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Boston Pops gearing up for Fourth of July Spectacular on the Esplanade

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:33:50 GMT

Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart says the Pops are ready for their annual Fourth of July performance on the Esplanade.“It’s always been a pleasure, one of the highlights of my year,” he said Sunday as the orchestra prepared for the festivities.This year’s special guests are country music duo LoCash, Broadway star Mandy Gonzalez, and 90s R&B group En Vogue.Lockhart says he’s keeping his fingers crossed for a favorable forecast on the Fourth.The gates open on the Esplanade at noon on the Fourth of July.

Verdugo’s home run in the 9th gives the Red Sox a 5-4 win and a sweep of the Blue Jays

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:33:50 GMT

TORONTO (AP) — Alex Verdugo hit a tiebreaking home run in the ninth inning and the Boston Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep.Jarren Duran went 5 for 5 with four doubles and Rafael Devers reached base five times and drove in two as the Red Sox recorded their fourth sweep.Verdugo’s sixth home run came on the first pitch thrown by Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano (3-4).“That one felt good,” Verdugo said.Verdugo stood at home plate to admire his 415-foot drive into the stands behind the visitor’s bullpen in right field, flipping his bat away before rounding the bases.“I looked at the ball but I instantly looked back at Dugie (Verdugo) because I knew he was going to do something cool,” Duran said. “He’s a great player and he’s always coming up clutch for us like that.”Verdugo also led off the ninth inning with a home run against Romano in Boston’s 6-5 win at Fenway Park on May 1. That victory snapped a nine-game losing streak against Toron...

Bruins Beat: Timing is everything for Tyler Bertuzzi and B’s

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:33:50 GMT

The Bruins’ pain is their chief divisional rivals’ gain.Tyler Bertuzzi, who’d been rightly seeking a long-term, big-bucks deal, settled for a one-year deal with an AAV of $5.5 million with the Toronto Maple Leafs.Ouch.It is not the deal he wanted, nor one that was available to the B’s when they had exclusive negotiating rights to Bertuzzi, apparently. The player’s agent Todd Reynolds told ESPN they were seeking a long-term deal from the B’s and they couldn’t agree on money. The two sides decided to go their separate ways and, by the time Bertuzzi’s camp decided the best route was a one-year deal, the B’s had allocated just slightly more than what Bertuzzi signed for in Toronto.The question is if GM Don Sweeney, who said on Saturday both term and money were roadblocks to a deal for the 28-year-old, would have been willing to work to get that $5.5 million into his payroll structure. The B’s needed to sign players. While Sween...

Kenley Jansen lone Red Sox player named to MLB All-Star Game

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:33:50 GMT

Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen has been named to his fourth All-Star Game, the league announced on Sunday.He will also be Boston’s lone player representative in Seattle.Rafael Devers, Alex Verdugo, Masataka Yoshida and Chris Martin were all among the snubs who did not make the American League roster. As a result the Red Sox will have their fewest All-Stars since 2015, when Brock Holt was the club’s lone selection.The Red Sox have had at least three every season since then.Devers was beaten out for a reserve infield spot by Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez and by Toronto’s Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Whit Merrifield, all of whom were voted in on the player ballot.Verdugo and Yoshida didn’t get any traction with their fellow players either, with Baltimore’s Austin Hays, Houston’s Yordan Alvarez and Texas’ Adolis Garcia all earning their spots via player vote. Chicago White Sox outfielder Luis Robert Jr. was also selected by MLB as his c...

93-year-old Massachusetts man on a tricycle is struck and killed, juvenile was driving vehicle: Police

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:33:50 GMT

A 93-year-old Massachusetts man riding a tricycle was struck and killed by a vehicle over the weekend in Merrimac, according to police.A juvenile was driving the vehicle that struck the man, Merrimac Police said. The driver stayed at the scene after the crash and cooperated with police.Shortly after 5 p.m. on Saturday, Merrimac Police received a report of a pedestrian on a tricycle that was struck near his residence on Bartlett Street. The 93-year-old man was later identified as Robert Whitcomb, of Merrimac.Whitcomb was transported to Portsmouth Hospital, where he later died from his injuries.Related ArticlesCrime & Public Safety | Lynn man, 19, dies in single car crash in Manchester-by-the-Sea, passenger suffers ‘life-threatening’ injuries Crime & Public Safety | Motorcyclist dies after fleeing from Barnstable Police, crashes into a vehicle in Hyannis Crime & Public Safety | After 5-year-old Andover girl was killed ...

3 Cubs and the White Sox’s Luis Robert Jr. are selected for the MLB All-Star Game

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:33:50 GMT

Justin Steele leads the National League in ERA. His Chicago Cubs teammate Marcus Stroman is fourth.Only one American League player has more home runs than Chicago White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. — and that’s Los Angeles Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.Steele, Stroman, Robert and Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson were selected Sunday for the MLB All-Star Game, scheduled for July 11 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.“It definitely means a lot,” Robert said through an interpreter at Oakland Coliseum, where the Sox wrapped up a series against the Athletics. “It’s a big accomplishment. It’s a result of all the work I’ve been putting in every day since the offseason started.”Steele and Robert are first-time All-Stars. Stroman made the AL team in 2019 with the Toronto Blue Jays. Swanson was an All-Star last season with Atlanta.Steele’s 2.43 ERA is the best in the majors. The 27-year-old left-hander is 9-2 in 15 starts with 7...

Jarren Duran’s career game overshadowed by Garrett Whitlock injury

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:33:50 GMT

After losing 16 of 19 games to the Toronto Blue Jays last year, the Red Sox have turned the tables on their division rivals in an unbelievable way this season.When the Blue Jays came to Fenway in May, the Red Sox greeted them with a four-game sweep. On Sunday in Toronto, the Boston baseball team capped off their visit to the Great White North by winning 5-4 to sweep them again.Unfortunately, the series finale and all its goodness were overshadowed by the game’s inauspicious beginnings.Garrett Whitlock’s 10th start of the season began well enough. His sinker velocity was consistent, and other than a solo home run to Brandon Belt, the affable righty’s first inning was quick and quiet.But he didn’t return for the second. His day ended after one frame with what the Red Sox called “right elbow tightness.” Suddenly, the pitching staff had to cobble together a bullpen game.Brennan Bernardino took over for Whitlock, and Kaleb Ort and Nick Pivetta followed...

Boston Harborfest in the rain: The patriotic show must go on ahead of the 4th of July

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:33:50 GMT

The rain on Sunday couldn’t put a damper on the Downtown Crossing patriotic musical performances for Boston Harborfest.The groups that performed included the Unlikely Strummers and the Middlesex County Volunteers Fifes and Drums.Patriotic events continue in the city on Monday and Tuesday.Joanna Suber performs with fellow members of the Middlesex County Volunteers Fifes and Drums. (Jim Michaud/Boston Herald)The Unlikely Strummers, a ukulele performance group, play on Sunday. (Jim Michaud/Boston Herald)Elizabeth Ryan of Boston is certainly dressed for the occasion as she enjoys the music on Sunday. (Jim Michaud/Boston Herald)Members of the Middlesex County Volunteers Fifes and Drums perform in Downtown Crossing. (Jim Michaud/Boston Herald)

Cleanup begins after asphalt binder spill into Montana’s Yellowstone River after train derailment

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:33:50 GMT

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Globs of asphalt binder that spilled into Montana’s Yellowstone River during a bridge collapse and train derailment could be seen on islands and riverbanks downstream from Yellowstone National Park a week after the spill occurred, witnesses report.Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency said cleanup efforts began on Sunday, with workers cooling the gooey material with river water, rolling it up and putting the globs into garbage bags. It will probably be recycled, said Paul Peronard with the EPA.Alexis Bonogofsky, whose family’s ranch was impacted by an oil spill on the Yellowstone River near Billings in 2011, took pictures Saturday of the refined petroleum product covering rocks and sandbars. She also snapped an image of a bird that had died in the black substance.“This killdeer walked across the asphalt, which had heated up in the sun, and it got stuck and died with its head buried in the asphalt,” Bonogofsky wrote in the caption o...

Woman whose home was destroyed by tornado estimates 100 people came to help clean up

Published Wed, 12 Feb 2025 12:33:50 GMT

CARSTAIRS, Alta. — Elisa Humphreys knew she needed help after a tornado leveled two structures on her central Alberta property over the weekend. But her social media plea for assistance wound up attracting  dozens of local volunteers who came forward to help clean up the shattered remnants of the house and mobile home that once stood there. Humphreys estimated there were 100 helpers at her property just northeast of Carstairs on Sunday afternoon — so many that one person’s only task was directing others where to park. But she said Saturday’s tornado left more than enough work to go around. “It’s like broken-house confetti for a few kilometres down the road,” Humphreys said in a telephone interview, pausing frequently to personally thank each volunteer.“It’s like an airplane crash and a debris field.”Five homes were completely destroyed after the twister passed between Carstairs and Didsbury early Saturday afternoon, Carstairs fire chie...