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WALKING INTO THE Thomas County Public Library in Thomasville, Georgia, visitors see what they’d expect to see in any small-town library.

A flat-screen in the entranceway spells out the rules: no food, drinks, smoking or cellphones. Through a set of double doors is the circulation desk, with three banners above promoting the summer reading challenge.

To the left is the children’s section, with kid-sized tables and chairs and floor tiles with images of water, bubbles and a large goldfish. There’s a check-out desk to the right, an alphabet quilt to the left, butterfly mobiles hanging from the ceiling and shelf after shelf of colorful books.

Along the back wall, next to a window with a “Speak Quietly Please” sign, is a small glass case. On it sits a piece of paper in a plastic cover, propped against a small statue, with a quote that reads, “One way to get a quality education is to read what you don’t want and do what you’d rather not.” The quote is from Charlie Ward Jr., the former Florida State football star and pro basketball player who grew up less than 2 miles from the library.

Next to the quote sits a list of Ward’s accomplishments during the 1993 FSU national championship season in a black picture frame.

Inside the case is Ward’s No. 17 Seminoles jersey, a basketball card from his time with the New York Knicks, a framed photo of Ward and one more item of note. Right there — between a mostly empty magazine rack adorned with toadstools and a mini puppet theater — as presented by the Downtown Athletic Club of New York City to Ward 30 years ago, is the 45-pound Heisman Trophy.

An unsuspecting visitor would be taken aback. But for those who know Charlie Ward, the Thomas County Public Library children’s room is the perfect place for his Heisman Trophy.


WILLARD AND CHARLIE Ward Sr. are surrounded by trophies at their Thomasville home in what they call the “awards room.” The room is filled with an assortment of athletic trophies, awards and memorabilia from the whole family. Charlie Jr.’s Davey O’Brien Trophy, a Charlie Ward Jr. Boulevard sign (many have been stolen over the years in Thomasville), a 1993 ACC Offensive Player of the Year trophy and many more. In the middle of the room is a plate commemorating the 2008 election of President Barack Obama.

Among the many receipts of Charlie Jr.’s success at all levels of athletics, the Wards recall the exact moment they knew their son was gifted enough to fill such a room.

When Junior — as his family calls him — was 2 years old, a friend saw him out on a shuffleboard court bouncing a ball.

“She said, ‘Look at that boy!'” Willard says. “She saw the skills he had for a child that age. I hadn’t paid any attention to it.” Charlie Sr. adds: “He had cat reflexes.”

Athleticism is ingrained in the Ward family DNA. It’s evident from the way Charlie Sr. (who prefers to be called “Coach”) goes between different motions during a conversation — one moment he’s shooting an imaginary basketball, another he pantomimes swinging a baseball bat or settles in for a dribbling motion. If push came to shove, even at 84, the elder Ward — who played for Florida A&M and legendary coach Jake Gaither in Tallahassee — would be willing to compete.

Junior’s athletic career was molded in the Thomasville neighborhood, where he grew up playing every sport imaginable.

“We were playing in the streets,” Charlie Jr. says. “Street ball, whatever the ball was, we made it happen. We had quite a few guys in the neighborhood. Then we would take our neighborhood and go play another neighborhood. That’s the way we got down in the streets. And those were our rivalries and how we handled our business. It was all about bragging rights.”

The basketball hoop Junior grew up shooting on was 12 feet high, not the regulation 10 feet, as set by his father so nobody could tear the basket down. That didn’t matter to Junior.

“I mean, you shoot the ball and make it go in,” he says. “Whether it’s 12 feet, 10 feet, you just have to make adjustments.”

Willard feels a key event that shaped her son was a knee injury he had early in high school. A bone issue that required surgery left his doctors unsure of his athletic future.

“When that was taken away, I was, of course, frustrated,” Junior says. “But I was able to learn that I needed to make sure I took my schooling seriously because it can be easily taken away, the thing that I enjoyed most.”

As Charlie Jr. became a better student, something he said he previously hadn’t taken pride in, he also recovered physically and had a very successful high school athletic career. He wouldn’t have been Charlie Ward if he didn’t.

“Junior’s the kind of person — and his dad’s the same way — I said, ‘Only way he didn’t play or something, he wouldn’t have an arm, a leg, a head or something. But as long as he had one of those things, he was going to get out there,'” Willard says. “And that was that determination. ‘You won’t tell me I can’t do it.'”


CHARLIE WARD DID not immediately jump from high school to Florida State.

Despite his good grades coming out of high school, Ward’s ACT score didn’t meet the NCAA standard. He didn’t want to lose a year of eligibility, as the Proposition 48 rules at the time would have dictated, so he spent a year taking classes at Tallahassee Community College, less than 40 miles from his hometown of Thomasville.

When Ward finally arrived at Florida State in 1989, the future Heisman Trophy winner and first-round NBA draft pick saw the field immediately — as the team’s punter.

Because of an injury to Florida State’s starting punter, Ward took on the job and didn’t redshirt as planned. Even in that role, he did things people rarely saw. In a game against Tulane, Ward had a run, pass and punt in one drive.

But it was in practice — specifically, the team’s final preseason scrimmage — that Ward’s legend began to take hold.

“They always play the first and second team versus the rest,” former Florida State offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mark Richt recalled. “Charlie was on the rest, and almost single-handedly won the game against the varsity. … And usually you spot the [rest] some points because you’re trying to make it competitive, but [the varsity] just about lost to the team Charlie was quarterbacking.”

And this wasn’t just any defense Ward went up against. It included the likes of LeRoy Butler, Terrell Buckley, Kirk Carruthers and Odell Haggins, all of whom played in the NFL.

Fullback William Floyd said, “Coach had to come over like, ‘Hey, man, you got to tell Ward, you got to call different plays, whatever, he’s making us look crazy over here.’ And he’s going against the starting defense.

“It was like, ‘Man, this is our starting defense, man! We can mess up their confidence if this keeps happening.'”


IN SPRING 1990, Bobby Bowden wanted Ward to compete for the starting quarterback job. But Ward knew he wasn’t going to win the role, given the team’s success the previous season and the experienced QBs — Casey Weldon and Brad Johnson — in front of him.

He also wanted to play basketball, which was a key factor in his choosing Florida State over Georgia coming out of high school, and as a freshman, he had met the academic requirements set by FSU.

“Coach Bowden had allowed Brad Johnson to play basketball and football,” Ward said, “and that’s what I wanted to do. … And my mom’s going to hold his feet to the fire if things change.”

When Ward approached Bowden about playing basketball during his redshirt season, Bowden told him he should think about it some more, which Ward didn’t like, and Ward’s mother let Bowden know.

“I said, ‘Coach Bowden, this is Charlie Ward’s mama,'” Willard recalled. “‘Junior called me real upset because he had asked you about playing basketball and you said to him to think about it. And he said he wasn’t going to go back and ask you again.'”

So, after playing scout team quarterback through the middle of October, Ward switched gears and joined the basketball team, immediately adding a unique personality to the group.

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3:29

The start of Charlie Ward’s legendary Seminole basketball career

Take a look at Charlie Ward’s Seminole career, from his early days as FSU’s punter to his prowess on the hardcourt as the basketball team’s point guard.

“We used to call ’em ‘The Saint and the Sinners,'” former Seminoles basketball coach Pat Kennedy said with a laugh.

“Charlie was a saint, and the rest of the guys on the team were the sinners. If [Charlie] gave you a look, they all got very, very scared. It was almost as if there was an angel looking at you.”

Ward didn’t like cursing and still doesn’t to this day. It created a moment early on between him and Kennedy that changed the way Kennedy coached forever.

“The old New York in me, I used to get pretty fiery with some of my pregame and halftime talks,” Kennedy said. “And I gave a pregame talk before a Florida game, and it was a little salty. And so the guys went out on the floor. And Charlie was — I could tell he wasn’t comfortable with something.

“So I said, ‘Charlie, what’s up?’ He said, ‘Coach, you know, Coach Bowden doesn’t use that kind of language, and he gets us to play awfully hard as well.’ So from that point on I really — and then my whole coaching staff, because I had a few New York guys with me — we all cut back on the salty language.”

Ward said, “I was a big stickler for just being respectful. I wasn’t a curser. So I would share my displeasure with coaches, players, and they knew it.”

Sam Cassell, a member of the basketball team, still can’t talk about it without laughing. “You don’t curse him now. You curse around him too much and he just looks at you like, ‘Come on.’ He just shook his head like, ‘Wow, you can’t express it some other way?'” Cassell said with a cackle.

“We laughed at it. He was Charlie Ward. He was just Charlie Ward around us. You respect it because that’s who he was.”

For all of the ways Ward was orchestrating better behavior off the court, he was putting in just as much work on it. He added a different dynamic to the team as a distributor and defensive stopper, allowing scorers such as Cassell and Bob Sura to thrive.

“My job was to get those other guys the ball,” Ward said. “I shot, but I was a football guy. So me coming out there just jacking up shots wasn’t going to help us be productive.”

But when Ward did focus on scoring, he made it count. One of the biggest shots of his basketball career at FSU came in the Metro Conference championship against Louisville in 1991 — a 3-pointer to send Florida State to the NCAA tournament. The Seminoles would reach the second round before losing to second-seeded Indiana.

As Ward continued to improve as a basketball player, the stakes got higher. Florida State started playing in the ACC in the 1991-92 season, and its first conference game was at North Carolina. Ward scored 18 points, upsetting the Tar Heels 86-74 in front of what Cassell infamously called a “wine and cheese” crowd.

“After the game, Dean Smith grabbed him and said, ‘Son, you need to give up football,'” Kennedy said. Florida State would end up making the Sweet 16 that season, losing again to Indiana, which ended up in the Final Four.

The following season, as Ward emerged as a legitimate two-sport standout, his star continued to grow.

Kennedy recalled, “We’re starting one of our early home basketball games and my sports information director says, ‘Coach, somebody’s asking for two tickets for tonight, and they said it was Spike Lee.’ And we got the phone number, we call back and it was, in fact, Spike Lee.”

Lee attended a handful of games during that 1992-93 season, wearing a No. 17 Florida State football jersey. In a game against Georgia Tech in Atlanta, during which Ward and Yellow Jackets star Travis Best went back and forth, Ward hit a layup to win the game 83-82.

“Spike was sitting under the basket in the first row,” Kennedy said. “Spike gets up, runs out onto the court with his 17 jersey and picks Charlie up, and he’s carrying Charlie around.”

The Seminoles finished that season having made the Elite Eight as a No. 3 seed, losing to No. 1 seed Kentucky.

With Ward as point guard, Florida State made three straight NCAA appearances, helping the Seminoles develop a reputation beyond football.

“He just grew and grew on us to where he became a pro, and not everyone thought he was a professional basketball player, obviously, when he first came in,” Kennedy said. “That’s the greatness of the story, you know?”

“I mean, no one ever, ever thought Charlie was going to be a professional basketball player.”


CHARLIE WARD’S TURN as Florida State’s starting quarterback arrived in 1992, when he made history as the school’s first Black player at the position.

His recruitment was pushed by Wayne McDuffie, Bowden’s offensive coordinator from 1983 to 1990.

“There had to be some politicking because Coach Bowden wasn’t sold on me,” Ward said, “Because he hadn’t played a Black quarterback, one. And two, he thought that his system didn’t fit me because he felt like I was a runner, and he wanted someone that was going to drop back and pass the football. But that’s all he knew, and he didn’t know anything different because that’s all he had. … [McDuffie] was very demonstrative in his approach to give me enough courage and they took a chance on me as a dual-threat quarterback.”

He was no finished product during the early portion of his time as QB1, and his lack of experience was evident. And as FSU’s first Black quarterback, he said, “I’m glad we didn’t have social media.”

“If you don’t have [experience], you got to go through the struggles of it. The struggles to get there,” he said. When he finally became the starter, in his fourth year at the school, “I had no meaningful quarterback snaps like what I was getting ready to go into.”

In his first start, the 1992 season opener, Ward threw four interceptions in a 48-21 win over Duke. In his second, he threw another three picks in a 24-20 win at Clemson. He was getting benched for an occasional series (or more) for Danny Kanell, a freshman, before going back in and finishing games.

“He was matching those [interceptions] with touchdowns and with great runs, and so we kind of felt like we had something really good there,” co-offensive coordinator Brad Scott said. “But there is a price to pay for experience and Charlie had to kind of go through that.”

“Coach Bowden had a meeting with our offensive staff,” Richt said. “He says, ‘Charlie’s throwing a lot of interceptions. Is that your fault?’ and he’s looking at Brad Scott. And he looked at me, he goes, ‘Is it your fault?’ And he goes, ‘Or is it my fault?’ And we’re like, ‘It’s our fault. We’ll get it fixed.'”

Richt had a conversation with Ward, telling him the school record for interceptions was 17. He told Ward, “Charlie, when you hit No. 16, you’re not going to break the school record because you’re not going to play anymore,” Richt recalled with a laugh.

Everything changed when FSU played Georgia Tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta. In a nationally televised game, Ward was again benched for Kanell after throwing three interceptions.

“The only option was me,” Kanell said. “And I wasn’t ready. But he was playing that poorly where they had to get him off the field. … I was like, barely just making sure I could hand the ball off. The offense was pared down, we couldn’t do any of the things that we could do with Charlie. And so I would go in for a series or two, and Charlie would come back in and he was like a different person.”

When Ward reentered these games, Florida State essentially went into its two-minute offense — with Ward in the shotgun, no-huddle, four wideouts and one running back — instead of its typical I-formation, toss-sweep, play-action attack.

Georgia Tech led 21-7 with 14:27 remaining in the game. Ward engineered the comeback, as Florida State once again went up-tempo. He completed 14 of his final 19 passes for 137 yards. The realization that a permanent change was needed was undeniable.

Richt said, “Of course of all people, my wife goes, ‘Charlie seems to do better out of the shotgun. You might think about starting a game that way.'”

Florida State did just that two weeks later against Maryland and won 69-21. The week after that brought a 70-7 win over Tulane. Then a 45-24 win over Florida, followed by a 27-14 Orange Bowl win over Nebraska.

“That’s kind of the birth of the fast-break offense,” Richt said. “The offseason between ’92 and ’93, we designed the entire offense around the no-huddle.”

“That’s when you knew that Charlie had figured something out,” Floyd said.


THE OVERWHELMING CHOICE as No. 1 in the preseason polls, Florida State was an unstoppable force during the first five weeks of the 1993 season. In wins against Kansas, Duke, No. 21 Clemson, No. 13 North Carolina and Georgia Tech, the Seminoles outscored their opponents 228-14.

Ward’s recollection of that stretch was not about what they did offensively, but rather the heroics of their defense. In their first game against Kansas, Florida State’s defense had a 12-play goal-line stand that team members and fans still talk about. (The Seminoles’ offense would follow with a 99-yard drive for a score.)

In Week 6, FSU got over the hump against No. 3 Miami after losses the previous three seasons, including Wide Right I in 1991 and Wide Right II in 1992.

After wins over No. 15 Virginia, Wake Forest and Maryland, the 9-0 Seminoles traveled to South Bend to take on No. 2 Notre Dame in a “Game of the Century” on NBC, with ESPN’s “College GameDay” in town for the first time in the show’s history. Ward had missed the previous week because of a bruised clavicle and was excited for the opportunity.

But it wasn’t the Seminoles’ night. Offensively, they weren’t as explosive as they had been in previous weeks, and their defense played out of character in the second quarter, allowing the Irish to build a 21-7 cushion.

Despite this, Ward and FSU had a chance at the end. Down 31-24, Ward marched the offense toward Notre Dame’s Touchdown Jesus, down to the Irish 14-yard line for one more shot. Ward’s pass was batted down in the end zone, and the Irish held on.

While it felt like Florida State’s national title hopes died in South Bend that night, it got a second wind the following Saturday.

As the Seminoles were in Burt Reynolds Hall preparing to play NC State in a matter of hours, everything changed.

“Right before it was time for us to walk down,” Ward said, “they started yelling that Boston College is lining up to kick the game-winning field goal [against Notre Dame].”

That prompted everyone to crowd around a TV wherever they could.

“[The kick] goes through, and that is when the whole dorm erupted,” Ward said.

Richt recalled chaos on Tennessee Street, which is essentially the north border of the Florida State campus. “Everybody started jumping out of their cars and dancing around the place because we had a chance to play for the national championship again,” he said.

The players were late getting to the locker room, but it didn’t matter. A team that was already primed to channel its energy had extra juice after the Irish were upset.

“That helped refocus us a little bit more,” Ward said. “A reason why we didn’t lose very many games was our mentality switch after a loss. We just wanted to make sure somebody paid the next week if we lost a game. Unfortunately it was North Carolina State that was on the back end of it.”

The Wolfpack got trounced 62-7.

At that point, the only thing standing between Florida State, Charlie Ward and Bobby Bowden and a shot at their first national championship was No. 7 Florida. The Gators hadn’t lost a home game since 1989, when Florida State knocked them off 24-17 during Ward’s freshman season.

The Seminoles came out strong, and took a 27-7 lead into the fourth quarter, but the Gators pulled within 27-21 with just under six minutes to go. “And now it’s as loud as I don’t know what in that stadium,” Floyd said.

Despite both the game and national championship hopes potentially slipping from the Seminoles’ grasp, Floyd was comforted amid the chaos.

“What I love is that you can look in [Ward’s] eyes and tell that you always had a chance to win,” he said. “He didn’t have to say a word, you can just look at his eyes.”

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2:58

The game that secured the Heisman for Charlie Ward

In a must-win road test, Charlie Ward and the Seminoles fight off the Gators and boast his status for the Heisman Trophy.

Facing a third-and-10 from the Seminoles’ 21-yard line, Ward flicked the ball to his checkdown option as his protection broke down. Running back Warrick Dunn caught it just beyond the 30. Wideout Tamarick Vanover threw the last-needed block on Florida cornerback Anthone Lott, and Dunn galloped into the end zone to put the game away 33-21.

“It went from the loudest to the quietest in five seconds,” Ward said.

In what is still one of the biggest moments in Florida State football history, Ward connected with his roommate, Dunn, whom he had been helping get through the most difficult time of his life.

Dunn’s mother, Betty Smothers, was a police officer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and had been killed in the line of duty Jan. 7, 1993, when Dunn was just 18.

Former Washington Commanders quarterback Doug Williams was a family friend of Smothers, and wanted to make sure Dunn was being looked after. So he contacted Ward, who wore the No. 17 because of Williams.

“I didn’t have a roommate at the time,” Ward said. “And so there was no big issue for me to room with a freshman that was coming in, and also someone — one of my heroes — asked me to take care of him.

“He had a lot of stuff going on, a lot of stuff he had to process. And so, just being there for him was what he needed. We were made to be roommates in a lot of ways.”

Dunn was grateful to have Ward as a friend.

“We had deep conversations. And he was there to listen to me,” Dunn said. “Those are moments that I can never take back. Always be thankful for. He will always be my big brother.

“I just think us having a connection every day together, being roommates and so forth that, on that play, he believed in me. And I think that just signifies the impact our relationship had during that whole [year].”

As the ABC broadcast showed Ward running down the field to celebrate with Dunn, analyst Bob Griese said, “Give it to Charlie, go ahead,” referring to the Heisman Trophy. Legendary play-by-play man Keith Jackson responded, “You can call off your party and just mail it to him.”

Fifteen days later, in New York, Ward was announced as the 59th winner of the award, with a margin of victory of 1,622 points — second at the time only to O.J. Simpson’s 1,750-point win in 1968, when more ballots were distributed.

The attention of winning the Heisman made the 2½-week lead-up to the national championship game against Nebraska more difficult for Ward.

“I remember the line at his dorm room was like 20 or 30 players deep with memorabilia, with balls, Florida State gear, to have him sign because he’s the Heisman Trophy winner,” Kanell said. “That stuff normally didn’t happen, and we had first-round draft picks. We had guys who were going to play in the NFL.”

Dunn recalled other people coming to their door with requests. “‘Can I get his autograph? Can I get this?’ Charlie’s not here. Charlie’s not here. Charlie’s not here.” Eventually, Dunn put a sign on the door that read, “CHARLIE AIN’T HERE.”

Florida State had a celebration for Ward in Doak Campbell Stadium, where his No. 17 jersey was retired.

“That might have been the one time I saw him uncomfortable and truly not at peace with any situation,” Kanell said.

“I was always uncomfortable with the spotlight,” Ward said. “The night of the celebration, where they retired my jersey, grateful. But one thing I started to learn and understand was, you know, I was a man of faith, God was putting me in certain positions for a reason.”

When the national title game against the Cornhuskers finally arrived, the Seminoles were off the majority of the night.

“They played good defense,” Ward said. “And they knew everything we were doing or trying to do. They disrupted our routes … and they had a game plan.

“Their game plan was to hit. And so whether it was during a play or after the play, it didn’t matter. They actually took penalties because they were trying to send a message.

“But, you know, it didn’t deter me from being whoever because I wouldn’t get out of character in any form or fashion.”

After Nebraska’s Byron Bennett knocked through a 27-yard field goal to give the Huskers a 16-15 lead in the fourth quarter, Ward was given an opportunity with 1:16 remaining.

“There’s a TV cut where Nebraska goes down and scores,” Floyd said. “And [Ward’s] on the sideline, warming up, you know, that cool and calm Charlie demeanor. And he’s looking out on the field like, ‘Oh, they scored?’ Then he just starts throwing the ball again, warming up. So that’s TV seeing it. But me seeing it live, I’m looking at Charlie, and I’m looking in his eyes and I know we got a chance to win this thing.

“Man, we got Charlie Ward.”

Florida State’s offense took over on its 35-yard line after the Huskers’ kickoff went out of bounds. On one big play, Ward found Dunn for a 21-yard catch, then 15 yards were tacked on for a Nebraska late hit.

Ward led FSU to the Nebraska 3-yard line, where the Huskers’ defense held, but Scott Bentley hit the field goal to give Florida State an 18-16 lead with 21 seconds left. After a few more tense moments, including a premature Gatorade bath for Bowden, a last-ditch field goal try by Nebraska went wide left and the Seminoles had their championship.

“It was kind of surreal in the sense that the thing that we set out to do, we were able to accomplish,” Ward said. “And there’s no better feeling than when you prepare for a test, and you go in and ace the test.”

After the conclusion of the 1993 football and 1993-94 basketball seasons, it was time for Ward to take his athletic career to the next level. He wouldn’t say whether he wanted to go pro in football or basketball, wanting to keep his options open.

During the NFL draft that April, Ward was at the home he grew up in. After not hearing his name called in the first or second rounds, Willard recalls him getting up.

“He went outside, got that basketball, and started shooting,” she said.

Charlie Sr. added, “He said, ‘I better go work on my basketball skills.'”

The Kansas City Chiefs called Ward during the fifth round the next day. Ward said they wanted him to be Joe Montana’s backup, then take the reins once Montana retired.

“I told them I couldn’t guarantee that I would come to camp if I got drafted in the fifth round. Because if I got drafted in the first round in the NBA, I’m going there,” he said. “I was just being honest with them, so they didn’t draft me.”

In a telephone interview on ESPN2 midway through the seventh round, Ward said, “Basketball and the Canadian [Football] League are now a big option. A lot of teams in the NBA are telling me I have to concentrate on one sport. Maybe I will. Some [NFL] teams might have been interested, but they weren’t willing to take a chance. Maybe I’ll be the first Heisman winner that plays in the NBA.”

Ward wasn’t selected in the NFL draft, and that June was taken by the New York Knicks with the 26th pick of the NBA draft. He had a 12-year pro career, the first Heisman winner to play in the NBA.


PEOPLE VISITING THE Thomas County Public Library want to know if Charlie Ward’s Heisman Trophy is the real thing.

They’re often wearing some sort of Florida State apparel, trying to look as natural and casual as possible, just to get a peek at a piece of history. But the legend of Charlie Ward, and the hard evidence of one of his greatest two-way college stars of the past 50 years, is well known by everybody in Thomasville.

If you’re visiting the library to see the Heisman, everybody working inside can tell from the moment you walk in the door.

The children’s section of a public library certainly isn’t where one expects to find one of the most prestigious trophies in all of sports. But it ended up being the best fit for the Ward family, and fitting for who Ward is as a person.

Willard Ward was a librarian herself. The library wanted to put the trophy on display for a time, and of course, the Wards were happy to oblige. So the trophy was taken off its shelf at the Wards’ home and taken to the library.

Then the Wards decided it should stay there.

“At that time, we had no alarm system, and the library did,” Willard says. “And it just dawned on me, we would have more people that would go see it down there.”

Senior laughs, “And we’d have to keep this house too clean if we had it. And we just normal folks.”

So in a small town — Thomasville, Georgia — sits one of the 86 Heisman Trophy awards. Library employees say Charlie Sr. has been known to sit in the same seat to the right of the circulation desk to enjoy his morning coffee and read the newspaper, his son’s Heisman on display a short stroll away.

“Every award, everyone’s not going to be able to win. But what they can strive to do is have a sense of achievement,” says Ward, who is a motivational speaker and has been a high school football or basketball coach since 2007. “So whatever that achievement may be, it may be reading five books during the summer, and then you get a reward for that, whatever that reward may be.

“And so it’s not so much about the Heisman, but it’s about the process and the journey of it. We all have those processes and journeys to meet our goals. That is something we can all strive to do. And that’s what it’s really symbolic of.”

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Midseason grades for all 30 MLB teams: ‘A’ is for Astros, ‘F’ is for …?

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Midseason grades for all 30 MLB teams: 'A' is for Astros, 'F' is for ...?

We’re past due to hand out some midseason grades, so let’s hand out some midseason grades.

As we pass the 90-game mark in the 2025 MLB season, my team of the first half isn’t the well-rounded Detroit Tigers, who do get our highest grade for owning MLB’s best record, or the explosive Chicago Cubs or Shohei Ohtani‘s Los Angeles Dodgers, but a team most baseball fans love to hate: the Houston Astros. They lost their two best players from last season and their best hitter has been injured — and they’re playing their best baseball since they won the 2022 World Series.

Let’s get to the grades. As always, we’re grading off preseason expectations, factoring in win-loss record and quality of performance, while looking at other positive performances and injuries.

Jump to a team:

AL East: BAL | BOS | NYY | TB | TOR
AL Central: CHW | CLE | DET | KC | MIN
AL West: ATH | HOU | LAA | SEA | TEX

NL East: ATL | MIA | NYM | PHI | WSH
NL Central: CHC | CIN | MIL | PIT | STL
NL West: ARI | COL | LAD | SD | SF

Tarik Skubal is obviously the headline act, but the Tigers are winning with impressive depth across the entire roster.

Javier Baez is putting together a remarkable comeback season after a couple of abysmal years and will become the first player to start an All-Star Game at both shortstop and in the outfield. Former No. 1 overall picks Casey Mize and Spencer Torkelson have put together their own comeback stories, while Riley Greene has matured into one of the game’s top power hitters.

Given their deep well of prospects and contributors at the MLB level, no team is better positioned than the Tigers to add significant help at the trade deadline.


I heard someone refer to them as the Zombie Astros, which feels apropos. Alex Bregman left as a free agent, they traded Kyle Tucker, Yordan Alvarez has been injured and has just three home runs, and the Jose Altuve experiment in left field predictably fizzled.

But here they are, fighting for the best record in the majors and holding a comfortable lead in the AL West. They’re getting star turns from Hunter Brown, Framber Valdez and Jeremy Pena, while the risky decision to start Cam Smith in the majors with very little minor league experience has paid off, as he has now become their cleanup hitter.

If we ignore the COVID-19 season, the Astros look on their way to an eighth straight division title.


This could be at least a half-grade higher based on everything that has gone right: Pete Crow-Armstrong‘s attention-grabbing breakout, Tucker doing everything expected after the big trade, Seiya Suzuki‘s monster power numbers and Matthew Boyd‘s All-Star turn in the rotation. The Cubs are on pace for their most wins since their World Series title season in 2016.

There have been a few hiccups, however, especially in the rotation with Justin Steele‘s season-ending injury and Ben Brown‘s inconsistency, plus rookie third baseman Matt Shaw has scuffled, and the bench has been weak aside from their backup catchers.

Still, this is a powerhouse lineup, and the Cubs will seek to improve their rotation at the deadline.


They just keep winning of late, going from 25-27 and seven games behind the Yankees on May 25 to taking over first place from the slumping Bronx Bombers, a remarkable turnaround over just 36 games. They went 27-9 over a 36-game stretch ending with their eighth win in a row on Sunday.

George Springer‘s recent surge has been fun to watch, a reminder of how good he was at his peak, and Addison Barger has been mashing over the past two months.

Some of the stats don’t add up to the Blue Jays being this good — they’ve barely outscored their opponents — but there might be more offense in the tank from the likes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a healthy Anthony Santander, and the bullpen, a soft spot, is the easiest area to upgrade.


Their success is best summed up by the fact that Freddy Peralta is their lone All-Star, but they have a whole bunch of players who have contributed between 1 and 2 WAR.

Brandon Woodruff looked good Sunday in his first start in nearly two years, so that could be a huge boost for the second half.

I’m curious to see how Jackson Chourio performs as well. While his counting stats — extra-base hits, RBIs — are fine, his triple-slash line remains below last season, especially his OBP. He had a huge second half in 2024 (.310/.363/.552), and if he does that again, the Brewers could find themselves back in the postseason for the seventh time in eight seasons.


The Rays started off slow, with a losing record through the end of April, but then went 33-22 in May and June to claw back into the AL East race — as the Rays usually do, last year being the recent exception.

Two key performers have been All-Star third baseman Junior Caminero, who has a chance to become just the third player to hit 40 home runs in his age-21 season, and All-Star first baseman Jonathan Aranda.

Due to the league wanting the Rays to play more home games early in the season, the July and August slate will be very road-heavy, so we’ll see how the Rays adapt to a difficult two-month stretch, especially since their pitching isn’t quite as deep as it has been in other seasons.


No, they’re not going to be the greatest team of all time. But they might win 100 games — even though Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki, their huge offseason acquisitions, have combined for just two wins in 10 starts.

The lineup, of course, has been terrific, with Ohtani leading the NL in several categories and Will Smith leading the batting race. By wRC+, it’s been the best offense in Dodgers history.

If they can get some combo of Snell, Sasaki and Tyler Glasnow healthy, plus Ohtani eventually ramped up to a bigger workload on the mound, the Dodgers still loom as World Series favorites.


They are on pace for 95 wins, mainly on the strength of Zack Wheeler, Ranger Suarez and Cristopher Sanchez, who are a combined 23-7 with 11.8 WAR. Jesus Luzardo‘s ERA is bloated due to that two-start stretch when he allowed 20 runs, but he has otherwise been solid as well.

But, overall, it hasn’t always been the smoothest of treks. The bullpen has imploded a few times and the offense has lacked power aside from Kyle Schwarber. Bryce Harper is back after missing three weeks, and they need to get his bat going. Look for some bullpen additions at the trade deadline — and perhaps an outfielder as well.


The Cardinals have been a minor surprise — perhaps even to the Cardinals themselves. St. Louis was viewing this as a rebuilding year of sorts — not that the Cardinals ever hit rock bottom and start completely over. They had a hot May, winning 12 of 13 at one point, but the offense has been fading of late, with those three straight shutout losses to Pittsburgh and six shutout losses since June 25.

The starting rotation doesn’t generate a lot of swing and miss, with both Erick Fedde and Miles Mikolas seeing their ERAs starting to climb. Brendan Donovan is the team’s only All-Star rep, and that kind of sums up this team: solid but without any star power. That might foretell a second-half fade.


All-Star starting pitchers Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, plus a dominant bullpen, have led the way, although after starting 12-4, the Giants have basically been a .500 team for close to three months now. Rafael Devers hasn’t yet ignited the offense since coming over from Boston, and the Giants have lost four 1-0 games.

These final three games at home against the Dodgers before the All-Star break will be a crucial series, as Los Angeles has slowly pulled away in the NL West.


This was an “A-plus” through June 12, when the Mets were 45-24 and owned the best record in baseball, even though Juan Soto hadn’t gotten hot. Soto finally got going in June, but the pitching collapsed, and the Mets went through a disastrous 1-10 stretch.

The rotation injuries have piled up, exacerbating the lack of bullpen depth. Recent games have been started by Justin Hagenman (who had a 6.21 ERA in Triple-A), journeyman reliever Chris Devenski, Paul Blackburn (7.71 ERA) and Frankie Montas, who has had to start even though he’s clearly not throwing the ball well. The Mets need to get the rotation healthy, but also could use more offense from Mark Vientos and their catchers (Francisco Alvarez was demoted to Triple-A).


At times it has felt like Cal Raleigh has been a one-man team with his record-breaking first half. But he will be joined on the All-Star squad by starting pitcher Bryan Woo, closer Andres Munoz and center fielder Julio Rodriguez, who made it on the strength of his defense, as his offense has been a disappointment.

The offense has been one of the best in the majors on the road, but the rotation has been nowhere near as effective as the past couple of seasons, with George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller all missing time with injuries. They just shut out the Pirates three games in a row, so maybe that will get the rotation on a roll.


They’re just out of the wild-card picture while hanging around .500, so we give them a decent grade since that exceeds preseason expectations. It feels like a little bit of a mirage given their run differential — their record in one-run games (good) versus their record in blowout games (not good) — and various holes across the lineup and pitching staff.

But they’ve done two things to keep them in the race. One, they hit a lot of home runs. Two, they’re the only team in the majors to use just five starting pitchers. The rotation hasn’t been stellar, but it’s been stable.


The Padres are probably fortunate to be where they are, given some of their issues. As expected, the offensive depth has been a problem.

Not as expected, Dylan Cease has struggled while Michael King‘s injury after a strong start has left them without last year’s dynamic 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation (although Nick Pivetta has been one of the best signings of the offseason). Yu Darvish just made his season debut Monday, so hopefully he’ll provide a lift.

The Padres haven’t played well against the better teams, including a 2-5 record against the Dodgers, but they did clean up against the Athletics, Rockies and Pirates, going 16-2 against those three teams.


For now, the Reds are stuck in neutral. Leave out 2022, when they lost 100 games, and it’s otherwise been a string of .500-ish seasons: 31-29 in 2020, 83-79 in 2021, 82-80 in 2023, 77-85 in 2024 and now a similar record so far in 2025.

The hope was that Terry Francona would be a difference-maker. Maybe that will play out down the stretch, but the best hope is to get the rotation clicking on all cylinders at the same time. That means Andrew Abbott continuing his breakout performance, plus getting Hunter Greene healthy again and rookie Chase Burns to live up to the hype after a couple of shaky outings following an impressive MLB debut.

Throw in Nick Lodolo and solid Nick Martinez and Brady Singer, and this group can be good enough to pitch the Reds to their first full-season playoff appearance since 2013.


The Yankees have hit their annual midseason swoon — which has been subject to much intense analysis from their disgruntled fans — and that opening weekend sweep of the Brewers, when the Yankees’ torpedo bats were the big story in baseball, now seems long ago.

Going from seven up to three back in such a short time is a disaster — but not disastrous. Nonetheless, the Yankees will have to do some hard-core self-evaluation heading to the trade deadline.

The offense wasn’t going to be as good as it was in April, when Paul Goldschmidt, Trent Grisham and Ben Rice were all playing over their heads. So, do they need a hitter? Or with Clarke Schmidt now likely joining Gerrit Cole as a Tommy John casualty, do they need a starting pitcher? Or both?


From the book of “things we didn’t expect,” page 547: The Marlins are averaging more runs per game than the Orioles, Padres, Braves and Rangers, to name a few teams. They’re averaging almost as many runs per game as the Mets, and last time we checked, the Marlins weren’t the team to give Soto $765 million.

An eight-game winning streak at the end of June has the Marlins going toe-to-toe with the Braves for third place in the NL East even though the starting rotation has been a mess, with Sandy Alcantara on track to become just the fourth qualified pitcher with an ERA over 7.00.


Heading into the season, I thought that if any team was going to challenge the Dodgers in the NL West, it would be the Diamondbacks. The offense has once again been one of the best in the majors, but the pitching issues have been painful.

After the aggressive move to sign Corbin Burnes, he went down with Tommy John surgery after 11 starts. Meanwhile, Zac Gallen, Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt each have an ERA on the wrong side of 5.00. Rodriguez was better in June before a shellacking on July 4, while Gallen remains homer-prone, so it’s hard to tell if improvement is on the horizon. Their playoff odds are hovering just under 20%, so there’s a chance, but they need to get red-hot like they did last July and August.


It feels like it has been more soap opera than baseball season in Boston, with the Devers drama finally ending with the shocking trade with the Giants.

If you give added weight that this is the Red Sox, a team that should be operating with the big boys in both budget and aspirations and instead seemed to only want to dump Devers’ contract, then feel free to lower this grade a couple of notches, even if the Red Sox are close in the wild-card standings.

On the field, the heralded rookie trio of Kristian Campbell, Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer hasn’t exactly clicked, with Campbell returning to the minors after posting a .902 OPS in April. A big test will come out of the All-Star break, when they play the Cubs, Phillies, Dodgers, Twins and Astros in a tough 15-game stretch.


After last season’s surprise playoff appearance, it’s been a frustrating 2025 — although I’m not sure this result is necessarily a surprise.

There were concerns about the offense heading into the season and those concerns have proven correct. They were getting no production from their outfield, so they rushed Jac Caglianone to the majors to much hype, but he has struggled and might need a reset back in Triple-A. Even Bobby Witt Jr., as good as he has been (on pace for 7.5 WAR), has seen his OPS drop 140 points.

On the bright side, Kris Bubic emerged as an All-Star starter and Noah Cameron has filled in nicely for the injured Cole Ragans, so maybe they trade a starter for some offense.


Coming off a catastrophic 2024 season, nobody was expecting anything from the White Sox. Indeed, another 121-loss season loomed as a possibility. While they’re on pace to lose 100 again, they’ve at least played more competitive baseball thanks to their pitching.

Rookie starters Shane Smith and Sean Burke have shown promise, while rookie position players Kyle Teel, Edgar Quero and now Colson Montgomery are getting their initial taste of the majors.

There has been the mix of calamity: Luis Robert Jr. has been unproductive and is probably now untradable, and former No. 3 overall pick Andrew Vaughn hit .189 and was traded to the Brewers.


The Twins are one organization that might like a do-over of the past five seasons. It feels like they’ve had the most talent in the division, but all they’ve done is squeeze out one soft division title in 2023. Now, the Tigers have passed them in talent and other factors, such as payroll flexibility.

There’s still time for the Twins to turn things around in 2025, but outside of that wonderful 13-game winning streak, they haven’t played winning baseball.


Overall, it’s been yet another bad season, despite Paul Skenes‘ brilliance. Really, do we talk enough about him? Yes, we do talk about him, but he has a 1.95 ERA through his first 42 career starts. Incredible.

Here’s an amazing thing about baseball. The Pirates are not a good team, but they recently put together one of the best six-game stretches in history. That’s not stretching the description. First, they swept the Mets — a good team — by scores of 9-1, 9-2 and 12-1. Then they swept the Cardinals — a good team — with three shutouts, 7-0, 1-0 and 5-0. They became the first team since at least 1901 to score 43 runs or more and allow four runs or fewer in a six-game stretch. And then they promptly got shut out three games in a row, making them the first to win three straight shutouts and then lose three straight shutouts.


Eighteen of our 28 voters picked them to win the AL West before the season, but it’s looking more and more like the 2023 World Series might be a stone-cold fluke in the middle of a string of losing seasons. That year, nearly everyone in the lineup had a career year at the plate, and the pitching got hot at the right time.

This year’s Rangers, though, have struggled to score runs, and while some have pointed to the offensive environment at Globe Life Field, they’re near the bottom in road OPS as well. It’s been fun seeing Jacob deGrom back at a dominating level, and Nathan Eovaldi should have been an All-Star.

Put it this way: If the Rangers can somehow squeeze into the postseason, you don’t want to face the Rangers in a short series. Indeed, if any team looms as an October upset special, it might be the Rangers.


The Nationals received superlative first-half performances from James Wood and MacKenzie Gore, while CJ Abrams is on the way to his best season. But there remains a lack of overall organizational progress, which finally led to the firings on Sunday of longtime GM Mike Rizzo and longtime manager Dave Martinez. A 7-19 record in June sealed their fate, as the rotation has been bad and the bullpen arguably the worst in baseball.

Until the Nationals figure out how to improve their pitching — or, better yet, find an owner who wants to win — they will be stuck going nowhere.


That fell apart in a hurry. Sunday’s loss was Cleveland’s 10th in a row, a stretch that remarkably included five shutouts. Indeed, the Guardians have now been shut out 11 times; the franchise record in the post-dead-ball-era (since 1920) is 20 shutouts in 1968.

There’s nothing worse than watching a team that can’t score runs, so that tells you how exciting the Guardians have been. Last year, the Guardians hit exceptionally well with runners in scoring position, keeping afloat what was otherwise a mediocre offense. That hasn’t happened in 2025 (trading Josh Naylor didn’t help either). Throw in some predictable regression from the bullpen, and this season looks lost.


We can’t give this a complete failing grade due to the emergence of All-Star shortstop Jacob Wilson (the Athletics’ first All-Star starter since Josh Donaldson in 2014) and slugging first baseman Nick Kurtz, who have a chance to finish 1-2 in the Rookie of the Year voting. Plus, we have Denzel Clarke‘s circus catches in center field.

But otherwise? Ugh. The Sacramento gamble already looks like a disaster, three months into a three-year stay. The team is drawing well below Sutter Health Park’s 14,000-seat capacity, with many recent games drawing under 10,000 fans. Luis Severino bashed the small crowds and the lack of air-conditioning.

The A’s had a groundbreaking ceremony for their new park in Vegas, renting heavy construction equipment as background props. Maybe they should have spent that money on more pitching help.


Based on preseason expectations, the Braves have clearly been the biggest disappointment in the National League — fighting the Orioles for most disappointing overall.

What’s gone wrong? They haven’t scored runs, as the offense continues its remarkable fade from a record-setting performance just two seasons ago. The collapses of Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies lead the way, with lack of production at shortstop and left field playing a big role as well. Closer Raisel Iglesias has struggled, and the team is 11-22 in one-run games. Spencer Strider hasn’t yet reached his pre-injury level and Reynaldo Lopez made just one start before going down.

The Braves haven’t missed the playoffs since 2017, but that run is clearly in jeopardy.


The Orioles have a similar record to the Braves but have played much worse, including losses of 24-2, 19-5, 15-3 and two separate 9-0 shutouts.

They will spend the trade deadline dealing away as many of their impending free agents as possible, and then do a lot of soul-searching heading into the offseason. After making the playoffs in 2023 and 2024, will this season just be a blip? While the pitching struggles aren’t necessarily a big surprise, what has happened to the offense? Are some of their young players prospects or suspects?


After two months of Cleveland Spiders-level baseball, it would be easy to make fun of the Rockies. Especially since they recently announced Walker Monfort — son of the owner — was promoted to executive VP and will replace outgoing president and COO Greg Feasel.

On the other hand, the Rockies are doing something right: They just drew 121,000 for a three-game series against the White Sox.

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Yankees DFA LeMahieu after ‘hard conversations’

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Yankees DFA LeMahieu after 'hard conversations'

NEW YORK — The Yankees designated two-time batting champion DJ LeMahieu for assignment Wednesday, presumably ending the infielder’s seven-year tenure with the organization despite being owed $22 million through next season.

“Tough decisions,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. “In the end, it ultimately comes down to how this roster sits and what’s best. You want to provide your manager with enough chess moves to deal with on a day-in and day-out basis in-game.”

Manager Aaron Boone explained that the move resulted from “an evolving conversation” in recent days that included multiple meetings with LeMahieu, a respected veteran in the Yankees’ clubhouse.

It comes a day after Boone announced that Jazz Chisholm Jr. would shift back to playing second base every day from third base, bumping LeMahieu from the team’s everyday second baseman to a bench role. Boone acknowledged LeMahieu took the demotion “not necessarily great” but emphasized that LeMahieu did not ask for his release.

“It’s been a tough couple of days,” Boone said. “Some hard conversations. And then ultimately coming to this decision, conclusion, obviously not easy for [who’s] been a great player. He’s done a lot of great things for this organization. So, difficult, but at the end [we] feel like this is the right thing to do at this time.”

LeMahieu, who turns 37 on Sunday, batted .266 with a .674 OPS in 45 games this season after starting the season on the injured list with a strained calf. He has been better since June 1, hitting .310 with a .754 OPS in 96 plate appearances as the Yankees’ primary second baseman, but Cashman ultimately decided the production wasn’t enough to offset his defensive liabilities.

The Yankees signed LeMahieu to a six-year, $90 million contract before the 2021 season — fresh off LeMahieu hitting .364 during the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign to become the first player to win a batting title in both leagues in the modern era — envisioning him as an everyday utility player bouncing between infield positions.

LeMahieu made 36 of his 55 starts last season at third base before going on the injured list in early September with a right hip impingement for the remainder of the year. That injury, according to Cashman, inhibited LeMahieu’s ability to play third base, and led to LeMahieu informing him that he couldn’t physically handle playing the position anymore.

“He was always just sharing that the recovery was really difficult,” Cashman said. “The physical toll on him to tee up at that position was a problem and so therefore that position is a problem.”

The limitation was cemented during spring training when LeMahieu strained his left calf in his first Grapefruit League game playing third base, forcing the Yankees to conclude that LeMahieu was no longer an option at the position. He only played second base in his nine rehab games before making his season debut May 13 as a second baseman with Chisholm on the injured list with an oblique strain.

Three weeks later, Chisholm, who started the season as the team’s everyday second baseman, came off the injured list to play third base despite LeMahieu’s range at second base being glaringly limited. Chisholm, who feels most comfortable at second base, accepted the assignment and returned to third base, a position he picked up last season after the Yankees acquired him from the Miami Marlins at the trade deadline through the World Series.

The calculus changed Sunday when Chisholm, with the Yankees in the midst of a six-game losing streak, told reporters that he hurt his shoulder making a throw from third base three weeks earlier and the injury impacted his throwing. Two days later, Chisholm, who had made three throwing errors in his final four starts at third base, was the Yankees’ starting second baseman again.

With Chisholm, an All-Star this season, stationed at second base, former MVPs Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger entrenched at first base and Giancarlo Stanton occupying the DH spot, playing time would have been sparse for LeMahieu.

Factoring in that the Yankees’ options at third base behind Oswald Peraza, who is also the team’s backup shortstop, would have been catcher J.C. Escarra, Cashman determined that LeMahieu’s presence hampered the team’s flexibility to an extent that would have handcuffed Boone’s in-game decision-making. Infielder Jorbit Vivas, a light-hitting versatile defender, was called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to replace LeMahieu on the roster.

“I wouldn’t say he’s unwilling to still make the attempt and maybe spell over there,” Cashman said of LeMahieu. “But it was something that he was without sharing that was steering clear of to the extent he could.

“Because, again, like anything else, he’s got a lot of pride. He’s a great player. He wants to contribute to the team. He loves this team. He loves this organization. But he felt that was an avenue that was no longer a realistic avenue and that kind of ties our hands a little bit more moving forward.”

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Ramirez, Brown out of ASG; McKinstry among subs

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Ramirez, Brown out of ASG; McKinstry among subs

The Detroit Tigers have the best record in the majors. Now they are tied for having the most All-Stars, too.

Zach McKinstry was picked Wednesday to replace Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena, who has been dealing with a rib injury. The infielder-outfielder will join Detroit second baseman Gleyber Torres and outfielders Javier Baez and Riley Greene — all AL starters — and staff ace Tarik Skubal, who also is among the candidates to start the All-Star Game on Tuesday night in Atlanta.

The five All-Stars for Detroit is tied for the most with the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, who have DH Shohei Ohtani, catcher Will Smith and first baseman Freddie Freeman starting for the NL along with pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Clayton Kershaw.

Yamamoto is scheduled to start Sunday for Los Angeles, so Cincinnati Reds left-hander Andrew Abbott has been picked to replace him.

Meanwhile, Astros third baseman Isaac Paredes was chosen for the AL team in place of starting third baseman Jose Ramírez, the seven-time All-Star who wants to spend the week rehabbing an Achilles injury; Twins right-hander Joe Ryan was selected as the replacement for Astros pitcher Hunter Brown; and Brewers closer Trevor Megill was added to the NL team in place of teammate Freddy Peralta, their scheduled starter for Sunday’s game.

The shuffling of replacements gives the Astros four All-Stars in Paredes, Peña, Brown and pitcher Josh Hader. The Brewers have two in Megill and Peralta. And the Twins have two with Ryan joining two-time All-Star outfielder Byron Buxton.

“This was the goal in the offseason,” said Megill, who struck out Freeman, Andy Pages and Tommy Edman in order in the 10th inning to secure the Brewers’ 3-2 win over the Dodgers on Wednesday. “Just worked my butt off for it, and here we are.”

Ramírez was hit by a pitch in a game against Toronto on June 26 and has struggled at the plate since. The seven-time All-Star was still hitting .299 with 16 homers, 44 RBIs and 24 stolen bases through 87 games for the Guardians.

“Everybody wants to go to the All-Star Game and especially for the support from the fans,” Ramírez said. “But I feel the best thing for the team is to be able to be resting (those) days and be able to contribute to the team in the second half.”

McKinstry, Paredes, Megill and Ryan make six total replacements and 71 players between the two All-Star teams. The other substitution was Rays third baseman Junior Caminero for Boston‘s Alex Bregman, who has been dealing with a strained right quadriceps.

The Tigers have been one of the surprise stories of the first half of the season. After going 86-76 and tying for second in the AL Central last season, they were 59-34 through Tuesday — the best record in the majors.

Along with playing every infield position besides catcher, and both corner outfield spots, McKinstry entered Wednesday hitting .283 with seven homers and 27 RBIs. The 30-year-old needs just three more homers and nine RBIs to set career highs.

Peña, who is hitting a career-best .322 with 11 homers and 40 RBIs in 82 games for the Astros, has been out since June 28 with a fractured rib. He had hoped to return by the All-Star break, but he has not been cleared to resume baseball activity.

Paredes, his teammate, is headed to his second straight All-Star Game in his first season in Houston. He’s hitting a career-best .255 with 19 homers and 49 RBIs for the Astros, who lead the AL West.

“My main focus is to work hard for the team and be able to give the most I can for the team,” Paredes said, “but as you can see now with the results that I’m getting … those results allow me to get to the All-Star Game, so it feels good.”

Megill earned his first career All-Star selection by going 2-2 with a 2.41 ERA, 21 saves and 43 strikeouts in 33⅔ innings.

The 29-year-old Ryan, whose name has surfaced in plenty of trade talk recently, was one of the biggest snubs when the initial All-Star Game rosters were announced. The right-hander is 8-4 with a career-best 2.76 ERA across 18 starts, and he’s struck out 116 against just 21 walks over 104 1/3 innings for the Twins.

“The last couple years, I’ve had really good numbers at voting, then I’ve kind of scuttled the last two outings or so. I can see why optically it might not look as good,” Ryan said. “But putting it together, it was kind of a shock not to be in (this year).

“At the same time, there’s so many good pitchers in the league right now. You’ve just got to hang with them and if you don’t like it, play better. That was kind of the mindset I was trying to shift into, but to get the news and be excited to go, it makes everything kind of go away and you just think about the future and going forward.”

The Associated Press and FIeld Level Media contributed to this report.

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