with Chelsea in the Premier League.
“We have a desire to play with intensity,” Drogba said following a 2-1 victory over Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC on July 15. “I’ve been here for six weeks and the team has improved.”
Following Drogba’s signing, the team went on a six-game unbeaten streak after a 4-5 start to the season.
“We have a great team. Young guys full of energy and a desire to win here at home,” Drogba said.
On top of Drogba’s signing, the team hired Patrice Carteron to be their new head coach on May 22 after former coach Frank Yallop resigned in April.
Carteron is a former Mali National Men’s Team manager and took over in early June.
“I want our fans to feel that we are fighting every time,” Carteron said. “Of course we want to play good football… definitely we need to progress, but I’m so happy about what we did in the last six games.”
Carteron highlighted the excitement Drogba brings to the Phoenix Rising environment, both with the players and the fans.
“We cannot play defensive football when so many thousands of people are coming to support us. We have an offensive player like Drogba, we need to give him the ball if we want fans to see what he can do with the ball.”
“Patrice wants us to win every game,” Drogba said. “That’s the mentality we need to have. You know you can’t win every time, but you have to give everything and that’s all we’ve been doing the last few weeks.”
The efforts by Phoenix Rising, formally Arizona United SC, are not just to attract more fans, but to attract the attention of MLS officials.
In January, Phoenix Rising submitted an expansion application bid to join Major League Soccer.
Phoenix is one of 12 markets bidding for an expansion team.
“Phoenix, Arizona is ready for Major League Soccer,” Phoenix Rising FC governor Berke Bakay said in January. “Phoenix is the largest expansion market in the United States. We offer MLS the largest population of Millennial and Hispanic soccer fans, and the most TV households. Phoenix is also the only expansion market without an existing MLS team within 300 miles. It’s time for the MLS to come to the southwest and rise with our fans in Phoenix.”
Phoenix joins Charlotte, Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, Nashville, Raliegh/Durham, Sacramento, St. Louis, San Antonio, San Diego and Tampa who all submitted applications earlier this year.
Major League Soccer will announce two new expansion teams before the end of 2017.
Currently, there are 22 teams, but MLS plans to add Los Angeles FC in 2018 and a Miami team, pending a finalized stadium plan.
Phoenix is hoping to be team 25 or 26 and will begin play in MLS by the 2020 season.
Two additional expansion teams will be announced at a later date. The timeline for selecting clubs 27 and 28 will be decided later this year.
Courtesy: Wrangler News
by Kody Acevedo
Cronkite News
MESA — While the Chicago Cubs are busy on the field this spring, their wives are busy in the community.
A group of Cubs wives, including Jessica Bryant, wife of Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant, spent Monday morning building a new greenhouse for the Mesa Urban Garden.
“We love being here in Mesa,” Bryant said. “It’s fun to be able to give back and do something for the community (and) that all the charity work that we do here stays here locally.”
Jessica Bryant, wife of Cubs Kris Bryant, helps install the roof on the new greenhouse for the Mesa Urban Garden, Monday, March 6, 2017, in Mesa, Ariz.(Kody Acevedo/Cronkite News).
The Cubs partnered with a local organization called LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) to find community projects for the team to work on for the duration of the spring. Terry Benelli, LISC executive director, thought the Mesa Urban Garden would be a fun first project.
“It’s really special for the community to realize that the Cubs are not just here to play ball, but actually be involved in the community,” Benelli said. “It’s good to see them out in the community being a part of what we do down here.”
The Mesa Urban Garden, located at 212 E. 1st Avenue in downtown Mesa, is a popular community event space and a source of locally grown food for families, food banks and nearby restaurants. The property has about 100 garden beds that people rent each year.
Ryan Winkle, a Mesa councilmember for District 3, started the Urban Garden with group of others five years ago.
“We had pitched the idea of an urban garden (and) community engagement center and that’s what this kind of became,” Winkle said. “Over time, we kept on getting more people and more people involved and people just love it.”
Winkle said the garden started as a way to help people lick their wounds following the recession of 2008.
“There’s a lot of people that have come through here that have (fallen on hard times) and then they got back together just because of the community interaction and getting involved in downtown (Mesa),” Winkle said. “It was a pathway for a lot of people to get involved in a larger city effort.”
Today, the garden continues to grow with more space for improvement. The new greenhouse that was assembled with help from the Cubs was donated by a local family that didn’t have space to keep it.
Jessica Bryant, far right, works with volunteers of the Mesa Urban Garden to install a new greenhouse, Monday, March 6, 2017, in Mesa, Ariz.(Kody Acevedo/Cronkite News).
“On the move over it kind of fell apart,” Benelli said. “But we just haven’t had the time to actually sit and put it together. We really needed a group of people to come out.”
That’s where the Cubs stepped up. According to Benelli, the Cubs have a great partnership with LISC, which also has offices in Chicago. LISC often partners with the team on projects in the Windy City.
The Cubs name is a huge boost for Mesa.
“Especially in downtown (Mesa),” Benelli said. “This an under-served, low and moderate income area, and often times you don’t get big names like that.”
Bryant said player’s wives and families stay busy during the season giving back.
“We do things at least once a month,” Bryant said. “So, whether that’s selling autographed baseballs to raise money to go to a charity, or we go the Ronald McDonald House — things like that. We’re always doing something just to help whatever community we’re in at that time.”
Courtesy: Cactus League Wire
By Kody Acevedo
Cronkite News
PHOENIX — Managers from around the Cactus League expressed mixed feelings about upcoming rules changes intended to speed up the pace of Major League Baseball games.
This week, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association announced several rule changes for 2017, including the adoption of a no-pitch intentional walk and time limits on replays.
Last season, the average MLB game took slightly more than three hours.
Bruce Bochy, who led the Giants to World Series wins in 2010, 2012 and 2014, said baseball should be doing all it can to keep the game moving.
“It’s going to create more interest with the younger generation,” Bochy said. “There’s a lot of slow time in our game. We understand it. Baseball is doing all it can it’s our time to make the adjustments. So I’m all for it.”
Commissioner Rob Manfred said during a recent press conference that baseball has never set a “time goal.”
“It’s really not about time,” Manfred said. “It’s about two things: it’s about pace and action.”
The no-pitch intentional walk rule now involves the manager signaling to the home plate umpire and the umpire immediately awarding first base to the batter.
Other rule changes include:
The Commissioner hopes the new rules will help eliminate the dead time of the game.
The rule changes come a week after Manfred said a lack of cooperation from the MLBPA halted any meaningful changes for the 2017 season. Manfred said he wanted to see changes to the strike zone, pitch clock and visits to the mound.
“I’m disappointed that we could not even get the MLBPA to agree to the modest rule changes, like limits on trips to the mound, that have little effect on the competitive character of the game,” he said.
Although there is no change regarding mound visits this season, Cubs manager Joe Maddon said communication between the pitcher and the manager or coaches is a necessary and strategic part of the game. He proposes a technological solution.
“If (pace is) the concern maybe just get some kind of ear bud where you can talk to the guy from the dugout in order to expedite the situation, but the conversations are vital. They are,” Maddon said.
Oakland A’s manager Bob Melvin calls himself a traditionalist who said it’s tough for him to say the game needs to be sped up.
“I think one of the things I love about baseball is that it’s timeless,” Melvin said. “There’s no clock. It’s all about innings and outs and that’s the way time is measured in baseball.”
Still, he appreciates that, if baseball is going to make adjustments, they are made in a way that allows players and coaches to adapt.
“I think they’re doing the right thing and doing it incrementally as you’ve seen it over the years. Not doing the wholesale and multiple changes in a year that makes everybody uncomfortable,” he said.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia agreed. He said the change to the intentional walk rule, for example, is not too drastic.
“The commissioner’s office has tried to get (our) input from a lot of the the guys on the ground, like managers,” he said. “So the effort is there. So as far as the rollout, I think that there’s more communication – you’re understanding things.”
Courtesy: Cactus League Wire
by Kody Acevedo
Cronkite News
MESA — Skywalker Ranch, the headquarters of the Star Wars film saga, sits in Marin County, California.
It is about 40 miles from Oakland, where A’s left-hander Sean Doolittle lives and practices his craft. When he isn’t playing baseball, he escapes to a galaxy far, far away.
Doolittle is a Death-Star-sized Star Wars fan. In fact, “fan” probably doesn’t do him justice. To Doolittle, the 40-year cinematic space saga is life.
The Force is strong in this one.
“For me, it’s all about balance,” Doolittle said. “It can’t be baseball 24/7.”
It’s a love affair that started for Doolittle at a young age and has flourished through the years. Doolittle’s father introduced him and his brother to the original trilogy when he was a kid.
“We had all the video games. We saw the prequels and, I mean, it’s something we’ve been fans of for a long time,” he said.
He has embraced his fandom even more in the last two years with the release of “The Force Awakens” and “Rogue One.”
“I really liked both of them, for different reasons. “Rogue One,” I thought was awesome,” Doolittle said. “I liked the fact that it took a little more risks, I thought, and had some of the darkest moments of any Star Wars movie.
He also appreciated that “The Force Awakens” paid homage to the original movie from 1977.
“If they were going to re-energize the fan base and lay the groundwork for a new trilogy after taking so many years off, I thought the way they went back to more practical effects and sets really made a big difference,” he said.
Even when he’s not watching the movies, Star Wars is on his mind.
Doolittle likes to spend time going through YouTube to catch up on the latest Star Wars trivia and see what other fans are talking about.
“I think that’s one of the things that makes it cool; the way that the fans have taken it to a whole new level,” he said.
He’s no stranger to taking things to a new level, either. Doolittle recently proposed to his girlfriend, Eireann Dolan.
Of course, the proposal came with a Star Wars theme.
With help from his dog Stella and a remote-controlled R2-D2 robot, Doolittle got down on one knee and made it official.
“There were some really romantic parts of it, too,” he said. “There were candles and rose petals and stuff like that. We like to have fun, and she puts up with my Star Wars nonsense.”
Doolittle said that Dolan, a writer and reporter at CSN California, is a good sport about the Star Wars obsession affair. When “The Force Awakens” hit theaters, the two dressed for the occasion.
Dolan donned a Darth Vader suit and Doolittle dressed up as Chewbacca, the lovable Wookiee.
“We have fun with it,” Doolittle said. “She says that she only tolerates it, but deep down I think she kind of likes it.”
As he prepares to enter his sixth season with the club, Doolittle brings a veteran presence to the clubhouse that is admired by all.
“I think he’s good for our guys and he embraces that role,” said manager Bob Melvin. “It’s nice to have some guys that have been here for a while and know how we do things.”
With 162 games of the regular season still a month away, Star Wars gives Doolittle a chance to escape from the grind of baseball and keep his mind fresh.
“I have to have other things in my life that I enjoy doing away from the field so that I don’t get too overwhelmed,” he said. “And Star Wars is definitely one of those things.”
by Kody Acevedo
Cronkite News
TEMPE – Tommy Lasorda never bled Angel red, but his influence flows deep in the veins of the Angels clubhouse.
Lasorda, the Hall of Fame manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, managed current Angels manager Mike Scioscia for 15 years. Scioscia himself is entering his 18th season as a big league manager, all with the Angels.
“I never really thought (about) the length,” Scioscia said. “You have to focus on the process, just like a player.”
Scioscia is the longest-tenured manager in the major leagues. The next longest big league tenure belongs to Bruce Bochy, manager of the San Francisco Giants since 2007.
When he arrived in Anaheim in 2000, Scioscia had never managed in the big leagues. The Angels skipper credits his original coaching staff for laying the foundation of his success in those early years.
“I think all of us that were here – Joe (Maddon), Ron (Roenicke), Bud (Black), Mickey (Hatcher) and all the guys – I think we did a good job of laying out that process as a staff of what we needed to be,” Scioscia said.
Of those members of his original staff, three of them went on the become big league managers themselves. Maddon went to Tampa Bay and then led the Chicago Cubs to their first world championship last season. Black was recently hired to manage the Colorado Rockies after almost nine seasons in San Diego.
Roenicke spent four-and-a-half seasons as the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers (2011-2015) before returning to his role as the Angels third base coach. Like Scioscia, he entered the big leagues influenced by Lasorda’s style of managing.
“Part of this stuff that we do in the clubhouse, Mike learned from Tommy, I learned from Tommy — how to work hard, but also enjoy what we’re doing,” he said.
Roenicke said that while Lasorda rubbed off on Scioscia, they’re completely different people and don’t necessarily have the same managerial style.
“Tommy was really fun to play for – great motivator,” Roenicke said. “Scioscia is more technical. His game management is so on top of different things that they’re kind of a different personality.”
Roenicke admires Scioscia’s attention to detail and ability to bring out the natural talents of his players.
“Obviously he’s got a great baseball mind, but he’s got a really big heart,” Roenicke said. “When you’re on the opposing side, it looks like he’s just this intense guy all the time. But I know what he’s like behind the scenes, and I really enjoy it.”
Those are traits Roenicke knew would make Scioscia a successful manager. Even back in their playing days with Lasorda, Roenicke knew Scioscia’s mind worked differently than the average player.
“By the time we got to the big leagues and sat there with Lasorda and (Joey) Amalfitano and those guys, his mind was so good that he was already doing things that I saw that I said ‘wow, this guy, he’s ahead of all of this,’ ” Roenicke said.
Under Scioscia, the Angels have experienced the winningest 17-year span in their history that includes a World Series championship in 2002. He has a 1490-1264 record as the Angels skipper and is the only active manager with at least 1,000 wins with their current team.
He is also just the third manager to lead his first club for at least 17 consecutive seasons, joining Walter Alston (23 years with the Dodgers) and his former mentor, Lasorda (20 years).
For Scioscia, it’s simply a love that never grows old.
“I love the dugout,” he said. “I love when the game starts. I love practice. I love everything about it.”
Courtesy: Cactus League Wire
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