The San Diego School of Baseball was backed by hitting stars such as Tony Gwynn and Alan Trammell, but it was the pitching minds that gave the early 1980s baseball camp its charm — and its legacy.

Brent Strom and Tom House had been teammates at the University of Southern California and then, later, journeyman pitchers in the major leagues. Aside from lineage, they also shared deep-seated hunches that there was more to learn about baseball than previous generations had taught.

So when the day’s instruction was over, they sat in the dugouts of Grossmont College or ventured to a local watering hole, tossing ideas back and forth: the things they loved about the game, the things they thought were wrong, the things they wanted to change.

Once, during a baby shower for another coach’s wife, the men were scolded when they were found in the corner of a room, playing back film of pitchers. They were all obsessives, and the San Diego School of Baseball was their offseason oasis — a place where they could gather and discuss, without judgment and scorn, some of the very concepts that decades later would alter the balance of baseball.

“A summit,” House called it, “of smart baseball minds.”

Before PITCHf/x and Statcast could measure progress, before internet message boards and…

The Hall of Fame is made for players like Adrián Beltré. As a pure hitter, reliable slugger and slick third baseman, Beltré had few peers: No other infielder in the history of baseball has 3,000 hits, 400 homers and five Gold Glove awards. Beltré, now 44, was a lock for the Hall of Fame.

As a first-time Cooperstown candidate, Beltré did not need to follow the breathless tracking of public ballots this winter. Yet he still could not feel secure, he said, until his wife and son assured him on Tuesday that election day looked promising. He could savor it.

“That made me relax a little bit more, and I kind of forced myself to try to enjoy this moment,” Beltré said from his home in Southern California, moments after achieving his sport’s greatest honor. “It was going to be a nice moment, and probably the last moment in baseball that I was going to accomplish, being at the pinnacle of the game.”

Beltré had company at the summit on Tuesday, with Todd Helton and Joe Mauer joining him in the new class of Hall of Famers. Former manager Jim Leyland, elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee last month, will also be inducted at the ceremony July 21.

Candidates must receive 75 percent of the ballots from 10-year members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of…

DETROIT — On the surface, it seems like not much has changed with Andrew Chafin. There he was Thursday on a video call with local media, smiling away, clad in a trucker cap and sporting a bushy offseason beard.

He has been working on his Ohio farm this offseason per usual. On most days, he wakes up at 4 a.m. and heads to his shop, where he drinks a few cups of coffee and prepares for the day.

“Go through emails and all the dumb stuff you’ve got to do,” Chafin said.

Then it’s onto whatever tasks need to be crossed off the list. Most recently, he is building a new house. He didn’t want to pay someone to do the excavation work, so he’s been driving around moving dirt from the backyard to the front yard and leveling the whole thing out.

“Went out, got a big ol’ dump truck and a bigger excavator, and it’s been working in the dirt, not playing,” Chafin said. “Working in the dirt.”

On another of Chafin’s properties, he and his wife plan to open a wedding venue. Goofy as Chafin can come across, he is a natural engineer and a savvy entrepreneur, not to mention a veteran left-handed relief pitcher.

“Today I’ve been working on a go-kart, getting it fixed,” Chafin said.

So yeah, easy to assume the Andrew Chafin who will pitch for the Detroit Tigers in 2024 is…

NEW YORK — Major League Baseball postponed Wednesday’s Tigers at Phillies and White Sox at Yankees matchups due to “clearly hazardous air quality conditions in both cities,” the league announced. The decision came after conversations throughout the day with medical and weather experts.

The game in New York will be made up Thursday as the first in a single-admission doubleheader, beginning at 4:05 p.m. ET. The game in Philadelphia will be made up at 6:05 p.m. ET on Thursday, when both clubs were scheduled to be off.

In Toronto, the Blue Jays closed the roof of their stadium for their game against the Astros due to poor air quality. Several other minor-league games, as well as a WNBA game and an NWSL game, have also been postponed.

More than 200 wildfires burning in Canada, many of them in and around Quebec, have blanketed the eastern and northern United States in smoke and caused air quality levels to plummet in impacted areas. The National Weather Service issued an air quality alert. The NWS warned of “widespread haze” and smoke, mainly before 11 p.m. ET.

The Environmental Protection Agency pegged the air quality index at 392, earning its “Hazardous” designation, as of 4 p.m. ET. A moderate air quality index is typically around 100.

Earlier Wednesday, New York City…

Rob Harris likes to accompany his son on at least one road trip each year. The treks are a way to see Scott, a baseball executive, in his element. A method of savoring a bit more time.

So last year in late August, Scott, then general manager for the San Francisco Giants, and Rob were out in the stands looking over Target Field in Minneapolis. It was early in the day, the ballpark empty and still. Then the phone rang.

Scott looked at his phone. He showed Rob the screen. Chris Ilitch, chairman and CEO of the Detroit Tigers, was calling.

Harris looked at his father. I think I better take this call.

A few days later, Harris flew to Detroit to meet with Ilitch and interview to be the Tigers’ president of baseball operations. He would replace Al Avila, who was fired about two weeks earlier.

In Detroit, Harris toured the town while he met with people like Ilitch and other members of the Tigers’ brass. He even met with Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman.

Ilitch’s wife, Kelle, took Harris’ fiancee, Elle, out looking at houses.

“Very Midwestern,” Rob says of the interview process.

The opportunity for Harris was immense: The chance to run a baseball team and do it in a historic baseball city.

The tradeoffs were also stark.

“I knew he was conflicted,” Rob said. “He had a…

If you have questions about the future of your team’s live games on your local cable, satellite or digital provider, particularly those on Bally Sports channels, we’re here to answer with what we know so far.

Diamond Sports Group, the Baltimore-based corporate parent of the 19 Bally Sports channels that air 47 NBA, MLB, NHL and WNBA teams, announced Feb. 15 that it would skip a $140 million debt payment due that day and use the month-long grace period as part of its effort to financially reorganize itself.

Many observers interpret the move as a precursor to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, though that is not a certainty. Diamond has $8 billion-plus of debt, incurred as part of parent Sinclair’s 2019 purchase of the regional sports channels, and lost $1.2 billion in the most recent fiscal quarter.

“Certainly more likely that they will file bankruptcy because they did not make the payment,” said Schuyler Carroll, a bankruptcy attorney who is not connected to Diamond. “But not necessarily that they will file bankruptcy. They are still continuing discussions with their creditors to try and avoid bankruptcy. But those can often be difficult.”

Diamond in a Feb. 15 statement said it “intends to use the 30-day grace period to continue progressing its ongoing…