From Eric Sondheimer: On the day immigration agents swooped through MacArthur Park in armored vehicles, wearing tactical gear and riding on horseback, Contreras Learning Center football coach Manuel Guevara said more than 20 of his players skipped summer practice.
“Kids were messaging me their parents don’t want them to leave their house,” Guevara said.
The fear among families with students attending three downtown Los Angeles high schools minutes apart — Contreras, Roybal and Belmont— is real.
“Everybody’s on edge,” Guevara said.
Players don’t know if their parents will feel safe enough to watch games from the school bleachers this fall.
As official football practice begins on Monday, three downtown Los Angeles head coaches — Guevara, Roybal’s Michael Galvan and Belmont’s Kenneth Daniels — have been in constant communication and united to help their players and parents deal with ICE raids. No one knows when the raids might subside or how the ongoing anxiety might affect teams this fall.
One of the first raids happened outside an elementary school across the street from Contreras. A 17-year-old Contreras cross-country and track athlete, Nory Santoy Ramos, was detained and later deported to Guatemala with her mother after showing up for an immigration appointment. Families in the area rely on afterschool programs that are facing budget cuts. Students continue to deal with issues involving homelessness, gangs and drug use at nearby MacArthur Park.
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Commentary: LAFC fans put aside their rivalry with Galaxy to stand in solidarity against ICE
DODGERS
From Jack Harris: They missed high, wide and, in one of the most confounding plays you’ll see on a major league diamond, even on a relatively routine throw to first base.
The Dodgers know this isn’t the bullpen they expected to have at the moment. They have been resigned to playing the long game, trying to weather key injuries and extended absences with a revolving door of minor-league call-ups.
But in a 10-7 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night, even they couldn’t have foreseen the shockingly sloppy pitching that doomed them late.
In the sixth and seventh innings at Dodger Stadium, the Twins scored six runs without hardly even needing to swing. Over the two innings, Minnesota managed only two hits. But on a night that one Dodger reliever after the next struggled to find the strike zone, a parade of walks kept them circling around the bases, turning what had been a tie score into one of the Dodgers’ most dismal defeats of the season.
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Dodgers put Tanner Scott on IL, but hopeful he returns this season
Rich Hill isn’t finished yet. Former Dodgers and Angels player will pitch for his 14th MLB team
ANGELS
Francisco Alvarez hit a tying homer in his second game back from the minors and Ryne Stanek retired Mike Trout with two runners aboard for the final out as the New York Mets rallied to beat the Angels 3-2 on Tuesday night.
Brandon Nimmo capped a three-run fifth inning with a go-ahead single, and Frankie Montas (3-1) won his third straight start. Juan Soto threw out a runner at home plate from right field in the first, denying Trout his 999th career RBI. Soto also set a career high with his 13th stolen base.
After overcoming a four-run deficit in Monday night’s series opener, New York won its third in a row.
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RAMS
From Gary Klein: It’s become a near-annual tradition.
The Rams report to training camp with quarterback Matthew Stafford’s status somewhat uncertain.
Stafford, entering his 17th season, will be held out of workouts this week because of back soreness, coach Sean McVay announced Tuesday at Loyola Marymount. McVay added that Stafford would be eased back into practices during the second block of workouts and said he’s confident Stafford would be ready for the season.
“If he was a first-year player, then I think you’d say, ‘Man, every rep really matters,’” McVay said. “I think the important thing is having a big-picture perspective with a guy going into Year 17.”
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CLIPPERS
From Broderick Turner: The Clippers had a need for a playmaker and ballhandler, and they were able to find that “natural fit” with Chris Paul.
Paul spent six seasons with the Clippers, a time when he had plenty of success leading them to relevancy and now he’s back to play his 21st season, which might be his last.
“Chris was a natural fit,” Lawrence Frank, the Clippers’ president of basketball operations, said over Zoom on Tuesday. “His roots with the organization are deep and meaningful. He obviously played a tremendous role in the upward trajectory of the franchise. He wanted to return to the Clippers and we wanted it the same, as long as it made sense with our current roster — and it does.”
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SPARKS
Dearica Hamby had 24 points and 14 rebounds for her 48th career double-double and Rickea Jackson scored 20 of her 22 points in the second half as the Sparks beat the Washington Mystics 93-86 on Tuesday night.
The Sparks (9-14) have won three straight games, including back-to-back victories over Washington (11-12), before and after the All-Star break.
The Sparks led 81-78 before scoring nine straight points, capped by Hamby’s baseline jumper with 1:54 left in the fourth quarter for a 12-point lead. Kelsey Plum sealed it on a long three-pointer with 49.1 seconds left.
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TOUR DE FRANCE
Valentin Paret-Peintre triumphed on Mont Ventoux to become the first home rider to win a stage at this year’s Tour de France, while Tadej Pogačar consolidated his overall lead Tuesday.
Paret-Peintre followed former yellow jersey holder Ben Healy on a breakaway and then beat the Irish rider in a sprint for the line at the top of the famed barren mountain known as the “Beast of Provence.”
“A victory at the Tour is extraordinary, but to do it on the Mont Ventoux, that’s something completely different,” said Paret-Peintre, a climber and the first French winner on the mountain since Richard Virenque in 2002. “I can’t tell you what this win means for me. I’ll need some time for everything to sink in.”
Santiago Buitrago was third, 4 seconds behind, ahead of Ilan Van Wilder and fifth-placed Pogačar, who withstood repeated attacks from Jonas Vingegaard to cross the line 2 seconds before his main rival.
After the Tour’s second rest day Monday, Pogačar stretched his overall lead to 4 minutes, 15 seconds over Vingegaard. The Danish rider won the Tour in 2022 and 2023 but seems powerless to stop defending champion Pogačar from achieving his fourth win when the race finishes Sunday on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
“I think we’ll race until Paris and we’ll see who will be the winner,” Pogačar said. “Today was a proper hard day after the rest day, also for me.”
THIS DAY IN SPORTS HISTORY
1907 — Australasia beats British Isles 3-2 to win the Davis Cup held at Wimbledon. Australasia wins its first David Cup and ends the four-year reign of the British Isles.
1921 — At the annual Harvard-Yale vs. Cambridge-Oxford meet at Harvard Stadium, Harvard’s Edward Gourdin becomes the first to long jump 25 feet. Harvard lists Gourdin’s jump as 25 feet, 3 inches, but the official listing in U.S. Track and Field is 25-2.
1960 — Betsy Rawls becomes the first woman to win the U.S. Women’s Open golf title four times.
1966 — John Pennel pole vaults 17 feet, 6 1/4 inches for the world record in a meet at Los Angeles. It’s the eighth of nine world records he set in the event in his career and his first since 1963.
1976 — The last NFL All-Star game is held and is shortened when thunderstorms hit Chicago. The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the All-Stars 24-0.
1978 — Hollis Stacy wins the U.S. Women’s Open golf championship for the second straight year.
1989 — Mark Calcavecchia wins the British Open, edging Greg Norman and Wayne Grady in a three-man playoff. Calcavecchia, the first American to win the Open in five years, birdies three of the four holes in the playoff.
1989 — Greg Lemond wins his second Tour de France with the closest finish ever, edging Laurent Fignon by 8 seconds. Lemond starts the day 50 seconds behind Fignon and wins the final stage, a 15-mile race against the clock from Versailles to Paris, in 26:57. Fignon finishes the stage 58 seconds slower.
1995 — John Daly wins the British Open at St. Andrews by four strokes in a four-hole playoff with Italy’s Costantino Rocca. Rocca forces the playoff by sinking a 65-foot putt on the 18th hole.
1995 — Miguel Indurain of Spain wins his record fifth consecutive Tour de France. Indurain joins Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault as the other five-time winners.
2000 — Tiger Woods, at 24, becomes the youngest player to win the career Grand Slam with a record-breaking performance in the British Open on the Old Course at St. Andrews. Woods closes with a 3-under 69 for a 19-under 269 total, the lowest score in relation to par at a major championship.
2006 — Tiger Woods, one month after missing the cut for the first time in a major, becomes the first player since Tom Watson in 1982-83 to win consecutive British Open titles.
2006 — Floyd Landis, pedaling with an injured hip, cruises to victory in the Tour de France, keeping cycling’s most prestigious title in American hands for the eighth straight year.
2012 — Penn State is all but leveled by penalties handed down by the NCAA for its handling of the allegations against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. The NCAA imposes an unprecedented $60-million fine, a four-year ban from postseason play and a cut in the number of football scholarships it can award.
2017 — British cyclist Chris Froome wins his fourth Tour de France.
2019 — Nike’s Jordan Brand signs 2019 NBA #1 draft pick Zion Williamson to richest multiyear sponsorship deal for a rookie in history; estimated 7 years for $75 million.
2021 — The Opening Ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games takes place after a one-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1925 — Lou Gehrig hit the first of his major league record 23 grand slam homers as the New York Yankees posted an 11-7 triumph over the Washington Senators.
1930 — Pie Traynor won both ends of a doubleheader for the Pittsburgh Pirates with home runs. In the first game, Traynor homered in the ninth and in the second game, he connected in the 13th.
1944 — Bill Nicholson of the Chicago Cubs hit four home runs in a doubleheader split with the New York Giants. Nicholson hit a home run in the opener, which the Cubs won 7-4. He hit three straight in the second game, but the Giants won 12-10. In that game, Nicholson was walked with the bases loaded in the seventh inning.
1955 — Bob Cerv and Elston Howard of the New York Yankess hit consecutive pinch-hit home runs to force extra innings against Kansas City. The Athletics won 8-7 in the 11th inning on Hector Lopez’s RBI-single. Trailing 7-5 entering the top of the ninth, Cerv batted for pitcher Tommy Byrne and homered of Alex Kellner. Tom Gorman replaced Kellner and Howard, hitting for Irv Noren, tied the game.
1964 — Bert Campaneris of Kansas City hit two home runs in his first major league game. He homered on the first pitch off Minnesota’s Jim Kaat, and then connected again in the seventh to lift the Athletics to a 4-3 win.
1974 — Write-in starter Steve Garvey of the Dodgers singled and doubled to lead the NL to a 7-2 victory over the AL in the All-Star game at Pittsburgh.
1985 — Oddibe McDowell became the first player in Texas Rangers history to hit for the cycle in an 8-4 win over the Cleveland Indians.
2000 — Ryan Klesko hit a tying solo homer in the ninth inning and a two-run shot in the 10th to lift San Diego over Colorado 6-4.
2009 — Mark Buehrle pitched the 18th perfect game in major league history, a 5-0 win over Tampa Bay. It was the first since Randy Johnson’s on May 18, 2004. Buehrle threw 76 of 116 pitches for strikes and fanned six in his second no-hitter — the first coming on April 18, 2007, against Texas.
2011 — The Red Sox extend Seattle’s losing streak to 14 games, tied for the longest in team history, with a 3-1 win at Fenway Park which is also Terry Francona’s 1000th as Sox manager. Josh Beckett is the winner.
2014 — Padres OF Cameron Maybin is handed a 25-game suspension for testing positive for amphetamines; he is the first major leaguer suspended for PED use this season.
2016 — Trevor Story hit two home runs to set an NL rookie record for shortstops and Colorado beat Atlanta 8-4. Story had four hits including his 25th and 26th homers to pass his mentor, Troy Tulowitzki, who had 24 for the Rockies in 2007. Nomar Garciaparra of the Boston Red Sox set the major league record for shortstops with 30 in 1997.
2020 — Commissioner Rob Manfred springs a surprise on everyone as he announces a modified postseason format for this year only. There will be eight teams participating from each league: the two teams with the best records in each division, and the ones with the next best records in the league. The teams will be seeded one to eight. The Wild Card Game will be replaced by a preliminary round with all teams participating, played in best-of-three format, with all games played in the better-ranked team’s ballpark.
2021 — Cleveland baseball team announced the team will be called the Guardians beginning in 2022.
2023 — In Cooperstown, NY, Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen are inducted into the Hall of Fame as the Class of 2023.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
