22+ hour, 25+ min ago (1850+ words) The paper fliers went up early one morning in April, an advertisement of hope in the cell blocks of California's most notorious prison: Baseball tryout, Saturday, 9 a.m. Richard Williams couldn't have been more excited. He had been incarcerated in San Quentin for over three decades, and for the next six months, he would not be just Richard Williams, inmate H-07618. He would be Coach Will, the leader of the San Quentin Giants, the country's best baseball team behind bars. When Saturday morning came, dozens of men gathered on the edge of the infield dirt, still in their prison blue work clothes. They were as young as 24 and as old as 60; some had played college baseball, while others were picking up a bat for the first time since Little League. They would open their season on the day before Easter, and Williams began…...

6+ hour, 31+ min ago (756+ words) Shohei Ohtani will once again represent Team Japan in next year's World Baseball Classic. Whether or not he pitches in the international tournament, however, remains unclear. On Monday, Ohtani announced on Instagram he is planning to participate in the WBC for the second time in his career. In the 2023 WBC, he won tournament MVP with a .435 batting average and 1.86 pitching ERA, helping Japan to that year's title. He punctuated the event with his memorable strikeout of Mike Trout for the final out in the championship game. "I'm happy to play again representing Japan," Ohtani wrote in Japanese on Monday. The question now is whether Ohtani will pitch in the event, which takes place in March, just five months removed from his heavy postseason workload during the Dodgers' run to a second-consecutive World Series title. At this point, no decision on…...