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“Players (are going to) be players, man,” LaVine said. “You’re going to mingle and talk. But we’re here for one goal — we’re trying to win the gold medal. Whatever comes from that, friendships, teammates, that’s an afterthought. But you know how the NBA is — everybody talks and it’s a player’s league, so we understand what goes on. Something happens, it happens.”
“The debut was special, it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, but I think I had to keep my emotions in check more tonight,” Sheets said. “That first at-bat I was more jittery than I was in Chicago. But that home run was a really cool moment, not just for me but for my family.”
“I think David is a star, I think he’s fantastic,” Hoyer said. “I felt for him going through this, because there’s a hopeless sense from me to David to the players. At some point there’s always a sense of ‘Go say something,’ or ‘Go do something.’ That’s not really how baseball works. We’re a sport where that can be out of your control.”
“It doesn’t matter if I’m in pain or not, soreness or not, I have to be there for them. My mom, my wife, my sons, they are my everything. That is the way I can honor them, that’s what I do. Plus, that’s also another way for me to be grateful and honor (Chairman) Jerry (Reinsdorf). He has done a lot for me and that’s the way for me to pay it back, play every day no matter what.”
“With his history, everything you deal with is extremely serious,” Ross said. “I think (the doctors said) it’s not a great concern, but having to deal with that as a player and being in your mental state, whether it’s a heart palpitation or a flutter, coupled with adrenaline and the nerves and anxiety of being in there for a game… I think we all want to be on the same page of making sure he’s safe.”
“We have been cornered into a situation where we cannot even stop now. We are damned if we do, and damned if we do not,” Kaori Yamaguchi, a member of the Japanese Olympic Committee and a bronze medalist in judo in 1988, wrote in a recent editorial published by the Kyodo news agency. “The IOC also seems to think that public opinion in Japan is not important.”
Parker (12.9 ppg) and Vandersloot (11.4) command the headlines and attention, which frees up room for their scorers on the wings — Copper (13.9), Quigley (11.8) and Diamond DeShields (12.3) — to give the Sky five players with double-digit-scoring averages. A sixth, Astou Ndour, is close to that mark, averaging 9.2 points.
Phillies third baseman Brad Miller (13) celebrates with Bryce Harper (3) and Jean Segura after hitting his third homer of the game, a two-run shot, during the seventh inning against the Cubs on Thursday night at Wrigley Field. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
“Look, we’ve believed in these guys since 2015,” Hoyer said Thursday before the Cubs’ series finale against the Philadelphia Phillies. “They’ve had a ton of success, and I wouldn’t count these guys out. But 11 days ago we were certainly on the buy side of this transaction and everyone was calling about that.
Ultimately roster stability with their star players in particular didn’t deliver the results the Cubs needed nor expected. With only 10 home games left in July, they figure to be the last for some combination of Rizzo, Bryant, Báez and closer Craig Kimbrel. The 11-game losing streak spelled doom for this Cubs core, failing to win close games, some ugly eyesores mixed in and, as Hoyer astutely noted: “Eric Sogard made three (pitching) appearances, that’s not a positive thing.”