CHICAGO -- It wasn't without drama, but new Chicago Cubs closer Craig Kimbrel did his job in nailing down his first save on his very first day on the job at Wrigley Field. Kimbrel got the first two outs in the ninth inning Thursday, then gave up a double and four-pitch walk before inducing Freddie Freeman to ground out and preserving a 9-7 Cubs win over the Atlanta Braves.

"It was awesome," an understated Kimbrel said after the game. "As a competitor you always want to be in this spot. It was nice today, it worked out like that."

The last inning began as Kimbrel walked in from the bullpen to "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N' Roses and the fans rose to their feet. As he did his signature move -- dangling his right arm before throwing a pitch -- the crowd hollered again.

"It's a lot better when they're on your side," Kimbrel said with a smile. "I can tell you that."

Teammate Steve Cishek added: "He deserves that type of ovation. You kind of get goose bumps. That was pretty cool. It fired me up."

Kimbrel didn't disappoint the Wrigley faithful as he hit 97.6 mph on his first pitch as a Cub. In fact, his first eight pitches were all in the zone.

"I was really impressed with how he just walked out there and started firing strikes," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "Very much in control of his emotions which spoke loudly to me."

Adding to the drama, Kimbrel froze on the two-out Freeman ground ball to first baseman Anthony Rizzo, so Rizzo took it to the bag himself, diving to touch first base like a running back hitting the pylon in the end zone. The closer might have an excuse, considering he hadn't played a game in nearly eight months. Kimbrel signed a three-year, $43 million deal just recently as he waited until nearly half the season was over before agreeing to terms with a team. The Cubs have languished near the bottom of the league in save percentage so the marriage seemed like a perfect one.

If Thursday is any indication, the rewards they'll reap from Kimbrel are already coming to fruition -- and it has nothing to do with the ninth inning. His presence allowed Maddon to deploy his better arms earlier in the game. After Tyler Chatwood was removed after five innings, Cishek, Brandon Kintzler and Pedro Strop were able to bridge the innings to Kimbrel.

"I think it's just a preview of what's to come in terms of our bullpen," Cishek said. "Any one of us can lead up to him. For me to come in the sixth, was kind of nice. It was fun to get that ball rolling to get it to the main man."

Kimbrel figures he'll need about a week to really feel up to speed after missing so much time, but for his first outing, it was exactly what he and the Cubs were hoping for.

"It's been a little bit," Kimbrel said. "It was nice to get out there, have the fans behind me. Came out on top.

"I've had a chance to pitch in front of a lot of loud crowds. Today was another one. Pretty awesome."

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- No, Mike Trout will not be participating in this year's Home Run Derby. Yes, Major League Baseball keeps trying.

"Every year," Trout said. "Every year they ask me."

Trout, an All-Star starter for the seventh consecutive year after leading the sport in fan votes, has always declined to take part in the event. But he has never ruled out the possibility of someday changing his mind, even now.

"Maybe one year I'll say to myself, 'Hey, let's do it,'" Trout said. "I'm obviously a big fan of watching it. It's just what it is. I enjoyed watching it as a kid, thought it was cool. I just never really wanted to do it."

The Home Run Derby will move from Cleveland to Southern California next year, when the Los Angeles Dodgers host the All-Star Game, perhaps increasing the possibility that Trout takes part.

It isn't just MLB and the media that pester Trout about the Derby. It's friends back home, fans in road cities, even teammates. The Los Angeles Angels' star center fielder took part in a home run derby his senior year of high school, winning the event while batting left-handed, and did another as a 17-year-old playing A ball.

As a big leaguer, Trout prefers to maximize time with his family during the All-Star break. The workload is also a concern.

"It's a long, long night," Trout said. "A lot of swings."

Trout watched Albert Pujols compete in the Home Run Derby in 2015, nearly beating Todd Frazier in the final round. And there's a chance -- slim, it seems -- that he might watch another teammate in Shohei Ohtani compete this year.

Ohtani has expressed interest in taking part in the July 8 event, but there could be complications stemming from his ongoing recovery from Tommy John surgery.

"I think he would probably win," Trout said. "He's got some of the best power in the league. Obviously, this year it'd be different because he just came off Tommy John. I mean, I want him to do it, I'm sure he wants to do it. I don't know if our trainers would like that. You're coming off Tommy John and going up there taking full hacks. Will it affect his swing? Will it affect his arm? Probably not. But we need him back throwing 105."

For now, Ohtani's bat will continue to do the talking for him on the field. In his second at-bat in Thursday's game against the Oakland Athletics, he launched a 406-foot shot over the center-field wall, his 10th home run of the season.

The Houston Astros lead all teams with three starters for this year's All-Star Game, after all the votes were tallied Thursday in Major League Baseball's new "Starters Election."

Houston's Alex Bregman, the runaway winner at third base for the American League, will be joined in the starting lineup by Astros teammates George Springer and Michael Brantley, the latter of whom edged the New York Yankees' Aaron Judge by less than 1 percentage point for the final AL outfield spot.

Springer and Brantley will share the outfield with Angels star Mike Trout, who led all candidates with 993,857 votes in the final stage, for the game at Cleveland's Progressive Field on July 9.

Under MLB's new system, fans voted for players up until last Friday, and the top three finalists at each position for both leagues moved on to a runoff election -- after all votes were reset to zero -- conducted Wednesday and Thursday.

The Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees were the only other teams to put more than one player in the starting lineups.

The Braves' Freddie Freeman won the tightest race in the National League, edging the Pirates' Josh Bell by 1.1% of the vote at first base. He'll be joined by Ronald Acuna Jr., who overcame a challenge from Colorado's Charlie Blackmon for the final NL outfield spot.

Cubs catcher Willson Contreras and shortstop Javier Baez -- who won at second base last year -- both cruised to starting spots, while Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez and second baseman DJ LeMahieu will start for the AL.

With 51.9% of the final vote, Rockies first baseman Nolan Arenado was the only player to win more than half the votes at his position. However, in raw votes he still finished behind Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich, who led the NL with 930,577.

"In spring, there were a lot of questions if I could do it again," Yelich said. "Was it a fluke? Am I a good player? That stuff kind of lights a fire in me. I didn't know how the year was going to go, but I wasn't going to look back on last year and think anything was guaranteed. Just because you're an MVP the previous year, you're not going to just walk through the next year and everything was going to be fine."

Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Cody Bellinger, an early MVP candidate, won the other NL outfield spot, while Ketel Marte will be the first Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman to start an All-Star Game since Jay Bell in 1999.

The crowd in Cleveland will be able to cheer on hometown favorite Carlos Santana, who will start at first base for the AL after winning 49.2% of the final vote at his position.

Also starting for the American League will be Jorge Polanco -- who will be the first Minnesota Twins shortstop to start an All-Star Game in 40 years -- and Texas Rangers designated hitter Hunter Pence, who could find only a minor league contract as a free agent last offseason.

"It was quite a wild journey from this year to last year," Pence said. "And to even be speaking about this now, is a miracle. It's a blessing, and I'm very grateful."

With an average age of just 25.8 years, the National League lineup signals a youth movement. At 29, Freeman is the elder statesman, with the 28-year-old Arenado the next-oldest player. The outfield of Yelich, Bellinger and Acuna will be the youngest to start an All-Star Game since 1957, and the third youngest ever.

"It shows how good these young guys are," said Arenado, who'll be making his fifth All-Star appearance. "Some of these young players are unbelievable players. We're fortunate to be in this time, when you get to see how good they are."

Trout is set to be the sixth AL player to start six times before turning 28. The others are Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Ivan Rodriguez, Rod Carew and Ken Griffey Jr.

"I just enjoy going to the [All-Star Games]," Trout said upon his eighth straight selection. "Every year it seems like I am slowing it down and embracing the experience. The first couple I was running around and it went so fast."

Those players who didn't win the vote will have to wait until Sunday afternoon to learn if they are among the reserves, chosen by a combination of the players' ballot and the commissioner's office. The pitchers also will be revealed during the announcement on ESPN.

It's a beautiful day for baseball.

A sellout crowd of 39,913 fills up Target Field on a late May Sunday to take advantage of the all-too-rare sunshine and watch the hometown, first-place Minnesota Twins play the Chicago White Sox. The vibes are particularly festive in Sections 134-136, which are a stone's throw away from a beer garden and a baseball toss away from the right fielder, Max Kepler.

"They love Max out here," an usher says. "He's been playing great, but most innings, he also throws balls into the stands at the end of his warm-ups. He's very good at spreading them out. I'm seeing more and more Kepler 26 jerseys. [pause] He's especially popular with the young girls."

Playing in the hometown of General Mills, the 26-year-old Kepler seems to have stepped off a box of Wheaties. But his popularity is not strictly based on his good looks and Adonis-like physique (6-foot-4, 220 pounds.). He's a complete ballplayer, fast and tenacious enough to bat leadoff, powerful enough to be among the team leaders in home runs and RBIs, and graceful enough to be considered one of the best right fielders in baseball. (As of this writing, he has 19 homers, 51 RBIs, an OBP of .351 and an OPS of .928. He just missed the cut for AL outfielders in the All-Star Game voting.)

"We drove all the way from Sioux Falls to see him," says Haley Beckstrand, 14, who's wearing her Kepler 26 shirt and sitting between her parents in the right-field seats after their four-hour drive from South Dakota. "He's a great player. And he has such a cool story. He's from Germany! And his parents were ballet dancers!"

She's right. Max's mother, Kathy Kepler, is from Texas, and his father, Marek Rozycki, is from Poland, and they met at a barre -- namely, the Berlin Ballet Company. Their son's given name is Max Kepler-Rozycki, but at the beginning of his odyssey to the major leagues, they realized the name wouldn't fit on the back of his jersey. So every time Kepler comes to bat at Target Field, the name under his profile on the center-field scoreboard reads ROZYCKI.

It's a tribute not only to his father's Polish heritage but also to the Twins, who took a chance on signing him 10 years ago, when he was playing baseball for a sports academy in Regensburg, Germany, and then patiently waited for him to catch up to his more experienced teammates from places such as Florida, Indiana, California, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

It's a subtle reminder that the game of baseball had its origins across the pond, to whence it will return on June 29 and 30 (Sunday at 10 AM ET, on ESPN), when the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox play at London Stadium in the first MLB games played in Europe.

Max is not the first European to play for the Twins; Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven was born in Zeist, Holland. "Yes, but I left there when I was 2," says Blyleven, now an analyst on Twins telecasts. "I'm just glad we found him. He's a great German export."

Nor is Max the only European playing in the majors. Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius was born in Amsterdam, though he learned the game after moving to Curacao at the age of 5. Pirates reliever Dovydas Neverauskas, who bounces back and forth between Pittsburgh and its Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis, is from Lithuania, a country whose claim to baseball fame has heretofore been confined to the story of Eddie Waitkus. The son of Lithuanian immigrants, Waitkus was a first baseman for the Chicago Cubs in 1949 when an obsessed admirer shot him. He not only survived but also inspired the novelist Bernard Malamud to write that great American novel, "The Natural."

There are more Europeans in the pipelines of the minors. Martin Cervenka, from Prague in the Czech Republic, is a rifle-armed catcher for the Orioles' Double-A affiliate, the Bowie BaySox. He occasionally runs into another European in the Eastern League, New Hampshire Fisher Cats catcher Alberto Mineo, who is from a small town near Gorizia, Italy, on the border with Slovenia. There is also a shortstop for the French national baseball team who has raised the eyebrows of European scouts: Melissa Mayeux of Le Barcares, France. She has been in the United States the past two years playing softball for Miami-Dade College and will continue to play softball for University of Louisiana-Lafayette next fall, but she hopes to resume her baseball career someday.

"The challenge is to create 'social permission' in countries where there are other, more ingrained sports like basketball or soccer. Max is doing that the way Yao Ming made basketball more popular in China." Jim Small, MLB's Senior VP for International

There are currently more than 20 Europeans under contract with major league teams, including players from Russia, Moldova, Spain, France, Germany, Lithuania, Italy and the Netherlands.

The exploration for talent in Europe and Africa, as well as other untapped regions, is particularly fascinating because it seems to combine the Old World wisdom of scouting with the New World emphasis on analytics. Baseball executives are unfolding their scouting maps the way they've been opening up their minds.

The game is moving quickly. When Kepler signed with the Twins back in 2009, shortstops always played on the left side of the infield, starters were expected to go at least five innings, if not the distance, and lineups were shaped by the time-honored tradition of speed on top of the order, power in the middle and hope at the bottom. The other day, Mike Mordecai, the manager of the Fisher Cats and a 12-year major league veteran infielder, pondered the changes while sitting in his office at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester, New Hampshire:

"If Lou Gehrig or Babe Ruth or Jackie Robinson came back today and saw the game, they might not recognize it. They would say, 'What the hell?' to the defensive shifts or the relievers starting games. But you know what? If you told them that there's a right fielder from Germany or a pitcher from Lithuania or a catcher who's from Italy, they might actually like that. They would see that the national pastime has gone global."

As part of the festivities for the Yankees-Red Sox series, MLB will be hosting the Elite European Development Tournament in Slough, England. "We've invited 91 players in all," says Bill Holmberg, MLB's pitching coordinator for Europe and Africa. "They come from places you would never associate with baseball: Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Belarus. ... Some of them are real prospects. We've got a few pitchers 6-foot-7 and above. If we put the best of them together, we might beat a very good American college team."

Baseball in Europe has become a major priority for MLB. It hosts an annual Arizona Classic showcase that brings European players to the attention of scouts and college coaches. There are numerous two-week Cadet Camps in Europe for promising younger players, as well as regular coaching development clinics. Across the Atlantic, fan interest in baseball is expanding along with the talent. Viewership of MLB games averages 200,000 per game -- double what it was five years ago, according to Jim Small, MLB's senior vice president for international.

"Having heroes like Max Kepler is huge for us. They're the fertilizer that will help us continue to grow the sport," Small said. "We're not where we want to be, but when you consider where we once were in Europe, we're definitely making progress. The challenge is to create 'social permission' in countries where there are other, more ingrained sports like basketball or soccer. Max is doing that the way Yao Ming made basketball more popular in China.

"What we also have over there are some fantastic ambassadors for the sport. There's a man in the Czech Republic named Jan Bagin, whom I first met in 1992, right after the Velvet Revolution. He was literally harassed for bringing an American sport to Prague. Policemen would pull him over, shatter his taillight and then ticket him for having a busted taillight. He took us to a garbage dump and declared, 'This is my "Field of Dreams."' We thought he was crazy. But you know what? There is now a beautiful cloverleaf of baseball diamonds on that land."

The fall of the Iron Curtain also provides a distant backdrop to the story of the Twins' surprising rise in the standings some 30 years later.

It all started when one dancer from the Berlin Ballet stopped to fix the bike of another. As chronicled in a delightful 2016 story by Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Marek came to Kathy's rescue, and she offered to fix him dinner in gratitude. The daughter of a U.S. Army intelligence officer stationed in Texas, Kathy left home at 15 to dance for the renowned Joffrey Ballet Company in New York, then moved to Berlin at 17. Marek, too, sacrificed for his art, defecting from Poland while on tour in Italy, then finding asylum in West Berlin. They married in 1990, one year before the Wall came down, and Max was born in 1993, two years before his sister, Emma.

It was while on vacation in Texas when he was 3 that Max learned to play baseball. "It was on my parents' front lawn that Opa [Max's grandfather] introduced Max to the game," Kathy says. "Three years later, they gave him a Derek Jeter Yankee uniform, and while he grew out of it pretty quickly, he insisted on wearing the pants as the elastic crept up his legs, going from the popular length to old school. Eventually, I had to sew on extensions."

His parents pretty quickly discovered that Max was an athlete, gifted at skiing, swimming, soccer, golf and tennis (he was invited to attend Steffi Graf's tennis academy when he was 7). Emma, too, had her parents' athletic genes, eventually gravitating toward golf. But the kids were also raised to appreciate the discipline and poise that go into performing before an audience. "I remember waiting in the wings for them," Max says. "It gave me a respect for their art."

"Did Max tell you that?" Kathy says when told that Max remembers waiting offstage for his parents. "I have to laugh. First of all, by the time he was old enough to remember something like that, I was no longer actively performing, and Marek was doing just character roles. Second of all, the only ballet Max really liked was "Romeo and Juliet" because there was sword fighting. He would get so bored during performances that he would pull the seat numbers off the backs of chairs. I found that out when I saw a bunch of them scattered in our car."

His parents enrolled Max in the John F. Kennedy School in Berlin and signed him up for club baseball teams above his age level. But even playing with older players wasn't challenging enough. "I'm afraid I got bored," he says, "and I started acting up. Nothing terrible -- just bratty behavior."

That's when Andy Johnson saw him. Johnson had been an infielder for Hamline University in St. Paul and a part-time groundskeeper at the Metrodome. He went overseas to play ball, married a Norwegian woman he met while playing in Australia and contacted the Twins to see if they might want a European scout. As it happened, they did. From his home base in Oslo, Norway, he traveled the world for scouting director Mike Radcliff.

Johnson now coaches the Norwegian national team when he isn't working for Schlumberger, an oil exploration company, or raising his two young sons ("Both bat left, throw right") with wife Hege. Thinking back on his days as a Twins scout, he says, "It wasn't a lot of money, but it was a great job. We took pride in being first to the park, and the last ones to leave ... and staying in the cheapest hotels."

One day, while scouting a tournament in Germany, Johnson noticed this tall 14-year-old sprinting to first base. "That was Max. He was playing for a team that wasn't very good, lower caliber than an American high school JV team. But you could see his athleticism right away. I made him what we call a 'follow' and tracked his progression."

On the advice of others and because of their instincts and experience, Kathy and Marek enrolled Max in the St. Emmeran Academy in Regensburg, a medieval city in the Bavarian Alps that happens to be the home of the Kepler Museum, named for astronomer Johannes Kepler. In other words, it was a poetic place to discover a star. "Very impressive place," Johnson says. "Indoor facilities, great fields, dorm along the third-base line."

Two other Twins scouts, Glen Godwin and international cross-checker Howard Norsetter, were also high on Kepler. "I'm a big believer in makeup," Norsetter says, "and the first time I saw him play, I was struck by how much fun he was having out there. The same kind of joy I saw in Cory Koskie and Justin Morneau and David Arias, who became better known as David Ortiz."

But other teams were after Kepler as well. The Reds, Indians, Red Sox and Yankees were among his pursuers. Imagine being 16 years old, playing baseball in Bavaria, and suddenly all these major league teams come a-courting, trying to outbid and undercut one another. Imagine being his parents. "Kathy and Marek understood the journey Max would be embarking on," Johnson says, "because they had left home at an early age to pursue their dreams. They were not going to let him fail without one helluva fight."

"Teams were offering a lot of money," Norsetter says, "but it came down to a matter of trust. They trusted Andy, he trusted them, and the Twins trusted our reports."

By then, the family had retained Paul Cobbe as Max's agent. "I had called his agency to get some advice on how to deal with scouts," Kathy says. "Paul flew out to Regensburg from California, and he's been there for us ever since."

On July 11, 2009, Twins scouting director Mike Radcliff signed the untested 16-year-old from Germany as an undrafted free agent for $775,000, the most money ever offered to a player from the continent. Says Johnson, "When I first heard the amount, I remember being shocked for about three seconds, and then I thought, 'I'm comfortable with that number.' It was the work we did early, the history we had on him and the understanding of his background that gave us the confidence to make that investment." That and the money the scouts had saved the team on lodging.

For their part, the Kepler-Rozyckis made their own investment. Kathy moved with Max to Fort Myers, Florida, where he began his apprenticeship at the Twins' baseball complex, while Marek stayed behind in Berlin with Emma. Because Max hadn't finished high school, Kathy first enrolled her A-student in a local private school, but the workload wasn't conducive to his day job, so she transferred him to South Fort Myers High, which was right across the street from the Twins' facilities. "After his schoolwork was done, he would ride over to the complex on his bike," Kathy says. "He was always a little late, so they would tease him. But they were really very nice to him."

It helped that Kathy often cooked meals for the players, a rookie class that included current Twins Jorge Polanco, Miguel Sano and Kyle Gibson. (Nowadays, when Gibson is on the mound and Sano, Polanco and Kepler are all in the lineup, Kathy can claim that her lasagna helped sustain 40% of the team on the field.) She also worked part time for the Census Bureau on a schedule that allowed her to watch Max's games. "The only people in the stands were scouts and this mystery woman," she says. "Eventually, they warmed up to me." She wanted to make sure Max was happy with his decision -- and help him get his driver's license. After 18 months, she returned home to Berlin, knowing Max could handle himself.

Life is one thing; baseball is another. Without the depth of experience that his teammates had, Kepler struggled the first few years. He hit only one home run in his first two seasons in the Gulf Coast League and the Appalachian League. "I had my doubts early on," he says. "A lot of doubts. But I also had this great support system that kept reminding me to be positive, that told me not to quit." Included in that support system was his roommate and teammate, Polanco, who taught Kepler about the baseball he learned in the Dominican. Max helped Jorge with the English he had learned in Germany.

Slowly but surely, the numbers began to reflect what the scouts saw in Kepler. In 2015, after hitting .322 with 54 extra-base hits in 112 games for Chattanooga, he made his major league debut on Sept. 27, striking out in a pinch-hit appearance. After 30 games in Triple-A Rochester in 2016, he came up to stay, hitting 17 homers before season's end.

Now it's the family waiting in the wings for Max. They watch his games religiously on DAZN, no matter the hour. "You can tell when the Twins are on the West Coast by the shadows under our eyes," says Kathy, who became a physical therapist. Marek, who teaches ballet, is particularly good at waking just in time to catch Max's at-bats. The family also makes trips to the States to follow Max. "New York and Boston are very interesting," Kathy says. "The fans know everything about Max, and they can get a little nasty. At one point, Emma lunged at a guy, and I had to pull her back."

Also following along are Johnson and Norsetter, who is now the Pacific Rim cross-checker for the Phillies. "I feel two kinds of pride," he says. "One is internal: 'Yeah, we got it right.' The other is external, the kind you might feel for your kid: 'Way to go, Max.'"

The Twins finished a distant second to the Indians in the AL Central last year, and the brain trust decided to change managers, firing Paul Molitor and giving Rays coach Rocco Baldelli his first job as a major-league skipper. Kepler returned home to Berlin to be with family and serve as a baseball ambassador for German youth. When he came back to Minneapolis in January for FanFeast, Baldelli presented Max with an idea: make him the leadoff hitter.

"No, he's not the conventional hitter who steals bases," Baldelli says. "But I liked having a left-handed impact hitter at the top of the order, someone who would present a problem for pitchers right from the start. Plus, he hasn't yet reached his full potential. He was only going to get better, and so were we." The Twins also showed faith in Kepler by signing him to a five-year, $35 million contract with an option for a sixth year. As chance and family would have it, Emma will be moving to Minneapolis for the fall semester of the University of Minnesota's acting program. It looks like Kathy and Marek will have two children on stage in October.

Martin Cervenka is where Max Kepler was in 2015, which is to say Double-A. Behind the plate, Cervenka boasts size (6-foot-4, 225 pounds) and a strong arm that makes the 26-year-old an intriguing prospect for the Orioles. He made the Eastern League All-Star team for Bowie last year, hitting .258 with 15 homers and 60 RBIs, but this year, he has been scuffling and dealing with injury.

If Cervenka does happen to be called up, he will be the first from the current Czech Republic, though there have been a few from Czechoslovakia, most notably and recently outfielder Elmer Valo (1940-61).

Martin, who grew up in Prague, says, "My older brother, Marek, and I learned the game from my father, Filip, who learned it from his father. We just fell in love with baseball, and Marek was a pitcher, and I became the chytac, a catcher."

Peter Gahan, a part-time scout for the Indians who now coaches in Australia, first spotted Cervenka, as well as Kepler, in 2008 at the MLB Academy in Italy. "Besides size, he had intelligence, assertiveness, humility and a work ethic," Gahan says. "Later in the year, I met with his parents and was very impressed. I convinced them to let us take him to the Australian Academy to face better pitching and learn English. I came to regret the move, though, a few years later when Martin caught Marek for the Czech team that beat our U21 team."

The Indians released Cervenka after the 2017 season. But he was still an intriguing prospect. The Giants signed him, then lost him in the Rule V draft to the Orioles. BaySox hitting coach Keith Bodie is one of his biggest champions. "When I was managing against him in the Carolina League, I recommended we trade for him," Bodie says. "You just need a lot of patience with European players. His numbers last year are more indicative of what he's capable of."

He also calls a good game. But when the other catcher calls for a breaking ball, he has a problem. What's not subject to skepticism, though, is Cervenka's determination. He's now on the injured list with a broken rib sustained when he was hit by a pitch. Says Adam Pohl, the Baysox broadcaster and publicity manager, "He played a week before getting it X-rayed. Tough guy."

That's why Cervenka wasn't playing when he recently ran into his old friend, Alberto Mineo, when the BaySox visited the Fisher Cats the first week in June. "Oh, yes, we've played against each other many times," Mineo says, "in the European championships and the Midwest League."

At 5-foot-10, 170 pounds, the 24-year-old Mineo is somewhat smaller than Cervenka. Other than being catchers in a strange land, they have two other things in common. They both love American baseball movies, which makes their "Bull Durham"-esque lives a little more familiar. And they both learned the game from their fathers.

"We lived in a little town outside of Gorizia called Ronchi Dei Legionari," Mineo says. "I'm not sure why, but baseball has been played in our town for generations. I started playing when I was 5, and by the time I was 8, I knew I wanted to be a catcher. I know all about the great Italian-American catchers like Yogi Berra and Joe Torre and Mike Piazza."

Bill Holmberg, a scout for the Cubs at the time, discovered Mineo when he was 15. "I liked the way he handled himself and his pitchers," Holmberg says. "He was both a leader and a good teammate. He was also a left-handed hitter, and teams are always looking for left-handed-[hitting] catchers."

Who knows? Maybe someday fans will see him in Toronto. "He's got a chance to make it," Holmberg says. "I let my catchers run the game, and I like what I see there. He's got a little pop. He's a little hard on himself, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It means he wants to get better."

"They might come from different countries, but what I see in Alberto and Cervenka and Kepler is a common character. They have what baseball people value most in players. They're hard workers. They're grinders."

Let's return for a moment to that last Sunday in May at Target Field. Max Kepler loves his ballet-dancing parents, but his walkup music is not exactly "The Dance of the Little Swans." It's "Yosemite," a track off rapper Travis Scott's "Astroland" album that starts with these lines:

Ice on my neck, flawless baguettes

Hop off a jet, barely get rest

Cash through the month, I get a check

Yves St. Laurent on my pants and my chest

That's what is playing when Kepler steps to the plate in the bottom of the third. He was feeling under the weather coming off a West Coast swing, so Baldelli decided to give him a rest the previous day. Thus refreshed, Kepler blasts a one-out double off Dylan Covey over the center fielder's head to bring home Byron Buxton with the first run of the game. Three batters later, Eddie Rosario hits a three-run homer to give the Twins a 4-0 lead.

Kepler isn't finished giving back to the fans. In the top of the seventh, he makes a nice play on a sinking line drive with two men on, then fires a laser to the plate to freeze the runner tagging up on third. In the bottom of the inning, with runners on first and second and two outs, he attacks Josh Osich's first pitch and hits a 429-foot bomb into the juniper bushes behind the center-field wall to give the Twins a 7-0 lead. It's his 12th homer of the year, and it gives him homers in three consecutive games. As he trots back out to right in the top of the eighth, he acknowledges the cheers of the fans. Then, after warm-ups, he soft-tosses another ball into the stands.

After the 7-0 victory, Kepler showers and takes some questions from reporters in front of his locker. When someone makes the observation that he had a pretty good game for someone who wasn't feeling well, he says, "Sometimes you see some of the best performers play at their best when they're sick. Michael Jordan, when he was sick in that playoff game, I don't know what it is. maybe just calmer. I don't know."

At that point, LaVelle Neal of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune proposes a headline for the next day: "Kepler Compares Himself To Michael Jordan."

"No, no, no," Kepler says amid the laughter. "No, no. I did not say that."

He doesn't have to be like Mike. But it'll be a beautiful day for baseball when youngsters in Europe decide they want to be like Max.

The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are crossing the pond for MLB's first London Series this weekend (10 a.m. ET Sunday on ESPN).

Ahead of their games Saturday and Sunday at London Stadium, we asked players from both squads about the trip, from sightseeing to future MLB games abroad to Harry Potter.

Have you ever been to London? What are you most looking forward to there?

Michael Chavis, Red Sox second baseman: No. Never been before. I'm looking forward to it being the first game over there and being a part of the historic part of it. My sister is going as well, and she's big on history, especially British history, like the kings and all of the stuff like that. I'm excited to just share that experience with her, let her see all the stuff she's wanted to experience. She's wanted to go to London for pretty much her whole life.

"The biggest thing that I would never really do, but I'm going to do, is The Eye, the big ol' carousel thing. That's something I rarely do. I don't like heights. I don't like doing it, but my wife said I have to go."

Red Sox relief pitcher Marcus Walden

Even to this day, she still obsesses over that stuff -- TV, movies, all of that stuff. It'll be cool to experience that along with baseball. Just the way I work in general, I'm not very good at planning things, and she's much better at planning than I am. I'll let her plan everything we're going to do.

James Paxton, Yankees starting pitcher: I've never been there before. Have never been over to Europe, so looking forward to checking that out. Going to go around and check out some museums and stuff when we get time. Just looking forward to the games, you know? It's going to be fun in that stadium and just a different experience altogether.

Marcus Walden, Red Sox relief pitcher: No. The biggest thing that I would never really do, but I'm going to do, is The Eye, the big ol' carousel thing. That's something I rarely do. I don't like heights. I don't like doing it, but my wife said I have to go. That's the one thing I would never do but I'm gonna do. I don't know a whole lot about London. Walking around is going to be cool. My cousin is married to a professor at Oxford. She gave me a list of things that I need to go see. It'll be cool to have her come into the game and have them show us around.

Other than teammates, is anyone making the trip with you?

Jackie Bradley Jr., Red Sox outfielder: Including me? Nine people. Parents, brother, sister, wife, kids and in-laws.

Brett Gardner, Yankees outfielder: My kids are going to be there, so they want to see a castle. So we're going to find a castle to see, which shouldn't be too difficult. We'll make a good time of it. So it should be a good trip.

"My sister is going as well, and she's big on history, especially British history, like the kings and all of the stuff like that. I'm excited to just share that experience with her, let her see all the stuff she's wanted to experience. She's wanted to go to London for pretty much her whole life."

Red Sox second baseman Michael Chavis

Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox shortstop: My whole family. All of my family except my dad. ... Maybe six people.

Walden: My wife and my two cousins out there.

Chavis: My mom and my sister. And my girlfriend is going as well.

David Price, Red Sox starting pitcher: My mom and my dad.

What do you think of playing at London Stadium?

Walden: It'll be unique with the small field (it's only 385 feet to dead center at London Stadium). There's going to be some homers hit. Hopefully we're hitting more. It's going to be exciting. It's going to be smaller than Yankee Stadium. Better get the ball on the ground.

Price: [It's] smaller than my high school field.

"[It's] smaller than my high school field."

Red Sox starting pitcher David Price

Gardner: Obviously, it's not a normal baseball stadium that we're all accustomed to. They have to build dugouts and all that. So I'm not worried about the dimensions or anything because we're both going to be playing on the same surface, so I think it'll be a lot of fun. I'm most looking forward to seeing how the fans react to us being over there. It's going to be a blast.

Chavis: That's gotta hold a bunch of people then. I don't even know what the biggest crowd I've played in front of [was]. Obviously, it's sometime this year. There's not 30,000 in High-A. That's probably going to be the biggest crowd I've played in front of. I mean, I'm excited for everything. The fact that it's in London is kinda badass.

What do you want British fans to see in person?

Bogaerts: A tie game, a one-run game would be nice. Not, like, a 3-0 win or a position player pitching. Even if it's 9-8, it can be 2-1, a tight game where there's runners on base where a hit would tie the game. Something like that would be nice.

Walden: They are going to see it: two of the best franchises in baseball going out there. Think about those 52 guys -- you're talking about 20 of the best in the game. I think they're going to see pretty much everything in a baseball series that you can see in those two games. I haven't seen too many Red Sox/Yankee games where you don't see everything within the game.

Zack Britton, Yankees relief pitcher: It's going to be tough to, I guess, replace soccer, right? The history of soccer is there. Rugby. Cricket. Stuff like that. But hopefully the games are exciting. That's how you draw fans in. You see something new, somebody that's never seen baseball, and if they see some action, and they see some excitement, some good games, that's the best way to draw some fans in, get them interested in baseball, maybe some of the young kids over there too.

Where else should MLB consider playing games?

Britton: I would honestly really love a regular-season game going to the Dominican. A place that obviously has strong ties to just the talent that they've pumped into MLB. That would be awesome going there or some of the South American countries. I know they went to Mexico, but I'm talking about how we've got guys from Panama, Nicaragua. That would be really cool. Hopefully, eventually, a spot like that that has active players in the big leagues. The turnout, I think, would be incredible.

Bogaerts: They already do Japan. Europe. The Dominican. I think the atmosphere there is ridiculous.

"Anywhere people are excited to watch it. Anywhere."

Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr.

Chavis: Given the popularity of baseball in the Latin American countries, I think that would be a good idea. Even Australia -- there's a decent number of Australian guys in the major and minor leagues. That would be a cool way to expand over there, but I think it would have to be a progression thing. It can't be one of those things where you jump into it and expect to take off, but if you inch into it, it could be successful.

Paxton: Oh, man. I don't know. London's going to be a great start, getting the game into Europe. Maybe if they go to maybe different European cities at some point. Who knows? I know it's kind of tough on travel. You can't really go too far. But you know, Japan and London are pretty close on either side. So who knows if they expand it further at some point.

Walden: Vancouver is a great spot. Going back up to Montreal is a great spot. I know they were talking about going to Mexico City. I still think if we had a team in Mexico City, it would be a tough travel no matter who you're playing for. Expansion team-wise: Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville. I think Nashville would be a good spot for the southern part of our country, but outside of the U.S., I really don't know. Going out there and playing one or two games is pretty cool, but actually having a team there is a different situation. It's going to be tough travel for those five days for us.

Bradley: Anywhere people are excited to watch it. Anywhere.

Are you a Harry Potter fan?

Chavis: Dude, so growing up, I think it was not this offseason but the offseason before, it was the first time I saw the Harry Potter movies. It was one of those things where, like, I was behind on it. As they were coming out, I was like, "I don't want to try and catch up," so I just never got around to doing it. In the offseason, it was like, "Dude, everybody says those movies are incredible. Maybe I'll watch them." I got together with my girlfriend, and we binged them, and they're awesome. And then we ended up going to Harry Potter World and Disney and all of that and did the Butterbeer. It's awesome. I'm all-in on it.

"I'm just going to say I'm a Gryffindor and leave it at that. They're the normal ones, the good-hearted people."

Yankees outfielder Aaron Hicks

I made fun of my sister's friends 'cause they were really big on it. They had the cape or cloak. They spent, like, $100 on that, and I was like, "Y'all are ridiculous," but then I was kinda like, "I kinda get it. I might get one."

[Favorite character?] Dobby. I like Dobby a lot. He's cute, he's nice, he's a good dude. I feel like he gets overlooked a lot, but I like his personality. I thought it was cool.

[Do you have a Hogwarts House?] I'm not that deep yet. I might watch it again and make a final decision.

Hicks: I just want to go to Harry Potter World or the original Harry Potter [Studio]. I'm a big Harry Potter fan.

[What House would you consider yourself?] I don't know because it says a lot about a person and what you're like. I'm just going to say I'm a Gryffindor and leave it at that. They're the normal ones, the good-hearted people.

Paxton: Yeah, big fan when I was younger. Still really like the movies. Didn't get through all the books. I have them all on audiobooks, so definitely want to do that at some point. I think we're planning on checking out the Harry Potter exhibit. I've been to the one in Florida with Hogsmeade and stuff like that. So just looking forward to checking it out and walking around.

Bradley: I've watched all of the movies. I think it would be a disservice for me to call myself a true fan because I have seen some very, very passionate fans about Harry Potter. I'm at the beginning stages. I've seen people dress up and actually know the spell names and stuff like that. I don't know all of that. It would be a disservice to call myself a true, true fan.

[Favorite character?] Let's go with Dumbledore. He's considered one of the leaders and someone who's trying to help Harry along the way.

British number eight Liam Broady has missed out a place in the main draw of Wimbledon after losing 3-6 0-6 6-2 6-4 6-3 to Frenchman Gregoire Barrere in the final round of qualifying.

He had been two sets up after 50 minutes against Barrere, ranked 170 places higher at 117 in the world.

Broady's best run at Wimbledon was reaching the second round in 2015.

In women's qualifying, Britain's Samantha Murray lost 4-6 6-2 3-6 to Spain's Paula Badosa.

Germany's 2013 Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki also failed to make the main draw after she lost 0-6 6-4 6-4 to Lesley Kerkhove of the Netherlands.

Reigning Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber is through to the semi-finals of Eastbourne after beating Romania's Simona Halep in straight sets.

Germany's world number five Kerber, twice a runner-up at Eastbourne, won 6-4 6-3 in one hour and 13 minutes.

Kerber converted five of her seven break points against Halep.

The three-time Grand Slam champion will next face unseeded Tunisian Ons Jabeur - the conqueror of Britain's Johanna Konta - on Friday.

"I am really happy how I played," Kerber told BBC Sport. "To play against Simona, you know you have to play the best tennis."

Jabeur continued her fine run with a 1-6 7-5 6-3 victory over France's Alize Cornet.

Third seed Kiki Bertens beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-4 3-6 6-4 in their quarter-final, while Czech second seed Karolina Pliskova faces Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova later on Thursday.

WAYNESFIELD, OH. –  There’s a lot of incentive on tap for the 11th annual Jack Hewitt Classic presented by K&L Ready Mix, Helms and Son Excavating and Kistler Racing Products on July 3 at Waynesfield Raceway Park.

Besides the great pay-out for the FAST winged 410 sprints, Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series (BOSS) non-wing sprints and the K&L Ready Mix National Racing Alliance (NRA) Sprint Invaders (360 sprints), race promoter Shane Helms has incentives for drivers to race in more than one division.

The event honors racing legend and National Sprint Car Hall of Fame member Jack Hewitt, a Troy, Ohio native.

Hewitt, who made a name for himself as an champion with the All Star Circuit of Champions, USAC Silver Crown Series and had wins with the World of Outlaws, USAC Sprints and Midgets and wins across the country, in winged and non-wing sprints, is known for his no-nonsense attitude and love of the sport.

He also competed in the 1998 Indianapolis 500.

The FAST winged 410 sprint feature winner will take home $4,000 ($400 to start the A-main) while the NRA feature winner will claim $2,000 to win and the BOSS winner will take home $1,500.

If one driver can win two out of the three A-mains there’s a $1,000 bonus. If a driver can win all three A-mains he or she will walk away with a $5,000 bonus. There’s also a $200 bonus for the highest finishing 305 sprint car in the 360 A-main.

A driver has to compete in a different car in each class to be eligible.

“First and foremost I want to thank Kenny Clark and the employees at the Fremont Fence Company. We nearly pulled the plug on this event because the weather has put us so far behind on making improvements to the fencing in turns three and four. Fremont Fence came to the rescue. Despite trying to play catch-up with their business because of the weather, they committed crews to work Saturday and Sunday to get fencing improvements made so we can race this event. We have also added a lot of new seats at the track and the pit bleachers have been moved to the back stretch,” Helms said.

“I want to thank everyone for all the hard work and encouragement as we work to make improvements at Waynesfield,” Helms added.

LEXINGTON, N.C. – Kaulig Racing will field three Chevrolets for the first time in team history during the upcoming NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

The team has added Ross Chastain to its roster at Daytona, along with previously-announced driver AJ Allmendinger and full-time driver Justin Haley.

The team will race the No. 16 with Chastain behind the wheel, in addition to its No. 10 (Allmendinger) and No. 11 (Haley) Chevrolets at Daytona.

“Being able to bring a third car to Daytona and have our part-time driver Ross Chastain behind the wheel only increases our chances of getting the win,” team owner Matt Kaulig said. “Not by the addition of a car, but by the additional teammate our two drivers Justin Haley and AJ Allmendinger will have – Daytona is all about teamwork.”

To date, the team has led 57 laps at the World Center of Racing, with an average start of 8.1 and best finish of seventh (Feb. 2018). Earlier this year, Haley took the first stage win of the season at Daytona, with teammate Chastain winning the second stage.

“The success this team has had at resistor-plate tracks this season hasn’t gone unnoticed,” team president Chris Rice commented. “To have two stage wins and five top-five stage finishes in just two races shows the strength Kaulig Racing has.”

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas – IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driver Parker Chase has welcomed country recording and touring artists Randy Rogers and the Randy Rogers Band as his newest partners with Starworks Motorsport.

The band celebrates its 19th anniversary this year and joins Chase to promote its eighth studio album, Hellbent.

Rogers, who also hails from New Braunfels, has been a close friend of the Chase family for many years, performing concerts at the historic Saengerhalle — a dance hall owned by the family in the early 2000s, long before he and the band reached the nationwide audience they have today.

“I’ve known Parker Chase almost his entire life. I watched him go from crawl to walk to run to race. And he was hellbent on making it to the next level the whole way,” said Rogers. “Partnering with him on promoting our new album just makes sense. We both know a thing or two about Hellbent!”

“I am so excited to partner with the Randy Rogers Band,” added Chase. “Growing up in Texas, I’ve been a huge fan for as long as I can remember. To get to be part of promoting his newest album, Hellbent — and single ‘Crazy People’ — is an honor, and a title quite fitting for our team.”

Randy Rogers Band will be a part of Chase’s racing program for the remainder of his season, starting with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen this weekend at Watkins Glen International Raceway. Chase will race the No. 8 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo in the six hour endurance racing event with Starworks Motorsport co-drivers Ryan Dalziel and Mike Skeen.

Music from Randy Rogers Band can be heard all weekend at the Starworks Motorsport garage in the IMSA paddock, while the team prepares the car for each day of on track activity. Chase and the team will also be giving away band related merchandise throughout the course of the weekend, both in person and on social media.