BOSTON (AP) — Four young Chicago White Sox pitchers all had something in common before they even came to Boston this weekend. All four were from Massachusetts and they were teammates on a major league club together at Fenway Park for the first time.
And within a 24-hour span, Sean Burke, Mike Vasil, Jared Shuster and Shane Smith each pitched off Fenway’s mound as major leaguers for the first time.
“It’s awesome,’’ said Burke, a 25-year-old right-hander from Sutton who started Sunday in Chicago's 8-4 victory.
“These are three guys I knew even before the White Sox, too,” he said. “To kind of all meet here to be able to do it in the same weekend is really cool.”
Burke played in high school against Vasil, a reliever who pitched in Saturday’s walk-off loss.
“It’s really special," said Vasil, a 25-year-old from Wellesley. “It’s one of those things where you don’t always get to experience that. It’s not like I’ve had a crazy journey compared to some other guy’s stories.
“But it’s definitely a full-circle moment,” he said. “You grow up a fan of the team and you find your way back here on probably one of the more special weekends in the entire city.”
Shuster, a 26-year-old lefty reliever from New Bedford, was called up after Friday’s series-opening loss and got four outs on Saturday. He’s been to Fenway as a big leaguer before, but never had a chance to pitch in the ballpark.
“Perfect timing,’’ he said. “This has definitely worked out on the schedule as a trip I wanted to make. … It’s awesome, not a lot of big leaguers are from Mass., so it’s cool to have all four of us on the same team and to show the guys coming up that anything’s possible.”
Smith, a 25-year-old from Danvers who started Saturday, had a chance to pitch at Fenway in just his fourth major league start. Having so many family members watch made the outing special.
“That just means a lot to us,” he said. “Just to be here in Fenway and the debut was awesome and everything. Just to have my family here makes it even more special.”
He got a bit choked up when summing up his thoughts.
“Pretty tough to put it into words what the impact is, but its special,” he said, pausing.
For Burke, it was a chance for the person that introduced him to baseball — his grandmother Pam — to see him work on Fenway’s mound.
“She used to babysit me when I was little,” he said. “My parents would both work when I was 2-, 3-years old, and she would prop me up on the couch and roll baseballs back to me to throw back to her.”
But what jersey was she, a lifelong Red Sox fan, wearing on Sunday?
“A White Sox today,” he said, smiling.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Chicago White Sox's Shane Smith delivers a pitch to a Boston Red Sox batter in the first inning of a baseball game, Saturday, April 19, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Chicago White Sox's Sean Burke delivers a pitch to a Boston Red Sox batter in the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, April 20, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Protests sweeping across Iran neared the two-week mark Saturday, with the country’s government acknowledging the ongoing demonstrations despite an intensifying crackdown and as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. But the death toll in the protests has grown to at least 72 people killed, with over 2,300 others detained, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. Iranian state TV is reporting on security force casualties while portraying control over the nation.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has signaled a coming clampdown, despite U.S. warnings. Tehran escalated its threats Saturday, with the Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, warning that anyone taking part in protests will be considered an “enemy of God,” a death-penalty charge. The statement carried by Iranian state television said even those who “helped rioters” would face the charge.
“Prosecutors must carefully and without delay, by issuing indictments, prepare the grounds for the trial and decisive confrontation with those who, by betraying the nation and creating insecurity, seek foreign domination over the country,” the statement read. “Proceedings must be conducted without leniency, compassion or indulgence.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered support for the protesters.
“The United States supports the brave people of Iran,” Rubio wrote Saturday on the social platform X. The State Department separately warned: “Do not play games with President Trump. When he says he’ll do something, he means it.”
Saturday marks the start of the work week in Iran, but many schools and universities reportedly held online classes, Iranian state TV reported. Internal Iranian government websites are believed to be functioning.
State TV repeatedly played a driving, martial orchestral arrangement from the “Epic of Khorramshahr” by Iranian composer Majid Entezami, while showing pro-government demonstrations. The song, aired repeatedly during the 12-day war launched by Israel, honors Iran's 1982 liberation of the city of Khorramshahr during the Iran-Iraq war. It has been used in videos of protesting women cutting away their hair to protest the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini as well.
“Field reports indicate that peace prevailed in most cities of the country at night,” a state TV anchor reported. “After a number of armed terrorists attacked public places and set fire to people’s private property last night, there was no news of any gathering or chaos in Tehran and most provinces last night.”
That was directly contradicted by an online video verified by The Associated Press that showed demonstrations in northern Tehran's Saadat Abad area, with what appeared to be thousands on the street.
“Death to Khamenei!” a man chanted.
The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and one of the few media outlets able to publish to the outside world, released surveillance camera footage of what it said came from demonstrations in Isfahan. In it, a protester appeared to fire a long gun, while others set fires and threw gasoline bombs at what appeared to be a government compound.
The Young Journalists' Club, associated with state TV, reported that protesters killed three members of the Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force in the city of Gachsaran. It also reported a security official was stabbed to death in Hamadan province, a police officer killed in the port city of Bandar Abbas and another in Gilan, as well as one person slain in Mashhad.
State television also aired footage of a funeral service attended by hundreds in Qom, a Shiite seminary city just south of Tehran.
Iran’s theocracy cut off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls on Thursday, though it allowed some state-owned and semiofficial media to publish. Qatar's state-funded Al Jazeera news network reported live from Iran, but they appeared to be the only major foreign outlet able to work.
Iran's exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who called for protests Thursday and Friday, asked in his latest message for demonstrators to take to the streets Saturday and Sunday. He urged protesters to carry Iran's old lion-and-sun flag and other national symbols used during the time of the shah to “claim public spaces as your own.”
Pahlavi's support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past — particularly after the 12-day war. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some protests, but it isn’t clear whether that’s support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country's economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran's theocracy.
Airlines have cancelled some flights into Iran over the demonstrations. Austrian Airlines said Saturday it had decided to suspend its flights to Iran “as a precautionary measure” through Monday. Turkish Airlines earlier announced the cancellation of 17 flights to three cities in Iran.
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from video taken by an individual not employed by The Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran shows a fire as people protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from video taken by an individual not employed by The Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran shows people during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
This frame grab from a video released Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, by Iranian state television shows a man holding a device to document burning vehicles during a night of mass protests in Zanjan, Iran. (Iranian state TV via AP)
