Monday, April 24, 2017

TODAY IN HISTORY - APRIL 24TH

1704 – The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, The Boston News-Letter, is published.
1779 – Eleazar Wheelock, American minister and academic, founded Dartmouth College (b. 1711) dies.
1800 – The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress".
1880 – Gideon Sundback, Swedish-American engineer and businessman, developed the zipper (d. 1954) is born.
1885 – American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West.
1895 – Joshua Slocum, the first person to sail single-handedly around the world, sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts aboard the sloop "Spray".
1913 – The Woolworth Building, a skyscraper in New York City, is opened.
1934 – Shirley MacLaine, American actress, singer, and dancer is born.
1942 – Richard M. Daley, American lawyer and politician, 54th Mayor of Chicago is born.
1942 – Barbra Streisand, American singer, actress, and producer is born.
1953 – Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
1957 – Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region.
1967 – Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.
1967 – Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily."
1974 – Bud Abbott, American comedian and producer (b. 1895) dies.
1980 – Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.
1990 – STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.
1996 – In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law.
1997 – Eugene Stoner, American engineer, designed the AR-15 rifle (b. 1922) dies.
2004 – Estée Lauder, American businesswoman, co-founded Estée Lauder Companies (b. 1906) dies.
2004 – The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.

Sunday, April 23, 2017

TODAY IN HISTORY - APRIL 23RD

1635 – The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston.
1813 – Stephen A. Douglas, American educator and politician, 7th Illinois Secretary of State (d. 1861) is born.
1879 – Fire burns down the second main building and dome of the University of Notre Dame, which prompts the construction of the third, and current, Main Building with its golden dome.
1914 – First baseball game at Wrigley Field, then known as Weeghman Park, in Chicago.
1928 – Shirley Temple, American actress, singer, dancer, and diplomat (d. 2014) is born.
1936 – Roy Orbison, American singer-songwriter (d. 1988) is born.
1940 – The Rhythm Club fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, kills 198 people.
1945 – World War II: Adolf Hitler's designated successor Hermann Göring sends him a telegram asking permission to take leadership of the Third Reich, which causes Hitler to replace him with Joseph Goebbels and Karl Dönitz.
1951 – American journalist William N. Oatis is arrested for espionage by the Communist government of Czechoslovakia.
1954 – Michael Moore, American director, producer, and activist is born.
1966 – George Ohsawa, Japanese founder of the Macrobiotic diet (b. 1893) dies.
1968 – Vietnam War: Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.
1968 – Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist, Oklahoma City bombing co-perpetrator (d. 2001) is born.
1977 – John Cena, American wrestler is born.
1985 – Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than three months.
1995 – Howard Cosell, American lawyer and journalist (b. 1918) dies.
1995 – Gigi Hadid, American fashion model and television personality is born.
1998 – James Earl Ray, American assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. (b. 1928) dies.
2006 – Phil Walden, American record producer and manager, co-founder of Capricorn Records (b. 1940) dies.
2007 – Boris Yeltsin, Russian politician, 1st President of Russia (b. 1931) dies.

Saturday, April 22, 2017

TODAY IN HISTORY - APRIL 22ND

1836 – Texas Revolution: A day after the Battle of San Jacinto, forces under Texas General Sam Houston identify Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna among the captives of the battle when one of his fellow captives mistakenly gives away his identity.
1864 – The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that mandates that the inscription In God We Trust be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.
1876 – The first game in the history of the National League was played at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia. This game is often pointed to as the beginning of the MLB.
1889 – At noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Rush of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.
1906 – The 1906 Summer Olympics, not now recognized as part of the official Olympic Games, open in Athens.
1923 – Aaron Spelling, American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2006) is born.
1933 – Henry Royce, English engineer and businessman, co-founded Rolls-Royce Limited (b. 1863) dies.
1936 – Glen Campbell, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor is born.
1950 – Peter Frampton, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer is born.
1954 – Red Scare: Witnesses begin testifying and live television coverage of the Army–McCarthy hearings begins.
1959 – Terry Francona, American baseball player, coach, and manager is born.
1964 – The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair opens for its first season.
1969 – British yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston wins the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and completes the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world.
1970 – The first Earth Day is celebrated.
1977 – Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic.
1986 – Marshawn Lynch, American football player is born.
1994 – Richard Nixon, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician, 37th President of the United States (b. 1913) dies.
2000 – In a pre-dawn raid, federal agents seize six-year-old Elián González from his relatives' home in Miami.
2002 – Linda Lovelace, American porn actress and activist (b. 1949) dies.
2004 – Pat Tillman, American football player and soldier (b. 1976) dies.
2008 – The United States Air Force retires the remaining F-117 Nighthawk aircraft in service.

Friday, April 21, 2017

TODAY IN HISTORY - APRIL 21ST

1836 – Texas Revolution: The Battle of San Jacinto: Republic of Texas forces under Sam Houston defeat troops under Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
1898 – Spanish–American War: The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports. When the U.S. Congress issued a declaration of war on April 25, it declared that a state of war had existed from this date.
1911 – Ivan Combe, American businessman, developed Clearasil (d. 2000) is born.
1934 – The "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail (in 1999, it is revealed to be a hoax).
1947 – Iggy Pop, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor is born.
1952 – Secretary's Day (now Administrative Professionals' Day) is first celebrated.
1962 – The Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World's Fair in the United States since World War II.
1965 – The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair opens for its second and final season.
1980 – Tony Romo, American football player is born.
1982 – Baseball: Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves.
1989 – Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: In Beijing, around 100,000 students gather in Tiananmen Square to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.
1992 – The first discoveries of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail. They discovered two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12.
2003 – Nina Simone, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and activist (b. 1933) dies.
2012 – Charles Colson, American lawyer and activist, founded Prison Fellowship (b. 1931) dies.
2016 – Prince, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (b. 1958) dies.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

TODAY IN HISTORY - APRIL 20TH

1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Siege of Boston begins, following the battles at Lexington and Concord.
1789 – George Washington arrives at Grays Ferry, Philadelphia while en route to Manhattan for his inauguration
1818 – The case of Ashford v Thornton ends, with Abraham Thornton allowed to go free rather than face a retrial for murder, after his demand for trial by battle is upheld.
1836 – U.S. Congress passes an act creating the Wisconsin Territory.
1850 – Daniel Chester French, American sculptor, designed the Lincoln statue (d. 1931) is born.
1861 – American Civil War: Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.
1862 – Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard complete the experiment falsifying the theory of spontaneous generation.
1871 – The Civil Rights Act of 1871 becomes law.
1912 – Opening day for baseball's Tiger Stadium in Detroit, and Fenway Park in Boston.
1914 – Nineteen men, women, and children die in the Ludlow Massacre during a Colorado coal-miner's strike.
1916 – The Chicago Cubs play their first game at Weeghman Park (currently Wrigley Field), defeating the Cincinnati Reds 7–6 in 11 innings.
1918 – Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. The Red Baron, shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, his final victories before his death the following day.
1941 – Ryan O'Neal, American actor is born.
1945 – Steve Spurrier, American football player and coach is born.
1951 – Luther Vandross, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2005) is born.
1961 – Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.
1966 – David Filo, American businessman, co-founded Yahoo! is born.
1972 – Apollo 16, commanded by John Young, lands on the moon.
1999 – Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and injured 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado.
2007 – Johnson Space Center shooting: William Phillips with a handgun barricades himself in NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas before killing a male hostage and himself.
2008 – Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver in history to win an Indy car race.
2010 – The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven workers and beginning an oil spill that would last six months.
2016 – Chyna, American wrestler (b. 1969) dies.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

TODAY IN HISTORY - APRIL 19TH

1770 – Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia.
1770 – Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI of France in a proxy wedding.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: The war begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord.
1782 – John Adams secures the Dutch Republic's recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague, Netherlands becomes the first American embassy.
1861 – American Civil War: Baltimore riot of 1861: A pro-Secession mob in Baltimore attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.
1877 – Ole Evinrude, Norwegian-American engineer, invented the outboard motor (d. 1934) is born.
1892 – Charles Duryea claims to have driven the first automobile in the United States, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1901 – Alfred Horatio Belo, American publisher, founded The Dallas Morning News (b. 1839) dies.
1927 – Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
1942 – Jack Roush, American businessman, founded Roush Fenway Racing is born.
1956 – Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.
1965 – Suge Knight, American record producer, co-founded Death Row Records is born.
1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for conspiracy in the Tate–LaBianca murders.
1985 – Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the white supremacist survivalist group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas; the CSA surrenders two days later.
1987 – The Simpsons first appear as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, first starting with Good Night.
1989 – A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
1993 – The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.
1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, USA, is bombed, killing 168.
1997 – The 1997 Red River flood overwhelms the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Fire breaks out and spreads in downtown Grand Forks, but high water levels hamper efforts to reach the fire, leading to the destruction of 11 buildings.
2004 – Norris McWhirter, English author and activist co-founded the Guinness World Records (b. 1925) dies.
2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected to the papacy and becomes Pope Benedict XVI.
2011 – Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961.
2013 – Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.
2013 – Al Neuharth, American journalist, author, and publisher, founded USA Today (b. 1924) dies.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

TODAY IN HISTORY - APRIL 18TH

1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter's Basilica is laid.
1636 – Julius Caesar, English judge and politician (b. 1557) dies.
1775 – American Revolution: The British advancement by sea begins; Paul Revere and other riders warn the countryside of the troop movements.
1906 – An earthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco, California.
1909 – Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.
1918 – Clifton Hillegass, American publisher, founded CliffsNotes (d. 2001) is born.
1922 – Barbara Hale, American actress (d. 2017) is born.
1923 – Yankee Stadium: "The House that Ruth Built" opens.
1936 – The first Champions Day is celebrated in Detroit, Michigan.
1945 – John Ambrose Fleming, English physicist and engineer, invented the vacuum tube (b. 1849) dies.
1949 – The keel for the aircraft carrier USS United States is laid down at Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding. However, construction is canceled five days later, resulting in the Revolt of the Admirals.
1953 – Rick Moranis, Canadian-American actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter is born.
1955 – Albert Einstein, German-American physicist, engineer, and academic (b. 1879) dies.
1963 – Conan O'Brien, American actor, producer, screenwriter, and talk show host is born.
1979 – Kourtney Kardashian, American model and businesswoman is born.
1983 – A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.
1987 – Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, English model and actress is born.
1988 – The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.
2012 – Dick Clark, American television host and producer, founded Dick Clark Productions (b. 1929) dies.

Monday, April 17, 2017

Grieving Isaiah Thomas to play Game 2, then fly to funeral

In any sport, the one thing a team can't prepare for is the unknown.
Last week, the Celtics were the toast of the East after outlasting the champion Cleveland Cavaliers for the top seed and home-court advantage. Then, the day before Boston's playoff opener, Isaiah Thomas' sister was killed in a car accident.
It's created a delicate balancing act. This is a team that expected to be riding a big wave of momentum.
Instead, Boston lost 106-102 to Chicago in Game 1, and the possibility looms Tuesday of falling into an 0-2 deficit.
But if there's a group built for such a challenge, it would seem to be this one. There's empathy in the locker room, and a coach adept at navigating rough situations.
"I think the biggest thing is they really care about each other," coach Brad Stevens said Monday. "It's really tough when he's sitting there and some of his family is back in Seattle. ... But I think the next extension of your family is who you're around every day, and your team. ... They care about one another and they support one another. That's what you hope you have in a team, but it's probably not always the case."
Stevens said Thomas plans to play in Game 2 Tuesday night then head to Washington state to be with his family and help complete funeral arrangements.
Chyna Thomas died early Saturday in a one-car accident outside Tacoma. No funeral date is set, but Stevens said the Celtics plan to attend.
Thomas attended a film session and walk-through Monday, but did not speak with the media. Stevens said that after services for Thomas' sister, the star guard intends to rejoin the team Friday for Game 3 in Chicago. Stevens, however, stressed that all plans are up to Thomas.
Stevens knows firsthand of how the Celtics can embrace one of their own. Last year, he was allowed to miss a game to be at the bedside of Andrew Smith, who played for Stevens at Butler. Smith had cancer and his condition had worsened. Smith died a few days after Stevens visited.
Then there was the team's public show of unity before its preseason opener in October. The players held hands during the national anthem, the display coming at a time when NFL players, notably Colin Kaepernick, were protesting by kneeling.
One of Thomas' closest friends on the team is guard Avery Bradley. The two grew up outside Seattle and played AAU ball together. During Monday's shootaround, TV cameras captured Bradley comforting a tearful Thomas on the bench.
"Me and Isaiah have known each other since we were kids," Bradley said. "So no matter what goes on we're always going have each other's back. We're always going to be there for one another. I think he knows that, and I know the same about him. We're always going support each other. ... We're a family."
Still, there is basketball to be played. And Thomas, after an unsteady beginning, played admirably in Game 1, scoring 33 points to go with six assists and five rebounds.
Retired All-Star Kevin Garnett said he thinks Thomas will be better for having gone through this.
"I anticipate him playing even more inspired," he told The Associated Press. "I look at this as this momentum carries him and the Celtics. It's going to also carry the city."
Bradley says it's important now to pick Thomas up on and off the court.
"I feel like it's better to show with your actions than your words, especially after a loss," he said.
In a sense, he said, it's following the example Thomas set in Game 1.
"You can say whatever to him, but I think our actions really let him know that we care for him," Bradley said. "This is a sanctuary being on the basketball court. ... As brothers that's what you're supposed to do."

Brewers first baseman Eric Thames will not stop hitting home runs

The best story in baseball is a former journeyman outfielder who hasn’t played in the league since 2012. Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Eric Thames is back from a sojourn in the Korea Baseball Organization, and he’s brought back his immense power.
Thames has been unstoppable since returning to Major League Baseball, hitting an incredible five home runs over his past five games. His latest came Monday night against the Chicago Cubs.
With the blast, Thames tied a team record for home runs in consecutive games. He joins outfielder Jeremy Burnitz, who accomplished the feat in 1997.
But Thames’ success goes beyond what he’s doing for the Brewers. Overall, Thames is hitting an incredible .405/.479/1.000, with a league-leading seven home runs.
That last figure has led to the following series of early season fun facts:
Yes, Eric Thames has hit more home runs than the entire Boston Red Sox team by himself. He’s hit just as many home runs as the Toronto Blue Jays.
Now, there’s nothing predictive about that stat. Thames isn’t going to do that all year, obviously. But it’s incredibly fun to read. And it’s an example of how small sample nonsense can lead to some unusual results. Eric Thames is out-homering an MLB team. You can at least chuckle at that.
That performance is pretty much in line with what Thames accomplished in the KBO. Over three seasons, he hit a Ruthian 349/.451/.721 with 124 home runs. All of that came after flaming out in the majors after hitting .250/.296/.431 over 684 plate appearances.
His teammates have definitely taken notice of what Thames has accomplished.
As our own Jeff Passan pointed out Sunday, Thames isn’t the first player to leave the majors and experience incredible success upon his return. That honor belongs to Cecil Fielder. Fielder’s initial success carried over for his first few seasons after returning to the majors. He was an All-Star in three of his first four seasons, hitting 160 home runs.
Thames will have to prove he’s capable of doing the same. As the stat about the home runs above highlights, it’s early. Thames has gotten off to a great start, but baseball is a game of adjustments. Pitchers will figure out how to pitch to him as he is exposed to the league. They’ll find ways to attack him and attempt to exploit his weaknesses.
That will be the true test. Can Thames sustain the resurgence he found in the Korean League, or is this nothing more than small sample luck? We don’t have the answer yet, but we’re going to enjoy the hell out of the journey.

Close call: Irving scores 37, Cavs hold on to beat Pacers

LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers tries to control the ball in front of Thaddeus Young #21 of the Indiana Pacers during the first half in Game Two of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals during the 2017 NBA Playoffs at Quicken Loans Arena
Blown big leads. Defensive breakdowns. Bad shots. None of it means anything to LeBron James.
The only score that matters is 2-0.
Kyrie Irving scored 37 points, Kevin Love added 27, James had 25 and the Cleveland Cavaliers avoided another fourth-quarter collapse in Game 2, beating the Indiana Pacers 117-111 on Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in the series.
After giving up a late lead and squeaking out the opener by just a point, James and Co. showed more intensity on defense, more swagger in general and held on to win their 10th straight first-round game over the past three seasons.
However, the defending champions, following a pattern that began late in the regular season, nearly gave away an 18-point lead in the fourth as the Pacers crawled within four in the final minute before Cleveland closed it out at the foul line.
Still, James came away encouraged. The Cavs are finding their groove.
''We're right there of what we know can become,'' James said. ''We'll figure it out. I'd much rather have an 18-point lead than not have a lead at all. We're right there on turning the switch on what we really can become.''
James added 10 rebounds and seven assists while winning his 19th straight game in the first round. He did have eight of Cleveland's 19 turnovers, miscues that allowed the Pacers to hang around.
Game 3 is Thursday night at Indianapolis.
Paul George scored 32 and Jeff Teague 23 for Indiana, which showed more fight, but now has a steep hill to climb to get back in the series. Cleveland is 12-0 when starting 2-0 in the postseason.
Teague injured his right wrist in the second half and coach Nate McMillan said the starting guard will undergo X-rays.
The Cavs vowed they would play better after their near-disaster in Game 1 and they mostly backed up their talk, delivering the kind of performance that was routine last season but rare in 2017.
In the third quarter, Cleveland took advantage of a mismatch underneath and pounded the ball inside to Love, who scored 10 straight and drew a charging foul on Lance Stephenson in a span of two minutes as the Cavs opened an 89-70 lead.
Irving ended the period by draining a 3-pointer over Stephenson and the All-Star made sure Indiana's antagonizing guard knew about it, yapping in his direction long after the horn sounded.
''I thought we lost our composure and got frantic out there,'' McMillan said of his team's third-quarter meltdown. ''We lost our poise and wasn't calm during that third quarter. And that was big.''
The Pacers regrouped, ripped off 13 straight points and were within 113-109 when George hit a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left.
Now, they're heading home in a hole they still believe they can climb from.
''We know what's at stake,'' C.J. Miles said. ''We're going to go out there, keep trying to give them hell, keep competing and we'll get ourselves a win.''
 
SMITH INJURED
The other hitch for Cleveland was that starting guard J.R. Smith didn't play in the second half because of a left hamstring injury. Iman Shumpert, who sat out the opener, replaced Smith and played 20 solid minutes.
''Shump was unbelievable,'' coach Tyronn Lue said. ''He came in and made it tough on Paul George and made a couple shots for us also. We needed that spark.''
 
TEMPER, TEMPER
George was upset that the fiery Stephenson briefly lost his composure.
''He's got to learn to control himself,'' said George, who was critical of Miles for taking the final shot in Game 1. ''He's got to learn to just be in the moment. In our locker room Lance is looked at as one of our leaders. His body language has to improve, just for the team.
''We all know that Lance is an emotional guy. A lot of it is his heart and his competitiveness, that emotion comes out on him. He's just got to channel that and put it towards making effort plays on the court and do whatever he needs for us to succeed.''
 
TIP-INS
Pacers: Glenn Robinson III returned after missing the past 12 games with a strained left calf. He scored four in nine minutes. ... C Al Jefferson was active, but didn't play. He's been out since March 26 with a sprained left ankle. ... George has made at least one 3-pointer in 19 consecutive playoff games. ... Indiana is 0-9 when dropping the first two games in a series.
Cavaliers: James (357) jumped Magic Johnson (358) for third place in career playoff steals and hopped Robert Parish for eighth in rebounds. ... A moment of silence was observed for Robert Godwin Sr., the 73-year-old tragically killed Sunday in Cleveland by a suspect who shot him and posted the killing on Facebook. ... Stephenson had a strong workout with Cleveland in January before latching on with Indiana, but coach Tyronn Lue said his recent injuries dissuaded the Cavs from signing him.
 
UP NEXT
The Pacers went 29-19 at home.

Home runs are on pace to reach an all-time high

In the mornings, before he continues to stake his claim as one of the most prolific home run hitters alive, Khris Davis will take a stroll around the Mountain View Cemetery. Over the past year, as he learned to love Oakland – a place that tends not to inspire hosannas from major league baseball players – Davis explored the city and found not only an incredible view of San Francisco from the resting place of nearly 25,000 people but a sense of tranquility.
“It sounds weird, but it’s actually very peaceful,” Davis said. “I feel like a cemetery is one of the richest places you can go.”
Davis is, by his own admission, “a little weird, a little quirky sometimes.” It’s also part of what has driven him here, to a place so few thought he would be: among the elite power hitters in the game. At 29 years old, Davis is coming off a breakout season in which he hit 42 home runs and became only the seventh player in history, according to Baseball-Reference.com, to exceed 40 while standing 5-foot-10 or shorter. Four of the them – Mel Ott, Hack Wilson, Roy Campanella and Willie Mays – are in the Hall of Fame. The two others – Al Rosen and Kevin Mitchell – won Most Valuable Player awards.
After arriving in Oakland last year via trade from Milwaukee, Davis vowed to embrace the city. He moved into a place in Piedmont and spent plenty of time downtown. He ate lots of ramen at Noodle Theory and worked out at a boxing gym, Dogtown Athletic, in West Oakland. Davis enmeshed himself in a place so few, because of the A’s economic realities, take root.
“It’s been something I could make my own, and I saw it as an opportunity to build something,” Davis said. “There’s a lot to do there, and I feel like I can be a piece of this organization for a long time.”
Across baseball, there is an expectation this will be Davis’ last year in an A’s uniform. Free agency beckons after the 2019 season. Oakland’s reputation is to trade cost-controlled players before they leave – especially with weak draft-pick compensation. At the same time, Davis sees the A’s strong core of young pitching with Kendall Graveman, Sean Manaea and Jharel Cotton, knows Sonny Gray is on his way back and either will stabilize the rotation or bring a haul via trade, and sees a worthy future.
“Oakland doesn’t have the greatest facilities. It’s not the prettiest town. I’ve just always been that kind of person where I didn’t need the greatest tools to succeed,” he said. “The Coliseum isn’t pretty. But I love going there. I love playing there. I love Oakland.”
And Oakland loves …
 
1. Khris Davis back, thanks to his major league-leading six home runs. Three years ago, when Nelson Cruz led baseball with 40 home runs, Davis’ power surge would have been enough to carry him to superstardom. Much as it does stand out today, it’s a far different environment and one in which the home run rate simply keeps rising.
It’s up again this year, close to 10 percent over the pace at this point last season, at 1.12 per game from each team. Sunday was more of the same, with 32 homers in 28 games played. The number almost assuredly will rise as the summer months dawn and the baseball flies, and days of the 1.2-homer-per-game threshold – a number never before reached in the history of the game, not even during the height of the steroid era – are entirely conceivable. Players last season fell 83 short of the record 5,693 home runs hit in 2000. It stands to fall this fall.
Between that and the strikeout rate jumping to 8.22 per nine innings – nearly two-tenths above last season’s and almost a full two per inning above the rate just a dozen years ago – baseball’s evolution toward Three True Outcomes transcendence is nearly complete.
Davis embodies the homer-strikeout element of the three more than the walks, and despite being a favorite of the advanced-metrics crowd because of his propensity to hit balls hard at productive launch angles, he prefers the ignorance-is-bliss approach.
“I try to black out when I swing,” Davis said. “I try not to think. The less I know, the better. I rely on reacting. If I know this or that – too much knowledge is a bad thing. I try to play dumb sometimes. You don’t have to be smart to hit a baseball.”
Davis may believe that, which is fine. Someone like …
 
2. Eric Thames, on the other hand, has gone halfway across the world to reinvent his ability to do so, and now that he’s back, he may well be the most successful return from Asia since Cecil Fielder.
The 30-year-old Thames is tied with Davis for the big league lead with six homers. Five came over the past four days, when he turned on the sort of power display he showed the past three years in Korea. The one prerequisite for Thames returning to the major leagues was simple: He needed to play every day. When he found himself penciled into the lineup daily, he raked, whether at Pepperdine, A ball, Double-A or Triple-A.
Thames succeeding in Korea wasn’t altogether surprising, then, as players who tear up domestic minor leagues are well capable of doing the same in outrageous offensive environments like the KBO. Now, a .349/.451/.721 slash line with 124 home runs and 382 RBIs over 390 games in three years? That was enough to make organizations across baseball take notice and for the Brewers to guarantee him $16 million over three years.
If this week is any indication – and it’s early in the season, so there’s plenty of brake-pumping going on, as there ought be – it’s the steal of the offseason in addition to a great story. Thames is a polymath who taught himself how to read Korean, dabbles in philosophy and visualization, dresses up in Star Wars gear for premieres and secretly wants to be a WWE wrestler. He is the nerd baseball needs.
And, of course, the bat the Brewers need. Across the country …
 
3. Trey Mancini is practically a luxury for the Orioles, who start a $161 million player at first base, the defending AL home run champion at DH and boast a deep outfield from both sides of the plate. At-bats are few and far between for the 25-year-old.
So to see him take advantage like this, again, prompts the question: Just how much of this is real? Scouts don’t think a whole lot, and history tends to agree, but Mancini’s two home runs Sunday gave him seven in his first 12 career games, tying a major league record. All of them have come in 36 at-bats. Mancini has more home runs than other hits combined (four singles, two doubles). His career slugging percentage: a beautiful 1.000.
It must be noted that Mancini’s four home runs this season have been off Steven Wright, Ben Taylor, Ryan Tepera and Matt Dermody, which sounds more like the members of a British boy band than four major league pitchers. Still, there is some serious juju going on with Mancini right now. Teammates Manny Machado and Craig Gentry used his bat Sunday and homered, too. Machado is one of the game’s best players, and he happened to be in a slump, so whatever.
Gentry, though? Craig Gentry is one of the game’s least powerful players. In the home run era, Gentry doesn’t hit home runs. The one he hit with Mancini’s bat was his first since Aug. 21, 2013. In the time since …
 
4. Yoenis Cespedes has hit exactly 100 home runs. More than half of those have come with the Mets, including six this season, tying him with Davis, Thames and Houston’s George Springer.
The Mets-Cespedes marriage has been one of baseball’s most fruitful in recent memory, a perfect fit of team and player, and the four-year, $110 million contract he signed over the winter may, multiple executives have suggested, serve as a template for teams dealing with high-dollar players going forward.
If there is one thing teams despise, it’s long-term deals in which the last few years are treated as sunk cost before the contract begins. Cespedes’ deal may have paid him slightly over market value in the average annual value at $27.5 million, but the Mets reasonably believe he can produce at a star level for those four seasons.
Perhaps this was simply a function of a free-agent class that could best be described as what happens when a sad trombone and fart noise get together and form a band. Still, precedent in baseball matters, and you’d better believe when …
 
5. Mike Moustakas hits free agency this offseason, teams are going to be selling him on the merits of shorter-term deals. Should Moustakas continue hitting in this fashion, he’ll do the same to those pitches as he has to the ones being thrown at him in the first two weeks of April.
Moustakas turns 29 in September, and any player who reaches the free market with a 2 in front of his age is in awfully nice shape. With Todd Frazier really the only other impact third baseman available – and finding Frazier’s empty power these days isn’t that hard – Moustakas is selling an awfully nice product.
There’s the power, showcased by five home runs this season. And, after years of struggling against them, an established ability to hit left-handed pitchers. And a well-above average glove. And an agent in Scott Boras who knows how to weaponize these attributes and ensure that short-term blather teams throw out gets tossed right back in their faces. Moustakas is fully back after a torn ACL kept him out most of last season, and baseball isn’t just swimming in cash but practically drowning in it. Which is why …
 
6. Francisco Lindor would be patently insane to sign any sort of contract extension that doesn’t begin with a 1 and end eight digits later. Yes, Lindor is a 23-year-old coming off a season in which he didn’t even reach an .800 OPS. And, yes, I am advocating that he hold out for a $100 million deal, because he’s that good.
Listed generously at 5-foot-11, 190 pounds, Lindor is a lean-muscle monster whose power ceiling scouts estimated around 20 home runs. He hit four in a week, and while he hasn’t homered in five days, all Lindor did was hit 9 for 21 with two walks and two strikeouts.
As for that extension, during spring training, the son of Cleveland GM Mike Chernoff said the darndest thing on the radio: The Indians were trying to sign Lindor to a seven-year deal. It didn’t happen, but if Lindor continues on an MVP-type track, the idea of a similar deal following 2017 isn’t out of the realm of possibility. After this year, Lindor will have two years, 133 days of service time.
When he signed his six-year, $144.5 million deal, Mike Trout had two years, 70 days. And, sure, comparing anyone to Trout isn’t altogether fair, but between his bat and glove at shortstop, Lindor is one of the 10 best players in baseball, and he’s got an argument for top five. And if that kind of player is going to be giving away free-agent years when Bryce Harper and Manny Machado have an opportunity after the 2018 season to make free-agent years a $50 million-a-pop endeavor, then a nine-figure investment is the furthest thing from far-fetched for someone of Lindor’s ilk.
Especially if he adds true home run pop to his résumé. Finally …
 
7. Greg Bird did so Sunday night, popping his first this season after walloping a Grapefruit League-leading eight on the way to a .451/.556/.1.098 slash line. Naturally, Bird started the regular season slashing .038/.167/.077 before a 3-for-3 night Sunday bumped his OPS to .575.
Bird is off the home run schneid. Here is a list of players who aren’t: Mookie Betts, Jose Abreu, Jose Bautista, Adrian Gonzalez, Kyle Seager, Hanley Ramirez, Victor Martinez, Dustin Pedroia, Xander Bogaerts – quick interlude … how are the Red Sox 7-5 with almost half their lineup homerless? – Justin Turner, Carlos Beltran, Anthony Rendon, Lorenzo Cain, Javier Baez, Chris Carter, Evan Gattis, Alex Bregman and Gregory Polanco, among many others.
The moral of the story. Hitting a baseball is difficult, even for modern stars, former MVPs, home run kings, $100 million players, free agents to be, future stars, sluggers, righties, lefties, fastball hitters, off-speed feasters, Americans, Cubans, Dominicans, Mexicans, Venezuelans, Arubans, Puerto Ricans and every other person who graces a major league diamond. For all that Davis and Thames and Cespedes and …
 
8. Marcell Ozuna are doing, never should anyone forget that it’s incredibly hard, which makes a run like Ozuna’s that much more impressive. It took Ozuna a month to get red hot last season. His .404/.453/.745 line this season is bested only by Thames (.368/.455/.921) and Zack Cozart, he of the .432/.488/.730 thumping despite just one home run.
Last season, Ozuna looked like a breakout star following a May in which he hit .411/.450/.705 – pretty much exactly what he has done this April. By the end of the season, Ozuna was his typical self, .266/.321/.452 – good, certainly, but not indicative of the breadth of his talent.
The Marlins find themselves in an interesting position with Ozuna. He is a free agent after the 2019 season, and with Boras as his agent, the chances of him re-signing in Miami are slim and none, minus the slim part. Accordingly, should the Marlins slide out of contention by July – they’ve more than held their own at 7-5 and have the best run differential in the National League East – Ozuna could be the sort of player who inspires a bidding war at the deadline: 26 years old, 2½ years of team control and really, really good.
Players like Ozuna don’t move very often. It’s why …
 
9. Miguel Sano won’t be going anywhere, not with the Minnesota Twins’ new brain trust beginning to realize what it might have. At his best, Sano looks like a young David Ortiz. He strikes out too much, sure, but he’s walking more than about anybody in baseball this season and his ability to hit the ever-loving snot out of a ball is something to behold.
Really, Sano doesn’t hit anything soft. And while maybe we can quantify this better than we have before, it doesn’t take a genius to understand that Miguel Sano hits balls harder than almost anyone else. He is 6-foot-3 and more than 260 pounds. Big boy gets his haunches into a swing and ball’s got a chance to go a long while.
Because of his size, Sano’s lifespan at third base might be a couple years if the Twins are lucky, though they’re not likely to complain anytime soon. Sano is a 23-year-old with one of the most potent bats in the major leagues, which makes days like Sunday, when he Golden Sombrero’d, plenty forgivable. The Twins just want Sano to hit tanks, a task …
 
10. Khris Davis hasn’t quite perfected but does about as well as anyone. Left, left-center, center, right-center, right – Davis does not discriminate where his big flies fly. He lifts his barbells with extra-large grips to help develop wrist and forearm strength, tries to keep his swing quiet as a library and tries to hit the stitches out of the ball.
When Davis talked about loving Oakland for what it doesn’t have, it wasn’t some new perspective. It’s part of who he is and why he’s here. He could’ve gone almost anywhere out of high school and chose Cal State Fullerton not despite its substandard facilities but because of them. It’s all part of the mental games Davis plays with himself.
“I feel like I respect myself more,” he said. “I love the challenge of that. Mentally I know I have an edge over my competitor. That’s how I feel right now.”
Locked in enough that earlier this week, when he was leading the major leagues in slugging percentage, he asked inside the clubhouse whether he should give away his batting gloves to a kid and try out some new ones. Superstitious as baseball is, nobody dared say yes to Davis. He pulled out the new gloves anyway, fairly certain they didn’t have some sort of home run-sapping power inside the leather.
With new gloves, Davis homered Saturday and Sunday. One of his individual goals – “I want to be an All-Star one day,” he said – isn’t just within reach but getting likelier by the day. If Davis sticks around in Oakland long enough, he may even get recognized when he goes walking through the cemetery.
For now, he’s cool toiling in anonymity, sharing the company of Hall of Famers and MVP, being one of the faces of the home run era, with balls flying and players trotting and the game looking like it never has before.