Sports
'Feel like myself.’ How embattled Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler is salvaging his season
Three weeks ago, Mark Prior decided it was time to rip the Band-Aid off.
After watching Walker Buehler tinker, toil and tumble through 10 troubling starts in his return from a second career Tommy John surgery this season, the Dodgers pitching coach had a simple message for the right-hander ahead of a bullpen session in St. Louis last month.
Buehler had toyed around with his mechanics long enough.
If he was going to salvage his 2024 campaign, it was time to get back to the most fundamental of basics.
Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler throws pitch against the Orioles at Dodger Stadium on Aug. 28.
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
“It was a little bit like, ‘Hey man, we need to lock something down,’ ” Prior recalled this week. “It was very direct: ‘We need to get better at your delivery. You need to be able to get better at throwing strike one and getting ahead.’ So that was the main focus. That’s the only thing we cared about.”
During an up and (mostly) down start to 2024, Buehler lacked any such consistency.
His fastballs were fired like a shotgun, possessing plenty of velocity but little repeatable command. His breaking pitches would be pulled off the plate, or spiked in the dirt, or left hanging over the middle — without Buehler usually knowing until the ball was already out of his hand.
To call it frustrating for the 30-year-old, former two-time All-Star would be an understatement.
To say it confounded Buehler would undersell the toll it took on his usually unflappable psyche.
“There’d be times that I would [command the ball] three or four in a row and be fine or whatever,” Buehler said. “And then games — whole games — where I couldn’t do it at all.”
Indeed, it wasn’t just that Buehler lacked his best stuff after almost two years away from the mound, while recovering from his second career Tommy John surgery in August 2022.
Instead, he rarely had any reliable stuff to count on at all; grinding through most early-season starts simply hoping batters would get themselves out before they punished mistakes he left over the plate.
“It’s like in golf, when you create a two-way miss, if you hook and a ball and then slice a ball, hook a ball and then slice a ball,” the Dodgers pitcher said this week. “If your baseline swing is not the same, it makes it really, really hard. Same thing with throwing a baseball.”
As his struggles deepened, culminating in a four-run, 3 ⅓-inning start against the Milwaukee Brewers on Aug. 14 that raised his season ERA over 6.00, Buehler started to wonder if he’d ever find a fix.
Dodgers’ Walker Buehler sits in the dugout after the first inning of a game against the Seattle Mariners on Aug. 20 at Dodger Stadium.
(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Associated Press)
The list of successful two-time Tommy John pitchers, after all, is short.
And even though his stuff wasn’t totally diminished — his fastball still averaged 95 mph and the characteristics of his secondary weapons still encouraged Dodgers coaches — his performance had drastically waned.
“It’s always tough, man,” Buehler said. “There’s not that many people to look at and be like, ‘Hey, [after] the second Tommy John, it should be fine.’ You just don’t know. You don’t know if it’ll ever be the same or feel the same.”
But that’s the thing about pitching.
Sometimes, it can feel like every movement is wrong, like no variation of the delivery is right.
And then, in the span of even just one bullpen session, something will click.
Three weeks ago, that’s what happened for Buehler in St. Louis.
“It’s just crazy,” Buehler said, “how little things can click and make such a big difference.”
If Buehler has looked like a different pitcher since then, giving up four earned runs while striking out 10 batters in his last two starts, it’s because he’s felt like it on the mound.
For the first time in years, he said, he has been able to pick up his left foot, fling his right arm toward the plate and throw the ball more or less where he wants to.
It began during an Aug. 28 outing against the Baltimore Orioles, when he pumped three first-pitch strikes in what was only his second 1-2-3 first inning of the season; the start of an encouraging 4 2/3 inning, two-earned-run outing. It continued against the Angels on Tuesday, when he had more strikeouts (six) than hits allowed (five) for the first time since May and only the third time all year.
Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler greets teammates before a game against the Angels in Anaheim on Wednesday.
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
After both starts, Buehler claimed to “feel like myself” again — capable of working counts, attacking hitters and genuinely giving the Dodgers a chance to win.
Given the club’s uncertain pitching plans ahead of October, it has also turned the former Game 1 starter back into a possible postseason option, making him a candidate for a potential playoff rotation if he can continue his return to form over the season’s final three weeks.
“I think right now, Walker’s in compete mode,” manager Dave Roberts said after Buehler’s performance in Anaheim. “At some point, you’ve got to put mechanics aside and you’ve got to go out there and compete and make pitches. His last start, and tonight, I thought he did that.”
When asked about Buehler’s recent improvements this week, both the pitcher and his Dodgers pitching coaches pointed to his between-starts bullpen session in St. Louis last month.
Up to that point, Buehler had admittedly been “tinkering” too much with his mechanics, reverting to his old perfectionist habits at a time he needed to simplify his approach.
“It’s just crazy how little things can click and make such a big difference.”
— Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler
“He’s just a tinkerer,” Prior said. “Whether it’s pitches, grips, how he’s gonna approach a start and attack hitters. He’s always been that guy.”
During Buehler’s prime years, when he went 39-13 with a 2.82 ERA from 2018 to 2021 as the ace of the Dodgers starting staff, tinkering was one of his biggest strengths, making him an ever-evolving, unpredictable presence for opposing lineups.
“You never want to take away a guy’s creativity,” Prior said, “because usually that’s how guys get to where they are.”
But this year, Buehler’s constant adjustments became too much.
Early in the season, he was searching for old “feels” in his delivery, unsuccessfully attempting to mimic his pre-Tommy John mechanics.
“There was still some stuff that he was seeing and feeling that wasn’t necessarily there,” assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness said.
“It did probably hamper him getting back to some sort of concrete foundation,” Prior added.
When Buehler went on the injured list in June with a hip injury, he spent nearly a month at the Cressey Sports Performance training center near Palm Beach, Fla., going to the private pitching lab in search of a midseason solution.
“I probably didn’t help myself [with] the way that I think about pitching in terms of all the tinkering and stuff,” Buehler said after his start against the Orioles. “It probably made this process longer.”
That’s why, after Buehler issued a season-high four walks against the Brewers a month ago, he and Dodgers coaches set a simple goal for his bullpen session in St. Louis the following week.
“We didn’t care about other things like velocity, movements or anything [else],” Prior said. “It was like, just command the baseball, and master your delivery to get there.”
Suddenly, Buehler made a breakthrough.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and a medical staff member check on pitcher Walker Buehler during a game in June at Dodgers Stadium.
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
For much of this year, Buehler now realizes he was getting “stuck back” in his delivery. Instead of transferring his weight toward the plate and driving down the mound with conviction, he subconsciously held back on throws to protect his surgically repaired elbow.
“When you rehab, you’re very conscious of how your elbow feels and how this feels and how that feels,” he said. “I was really stuck back, because you don’t want to leave your elbow to hang out to dry, basically.”
But with a new mindset came renewed execution.
During his St. Louis bullpen, Buehler turned his brain off, and thought only about lifting his leg and finishing each pitch.
Suddenly, he was not only commanding his fastball, but throwing it with more consistent crispness and life, McGuiness said. Same thing with his curveball, which featured “that second ‘umph,’ that second bite to it,” as McGuiness put it, a tell-tale sign of Buehler’s mechanics getting synced up.
While his next start on Aug. 20 against the Seattle Mariners didn’t show it — he gave up three runs and got just one strikeout in four innings — Buehler had finally turned a corner.
“This one feels a little more in line with what he’s talking about,” McGuiness said, “kind of taking that next step forward.”
Buehler deadpanned that where he used to bemoan dozens of throws in his early-season starts, he is now only “upset about three or four.”
“I’m throwing a lot truer of a throw,” Buehler said. “I feel like I generally have a better idea of what the ball is going to do.”
Don’t confuse this with Buehler (who remains 1-4 with a bloated 5.67 ERA overall this year) being back at his peak.
He still hasn’t completed six innings in a start since May. He still made a couple of mistakes against a last-place Angels team Tuesday, twice taken deep on pitches he left up in the zone.
However, he finally has a “baseline” delivery. It has led to more consistent first-pitch strikes, putting him ahead in counts. It has enabled him to attack with secondary stuff, especially a curveball he is using at a career-high rate. Most of all, it has allowed him to feel “like I could go and compete” once again, he said, re-stoking the competitive fire that once made Buehler one of baseball’s best big-game pitchers.
“It’s been better,” Prior said. “You’re starting to see some awkward swings. Guys are getting caught in-between speeds. He’s able to get in better counts and with more leverage.”
That might be enough for a Dodgers team looking for whatever production it can get from a banged-up starting staff. Right now, Jack Flaherty and Gavin Stone look like the only locks for the team’s postseason rotation. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw could be options, but have to successfully return from injuries first.
That means, in all likelihood, the Dodgers will need at least one more arm to count on come the playoffs.
For much of this year, it didn’t look like Buehler would be in the equation.
But now, he has gotten back to basics, showing long-awaited flashes of the pitcher he used to be.
“When he has his confidence and he’s doing his thing, he’s one of the best in the game,” McGuiness said. “So we’re pumped for him moving forward.”
Sports
Former NFL Players Of Iranian Descent Speak Up For Freedom From Islamic Regime
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Ali Haji-Sheikh and Shar Pourdanesh share the fact they are retired NFL players living beyond the glow of the NFL spotlight. But they also share another distinction tying them to current events: They are part of the Iranian diaspora hoping for the downfall of the Islamic revolution.
They make up part of a small group of men who played in the NFL – along with David Bakhtiari, his brother Eric Bakhtiari and T.J. Housmandzadeh – who are decedents of Iranians.
Washington Redskins kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh (6) talks to reporters at Jack Murphy Stadium during media day prior to Super Bowl XXII against the Denver Broncos. San Diego, California, on Jan. 26, 1988.(Darr Beiser/USA TODAY Sports)
Haji-Sheikh: Self-Determination For Iranians
Haji-Sheikh, 65, played in the 1980s for the New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons and Washington Redskins. He was a first-team All-Pro, made the Pro Bowl and was on the NFL All-Rookie team in 1983 for the Giants and, in his final season, won a Super Bowl XXII ring playing for the Washington Redskins and kicking six extra points in a 42-10 blowout of the Denver Broncos.
Now, Haji-Sheikh is the general manager at a Michigan Porsche-Audi dealership and is like the rest of us: Keeping up with world events when time permits.
Except the war the United States is currently waging against the Islamic Republic of Iran is kind of different because Haji-Sheikh’s dad emigrated from Iran to the United States in the 1950s and built a life here.
And his son would like to see freedom come to a country he’s never visited but has a kinship to.
“It’s a world event,” Haji-Sheikh said on Monday. “I am not a big fan of the Islamic revolution because I am not Islamic. I would like to see the people of Iran be able to determine their own future rather than it be determined by a few people. It would be nice to see them having a stable government where the people can actually decide how they want it to go.
Green Bay Packers kicker Al Del Greco (10) talks with New York Giants kicker Ali Haji-Sheikh (6) on Sept. 15, 1985, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers defeated the Giants 23-20.
Iranians Celebrating And Americans Protesting
Haji-Sheikh hasn’t taken to the streets of his native Michigan to celebrate a liberation that hasn’t fully manifested mere days after the American and Israeli bombing and elimination of the Ayatollah.
“I’m so far removed from that,” Haji-Sheikh said. “My mom is from Michigan and of Eastern European background. My dad is from Iran. But it’s like, he hasn’t been back since I was in eighth grade, so that’s a long time ago. That was when the Shah was still in power, mid-70s, ‘74 or ’75, because if he ever went back after that he never would have left. They would have held him, so there was no intention of going back.
“But if things change he might want to go, you never know.”
Despite being removed from any activism about what is happening in Iran Haji-Sheikh is an astute observer.
“My favorite thing I’m seeing right now on TV is the Iranians in America celebrating because there’s a chance, a glimpse, maybe a hope for freedom,” Haji-Sheikh said. “And you have these people in New York protesting. What are you protesting?”
Pourdanesh Thanks America, Israel
Pourdanesh retired from the NFL in 2000 after a seven-year career with the Redskins and Steelers. The six-foot-six and 312-pound offensive tackle was born in Tehran. He proudly tells people he was the NFL’s first Iranian-born player.
Pourdanesh is much more visible and open about his feelings about his country than others. And, bottom line, he loves that President Donald Trump is bombing the Islamic regime.
“This is a great day for all Iranians across the world,” Pourdanesh posted on his Instagram account on Saturday when the war began. “Thank you, President Trump, thank you to the nation of Israel. Thank you for everybody that has been standing up for my people, my brothers and sisters in Iran across the world. This is a great day.
“The infamous dictator is dead – the one person who has contributed to deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iranians and other people around the world, if not more. So, congratulations to my Iranian brothers and sisters. Now, go and take back the country.”
This message was not a one-off. Pourdanesh has been posting about what has been happening in Iran since January, when people in Iran took to the streets demanding liberty and the government’s thugs began killing them, with some estimates rising to 36,500 deaths.
Offensive lineman Shar Pourdanesh (68) of the Pittsburgh Steelers blocks against defensive lineman Jevon Kearse (90) of the Tennessee Titans during a game at Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 24, 2000, in Pittsburgh. The Titans defeated the Steelers 23-20. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images)
‘Islam Does Not Represent The Iranian People’
“[The] Islamic Republic does not represent the Iranian people,” Pourdanesh said in another post. “Islam does not represent the Iranian people. For almost 50 years, the Iranian people and our country of Iran has been taken hostage by a terrorist regime, and it’s time to take that regime down.”
Pourdanesh was not available for comment on Monday. I did speak to a handful of other Iranian-Americans on Monday. They didn’t play in the NFL, but their opinions are no less valuable than those of former NFL players.
And these people, some of them participating in rallies on behalf of a free Iran, do not understand the thinking of some Americans and mainstream media.
One complained that media that reports on reparations for black Americans based on slavery in the 1800s dismisses the Islamic takeover of the American Embassy in 1979 as an old grievance.
Another said his brother lives in England, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer immediately called the American and Israeli attacks on the Ayatollah’s regime “illegal” but, as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service took years to do the same of Muslim rape (grooming) gangs in the country.
(Starmer announced a national “statutory inquiry” in June 2025).
Offensive lineman Shar Pourdanesh of the Washington Redskins looks on from the sideline during a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium on Sept. 7, 1997, in Pittsburgh. The Steelers defeated the Redskins 14-13. (Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images)
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Pourdanesh Calls Out NFL Silence
And finally, Pourdanesh put the NFL on blast. He said in yet another post that during his career, the NFL asked him to honor black history, asked him to stand for women’s rights, asked him to fight for equality for those who cannot defend themselves.
“I did everything they asked, and now I ask the NFL this: Where are you now? Why haven’t we heard a single word out of the NFL? NFL, Commissioner Roger Goodell, all the NFL teams out there, all the players who say they stand for social justice, where are you now?
“Why haven’t we heard a single word out of you with regard to the people who have been killed as of today? The very values you claim to espouse are being trampled right now. Why haven’t we heard a single word?”
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Sports
Commentary: Will Klein isn’t surprised he saved the Dodgers’ World Series dynasty
The day after he saved the Dodgers’ season, Will Klein was hungry. He ordered from Mod Pizza.
He drove over to pick up his order. The guy that handed him the pizza told him he looked just like Will Klein.
“You should just look at the name on the order,” Klein told him.
Chaos ensued.
“He actually started screaming,” Klein said. “He just started flipping out, which was funny.”
Thing is, if it were two days earlier, the guy would have had no idea what Klein looked like. Neither would you.
On Oct. 26, Klein was the last man in the Dodgers’ bullpen, a wild thing on his fourth organization in two years, a last-minute addition to the World Series roster.
On Oct. 27, the Dodgers played 18 innings, and the last man in the Dodgers’ bullpen delivered the game of his life: four shutout innings, holding the Toronto Blue Jays at bay until Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off home run.
Dodgers pitcher Will Klein celebrates during the 16th inning of Game 3 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 27.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
When Klein returned to the clubhouse, Sandy Koufax walked over to shake hands and congratulate him.
That was Game 3 of the World Series. The Dodgers, the significantly older team, slogged through the next two games, batting .164 and losing both.
If not for Klein, that would have been the end. The Blue Jays would have won the series in five games, and there would have been no Kiké Hernández launching a game-ending double play on the run in Game 6, no Miguel Rojas tying home run and game-saving throw in Game 7, no Andy Pages game-saving catch and Will Smith winning home run in Game 7, no Yoshinobu Yamamoto winning Game 6 as a starter and Game 7 as a reliever.
There would have been no parade.
When Klein rescued the Dodgers, he had pitched one inning in the previous 30 days.
“You can never take your mind out of it,” he said. “You’ve got to stay prepared. Something might come up, and you don’t want to be the guy that gets thrown in the fire and just burns.”
The Dodgers are not shy about grabbing a minor league pitcher, telling him what he can do better and what he should stop doing, and seeing what sticks. If nothing sticks, the Dodgers are also not shy about spitting out the pitcher and designating him for assignment.
In his minor league career, Klein struck out 13 batters every nine innings, which is tremendous. He walked seven batters every nine innings, which is hideous.
The Dodgers scrapped his slider, mixed in a sweeper, and told him his arm was so good that he should stop trying to make perfect pitches and just let fly.
“A lot of times, pitchers are guilty of giving hitters too much credit, and hitters are guilty of giving pitchers too much credit,” said Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations.
“Part of our job is to show them information that helps instill some confidence. I think that really landed with Will.”
In his four September appearances with the Dodgers — after a minor-league stint to apply the team’s advice — he faced 17 batters, walked one, and did not give up a run. That’s why he isn’t buying the suggestion that something suddenly clicked in the World Series.
“Things were incrementally getting better,” he said, “and then you add that to the atmosphere. It amplifies it to 100. All the prep work and mental stuff that I had been doing, I finally got a chance to shine.”
Said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts: “He’s done it in the highest of leverage. You can’t manufacture that. You’ve got to live it and do it. So, since he’s done it, I think he’s got a real confidence.”
Dodgers pitcher Will Klein speaks during DodgerFest at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 31.
(John McCoy / Getty Images)
Klein last started a game three years ago, at triple A. After making 72 pitches in those four innings of Game 3, did he entertain the thought that maybe, just maybe, he was meant to be a starter after all?
“No,” he said abruptly. “I hate waiting four or five days to pitch and knowing exactly when I’m going to pitch.
“When I did, the anxiety just built. I want to go pitch. I hate sitting there and waiting. That kind of eats at you. I like being able to go out to the bullpen and have a chance to pitch every day.”
The Dodgers are so deep that Klein might not make the team out of spring training. Whatever happens, he’ll always have Game 3.
In the wake of that game, a fan wanted to buy a Klein jersey but could not find one. So the fan made one himself before Game 4, using white electrical tape on the back of a Dodger blue jersey. I showed Klein a picture.
“That’s cool,” Klein said. “That’s pretty funny.”
Dave Wong, a Dodgers fan living in San Francisco Giants territory, also wanted to buy a Klein jersey.
“They didn’t have a jersey for him,” Wong said.
He settled for the Dodger blue T-shirt he found online and wore it to last Friday’s Cactus League game against the Giants, with these words in white letters: “Will Klein Appreciation Shirt.”
This, then, would be a Will Klein Appreciation Column.
Sports
NBA player calls for Hawks to cancel their ‘Magic City’ strip club promotional night out of respect for women
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An NBA player has taken exception to an Atlanta Hawks promotional night, which is a nod to a famed strip club in the city.
The Hawks have “Magic City Night” scheduled for March 16 against the Orlando Magic, but a player for neither team isn’t too fond of paying tribute to a strip club, which has been famed for its late-night stories involving athletes, celebrities and more.
While the Hawks call it an ode to a “cultural institution,” San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet shared his displeasure in a letter posted on Medium.
Luke Kornet of the San Antonio Spurs reaches for the ball during the third quarter against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on Feb. 26, 2026 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Ishika Samant/Getty Images)
Kornet, a nine-year veteran and 2024 NBA champion with the Boston Celtics, called for the Hawks’ promotional night to be canceled later this month, saying that it is disrespectful to women to honor the strip club.
“In its press release, the Hawks failed to acknowledge that this place is, as the business itself boasts, “Atlanta’s premier strip club.” Given this fact, I would like to respectfully ask that the Atlanta Hawks cancel this promotional night with Magic City,” Kornet wrote in his post.
“The NBA should desire to protect and esteem women, many of whom work diligently every day to make this the best basketball league in the world. We should promote an atmosphere that is protective and respectful of the daughters, wives, sisters, mothers, and partners that we know and love.”
The Hawks boasted about the theme night in its press release, including a live performance by famous Atlanta rapper T.I., a co-branded, limited-edition hoodie and even the establishment’s “World Famous” lemon-pepper chicken wings in the arena.
A general view of signage with the State Farm Arena logo on Nov. 14, 2025, outside State Farm Arena, in Atlanta, GA. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire)
“This collaboration and theme night is very meaningful to me after all the work that we did to put together ’Magic City: An American Fantasy’,” said Hawks principal owner, filmmaker and actor, Jami Gertz, said in a press release. “The iconic Atlanta institution has made such an incredible impact on our city and its unique culture.”
Kornet wrote that allowing the night to continue “without protest would reflect poorly on us as an NBA community, “specifically in being complicit in the potential objectification and mistreatment of women in our society.”
Kornet wrote that “others throughout the league” were surprised by the Hawks’ decision to have this promotional night.
“We desire to provide an environment where fans of all ages can safely come and enjoy the game of basketball and where we can celebrate the history and culture of communities in good conscience. The celebration of a strip club is not conduct aligned with that vision,” he wrote.
Luke Kornet of the San Antonio Spurs defends against the Charlotte Hornets during their game at Spectrum Center on Jan. 31, 2026 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)
The Hawks have seen good reception for the promotional night, as Tick Pick reported a get-in price was initially $10 for the game and has since skyrocketed to $94.
Kornet is in his first season with the Spurs, his sixth NBA team, where he has played mainly in a bench role. He averages 7.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game across 50 contests.
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