SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When the San Francisco Giants cut Joey Bart in late March and began shopping for trades for their once-heralded top prospect, the catcher had an inkling about the Pittsburgh Pirates as a destination.
He looked around at other teams’ rosters and wondered who might need catching depth. Better yet, he had family ties — his father, Tommy, grew up near Pittsburgh in Lower Burrell, and instilled a love of Pittsburgh sports in Bart.
“I had a weird feeling about Pittsburgh,” said Bart, who returned to San Francisco on Friday for the first time since being dealt this month, as the Pirates opened a three-game set against the Giants.
The 27-year-old likes being closer to his family, and is having fun so far with his new club. Bart, speaking before the game Friday near the visitors' dugout, is impressed by what he described as a mix of young and experienced players on the Pirates.
“I really am enjoying it and have a lot of respect for the way this club goes about things,” Bart said. “I’m just glad to be here.”
Bart was drafted second overall by the Giants in 2018, and for years was seen as an heir to Buster Posey at catcher with lofty expectations. But Bart never found his footing in San Francisco, hitting .219 in 162 games over four seasons.
When it became clear last season that Patrick Bailey was the Giants’ choice at Bart’s position, they designated Bart for assignment and then dealt him to the Pirates for Austin Strickland, a pitcher drafted in the eighth round in 2023.
He’s been making a good first impression.
Bart is off to a quick start in Pittsburgh, batting .304 with three home runs and hitting safely in six of seven games. He was not in the lineup on Friday but had started four of the last six games. Bart hit cleanup on Thursday, when he drilled a 3-run homer against the Brewers.
“A change of scenery sometimes serves you well,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “You go somewhere else and you take a deep breath and maybe not have some of the baggage. I think everybody here is happy about the fact that he’s gotten a little playing time, and he’s done well.”
Ironically, Bart will be battling for playing time with another top catching prospect in Henry Davis, who started and hit ninth on Friday. Davis was drafted first overall by the Pirates in 2021 but has yet to break out after making his debut last season. Davis, 24, is batting .180 in 19 games this year after hitting .213 last season.
Bart figures to get more playing time with the Pirates, as both Yasmani Grandal and Jason Delay — the team's two other catchers — are injured.
“Whenever I’m called upon, whenever I’m playing, just bring what I got,” Bart said. “That’s how I’ve been approaching it.”
Bart has been focusing on catching up with a new organization. He said he didn’t know a single player on the Pirates, but has been asking a lot of questions to Andrew McCutchen — the longtime Pirates outfielder who spent part of 2018 with the Giants — who has been an “open book.”
One of the biggest adjustments for Bart has been meeting a lot of new faces after being with one organization for so long. He was looking forward to catching up with his former teammates.
“It’s crazy,” Bart said. “Once you leave, you don’t realize how big and how close those relationships were, and really what you valued. That’s important to me: relationships. Those are the things you’re really going to remember.”
Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher David Bednar, right, celebrates with catcher Joey Bart after the team's win against the Milwaukee Brewers in baseball game Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Freed)
Pittsburgh Pirates' Joey Bart (14) rounds third to greetings from Mike Rabelo after hitting a three-run home run off Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Freddy Peralta during the first inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Joey Bart, top right, tags out Milwaukee Brewers' Jake Bauers, left, who was attempting to score on a fielder's choice by Blake Perkins, during the ninth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, April 25, 2024. The Brewers won 7-5. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
BERLIN (AP) — A prominent Berlin politician was violently assaulted and suffered injuries to her head and neck, police said Wednesday, in the latest attack on elected officials that raises concern over rising political violence in Germany.
Franziska Giffey, the city's top economic official, a former mayor and an ex-federal minister, was attacked at an event in a Berlin library on Tuesday by a man who approached her from behind and hit her with a bag containing a hard device, police said.
Giffey was taken to a hospital and treated for head and neck pain, police said. A 74-year-old man was detained and police searched his home, police said. They said the suspect was known to police, but did not give any indication for a motive.
Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner strongly condemned the attack.
"Anyone who attacks politicians is attacking our democracy,” said Wegner, according to German news agency dpa. “We will not tolerate this. We will oppose all forms of violence, hatred and agitation and protect our democracy.”
Giffey wrote on Instagram that "we live in a free and democratic country in which everyone is free to express their opinion ... and yet there is a clear limit. And that is violence against people who hold a different opinion, for whatever reason, in whatever form.”
“They are a transgression of boundaries that we as a society must resolutely oppose,” she said.
Later on Wednesday, Giffey, protected by several bodyguards, told reporters at a public event in Berlin that she was feeling fine but that “we also have to make it possible for us to live in a country where those who bear social and political responsibility can move freely.”
Last week, a candidate from the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz was beaten up in the eastern city of Dresden while campaigning for next month's election for the European Parliament and had to undergo surgery.
Police detained four suspects, aged between 17 and 18, and said that the same group had apparently attacked a Greens party worker minutes before they attacked Matthias Ecke. At least one of the teens is said to be linked to far-right groups, security officials said.
Also on Tuesday, a 47-year-old Green Party politician was attacked by two people while putting up election posters in Dresden, dpa reported.
The incidents have raised political tensions in Germany.
Both government and opposition parties say their members and supporters have faced a wave of physical and verbal attacks in recent months, and have called on police to step up protection for politicians and election rallies.
In February, the German Parliament said in a report there were a total of 2,790 attacks on elected representatives in 2023. Representatives of The Greens were disproportionally affected in 1,219 cases, those from the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, in 478 cases and representatives of the SPD in 420 cases.
The country's vice chancellor, Robert Habeck, who is a member of The Greens, was prevented from disembarking a ferry for hours by a group of angry farmers in January, and the vice president of the German Parliament, Katrin Goering-Eckardt, also from The Greens, was prevented from leaving an event in the state of Brandenburg last week when an angry crowd blocked her car.
Germany's federal interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said after a special meeting of the country's 16 state interior ministers on the issue of violence on Tuesday that possible measures included tightening Germany’s criminal law in order to "punish anti-democratic acts more severely,”
Many of the incidents have taken place in the former communist east of the country, where Scholz’s government is deeply unpopular. The Interior Ministry in the state of Saxony said it had registered 112 election-related crimes so far this year, including 30 against elected officials or representatives.
Mainstream parties have accused AfD of links to violent neo-Nazi groups and of fomenting an intimidating political climate. One of its leaders, Bjoern Hoecke, is currently on trial for using a banned Nazi slogan.
Alternative for Germany, which campaigns against immigration and European integration, is expected to make gains in the European polls as well as in elections in Saxony and two other eastern German states in the fall.
Franziska Giffey, left, Berlin's top economic official leaves with security guards an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Franziska Giffey Berlin's top economic official leaves an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Franziska Giffey Berlin's top economic official leaves an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Franziska Giffey Berlin's top economic official speaks to media after an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Franziska Giffey poses for media during an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Franziska Giffey Berlin's top economic official speaks to media after an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Franziska Giffey, center left, Berlin's top economic official leaves an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
Franziska Giffey Berlin's top economic official speaks to media after an event about solar energy in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
FILE - Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey attends a commemoration for homosexual victims of the Holocaust, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
