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FIFTY-FIVE MINUTES before tipoff at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook take the court for a joint workout that Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy guides.

“We’ve been tied at the hip, pretty much, since we made the acquisition,” James says of Westbrook at media day. “We’re going to continue to be that. We’re going to hold each other accountable.”

He isn’t lying. Just like at their first sweat session together as teammates in August at the Yeshiva University High School’s gym just north of Beverlywood, California, Handy puts them through their paces.

James, wearing a black durag and a gold chain along with his Lakers-branded shorts and cutoff T-shirt, places the jumbo-sized plastic jug he’s holding on a plush sideline seat. What began as a monthlong challenge between him and his wife, Savannah, to drink a gallon of water a day in pre-pandemic times has continued for the 19-year NBA veteran.

Over the course of the next 30 minutes, James is soaked with perspiration, as he goes through Handy’s skill-sharpening obstacle course.

The pair pull off a series of moves: a drive into a spin capped by a pull-up jumper; a crossover, followed by two hesitation dribbles, a spin, then a reverse spin, and finished with a baseline fadeaway.

Combination after combination. Over and over again.

As the workout drags on, more and more Suns and Lakers players exit the court to head to their pregame locker rooms, and more and more fans enter the arena and make their way down to the lower bowl to watch the warm-up.

This is their glimpse of the new-look Lakers for the day — James and Westbrook elect not to play in the game in part because of an abnormal 3 p.m. tip time — and James obliges by entertaining.

When a drill calls for a layup at the end, James finishes with a ferocious dunk.

When he loses the ball out of bounds trying to execute one spin, he screams, “F—!” in frustration, before spotting a father and his son out of the corner of his eye, forming a shaka sign (hang loose) with his right hand and waving toward them in acknowledgment as a sort of mea culpa for his cuss word.

With the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” pumping in over the sound system while James is hunched over and catching his breath as he watches Westbrook take his turn, James is suddenly upright, breaking out just a hint of the salsa he showed off in a recent soft drink commercial.

As James and Westbrook make their way from one side of the court to the other when the workout is over, two fans — one in an orange LeBron Cavs jersey and the other in a black LeBron Lakers jersey — start bowing in James’ direction like Wayne and Garth saying, “We’re not worthy.”

While the Lakers are on the short list for most fascinating teams of the upcoming NBA season, are they worthy of the hype? Tinseltown has put together its fair share of celebrity-laden casts that flopped at the box office no matter how impressive the names on the poster were.

As L.A. embarks on its fourth season with James, its third with Anthony Davis and its first with Westbrook, managing the expectation of a team some have slotted to come out of the Western Conference with the spectacle of marquee names all adjoined to a single roster will be its biggest challenge. With only five holdovers from the 2020 NBA title team and nine new faces to integrate, time to coalesce will be imperative, but these Lakers can’t escape the fact that they’ll be scrutinized from the very start.

The questions are as prevalent as the star power. Will the pieces fit? How much personality is too much personality? Don’t all those veterans make them vulnerable?

Fans could tune in to see something awesome. They also could find themselves not being able to turn away if it looks like something awful.

“The game is won between those four lines,” James says. “And it’s not won on the bottom ticker, it’s not won in a newspaper and it’s not won on sports talk shows or things of that nature. We come out and put the time in, we put the work in, we make our own narrative.”


IT’S NEARLY A week into training camp, and L.A.’s undisputed leader is directing traffic during a spirited scrimmage to complete the day’s practice.

“Russ! This side, Russ, come on,” James says.

James, Westbrook, Davis, Carmelo Anthony and Malik Monk are going up against a team with Dwight Howard and a handful of the younger players rounding out the camp roster.

As James shoots up the court on the right wing, he surveys the floor and keeps in his teammates’ ears.

Westbrook finds Davis with a pass at the top of the key and then comes back to retrieve the ball from a dribble handoff. While that action is occurring, Monk cuts from the short corner to beyond the arc to get a feed from Westbrook, and Davis parks himself at the high post.

“Throw it to him,” James instructs. “Throw it to him!”

As soon as Monk bounces the entry pass into Davis, James resumes the diagramming.

“Cut, Russ!” James barks, with just a bit more urgency in his voice.

Westbrook runs from the top of the key to the right wing, replacing the spot James was just in, before James goes silent and flips the switch from coach on the floor back to being a player. James sprints from one wing to the other and gets the ball from Davis.

Davis sets James a screen that allows him to dribble back toward the middle of the court, but James chooses to drive left. Kent Bazemore defends him and contains him enough to thwart a baseline path right to the rim, but it doesn’t matter.

James fakes a spin move to the paint, picks up his dribble and shoots a teardrop fadeaway over Bazemore’s outstretched arm that falls through the net.

“Good s—, LB! Good s—, LB!” Davis yells as they clap hands on their way back down the floor.

In this moment, nothing about the team feels old. It is new. It is fresh. It is engaged.

“Our energy has been off-the-charts good,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel says in describing camp. “Really attentive to what we’re trying to install with regards to our system and our culture.”

On the very next possession, however, Lakers training camp invite Trevelin Queen — all springy legs and long arms at 6-foot-6 and 24 years of age — cuts baseline and pushes off of James as he pops back out to the wing, sending the 36-year-old hurtling to the floor.

“Oh, s—. Oh, s—!” James bellows as he rolls over on the court.

By the time James gets up, both arms spread wide, imploring the assistant coaches who are monitoring the game to call a foul, Queen has finished dunking the ball.

And in that moment, the reminder of the uncertainty surrounding this team’s outward ambition — general manager Rob Pelinka says he is “obsessed” with winning the 18th championship in franchise history to break a tie with the rival Boston Celtics for the most ever — is striking.

Masterful as they might be, the margin for error shrinks when considering the hundreds, if not thousands, of possessions just like that one that the Lakers’ aging roster will have to withstand over the course of an 82-game season before the playoffs even begin.

James has had two of his past three seasons sabotaged by significant injuries, missing 26 games because of a high ankle sprain in 2020-21 and 18 games in 2018-19 due to a strained groin.

A sprinkle of bad luck — like being in the wrong place at the wrong time when Solomon Hill lunges for a steal — and anyone on the Lakers is susceptible, no matter the age.

Before the Lakers’ six-game preseason slate had even finished, 36-year-old Trevor Ariza hurt his right ankle and 20-year-old Talen Horton-Tucker injured his right thumb. Both required surgery, and they will miss the start of the season.

The Lakers’ known quantity is its established core. Half of their roster has made the All-Star team. But even if James and Westbrook put in the extra time together to build cohesion, everything can fall apart with one untimely injury. And even if the Lakers avoid serious injuries late in the season, who’s to say the team chemistry will come quickly enough for them to be the ones hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy come June?


THERE THEY STAND.

The three-time Defensive Player of the Year, next to the No. 10 scorer in NBA history, right beside the guy with more triple-doubles than Oscar Robertson, flanking the three-time assists leader, who is shoulder’s length apart from the three-time blocks champ and the man on whose name will likely be included in every discussion about the greatest basketball player of all time forevermore.

Dwight. Melo. Russ. Rondo. AD. And Bron.

It’s the latest and greatest collection of talent by a Los Angeles Lakers franchise long known for stocking its team with the best the sport has to offer; Anthony’s addition means that seven of the top 10 scorers of all time slipped on the purple and gold at some point in their careers.

The six of them are gathered for a group photograph at the Lakers media day in El Segundo, California.

“Thought it was super rare to get a group photo with all those future Hall of Famers at once,” says J Alexander Diaz, who works for the Lakers as a creative director and arranged for the portrait. “Actually thought it was a long shot, but glad it worked out.”

If choreographing a photo can be considered a long shot, then how daunting is capturing a championship?

While they pose in front of a simple, white backdrop, the sheer assemblage of superstars might as well have come with a blinking neon sign floating behind them, announcing what everyone is thinking about them: This team better win.

The last couple of times the Lakers tried something like this, it went awry. Karl Malone and Gary Payton joined Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in 2003, and while that team made the NBA Finals and lost, it was the last season O’Neal and Bryant would play together. Nearly a decade later, in 2012, Dwight Howard and Steve Nash joined Bryant and Pau Gasol in what would become one of the most tumultuous seasons in franchise history, as injuries and infighting doomed that squad.

Rajon Rondo is asked if he sees any parallels between the Mamba/Diesel/Mailman/Glove edition and L.A.’s new superteam.

“Everybody’s up there in age,” the 35-year-old Rondo quips. “We’ve got a couple more guys. I think they have four [Hall of Famers]; we supposedly have six … 5½. I don’t know. … It was a while back, but I think the similarities are obviously the age.”

The Lakers know it won’t be easy to avoid previous failed attempts of putting together a superteam. But what good is anecdotal evidence when your intended course is unprecedented? James and Anthony are the first pair of 19-year veterans to ever play together, for instance.

“Every season is different. Every challenge is different. Every year is different. And I can’t base any previous team or any previous situation,” says James, after he, Westbrook and Davis play together for the first time in a preseason loss to the Golden State Warriors. “This year is about how much work we can put in, how much desire we have to get better and better.”

It requires a certain hubris to willingly take on the challenge the Lakers are facing this season, but big ideas, when properly executed, bring with them greater satisfaction than simple solutions do.

“We understand, I understand who’s on the team,” says Anthony, who along with Westbrook are the only ringless members of the six-pack. “Right now, we understand, OK, Bron, Melo, Russ, AD, Dwight … it goes on and on and on. We just want to come together. We want to enjoy this.

“When you’re on the road to try to go win something, a lot of times the fun can be taken out of it. We want to enjoy this journey, man.”

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Building the perfect trade deadline for the Mets and Phillies

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Building the perfect trade deadline for the Mets and Phillies

There’s plenty of history in the rivalry between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. It’s about 116 miles from Citi Field to Citizens Bank Park. The two teams been competing for the NL East since 1969. Star players from Tug McGraw to Jerry Koosman to Lenny Dykstra to Pedro Martinez to Zack Wheeler have played for both franchises. Mets fans loathe the Phanatic, and Phillies fans laugh derisively at Mr. Met.

Despite this longevity, the two teams have rarely battled for a division title in the same season. The only years they finished No. 1 and 2 or were battling for a division lead late in the season:

  • 1986: Mets finished 21.5 games ahead

  • 2001: Both finished within six games of the Braves

  • 2006: Mets finished 12 games ahead

  • 2007: Phillies finished one game ahead

  • 2008: Phillies finished three games ahead

  • 2024: Phillies finished six games ahead of Mets and Braves

So it’s a rare treat to see the Mets and Phillies battling for the NL East lead in as New York faces the San Francisco Giants on “Sunday Night Baseball” this week. This season has also been a bit of bumpy ride for both teams, so there is pressure on both front offices to make trade deadline additions in hopes of winning the World Series that has eluded both franchises in recent years despite high payrolls and star-laden rosters. Let’s dig into what both teams need to do before Thursday.

The perfect trade deadline for the Mets

1. Bullpen help

The Mets already acquired hard-throwing lefty Gregory Soto from the Orioles, but David Stearns will likely look for another reliever, given that the Mets’ bullpen has struggled since the beginning of June with a 5.02 ERA. In my grade of the trade, I pointed out the importance for the Mets to add left-handed relief. Think of potential playoff opponents and all the key left-handed batters: Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper on the Phillies; Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy on the Dodgers; Kyle Tucker, Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong on the Cubs.

Soto has held lefties to a .138 average this season, and it does help that the Mets have two lefty starters in David Peterson and Sean Manaea. They also just activated Brooks Raley after he had been out since early 2024. If he is back to his 2022-23 form, when he had a 2.74 ERA and held lefties to a .209 average, maybe the Mets will feel good enough about their southpaw relief.

They could still use another dependable righty reliever. Mets starters were hot early on, but they weren’t going deep into games, and outside of Peterson, the lack of longer outings is a big reason the bullpen ERA has skyrocketed. Carlos Mendoza has overworked his setup guys, including Huascar Brazoban and Reed Garrett. Brazoban has never been much of a strike thrower anyway, and Garrett similarly faded in the second half last season. Adding a high-leverage righty to set up Edwin Diaz makes sense. Candidates there include David Bednar of the Pirates, Ryan Helsley of the Cardinals, Griffin Jax or Jhoan Duran of the Twins, or maybe a longer shot such as Emmanuel Clase or Cade Smith of the Guardians.

2. Think big, as in Eugenio Suarez

Mark Vientos was a huge key to last season’s playoff appearance and trip to the NLCS, hitting .266/.322/.516 with 27 home runs after beginning the season in Triple-A. He hasn’t been able to replicate that performance, though, hitting .224/.279/.354. That has led to a revolving door at third base, with Vientos, Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio starting games there in July. Overall, Mets third basemen ranked 24th in the majors in OPS entering Friday.

Lack of production at third is one reason the Mets’ offense has been mediocre rather than very good — they’re averaging 4.38 runs per game, just below the NL average of 4.43. They could use another premium bat, given the lack of production they’ve received from center field and catcher (not to mention Francisco Lindor‘s slump since the middle of June). Maybe Francisco Alvarez‘s short stint back in Triple-A will get his bat going now that he’s back in the majors, but going after Suarez to hit behind Juan Soto and Pete Alonso would lengthen the lineup.

3. Reacquire Harrison Bader to play CF

Tyrone Taylor is a plus defender in center and has made several incredible catches, but he’s hitting .209/.264/.306 for a lowly OPS+ of 65. Old friend Bader is having a nice season with the Twins, hitting .251/.330/.435. Maybe that’s a little over his head, given that he had a .657 OPS with the Mets last season, but he would still be an offensive upgrade over Taylor without losing anything on defense — and he wouldn’t cost a top-tier prospect. The Mets could still mix in Jeff McNeil against the really tough righties, but adding Suarez and Bader would give this lineup more of a championship feel.

The perfect deadline for the Phillies

1. Acquire Jhoan Duran

Like the Mets, the Phillies already made a move here, signing free agent David Robertson, who had a 3.00 ERA and 99 strikeouts in 72 innings last season with the Rangers. On paper, he should help, but he’s also 40 and will need a few games in the minors to get ready. Even with Robertson, the Phillies could use some more help here. They’ll eventually get Jose Alvarado back from his 60-game PED suspension, but Alvarado is ineligible for the postseason. At least the Mets have an elite closer in Edwin Diaz. Jordan Romano leads the Phillies with eight saves and has a 6.69 ERA. Matt Strahm is solid, but more useful as a lefty setup guy than a closer (think of all those left-handed batters we listed for the Mets, then sub out Juan Soto and Brandon Nimmo for Harper and Schwarber).

And the Phillies’ bullpen has consistently come up short in big games. Think back to last year’s NLDS, when Jeff Hoffman lost twice to the Mets. Or 2023, when Craig Kimbrel lost two games in the NLCS against the Diamondbacks. Or the 2022 World Series, when Yordan Alvarez hit the huge home run off Alvarado in the clinching Game 6.

So, yes, a shutdown closer is a must. Maybe that’s Bednar, maybe Clase if he’s available (although he struggled in last year’s postseason), maybe Helsley. But the guy Dave Dombrowski should go all-in to get: Duran. The window for the Phillies is slowly closing as the core players get older. Duran is under control through 2027, so he’s a fit for now and the immediate future. The trade cost might be painful, but with his 100 mph fastball and splitter, he has the elite stuff you need in October.

2. Add Ryan O’Hearn

The Phillies have received below-average production from both left field (mostly Max Kepler) and center field (Brandon Marsh/Johan Rojas platoon). The center-field market is pretty thin except for Bader or maybe a gamble on Luis Robert Jr. I’d pass on Robert, stick with the Marsh/Rojas platoon and upgrade left field with O’Hearn, who is hitting .281/.375/.452 for the Orioles. He isn’t the perfect fit since, like Kepler, he hits left-handed and struggles against lefties, but he’s a patient hitter with a much better OBP, and he’s passable in the outfield.

3. Acquire Willi Castro

Here’s the bottom line: The Phillies have to admit that some of their long-term position players aren’t getting the job done — such as second baseman Bryson Stott, who has a 77 OPS+. Third baseman Alec Bohm has been better but also has a below-average OPS.

That makes Castro a nice fit. He’s not a star, but he’s an above-average hitter, a switch-hitter who plays all over the field for the Twins, having started games at five different positions. He could play second or third or start in left field against a lefty. Philadelphia could even start him in center instead of Rojas, although that would be a defensive hit. Bottom line: Castro would give the Phillies a lot more versatility — or a significant offensive upgrade over Stott if they start him every day at second.

Note as well: Stott has hit .188 in 33 career postseason games. Bohm has hit .214 with two home runs in 34 postseason games. The Phillies need a different offensive look for October.

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Olney: The 8 teams most desperate to make a deadline deal

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Olney: The 8 teams most desperate to make a deadline deal

It would be ideal if every MLB team were so desperate to win that they would do whatever it takes. But in an industry with so many variables from team to team — roster composition, payroll commitment, market size, owner ambition, fan rabidity and history — some organizations are willing to go further and do more than others.

The New York Mets paid more in luxury taxes last season ($97 million) than the Pittsburgh Pirates have dedicated to payroll this season, and Pittsburgh could attempt to reduce salary commitments even further at this year’s trade deadline.

Some teams are more desperate than others. As we near the July 31 deadline, we present the teams most desperate to make a deal.


New York played in the World Series last year, and in a lot of markets, that might be enough to satisfy a fan base. But not with the Yankees, whose most faithful fans judge them under the George Steinbrenner Doctrine: If you don’t win the World Series, you’ve had a bad year. This is a constant.

The Yankees could return to where they were last October. The 33-year-old Aaron Judge, one of the most dynamic hitters ever, is having another historic season. New York wants to take advantage of that — particularly because the American League is wide open with as many as seven or eight AL teams having reasonable paths to the World Series.

But the Yankees still have distinct holes. They badly need an upgrade at third base, which someone like Eugenio Suarez could fill. Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt suffered season-ending elbow injuries, leaving a need for another experienced starting pitcher. Their bullpen also needs help in the sixth and seventh innings.

After the departure of Juan Soto, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman are probably under more pressure to do something this season than any of their peers. What else is new?


It’s remarkable how similar this version of the Phillies is to the teams that president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski constructed in Detroit, with Philadelphia’s strong starting pitching (Zack Wheeler and Cristopher Sanchez playing the roles of Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer) and a lineup of sluggers (Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper as Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder).

The major question that hangs over this Philadelphia team, as was the case with those Tigers teams, is about the bullpen: Is there enough depth and power? For the Phillies, that is complicated by the situation with lefty Jose Alvarado, who will return in August from his 80-game suspension under the PED policy but not be eligible for the postseason.

The Phillies paid heavily for free agent reliever David Robertson, giving him the equivalent of a $16 million salary for the rest of the regular season, but they could use another reliever who is adept at shutting down high-end right-handed hitters in the postseason.


On the days Tarik Skubal pitches, the Tigers could be the best team in baseball; it’s possible that in the postseason, he could be his generation’s version of Orel Hershiser or Madison Bumgarner, propelling his team through round after round of playoffs to the World Series.

But the Tigers might have Skubal for only the rest of this year and next season, before he, advised by his agent Scott Boras, heads into free agency and becomes maybe the first $400 million pitcher in history.

Now is the time for Detroit to make a push for its first championship in more than four decades. And for Scott Harris, the team’s president of baseball operations, that means adding a couple of high-impact relievers capable of generating a lot of swing-and-misses.


The Mariners showed they are serious about making moves before this deadline with Thursday’s trade for first baseman Josh Naylor.

The last time the Mariners reached the league championship series, Ichiro Suzuki — who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this weekend — was a rookie. Edgar Martinez was a 38-year-old designated hitter, and Jamie Moyer and Freddy Garcia were the staff aces. You get the point: It has been a really long time since the Mariners have had postseason success, and the team has never reached the World Series.

An opportunity seems to be developing for Seattle. The talented rotation, hammered by injuries in the first months of this season, could be whole for the stretch run. Cal Raleigh is having the greatest season by a catcher, contending with Judge for the AL MVP Award. Julio Rodriguez has generally been a strong second-half player.

Even ownership seems inspired: After a winter in which the Mariners spent almost nothing to upgrade the roster, other teams report that Seattle could absorb money in trades before the deadline.


5. New York Mets

Owner Steve Cohen doesn’t sport the highest payroll this year — the Dodgers’ Mark Walter is wearing that distinction — but the Mets are well over the luxury tax threshold again, in the first season after signing Juan Soto. Cohen has made it clear that generally, he will do what it takes to land the club’s first championship trophy since 1986.

But that does not include preventing David Stearns, the Mets’ respected president of baseball operations, from doing what he does best — making subtle and effective deals at the trade deadline. Rival execs expect that Stearns will work along the same lines he did last year — finding trades that improve the team’s depth without pillaging its growing farm system. That could mean adding a starting pitcher capable of starting Game 1, 2 or 3 of a postseason series, as well as bullpen depth.

Cohen is experiencing the impact of overseeing a front office that made an impetuous win-now trade at the 2021 deadline, when the Mets swapped a minor leaguer named Pete Crow-Armstrong for two months of Javier Baez. That clearly didn’t pan out for them. Cohen is desperate to win, but within the prescribed guardrails.


Last winter, the Padres had to live with the knowledge that they were probably the best team other than the Dodgers and that they came within a win of knocking out L.A. There is a lot about San Diego’s 2025 roster to like: Manny Machado clearly responds to a big stage, and the bullpen could be the most dominant at a time of year when relief corps often decide championships.

However, as Padres general manager A.J. Preller navigates this trade deadline in the hopes of living out late owner Peter Seidler’s dream of winning San Diego’s first World Series title, he has a relatively thin, aging, top-heavy roster with a lot of significant payroll obligations. This is why the Padres are considering trading Dylan Cease, who is potentially the highest-impact starter available on the market. Preller could move Cease to fill other roster needs, current and future ones, and then deal for a cheaper veteran starter to replace him.

“He’ll have to rob Peter to pay Paul,” one of Preller’s peers said.


Hope has emerged after the team’s all-in, $500 million signing of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., with the Blue Jays taking the lead in the AL East.

Toronto’s rotation is comprised of an older group — 34-year-old Kevin Gausman, 36-year-old Chris Bassitt, 40-year-old Max Scherzer and 31-year-old Jose Berrios. Without a clear favorite in the AL, Toronto could break through for its first title since the Jays went back-to-back in 1992-93 — and in just the second season since the club’s expensive renovations of Rogers Centre were completed. When Alex Anthopoulos led the front office a decade ago, he made an all-in push to get the Jays back into the playoffs, adding players like David Price because he believed this was the right time for them to take their shot — and they came very close to getting back to the World Series.

Reportedly, Mark Shapiro — the team’s incoming president at the time — did not approve of Anthopoulos’ strategy. Now, Shapiro’s Blue Jays are in a similar situation in 2025 to where they were under Anthopoulos: Will they wheel and deal aggressively before the deadline, or will they be conservative?


The Dodgers won the World Series in 2024, after taking the title in the shortened season of 2020. So, if they don’t win a championship this year, it’s not as if a bunch of people are getting fired and the roster will be jettisoned. But winning can be intoxicating, especially when the lineup and rotation are loaded with stars: The Dodgers can envision a postseason in which a starting staff of Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto could propel the team to a second consecutive title.

But the Dodgers’ bullpen — heavily worked in the first months of this season because of injuries to the rotation — is in tatters due to injuries. Will the Dodgers’ push to become the first team to repeat as champions since the 1998-2000 Yankees drive them to swap valuable prospects for needed bullpen help before the deadline? We’re about to find out.


This is a team very well-suited for the postseason: The Cubs are a strong defensive team; they have a deep lineup around Kyle Tucker, in what might be Tucker’s only season in Chicago; and they put the ball in play.

They’ve got a good farm system, as well as an experienced president of baseball operations in Jed Hoyer. He was part of championships in Boston in 2004 and 2007 and was the Cubs’ general manager for their 2016 title. He and Theo Epstein made the Nomar Garciaparra deal at the trade deadline in 2004, in advance of Boston’s breakthrough title in 2004, and the all-in trade for Aroldis Chapman on the way to the Cubs’ first World Series win in 108 years in 2016.

But the X factor for Chicago in recent years is whether ownership operates with the same desperation — in the way that Astros owner Jim Crane did when he pushed through a Justin Verlander trade for Houston in August 2017.

This seems to be a good time for the Cubs to be desperate, to do anything to win another championship. Will a title be a priority for owner Tom Ricketts?

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Schwarber reaches 1,000-hit milestone with HR

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Schwarber reaches 1,000-hit milestone with HR

NEW YORK — Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber topped Mark McGwire for most home runs among a player’s first 1,000 hits, hitting long ball No. 319 during Friday night’s 12-5 victory over the New York Yankees.

“I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not,” Schwarber said.

Ten days after lifting the National League to victory in the first All-Star Game swing-off, Schwarber keeps going deep. He hit a pair of two-run homers Friday night, with the first drive, his milestone hit, starting the comeback from a 2-0 deficit. He got the ball back after it was grabbed by a Phillies fan attending with his friends in Yankee Stadium’s right-center-field seats.

“I saw it on the video and then I see the dude tugging,” Schwarber said. “I’m like: ‘Oh, they all got Philly stuff on.’ That was cool.”

He met the trio after the game, gave an autographed ball to each and exchanged hugs. When he went to get a third ball to autograph, one of the three said he just wanted the potential free agent to re-sign with the Phillies.

“You show up to the field every single day trying to get a win at the end of the day, and I think our fans kind of latch on to that, right?” Schwarber said. “It’s been fantastic these last 3½ years, four years now. The support that we get from our fans and it means a lot to me that, you know, that they attach themselves to our team.”

Schwarber tied it at 2-2 in the fifth against Will Warren when he hit a 413-foot drive on a first-pitch fastball.

After J.T. Realmuto‘s three-run homer off Luke Weaver built a 6-3 lead in a four-run seventh and the Yankees closed within a run in the bottom half, Schwarber sent an Ian Hamilton fastball 380 feet into the right-field seats.

Schwarber reached 1,000 hits with eight more homers than McGwire. Schwarber has 36 homers this year, three shy of major league leader Cal Raleigh, and six homers in seven games since he was voted All-Star MVP. He has 33 multihomer games.

“I don’t know where we’d be without him,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “Comes up with big hit after big hit after big hit. It’s just — it’s amazing.”

Schwarber, 32, is eligible for free agency this fall after completing a four-year, $79 million contract. He homered on all three of his swings in the All-Star Game tiebreaker, and when the second half began, Phillies managing partner John Middleton proclaimed: “We love him. We want to keep him.”

“He’s been an incredible force all season long,” Realmuto said. “What he’s meant to his team, his offense, it’s hard to put in words.”

A World Series champion for the 2016 Chicago Cubs, Schwarber has reached 35 homers in all four seasons with the Phillies. He’s batting .255 with 82 RBIs and a .960 OPS.

He also has almost as many home runs as singles (46).

Schwarber had not been aware he topped McGwire for most homers among 1,000 hits.

“I had no clue. I didn’t even know it was my 1,000th, to be honest with you,” he said.

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