Connect with us

Published

on

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Bill O’Brien was officially introduced as the new head football coach at Boston College on Thursday in a move athletic director Blake James called a “monumental step.”

BC hasn’t won eight games in a season since 2009, and the hiring of a veteran NFL and college coach like O’Brien offers a harbinger of optimism moving forward. The overarching theme of the day was a return home for O’Brien, who grew up in the area and has a deep family history at Boston College.

“I went into coaching in 1993 when I got out of Brown,” O’Brien said. “I went into coaching [starting] at Brown, and I always dreamed about being the head coach at Boston College.”

O’Brien’s hire resonates locally and nationally with the commitment of Boston College to bring in a coach with such a significant pedigree.

Thursday’s news conference, which was packed with family members, former players and an outsize contingent of local media, stressed local ties, as O’Brien’s arrival at Boston College is a homecoming. He grew up in nearby Andover, graduated high school from St. John’s Prep in nearby Danvers and played at Brown in nearby Providence.

Amid a roll call of family members — and getting choked up when thanking his wife, Colleen — O’Brien expressed gratitude that his coaching journey brought him back to a job he had always wanted.

“My career has taken some twists and turns and taken me down roads I never could have imagined,” he said. “But as I stand here today, I couldn’t be more grateful that the road has finally taken me back home to Boston College.”

O’Brien comes to BC with two successful head-coaching stints on his résumé, as he capably guided Penn State through the grisly years in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sexual assault convictions. He also reached the NFL playoffs four times as the head coach of the Houston Texans.

He also has served as offensive coordinator at Alabama and with the New England Patriots.

O’Brien moved back to the Boston area last year for the job with the Patriots. When he took the offensive coordinator job at Ohio State last month, his family planned to stay in the Boston area, so when the Boston College job came open soon after, it marked a significant opportunity.

“I’m still kind of pinching myself,” Colleen O’Brien, who graduated from BC in 1992, told ESPN. “It doesn’t seem real. The past 10 days were kind of in a whirlwind, but we’ve talked about this place a lot, about this job a lot. And just to see it finally come to fruition, it’s pretty amazing.”

One son, Michael, is a college baseball player at nearby Tufts. Their other son, Jack, has a rare genetic brain malformation known as lissencephaly, which requires significant medical care. Part of the reason the O’Brien family wasn’t following Bill to Columbus was to stay close to nearby Boston Children’s Hospital for the quality of the care available for Jack.

Bill O’Brien thanked Ohio State coach Ryan Day in his remarks, saying he appreciated Day’s “patience and understanding” about O’Brien wanting to return home. The Buckeyes have since hired Chip Kelly as their new offensive coordinator.

O’Brien went 15-9 in his two seasons at Penn State, 2012 and 2013, calmly guiding the school and program through the lowest moment in school history. With the Texans, O’Brien went 52-48 during his tenure from 2014 to 2020, including four playoff bids in the five seasons between 2015 and 2019. He won playoff games in 2016 and 2019.

His tenure at Boston College comes at an interesting moment for the school and the athletic department. BC has 31 Division I sports and has seen only middling success in football and men’s basketball over the past 15 years.

The O’Brien hire looms as a harbinger of commitment from the school, which has upped the staff salary and support pool for O’Brien. One of the signs of those deeper pockets appeared after O’Brien’s news conference Thursday, when longtime friend and strength coach Craig Fitzgerald shook hands and said hello to the assembled.

BC hired Fitzgerald from Florida in the days after O’Brien’s hire.

O’Brien said that Fitzgerald was instrumental in “helping to keep that program together” at Penn State and that he has been appreciative of the financial commitment BC has given him to put together a strong staff. He said BC officials are “making things happen” so far. “We believe in toughness, hard work,” O’Brien said. “We believe in lifting weights. We believe in the science, but we know on the football field, we have to move people, especially up front. We have to tackle people. We have to sometimes run people over.”

James said the school’s investment into football has been led by the college president, Father William P. Leahy.

“It’s an investment that we’re continuing to make, to move up more and more,” James said. “At the same time, it’s consistent with who we are as an institution. So I don’t know where we would fall in the league, but I know Bill feels good about it, and if my coach feels good about it, I feel good about it. And again, we appreciate the institution helping us get to that point.”

O’Brien inherits a solid roster coming off a 7-6 season. That includes returning quarterback Thomas Castellanos — O’Brien has taken to calling him “Tommy” — and a strong offensive line let by veterans Ozzy Trapilo and Drew Kendall.

O’Brien said that the program’s identity will be on the offensive and defensive lines and that they’ll try to channel past generations of BC football, which has been known for dominant line play.

“We will not be out-toughed,” O’Brien said. “We will not be outcompeted.”

Continue Reading

Sports

Schwarber reaches 1,000-hit milestone with HR

Published

on

By

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.

Continue Reading

Sports

A’s Kurtz becomes first rookie with 4-HR game

Published

on

By

A's Kurtz becomes first rookie with 4-HR game

Nick Kurtz of the Athletics became the first rookie in Major League Baseball history to hit four home runs in a game, part of a spectacular Friday night for the 22-year-old that will go down as one of the greatest offensive displays the sport has seen.

Kurtz also matched the MLB record with 19 total bases in the 15-3 triumph against the Astros in Houston.

“It’s arguably the best game I’ve ever watched from a single player,” Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said. “This kid continues to have jaw-dropping moments.”

Kurtz didn’t make an out all night, going deep in the second, sixth, eighth and ninth innings. He also doubled — a 381-foot drive that would have been out in six major league ballparks — and singled on his 6-for-6 night to equal Shawn Green, who had four homers, six hits and 19 total bases for the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 23, 2002 at Milwaukee.

Kurtz and Green are the only players with six hits in a four-homer game.

“It’s hard to think about this day being kind of real, it still feels like a dream,” Kurtz said in a postgame television interview. “So it’s pretty remarkable. I’m kind of speechless. Don’t really know what to say.”

It was the 20th four-homer game in major league history and second this season. Arizona’s Eugenio Suárez did it on April 26 against Atlanta. No player has ever hit five home runs in a game.

Kurtz finished with eight RBIs and six runs scored.

The 6-foot-5, 22-year-old slugger has 23 homers in 66 games this season. The fourth pick in last year’s amateur draft out of Wake Forest, he made his major league debut April 23 and hit his first homer May 13.

He is the youngest player with a four-homer game. Pat Seerey of the Chicago White Sox was 25 when he homered four times on July 18, 1948.

“This is the first time my godparents have been here, so they probably have to come in the rest of the year,” Kurtz said. “My parents flew in today. They’ve been here a bunch, but it was cool to have some family here for that.”

On Friday, Kurtz homered off each of the Astros’ four pitchers: Ryan Gusto, Nick Hernandez, Kaleb Ort and outfielder Cooper Hummel, who worked the ninth with the game out of hand. His longest drive was his third, a 414-foot solo shot off Ort in the eighth.

For his fourth homer, Kurtz hit an opposite-field line drive to the Crawford Boxes in left field on a 77 mph, 2-0 pitch from Hummel. The three-run shot made it 15-2.

“With a positional player on the mound, I’m just trying to move the ball forward,” Kurtz said. “You don’t want to be the guy that strikes out. That’s only my second at bat ever off a positional player, so I don’t know. Just trying to move the ball forward and get something that I can touch, and I hit another one.”

Kurtz’s double in the fourth inning hit just below the yellow line over the visitor’s bullpen, narrowly missing what would have been a fifth homer.

“Everybody was just like, laughing,” A’s shortstop Jacob Wilson said. “How is he doing it? This is not normal. He’s playing a different sport than us right now. It’s not baseball, it’s just T-ball what he’s doing right now.”

With the baseballs from his last two homers inside a plastic bag at his locker, Kurtz signed scorecards from all four A’s broadcasters and a lineup card. One of the scorecards and a bat were bound for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Kurtz has been the best hitter in the majors in July, ranking first in batting average (.425), on-base percentage (.494), slugging percentage (1.082), runs (22), doubles (13), homers (11) and RBIs (27).

He extended his hitting streak to 12 games, and his 23 home runs are the most for an A’s rookie since Yoenis Céspedes in 2012 and fourth most in franchise history.

Kurtz entered Friday as a -325 favorite at ESPN BET to win American League Rookie of the Year. His odds moved to -2500 after Friday night.

Information from ESPN Research and The Associated Press was used in this report.

Continue Reading

Sports

Yankees land 3B, acquire McMahon from Rockies

Published

on

By

Yankees land 3B, acquire McMahon from Rockies

NEW YORK — The Yankees on Friday acquired third baseman Ryan McMahon from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for minor league pitchers Griffin Herring and Josh Grosz, the teams announced.

The Yankees assumed the remainder of McMahon’s contract, which includes approximately $4.5 million for the rest of 2025 and $32 million over the next two seasons, a source told ESPN.

An All-Star last season, McMahon, 30, was batting .217 with 16 home runs, a .717 OPS and a National League-leading 127 strikeouts in 100 games for Colorado in 2025. After a dreadful start to the season through April, he has been significantly better, with a .246 batting average, 14 home runs and an .804 OPS. He hit home runs in the first two games after the All-Star break and another Tuesday. He is on pace to keep his four-year 20-homer streak alive.

Defensively, McMahon is a Gold Glove-caliber third baseman whose four Outs Above Average is third in the majors this season. He joins a Yankees club that has been marred by sloppy defense. On Wednesday, the Yankees committed four errors against the American East-leading Toronto Blue Jays.

“He has had some ups and downs offensively this year,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of McMahon. “I know, over the last month, he’s really swinging the bat well, but he’s a presence, and he can really defend over there at third and has for a number of years. So, we’re excited to get him.”

Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suarez, who began Friday with 36 home runs and an MLB-leading 86 RBIs, could be the best hitter moved before the July 31 trade deadline, but the Yankees were not particularly aggressive in pursuing him, a source told ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

Though McMahon’s offensive production resulted in a 92 OPS+, which suggests he has been 8% worse than the average major league hitter this season, he’s still a significant offensive upgrade at third base for New York. The Yankees have had Oswald Peraza, one of the worst hitters in the majors, playing third base nearly every day since the club released DJ LeMahieu, another former Rockies player, earlier this month and moved Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base.

Peraza, though a strong defender, is slashing .147/.208/.237 in 69 games this season. His 24 wRC+ ranks last among the 310 hitters with at least 160 plate appearances this season.

McMahon has played his first eight-plus seasons with the Rockies. They selected him in the second round of the 2013 draft. He debuted four years later and became a regular in 2019. By then, the Rockies were descending to the bottom of the NL West. This year, they’re 26-76 and could finish with the most losses in major league history.

He leaves that environment for New York’s pressure cooker and a club with World Series aspirations, a change the Yankees hope can help McMahon.

“Hopefully, the environment is a great thing for him, that he falls into that and doesn’t have to be the guy,” Boone said. “Go do your thing. Go find the role. But it’s our job — my job, staff, coaches, players — to make sure they’re welcomed and get them as comfortable as possible.”

The price for McMahon — and his team control over the next two seasons — was a pair of pitchers who have not reached Double-A.

Herring, 22, has a 1.71 ERA in 89⅓ innings across 16 starts between Low- and High-A this season. He was a sixth-round pick out of LSU in the 2024 draft.

Grosz, an 11th-round pick in 2023, had a 4.14 ERA in 87 innings over 16 games (15 starts) for High-A Hudson Valley this season.

With third base addressed, the Yankees will seek to acquire pitchers to bolster their rotation and bullpen. Luis Gil‘s return should help. The right-hander, who has been out all season because of a lat injury, made his third rehab start Wednesday. Boone said there’s “a good chance” Gil gets another start in the minors before making his season debut.

Continue Reading

Trending