BOSTON (AP) — With a haze of clouds and a light rain falling overhead, Rafael Devers emerged from the visitors' dugout at Fenway Park for the first time on Friday afternoon.
After taking a few minutes to sign autographs for fans wearing his San Francisco Giants jersey, and others donned in that of the Boston Red Sox team he wore for eight-plus years prior to his blockbuster trade 14 months ago, Devers said his memories of his time in Boston flowed when he arrived at the ballpark. But so did his desire not to revisit the up-and-down tenure with his former team.
“I don’t want to think about the past, I don’t want to talk about the past,” Devers said through an interpreter before the Giants’ matchup with the Red Sox. “But at the same time, we’re all men, we’re all grownups and you have to understand that this is the business of baseball. But at the same time, you make mistakes and you have to move on and mature.”
It’s a far cry from the icy way his tenure ended last June with the Red Sox team he helped win the 2018 World Series with ended.
Devers’ relationship with the franchise began to sour in February 2025 when the team signed Gold Glove third baseman Alex Bregman during spring training and asked Devers to move to DH; he balked before agreeing to the switch.
But when first baseman Triston Casas later sustained a season-ending knee injury, the Red Sox approached Devers about playing the field and he declined, saying the front office “should do their jobs” and look for another player.
It came to a head when the Red Sox traded the three-time All-Star to the Giants less than two years after signing Devers to a 10-year, $313.5 million contract.
Boston received a small haul in exchange in right-hander Jordan Hicks, lefty Kyle Harrison, outfield prospect James Tibbs III and minor league righty Jose Bello.
It was a move, though, that Red Sox president Sam Kennedy said the front office deemed necessary.
“We worked at it. We had a different vision for him going forward than he had, and we couldn’t get there. We couldn’t find alignment,” Kennedy said at the time. “And we reached that inflection point and made the decision to make a big move.”
A little over a year later Boston has gone through even more of an upheaval that included Bregman leaving in free agency and the firing of former manager Alex Cora in April following a 10-17 start.
Since then, the Red Sox have caught fire and have climbed back firmly into postseason position with a 15-game winning streak and MLB-best 22-11 mark since the All-Star break.
Meanwhile, San Francisco has struggled, entering Boston with a 52-75 record. Devers is leading the team with 25 home runs and 31 RBIs but also has a team-high 141 strikeouts.
Ironically, Devers has been playing a lot of first base this season, though he did have a notable dustup with Giants manager Tony Vitello in June when he initially brushed off a pinch runner and then angrily headed into the dugout.
That aside, Devers said he is finding a home with the Giants.
“I can’t compare (the two teams),” Devers said. “The only thing I can say is that is my team, I’ve very comfortable, they have supported me, they have trusted. I’m just hoping to continue doing well for them.”
He said he has no regrets about how his time in Boston came to an end.
“I feel really good. It’s been a year. I think I have matured there in a year,” Devers said. “I think I have learned as an athlete there are things that are going to happen. What you have to do is move forward and learn from that.”
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
San Francisco Giants' Rafael Devers reacts to being back at Fenway Park before a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper)
San Francisco Giants Rafael Devers celebrates after hitting a double during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Guardians, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Dermer)
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A plane that crashed at a remote military site in western Alaska, killing all eight people on board, was making its second runway approach in heavy fog when it lost contact, authorities said Friday.
The Cessna's two pilots could not see the gravel airstrip and were flying solely by instruments when the plane crashed about midday Thursday, Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska region chief, told a virtual news conference.
Regulations required that they abort their first landing attempt because of the lack of visibility, he said, and the plane crashed on its second attempt, about one-third of a mile (0.5 kilometers) from the runway. The runway is surrounded by mountainous terrain on three sides, and the Federal Aviation Administration recommends pilots use GPS and other instruments when they land there.
On board were the pilots, two employees of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and four contractors. Two of the contractors were employees of Calista Brice, a collection of companies that perform construction, engineering, logistics and other work in remote areas. Calista Brice is a subsidiary of Calista Corp., an Alaska Native regional corporation.
The military has not said what work they were performing at the Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site, about 450 miles (725 kilometers) west of Anchorage on Alaska's southwest coast.
NTSB investigators were traveling to the scene Friday.
The radar site was built in the 1950s as part of a network designed to provide early warning of a missile attack by the Soviet Union. Today, it monitors the skies off the coast in the direction of Russia, North Korea and China.
Those on board were “dedicated professionals carrying out a vital mission in a demanding environment," U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Davis, commander of Alaskan Command, the Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region and Eleventh Air Force, said in a statement Thursday.
“This is a devastating loss for our military family and the communities we serve,” Davis said.
Johnson said search teams found the fragmented wreckage after the twin-engine Cessna 441, also known as a Cessna Conquest, lost contact. Its final flight path was captured by radar at the site, he said.
Weather conditions were changing Thursday as heavy fog rolled through the area. An automated observation system not far from the airport reported a low cloud ceiling, fog and visibility of about 10 miles (16 kilometers) in the minutes before the crash, but the next update about 15 minutes after it showed visibility of less than one-quarter mile (0.40 kilometers), according to Carrie Haisley, the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service's Alaska sector operations center.
Mike O’Donnell, who oversaw airport safety programs and accident investigations for much of his 17 years at FAA, said it sounded as if weather conditions were bad enough that the pilots should have diverted and landed somewhere else.
The airstrip is at a private military site managed by the Pacific Air Forces Regional Support Center. It’s part of a network of remote radar sites that tracks aircraft operating in Alaska’s airspace and along its borders, a statement from Alaskan Command said.
The outpost at Cape Newenham closed in 1983 after a new radar was installed, and now the site is visited only occasionally by civilian contractors who perform maintenance on the system.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the two employees who died were part of a “project delivery team en route to a project site in support of the U.S. Air Force.” The statement did not provide additional details about the work.
Johnson said the flight was operated by Security Aviation based in Anchorage. The charter company did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Associated Press writer Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report. Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska.
FILE - The National Transportation Safety Board logo and signage are seen at a news conference at NTSB headquarters in Washington, Dec. 18, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
