Mo’ne Davis throws a two-hit shutout in the Little League World Series

By Bill BaerAug 15, 2014, 6:55 PM EDT
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The story of Philadelphia’s Mo’ne Davis keeps on getting better. One of only two girls in the Little League World Series, the 13-year-old pitched a two-hit shutout to lead Philadelphia, Pennsylvania over Nashville, Tennessee 4-0 on Friday afternoon. Needing only 70 pitches, Davis struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter as she became the first girl to throw a shutout in the LLWS, and to win a game.

Her performance drew the attention of some of baseball’s best, including Mike Trout, Marcus Stroman, and Dexter Fowler:

Davis and her team will play on Sunday next, against the winner of the Texas/Rhode Island match-up.

Red Sox employees “livid” over team pay cut plan

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By Craig CalcaterraMay 30, 2020, 7:09 AM EDT
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Even Drellich of The Athletic reports that the Boston Red Sox are cutting the pay of team employees. Those cuts, which began to be communicated last night, apply to all employees making $50,000 or more. They are tiered cuts, with people making $50-99,000 seeing salary cut by 20%, those making $100k-$499,000 seeing $25% cuts and those making $500,000 or more getting 30% cuts.

Drellich reported that a Red Sox employee told him that “people are livid” over the fact that those making $100K are being treated the same way as those making $500K. And, yes, that does seem to be a pretty wide spread for similar pay cuts. One would think that a team with as many analytically-oriented people on staff could perhaps break things down a bit more granularly.

Notable in all of this that the same folks who own the Red Sox — Fenway Sports Group — own Liverpool FC of the English Premier League, and that just last month Liverpool’s pay cut/employee furlough policies proved so unpopular that they led to a backlash and a subsequent reversal by the club. That came after intense criticism from Liverpool fan groups and local politicians. Sox owner John Henry must be confident that no such backlash will happen in Boston.

As we noted yesterday, The Kansas City Royals, who are not as financially successful as the Boston Red Sox, have not furloughed employees or cut pay as a result of baseball’s shutdown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps someone in Boston could call the Royals and ask them how they managed that.