Sports

Orlando Cepeda, the second Puerto Rican-born player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, died Friday at the age of 86. The San Francisco Giants announced his death but did not disclose a location. Cepeda played 17 MLB seasons, mostly as a first baseman, hitting 379 home runs, hitting 2,351 hits and driving in 1,365 runs with a .297 batting average. He was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1958 and the MVP in 1967, helping the St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series that year. He batted over .300 in nine seasons and appeared in…

He didn't win a single match. In the third round of the French Open on Saturday, China’s Wang Xinyu faced Iga Swiatek, the reigning women’s singles champion and the top seed. Despite the impressive credentials of Wang, a 21-year-old who reached her peak ranking of No. 59 in April, she suffered a crushing defeat: 6-0, 6-0, a double bagel in tennis terms. The match ended almost as quickly as it began. Yet there is a certain glory in this kind of imperfection. Long live the tired, the exhausted, the fighters and the stragglers. The athletes who endure public defeats. Long…

About thirty minutes before a Brooklyn Cyclones game in mid-August, a family of three, a reporter, and a man in a Jedi robe stepped into an elevator at Maimonides Park. As the doors closed and the elevator ascended, the Jedi asked, "What planet are you from?" “Um, Brooklyn,” the family matriarch replied. The Jedi began humming “Mad About Me” by Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes, alluding to his Tatooine roots. As the elevator doors opened and they descended onto the field apron, they joined hundreds of other Jedi Knights and Padawan apprentices mingling with fans armed with scorebooks, pencils,…

In his first week in the majors, Oswaldo Cabrera showed off his versatility by playing multiple positions for the Yankees. With the ability to fit into four different positions, Cabrera stood out not only for his performance, but also for his distinctive No. 95 jersey and a faux pearl necklace that added a touch of style to his uniform. Ron Marinaccio, another Yankees rookie, praised Cabrera for his authenticity and indifference to other people’s opinions. Cabrera received the handmade necklace from Milton Ramos, an infielder he met in the minors who founded PawGripz, a company that makes rubber grips to…