Ballpark design advisor JANET MARIE SMITH, Giants special advisor JP RICCIARDI, and Red Sox OF JARREN DURAN have been selected as the 2025 WooSox HOF inductees (MiLB). Red Sox High-A affiliate Greenville Drive and Fluor Field owner and Chair CRAIG BROWN was presented with the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor, on April 4. The award is presented in recognition of a lifetime of extraordinary achievement, service, and contributions on a national or statewide scale (MiLB).
GIVING SPIRIT: Raptors F SCOTTIE BARNES awarded the first recipient of his scholarship program that aims to help 12 young people of color find their footing in skill trades with a three-year, $250,000 scholarship. Barnes, 23, was still on his rookie contract when the scholarship program was launched (TORONTO STAR, 4/13)
NAMES: Former fighter AMANDA NUNES was named the latest member of the UFC HOF’s Class of 2025. The UFC will honor its latest inductees with a ceremony during its 13th Annual UFC International Fight Week on June 26 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (N.Y. POST, 4/12)....Celtics play-by-play voice DREW CARTER will be running the Boston Marathon to “benefit the Shamrock Foundation,” a Celtics program designed to support children in need (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/12)....Suns and Mercury owner MAT ISHBIA will address thousands of new graduates at Michigan State Univ.’s undergraduate ceremony next month. Ishbia, a Michigan State alumnus and former walk-on basketball player, will deliver the address at the May 2 convocation at Breslin Center on MSU’s campus (CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS, 4/11).
IN MEMORY: Former college soccer player KARENNA GROFF was among the six victims of a private plane crash traveling to Upstate N.Y. on Saturday for a birthday celebration and the Passover holiday. Groff, a former MIT soccer player who was named the 2022 NCAA Woman of Year, was traveling with her boyfriend JAMES SANTORO, her father MICHAEL, her mother JOY SAINI, and her brother JARED and his partner ALEXIA COUYUTAS DUARTE (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/13)….Longtime Hendrick Motorsports Dir of Communications JON EDWARDS died Thursday at age 52. Edwards had served as Hendrick Motorsports Vice Chair JEFF GORDON’s public relations representative since 1994 and was the primary media contact for driver KYLE LARSON since he joined Hendrick in 2021. Larson said on pit road, “This one’s definitely for Jon” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 4/14).
