Complete spec sheets for Apple’s new iPhones revealed in China filings

The iPhone XR is only 0.1 inches thicker than the XS, but it packs a much larger battery.
The iPhone XR is only 0.1 inches thicker than the XS, but it packs a much larger battery.

Image: Pete Pachal/Mashable

2016%2f09%2f16%2f6f%2fhttpsd2mhye01h4nj2n.cloudfront.netmediazgkymdezlza1.53aeaBy Stan Schroeder

For some reason, Apple never lists RAM memory capacity or battery size for its devices. This is why the specs sheets for the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR weren’t really complete even after the phones’ unveiling last week. 

But thanks to the company’s filings to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (known as TENAA), unearthed by Macrumors via MyDrivers, we now know the full specs for all three of Apple’s new iPhones. 

SEE ALSO: iPhone XS and XS Max review: Going for the gold

Here’s the rundown:

If these numbers are accurate, the iPhone XR, which is significantly more affordable than the iPhone XS, has a 10.7% bigger battery. 

Not bad, iPhone XR.

Not bad, iPhone XR.

Image: Tenaa

It’s not entirely unexpected; after all, Apple does list iPhone XR battery life at up to 25 hours talk time, up to 15 hours of internet use and up to 16 hours of video playback. This is far better than the company’s estimate of up to 20/12/14 hours for the iPhone XS, and better even than up to 25/13/15 hours for the iPhone XS Max. Also note that the iPhone XR, which has a 6.1-inch screen, is bigger than the 5.8-inch iPhone XS, and 0.1 inches thicker than both the iPhone XS and the iPhone XS Max.

Still, it’s interesting to see such a significant difference between the $749 XR and the $999 XS. Note that the XR also trumps the iPhone X, which has a 2,716mAh battery. 

4GB of RAM, while being sort of the norm in the world of Android smartphones, is a big leap for the iPhone. The iPhone X and the iPhone 8 Plus had 3GB of RAM, and the iPhone 8 only had 2GB of RAM. 

All of this is quite interesting for anyone considering to “upgrade” from the iPhone X to the XR. Now we know that the XR will have a better processor, the same amount of RAM, and a bigger battery than the iPhone X, it’s really starting to look like a sensible upgrade — if you don’t mind the LCD (instead of OLED) screen and the single (instead of dual) camera on the back. 

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Yasiel Puig’s Home Reportedly Burglarized for 4th Time

Los Angeles Dodgers' Yasiel Puig reacts after a strike against Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Jared Hughes in the seventh inning of a baseball game, Monday, Sept. 10, 2018, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

John Minchillo/Associated Press

While Los Angeles Dodgers star Yasiel Puig is coming off an incredible performance that earned him National League Player of the Week honors, he has once again suffered some misfortune away from the diamond.

According to TMZ Sports, Puig’s house in the San Fernando Valley was burglarized for the fourth time on Tuesday night.

The burglars allegedly broke in through the back door of the house. Security cameras show three men leaving the property, and although the system sent an alert, police were unable to arrive until after the suspects were gone.

No word on what, if anything, was stolen.

As TMZ noted, Puig’s home had previously been targeted on three occasions. The Dodgers outfielder had $500,000 in jewelry stolen from his house in March 2017 and $150 in costume jewelry swiped during Game 7 of the World Series last October, while there was also an attempted robbery in August.

After the second burglary, Puig made it clear to TMZ Sports that he wasn’t sweating things. (Warning: NSFW language.)

“I ain’t worried about that s–t,” Puig told TMZ Sports in November 2017. “I have a f–king lot of money.”

Puig is hitting .273 with 21 home runs, 20 doubles and 58 RBI in 115 games this season. He was named NL Player of the Week on Monday for the third time in his career after hitting .429/.500/1.190 with five homers, nine RBI, seven runs, one double and one stolen base over a seven-game stretch.

With 10 games to play, Los Angeles holds a 1.5-game lead over the Colorado Rockies in the NL West.

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Mexico quake one year on: Families still wait for help to rebuild

Mexico City – Ivon Romero lives with her husband and five children in a large auditorium in the back of a cultural centre in the Gustavo A Madero district of Mexico City.

If it wasn’t for the security guard, who locks and guards the entrance 24 hours a day, the centre would look abandoned. Overgrown grass lines the entrance and broken toilets that look as though they have never been cleaned sit outside.

Inside, Romero, along with her husband, Miguel Angel Gonzalez, try to keep life as normal as possible for their five children aged between three and 12.

But the cots the government gave them when they moved in seven months ago are broken. The large room they spend their time in has a loud echo. And the only furniture inside are a couple of tables the family uses to eat and cook on, a hot plate, seven chairs and a couch.

About seven blocks away sits the remnants of what was once their longtime home.

On September 19, 2017, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit the country, killing nearly 230 people in Mexico City alone. At least 40 buildings completely collapsed and more than 5,000 others were damaged, according to local authorities.

One year on, NGOs estimate about 8,000 people live in damaged homes, others remain in shelters, awaiting clarity on how, and if, the government, which set aside a nearly $800m reconstruction budget, will ever help them rebuild. 

Romero’s home, part of an old housing compound shared with five other families, still stood after the September 2017 earthquake, but was severely damaged. The city’s Civil Protection underpinned the structures with wooden struts, leaving gaping holes in part of the structure.

“My children used to wake up at night with nightmares,” Romero tells Al Jazeera. “They were scared that the house would crumble down and kill us all.”

Their nightmares became partially true in February of this year when another tremor hit the country. Although the 7.2-magnitude earthquake’s epicentre was far from the capital, it brought down the rest of Romero’s home. She recalls barely making it out in time before the roof collapse behind them.

Romero’s home collapsed after a February earthquake hit her severely damaged home [Lucina Melesio Friedman/Al Jazeera]

Some families, including Romero’s, were put in shelters and receive monthly stipends, which generally amount to less than $200.

After Romero’s house collapsed, the municipality offered her family the option to live in homeless shelters, but that would have meant living separately from her husband in a female-only facility. Instead, the city placed the family in a makeshift shelter in the worn-down cultural centre in one of the Mexico City’s most dangerous areas.

“We had so little left, and yet someone broke in and stole whatever we had gathered,” says Romero, who is eight months pregnant. “Even the baby clothing and the crib,” she adds, breaking down in tears, unsure if her home will ever be rebuilt as questions remain regarding the funds meant for reconstruction.

Romero’s family lives in an empty old community centre in one of Mexico City’s most dangerous neighbourhoods [Lucina Melesio Friedman/Al Jazeera] 

Unaccounted for funds

A month after the earthquake, Mexico City’s government put together an expert advisory committee to establish a reconstruction policy, which included determining how much money was needed to rebuild and how to manage it in a transparent way. 

But after $797m was allocated for the reconstruction fund in January, the local congress overrode the committee and ordered the funds be directed to different governmental agencies without any explanation.

“It became obvious our role there was pointless,” says Ricardo Becerra, who was appointed by Mexico City’s then-Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera to head the advisory committee.

Most of the committee members, including Becerra, resigned, with some believing corruption was at play. Mancera denied allegations that the city intended to use the funds for anything other than reconstruction. After public outcry, the then-mayor revoked authority to manage the reconstruction funds from those local congressmen who ordered the funds be directed to government agencies.

Although the government is required by law to account for every penny they spend on reconstruction, about 95 percent of the funds allocated for reconstruction remain unaccounted for, according to NGOs and analysis of publicly available data.

The government reconstruction accountability website does not clarify how most of the funds were split between the different agencies following the local congress’s order.

In July, Nosotrxs, an NGO tracking the government’s reconstruction efforts, published a report outlining the lack of transparency on how the funds have been spent. Only 4.7 percent of the funds had been accounted for, according to Nosotrxs

Mexico’s former Finance Secretary Edgar Amador declined Al Jazeera’s multiple requests for comment. The city’s former Mayor Mancera and current Mayor Jose Ramon Amieva did not respond to Al Jazeera’s interview requests.

Bureaucratic nightmare

Compounding the hardship faced by survivors are the hurdles they must jump in order to access the funds and reconstruction programmes.

In addition to the meagre rent subsidies, the government has promised to help people living in apartment buildings by giving them credits to rebuild. Residents have protested against the system, demanding subsidies instead of the loans. Others complain of the bureaucratic nightmare they face to access the credits or other reconstruction programmes. 

“Everywhere we go it’s a different story, they send us to different agencies and no one can tell us what are the next steps,” says Romero’s husband, Gonzalez, who used to craft aluminium for a living from the workshop he had at home.

The family keeps a thick folder with paperwork they have filed to different agencies, and handwritten letters they have sent the mayor and other government offices asking for help. There’s been no written response to their inquires.

Romero says high-level officials have not responded to her multiple written requests for help [Lucina Melesio Friedman/Al Jazeera]

Like many Mexicans, who live in homes that have been a part of their family for generations, Romero’s family does not have the property deeds under its own name and the process to obtain the correct documents is too expensive.

Arcadio Resendiz and his family are in a similar situation and equally confused about how to obtain the reconstruction funds. They also lived in a house within a family complex that has the deeds under a deceased relative’s name. The bedroom of their granddaughters’ room collapsed during the September 2017 earthquake and the rest of their house remains in bad shape.

“We really don’t know what to do, every agency tells us something different,” says Resendiz, holding a thick pile of paperwork.

“Some have told us we shouldn’t touch anything nor remove the rubble because we won’t be able to access the programmes if we do,” he tells Al Jazeera, explaining that the rain that falls inside the holes in his roof, causing further damage. 

Resendiz says he is not sure whether to leave his home, which has been deemed unsafe to live [Lucina Melesio Friedman/Al Jazeera] 

In July, the Civil Protection deemed the entire complex where Resendiz’s home stands unsafe, saying it needs to be demolished.

But the 50-year-old, who cannot work due to health issues, is unsure what to do because he hasn’t been told what will happen next.

“We can’t have it demolished without knowing if they’ll rebuild it; where will we go?” he says.

Civil Protection and the mayor’s office did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

Nowhere to go

Vania Salgado, an economist turned-activist after surviving the earthquake, says the problem is not only that families are unsure of how to access the reconstruction programmes, but that they are also living in damaged houses that are unsafe.

According to Nosotrxs, which surveyed 272 homes earlier this month, individuals and families lived in more than 30 percent of the damaged buildings that were surveyed. About 25 percent of the homes that have been tagged “high risk of collapsing” are still inhabited. And nearly half of the buildings that need to be demolished are still standing.

The roof of Resendiz’s granddaughters’ bedroom caved in during last September’s earthquake [Lucina Melesio Friedman/Al Jazeera]

Cesar Cravioto, a Mexico City congressman who will be in charge of reconstruction when the new administration takes office in December, tells Al Jazeera that he is well aware of the problems survivors, like Romero and Resendiz, face.

“Not having your deeds in order shouldn’t prevent people from receiving the help they need,” Cravioto says. “Today people have to suffer a terrible ordeal parading between different government agencies to get some help, and that needs to change.”

Cravioto says he will prioritise finishing the damaged homes census, which was ordered last year, and setting up what he calls a single-booth programme so that survivors can get help from a single agency. He also says he expects to finish with reconstruction within two years, adding that money shouldn’t not be an issue.

“It is the current administration’s responsibility to hand us over the funds with clear accountability,” Cravioto says.

“We will audit them, and we hope they leave us enough funds for reconstruction. But either way, money will not be an issue,” he adds without elaborating.

We can’t have [our home] demolished without knowing if they’ll rebuild it; where will we go?

Arcadio Resendiz

In the meantime, families like Romero’s and Resendiz’s continue to manage with the little they have.

Romero and her husband say they recently asked the security guard outside the building for more blankets, but he refused.

“People are mean to us because they think we are living here because we are lazy and aren’t doing enough,” she says. “It’s not true, we’re really doing what we can.”

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GOP presses Kavanaugh vote with accuser’s testimony in doubt


Mitch McConnell, Roy Blunt, John Thune, John Cornyn

Senator John Cornyn (R), pictured with (L-R) Senator Roy Blunt, Senator John Thune and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said the Judiciary Committee can’t investigate Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation without her testimony. | Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

Congress

Republicans painted Christine Blasey Ford’s request to have the FBI examine the allegations as a delay tactic.

Republican senators are giving Christine Blasey Ford a stark choice as they prepare to weigh her sexual assault allegation against Brett Kavanaugh: Talk to us on Monday, or risk losing your chance to do so before we vote.

In the wake of a Tuesday night letter from Ford’s lawyers that sought an FBI inquiry before the California-based professor would testify in public about her high-school-era assault allegation against the Supreme Court nominee, Republicans indicated little interest in any such investigation — which some of them openly dismissed as a delaying tactic.

Story Continued Below

“Requiring an FBI investigation of a 36 year old allegation (without specific references to time or location) before Professor Ford will appear before the Judiciary Committee is not about finding the truth, but delaying the process till after the midterm elections,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a senior Judiciary Committee member, said in a statement.

Although the FBI conducted a days-long inquiry of Anita Hill’s 1991 sexual harassment allegations against now-Justice Clarence Thomas, a precedent that Ford’s lawyers referred to in their letter, the FBI has said this week that it acted in accordance with existing guidelines by adding Ford’s allegation to Kavanaugh’s background file without further action.

Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, who had announced a Monday public hearing before Ford agreed to appear in that setting, reiterated that her appearance is necessary in order for the committee to fully examine her claim that Kavanaugh tried to force himself on her when he was 17 and she was 15. The GOP has offered that Ford can speak in private, but indicated that they plan to press ahead with President Donald Trump’s high court pick even if she doesn’t ultimately participate.

“The Judiciary Committee is attempting to investigate Dr. Ford’s allegation but can’t without her testimony,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) tweeted. “We can do that in any setting she is most comfortable with.”

Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley’s (R-Iowa) office did not return a request for comment on whether Monday’s planned hearing would go forward with Kavanaugh alone, or whether it could also include a vote on the nomination should Ford’s camp not engage. One key Republican who had urged for a delay in order to hear out Ford’s side of the story, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, said Tuesday night that senators should proceed to a vote if she cannot participate on Monday.

Trump himself told reporters on Wednesday that he hopes Ford decides to speak in public, even as he defended Kavanaugh’s “unblemished record” and dismissed the prospect of any further FBI investigation.

“I really would want to see what she has to say,” Trump said, according to the White House pool report.

“If she shows up and makes a credible showing, that’ll be very interesting, and we’ll have to make a decision, but … very hard for me to imagine anything happened,” he said.

Republicans have indicated that they may decide to question Ford and her lawyers over any contacts with Democrats if the hearing slated for Monday ever occurs. Another Judiciary member, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), underscored the continuing uncertainty.

“I don’t have enough information to make that decision” as to whether Monday should be the only opportunity for Ford to speak, Kennedy told CNN, adding that “I think there is a reasonable possibility she’ll change her mind” about appearing.

“We’re scheduled to meet at 10 o’clock” on Monday, Kennedy said. “I have marked that on my calendar from 10 o’clock to 5:00 P.M. And I’ll stay as late as everybody wants to.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged Republicans to reconsider their resistance to an FBI examination of the allegation. “Senate Republicans and the White House should drop their inexplicable opposition to an FBI investigation, allow all the facts to come out, and then proceed with a fair process in the Senate,” the New York Democrat said in a Tuesday night statement.

In a 51-49 Senate, Kavanaugh has yet to lock in the 50 votes needed in order to win confirmation. Two opponents among the few remaining undecided Republicans would defeat his nomination, and the two most closely watched moderate GOP swing votes — Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — have not weighed in publicly since the letter from Ford’s lawyers.

Rebecca Morin contributed to this story.

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1 moment in the new ‘Captain Marvel’ trailer really has people confused

2018%2f08%2f08%2f71%2f20182f082f062f5a2fphoto.898b3.66f81By Laura Byager

Marvel just released the long-awaited trailer for its upcoming Captain Marvel movie, which introduces Brie Larson into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

And one particular detail in the trailer is getting a lot of attention. 

SEE ALSO: Loki and Scarlet Witch reportedly getting their own Marvel TV series

The scene where Larson’s character, Carol Danvers (aka Captain Marvel), punches an innocent-looking old lady right in the face has got people scratching their heads. 

Because Captain Marvel is one of the good guys, right?

People were really confused by what they were seeing. 

Some were really into that particular scene, though.

the only thing i’ll say about the captain marvel trailer here is that i’d let brie larson punch me in the face like carol did to that old lady

— ♡ (@deluxejennie) September 18, 2018

Carol Danver could punch me in the face and I would say “thank you ma’am, may I have another?” while on my knees. #CaptainMarvel

— K⁤­a​‌‌i​‍­t​‍­l‍⁡y​⁠⁠n​‌‌ ​‍⁣Βоoth (@katiesmovies) September 18, 2018

There is, of course, an explanation for why a Marvel hero would punch an old lady – though it contains a small spoiler, so get off the ride here if you prefer to keep your Captain Marvel experience completely unspoiled. 

The old lady punch in the Captain Marvel trailer is baffiling unless you know the back story of the villains. The amount of people that will be confused as hell 😂

— Stephen Robinson ⚡ (@xstex) September 18, 2018

The explanation is this: one of the villains in the movie could well be a shape-shifting being known as a “Skrull”. This would mean the innocent old lady in that clip isn’t really as innocent as she seems.

We knew Brie would never do something like that.

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‘Is This Blood or … Brain Fluid?’: The Nightmare of a Liner to the Head

Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Robbie Ray falls to the ground after being hit in the head by a line drive back to the mound by St. Louis Cardinals' Luke Voit during the second inning of a baseball game Friday, July 28, 2017, in St. Louis. Ray left the game. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

B/R

It was the sound that scared Bryce Florie. Or rather, the absence of sound.

There were 33,861 fans in Fenway Park that early September Friday night, a sellout crowd to watch the first-place New York Yankees and second-place Boston Red Sox, with ex-Red Sox ace Roger Clemens starting for the hated Yanks. Fenway gets loud on nights like that, and it was a tight 2-0 game until Florie allowed a two-run single to Derek Jeter with two outs in the ninth to make it 4-0.

What happened next silenced Fenway and changed Florie’s life forever.

Ryan Thompson followed Jeter to the plate, and Florie threw him a first-pitch slider. Thompson swung and hit a line drive right back up the middle. Florie saw it all the way. He thought he did, anyway, until it hit him just below the right eye and knocked him to the ground.

He landed on his back and quickly rolled over so he was face down on the mound, hands to his face.

He later said he had been “knocked silly for a second,” but he didn’t lose consciousness. He knew right away he’d been hit by the baseball, hit in the face and was bleeding badly. He couldn’t figure out why he hadn’t caught the ball, given that he’d seen it off the bat.

But it wasn’t until he heard the crowd that he began to feel scared. Or rather, until he didn’t hear the crowd.

“What scared me the most was the silence,” Florie said recently. “You could hear a pin drop. I realized they were all waiting to see if I would get up.”

Bryce Florie's bloody eye after a horrifying comebacker.

Bryce Florie’s bloody eye after a horrifying comebacker.WILLIAM B. PLOWMAN/Associated Press

He did get up, eventually. He reached to see if his teeth were there (they were) and tried to open his right eye (he couldn’t). There was blood everywhere. “By the way, don’t look in the mirror,” a doctor told him later that night. Said Florie: “Of course, I had to look in the mirror. I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh! Oh, my gosh!’ It got more scary.”

Thanks to MLB.com’s Statcast, we now know balls come off bats at speeds faster than 120 mph. We know the ball came off the bat of Seattle’s Kyle Seager at 105 mph before it smacked into Los Angeles Angels pitcher Matt Shoemaker’s head in September 2016 and at 115 mph when Colorado’s Carlos Gonzalez’s liner hit Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Archie Bradley in the head in April 2015.

A ball hit 115 mph travels 169 feet per second. The pitching rubber is 60 feet, six inches from home plate, and the pitcher is a few feet in front of the rubber after delivering the baseball.

Statcast didn’t exist in 2000, but scientists for the television show Sport Science calculated the ball that hit Florie was traveling 120 mph. They estimated Florie had just three-tenths of a second to react, which helps explain why he couldn’t catch it or get out of the way.

“I watched the video so many times, thinking, ‘How did I miss that ball?’” Florie said. “If I’d just put my glove up an inch higher…”


Often, the pitcher does get his glove up in time, or the ball simply misses him. Anyone who has pitched remembers close calls.

“It’s an alarming sound when a ball coming at 110 mph just misses you,” said Pete Walker, who pitched professionally for 18 seasons and is now the Toronto Blue Jays pitching coach. “It does rattle you.”

And for the few whom the ball doesn’t miss, it can do much more than that. Bleacher Report spoke to five current and former big league pitchers who have been hit in the head by line drives and to others who will never forget seeing—and hearing—it happen.

It’s a sickening sound when ball meets skull, almost as if the ball hits the bat and a second later hits it again. It’s the sound and then the silence as everyone tries to process what just happened.

“I thought Willie was dead,” said Doug Brocail, who was in the Detroit Tigers bullpen when a line drive hit by Cleveland’s Julio Franco broke Willie Blair’s jaw in 1997.

Meanwhile, Blair was down on the mound telling Tigers athletic trainer Russ Miller, “Call my wife, and tell her I’m OK.”

He wasn’t OK, not really. His jaw was broken. He was fighting to stay awake. And when he tried to sit up, he felt sick to his stomach and told the trainers he’d better lie back down.

He was also bleeding out of his ear. At least he knew it was blood.

J.A. Happ was bleeding from his right ear when Blue Jays assistant athletic trainer Mike Frostad reached him at the mound. Meanwhile, Desmond Jennings, who hit the ball that hit Happ, stood at third base, watching uncomfortably.

J.A. Happ was bleeding from his right ear when Blue Jays assistant athletic trainer Mike Frostad reached him at the mound. Meanwhile, Desmond Jennings, who hit the ball that hit Happ, stood at third base, watching uncomfortably.MIKE CARLSON/Associated Press

J.A. Happ wasn’t so sure after he was hit in the head by a line drive by Tampa Bay’s Desmond Jennings in May 2013. Happ never saw the ball off Jennings’ bat and wasn’t even sure what hit him as he collapsed on the mound.

“I almost thought I got tackled by the first baseman or something,” Happ said.

Seconds after Happ was hit, Blue Jays assistant athletic trainer Mike Frostad was there to tend to him. Head athletic trainer George Poulis wasn’t far behind.

“Any time a player is hit and knocked to the ground hard, that becomes a medical emergency,” Poulis said.

Happ was responsive to questions, but he was also trying to figure out what happened. He touched his left ear and felt blood.

“I was trying to process, ‘Is this blood, or is this brain fluid?’” Happ said. “I was worried about that. ‘Is this a serious thing?’ And then the people who were helping me did a good job of calming me down and letting me know it’s OK.”

It was blood, and it was OK. But the medical personnel were still going to take Happ off the field on a spine board, and they were still going to take him to the hospital for tests and observation.

Happ left the field on a stretcher.

Happ left the field on a stretcher.J. Meric/Getty Images

“He was saying, ‘I think I’m fine,’” Poulis said. “I said, ‘I think you’re fine, too.’”

Happ was fortunate. He was basically OK, in the ways that matter most. He had a fractured bone in his skull and needed stitches in his ear, but he didn’t have a concussion, and there were no lasting effects. He said he could have returned to the mound within a couple of weeks—if it hadn’t been for his injured knee.

He hurt the knee on the same play, so stunned by the impact of the ball that he landed awkwardly. The knee kept him out of action for three months.

Still, he was lucky.

Blair, because of his broken jaw, was unable to eat solid food for nearly two weeks. He would wake up in the middle of the night with the room spinning around him. One time, in the Tigers clubhouse, he leaned over to take off his shoes and got so dizzy he nearly fell.

“I almost fell into my locker,” Blair said. “Brocail was next to me, and he says, ‘Hey man, are you OK?’ I said, ‘Yeah, and don’t say anything about this.’ I’d say I still had dizzy spells for two or three months, but it never affected me on the field—only when I leaned over.”

He’ll acknowledge that now, 21 years later. He wouldn’t at the time. He was determined to get back on the mound as quickly as he could. Blair had two rehab starts in the minor leagues and pitched in a major league game in Oakland on June 3, 30 days after Franco’s line drive hit him.

“I was always very competitive, and I knew what everyone was saying,” he said. “I knew they were thinking, ‘Is he going to be able to recover?’ I wanted to prove them wrong. It was like a competition, that I was going to prove this wasn’t going to be able to stop me.”

Every other pitcher Bleacher Report spoke to for this story said they reacted in much the same way.


San Diego’s Chris Young didn’t even want to come out of the game. There was blood on his face after a line drive from Albert Pujols of the Cardinals broke his nose and fractured his skull in May 2008. But Young grew up in Texas as a Nolan Ryan fan, and all he could think about was how Ryan stayed in the game and pitched with blood on his jersey after a one-hopper from Kansas City’s Bo Jackson hit him in the mouth in 1990.

Chris Young's jersey told the story of his close call.

Chris Young’s jersey told the story of his close call.Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

“‘Nolan Ryan stayed in the game; I’ll stay in the game,’” Young said. “I think that’s when they thought I was concussed.”

He wasn’t going to stay in the game. He wasn’t even going to stay at the ballpark.

“They said, ‘We need to get you in an ambulance immediately,’” Young said. “Then at the hospital they gave me a CT scan. That was when I realized I may have to go on the [disabled list]. I wasn’t worried about the ramifications or the mental effects. I was just thinking about when I could pitch again.”

He wouldn’t pitch for more than two months. The scan showed a skull fracture that left his sinus cavity open to the brain. Doctors told him the skull would heal but that in the meantime he was at risk for meningitis, an inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain.

“They told me I had to be very careful, that I couldn’t fly and couldn’t raise my heart rate,” Young said. “I had to sleep sitting up. They said, ‘If you sneeze, make sure you open your mouth.’ At that point, I realized this was something a little more serious.”

The Padres were having a horrible season. They dropped to 17-31 the night Young was hit, and they were 33-53 by the Fourth of July. Sitting on the sideline, waiting for the swelling to go down so he could have surgery and recover, Young set a goal. He was going to come back and help the Padres avoid a 100-loss season.

He came back July 29. Two months later, on Sept. 27, Young was the winning pitcher in the game that got the Padres to 63-98, ensuring they wouldn’t lose 100.

Young pitched in the big leagues for eight more seasons, winning a World Series ring with the 2015 Kansas City Royals. By the time he retired after the 2017 season, he could say three shoulder surgeries had hurt his career more than one line drive to the face.

“When it happened, I just felt, ‘This injury is not going to define my career,’” he said. “And in the end, it didn’t. It’s just a blip.”


One thing people don’t always realize when a pitcher gets hit is how tough it can be on the guy who hit the ball. Pitchers may sometimes try to throw at hitters, but no batter wants to hit a ball at a pitcher’s unprotected head, a blow that could end the pitcher’s career.

“It’s scary, man,” said Luke Voit, who while playing for the Cardinals last year hit the line drive that struck Robbie Ray of the Diamondbacks in the head.

Albert Pujols looked on after his line drive hit Young in the face.

Albert Pujols looked on after his line drive hit Young in the face.Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

It is scary, and even though it’s unintentional, it can still be disturbing for a hitter. Pujols had to deal with that when he hit Young, as he told Chris Jenkins of the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2010:

“That’s why Tony [La Russa, the St. Louis manager] took me out of the game later. He knew. I struck out with bases loaded and never even swung the bat. Three pitches down the middle, and I didn’t even want to swing?

“In the back of my mind, I’m thinking there’s a game still going on, but my brain is telling me there’s somebody hurt and asking if he’s going to be OK. I know what kind of a guy Chris is, too, what a great guy. You feel guilty inside. As soon as I got into the dugout, I told our trainer to call over there. Every inning, I got reports. At that point, I don’t care about the game. I care if the guy’s OK.”

Voit said he instantly realized the ball was headed toward Ray’s head, at what turned out to be 108 mph. He just hoped it missed or that Ray could get his glove up in time.

“Your heart drops,” Voit said. “When I got to first base, I called time right away.”

Voit let the medical professionals tend to Ray, but once Ray sat on the cart that took him off the field, Voit went over to check on him. He came away with blood on his own jersey, so he headed to the clubhouse to change.

When he came out, he was headed back to first base when a teammate asked him where he was going. Voit had been so concerned about Ray he never realized his line drive had deflected off Ray’s head and been caught by third baseman Daniel Descalso halfway between third base and the Arizona dugout. Voit wasn’t safe at first. He was out.

Luke Voit felt terrible about hitting the ball that hit Robbie Ray in 2017.

Luke Voit felt terrible about hitting the ball that hit Robbie Ray in 2017.Jeff Roberson/Associated Press

Ray’s injuries weren’t too serious. He returned to the Diamondbacks rotation less than a month later, and he helped pitch the D-backs into the playoffs.

Bradley was even more fortunate after he was hit in the face by that 115 mph line drive off Gonzalez’s bat in 2015. Bradley was forced out of the game, but he walked off the mound, had no broken bones and no concussion and spent just two weeks on the disabled list.

“When that happens, the game’s over for you,” Gonzalez said recently. “It’s not just over for the pitcher. It’s over for you because you can’t concentrate on nothing else besides what just happened.”

Sure enough, Gonzalez struck out swinging in his remaining three plate appearances that day.

“I was asking about him in the middle of the game, at the end of the game,” Gonzalez said. “In the middle of the game you really want to know what’s going on, how is everything. I’m glad it was nothing serious. Now we can laugh about it—seeing the same guy that I hit a couple of years ago in the face having tremendous success in the big leagues. But it’s not always the case, you know? Some guys, it can ruin their career, ruin their life.”


Shoemaker’s life and career weren’t ruined, but for a little while late on the night of Sept. 4, 2016, he couldn’t be so sure.

He had been hit by Seager’s 105 mph line drive in the second inning of a game at Seattle’s Safeco Field. He saw it all the way, thought he was going to catch it but then felt it strike him on the side of his head.

The Shoemaker family.

The Shoemaker family.Photo courtesy of Matt Shoemaker

Like so many others, he first thought maybe he could stay in the game.

“I was on the mound, down on all fours, and I was asking them to let me throw a [practice] pitch,” Shoemaker said. “As soon as I tried to stand up, I realized I couldn’t have thrown.”

The Angels training staff brought him to the clubhouse, where Pujols already had Shoemaker’s wife, Danielle, on the phone. Everything would be OK, Matt told Danielle, who was pregnant with the couple’s second child.

Everything was OK, even after they got Shoemaker to the hospital. Doctors ordered imaging tests of his brain every half hour, but they told him the scans looked normal and he might be able to go home the next day.

Then things changed.

“The third or fourth time they did it, as soon as they saw the results they came into my room and said, ‘We’re taking you into surgery right now,’” Shoemaker said. “They’d seen a lot of bleeding.”

As they were wheeling him to the operating room, Shoemaker used FaceTime to call Danielle.

Surgery? Brain surgery? That was scary, so scary that Danielle put Brady, the couple’s 19-month-old son, on the phone.

“In my head, I’m like, ‘Is this the last time I’m ever gonna talk to him? Is this the last time Brady’s ever gonna talk to him?’” Danielle told Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times five months later. “Up until then, I thought, ‘It’s bad, but it’s gonna be OK.’ Then, all the sudden, it was super extreme.”

Said Matt: “She’s super strong.”

The surgery went well. Shoemaker remembered “how crappy I felt” waking up after it was over, and he remembered “walking around like a zombie” for the next two to three weeks. But he also remembered feeling much, much better by the end of September, just in time to celebrate as Danielle gave birth to Emmy on Oct. 2.

The scar left by Shoemaker's surgery.

The scar left by Shoemaker’s surgery.Photo courtesy of Matt Shoemaker

The season ended that day, and by spring training Shoemaker was back on the mound, pitching again for the Angels.

“I felt completely normal,” he said. “I was ready to compete.”


A lingering forearm injury has been a bigger hindrance to Shoemaker’s career the last two years than any effects from being hit by the line drive. But returning to the mound isn’t as simple for every pitcher.

Happ said that before he came back, he asked teammates to hit balls at him as hard as they could so he could get over any instinct that told him to flinch. Young told himself that if he pitched inside, balls wouldn’t be hit right back at him.

“I’m going to be the aggressor,” he said. “They’re going to be uncomfortable.”

It doesn’t always work.

The Red Sox did as much as they could to help Florie in spring training 2001. Pitching coach Joe Kerrigan even had a pitching machine send balls Florie’s way at high speed so he could get accustomed to the feeling again.

Even so, when Florie returned to the mound to face hitters, he took fear with him.

“I caught myself throwing way far inside or way far outside,” he said. “I can say this now: I didn’t want to throw it down the middle because they might hit it back at me. I had to look myself in the mirror and say, ‘Do you really want to do this?’”

His answer was yes, and Florie kept pitching through 2004 in the minor leagues and even tried to come back with an independent team in 2007, when he was 37 years old. He says now arm injuries probably did more to end his career than Thompson’s line drive, but his eye problems never completely went away, either.

In the hospital the night he was hit, doctors told Florie he had a fractured eye socket and a broken cheekbone and that he’d be lucky if his vision ever got back to even 20/50. They told him blood had built up behind his retina, blocking 75 percent of his visual field, and that he just had to hope it drained (it did).

Florie grasped his face immediately after tumbling to the ground.

Florie grasped his face immediately after tumbling to the ground.WILLIAM B. PLOWMAN/Associated Press

“I’ll call that a miracle,” he said.

But there were days the following spring when seeing through shadows became an issue and days when he had trouble with sunlight. He asked himself whether he could see well enough to protect himself if anyone hit another line drive his way.

In 2003, an eye doctor told him the blood vessels in his eye needed more oxygen and that he needed to switch from soft to hard contact lenses. Florie said glasses weren’t a workable alternative, and when he couldn’t get comfortable with the hard contacts, he had to call the Marlins to turn down a minor league contract they had offered.

“I can’t see good enough to pitch,” he told them.

It wasn’t just his eyes, though. Florie learned to live with constant headaches for a few years after he was hit. He spit up blood for weeks after the injury. He still has scars on both sides of his face from the reconstructive surgery. His face felt numb for years.

“I was drinking out of a straw one time, and I couldn’t find the straw,” he said. “It was stuck to the side of my nose, and I couldn’t even feel it.”


Florie had it worse than most, but every pitcher who has been hit in the head understands how bad it can be. Every one of them cringes just a little when another pitcher gets hit.

“Every single time I see one, my stomach drops,” Young said. “It absolutely makes me sick to see. I think, ‘Mine wasn’t too bad.’”

Then there was the time Young was in a restaurant with his wife. On a distant television, he saw video of a line drive hitting a pitcher in the face.

“I cringed,” he said. “I felt bad.”

Then he got a closer look. That pitcher who took the line drive to the face?

It was him.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

B/R’s Scott Miller contributed to this story.

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Does Hungary’s relationship with Russia send a message to the EU?

The leaders of Hungary and Russia have announced an increase in energy agreements – both gas and nuclear – in their first international meeting after controversies in both countries.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian President Vladimir said after a meeting on Tuesday that two Russian-built nuclear reactors would be installed in the Paks Nuclear Power Plant in central Hungary.

The announcement comes less than a week after the European Parliament voted for disciplinary action against Hungary citing its flouting of the EU’s democratic norms, and as Russia continues to be blamed for the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the UK.

Although Hungary “followed the British exampled and expelled one Russian diplomat [following the alleged poison attack]”, Peter Kreko, the director of the Political Capital Institute, a Hungarian think tank, told Al Jazeera, ” I don’t think Skripal was on the agenda at the meeting”.

Orban is often said to have created the EU’s first “illiberal democracy” and has long touted Hungary’s close relationship with the Kremlin, often to the ire of the EU.

After Tuesday’s meeting, he said that he is “pleased that for years relations between the two countries have been balanced and steady”.

The energy deal “comes at a time when Hungary’s relationship not only with the EU, but also the US, are worse”, Kreko said.

Hungary’s difficult relationship with the EU

There are a few sticking points between the EU and Hungary.

A report detailing Hungary’s alleged breaches of democratic norms, which was used to justify European Parliament’s disciplinary action, cited violations including weakening media plurality, crackdowns on civil society and moves towards limiting educational freedom.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto slammed the vote as “nothing less than the petty revenge of pro-immigration politicians”. 

Budapest’s Central European University, founded and funded by Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, who is know for his support of liberal causes and refugees, has been under the threat of closure for almost two years.

But there are international issues, too.

The subject of Ukraine, from which Moscow militarily seized and annexed Crimea in 2014 in the wake of a revolution against a pro-Russia government in Kiev, is among Hungary’s differences with the bloc.

In June, it was the sole EU nation that voted against financial aid for Ukraine, which is still waging a war against Russia-supported separatists in the country’s east.

It has also been a vocal opponent of EU sanctions on Moscow for its actions in Ukraine.

“If there were no sanctions, we would be able to cooperate more and make greater advances,” Orban said in July.

Kreko said Hungary’s agreement with Russia to expand the Paks power plant, originally made in 2014, has motivated Budapest to side with Moscow on issues related to Ukraine.

Orban’s proximity to Putin, even in the face of controversy, does “send a message to the EU”, he said.

“He already told it once, that if the EU and US do not involve us more in the economic projects, ‘We will turn [East]’.”

Economic motivations

While Orban is often portrayed as a nationalist populist, many of his economic policies are neo-liberal and depend on international funds, Zoltan Pogatsa, a lecturer at the University of West Hungary who focuses on the economics of EU integration, said in an interview with Al Jazeera.

Pogatsa explained that Hungary has received between six and seven percent of its GDP from the EU Cohesion Fund, which from 2014 to 2020 is meant for member states whose gross national income per inhabitant is less than 90 percent of the EU average so they can complete “priority projects of European interest”, according to the EU Commission’s website.

But Hungary is running out of these funds, Pogatsa said, and that doesn’t bode well for its economic future.

A strong economy accounts for some of Orban’s popularity.

Since Orban assumed office in 2010, Pogatsa said he “probably … can’t find a single economic figure in which Hungary doesn’t look better than it did 10 years ago. Inflation, growth, everything is better on paper”.

Hungary has averaged a healthy three percent GDP growth in the last five years.

“[But] in the longer term, a lot of this positive picture today isn’t sustainable. A lot of it has been dependent on EU transfers. In order to maintain that, Orban needs Russian or Chinese investment” until EU funds return in 2022, Pogatsa said.

With the money from the EU Cohesion fund drying up, “I think Paks is an economic necessity for GDP growth to continue”, he concluded.

Will the agreement be honoured?

At the meeting, Putin also called for expanding nuclear corporation.

The relationship “certainly plays into Orban’s hands. A sort of, ‘We can scare European leaders that we might be veering to the East’,” said Dimitar Bechev, a research fellow at the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan US-based think-tank that focuses on international affairs.

But Bechev noted that Hungary isn’t the only EU leader courting Russian energy agreements.

Germany imported 35 percent of its natural gas from Russia in 2015, the last year for which numbers are available.

French energy company Total bought a 10 percent stake in a Russian Arctic gas project, in a deal that was struck during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Moscow in May.

And just because Putin and Orban announced an agreement, “the small print” needs to be seen, Bechev said.

“Leaders give signatures in grand partnerships. It’s energy companies working out the small print,” he said. “The world is full of memorandums of understanding when it comes to large-scale energy agreements. Not as many get completed.”

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Bear smashes its way out of a minivan in dramatic fashion

By Marcus Gilmer

You have to hand it to this bear — it’s got a real flair for the dramatic.

The bear smashed its way out of a minivan after getting trapped inside. Whether the bear was sleeping off a bender or simply trying out the suburban parent lifestyle isn’t known. But what is known is that the furry, burly animal somehow snuck into Nicole Minkin Lissenden’s minivan and got locked inside. 

According to Lissenden, the van’s automatic locks didn’t work so her husband ran over to try to unlock the door manually, but the bear decided to make his own theatrical exit through the window. 

No humans were harmed in the filming of this video but, per Lissenden, the van is a bit worse for wear. 

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Why you should catch up on Showtime’s ‘Kidding’

Trauma, loss…and a musical number starring something called “The Pickle Nickel Choir.”

Image: Erica Parise/SHOWTIME

2018%2f05%2f15%2f8e%2fhttps3a2f2fblueprintapiproduction.s3.amazonaws.com2.b03bfBy Alexis Nedd

There used to be a tier of celebrity that seemed unimpeachable. They were the icons, the people whose front-facing personas dovetailed so nicely with public opinion that everyone felt like they existed in a world apart from regular humans and loved them for it.

In the current era of social media and paparazzi surveillance, it’s hard for anyone to maintain that level of fame. People now know too much about celebrities to hold them on a pedestal, and in the 24-hour entertainment news cycle it sometimes feels like the world is just waiting for them to crack.

Kidding is about what happens when they do. 

SEE ALSO: 8 new fall TV shows that should be on your must-watch list

In Kidding, long-lost superstar Jim Carrey plays Jeff Pickles, a Mr. Rogers–type personality whose musical children’s television show is universally popular. So popular, in fact, that when Jeff’s car is stolen, the thieves frantically return and restore the vehicle once they see his name on the registration. Mr. Pickles is a true icon, one of those characters as beloved as Betty White and as unchanging as Big Bird. 

Mr. Pickles is also a man in crisis. One year before the events of Kidding, one of his twin sons died in a car accident, leaving a wound in the center of his family. In the time between the accident and the show, Jeff’s wife separated from him, his living son turned against him, he moved from his family home to a dingy apartment, and his grieving process…well, it never really existed. 

A darkly funny portrait about what happens when the world’s most famously cheery and empathetic man doesn’t have an outlet for his valid negative emotions.

What follows in the first two episodes of Kidding, which are streaming on Showtime, is a darkly funny portrait about what happens when the world’s most famously cheery and empathetic man doesn’t have an outlet for his valid negative emotions. After introducing Jeff as a kind but somewhat ineffective character (his own son calls him a pussy, and the kid’s not wrong), Kidding then begins to expose the hairline cracks in his psyche — smash cuts to objects breaking imply that Jeff is unaware that he has begun lashing out in violent outbursts, and he demonstrates a terrifying lack of boundaries on multiple occasions.

Nothing good seems to lurk in Jeff Pickles’ future, and his descent into whatever madness awaits him is set to be the crux of the show.

Now is a good time to catch up on Kidding because the first two episodes do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of setting the plot in motion. Side stories about Jeff’s son Will pay off when the high school freshman finds his own, likely destructive way of dealing with his brother’s death. Jeff’s sister has a whole host of her own issues, from a daughter who exhibits signs of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to a husband who appears perfect and falls very short of his image. 

Getting to know the characters and where they are in reaction to the accident is crucial in understanding the relationships that drive the show, and with half hour episodes watching the first two together is roughly the length of any single HBO dramedy. It’s better and clearer to take them as shot and chaser. 

And of course, watching Kidding is a great excuse to see Jim Carrey again. Sure, he popped up in a few indie movies here and there, but he has largely retreated from the spotlight since his heyday in the 90s and early 00s. It’s easy to see what about Kidding drew Carrey back, even he hasn’t been on a TV show since In Living Color ended in 2001 — it’s the story of an icon who is forced to grapple with the worst parts of being a human. 

There are elements of Jim Carrey in Jeff Pickles. He’s as rubber-faced and goofy as ever in some moments, but is also straight-backed and stiff with repressed emotion. The weight of being Mr. Pickles feels physical on his exhausted-looking face, but he also delights in being able to be kind and change the lives of children. It’s an actor’s dream role, and one that could hardly be filled by someone who doesn’t already remind the audience of the character. 

Kidding is filled with musical moments, sharp dialogue, and lovely character moments, but it most importantly contains a low-key type of emotional horror that can only get more present over the course of the season. Now’s the time to hop on the Mr. Pickles train and see where it lands Jeff and the rest of his family. 

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Henry Golding’s movie mom is still very hard to impress in this ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ sketch

James Corden will apparently go to great lengths to win the approval of your mom. 

At least, he will if you’re Henry Golding and your movie mum is played by Michelle Yeoh. 

Corden starts out by declaring “I love mums, mums love me,” but that clearly doesn’t apply to Yeoh, who is in character as the (rather intimidating) mom from Crazy Rich Asians.

I want to make this clear: you’re not good enough for our family. You’re not even good enough for you own family,Yeoh tells Corden after discovering that his dumpling folding skills are not quite up to par. 

Still — he manages to win her over in the end.

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