Tigers' top prospect Kevin McGonigle arrives with historic MLB debut

SAN DIEGO –Kevin McGoniglelooked like a veteran all day.

It was hisMLB debut.

TheDetroit Tigers' 21-year-old top prospect stepped to the plate five times Thursday, March 26, against the San Diego Padres, batting sixth and playing third base – and he came away with four hits, including a two-run double on the first pitch he saw from right-handerNick Pivettain the first inning.

"I was nervous," said McGonigle, who only got four hours of sleep the night before his first game. "It's weird. Right when I started my load to hit, it just went away. I felt great out there."

McGonigle teamed up with aceTarik Skubalto set the tone for the 2026 Tigers inan 8-2 win over the Padres, securing a 1-0 record. Both players are the early favorites for American League awards: McGonigle for Rookie of the Year, Skubal for his third straight Cy Young.

More importantly, the Tigers haveWorld Series championship aspirations.

They'll need McGonigle's help to get there.

He made an unforgettable first impression in Thursday's win, becoming the first Tigers player sinceBilly Beanon April 25, 1987, to record four hits in his MLB debut. They're the only two players in franchise history to do so.

"I mean, I guess I gotta start not sleeping before every game – because last night, I barely got any sleep," McGonigle said.

Inside the clubhouse, teammates reacted to McGonigle's historic performance.

"He's a pretty special player," Skubal said.

"I feel like he's not scared of anything," outfielderRiley Greenesaid.

ManagerA.J. Hinchsaw the same thing from the dugout.

"He can hit," Hinch said. "He won't be as nervous as that at-bat, and if that's the nervous version of him, we're in for a fun year. I like the fact that he was aggressive on his pitch. That set the tone for a really good day, for him and for us."

WELCOME TO THE SHOW:How Kevin McGonigle learned he made Tigers: 'Get to the point, man'

In the first inning, McGonigle pulled the first pitch he saw – an up-and-in cutter from Pivetta – into right field for a two-run double. In the third, he pulled Pivetta's up-and-in fastball off the right-field wall for a double. In the ninth inning, he pulled a middle-in sinker from left-handed relieverWandy Peraltafor a single.

McGonigle loves to hit all kinds of fastballs on the inner half of the plate.

He took advantage of three opportunities.

"It's just incredible, right?" Greene said. "When I had my debut, I couldn't feel my body and didn't really know what was happening. It looked like that was his 700th game out there. Four hits, it's pretty cool to see."

In the fifth inning, McGonigle tapped a changeup from right-handed relieverRon Marinacciofor a slow roller on the infield grass, but he hustled to beat the bare-handed throw for an infield single, registering an elite sprint speed of 30.2 feet per second.

Sneaky speed is another element of his game.

DON'T SLEEP ON DEFENSE:Kevin McGonigle becomes MLB-ready shortstop with pre-pitch consistency

The way McGonigle handled his second plate appearance shows the makings of an on-base machine, both now and in the future, as he battled back from down 0-2 in the count against Pivetta. He refused to chase an up-and-away fastball, fouled a bottom-of-the-zone curveball and refused to chase a curveball in the dirt – leading to a 2-2 count.

Advertisement

He hit the ensuing up-and-in fastball for his second hit of the game.

"The same approach I have in two strikes is to go up there and battle," McGonigle said. "It's me versus him, and I got to keep that same mindset that I'm better than the guy out there on the mound. I fell down 0-2 and was able to battle back and get a barrel on the ball."

The hits kept coming.

He had four by the end of his first game.

"Is there some sort of record?" Skubal said, wondering about the historical context of McGonigle collecting four hits in his MLB debut. "It has to be, right?"

He is the 25th player to do it.

"Wow," Skubal said.

One player had five hits.

"Really?" Skubal said.

Here's the best stat from McGonigle's MLB debut: He became the 15th player in MLB history aged 21 or younger to reach base four times on Opening Day, doing it on the same day as Boston Red Sox outfielderRoman Anthony.

The other 13 players on the list:Eddie Collins,Rabbit Maranville,Jimmie Foxx,Dario Lodigiani,Eddie Yost,Mickey Mantle,Brooks Robinson,Joe Lahoud,Gary Carter,Roberto Alomar,Delino DeShields,Ken Griffey Jr.andJoe Mauer.

Nine of them are in the Hall of Fame.

"He's a special talent," Skubal said. "He doesn't need any help. He just needs to be Kevin. He's a really good baseball player, and he proved it today, but what I love about him is I don't think he's going to think about today tomorrow. That speaks to who he is as a human, just as a competitor. I'm excited that he's on our club."

[ MUST LISTEN:Make"Days of Roar"your go-to Tigers podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple,Spotify)]

McGonigle soaked up the moment with his family.

His parents and a few other family members made the trip to San Diego, traveling all the way from his hometown of Aldan, Pennsylvania, only 10 miles from downtown Philadelphia. Everyone arrived late Wednesday, less than 24 hours before his first game, but he still carved out a few minutes to spend time with them.

The next day, McGonigle met up with his family on the field after Thursday's game.

He gave his first-hit baseball to his parents.

"I'm just happy we won today," McGonigle said.

The moment didn't change him.

None of this has.

"If it changes, let me know," Hinch said. "It's been the same for 45 straight days in camp. Nothing seems to bother him or shake him outside of the competition. He's pretty competitive with himself. He's pretty competitive with the opponent. He considers it the same game he's always been playing, and you can tell by the way he controls his actions."

Contact Evan Petzold atepetzold@freepress.comor follow him@EvanPetzold.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press:Kevin McGonigle brings big bat for Detroit Tigers in Opening Day debut

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

March 27, 2026

Tigers' top prospect Kevin McGonigle arrives with historic MLB debut

SAN DIEGO –Kevin McGoniglelooked like a veteran all day. It was hisMLB debut. TheDetroit Tigers' 21-year-o...

Read More

Elliot Cadeau is a 'savant' for Michigan basketball, his hearing and vision be damned

One reasonElliot Cadeauwas drawn toMichiganas a transfer last spring was the size of the Wolverines' starting front line, with 7-3 center Aday Mara flanked by 6-9 forwards Morez Johnson Jr. andYaxel Lendeborg.

Being surrounded by this length and athleticism has given the more diminutive former North Carolina point guard room to dip and duck his way through coach Dusty May's read-and-react system, where spacing and ball movement are mandatory and players are "encouraged to pass up good shots for great ones," according to the program's definition.

March Madness games today:Analyzing Friday's Sweet 16 matchups

"I would say that he does an amazing job dissecting the offense," said Michigan guard Nimari Burnett. "He makes it so much easier for us all around the court that played with him, just getting us easy shots. I'm just joyful to play with him every single game."

Along with Mara and Lendeborg — from UCLA and Alabama-Birmingham, respectively — Cadeau has helped transform the No. 1 Wolverines into one of the best teams in the nation and the favorite to advance out of the Midwest Region for the ninth Final Four appearance in program history.

"Elliott runs the show," Johnson said.

There have been a few hiccups along the way to Friday's matchup in Chicago against No. 4 Alabama, including a dud in Michigan's nonconference loss to Duke in February and a run of poor shooting performances late in Big Ten play.

But Cadeau has rebounded to play some of his best basketball in the past few weeks, including a stretch of 26 assists against just five turnovers in his past three games. That he's done so while dealing with medical issues has made Cadeau one of Michigan's unquestioned leaders both on the court and off.

"I think he's really relatable in terms of where he's from, what he's been through," guard Roddy Gayle Jr. said. "He's always a guy that you can rely on. I feel like most point guards have that trait, but really, he has been someone where if someone isn't going right, I'm able to lean on him."

Hearing, vision issues haven't stopped Elliot Cadeau

That Cadeau has remained unflappable amid his high-profile transfer from Chapel Hill and the stress of running the show for the Wolverines shouldn't come as a surprise.

As a child growing up in New Jersey, Cadeau was diagnosed as partially deaf in his right ear. He's had to manage asthma. As a freshman with the Tar Heels, he needed to have surgery to treat a progressive eye disorder calledkeratoconus, which thins the cornea and can often cause blurred vision and a sensitivity to bright lights and glare.

None of these conditions would seem to be conducive to playing point guard for a team with national championship goals, let alone playing basketball, period.

Yet these same issues have helped define Cadeau, shaping the way he approaches his role as the Wolverines' facilitator.

"It kind of just made me feel like I just can't make excuses," he said after Michigan's win against No. 9 Saint Louis in the second round.

"I have really close friends when I was growing up who are all at the highest level of the NBA, high-major basketball players, and I wanted to be just as good as them. I was trying to be better than them.

Advertisement

"Even though they didn't have the same issues as me, I couldn't just make excuses about it and not be as good as them."

Handling this adversity helped Cadeau weather a tumultuous two-year run at North Carolina, where he often became the poster child for the Tar Heels' unrealized expectations after ranking near the bottom of the ACC in turnovers and fouls as a sophomore.

"That's just kind of a testament to who he is," said Gayle. "Because of everything that he's been through, he's able to kind of separate himself from everything that's going on and be able to give you advice."

And despite the challenges he's faced to reach Friday night, Cadeau insists he's never been slowed down by the conditions that could have easily derailed a promising career.

"There are no adjustments made," he said. "Me not being able to hear fully didn't really make any difference on the court, because you don't really need hearing unless you're listening to a play call or you're listening to your teammates. I feel like basketball-wise, it doesn't affect me."

Cadeau a 'savant' at the controls of Michigan's offense

Cadeau's game has blossomed as the showrunner for one of the top offenses in college basketball. The Wolverines enter the matchup against Alabama ranked ninth nationally in scoring, fourth in field-goal percentage and fifth in assists per game.

The junior is averaging a career-best 10.1 points per game with 57 makes from 3-point range, nearly doubling his total from his final season at North Carolina. Cadeau has 28 fewer turnovers in one fewer game compared to last year while posting 5.7 assists per game, good for fourth in the Big Ten.

Cadeau has been the perfect fit for a system that needs a happy-to-share distributor, especially as Michigan looks to quickly turn defensive stops into transition.

"He's a savant with what he's doing," May said. "He probably doesn't even realize a lot of the things he's doing because he's so intelligent. He's able to get us into close-out opportunities without really having to run any offense. His ability to read the floor, read the game, manipulate defenses, is incredibly impressive."

His arrival in Ann Arbor has sparked a clear increase in confidence. Cadeau has been much more willing to chase his own shot, especially given the attention paid to Michigan's imposing frontcourt. He made three from long range against Saint Louis, helping the Wolverines take control in the first half and cruise to the 95-72 win.

Adding another outside shooter to Burnett and fellow guard Trey McKenney has made the offense even more dangerous, teammates said.

"The difference between him and last year, he was more pass-first," Lendeborg said. "He's still pass-first now, but he's become way more of a scoring threat. You can't guard him anyway. So having to compete with him and trying to stop him when you think he's going to pass, it's good night pretty much honestly."

Said Gayle, "It wasn't the fact that he couldn't, he's just more confident in doing so. And he works really hard for it."

This same level of dedication — one needed to fight through his medical conditions and to become a more complete and well-rounded player on both ends — has built Cadeau into an elite college point guard, and in turn made the Wolverines into a team capable of winning the second national championship in program history.

"He's what we want in a point guard," May said. "He's a guy that makes everyone on the team better."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Is Elliot Cadeau deaf? Michigan star overcame ailments to reach Elite 8

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

March 27, 2026

Elliot Cadeau is a 'savant' for Michigan basketball, his hearing and vision be damned

One reasonElliot Cadeauwas drawn toMichiganas a transfer last spring was the size of the Wolverines' starting front l...

Read More

An unknown attacker threw Molotov cocktails at a Russian center in Prague, police say

PRAGUE (AP) — An unknown perpetrator threw several Molotov cocktails at a Russian center in Prague promoting culture and history, Czech police said on Friday.

The incident in the Czech capital took place late Thursday and is now being investigated, they said.

The building of the center did not catch fire. A photo shows a broken window while two windows and a wall are partly covered with smoke.

Known as the Russian House, the building is funded by the Russian state but doesn't have diplomatic status.

Advertisement

The center said it organizes various cultural, educational and scientific programs and offers courses in the Russian language.

Its director, Igor Girenko, told the Russian state news agency Tass that three of the six Molotov cocktails did not explode.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, called it "a barbaric act," the agency said.

The Russian embassy in Prague has asked the Czech authorities to boost security of Russian institutions and its employees in the country.

Czech Interior Minister Lubomír Metnar called the attack "unacceptable."

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

March 27, 2026

An unknown attacker threw Molotov cocktails at a Russian center in Prague, police say

PRAGUE (AP) — An unknown perpetrator threw several Molotov cocktails at a Russian center in Prague promoting culture and ...

Read More

A year after Trump's DOGE cuts, workers whose lives were upended question what was saved

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thea Price anticipated changes under the second Trump administration, but she never expected her life to be thrown into such disarray.

Trump DOGE Aftershocks

Along with the 300 other employees of the United States Institute of Peace, Price was fired, rehired and then fired again as part of President Donald Trump's crusade to shrink the federal government,a chaotic effortthat cut tens of thousands of jobs and shrank or dismantled entire agencies.

One year later, many of those impacted are left wondering whether their pain was worth it.

"Nobody was prepared for the complete destruction," said Price, a former program operations manager. "And for what?"

The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, led by then-Trump adviserElon Musk, instigated purges of federal agencies with the expressed mission of rooting outfraud, waste and abuse.

USIP, a congressionally funded independent nonprofit, became a symbol of the upheaval. DOGE staffers entered the USIP building early last year,setting off a battleover who controls the institute, which later saw Trumpplant his nameon its Washington headquarters.

The blow to its workers came on March 28, 2025, when they were fired, a decision a judge later reversed and then another one reinstated — whiplash that still weighs on the former staffers.

A year on, DOGE's toll on people's lives is clear —what was actually savedin the process of upending them is not.

Questions over how much DOGE has saved

Musk set a target of $2 trillion in savings. The DOGE website says it has saved about $215 billion through job cuts, contract and lease cancellations and asset sales, as well as grant rescissions.

More than 260,000 workers left federal service due to Trump administration initiatives in 2025, according to the Office of Management and Budget, including reductions in force, early retirement, deferred resignations and a hiring freeze.

"President Trump was given a clear mandate to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse from the federal government," said White House spokesperson Davis Ingle when asked how much was saved. "In just a year, he has made significant progress in making the federal government more efficient to better serve the American taxpayer."

Organizations that have examined elements of the DOGE operation, along with the Government Accountability Office, a congressional watchdog of how taxpayer dollars are spent, have not been able to pinpoint how much was saved, or lost, by the reform efforts. Many challenge the Republican administration's numbers.

Dominik Lett, a budget analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said there were basic mistakes on the DOGE pages tracking savings, leading him to believe the numbers were too high. He said Cato and other organizations have shied away from trying to arrive at a number because of the complexity of the moves.

"Who is getting fired matters. How they're getting fired, will there be lawsuits?" was among the questions Lett has. Even terminating leases and contracts wasn't as simple as it sounds.

In the end, he said, "we don't know how much DOGE has saved."

Cuts were big, deep and random, expert says

In her analysis of media reports and public sources, Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, found that about 25,000 people who were fired were rehired because they were deemed to be essential.

"What DOGE did is it cut so big and so deep and so randomly that when the Cabinet secretaries came in, and Elon Musk was gone, they realized that they had to bring some of these people back," Kamarck said.

With that, Kamarck estimated the savings might hit between $100 billion and $200 billion, though final figures remain highly uncertain.

A GAO analysis found layoffs in the Education Department's civil rights division may have cost $38 million, with employees paid months after termination.

Advertisement

The impacts of DOGE's work are the subject of ongoing litigation.More than a dozen lawsuitshave been filed against the Trump administration for DOGE's actions over the past year, which challenge everything from the cancellation of grants, mass firings and buyouts, to access to sensitive U.S. Treasury data and payment systems, to the closure of massive federally funded programs.

Musk, in an interview with conservative influencer Katie Miller, said last December that his efforts leading DOGEwere only "somewhat successful"and he would not do it again.

Whiplash at the US Institute of Peace

Created by Congress during the Reagan administration, USIP was meant to promote peace and prevent global conflict. At the time it was shuttered, the institute operated in more than two dozen conflict zones, including Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Employees watched as DOGE dismantled another organization, theU.S. Agency for International Development. Then, DOGE staffersshowed up multiple times at USIPand ultimately took over the headquarters. Most of the institute's board and the acting president were fired.

On the evening of March 28, 2025,termination notices began showing upin employees' personal emails. Within two hours, most of the 300-plus staffers were gone.

USIP leaders and employees sued, arguing it was independent of the executive branch. A federal judge ruled Trump had acted outside his authority, in a decision thatrestored controlof the institute and reinstated workers with backpay — though few returned as operations resumed gradually.

In June, anappeals court stayed that decision. And for the second time, the staff was fired.

The case is suspended now, awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court decision in another personnel-related case, which could expand the president's control over federal agencies that have long been considered independent of the executive branch.

Depending on that decision and what the appeals court does, the staff could be due back pay and benefits again, despite not having worked for months.

DOGE's aftershocks are still being felt

While the original iteration of DOGE has dissipated from the public view, its presence is still felt in parts of the government. High-ranking DOGE officials have been hired as permanent staffers in federal agencies, including at the Treasury Department.

For the people who worked at USIP, the past year has been a whirlwind.

Some have found jobs, but many have faced headwinds in a market flooded with skilled labor. Some meet regularly and update one another on job searches and the suspended court cases they still hope might revive their former employer.

Price came off maternity leave one day before she was fired. When she was fired for the second time, she and her husband, who had lost his job as a contractor at a museum when his project's funding was cut, lived on their reserves and applied for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which took months to be approved.

She was forced to use a food pantry when the government shutdown last yearstopped her SNAP payments. After filing dozens of job applications, her family left the capital region and moved to the Seattle area.

She now works for a nonprofit that focuses on affordable housing. It is meaningful, but she misses the institute, its mission and her team.

Liz Callihan, who worked in communications at USIP, has applied for 140 jobs since being fired. She often wonders why her former professional home, with a noble mission and a relatively small annual budget of $50 million, became a target of DOGE.

"I absolutely ask myself every day what all this was for," she said.

Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein contributed.

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

March 27, 2026

A year after Trump's DOGE cuts, workers whose lives were upended question what was saved

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thea Price anticipated changes under the second Trump administration, but she never expected her life t...

Read More

'We don't sleep': Sailors stranded in Persian Gulf as rockets fly over their heads

HONG KONG — He and his shipmates stay up on the deck at night, sometimes watching rockets fly over their heads.

What was supposed to be an uneventful first voyage transporting oil across the Persian Gulf has turned into a nightmare for a 28-year-old sailor from India, who has spent the past month stuck as his ship sits idled by theIran war.

"We don't sleep at night. We stay up on deck because you never know what might happen next," said the sailor, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from authorities and his employer.

The seafarer, who has been at sea since November, was speaking to NBC News from Iraqi waters minutes after an air attack Tuesday afternoon, which he says landed on Iran just a few miles away.

"The ship is still vibrating," he said in an interview in Hindi.

He and the three other crew members on the small oil vessel are among20,000 sailors strandedon hundreds of ships in the Persian Gulf, according to the U.N.'s maritime agency, after Iran effectively shut down theStrait of Hormuzin response to U.S.-Israeli strikes.

The blockade of the crucial shipping route, which hassent global energy prices soaring, has also trapped the largely invisible workforce that keeps the world's maritime trade afloat, prolonging their time away from their families and putting their lives at risk. At least seven seafarers have been killed and several others have been severely injured in what the U.N. says were Iranian attacks on commercial vessels.

"The world has relied on these people to keep trade moving under impossible conditions," said Angad Banga, chief executive of the Caravel Group, a Hong Kong-based shipping conglomerate. Caravel's subsidiary company, Fleet Management Limited, manages more than 600 ships, including some that are stuck in the Gulf.

It has already been a difficult few years for the world's nearly 2 million seafarers, who mostly come from thePhilippines,Indiaand other Asian nations. During the Covid pandemic, they were confined to their ships for long periods, unable to take breaks on shore because of border restrictions that many countries imposed.

Their work and mental health were further disrupted when Houthi rebels in Yemen beganattacking ships in the Red Sea, with at least nine sailors killed and 11 othersheld captive for five months.

"The moment the crises fade from the headlines, the world forgets they exist, and that cycle has to break," Banga added.

The International Maritime Organization, the U.N.'s maritime agency, hasconfirmed18 incidents of damage to commercial vessels from March 1 to 19 in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. In one instance March 11, there was an explosion on a Thai-flagged ship after it was hit by projectiles and 20 of its crew members had to be rescued, withthree still missingFriday as Iranian state media reported the ship had run aground off Iran's Qeshm Island. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said the ship had ignored "warnings."

Even if their vessels are not directly hit, the stranded seafarers can only watch in fear as Iran trades strikes with the U.S. and Israel.

In the incident Tuesday, the sailor said, he heard missile strikes for nearly half an hour and counted more than a dozen explosions.

"I was initially in the engine room so I didn't know what was going on," he said. "When I came up to the deck, I saw the rest of my crew watching the rockets fly by, which would be followed by explosions in the distance."

"I could see when they were hitting the ground, see smoke rise and feel the impact through the ship," he added.

The same day, Banga's firm showed NBC News just how bad the situation has become.

Advertisement

Inside Fleet Management's headquarters in a Hong Kong office tower, in a room known as "the Bridge," hundreds of white dots appeared across eight screens that formed a giant maritime world map, each representing a vessel under the group's management.

The contrast is stark: While normally about 130 ships would pass through the Strait of Hormuz daily, some of them Fleet Management's, virtually none are able to get through now. Several ships awaiting passage were visible on the screen.

As the stranded seafarers struggle to keep their spirits up, Banga said his firm has been conducting regular check-ins with crew members, who try to maintain somewhat of a routine that includes leisure activities and maintenance work on their ships.

"They exercise, they watch movies, some play basketball on the deck, sit there," he said.

"When the routine breaks down is when people start to unravel," he added. "The sun goes down, and that's when the fear comes because most of the attacks happen in the dark."

On Tuesday, the vessel tracking website MarineTraffic said in apost on Xthat only nine ships had passed through the strait since the day before, with apparent Iranian support.

One of them was a Chinese-owned vessel that successfully transited the waterway Monday.

A video shot by one of the sailors onboard the ship, shared on Chinese social media platform Douyin and geolocated by NBC News, showed the tanker passing through a narrow section of the strait off the coast of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran.

The sailor panned the camera around the ship, showing small speedboats in the distance that were escorting his ship and at least three other tankers in an apparent convoy.

"We can see some large tankers. Not sure why they decided to anchor here," the sailor filming the video can be heard saying in Mandarin in another video, pointing to the Iranian coastline and some high-rise buildings visible in the distance.

"I can't shoot any videos outside anymore. It's dangerous. Let's hide in the cabin quickly," he says.

NBC News reached out to the vessel's manager for comment.

Iran said this week that "non-hostile vessels" would be allowed safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with Iranian authorities.

"As we repeatedly emphasized, the Strait of Hormuz remains open, and maritime traffic has not been suspended," the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry wrote in a letter to the U.N. seen by NBC News. "Navigation continues, subject to compliance with the necessary measures referenced above and the realities arising from the ongoing conflict."

The letter defines "non-hostile vessels" as those that "neither participate in nor support acts of aggression against Iran." It did not say which countries qualify, though it said vessels "belonging to the aggressor parties," namely the U.S. and Israel, did not.

The sailor stuck in Iraqi waters is hoping his ship will be able to leave soon.

"My family is panicking," he said. "We've packed all our bags and are ready the moment someone calls us."

byCristiano Ronaldo

in

March 27, 2026

'We don't sleep': Sailors stranded in Persian Gulf as rockets fly over their heads

HONG KONG — He and his shipmates stay up on the deck at night, sometimes watching rockets fly over their heads. ...

Read More