Connect with us

Published

on

IT FELT LIKE a fairy-tale start to Dansby Swanson‘s Chicago Cubs career.

Swanson had left the Atlanta Braves to sign a seven-year, $177 million deal with Chicago in December, in part because it was the city where his new wife, Mallory Pugh Swanson, played professional soccer for the NWSL’s Chicago Red Stars.

Dansby was just two weeks into his first season in Chicago; Mallory was preparing to play for the U.S. women’s national team in a World Cup this summer in Australia and New Zealand. Together, they were looking forward to their first of many summers in Chicago.

Then, on April 8 before a game against the Texas Rangers at Wrigley Field, Dansby and his teammates gathered in the clubhouse to watch Mallory play in a friendly against Ireland and the mood changed in an instant.

Mallory went to the ground with a nasty left knee injury, after a collision with Ireland’s Aoife Mannion. Teammates and coaches surrounded her as she was carted off the field. The stunned Cubs watched it all unfold on television.

“It was definitely intense, especially because we were watching the game together as a team,” recalled Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner. “It turned from a cool thing and looking forward to the World Cup to immediate concern for a teammate.”

The news that Mallory had torn her patellar tendon added an unexpected challenge to the couple’s lives and completely altered Dansby’s early months in Chicago. Now, two months into Mallory’s minimum six-month rehab, Dansby is marking his mark on the surging Cubs, and Mallory is well enough to join him in England this weekend for MLB’s London Series between the Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals.

“She’s played and trained there [London] so I’m happy she can go,” Dansby said earlier in the week. “And I’m happy she can enjoy the success she’s getting in rehab — it’s been a grind, for sure.”


SLEEP WAS SCARCE during those early days in April, when Dansby Swanson had to play major league baseball while his wife underwent surgery and began her recovery. On April 12, Swanson even missed a game, his first since 2021.

“It’s been incredibly tough,” Swanson said. “When you see the person you love the most be hurt like that, it’s just emotional. Just devastating.”

His professional athlete wife now needed help in almost every aspect; just moving from room to room was a challenge. It added an element to Swanson’s daily routine that made playing baseball that much harder.

On the day of Mallory’s injury, Swanson led the Cubs to a resounding 10-3 victory over Texas. But he went hitless in four of his next five games, a stretch in which manager David Ross gave him a rare day off.

“The difficult part just comes in being pretty fricking tired every day,” Swanson said “She was up [at night], I’m up … It’s truly the sickness-and-health part.”

As Mallory settled into her physical therapy routine, Swanson’s mind returned, in part, to baseball, where there was work to be done. The Cubs finished April with an acceptable 14-13 record but went just 10-18 in May.

“I care a lot about my wife and [her] health, but I also care about this,” Swanson said, pointing to the diamond from the home dugout at Wrigley Field. “It’s just been a new challenge, each day giving as much as you can and more, and then getting your rest and doing it again the next day.”

June (12-7) has been more promising. The Cubs are just 3.5 games behind the first-place Cincinnati Reds as they attempt to build a winning team again after their historic run last decade.

“I hope that everyone can see that,” Swanson said of the Cubs’ recent climb. “I feel like things are on the up-and-up. We’re establishing what we’re all about. This is the Chicago Cubs brand. Bits and pieces are falling into place.”


SWANSON LEFT A good thing in Atlanta for a team trying to find its way back to prominence. Leadership from the former No. 1 overall draft pick was expected from day one. In his mind, the best way to lead is to be there, doing it. It’s why missing even a single game — despite having a good reason, with his wife’s injury — didn’t sit well with him.

“Atlanta taught me consistency, especially when Freddie [Freeman] was there,” Swanson said. “Just the consistency to show up every day and do the same things, and kind of live in a gear three or four and not be in a one or a six.”

That’s not the only thing Swanson brought from Atlanta. He has been in the middle of the Cubs’ stellar defense this season, following up his Gold Glove year in Atlanta with one that possibly has been even better. He has been a vacuum at shortstop, thanks in part to the pregame routine from Braves coach Ron Washington he brought with him.

It’s a simple enough drill: Before the game, players get on their knees just a few feet from a coach while he hits short hops to them. Forehand and backhand. Side to side.

“It’s not strenuous,” Swanson said. “It’s a lot of good rhythm and mental prep work. I’ve seen that work for so many different players.”

Swanson, who had four outs above average through June last season, has 10 already this year, tied with Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes for the most in baseball. And he just ended a 54-game errorless streak that spanned two months. He has made the highlight-reel plays, leaping to nab liners and ranging deep into holes to snare hard-hit grounders, while also making the routine outs look … routine.

“Great defense is fun,” Swanson said. “Great defense, to me, isn’t just diving plays. Great defense happens at all times. It happens in the moments you’re not watching.”

“No one is close to him on defense,” one NL scout said. “There may be some better on offense, but he owns that position right now.”

He’s not content to settle there, though. In his opening news conference, Swanson also expressed a desire to get better at the plate — specifically hoping to cut down on strikeouts: He had 182 last season after previously setting a career mark with 167 the year before.

That’s improving in Chicago, too: His strikeout percentage (22.6) is the second lowest of his career, and his walk rate (11.3) is his highest. According to ESPN Stats & Information research, that walk-to-strikeout rate has nearly doubled from last season — at 185%, it’s the seventh-largest increase among all players.

“The way you walk more is being more ready to hit,” Swanson said. “Being more ready to hit and proactive means you’re going to be better at taking the balls and swinging at the strikes … Maturity as a player comes into play. It’s not a one-stop answer.”

Swanson has heard the theory that drastically improving plate discipline at the major league level sometimes isn’t attainable. That it’s already part of your DNA when you arrive. He doesn’t buy it.

“If you are who you are, then how do you get any better?” he asked.

But with the improved walk-to-strikeout ratio has come less power. Swanson belted 25 home runs last season and 27 in 2021. He has just seven this year — but he doesn’t believe he has sacrificed one for the other.

“A lot of good pitches to drive, I’ve either just hit a hard line drive for a single or I’ve fouled it off,” Swanson said. “That’s where the lack of power comes from.”

As Dansby Swanson looks to improve every aspect of his game and the Cubs continue their climb back to relevance, Mallory is moving just as quickly in a positive direction. The couple has even begun to enjoy Chicago, exploring their neighborhood more than they could in their first days living in their new city.

“She’s doing well,” Swanson said, allowing himself a slight smile. “Moving around well. And I think things will consistently keep getting better and better.”

Continue Reading

Sports

What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB’s hottest trend

Published

on

By

What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB's hottest trend

The opening weekend of the 2025 MLB season was taken over by a surprise star — torpedo bats.

The bowling pin-shaped bats became the talk of the sport after the Yankees’ home run onslaught on the first Saturday of the season put it in the spotlight and the buzz hasn’t slowed since.

What exactly is a torpedo bat? How does it help hitters? And how is it legal? Let’s dig in.

Read: An MIT-educated professor, the Yankees and the bat that could be changing baseball


What is a torpedo bat and why is it different from a traditional MLB bat?

The idea of the torpedo bat is to take a size format — say, 34 inches and 32 ounces — and distribute the wood in a different geometric shape than the traditional form to ensure the fattest part of the bat is located where the player makes the most contact. Standard bats taper toward an end cap that is as thick diametrically as the sweet spot of the barrel. The torpedo bat moves some of the mass on the end of the bat about 6 to 7 inches lower, giving it a bowling-pin shape, with a much thinner end.


How does it help hitters?

The benefits for those who like swinging with it — and not everyone who has swung it likes it — are two-fold. Both are rooted in logic and physics. The first is that distributing more mass to the area of most frequent contact aligns with players’ swing patterns and provides greater impact when bat strikes ball. Players are perpetually seeking ways to barrel more balls, and while swings that connect on the end of the bat and toward the handle probably will have worse performance than with a traditional bat, that’s a tradeoff they’re willing to make for the additional slug. And as hitters know, slug is what pays.

The second benefit, in theory, is increased bat speed. Imagine a sledgehammer and a broomstick that both weigh 32 ounces. The sledgehammer’s weight is almost all at the end, whereas the broomstick’s is distributed evenly. Which is easier to swing fast? The broomstick, of course, because shape of the sledgehammer takes more strength and effort to move. By shedding some of the weight off the end of the torpedo bat and moving it toward the middle, hitters have found it swings very similarly to a traditional model but with slightly faster bat velocity.


Why did it become such a big story so early in the 2025 MLB season?

Because the New York Yankees hit nine home runs in a game Saturday and Michael Kay, their play-by-play announcer, pointed out that some of them came from hitters using a new bat shape. The fascination was immediate. While baseball, as an industry, has implemented forward-thinking rules in recent seasons, the modification to something so fundamental and known as the shape of a bat registered as bizarre. The initial response from many who saw it: How is this legal?


OK. How is this legal?

Major League Baseball’s bat regulations are relatively permissive. Currently, the rules allow for a maximum barrel diameter of 2.61 inches, a maximum length of 42 inches and a smooth and round shape. The lack of restrictions allows MLB’s authorized bat manufacturers to toy with bat geometry and for the results to still fall within the regulations.


Who came up with the idea of using them?

The notion of a bowling-pin-style bat has kicked around baseball for years. Some bat manufacturers made smaller versions as training tools. But the version that’s now infiltrating baseball goes back two years when a then-Yankees coach named Aaron Leanhardt started asking hitters how they should counteract the giant leaps in recent years made by pitchers.

When Yankees players responded that bigger barrels would help, Leanhardt — an MIT-educated former Michigan physics professor who left academia to work in the sports industry — recognized that as long as bats stayed within MLB parameters, he could change their geometry to make them a reality. Leanhardt, who left the Yankees to serve as major league field coordinator for the Miami Marlins over the winter, worked with bat manufacturers throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons to make that a reality.


When did it first appear in MLB games?

It’s unclear specifically when. But Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton used a torpedo bat last year and went on a home run-hitting rampage in October that helped send the Yankees to the World Series. New York Mets star Francisco Lindor also used a torpedo-style bat last year and went on to finish second in National League MVP voting.


Who are some of the other notable early users of torpedo bats?

In addition to Stanton and Lindor, Yankees hitters Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt have used torpedoes to great success. Others who have used them in games include Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers and Toronto’s Davis Schneider. And that’s just the beginning. Hundreds more players are expected to test out torpedoes — and perhaps use them in games — in the coming weeks.


How is this different from a corked bat?

Corking bats involves drilling a hole at the end of the bat, filling it in and capping it. The use of altered bats allows players to swing faster because the material with which they replace the wood — whether it’s cork, superballs or another material — is lighter. Any sort of bat adulteration is illegal and, if found, results in suspension.


Could a rule be changed to ban them?

Could it happen? Sure. Leagues and governing bodies have put restrictions on equipment they believe fundamentally altered fairness. Stick curvature is limited in hockey. Full-body swimsuits made of polyurethane and neoprene are banned by World Aquatics. But officials at MLB have acknowledged that the game’s pendulum has swung significantly toward pitching in recent years, and if an offensive revolution comes about because of torpedo bats — and that is far from a guarantee — it could bring about more balance to the game. If that pendulum swings too far, MLB could alter its bat regulations, something it has done multiple times already this century.


So the torpedo bat is here to stay?

Absolutely. Bat manufacturers are cranking them out and shipping them to interested players with great urgency. Just how widely the torpedo bat is adopted is the question that will play out over the rest of the season. But it has piqued the curiosity of nearly every hitter in the big leagues, and just as pitchers toy with new pitches to see if they can marginally improve themselves, hitters will do the same with bats.

Comfort is paramount with a bat, so hitters will test them during batting practice and in cage sessions before unleashing them during the game. As time goes on, players will find specific shapes that are most comfortable to them and best suit their swing during bat-fitting sessions — similar to how golfers seek custom clubs. But make no mistake: This is an almost-overnight alteration of the game, and “traditional or torpedo” is a question every big leaguer going forward will ask himself.

Continue Reading

Sports

St. Pete to spend $22.5M to fix Tropicana Field

Published

on

By

St. Pete to spend .5M to fix Tropicana Field

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The once and possibly future home of the Tampa Bay Rays will get a new roof to replace the one shredded by Hurricane Milton with the goal of having the ballpark ready for the 2026 season, city officials decided in a vote Thursday.

The St. Petersburg City Council voted 7-1 to approve $22.5 million to begin the repairs at Tropicana Field, which will start with a membrane roof that must be in place before other work can continue. Although the Rays pulled out of a planned $1.3 billion new stadium deal, the city is still contractually obligated to fix the Trop.

“We are legally bound by an agreement. The agreement requires us to fix the stadium,” said council member Lissett Hanewicz, who is an attorney. “We need to go forward with the roof repair so we can do the other repairs.”

The hurricane damage forced the Rays to play home games this season at Steinbrenner Field across the bay in Tampa, the spring training home of the New York Yankees. The Rays went 4-2 on their first homestand ever at an open-air ballpark, which seats around 11,000 fans.

Under the current agreement with the city, the Rays owe three more seasons at the Trop once it’s ready again for baseball, through 2028. It’s unclear if the Rays will maintain a long-term commitment to the city or look to Tampa or someplace else for a new stadium. Major League Baseball has said keeping the team in the Tampa Bay region is a priority. The Rays have played at the Trop since their inception in 1998.

The team said it would have a statement on the vote later Thursday.

The overall cost of Tropicana Field repairs is estimated at $56 million, said city architect Raul Quintana. After the roof, the work includes fixing the playing surface, ensuring audio and visual electronics are working, installing flooring and drywall, getting concession stands running and other issues.

“This is a very complex project. We feel like we’re in a good place,” Quintana said at the council meeting Thursday.

Under the proposed timeline, the roof installation will take about 10 months. The unique membrane system is fabricated in Germany and assembled in China, Quintana said, adding that officials are examining how President Donald Trump’s new tariffs might affect the cost.

The new roof, he added, will be able to withstand hurricane winds as high as 165 mph. Hurricane Milton, one of the strongest hurricanes ever in the Atlantic basin at one point, blasted ashore Oct. 9 south of Tampa Bay with Category 3 winds of about 125 mph.

Citing mounting costs, the Rays last month pulled out of a deal with the city and Pinellas County for a new $1.3 billion ballpark to be built near the Trop site. That was part of a broader $6.5 billion project known as the Historic Gas Plant district to bring housing, retail and restaurants, arts and a Black history museum to a once-thriving Black neighborhood razed for the original stadium.

The city council plans to vote on additional Trop repair costs over the next few months.

“This is our contractual obligation. I don’t like it more than anybody else. I’d much rather be spending that money on hurricane recovery and helping residents in the most affected neighborhoods,” council member Brandi Gabbard said. “These are the cards that we’re dealt.”

Continue Reading

Sports

Tulane suspends Finley after transfer QB’s arrest

Published

on

By

Tulane suspends Finley after transfer QB's arrest

Tulane quarterback TJ Finley has been suspended following his arrest Wednesday in New Orleans on a charge of illegal possession of stolen things worth more than $25,000.

Finley, 23, whose name is Tyler Jamal, was booked and released. Tulane said in a statement that the length of the suspension will depend on the outcome of his case. The school cited privacy laws in declining to comment further.

University police responded Wednesday to an address where a truck was blocking a driveway. After looking up the license plate, police saw it registered to a vehicle stolen in Atlanta. Finley arrived to move the car and informed the officer that he had bought the truck recently. He’s scheduled to appear in court June 1.

Finley transferred to Tulane in December after spending the 2024 season with Western Kentucky. He had been competing for the team’s starting quarterback job in spring practice alongside fellow transfers Kadin Semonza and Donovan Leary.

Finley, a native of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, started his college career at LSU before transferring to Auburn for two seasons and then Texas State in 2023. He started five games for both LSU and Auburn but had his most success with Texas State, passing for 3,439 yards and 24 touchdowns.

Continue Reading

Trending