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Archives for September 30, 2025

High Priced Pitchers Square Off

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BRONX – (Wire Service Report) – Max Fried and Garrett Crochet lived up to expectations in sparkling debut seasons as No. 1 starters for the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.

Now it gets real.

Crochet (Red Sox) and Fried (Yankees) delivered after being acquired in the offseason to become staff aces at the center of baseball’s most historic rivalry, and the left-handers find themselves front and center as Game 1 starters in the American League wild-card series starting Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.

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The AL East archrivals fight it out in the wild-card round for the first time and best-of-three series winner advances to the division series.

Celtics Open Camp; No Tatum in ’25-26

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BOSTON – (Wire Service Report) – Celtics star Jayson Tatum said he’s not feeling any pressure to push his recovery from a ruptured Achilles tendon.

“No pressure from (Celtics president of basketball operations) Brad (Stevens), (coach) Joe (Mazzulla), the team or the organization,” Tatum said Monday at the Celtics’ media day. “The most important thing is that I’m 100 percent.”

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Tatum suffered the injury in May in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Boston lost the series to the New York Knicks.

While Tatum downplayed any urgency he or the team may feel to get him back on the court, he did discuss his difficult recovery process.

“I think the toughest part was at the beginning and kind of being in disbelief. For me, I had to accept it,” he said. “I started to see a turning point, but then you’re on crutches, and you’re on a scooter, you’re in a boot. And then you can drop one crutch and then you can drop both crutches … That made me feel a little bit more normal.”

Tatum is expected to miss most, if not all, of the upcoming season. The Celtics were overhauled in the offseason amid lower expectations without their superstar. Veteran starters Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis were traded without much in the way of established NBA talent added.

“We have a lot of guys that are unproven,” Stevens said. “They’re younger and maybe not quite as experienced and maybe not quite as full of NBA wisdom.”

The Celtics are just 15 months removed from winning the 2023-24 championship. They’ll rely heavily on the leadership of players from that title team like Payton Pritchard, Derrick White and perennial All-Star Jaylen Brown.

“We have a chance for other guys to step up,” Brown said. “Empowering other guys, trusting your teammates more and trying to accelerate guys’ learning curve and play some good basketball. I think that’s what people want to see.”

–Field Level Media