TEMPE – Shawn Philips and Adam Miller are just entering their 20s, but in the Arizona State locker room, they are now considered the old heads. Philips and Miller are two of only four players remaining from last year’s ASU men’s basketball team who will embark on another campaign in the desert.
Despite massive roster upheaval – for a second consecutive offseason – coach Bobby Hurley is optimistic as the new-look Sun Devils head into their first season in the Big 12 Conference in 2024-25.
PHOENIX – The only way that Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia will feel vindicated is by winning a championship. And he expressed that desire Monday at Suns media day.
Ishbia’s goal this offseason after the Suns were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Minnesota Timberwolves was to cultivate a more collective winning culture. He believes that goal starts with him and putting his team in a position to succeed.
“I’m not trying to be the best player or the best coach or the best GM,” Ishbia said. “My job is to be the best owner in sports which means give (the Suns) the best resources.
PHOENIX – The Arizona Diamondbacks blew an eight-run lead to the Milwaukee Brewers on Sept. 22, but the unclear MLB postseason picture made foreshadowing the team’s fate impossible at the time.
Now, over a week later, the answer is clear.
While the Diamondbacks survived an extra day thanks to the postponement of the New York Mets-Atlanta Braves series to Monday due to Hurricane Helene, their 2024 season ended with the two teams splitting the doubleheader at Truist Park.
Making a strong case for Game of the Year, Monday’s first game started with Atlanta leading 3-0 through seven innings behind starting pitcher Spencer Schwellenbach’s five strikeouts and three hits allowed. A Mets leadoff double ended his night, then the Braves’ lead quickly evaporated.
Three Braves relievers allowed five earned runs on five hits, turning a once-rowdy crowd to stunned silence. However, moments later, the stunned crowd turned into a frenzy after Atlanta’s four-run eighth inning — capped off with Ozzie Albies’ bases-clearing double — gave the Braves a 7-6 lead.
The final act of the drama came from Mets superstar shortstop Francisco Lindor, who blasted a game-winning two-run home run to right-center field in the ninth inning to secure a playoff berth.
By Game 2, Diamondbacks fans gathered at Guy Fieri’s DTPHX Kitchen + Bar and nxiously optimistic fans watched as Atlanta took care of New York 3-0, which secured the final wild-card berth for the Braves.
Despite the disappointing results Monday, some fans applauded the team’s fight all season long.
“Honestly, there were a lot of really fun moments,” said Diamondbacks fan Julian Miller. “Just every game that they were down in that they came back and won, really was just a great moment. I mean, we have the Rally-backs, which is our form of cheerleaders, almost, but it’s true that we are the Rally-backs. The Diamondbacks, throughout the season, have been rallying back.
“Seeing them work through the adversity and everything like that has really been special to see, and hopefully they can bring a little bit of that magic to the playoffs, if we’re so fortunate to do so.”
For the second consecutive year, the Diamondbacks handed the keys to their postseason fate
to another team. Last season, the Diamondbacks lost the last four games, before the St. Louis Cardinals secured a postseason berth for Arizona by defeating the Cincinnati Reds 15-6 on Sept. 30.
Despite the team’s familiarity with these late-season situations, they were unable to clinch a second consecutive postseason appearance after making a World Series run in 2023.
“Yeah, it’s very similar, and I can draw from those experiences,” manager Torey Lovullo said Friday before the team’s game against the San Diego Padres. “I know that it wasn’t easy for us last year. From start to finish, we caught a tailwind at the right time of the year and got hot.”
The Diamondbacks lost five of their last seven games to end the regular season, including losing two of three games to the division-rival San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres, and blowing the eight-run lead to the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field.
Other factors also contributed to the team falling short this season. The Diamondbacks suffered from the World Series hangover for the first two months of the season. The month of May ended with a season-high five-game losing streak, which brought the team’s record to 25-32.
During the peak summer season, the Diamondbacks played their best baseball. August was the most successful, as the team rattled off two season-high six-game winning streaks. Rookie catcher Adrian Del Castillo played a huge role in the team’s dominance after he was called up to replace Gold Glove catcher Gabriel Moreno, who suffered a left adductor strain in early August and missed a month of action.
Del Castillo’s bat proved big-league ready right away. He hit a ninth-inning walk-off home run in his second game and became the first player in franchise history to hit a walk-off for their first career home run.
A week-and-a-half later, Del Castillo put together a career game with his friends and family in attendance at loanDepot Park, where he hit his first career grand slam and contributed six RBI in a 9-6 victory. He had 14 RBI through his first nine big-league games — second-most in MLB history since RBI became an official statistic in 1920.
Arizona won 16 of the 25 games Del Castillo appeared in, including winning his first six games.
Other key players experienced injuries during the latter half of the season. Two-time Gold Glove first baseman Christian Walker missed the entire month of August, before returning in early September. When he returned, Walker continued his dominant ways, by securing his third consecutive 25-home run, 25-double season.
2023 All-Star Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who missed three weeks in September, batted .370 with one home run, one triple and five RBI over the last eight games.
Still, Arizona had its chances and couldn’t come through nor get the help they needed Monday. The MLB-leading team in runs scored were shut out twice in the final five games of the year, which proved to be crucial losses.
“It’s definitely been kind of a rocky last couple weeks,” relief pitcher Kevin Ginkel said Friday. “We played pretty much flawless baseball up until early September, and then we kind of had some games here and there that haven’t gone the way we wanted (them) to.”
Manager Torey Lovullo and the Arizona Diamondbacks miss their goal of reaching the 2024 MLB Postseason after the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves split their doubleheader Monday. (Photo by Spencer Barnes/Cronkite News)A season full of challenges ends in disappointment as the Arizona Diamondbacks miss the 2024 MLB Postseason. (Photo by Dylan Wickman/Cronkite News)
TEMPE – Arizona State football remains a work in progress.
Coming off a bye week, coach Kenny Dillingham said Monday that his team is working to return to the same level of play the Sun Devils showed during a 3-0 start to the season as they prepare for their Big 12 Conference home opener against Kansas Saturday at Mountain America Stadium.
”We have to get back to what we’re good at,” Dillingham said. “We have to get back to playing the game really hard.”
PHOENIX – In 2022, Judge Roslyn Silver ruled that Arizona was violating prisoner’s rights by not providing proper care and that health-care faults were causing preventable deaths in Arizona prisons. That case, Jensen v. Thornell, led to the Arizona Department of Corrections Rehabilitation & Reentry implementing changes to its quality of care up to bring it to constitutional standards via changes in staffing, higher quality physical care and access to mental health care.
However, the case didn’t end the issues. In 2023, the Arizona district court issued another injunction to speed up the process, ordering the state to improve its health-care staffing, bring in additional physicians and hit benchmarks laid out by the court. In 2024, though, the problems remain.
LOS ANGELES – As California grapples with a surge in crime, the debate over how to address the issue has divided the state. Proposition 36, also known as the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, would toughen penalties for nonviolent drug and theft offenses and add new sentencing enhancements.
Supporters argue it’s a necessary step to rebuild communities’ safety and health while critics warn the proposition will refill prisons and disproportionately affect marginalized communities.
If passed, Prop. 36 would reverse Proposition 47, an extensive prison and sentencing reform measure. Since its adoption nearly a decade ago, it has reduced the prison population, reduced recidivism and saved the state more than $800 million.
WASHINGTON – About 10,000 votes would have tipped the last presidential contest in Arizona. The state has about 133,000 union members so, like other slivers of the electorate, these and their issues could be decisive.
Traditionally, Democrats hold a major edge with organized labor due to their consistent support for higher wages and the right to unionize.
WASHINGTON – Seven states that rely on the Colorado River each got a cut of its water under a deal struck over a century ago – a deal that excluded the Hopi, the Navajo and other tribal nations.
After years of pressure and negotiation, Congress is moving to rectify what the tribes have long seen as an injustice that has caused enormous hardship.
Slug: Sports-Jayden Daniels Return. 880 words. By Ethan Desjardine.
Photo available (thumbnail, caption below).
By Ethan Desjardine Cronkite News
PHOENIX – As he stood outside the stadium that housed the early years of his college career, Jayden Daniels spoke fondly of competing for Arizona State.
“It started all this, laid the foundation.” the Washington Commanders quarterback said Wednesday. “Obviously, the people that recruited me here, I can’t thank them enough for what they’ve done for me and my football career, and the relationships that I’ve made off the field here. I still cherish them to this day.”
PHOENIX — During his playing career, which included seven seasons in the Major Leagues, Torey Lovullo saw the worst of a manager following a tough loss. Sometimes, Lovullo would take the frustrations to heart. There were also instances where there was no true message being sent, and he paid no mind.
Above all, those experiences have provided the eighth-year Arizona Diamondbacks manager with the knowledge of the right moment and circumstance to try and send a message to his group. There is a time and place, but if done right, a common sense of urgency is felt. And after suffering an 11-0 blowout to the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday amid a tight wild-card race, he didn’t rip into his team, but tough conversations needed to be had.
PEORIA – For the first time since 2021, after years of stellar play by two-time Arizona Gatorade Player of the Year Navi Bruzon, the Liberty Lions are looking to a new signal caller, senior quarterback Hayden Fletcher, to lead their offense.
Bruzon set the standard for quarterback play at Liberty, leading his team to a state championship in 2023, and finishing as the most decorated player in school history, passing for more than 7,500 yards and accounting for 112 touchdowns. Bruzon is now a freshman quarterback for Arizona State.
PHOENIX – The rapid growth of the WNBA should be an opportunity for players to celebrate. But due to an unfortunate turn of events, players including Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner are taking a greater stance against the same social injustices she has fought against during her entire career.
Racism and sexism are all-too-familiar problems for Griner and they are starting to become a serious threat to the players in one of the fastest-growing leagues in the world.
TUCSON – Five athletes ran across the finish line under the Arizona Wildcats arch by the McKale Center chanting “U-S-A! U-S-A!” while freshman Mia Wentzy waved an American flag over her head. It was a picture-perfect finish for Team USA competing against Team International in a friendly intrasquad competition at the University of Arizona’s campus on a recent cool Saturday morning.
The Wildcats triathlon team continues to train hard and foster camaraderie in the program’s second year of existence. The athletes hope the chants of “U-S-A” at home in Tucson turn into even louder cheers of celebration at the USA Triathlon National Championship in November.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was translated from English to Spanish using ChatGPT. A Cronkite News editor reviewed the translation. Find the original story here. See any errors? Please let us know. Contact julio.cisneros@asu.edu.
NOTA DEL EDITOR: Este reportaje fue traducido del inglés al español usando ChatGPT. Un editor de Cronkite Noticias revisó la traducción. Encuentra el reportaje original aquí. ¿Ves algún error? Por favor, déjanoslo saber. Contacta a julio.cisneros@asu.edu.
WASHINGTON — Los estados han impuesto una amplia gama de reglas sobre el aborto desde que la Corte Suprema terminó la protección constitucional hace más de dos años.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was translated from English to Spanish using ChatGPT. A Cronkite News editor reviewed the translation. Find the original story here. See any errors? Please let us know. Contact julio.cisneros@asu.edu.
NOTA DEL EDITOR: Este reportaje fue traducido del inglés al español usando ChatGPT. Un editor de Cronkite Noticias revisó la traducción. Encuentra el reportaje original aquí. ¿Ves algún error? Por favor, déjanoslo saber. Contacta a julio.cisneros@asu.edu.
WASHINGTON – La vicepresidenta Kamala Harris visitará Douglas el viernes, su primera visita a la frontera como candidata presidencial demócrata y solo su segunda como vicepresidenta.
CHANDLER – To mark Hispanic Heritage Month, the city and the Chandler International Film Festival screened the 2015 film “Spare Parts” on Sunday. The film, based on a true story, follows four Arizona high school students who defied the odds to win a national robotics competition.
The event was also a chance to celebrate the people who inspired the film. The screening featured a red carpet, appearances by local community leaders and a Q&A session with the film’s director, Sean McNamara; its writer, Elissa Matsueda; one of the four students, Lorenzo Santillan; and the original robotics coach depicted in the film, Fredi Lajvardi.
TUCSON – Anyone who knew Rich Alday had nothing but kind remarks about the former Pima Community College baseball coach. People described his amiable nature, fair and measured approach with his players and the family atmosphere he created on the diamond in the midst of fierce competition.
Those values translated into three NJCAA World Series appearances from 1974 to 1989 for the Aztecs before Alday became the head coach at the University of New Mexico from 1990 to 2007. He carried the same traits to Albuquerque, where he left his mark as the winningest coach in program history with 515 victories. He returned to Pima for one last season in 2017 before retiring.
PHOENIX – For decades, the Catholic high school battle in the Valley revolved around Brophy and St. Mary’s. With their roots and history tied together, at one point the schools merged during the Great Depression. Once Brophy reopened in 1952, a rivalry was born. The two battled back and forth for generations, with campuses just miles apart. Fans and athletes bickered about mascots, school colors and even engaged in territorial spats over which side commanded certain watering holes along Central Avenue.
But over the years, as Brophy grew bigger and bigger, the rivalry began to diminish. After 2012, the schools mostly stopped playing each other in football. However, a new rivalry has emerged, with Notre Dame Prep in Scottsdale filling the hole left by St. Mary’s, which gradually fell off the sports scene as the seasons changed.
WASHINGTON – In an election year, cooperation between Republicans and Democrats tends to be rare.
But this week, Sens. Mark Kelly and Ted Cruz, an Arizona Democrat and a Texas Republican, together succeeded in pushing through a measure to cut red tape that delays new U.S. semiconductor factories.
WASHINGTON – Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Douglas on Friday, her first border visit as the Democratic presidential nominee and only her second as vice president.
In June 2021, she spent over 4 hours in El Paso, far from the migrant crisis hotpots at the time.
Douglas is also not the focus of Republican attacks about the current administration’s record on border security, which could help explain why her campaign picked it.
