It sounds like a great story: Former No. 9 pick of the Mavericks Dennis Smith Jr. returns home to Dallas on a one-year contract. He did sign one, a story first reported by Shams Charania of ESPN. The Mavericks need point guard depth until Kyrie Irving returns from his ACL tear, so the franchise reached out to a trusted old friend.
The reality is less of a fairy tale: This is a non-guaranteed contract. Smith is going to have to earn a roster spot, which will not be easy because the Mavericks already have a full roster of 15 players under contract — Smith is going to have to beat someone out to get that job. The point guard depth chart starts with D'Angelo Russell, followed by Dante Exum, and for the third spot there is Brandon Williams, but he does not have a fully guaranteed contract (a $200,000 buyout). To make the roster, Smith likely has to beat out Williams for the third point guard spot (until Irving returns, then it becomes the fourth PG slot).
Another option for the Mavericks is to trade Jaden Hardy to create a roster spot. That's something the Mavericks considered before waiving and stretching Olivier-Maxence Prosper's contract to bring in Exum. If the Mavericks want to keep Smith and Williams, it's an option.
Smith is a seven-year NBA veteran, but one who was out of the NBA last season. He averaged double-digit points a game for the Mavericks and then the Knicks in the first seasons after he was drafted in 2017 out of NC State, but his production declined from there. Smith has been a high-level defensive guard and in the 2022-23 season in Charlotte averaged 8.8 points and 4.8 assists. He played the 2023-24 season in Brooklyn but was not brought back and sat out last season.
He's got a chance at a roster spot in Dallas, but it's going to be tough to earn it.
By the time day one of Pittsburgh Penguins' training camp concluded, new head coach Dan Muse had nearly lost his voice.
And based on the energy and noise in all three practice sessions on Thursday at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, it's not really a surprise.
"I think it was loud," captain Sidney Crosby said. "It was pretty loud out there. There was a lot of stick banging, that sort of thing. I don't think that was just Dan. That was just, I think, the group bringing a lot of energy.
"That's what you want. You want the enthusiasm and passion. I thought the pace of practice was really good, and a lot of competition within that, so that's what you expect from training camp."
Enthusiasm and passion certainly seem to be early themes for the first-year NHL head coach, but perhaps the biggest theme is competition. It's no secret that there is a plethora of competition at camp this season between youth pushing for roster spots and veterans trying to secure their place on the roster.
But that competitiveness is also manifesting in how the coaching staff - and the organization - want to approach the day-to-day with this team. In a period of transition and change, the one constant is that players never lose their desire to win. And, given the crowdedness of the training camp roster, players maintaining a high level of compete is a requirement.
"You could feel it. The energy is through the roof," Kris Letang said. "Obviously, we're a team. We're in a situation where every spot is [up] for grabs. The young guys are ready. They want to battle. They want to make a name for themselves. You kind of see the emphasis on what we're trying to do out there, is battle and play a game situation in every single drill. So, it was pretty intense out there. It was pretty hard."
Muse emphasized that the staff wants this team to be "competitive in nature."
"I think everybody's competitiveness is going to look a little bit different," Muse said. "There's got to be purpose to what you're doing. This isn't just a run-around, anything like that, and I don't think that was the case if you look at the three practices. I think there was purpose to what guys were doing, and we're asking guys to show the best version of their compete, whatever that is. And that's not going to change."
The players were certainly cognizant about the emphasis on competition and the importance of establishing good habits early on, too.
"Practice was great. I think it was about establishing an identity and a work ethic," Bryan Rust said. "You saw the battle drills out there, a lot of competing. Keeping score pretty much every drill, just kinda trying to get that mindset that we're going to compete every day.
"And I think the energy out there was great. It was contagious. [The coaches] were all very vocal, they were all banging their sticks, they were all trying to motivate guys, trying to get guys going. I think everybody out there - from the old guys like me to the young guys - were out there working hard."
Muse, 43, is in his first season as an NHL head coach. He previously had stints as an assistant with the Nashville Predators and New York Rangers, and although former Predator Philip Tomasino's NHL stint didn't exactly align with Muse's time there - Muse's stint ran from 2017-20 - he had a positive experience with Muse through some conversations during his time with the organization.
"A first-class individual, first and foremost," Tomasino said. "Same goes for the whole coaching staff as well. But I just really like his attitidue towards everything. He always seems to find a way to push guys to be their best, so I'm really happy. He's been awesome so far, and I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to work with him for much longer here, hopefully."
Tomasino, like pretty much everyone else, echoed sentiment about the level of competition that Muse has brought to camp. But it's not a one-way street. Muse marveled at the competitive nature of all of the guys in the room, whether they're a 20-year veteran or a player entering his first camp.
"I love competition. I think everybody loves competition. It just drives things," Muse said. "I believe in it. I think these are all competitive guys. It's all of them. They want to win, and I've always found it to be just awesome seeing it at this level, how it doesn't matter what's on the line. If something's there, if it's, like, one push-up, they'd be all-in to not have to do that one push-up. This group here, I think if I put, like, a cold cheeseburger for the winner, they would be all-in to get that cold cheesebuger. Like, everything, they'd be all in. That's in the nature.
"You never know until you're actually there. It's the hope that you're going to see the group be all-in, but I wasn't surprised they were all in there on the competition. I think it's a big part of it, though. It's a big part of what our coaching staff believes in."
Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia reacts after the final out of a 2-1 win over the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on Thursday night. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Which meant, even though he pitched 5⅓ scoreless innings against the San Francisco Giants, he left the fate of the game to the Dodgers’ shaky bullpen.
So often on nights like these recently, such a scenario would be a recipe for disaster. Given the way things have been going for the Dodgers’ unreliable relief corps — which entered the night with a 5.65 ERA in September — anything more than a few innings has felt like a big ask.
This time, however, the Dodgers’ relievers found a way to grind things out.
But when they needed to most, the Dodgers' relievers executed pitches. In a 2-1 win at Dodger Stadium, they did enough to stretch the team’s National League West division lead to three games.
Yamamoto did not make their life easy.
Though he yielded only one hit, the recently streaking right-hander fell back into a bad habit with his command. He set a career-high with six walks. He found the zone on only 60 of 108 pitches. And though manager Dave Roberts tried to push him through the sixth inning, his pitch count got too high.
On a night the Dodgers managed only two runs off Giants ace Logan Webb — both of which came in a sixth-inning rally keyed by a Shohei Ohtani double and Freddie Freddie RBI single — the bullpen was forced to pick up the slack.
Things started well with Jack Dreyer, who inherited a runner from Yamamoto with one out in the sixth and stranded it in the span of 11 pitches.
The seventh inning, however, quickly became an adventure, with two of the Dodgers most veteran relief arms putting themselves in a world of danger.
It started with Kopech, and his continued struggles to locate the ball since returning from a midseason knee injury. The hard-throwing right-hander walked his first two batters, with a (very, very) wild pitch in between. He bounced back to strike out Drew Gilbert for the inning’s first out. But by that point, he had issued eight total walks over his last four outings, recording only eight outs in that span while throwing 50 balls to 45 strikes.
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers during the third inning against the Giants on Thursday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Thus, Roberts went back to the mound, bringing Treinen in to try and put out the fire.
Like Kopech, Treinen has battled uncharacteristic inconsistencies lately. He was the culprit when the Dodgers squandered Yamamoto’s near no-hitter in Baltimore earlier this month. He gave up a game-ending, three-run homer to the Philadelphia Phillies’ backup catcher two nights prior.
At first, the right-hander seemed poised to blow another lead.
He also walked his first two batters, loading the bases on the first and forcing home a run with the next (when home plate umpire Ryan Wills squeezed him on a full-count cutter at the top of the zone). The count went full against Willy Adames in the following at-bat, leaving Treinen one ball away from another disaster.
Treinen dotted a sinker on the outside corner to Adames to strike him out looking. He snapped off his trademark sweeper to fan Matt Chapman and retire the side.
In recent days, Roberts has emphasized the need for his bullpen to cling to whatever moments of confidence they can find. Given that the team’s 2-1 lead was preserved in the seventh, the otherwise ugly inning still qualified.
After that, the Dodgers recorded the final six outs with ease.
Anthony Banda went 1-2-3 in the eighth inning. Alex Vesia picked up the save with a clean frame in the ninth.
Dodgers baserunner Ben Rortvedt slides safely into home plate after Giants catcher Patrick Bailey loses the ball. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 miles up the Pacific Coast, the team saw positive signs from another potential bullpen option, with Roki Sasaki pitching a scoreless inning of relief in triple-A Oklahoma City’s game in Tacoma, Wash., retiring three of the four batters he faced with two strikeouts, one walk and a fastball that topped out at 100.1 mph.
That was a reminder that, between now and the end of the regular season, the Dodgers could have relief reinforcements on the way. Sasaki, the rookie phenom who struggled in a starting role before going down with a shoulder injury at the start of the year, could be primed for a big league call-up. Trade deadline acquisition Brock Stewart is also on his way back from a shoulder injury; although he followed Sasaki in OKC’s game on Thursday by giving up four unearned runs on a single, walk and hit-by-pitch in ⅔ of an inning.
At this stage, the relief unit remains the Dodgers’ biggest unanswered question. Their lineup is finally manufacturing runs. Their rotation has continued its late-season surge since getting healthy. And for one night at Chavez Ravine, the bullpen overcame some shaky moments to preserve a win that strengthened the team’s place in the standings.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw sits on the field at Dodger Stadium with his son Charlie before Thursday's game against the San Francisco Giants. Kershaw is retiring at the end of the season. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Clayton Kershaw took a deep breath, grasped the microphone with his left hand, then chuckled as he scanned the room around him.
“This,” he said, “is weird.”
Over his 18 seasons with the Dodgers, Kershaw was always wary of putting the spotlight on himself. Now, dozens of teammates, coaches, executives, staffers and media members, as well as his wife, Ellen, and their four kids, all sat before him — witness to his official announcement that he was ending his illustrious playing career.
"I'm going to call it,” Kershaw said. “I'm going to retire.”
After years of grappling with the decision, and ultimately returning to play for the Dodgers into his age-37 season, the future Hall of Fame left-hander made his decision to finally walk away sound simple.
He felt it was time, and could do so pitching well.
“Going into the season, we kind of knew that this was going to be it, so didn’t want to say anything in case I changed my mind,” he said. “But over the course of the season, just how grateful I am to have been healthy and be out on the mound and be able to pitch, I think it just made it obvious that this was a good sending-off point. And it is. I’ve had the best time this year. It’s been a blast.”
Indeed, while Kershaw acknowledged that going out on his “own terms is a weird thing to say,” that’s exactly what this season has offered to the three-time Cy Young Award and former MVP winner.
“Not a lot of people get this opportunity,” he said. “Being able to pitch, and not pitch terribly ... has been super special.”
Kershaw, of course, has been much more than “not terrible” in what will be his final big-league campaign.
Entering what was suddenly the final regular-season home start of his career Friday, the left-hander was 10-2 with a 3.53 ERA, ranking second on the team in victories and third in innings pitched.
It didn’t matter that he missed the opening month and a half recovering from offseason foot and knee surgeries. Or that his diminished fastball has failed to average even 90 mph.
In Year 18, Kershaw has found success “just on guile and heart,” as manager Dave Roberts described it. He has used every bit of his veteran wisdom to navigate opposing lineups with his trademark combination of fastballs, curveballs and sliders (as well as a newly incorporated splitter to change speeds).
“Guys that get to first base still go, ‘I cannot see the slider,’ and then he throws a 71-, 72-mph curveball,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “I know he’s not throwing 94, 95, like when I was facing him [in the prime of his career] anymore. But he still knows how to pitch. He’s the best to ever do it.”
It’s been a year of milestones for Kershaw, none bigger than when he became the 20th member of MLB’s 3,000 career strikeout club in July. But it’s also been a campaign of fulfillment, giving the 11-time All-Star one last chance to help lead a World Series chase.
“I’m telling you, this guy — you can never count him out,” Roberts said. “We certainly wouldn’t be in this position in the standings if it weren’t for him. I’m certain of that.”
That’s why, on Thursday, Kershaw kept referencing this season as the best ending he could have imagined. He isn’t injured, instead feeling as good as he has in years thanks to changes in his training routine. He isn’t struggling like last season when he posted a 4.50 ERA over just seven starts between shoulder and foot/knee surgeries.
While his postseason status remains to be determined — Roberts said Kershaw likely will have a role in the playoffs, perhaps as a multi-inning option out of the bullpen, but is still not a roster certainty given the team’s starting rotation depth — his impact on the club’s championship aspirations has already been profound.
“We still have a lot to accomplish, obviously, this month, and the last thing I want to do is be a distraction to anybody for accomplishing our ultimate goal, to win in the last game of the season,” Kershaw said. “So we're going to get through this today and then we're going to win the rest of the games and be good.”
But first, however, he had a few thank-yous to give.
Kershaw referenced Dodgers owners Mark Walter and Todd Boehly, a front office staff led by president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes, team president Stan Kasten and chief marketing officer Lon Rosen, and of course Roberts with the rest of his coaching and training staff.
“I know I'm a pain sometimes, so thank you for putting up with me,” Kershaw joked. “Thank you for helping me get this carcass out on the field every fifth day.”
From beneath his sweat-stained L.A. cap, his easy smile disappeared once he began to address his teammates. His voice cracked. Tears welled in his eyes.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw gets emotional as he points toward his teammates during his retirement announcement news conference Thursday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“The hardest one is the teammates, so I'm not even going to look at you guys,” Kershaw said. “Just you guys sitting in this room, you mean so much to me. We have so much fun. I'm going to miss it. I'm going to miss working out Day 1 in the weight room, listening to crazy music with you guys. Shirtless Sundays, I'm going to miss all of that.
“The game in and of itself, I'm going to miss a lot, but I'll be OK without that,” he added. “I think the hard part is the feeling after a win, celebrating with you guys. That's pretty special.
“All right,” he continued while trying to gather himself. “I'm done with that.”
Next, Kershaw turned toward his four children, and his wife who is currently pregnant with their fifth. He shared a message from Ellen, and how she experienced Kershaw’s 18 years from her so-called perch in the stands.
“She's cried over some really hard losses and some really incredible milestones,” he said. “She's watched our kids fall in love with the game, with the players and watching me pitch.”
Moments later, as Kershaw was reading a Bible verse about working “with all your heart,” his voice began to quiver again.
“I’m really not sad, I’m really not,” he insisted. “I’m really at peace with this. It’s just emotional. I tried to hold it together.”
Kershaw was his more witty self as he opened the floor to field reporters’ questions.
He thanked the assembled media for “putting up with me” and his often (though less so recently) terse answers in postgame availabilities.
He reiterated that retirement now was the "right call" because, as he bluntly put it, “you don’t ever wanna pitch bad.”
When asked what he expected from his final regular-season home start on Friday, he deadpanned, “I anticipate pitching good” — noting that the first-place Dodgers (and their Friday opponent, the wild-card-chasing San Francisco Giants) are still playing meaningful games.
“[The atmosphere will] be heightened, I’m sure, but I’ve got a job to do, so I need to go out there and do my job,” he said.
Clayton Kershaw's family and Dodgers players listen to Kershaw speak during his retirement announcement news conference Thursday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
When asked once more what has made this season so special, however, Kershaw let himself get sentimental again.
“It’s just a great group of guys — look, everybody’s here today, that means a lot — and I think we all have each other’s back,” he said. “It’s not always gonna go great for everybody all the time, and the only people that understand that are the people in the clubhouse. Baseball’s a hard game. It’s not easy to play. So I think to have a group of guys in it together, and kind of understanding that and being together, being able to have a ton of fun all the time, is really important. The older I’ve gotten, the more important it is.”
Kershaw then tried to shift his focus back to the remainder of the season, saying he’s “thankful we’re gonna have another month or so to play.”
After that, his future plans will be straightforward, his days set to be occupied by Little League practices and dance recitals and all of his kids’ other activities back home in Texas.
“I’m gonna do that for a while, for sure,” he said.
But first, he wants his storybook final season to have a storybook final chapter; hoping to not only go out on his own terms, but do so with one more championship ring.
“I don’t know if we need any more inspiration,” third baseman and longtime teammate Max Muncy said. “But obviously, it would be really nice to get another one on his way out.”
The Yankees have won six of their past seven series, and they started this weekend's four-game set at the Baltimore Orioles with a 7-0 win in which Max Fried lived up to his ace billing.
He tied a career-high 13 strikeouts and showed what type of pitcher the team has as New York (86-67) trails the Toronto Blue Jays by three games in the AL East and owns the first wild card.
Fried's MLB-leading 18th win saw him throw 59 strikes on 87 pitches while allowing three hits and one walk in seven scoreless innings as the Yankees began the first of their final three series on a dominant note.
"Feel like he's in a really good spot, throwing the ball well," said New York manager Aaron Boone. "Went through a little lull there in the middle of the season or whenever that was and kind of dug himself out of that and, hopefully, going through stuff like that, you learn things and it allows you to make adjustments that you need to make and he's done that and I feel like he's obviously going out there with a lot of confidence right now."
Fried (18-5, 2.92 ERA) appears to be all the way back from struggling in parts of July and August, rounding into October form with a September where he is 4-0 in all four of his starts this month with a 2.05 ERA and 28 strikeouts to seven walks in 26.1 IP.
"We're playing some pretty good baseball right now, and that's when you want to really hit your stride," Fried said. "So, going into the last week or so, we're excited and want to go out there and finish strong -- go into the playoffs strong. And for me, personally, wins are a team stat. So, I can't give my teammates enough credit for putting me in a position to be able to get there."
If the playoffs started today, the Yankees would face the Houston Astros (second in the wild card) for a best-of-three series with the winner advancing to the ALDS against the Blue Jays.
New York has a chance to catch Toronto (89-64) with three regular-season games remaining, but feels good about its situation regardless of where it ends up.
"We know how important pitching is in October and the whole year," said Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. "It's going to take a team effort, but to be able to do something like that, it's tough. All of these opponents are tough. They're going to be preparing for our pitchers, just like we're going to be preparing for them if we get that opportunity, and we'll be ready to go."
Max Fried, the Yankees' first-year ace, struck out a career-high-tying 13 batters in what was arguably his best start of the 2025 season -- Thursday's 7-0 win at the Baltimore Orioles.
Takeaways
Wherever the Yankees (86-67) end up in the playoffs, they should feel good about their chances with an ace like Fried (18-5, 2.92 ERA) on the mound. The southpaw found a way in this past Saturday's 5-3 win at the Boston Red Sox, and he made a statement against Baltimore (72-81) for his MLB-leading 18th victory.
Fried, who surpassed his season-high 11 strikeouts from April 9 at the Detroit Tigers, allowed only three hits and walked just one batter in Thursday's seven-inning start. He threw 59 strikes on 87 pitches, retiring 12 straight at one point.
With October coming, the Yankees need Fried at his best. He gave a glimpse of what to expect Thursday.
While the Yankees only led 3-0 into the seventh inning, where a three-run frame nearly doubled the lead, the bats certainly stayed alive after back-to-back games of 10 runs in the previous days' series-closing wins at the Minnesota Twins. Among them, leadoff batter Paul Goldschmidt's 2-for-5 night -- including an RBI single to start the seventh-inning spurt -- was a welcome sight for the Yankees as he increased his slash line to .280/.331/.415 through 137 games.
Aaron Judge followed Goldschmidt's Jose Caballero-scoring knock with a sacrifice fly to bring Austin Wells home and pad the Yankees' 5-0 lead. Judge was hitless but worked two walks and, as mentioned, added his 104th RBI.
He is slashing .328/.453/.676 with 48 home runs and making a strong case for the AL MVP while battling Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.
The Yankees are three games behind the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays with nine contests left to stack wins and see what happens. Six more games against the Orioles -- Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Baltimore before next weekend at Yankee Stadium -- are among them.
Between those, the Yankees have a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox (which begins the six-game homestand, leading into the Orioles set). The Yankees, who hold the first wild card, have won six of their past eight games and have a golden opportunity to gain ground.
Who's the MVP?
Fried, who is up to a single-season career-high 182 strikeouts this year. He is proving to be worth every cent of his offseason deal, especially for a Gerrit Cole-less starting rotation.
The Yankees seek their fourth straight win Thursday at 7:05 p.m. when they continue the four-game series in Baltimore with New York RHP Will Warren (8-7, 4.44 ERA) and Orioles LHP Trevor Rogers (8-2, 1.43 ERA) set to start.
There are few better problems for an NHL team to have than the presence of two starting-calibre goaltenders on the roster.
For the Detroit Red Wings, that's their situation. At 38 years old, Cam Talbot remains sharp and often turned back the clock to his days as a workhorse with the Edmonton Oilers during his first campaign with the Red Wings.
General manager Steve Yzerman then went out and acquired John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks in a trade that sent Petr Mrazek the other way; Gibson has the chance in front of him to grab firm hold of the starter's reigns.
Both goaltenders took the ice in Traverse City on Thursday for the opening day of Red Wings Training Camp. Talbot stuck with the classic, clean mask design he wore last season but debuted a brand-new Bauer setup, the equipment brand he has used for several years.
Meanwhile, Gibson arrived with a simple TRUE gear setup and a fresh mask paint job, the first artwork of his NHL career not featuring Ducks imagery.
Don't expect head coach Todd McLellan, who coached Talbot as head coach of the Oilers and faced Gibson many times as the head coach of the Los Angeles Kings, to settle on a starter just yet.
"I don't know who our starter is," McLellan responded when asked if he believes either goaltender has an edge. "Obviously, Gibson is really important, but teams are proving year after year now that you need two guys to get the job done, and it's hard to stay at the top of your game over and over and over again if you're just a single entity. We've got Talbs, we've got Gibby, we plan on playing them both and we expect a lot from both of them."
The crease for the Red Wings has largely been a rotating carousel over the last several years, with names like Alex Nedeljkovic, Ville Husso, Alex Lyon, James Reimer, and Petr Mrazek all seeing action.
The 2024-25 campaign was the first in the career of Talbot in the Winged Wheel after he agreed to a two-year contract last offseason. He won 21 games and posted a .901 save percentage.
Conversely, Gibson arrives in Detroit having spent the last 12 seasons with the Anaheim Ducks, who selected him in the second round (39th overall) in 2011. He's won 204 regular season games, while adding another 11 wins in 26 playoff appearances.
Talbot proved that he's capable of shouldering a considerable load of playing time last season with 47 total games, but Yzerman is likely hoping that Gibson can become the first true starter in the Detroit crease since the days of Jimmy Howard.
The NHL’s 2025-26 regular season is almost upon us, and here on THN.com’s Buffalo Sabres site, we’re close to the end of our player-by-player series in which we break down the expectations for every Sabres player during this coming season.
We’ve worked our way through Buffalo’s goalies, blueliners, and most of the Sabres’ top-four lines of forwards. And in this file, we’re looking at the expectations for right winger Josh Doan, who was picked up from the Utah Mammoth in the trade that sent winger J.J. Peterka out of Buffalo.
But let’s focus on Doan, who at age 23 has barely scratched the surface of his potential as an NHLer:
Player Name: Josh Doan
Position: Right Winger
Age: 23
2024-25 Key Statistics: 51 games, seven goals, 19 points, 13:31 average time on ice
2025-26 Expectations: As the son of longtime NHL star Shane Doan, Josh Doan knows what it means to have high expectations hanging over his head. But to be honest, Josh Doan’s early individual numbers don’t make you think he’s as effective as Shane Doan was in his stellar NHL prime.
Still, Josh Doan’s size at 6-foot-2 makes him out to be a big-framed individual, and he’s going to work his tail off in training camp and come out of the chute to force the hand of Sabre coach Lindy Ruff. Doan has to ensure one part of him stands out for the Sabres. And if he can do that, Buffalo management will get a standing ovation for bringing Doan aboard.
Doan’s career-highs as a Utah Mammoth organization member were very modest, but in Buffalo, he could quickly make himself a highly-valued member. Doan is still in a “show me don’t tell me” mode, but he’s going to have every opportunity to succeed.
Doan is still finding his legs at the NHL level. He’s also got a chip on his shoulder given that he’s quick been traded early in his career. And given his genetics, Doan has the innate skills teams are looking for in a young player.
If he can harness the snub from Utah and help Buffalo get into a playoff berth this year, Doan will be a fixture for years to come in Buffalo. And the Petterka trade will look much better than it may look early on him Doan’s career.
On Thursday, the Dodgers' new minor league affiliate in Ontario revealed its name: the Tower Buzzers, a nod to the film "Top Gun" and with the mascot named for Tom Cruise's character, Maverick. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
You can say you are building a ballpark, but the anticipation accelerates when the community sees what the ballpark might look like. For the city of Ontario and its architects, the rendering of its minor league ballpark included a team name.
A placeholder, that is. The new team owners did not yet own the team. The name would come later. The Dodgers' California League team would not move in until 2026.
On that drawing last year: the Ontario Sky Mules, with a whimsical logo of a grinning donkey wearing sunglasses and flying a prop plane. It was, frankly, awesome.
It was the essence of the minor leagues. Don’t know what a sky mule is? Hardly anyone knew what a trash panda was, either, and the Trash Pandas are one of the hottest brands in the minors.
This year, the newly hired team staff dropped hints about the actual name, about the buzz in town. On the walls of the team offices: “Cleared for Takeoff.” The city referenced ballpark fan zones nicknamed “The Airfield” and “The Tarmac.”
And, just last week, the biggest hint of all: the announcement of a naming rights deal with Ontario International Airport, close enough to the ballpark that you’ll be able to see flights take off. The ballpark name: ONT Field (spell it out: O-N-T, like LAX).
On Thursday, eight months in advance of its first game, the team finally revealed its name: the Ontario Tower Buzzers.
It’s an homage to the movie “Top Gun,” and to the defiant line uttered by the pilot played by Tom Cruise: “It’s time to buzz the tower.” The Tower Buzzers’ mascot, a bee called Maverick, is named after Cruise’s character.
The team name balances heritage and whimsy. The city is paying for the ballpark and wants to promote its airport, which was used as a World War II air base before reverting to civilian use and expanding into an Inland Empire transportation hub.
“We want to honor that legacy and have fun with it,” Tower Buzzers general manager Allan Benavides said. “We found something we think is a fun minor league name, rather than just, say, Pilots or Aviators.”
"We want to honor that legacy and have fun with it," Tower Buzzers general manager Allan Benavides, standing in front of a rendering of the team's new stadium, said of the name. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The Aviators? Already in use in Las Vegas. The Pilots? The name of a failed California League team in Riverside (the college landlord wouldn’t allow beer sales, which is akin to a death sentence in the minor leagues).
The Tower Buzzers should fare better, in a ballpark that figures to be the second-best place to see a ballgame in Southern California, behind Petco Park and ahead of Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium.
The city’s latest cost estimate is $120 million, for a Class A ballpark. The stadium that opened this year for the Angels’ triple-A affiliate in Salt Lake City cost $140 million and holds 8,000.
ONT Field is expected to hold 6,500 — but with 3,200 seats between the foul poles, and the rest wherever you prefer: in the outfield, on the grass, in picnic areas, on a playground, or in bars, clubs and suites, including a couple where you can converse with the players.
There’s an ice cream parlor, a food hall, and a bar shaped like a luggage carousel. After a home run, the splash pad will erupt, and propellers will whirl in a bar. A runway will light up, and so will the antennas on the mascot.
The scoreboard is a hexagon, just like the one at Dodger Stadium. Soon to appear: a mural of Fernando Valenzuela. All fans, not just the ones in the fancy seats, can watch players in the batting cage.
On the afternoon I visited, the temperature was 108 degrees. The seating area will not have mist machines, as the Angels' old California League stadium in Palm Springs did.
“It won’t be 108 at 7 o’clock,” Benavides said.
His target audience: the “30-year-old moms” that he said control the calendar and the spending for the family.
“Not everybody is a baseball fan, but they want to have time,” he said. “They want to be away from their cellphones and the TV and be outside, not spend a ton of money, and not have to drive to L.A. or San Diego.”
Crews work on the construction of ONT Field in Ontario last month. The team last week announced a naming rights deal with Ontario International Airport.
Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times
The Angels’ California League affiliate will play in Rancho Cucamonga, eight miles away. Another California League team plays in San Bernardino, 25 miles away. The Angels themselves are 35 miles away.
“We’re going to fight for dollars, certainly, but I think our affiliation with the Dodgers is huge,” Benavides said. “They’re the hottest brand in baseball, depending on who you ask. I’m a Dodger fan, so I think they are.
“And I think this will be the nicest minor league stadium in the country, regardless of classification.”
If the Tower Buzzers do not win that fight for dollars, Ontario’s investment in the ballpark could turn out to be a poor one.
The ballpark is the anchor of what the city is modestly calling the Ontario Sports Empire, a 200-acre facility for training and competition billed by the city as the “largest sports complex of its kind west of the Rocky Mountains.”
There absolutely is a market for sports tourism, for all those kids and all their parents shuttling to weekend tournaments in baseball, softball, football, soccer, tennis and more. But that market can be tapped without a nine-figure investment in a minor league ballpark. (The naming rights payments come from airport revenues, not city taxpayers; the airport is administered jointly by the city and San Bernardino County.)
That ballpark investment is more about a local entertainment option for residents, with so many homes in the pipeline that the population could double from close to 200,000 to about 400,000 within two decades. The NHL’s Kings already have a minor league affiliate playing in the city’s arena, and city officials plan for restaurants, hotels and shops to surround the ballpark and sports complex.
Dan Bell, a city spokesman, said Ontario is adding about 1,200 new homes every year.
“And they’re reasonable,” Bell said. “You can’t afford the L.A. market anymore.”
On Thursday, at the moment the team announced the Tower Buzzers name, the team merchandise went on sale. The home jerseys say Buzzers.
So is it Buzzers or Tower Buzzers? It’s like Blazers or Trail Blazers.
I still wondered about the homage. When the Tower Buzzers take the field next year, “Top Gun” will turn 40. To a fan of a certain age, the reference is obvious. It would be like opening a pizza delivery service and calling it Spicoli’s.
To a younger generation, “Top Gun” might mean a blank stare. No worries, Benavides said. You’ll be able to enjoy a night at the ballpark all the same.
“We’re not going to 100% lean into that film,” he said. “This isn’t going to be a ‘Top Gun’ museum.”
Well, then, Tower Buzzers: You are cleared for takeoff.
Kodai Senga made his second start with Triple-A Syracuse since being demoted and was effective until he wasn't.
The Mets' right-hander, pitching against LeHigh Valley,
In the first inning, Senga allowed a leadoff single to Johan Rojas before getting back-to-back pop outs. Rojas stole second, but Senga did not let it deter him, as he got Christian Arroyo to fly out to end the inning.
Senga's second inning of work was the opposite, as he got the first two batters out (strikeout, lineout) before Rodolfo Castro hit a two-out single. Senga would get through the frame by striking out Payton Henry swinging on five pitches, the last being a forkball in the dirt. The third was an uneven inning for Senga, who hit the first batter he faced but got a doubleplay to erase the runner before allowing his third single of the game. Senga would get an inning-ending lineout to get him through three.
The fourth inning is where Senga really struggled. After the first two runners got on base (single, walk), Senga struck out the next batter, but Castro hit a ground-rule double that knotted the game at 1-1. He bounced back, getting Henry swinging at a curveball, but a wild pitch allowed LeHigh Valley's second run to score and Erick Brito singled to put the IronPigs ahead, 3-1.
A five-pitch walk later and Senga was pulled after 81 pitches (46 strikes). Douglas Orellana, the pitcher in relief of Senga, walked the next two batters to push across the fourth run charged to the Mets hurler.
It was an up-and-down start for Senga, who could not get out of the fourth inning. His final line saw him pitch 3.2 innings, allowing four runs on six hits and two walks while striking out four batters.
It's a far cry from his first start with Syracuse on Sept. 12, when Senga allowed one run on three hits over 6.0 innings (74 pitches) with eight strikeouts and no walks.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza praised Senga's lack of walks in his first start before the big league club's series finale against the Padres on Thursday. But he didn't say he was a lock to be a part of the playoff roster.
"I wouldn't say definitely," Mendoza said. "I think we'll have the conversations and we'll take the best 13 guys that we feel are going to give us the best chance to win baseball games in October. In the meantime, we got ten more and we'll continue to treat it that way.
"I like the fact that there was no walks last time when he pitched in Triple-A," Mendoza said. "Getting ahead, using all of his pitches. He got swing and misses with the split. I think it starts with him throwing strike one and then staying on the attack."
Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw celebrates after striking out Tommy Pham during a game against the New York Mets in April 2023. Kershaw announced he will retire at the end of the season. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
He came to town as a quiet Texas kid charged with carrying Hollywood’s team.
For 18 years, in greatness and in grief, through sweet dreams and bitter despair, he did exactly that.
He was splendid. He was awful. He set records. He ruined seasons. He was passionately embraced. He was loudly booed.
For 18 years, Clayton Kershaw pitched through the gamut of emotions as both a hero and a villain, moments of euphoria addled with spells of despair, picturesque summers disappearing into the wicked wilds of October.
But carry the Dodgers he did, with courage and dignity and grace, and in the end, he will be surrounded only by love, a deep and abiding roar of affection from a city to a simple man who willed himself into legend.
Clayton Kershaw announced Thursday he is retiring at the end of this season.
He is more enduring than Sandy Koufax, more accomplished than Fernando Valenzuela, more impactful than any hitter in the team’s 67-year history in Los Angeles.
He is not only the greatest Dodger, but also resides at the top of a list of the greatest athletes in Los Angeles history, joining Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant as Hall of Famers who spent their entire careers with one Los Angeles team and left behind a legacy that indelibly altered their franchise’s culture.
The golden era of Dodger baseball, 11 West Division titles in 12 years, two World Series championships? It is a glory that carries the shade of one man, his teammates following Kershaw’s daily leadership into a place that looks and feels like his unrelenting glare.
The Dodgers are unselfish? That’s Kershaw. The Dodgers are accountable? That’s Kershaw. The Dodgers have the strength to rise out of what seems like constant adversity? That’s Kershaw.
That he is retiring now is not a surprise. He’s been talking about it for several years. He’s 37, his beard has turned gray, he’s battled all sorts of injuries, and he’s no longer a cornerstone of the rotation.
But that he is ending his career while pitching so well is a huge surprise. His fastball crosses the plate in slow motion, but he is still able to junk it up enough to go 10-2 with a 3.53 ERA including going 5-0 with a 1.88 ERA in August.
He can still battle. He can still compete. And while there will be much emotion surrounding his final home start Friday against the San Francisco Giants, he could pitch again during the postseason, making an emergency start or even pitching out of the bullpen.
How great would it be to see him finish strong in October? It is his resilience in October that has defined his career here. Although he has one MVP award, three Cy Young awards, 222 wins and 3,039 strikeouts, those aren’t the numbers that many people will remember.
A 4.49 ERA in 39 postseason appearances, those are the numbers.
That’s the failure that Kershaw endured, that’s the stain that he once felt, those are the results that actually certify his greatness.
Clayton Kershaw receives a standing ovation from fans during a game against the Milwaukee Brewers on July 20. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
The St. Louis Cardinals shelled him. The Houston Astros cheated him. The Washington Nationals rocked him. And two years ago, in his most recent postseason start, gritting through a severely injured shoulder that should have kept him off the mound, the Arizona Diamondbacks shelled him for six runs before he could get two outs.
Yet he never complained about the injury. He never made excuses for anything. He never griped that he was pitching on short rest, or pitching with a bum arm, or pitching with a terrible offense and an untrustworthy bullpen.
He kept imploding in the postseason, yet he kept coming back, year after year after year. He never let his failures own him, he never let them even slow him, until he finally overcame his curses by going 4-1 with a 2.93 ERA in a 2020 World Series run that ended with a championship win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
When the Dodgers clinched that title, Kershaw was seen staring up into the heavens, thankful that redemption was finally his. He was injured last year and didn’t pitch in the postseason, but he was part of that team nonetheless, giving him two titles that all but fulfilled his career.
He had one more personal goal, though, and he reached it this summer by becoming only the 20th player to record 3,000 strikeouts.
After that game, a win over the Chicago White Sox in early July, the stoic Kershaw finally acknowledged the chills of spending his entire career with one team, and the impact of his journey.
“I don’t know if I put a ton of stock in being with one team early on,” Kershaw said that night. “It’s just kind of something that happened. Over time, I think as you get older, and you appreciate one organization a little bit more — the Dodgers have stuck with me too. It hasn’t been all roses. I know that. There’s just a lot of mutual respect, I think. I’m super grateful now, looking back. To say that I’ve spent my whole career here and I will spend my whole career here — I have a lot more appreciation for it now.”
The appreciation is mutual, and Kershaw will surely hear it in these final days.
The greatest Los Angeles Dodger ever is leaving the building amid a farewell roar that will live here forever.
