The rivalry between Terence Crawford and Ryan Garcia shows no signs of slowing down.

Despite hanging up his gloves and bringing his professional career to an end back in December, Crawford has repeatedly been involved in a war of words with Garcia over the past few months.

‘King Ry’ has made it clear that he wants ‘Bud’ to end his retirement in order to face him, with the WBC welterweight champion also recently hitting out at ‘Bud’ over claims that he is helping Conor Benn prepare for his world title clash against Garcia next week.

Crawford took to social media earlier today to make his thoughts on Garcia known once again, telling the 28-year-old that he will ‘see him in Vegas’ – and now Garcia has hit back with a fiery response of his own.

lol I just be waiting to see people energy when I see them. I am getting told old for all that.🤣 Well see yall in Vegas next week.

— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) September 4, 2026

Posting on X, Garcia called Crawford desperate, with a number of other insults sent to the former pound-for-pound king.

“You might be the actual c***khead – once again I can smell desperate from you. You have to result in lying on me to make a point you are a cornball and a liar.

“Look around you bud you got money now but you are still a little lame f**k bc you got a sh**ty ass attitude. No one gives a f**k about you bc you don’t give a f**k about anyone but yourself WEIRDO. Go back to living under a rock you are annoying and a arrogant w**re.”

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With ‘Bud’ set to be in attendance for Garcia vs. Benn, it certainly adds an interesting dynamic to the fight week proceedings.

India Women will face arch-rivals Pakistan Women in a much-anticipated Group A clash at the Women’s Asia Cup 2026 on Saturday, September 5. Having already strengthened their semifinal hopes with dominant wins in their opening matches against Thailand and Hong Kong, India will look to maintain their momentum and fine-tune their T20 game.

Pakistan, meanwhile, will be aiming for a strong performance against the tournament favourites as they look to improve their qualification prospects.

Where to Watch India vs Pakistan Live?

The India vs Pakistan Women’s Asia Cup clash will be broadcast live on the Sony Sports Network in India. Fans can watch the match online through the SonyLIV app and website.

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• Live Streaming: SonyLIV App & Website

• English TV Telecast: Sony Sports Ten 1

• Regional TV Telecast: Sony Sports Ten 3 and Sony Sports Ten 4

Pitch and Conditions

The Dubai International Cricket Stadium surface is expected to favour spinners, with the pitch potentially becoming slower as the match progresses. Batting first could prove advantageous, while a total of around 130 or more may be competitive.

Weather update: Dubai

Dubai is expected to remain hot and clear for the India-Pakistan Women’s Asia Cup clash on September 5, with no rain threat.

Temperatures are likely to be around 36°C during the match, while high humidity could make it feel closer to 47-48°C. Light northwesterly winds of 8–12 mph are forecast, with humidity between 50% and 60%. Rain is not expected, meaning uninterrupted play is likely.

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India vs Pakistan Head-to-Head Record

India have dominated the rivalry in women’s T20Is, winning 14 of their 17 meetings, while Pakistan have won three. Their recent encounters have also heavily favoured India:

• June 14, 2026 – T20 World Cup: India won by 64 runs

• October 6, 2024 – T20 World Cup: India won by 6 wickets

• July 19, 2024 – Asia Cup: India won by 7 wickets

• February 12, 2023 – T20 World Cup: India won by 7 wickets

• October 7, 2022 – Asia Cup: Pakistan won by 13 runs

Squads for India vs Pakistan Asia Cup clash

India Women Squad: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Pratika Rawal, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Bharti Fulmali, Richa Ghosh(w), Deepti Sharma, Prema Rawat, Nandani Sharma, Shree Charani, Kranti Gaud, Gunalan Kamalini, Renuka Singh Thakur, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav

Pakistan Women Squad: Sadaf Shamas, Gull Feroza, Eyman Fatima, Ayesha Zafar, Muneeba Ali(w), Fatima Sana(c), Nashra Sandhu, Sadia Iqbal, Tuba Hassan, Waheeda Akhtar, Shawaal Zulfiqar, Saira Jabeen, Momina Riasat, Umm-e-Hani, Eman Naseer

Aryna Sabalenka briefly halted her US Open match against Kamilla Rakhimova because of a strong smell of cannabis before cruising into the fourth round in New York.

Top seed Sabalenka raised the issue after going 3-0 up in the first set against Uzbekistan’s Rakhimova, telling umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore that “someone is smoking weed”.

The Belarusian asked the umpire to intervene “because it’s so strong”.

Asderaki-Moore spoke to an official on her radio and made a smoking gesture to someone behind her, before play continued.

Two-time defending champion Sabalenka went on to secure a confident 6-3 6-4 victory on Louis Armstrong Stadium as she chases a fifth Grand Slam singles title.

Sabalenka is not the first player at this year’s US Open to complain about smelling cannabis on court at Flushing Meadows.

Last week, Britain’s Katie Boulter said it was distracting, while Harriet Dart and Francesca Jones also noticed the smell.

In previous years players including Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev have also complained.

Smoking is not permitted on site at Flushing Meadows but the smell of cannabis sometimes wafts on to court from the nearby Corona Park.

It is legal to smoke it in New York for adults aged 21 and over.

Victory marked Sabalenka’s 16th straight win at Flushing Meadows as she bids to become the first woman since Serena Williams in 2012-2014 to complete a hat-trick of US Open singles titles.

The 28-year-old showcased her trademark power from the start against Rakhimova, dropping just four points on serve in a confident opening set.

Although Rakhimova fought well in the second set, Sabalenka secured the crucial break to go 5-4 up before safely serving out victory.

Sabalenka served 10 aces to Rakhimova’s two and did not face a single break point.

She will face either American Taylor Townsend or Russian 15th seed Diana Shnaider – who beat her in the French Open quarter-finals in June – next.

George Russell led the way with a best lap of one minute and 22.559 seconds.© AFP

NEW DELHI: India’s decision to field a full-strength squad for the upcoming Afghanistan T20I series has drawn sharp criticism from former cricketer Kris Srikkanth, who believes the selectors missed a valuable opportunity to expose more youngsters to international cricket.Srikkanth described the selection as a “mistake” and suggested that the recent defeats in Ireland and England had influenced the selectors into playing it safe rather than experimenting with the squad.India suffered a 0-2 T20I series defeat against Ireland before being beaten 0-4 by England in July. With the Afghanistan series offering three matches in familiar home conditions, Srikkanth felt it was the ideal setting to give fringe players a longer run.“After the series losses in Ireland and England, the selectors have decided not to take a chance and picked a full-strength squad for Afghanistan. They are going all guns blazing, but this is a mistake. It’s against teams like Afghanistan that you should try out youngsters. Instead, you’ve picked a full-strength squad out of fear,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel.

‘A desperation move’ after England, Ireland losses

Srikkanth also questioned why the selectors had moved so quickly back towards an experienced combination after using the Zimbabwe series to test players outside the regular setup.“It feels like a desperation move after the Ireland and England losses. But this squad is almost the same as the one they picked for England,” he added.India have named a 15-member squad for the three T20Is, with Shreyas Iyer continuing as captain and Tilak Varma as his deputy. Jasprit Bumrah, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Shivam Dube and Varun Chakaravarthy are among the experienced names included, while 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has retained his place after an encouraging Zimbabwe series.The Afghanistan series will be played in New Delhi on September 13, 15 and 17, with all three games scheduled at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.Bumrah’s return is, however, subject to fitness clearance, as are Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar and Harshit Rana. Hardik Pandya, meanwhile, has missed out after suffering another setback during his rehabilitation.

Srikkanth questions ‘match fitness’

The former India captain also raised concerns over the inclusion of players whose match fitness remains untested.“These four have not proved match-fitness. So on what basis are they subject to fitness? Just because you prove your fitness at the Bengaluru CoE, are you fit? That’s how Harshit Rana went to England, and then what happened to him there? So match fitness is important,” said Srikkanth.His comments come as Bumrah, Nitish, Sundar and Rana are all awaiting fitness clearance before their participation in the Afghanistan series is confirmed.For Srikkanth, however, the bigger issue is the opportunity cost. Rather than using the three-match series to assess emerging options, he believes India have responded to their recent setbacks by reverting to a familiar combination.

India squad for Afghanistan T20Is

(NOTE: *Subject to fitness clearance)

Ryan Garcia will defend his WBC welterweight world title against Conor Benn next weekend, but the Californian believes that an undefeated legend is helping to train his opponent ahead of the fight.

Garcia claimed the title with an impressive triumph over Mario Barrios back in February and he now hopes that he can fulfil his potential and become the face of boxing, beginning with a high-profile clash with Benn.

Should he be victorious, ‘King Ry’ is eyeing up unification bouts against either Teofimo Lopez (WBA champion) or a rematch against WBO titleholder Devin Haney, as well a potential showdown with recently-retired pound-for-pound king Terence Crawford. 

In a clip captured by The Ariel Helwani Show, Garcia revealed that he is aware that Crawford is currently helping Benn prepare for the contest, but believes that the assistance of ‘Bud’ will be of little use. 

“You notice what they all have in common? They all sound bitter and hateful. Nothing good comes out of that, ever. They are all obviously bitter. I don’t really care what they think, at the end of the day, they can’t fight for Conor Benn, at all. They can’t punch for him.

“I know that Crawford is at Conor Benn’s gym, trying to give him every technique that he can give him, that s**t ain’t gonna help because I feel like I would beat your a**, so what are you gonna teach him?”

Garcia-Benn will go ahead on Saturday, September 12, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with Benn set to move up in weight straight afterwards, regardless of the outcome of the fight.

The press room at Fenway Park filled with the kind of optimism that comes with believing you got something right. 

It was so soon into a young career. Just eight games to be exact.

But Craig Breslow sat behind a microphone, Red Sox team president Sam Kennedy to his right. Between them was Kristian Campbell, 22 years old, staring ahead toward a future the Red Sox believed had already begun.

Boston just signed him to an eight-year, $60 million extension.

“Here we are today sharing a massively significant moment for this organization,” Breslow said on April 5, 2025.

This wasn’t merely a celebration of Campbell. It was also a validation of a player-development philosophy the Red Sox had increasingly embraced.

Near the end of Chaim Bloom’s tenure as top executive in 2023, the Red Sox began incorporating principles developed by Driveline Baseball, a private player-development company that uses biomechanics, technology and data to identify ways players can move more efficiently and, ultimately, perform better.

Led by Paul Toboni, then the Red Sox vice president of amateur scouting and player development and now the Nationals‘ president of baseball operations, Boston began incorporating Driveline’s principles into its developmental system. That meant altering a hitter’s swing path to produce more balls in the air, particularly to the pull side. It meant increasing bat speed and improving how efficiently the body generates and transfers that speed.

Campbell was the system. He was the example. More than other top Red Sox prospects Marcelo Mayer or Roman Anthony, Campbell allowed the organization to flex what player development could look like when viewed through the lens of data.

Through Driveline.

Mayer and Anthony were the better bets. Campbell, a fourth-round pick out of Georgia Tech in 2023, was different. Boston could point to what he had been, what its development apparatus identified and, ultimately, what it helped create.

“What he was was a good player who made himself a great player because of his work ethic, diligence, open-mindedness and attitude,” Breslow said at that press conference 17 months ago. “In many ways, he is a prime example of what’s possible when great scouting meets great development around a player who prioritizes maximizing his potential.”

That’s not how the story played out, though.

Fast forward to June 2026, more than a year since Campbell had last stepped onto a big-league diamond. The seat behind a microphone and a slew of reporters at Fenway Park had been replaced by a dusty wooden bench in Worcester, Mass., and an audience of one reporter. 

Campbell’s major-league career has not lived up to the promise. He hit .301 with a .902 OPS and four homers in his first 29 MLB games. Then he stopped hitting. 

Campbell followed that up with a .159 batting average and a woeful .465 OPS in his final 38 games before being exiled to the minors. He’s been in Triple-A Worcester since June 21, 2025.

MLB pitchers found holes. They adjusted. Campbell struggled to adjust back. One source suggested Campbell’s former teammate Alex Bregman played a role in tinkering Campbell’s swing. Bregman, a three-time All-Star now with the Cubs, was a mentor for Campbell during his time in Boston. Bregman possesses a wealth of hitting knowledge but is also known as the ultimate tinkerer, and some believed that Campbell began tinkering too much himself and changing his swing for the worse.

Another evaluator, however, scoffed at that: “Bregman didn’t hurt Campbell. Sinkers did.”

When the Red Sox demoted Campbell, the club tasked John Soteropulos, a former Driveline hitting trainer and now the hitting coach for the major-league club, with helping Campbell find his way back. But Campbell never returned to his dominant form, and one source said he felt even more confused at times. He hit a modest .273 with a .799 OPS and eight homers in Triple-A to close out 2025.

Campbell’s roller-coaster career is a prime example of a belief in the industry: If Driveline wants to take credit for players’ ascents, it better take ownership of the struggles, too. And Campbell is hardly the only test case. Across baseball, the rise of modern, data-driven player development has produced success stories. It has saved careers. It has also frustrated players and disrupted growth. Its influence has, rightfully, become deeply embedded in the game. But the approach has sometimes shut out or quieted coaches and players who weren’t fully on board. The question is no longer whether Driveline and the movement it helped popularize have changed hitting in recent years. It’s what the game has gained, and may have lost in the process.

In Campbell’s case, the scouting report eventually outdueled the system, and for the first time in his rapid climb through professional baseball, the player who worked tirelessly, perhaps too tirelessly, to maximize his potential was searching for answers.

“Some of the stuff I ran into recently, or even last year when I was in the majors, was more just different pitch types I haven’t seen before,” Campbell said earlier this summer.

Campbell’s rise was emblematic of both his talent and the developmental system that helped shape him. But to understand how Campbell became the player the Red Sox believed was worth $60 million, one must first understand the philosophy that helped unlock him.

Among a seemingly endless collection of beige buildings in Scottsdale, Ariz., sits one of Driveline Baseball’s training facilities. From the outside, there is little reason to suspect that within this nondescript commercial complex is an operation that has had an outsized influence on Major League Baseball’s front offices and player development systems.

Driveline was founded in 2007, and for years, its influence was felt primarily on the pitching side. Driveline developed a proven track record of increasing velocity while teaching pitchers to throw their best stuff in the strike zone.

Driveline’s rise was led by founder Kyle Boddy, whose unconventional path into baseball included professional gambling, blackjack card counting and online poker. Boddy never played or coached professionally. He didn’t play in college, either, dropping out of Baldwin Wallace University before bouncing through jobs in tech and data science and eventually launching Driveline.

To many in baseball, the idea that someone with Boddy’s résumé could challenge the infrastructure that stood before him drew skepticism. But decision-makers eventually looked beyond it and delved into the biomechanics and data at the heart of his system.

“If we had any sort of lasting influence or whatever was first, I think it was just player development, data-driven player development,” Boddy said. “We did it the best. I still think we do it the best.” Boddy served as a special advisor for the Red Sox from 2024 until this June and has also worked for the Reds. He hopes to one day run a team as its general manager.

At its core, Driveline is built around the idea that skillsets and, ultimately, production, can be improved through technology, biomechanics and training methodology. After seeing results with pitchers, Driveline began applying those principles to hitters, too. The company believed that bat speed, launch angle at the point of contact and body positioning were among the tools that could be measured and improved to create a more productive hitter. 

Inside the facility, exposed wires connected to high-speed cameras provide instant feedback on a hitter’s swing. Sensors attached to bats detail how the barrel moves through the zone. On this spring day, a group of independent league players trained alongside former big-leaguer Rowdy Tellez, who was preparing to play for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic.

Three training bats rested inside the cage, their barrels colored green, red and blue, all meant to help hitters increase bat speed and barrel control.

The green one was barrel-loaded, 20% heavier than a player’s normal bat, with the additional weight concentrated near the barrel. The added weight forces hitters to use more of their bodies throughout the load and into the swing, rather than simply throwing their hands at the ball. The red bat was also 20% heavier, but with the additional weight concentrated near the hands, helping hitters who fire too quickly keep the barrel through the hitting zone longer. Finally, the blue bat was 20% lighter than a player’s game bat, allowing hitters to move it faster through the zone and become accustomed to generating greater bat speed under control.

“We don’t want to live in a world where the hitter has to have perfect timing all the time,” Driveline hitting coordinator Jacob Hirsh said.

The approach initially did wonders for Campbell. It’s worked great for Toboni’s new team in 2026, too. 

When Toboni arrived in Washington as the Nationals’ new head of baseball operations leading into this season, he helped modernize the organization’s biomechanics and data systems, areas that had lagged under former president of baseball operations Mike Rizzo.

Under Toboni, the team overhauled its hitting staff, hiring lead hitting coach Matt Borgschulte, who served as the Twins‘ hitting coach the year prior, alongside assistants Andrew Aydt and Shawn O’Malley. Both Borgschulte and O’Malley came from traditional baseball backgrounds. Aydt’s path was less traditional: he worked at Driveline from 2018 through 2025 after playing Division II baseball at McKendree University in Illinois. 

And Aydt wasn’t the only Driveline connection. Toboni also hired Travis Fitta, a Driveline employee from 2023 to 2026, as the club’s Triple-A assistant hitting coach (Fitta has since left to become the hitting coach at Grand Canyon University).

The team has faded in the wild-card race, but through Aug. 25, the Nationals led the majors in home runs (184) and runs scored (695) and were third in OPS (.756). A year ago, the club owned a .693 OPS, a mark that ranked 24th in baseball.

Nats star James Wood, prior to and oblique strain that sidelined him for nearly all of August, took even greater strides, batting .265/.393/.535 with a .928 OPS and 30 homers. CJ Abrams has put together his best season yet, emerging as one of the top-hitting infielders in baseball while batting .267/.343/.502 with a 130 OPS+ and 29 homers. 

Two players Washington moved this season took more unexpected strides. Infielder Curtis Mead, who was traded to the Red Sox prior to the deadline, and Luis Garcia Jr., who was traded to the Yankees at the deadline, are the breakout examples. Mead enjoyed an impressive year in Washington, totaling a career-high 18 homers with an .852 OPS in 87 games with Washington. Garcia Jr. was magnificent for the Nationals, also setting a career high in homers (23) while posting a .560 slugging percentage.

There are plenty of examples outside of Washington, too, including the Cardinals‘ Jordan Walker. Earlier in his MLB career, the 24-year-old outfielder hit the ball hard but too often on the ground, combining for a 47.6% ground-ball rate across parts of his first three seasons in the majors.

Last offseason, Walker went to Driveline, where the technology helped provide information that he and St. Louis hitting coach Brant Brown could use to shape his swing. The data showed that Walker’s back hip collapsed, causing him to drift toward the ball. Brown identified another issue: Walker’s elbow and barrel would get behind his torso, making it difficult for him to get his best swing off.

Using that information, Brown and Walker worked toward a solution. They implemented a slight dip in Walker’s load, helping him produce better results in the air while still allowing him to get to the pull side when needed.

The shift in approach and setup, including standing taller at the plate, helped Walker ascend to stardom this year, hitting .289 and winning the Home Run Derby in July. His ground-ball rate has dropped to around 41%, while his average exit velocity has remained roughly in line with years past at 92 mph.

The results with both Washington and Walker show what can happen when the data and the communication of that information are aligned.

“Any success we’re having this year is largely due to the talent, open-mindedness and work ethic of our players,” Toboni said. “No single person has it all figured out, and that’s a big part of what makes us go.”

The 2026 Nats offense shows what can go right for a team that embraces data-driven coaching. But elsewhere in the DMV, the approach hasn’t seen sustained success.

The modern hitting philosophy in baseball, heavily influenced by Driveline, has increasingly centered on a simple ideal: hit the ball in the air to the pull side, and do it with elite bat speed.

“Every qualified hitting coach understands the importance of moving the bat fast and getting the ball in the air to the pull side,” said one National League executive.

The numbers explain the appeal. Since 2022, balls hit in the air to the pull side have produced a whopping .477 batting average and 1.694 slugging percentage.

“There’s a huge emphasis on elevating the ball in the air to the pull side from a third-party standpoint,” said Diamondbacks assistant general manager Mike Fitzgerald. Since 2023, Arizona’s .747 OPS ranks fourth in baseball. “I think, objectively, that is where most slug exists. But, like, organizational philosophy has been, if you sell out to that, that’s going to come at a cost. And so let’s just make sure we understand what that cost is.”

That cost is where the conversation becomes more complicated. There’s nuance, Fitzgerald added. Pulling the ball in the air with authority produces undeniable results. But doing so requires the barrel to work farther out in front, which can sacrifice plate coverage. Selling out for the pull side can reap enormous rewards. The question is how many hitters can actually do it consistently without compromising other parts of their game.

“It’s dumb,” said first-year Orioles first baseman Pete Alonso, who is closing in on 300 career home runs in his eighth MLB season. “Organizations now are huge on fixed outcomes. Everyone wants a homer. But there are so many at-bats where doubles are great. Hits are great. Walks are great. Homers are just happy accidents. Why am I gonna just waste all of my at-bats trying to hit something I’m gonna do 1% of the time from all the pitches I see?”

The Orioles offer a case study in what can happen when that pursuit becomes an organizational philosophy.

In fact, Baltimore delved so deep into pull-side power in the air that one time, for example, a veteran player working his way back to the big leagues showed up to the minor-league ballpark with a batting tee, and it caught the coaching staff off guard.

“We haven’t seen one of those in a while,” one of the coaches said.

The thinking is this: Hitting off a tee, something that used to be routine, has become a hindrance because it doesn’t help hitters train to launch the baseball in the air. It could possibly create a steep swing.

“All they want to do is slug to the pull side,” said one former player of the O’s.

For a time, Baltimore was confident it had all the tools to make it work.

Just a few years ago, the Orioles were heralded as baseball’s golden group. They combined to win 192 games in 2023 and 2024, finishing with baseball’s fourth-best offense two years ago. Gunnar Henderson was already a superstar. Jackson Holliday was the No. 1 prospect in baseball. Colton Cowser finished second in Rookie of the Year voting in 2024. Heston Kjerstad projected as a cornerstone, middle-of-the-order bat. Top draft pick Adley Rutschman was the pillar behind the plate.

Henderson regressed over the last two seasons. Holliday hasn’t panned out. Cowser, hitting .215 this season, took a step back, too. Kjerstad, out all year with a hamstring strain, is a career .218 hitter. Rutschman was traded to the Red Sox at the deadline.

“Why haven’t any of their players developed?” asked one former member of the organization.

Some players who have played for Baltimore believe the offensive approach, and its one-size-fits-all nature, has played a role.

Back in Boston’s organization, the need to swing faster and pull the ball had trickled down to hitters who already possessed those traits. Take James Tibbs III. Tibbs, who came to Boston from San Francisco as part of the Rafael Devers trade last summer, immediately joined the organization’s Double-A affiliate. Once he got into Boston’s system, the team shifted his focus to just pulling the ball.

But there was a problem: Tibbs was already a pull hitter with exceptional bat speed. 

“They had him using all these weighted bats in practice,” one person said. Having a hitter move too fast can disrupt timing, and it can lead to more swings and misses.

The outfielder was reluctant to embrace the training philosophy, and after just a month and a half in the organization (while hitting .207 with one home run in 30 games), Tibbs was traded at the 2025 deadline, this time to the Dodgers.

The Dodgers, who have one of the best player development track records in the game, had a simple approach for Tibbs: Let him use the entire field. With the Red Sox, the emphasis involved increasing his exit velocity, but his swing became too rotational. As a result, he was pulling off the ball and wasn’t making consistent enough contact. Using the whole field allowed him to stay inside the ball longer while still being able to turn on pitches when he needed to. 

Tibbs is enjoying a breakout year at the plate, batting .293/.415/.542 with a .957 OPS and 27 homers for Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Seated at the top of that WooSox bench in June was a broken player. Campbell was searching, trying to find the swing that helped carve him into one of the premier players in the minor leagues and vault him into the conversation as a future pillar of a historic franchise.

He was hitting just .212 in Triple-A. His slugging percentage was .284 in nearly 300 plate appearances.

The Red Sox weren’t playing well at the time, having just dropped a series to the lowly Rockies in Colorado. Worcester wasn’t where Campbell was supposed to be. He has kicked himself because of that. Surely, he wasn’t supposed to be batting seventh in Worcester. He went 0 for 3 with three punch outs later that evening, sinking his batting average .209.

But what really sunk Campbell? He lost his feel.

He had the bat speed. (“It’s stupid bat speed,” one player said.) He had the exit velocity to go with it. But the ground ball was his enemy. He had to change his approach so the reality became less grounders and more balls in the air. 

Campbell spent the prior three years architecting his swing at Driveline, using a training philosophy said to be on the cutting edge of the sport. But there’s no data model, no swing change, no biomechanical engineering that can fully account for the human.

Campbell got used to the launch. Used to thinking — and that’s important, thinking — about swinging up, until suddenly that became his norm. Balls above his hands turned into swings and misses. Balls at the belt turned into pop-ups. 

And, as one source with knowledge of Campbell’s situation put it, the Red Sox hitting brass lacked answers for him as he continued to struggle. A possible solution they did have was one they told Campbell to ditch long ago: Go back to your college swing.

“He’s kind of a handsy hitter,” said Johnny Reina, a Driveline alumnus and the current hitting coach for Triple-A Worcester. “He’s a super athletic dude. So I think the main thing was trying to get him back to feeling like more athletic and free-moving instead of, like he said, he felt a little robotic.”

In college, Campbell, because of his quick hands, could wait as long as possible and shoot the ball the other way. But here’s the issue: He spent the hours, days and years that followed unlearning that. The feel was gone.

And as a result, he was left on an island, trying to rediscover it in Triple-A.

One of the gripes with Driveline philosophies from some in the game has always been: Sure, you can get me there. But when I struggle, can you get me back?

“They take credit for the players they help,” said one player, “but what about the ones they f— up?”

“I think that’s a real thing,” said Boddy when made aware of the aforementioned player’s grievance. “I think if you’re gonna take credit for anybody, you gotta you gotta be willing to take the downfall for those others, you know. And so there, it’s definitely true. I think you got to encompass it all.”

On the back fields of a spring training facility in February stood a player frustrated with the game around him. With how deeply Driveline infiltrated a sport he believed had become too influenced by its philosophies. He played for myriad data-driven teams over the course of his career, but he carried a message for one club:

“F— the Red Sox,” the veteran MLB hitter said. He considered attaching his name to that quote, but decided against it because of his impending free agency. 

Later in the year, one prominent National League player was asked about Driveline and its influence in the sport.

He smirked and said, “Nah, I’m not touching that.”

Throughout the reporting for this story, both players and coaches were reluctant to go on the record with anything that could be perceived as challenging Driveline’s philosophies. The reasoning wasn’t difficult to understand. In a sport where those philosophies have become increasingly embedded in player development, there’s a feeling that speaking out against it could potentially make someone less employable or suggest they lack buy-in.

The Billy Beane Moneyball era in Oakland began changing the way front offices thought 25 years ago. It also changed the profile of who could be viewed as the next great baseball executive. Baseball became more insulated and elite, increasingly turning to predominantly white, data-driven minds from prestigious schools to fill general manager and president of baseball operations roles. According to ESPN, Ivy League representation among baseball’s top decision-makers stood at just 3% in 2001. By 2020, that number climbed to 43%.

Now, a similar shift has taken place on the coaching side. According to Boddy, at least 70 to 80 former Driveline employees now work across professional baseball. The Phillies recently promoted Dan Aucoin to assistant general manager of research and information. Guardians minor-league hitting coach Mike Snow joined the organization this year, and the Twins hired Double-A hitting coach Andrew Cresci in 2025. All three came through Driveline.

And more and more organizations are employing data-forward swing coaches in major-league dugouts. The Red Sox did so by promoting Soteropulos — who played at Cal Berkeley but whose coaching experience came primarily through Driveline — to lead hitting coach following the firing of manager Alex Cora and much of his staff in April.

Soteropulos isn’t the only example within the organization. Over the last eight or nine years, Reina’s coaching background included stops at Antonelli Baseball, a youth training and travel baseball academy in the greater Boston area, and Driveline. Following his time at Driveline, Reina was hired as an assistant hitting coach for the Red Sox’s Double-A affiliate in 2024. He was promoted to Triple-A hitting coach this year.

The Red Sox’s biggest rival is seeing the same shift take place.

“There was a period of time in development, I think, in the game, whether it was Driveline (or other places) in some cases, they were doing things better than pro clubs were doing,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. “Pro clubs started figuring that out, and then they started hiring their people and bringing them in, like, ‘Hey, teach us what you’re doing.’”

The shift unsettled some hitting coaches across the sport who lack a Driveline background. They understand data and how to apply it, but feel as though they are increasingly being cast aside. They point to a distinction between a hitting coach, who evaluates a hitter’s swing within the context of how pitchers attack him, and a swing coach, whose expertise is more focused on the movement of the swing itself, often using data to identify inefficiencies and potential adjustments.

Traditionally, much of a swing coach’s work takes place in the cage, removed from the immediacy of game action. Hitting coaches carry a different load. They are responsible for the quick decisions, the in-game adjustments and everything that comes with navigating a hitter through a season. They are part therapist, part savant.

“How many swing coaches do you see caddying on the golf course with guys?” one National League hitting coach said. “A caddy is in the shit with them. They’re reading the game. Reading the course.”

In the wake of something new, the pendulum can swing heavily in one direction. It takes time to blend.

Certainly, there are those around the industry who view Driveline as great marketers. But perhaps the game is slowly beginning to find some balance. And that includes Driveline.

When Caleb Durbin was first traded to the Red Sox from the Brewers, the organization wanted him to pull the ball more. The adjustment sent him into a spiral, as he hit .152 over his first 52 games. Durbin, however, took it upon himself to work with an independent hitting group, Gradum GSwing, roughly 30 minutes outside Boston.

“I think it just helped open up the whole field,” Durbin said. “So I was able to cover more pitches. Was able to cover the outside part of the plate better and cover the breaking balls better.”

Since June, Durbin is hitting .289/.369/.444, with 11 home runs and 11 doubles in 82 games.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, have been the best offense in baseball for much of the second half, largely playing to their strengths: bat-to-ball skills, taking their hits and using the entire field. It’s a departure from much of what the organization publicly and privately emphasized over the previous two-plus years, and perhaps evidence of some malleability. Since the break, the Red Sox rank second in OPS and slugging despite ranking 21st in hard-hit percentage and tied for 21st in bat speed.

“Our beliefs are constantly evolving as we update our information and identify trends in the industry,” Breslow said. “However, what I don’t anticipate changing is the framework of working backwards from what the best version of each individual player looks like, and then adjusting training and approach in order to achieve that.”

Boston isn’t alone. The Rays and Brewers, both atop their divisions, have been on the cutting edge of a more speed-driven approach, one built around athleticism and high contact rates. The Brewers’ ground-ball rate (48.5%) is six points higher than the MLB average, and their pulled ball percentage (34.7%) is nearly five points lower than the average.

The next evolution of hitting isn’t another extreme swing of the pendulum and a refusal to move from it.

It’s finding the blend.

As for Campbell, he’s still in Triple-A. There’s been progress. But with the Red Sox turning their season around and likely punching their ticket to October, he doesn’t appear to have a path back to the majors this year.

Currently, according to Reina, Campbell has figured it out again. He’s attacked pitch mixes through the club’s Trajekt machine and raised his hands in his setup. Earlier in the season, Campbell held them lower. His timing suffered.

“I don’t think you can speak enough on Kristian’s character,” Reina said. “Just as a person, I think that first and foremost allows him to show up day after day, whether it’s good, bad, or indifferent. He tries to be a good teammate every day. That’s important to him.”

He’s still just 24. Success doesn’t always arrive swiftly. Sometimes, it requires endurance.

Campbell has endured. And the results are beginning to come back. He hit .308/.433/.497 with five home runs and 30 walks in 44 games between June 25 and Aug. 30. He homered twice Sunday.

Nonetheless, Campbell is a reminder that there’s a cap to how much some hitters should be engineered.

And on that June day in the WooSox dugout, he appeared light but dejected. He still smiled. He still laughed. But the weight of still trying to live up to the expectations that came with his contract was palpable.

At the end of the conversation, Campbell rose from the WooSox bench, walked through the cluttered hallway that led to the clubhouse. A reminder of just how removed he was from the big leagues.

Yet even on an island, trying to rediscover the swing he crafted as a kid while shedding parts of the one built under the exposed cables, the one that helped get him here, there was still a glimmer of confidence that shone through.

Because there’s a person behind the swing.

A ballplayer.

He made a sharp right toward his locker and offered one final thought.

“I’ll see you soon.”

On September 4, 2026, businessman and social media influencer Andrew Tate was formally indicted on four allegations. His brother, Tristan Tate, was indicted for complicity in the alleged offenses. This comes as a major update, considering the new indictment comes after their earlier case ran into procedural problems. Notably, the Romanian investigation against the Tates began in December 2022.

Now, nearly four years later, Romania’s anti-organized crime prosecutors, DIICOT, indicted Andrew Tate on the following allegations:

1. Trafficking of minors
2. Sex with a minor
3. Money laundering
4. Witness tampering

It should be pointed out that an indictment is not a conviction. It means prosecutors believe they have sufficient grounds to send the case forward for judicial examination. The brothers remain presumed innocent unless convicted.

In December 2023, the initial 2022 investigation against Tristan and Andrew Tate led to a formal indictment in an earlier case involving allegations including human trafficking and rape.

However, in December 2024, the Bucharest Court of Appeal returned the indictment to prosecutors because of multiple legal and procedural irregularities. Essentially, the court found problems with the way prosecutors had constructed or handled the case and sent it back to DIICOT for further work.

Andrew Tate currently being held in the United States

The timing of the Romanian indictment is significant because Andrew and Tristan are currently being held in the United States. In July 2026, the brothers were arrested in Miami following a request from the United Kingdom for their extradition.

The British case is separate from this Romanian prosecution. In the UK, Andrew faces allegations including rape and trafficking-related offenses, while the brothers contest extradition and deny wrongdoing.

According to a report from Sky News, the Tates’ lawyer, Eugen Vidineac, claims that the brothers “continue to reject the allegations”:

“We will examine every aspect of (the indictment) with ⁠the same level of scrutiny, and ⁠we will challenge any evidential, procedural or legal deficiencies through the appropriate judicial process. Our clients continue to reject the allegations against them.”

In January 2026, Andrew Tate said he’d potentially “go to jail,” while claiming his life has been “destroyed.”