Nestor Ceja to Serve as Right Field Umpire for 2024 MLB All-Star Game

Nestor Ceja is bracing for an all-star appearance…

The Latino major league umpire will be among the umpires for Major League Baseball’s 2024 MLB All-Star Game on July 16 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

Nestor Ceja

Ceja will be right field umpire for the game, per the MLB.

James Hoye will be the plate umpire and crew chief. He was the left field umpire for the 2015 MLB All-Star Game in Cincinnati. The 53-year-old made his major league debut in 2003 and worked the World Series in 2019 and 2022.

In addition to Ceja, Hoye’s crew will include Bruce Dreckman at first, John Tumpane at second, Nic Lentz at third and Ben May in left.

Dreckman will be working his second All-Star Game and the rest of the crew their first.

Rob Drake will be the replay umpire at MLB’s office in New York.

Oakland manager Mark Kotsay will be part of Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy‘s American League staff and Cincinnati Reds manager David Bell will be part of Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo‘s National League staff.

Ceja worked his first game on August 14, 2020 as one of 19 umpires to make their debut that season, a result of a number of veteran umpires deciding to sit out the year because of the Coronavirus pandemic. All of his games were in the two Western divisions. On August 22nd, he was responsible for his first ejection, tossing Martin Maldonado of the Houston Astros for riding him from the bench. He became a permanent member of the major league umpiring crew in 2023.

He was one of the members of the original class of the MLB Umpire Training Academy when it opened in 2012 and later became an instructor there.

Caroline Garcia Defeats Aryna Sabalenka to Claim WTA Finals Crown

Caroline Garcia has claimed the biggest singles title of her career…

The 29-year-old half-Spanish French tennis player took a tight first set and went on to a 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory over Aryna Sabalenka to win the championship of the WTA Finals on Monday night.

Caroline GarciaThe sixth-ranked Garcia became the second player from France to win the season-ending event after Amelie Mauresmo in 2005, also the last time the WTA Finals were held in the U.S.

The event was moved to Texas from China over concerns about the safety of Peng Shuai, a Grand Slam doubles champion who accused a former government official there of sexual assault. Coronavirus restrictions also played a part in the decision.

Garcia won her last six sets after dropping the first in a winner-take-all match against Daria Kasatkina in group play. She is the oldest WTA Finals winner since Serena Williams at 33 in 2014.

The only player to win titles on all three surfaces this season, Garcia was just as comfortable as Sabalenka on the temporary indoor hard court at Dickies Arena near downtown Fort Worth.

As a result, Garcia handed the No. 7 player from Belarus just her third loss in 12 career hard-court finals. Sabalenka was trying to become the first player from her country to win the WTA Finals.

There was only one break point in a meeting of the tour (Garcia) and tournament (Sabalenka) leaders in aces coming into the match.

Garcia converted that break point in the first game of the second set while handing No. 7 Sabalenka just her third loss in 12 career hard-court finals on the temporary indoor court at Dickies Arena.

Garcia won six consecutive points in the tiebreaker, capped by her 10th ace of the first set for a 6-2 lead. Sabalenka’s third double fault ended the set. Garcia finished with 11 aces.

“It was a lot of aces, sometimes not too many rallies,” Garcia told the crowd. “But that’s our game style, and I hope you enjoyed it.”

Garcia matched Sabalenka’s power from the start in her fourth victory of the season, second only to Swiatek’s eight.

“I just dropped my level for a little bit on the tiebreak and in the first game of the second set,” Sabalenka said. “That was the key moments.”

Tied in the deciding game, Garcia’s service winner gave her a second match point, and Sabalenka sent a forehand long. Garcia dropped to the court on her back with her arms raised.

Ariana DeBose to Make Her Debut as Host on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live”

Ariana DeBose is preparing for a special late night debut…

The 30-year-old half-Puerto Rican actress/singer, who is earning Oscar buzz for her performance in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, will make her debut as host on NBC’s Saturday Night Live.

Ariana DeBose

DeBose will be joined by Live Life Fast pop star Roddy Ricch, who will be making his debut on the show as the musical guest.

DeBose is well known to the late-night show’s creator Lorne Michaels as she plays Emma in Apple’s Michaels-exec produced comedy series Schmigadoon!

It will be the first show of 2022 for SNL and comes after the show rallied impressively for its COVID-19-hit final episode of 2021, a show that featured only Keenan Thompson and Michael Che from its regular cast as well as special guests Tina Fey and Tom Hanks.

The plan for the January 15 show is to be back with a full cast and crew as well as studio audience, according to Deadline, but given the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, a decision will be made closer to the time.

The show will also be streamed live via Peacock with the remainder of season 47 also airing live on the streaming service at 11:30pm ET.

Saturday Night Live is produced in association with Broadway Video.

Carlos Vives Delays Restart of U.S. “Después de todo … Vives” Tour Indefinitely Due to COVID-19 Surge

Carlos Vives’ trek across the United States has been put on hold…

The 60-year-old Colombian singer, songwriter and actor has announced that his Después de todo … Vives tour is being postponed until further notice due to the rise in COVID-19 cases across the country.

Carlos VivesVives’ latest tour kicked off in December and was set to pick up January 13 in Seattle.

The Loud and Live-produced tour is being canceled for the time being to protect the public, artists and their teams.

“This difficult decision has been made in a prudent manner to ensure the well-being and health of the entire community,” stated Nelson Albareda, CEO and founder of Loud and Live.

New dates will be announced in the next few days, according to a press release, and tickets purchased will remain valid.

The emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant has resulted in a spike in coronavirus infections across the U.S.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 206.6 million people in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, but the country still hit a record high on January 3 with more than one million people diagnosed with COVID-19, according to data from the John Hopkins University.

Los Temerarios Postpone U.S. Tour Amid Surge in COVID-19 Cases

Los Temerarios are hitting the pause button…

The Mexican Grupera band, comprised of brothers Adolfo Angel and Gustavo Angel, has postponed its U.S. tour amid a surge in COVID-19 cases across the nation.

Los Temerarios,

In an official press release shared on their social media accounts, Los Temerarios said that due to the “critical situation,” they decided to postpone their 2022 tour — which was set to kick off February 4 — and move it to 2023.

“At this moment, everyone’s health is top priority, and although we want to return to the stage and reunite with our fans, we don’t want to put anyone at risk,” Los Temerarios, led by brothers Gustavo and Adolfo Angel, wrote. Tickets purchased for the 2022 tour will be valid for the new dates, which they’ll be announcing in the upcoming months, according to the post.

The emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant has resulted in a spike in coronavirus infections across the U.S.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 206.6 million people in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, but the country still hit a record high on January 3 with more than one million people diagnosed with COVID-19, according to data from the John Hopkins University.

Leylah Fernandez to Compete at This Year’s Billie Jean King Cup Finals

Leylah Fernandez is gearin’ up for a special cup

The 19-year-old half-Ecuadorian Canadian tennis sensation and U.S. Open finalist is among the players named to the 12 teams at next month’s Billie Jean King Cup Finals.

Leylah Fernandez

Fernandez will play for Canada in the competition.

But she isn’t the only Latina set to play in the Cup.

Two-time Grand Slam champion Garbiñe Muguruza will play for Spain along with Carla Suarez Navarro.

Meanwhile, Caroline Garcia is set to play for defending champion France, alongside her teammates Alize Cornet and Fiona Ferro, who were all part of the  group that won the event in 2019. The 2020 edition was called off because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Matches will be played in Prague on Nov. 1-6.

The host Czech Republic will be led by 2021 French Open singles and doubles champion Barbora Krejcikova.

She is joined by Marketa Vondrousova, the 2019 French Open runner-up and the 2020 Tokyo Games singles silver medalist, and Katerina Siniakova, who was Krejcikova’s doubles partner for three Grand Slam doubles titles and a gold medal at the Summer Games.

Sloane Stephens is joined by Jessica PegulaDanielle Collins, CoCo Vandeweghe and Caroline Dolehide on the U.S. roster.

Eva Longoria Among Celebrities & Entertainment Figures Encouraging World Leaders to “End the COVID-19 Pandemic Now”

Eva Longoria is urging on world leaders to take action to end the ongoing coronavirus pandemic…

Tuesday morning, just before President Joe Biden addressed the United Nations for the first time, more than 80 celebrities and entertainment figures, including the 46-year-old Mexican American actress, producer and activist, issued an open letter to world leaders calling for them to end “the COVID-19 pandemic now.”

Eva Longoria

The letter, which mentioned the United Nations General Assembly Session specifically, was posted on the website of CARE, an organization dedicated to ending poverty worldwide.

It was signed by a raft of boldfaced names including Longoria, Debra MessingAlyssa Milano, Anne Hathaway, Malin Akerman, Debbie Allen, Jordana Brewster, Connie Britton, Ciara, Peter Dinklage, Richard Gere, Dolores Huerta, Joel McHale, Iman, Edward James Olmos, Laura Linney, Julianna Margulies, Joel McHale, Idina Menzel, Ana Ortiz, Adam Shankman, Michael Sheen, Adam Shulman and Sarah Silverman.

Specifically, the letter calls COVID-19 “a manmade pandemic of apathy.” It states that “Only 2% of people in low-income countries have received a single dose.” The signatories call on “global leaders to make 7 billion vaccine doses available before the end of 2021, and an additional 7 billion doses by mid-2022 to fully vaccinate 70% of the world by next summer.”

Those are lofty goals given the world’s most highly vaccinated countries, like the U.S., remain well under 70%.

It also asks leaders to “invest in last-mile delivery systems, public education, and frontline healthcare workers to get vaccines from tarmacs into arms.”

Here’s the full letter:

An open letter to world leaders on ending the COVID-19 pandemic now.

None of us are safe until all of us are safe.

We call on leaders gathering at the United Nations General Assembly Session to boldly act
together to end COVID-19 everywhere.

COVID-19 is now a manmade pandemic of apathy. Only 2% of people in low-income countries have received a single dose, leaving the world’s most vulnerable to face COVID with no
protection. This situation also lets new variants, like Delta, emerge and ravage the lives of
millions.

We are joining with CARE to call on global leaders to make 7 billion vaccine doses available before the end of 2021, and an additional 7 billion doses by mid-2022 to fully vaccinate 70%
of the world by next summer.

To get this done the world community must also invest in last-mile delivery systems, public education, and frontline healthcare workers to get vaccines from tarmacs into arms. Millions
of doses could go to waste because low-income countries don’t have the support they
need to get vaccines to vulnerable people.

We can save millions of lives — and trillions in further economic damage — by meeting this moment with the resources and political will needed to end COVID-19 for everyone,
everywhere. Because none of us are safe until all of us are safe.

Malin Akerman
Debbie Allen
Dorothy Amuah
Morena Baccarin
Adriana Barraza
Troian Bellisario
Bobby Berk
Jordana Brewster
Connie Britton
Karamo Brown
Gloria Calderón Kellett
Ciara
Tena Clark
Kim Coates
Madison Cowan
Alexandra Daddario
Peter Dinklage
Melinda Doolittle
Tan France
Richard Gere
Duff Goldman
Tony Goldwyn
Fiona Gubelmann
Anne Hathaway
Ingrid Hoffmann
Anders Holm
Dolores Huerta
Osas Ighodaro
Joel McHale
Iman
Edward James Olmos
Sonam Kapoor Ahuja
Ellie Krieger
Iskra Lawrence
Annie Lennox
Lola Lennox
Esther Lewis
Laura Linney
Kimberly Locke
Eva Longoria
Anja Manuel
Julianna Margulies
Catherine McCord
Joel McHale
Spike Mendelsohn
Idina Menzel
Debra Messing
Alyssa Milano
Sepideh Moafi
Tamera Mowry-Housley
Yvette Nicole Brown
Christina Ochoa
Ana Ortiz
Helen Pankhurst
Jessica Pimentel
Julie Plec
Adina Porter
Zac Posen
Leven Rambin
April Reign
Holland Roden
Sheila Shah
Adam Shankman
Omar Sharif Jr.
Michael Sheen
Adam Shulman
Sarah Silverman
Hannah Skvarla
Todd Snyder
Kimberly Steward
Curtis Stone
Christy Turlington Burns
Laura Vandervoort
Gabby Williams
Michelle Williams
Kimberly Williams-Paisley
Russell Wilson
Scott Wolf
Kelley Wolf
Bellamy Young
Rachel Zoe

Edgar Ramirez Encourages Everyone to Get the COVID-19 Vaccine After Losing Family Members to the Virus

Edgar Ramirez is encouraging everyone to get the COVID-19 vaccine after suffering his own heartbreak…

The 44-yea-old Venezuelan actor has shared via Instagram his very personal story about his loss due to coronavirus.

Edgar Ramirez

Ramirez – a Golden Globe and Emmy nominee who has appeared in films and television programs like Carlos, Zero Dark Thirty, The Bourne Ultimatum, Hands of Stone, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story and Wrath of the Titans appealed to people to take the COVID-19 vaccines, citing his relatives who died without access to them in a series of posts.

“I beg you to please read this post carefully 🙏🏽. It is the most painful and the most intimate thing I have had to publish in my life, but I think it is important to share it,” he wrote on Instagram. “At times, I feel like it is a nightmare from which I am going to wake up, but I know it is not. That this is as real as the air that at this moment it is difficult for me to breathe.”

He continued, “In my Instagram feed, right next to this post is an interview I had with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the President of the United States, in which we discussed vital information on how to deal with COVID 19 and the urgent need to get vaccinated, especially those of us who are lucky enough to access to a vaccine. No one who has access to a vaccine should die from COVID 19. Please read this information, watch the interview and please, please share it.

Thank you very much,
Edgar

Rebeca Andrade Becomes Brazil’s First-Ever Female Olympic Medalist in Gymnastics at the Tokyo Games

2020 Tokyo Games

Rebeca Andrade may have come short of the gold, but she’s still earned her place in Olympic history…

The 22-year-old Brazilian gymnast claimed the silver medal in the women’s gymnastics all-around competition at the 2020 Tokyo Games, becoming the first female Brazilian gymnast in Olympic history to stand on the podium.

Rebeca Andrade

“I am super happy,” Andrade said. “I hoped for this moment, and I have trained and worked super hard for this moment. I don’t have any words to describe how I am feeling, nor the feeling of having the Olympic silver medal around my neck.”

Andrade had been in medal competition the entire night at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre, and battled with eventual champion Sunisa Lee and bronze medalist Angelina Melnikova for the top spot on the leaderboard. It was hard to imagine that Andrade’s status for the Olympics had once been in doubt.

Rebeca Andrade

Andrade tore her anterior cruciate ligament for the third time in her career at the Brazilian Championships in 2019. She was sidelined for the remainder of the season, including the world championships, as she underwent surgery and rehabbed the injury — again. The injury was tough — and the emotional toll was even harder.

In her absence, the Brazilian team failed to qualify for the Olympics, and she needed to clinch a spot as an individual. She went to Baku, Azerbaijan, for her first meet back after injury in March 2020 for a World Cup event. During qualifying, she finished in second place on beam and in third place on bars, advancing to the event finals on both. But, like so many global sporting events during that month, the meet was canceled before any of the finals could get underway. Her comeback was paused yet again, and this time, indefinitely.

Rebeca Andrade

As Brazil was hit particularly hard by the coronavirus, many gyms were closed and training became inconsistent. She joined a delegation of 112 Brazilian athletes in Portugal in order to ensure she could continue preparing to qualify to the Olympics.

Then, in December 2020, she tested positive for the coronavirus. She was asymptomatic but had to withdraw from a competition and temporarily stop training while isolating.

Rebeca Andrade

Through it all, she worked with a sports psychologist who helped her stay focused on her long-term goal of going back to the Olympics. With limited events in 2021 and few opportunities to earn a spot for the Games, Andrade wasn’t even sure in early June whether she would secure a berth to Tokyo.

Her last shot was at the Pan American Championships in which the top two finishers would earn two of the final spots.

She won the all-around by more than four points.

Without her teammates by her side, Andrade qualified to the all-around final in second place, behind only Simone Biles. On Thursday, she showed no signs of slowing down as she took early control of the competition with an impressive Cheng vault — earning a 15.300, tied for the highest score on any event of the night.

She had a chance to clinch the gold medal on floor, her final event of the night. Despite having a higher degree of difficulty than Lee, Andrade stepped out of bounds twice and finished 0.135 overall behind Lee.

Still, the color of the medal didn’t seem to matter.

“I wanted to shine in the best way possible,” she said. “And I think I shined.”

After the medal ceremony, she posed for selfies and goofed around with Lee and Melnikova. None of them had arrived in Japan feeling the gold medal was in reach with Biles in the competition, and they all seemed surprised they had even had a chance in the end following Biles’ withdrawal.

“Simone is incredible, and knowing how she had to leave the competition was very difficult,” Andrade said. “People need to understand that we are not robots. We are human beings, and we have feelings like anyone else. That’s the same with me. … We feel the pressure. But I tried to keep my cool. I tried to put into practice everything that I trained with my psychologist, and it worked. I did all that I could, and I couldn’t be happier with my performance.”

After so many challenges on the path to the podium in Tokyo, Andrade knew she didn’t get to the end result on her own. She credited all those who have been in her corner, every step of the way, for helping her achieve her dream.

“This medal is not just mine, it’s one for everyone that knows my story, everything I have been through,” Andrade said. “There have been so many people that helped me along the way. I am very grateful for having them around. I wouldn’t have achieved this without them.”

Aventura Reuniting for One-Night-Only Concert in Miami to Closeout Their “Inmortal” Reunion Tour

Prepare for a special Aventura reunion…

The bachata group, helmed by Romeo SantosHenry Santos, Lenny Santos and Max Santos, has announced an upcoming one-night-only concert as part of their “Inmortal” reunion tour that was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Aventura

Aventura canceled their 2020 reunion tour on March 12 at the former AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami when Mayor Carlos Gimenez declared a state of emergency, canceling large events to stop the spread of the virus. They also canceled the remaining North American tour, which was set to wrap in August.

Now, the tour will officially conclude August 14 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami for a one-time show produced by Live Nation.

Named after the group’s first single in nearly 10 years, the “Inmortal” tour grossed $25.8 million and sold 189,000 tickets, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. That’s 15 shows between February 5 and March 10, 2020.

Although the group has reunited multiple times since disbanding in 2011, this is the “last and final” Aventura concert together, according to Santos on Instagram.

Tickets are on sale via Ticketmaster.com.