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Which W: Walgreens Or Washington?

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The logo for the Washington Nationals baseball team might look familiar even if you don’t follow the team. Especially if you shop at Walgreens.



SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

If you’ve been to Washington, D.C., you might’ve noticed people wearing what appears to be Walgreens hats. Well, not really. The city’s baseball team, the Washington Nationals, has a curly W logo that’s remarkably similar to the drugstore chain’s. And as Ally Schweitzer from member station WAMU discovered after a visit to Nationals Park, the trademark is still causing confusion 14 years after the team rolled it out.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Ice cold water, $2.

ALLY SCHWEITZER, BYLINE: I’m outside the ballpark in D.C. asking game goers if they can distinguish between the Nationals logo and the Walgreens logo. I thought, if anyone could tell the difference, it would be Nationals fans. Turns out, I was wrong. I showed Northern Virginia resident Sean Barnett the logos side by side.

Can you tell what this is?

SEAN BARNETT: Washington Nationals.

SCHWEITZER: No.

BARNETT: No.

SCHWEITZER: That’s the Washington Nationals. What is this?

BARNETT: Oh, is that Walgreens?

SCHWEITZER: Yes.

BARNETT: Oh, very close.

SCHWEITZER: Most fans I spoke to correctly identified the logos, but Barnett was among several who did not. When my colleague Sasha-Ann Simons asked Washingtonian Rich Jensen which one was which, he was also stumped.

RICH JENSEN: I can tell that one is for Walgreens and one is for the Nationals, but I couldn’t tell you which is which.

SASHA-ANN SIMONS, BYLINE: And you say this as you’re wearing a Nationals cap on your head. I love this.

JENSEN: Yeah, well, can I take it off and look?

SIMONS: (Laughter).

JENSEN: No. No.

SIMONS: No, you can’t.

JENSEN: OK.

SCHWEITZER: The logo similarity has been a running joke among baseball fans ever since the team arrived in D.C. in 2005 and adopted the vintage W logo used by long-gone D.C. baseball team, the Washington Senators. Todd Radom knows this history well. He’s the guy who recast the Senators’ logo for Major League Baseball.

TODD RADOM: It is a remarkably similar curly W.

SCHWEITZER: Radom has designed thousands of sports logos during his career, but he says the one for the Nats is trickier than others out there.

RADOM: Boston Red Sox are two socks. The Philadelphia Eagles have an eagle. The word national really didn’t lend itself to easy identification.

SCHWEITZER: So the decision was made to go with a word or a letter. And the chosen letter was the Senators’ W, which happened to look a lot like the W Walgreens has used since at least the 1950s. And Walgreens never sued. That might seem surprising considering the drugstore chain filed a suit against grocer Wegmans over its W logo back in 2010. Wegmans later settled and stopped using the W. Neither Walgreens nor Major League Baseball agreed to comment for this story. So I turned to Ross Kimbarovsky. He’s a former intellectual property attorney. He said he’s not surprised Walgreens hasn’t gone after Major League Baseball for a trademark violation because Walgreens the corporation, he says, isn’t easily mistaken for a baseball team.

ROSS KIMBAROVSKY: It would be unfair at this point for them to be able to point a finger and say people are confused because what’s been happening over the many, many decades there hasn’t been any evidence of confusion.

SCHWEITZER: Kimbarovsky, who founded the logo company Crowdspring, says people probably aren’t walking into Nationals Park looking to refill prescriptions. So back outside the stadium, I asked self-identified D.C. native Tye Ali if he’s ever thought people would confuse the Nationals cap he’s currently wearing for a Walgreens cap.

TYE ALI: No. No, everybody knows this is a Nationals hat (laughter). But then I don’t know. It might be a Walgreens.

SCHWEITZER: It’s not.

ALI: (Laughter).

SCHWEITZER: For diehard fans in D.C., the Walgreens’ curly W and the Nationals’ curly W aren’t even in the same ballpark.

For NPR News, I’m Ally Schweitzer in Washington.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Saturday Sports: Red Sox At White House, NHL, NBA Playoffs

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NPR’s Scott Simon and Howard Bryant of ESPN talk NBA and NHL playoffs, as well as discuss the politics of team celebrations at the White House.



SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Abracadabra – sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: The world-champion Boston Red Sox visited the White House this week – well, half of them anyway – hockey down to its final four. And we’ve nearly reached the conference finals of the NBA playoffs. Howard Bryant of ESPN joins us. Howard, thanks for being with us.

HOWARD BRYANT, BYLINE: Good morning, Scott.

SIMON: One more week I guess I can say – if not more than one – fear the deer…

BRYANT: (Laughter).

SIMON: …Because the Milwaukee Bucks are already in the Eastern Conference finals after sweeping the Celtics under the rugs. Golden State finished off Houston last night for the – what? – fourth time in five years. And now, of course, two Game 7s scheduled for Sunday. What are we seeing that surprised you?

BRYANT: Well, the thing that surprised you is – more than anything else is the Boston Celtics come out, and they beat Milwaukee by 20 in Game 1 and then lose four straight. Milwaukee’s a great team. It’s going to be fun to see what they do. Yeah. I really think that Warriors-Bucks would be an amazing final, considering that they were the two best teams in the league this year. Of course, what Golden State did last night is incredible. You have Kevin Durant go out in Game 5. He gets hurt. You’re expecting Houston to at least get this game at home, bring it back to a Game 7. And then, of course, let’s not forget. You still have Steph Curry, two-time MVP. You have Klay Thompson, one of the greatest shooters who ever played the game.

SIMON: Yeah.

BRYANT: Steph Curry has no points and three fouls at halftime and ends up going for 33 in the second half. And it was just a demoralizing defeat for the Houston Rockets. But once again, this is a championship-level team. This is one of the – one of those teams, like the Bruce Bochy Giants or the Red Sox in the 2000s or the Joe Torre Yankees. You know, don’t – you can’t kill them. You have to actually beat them. You leave the door open. And they’re going to come back and do what they did last night – incredible, incredible performance.

SIMON: James Harden is so great. Houston is so great. They can’t beat the Warriors. Who can? Can the Bucks?

BRYANT: Yeah. I think the Bucks can. I think that it’s a believe-it-when-I-see-it thing for me, watching the Warriors. But there were moments where a tougher team could have beaten them. But once again, this is – it was like watching the Patriots in the Super Bowl where you’re looking at them going OK. This is the year where they die. This is the year where you beat them. This is the year. And then their championship players come up with performances. You have to – you know, this is what separates them. This is why we watch these guys. This is why some of these players are so special. They’ve got it. The other guys don’t when – you know, when the moments are on the line.

SIMON: Interesting storylines in the NHL. So you have the St. Louis Blues and the San Jose Sharks. And then the Bruins play the Carolina Hurricanes. Who do you see in the finals?

BRYANT: Well, I kind of like San Jose and Boston simply because I like the storyline of Joe Thornton – overall, you know, No. 1 pick for the Bruins, drafted by the Bruins, expected to be the next great Bruin, ends up going to San Jose. And to have him end his career playing for a championship against his former team is pretty good. Carolina’s a good team. And, you know, they blew Game 1 against the Bruins. They had it. And they…

SIMON: Yeah.

BRYANT: They played a really bad third period. St. Louis really, really tough team – I think that it wouldn’t be surprising any of the combinations. But I kind of like Boston and San Jose.

SIMON: About half the Boston Red Sox visited the White House this week. What did we learn from the half that went and the half that didn’t?

BRYANT: Well, I think what we learned, one, is that, you know, it’s the same sort of combination that you have across the country. You know, the half – you know, the white players went. The players of color didn’t go. The manager Alex Cora didn’t go. I think that…

SIMON: Saying specifically it was…

BRYANT: Specifically.

SIMON: …His dissatisfaction with administration policy in Puerto Rico.

BRYANT: Absolutely. And I think that David Price and Mookie Betts, the reigning MVP, said similar comments about not wanting to go. I think that the Boston Red Sox made a terrible mistake. I think they made a horrible mistake in terms of leadership by saying that there’s no racial divide on the team. Clearly, there is. There’s a racial divide in the country. And I think that people keep saying we want dialogue. We want dialogue. You had an opportunity for a dialogue here.

I don’t blame the white players for going to the White House. I don’t blame anybody for going to the White House in terms of the – how many citizens get to go to the White House by invitation? So I understand that. But I also understand that you cannot avoid what’s taken place in the country. And I think the Red Sox blew it, to be honest.

SIMON: Howard Bryant of ESPN, thanks so much for being with us. Talk to you soon.

BRYANT: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF TRAVIS SCOTT SONG, “GOOSEBUMPS”)

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Mexico’s Star Race Walker Lupita González Hit With 4-Year Ban For Doping

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María Guadalupe González, seen here winning the Women’s 20 km race at the IAAF World Race Walking Team Championships last May, has been banned from the sport for four years.

Yifan Ding/Getty Images for IAAF


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Yifan Ding/Getty Images for IAAF

An athletics tribunal has banned elite Mexican race walker María Guadalupe González from competing for four years. Officials allege that González, popularly known as Lupita, forged records to bolster her claim that she ate meat containing a metabolite of trenbolone, a powerful anabolic steroid.

González, 30, has won numerous titles, including a silver medal at the Rio Summer Olympics in 2016. She had been training recently with the intent of competing at next year’s Tokyo Games. But her chances of racing in Japan are now dashed, unless she files and wins an appeal.

The Athletics Integrity Unit, which handles integrity issues for the International Athletics Federation (IAAF), says González’s ban effectively started on Nov. 16, 2018. That’s the day the AIU provisionally suspended the athlete because she failed an out-of-competition drug test administered in Mexico City.

The doping allegations have sent deep ripples through Mexico’s community of Olympic athletes.

In early December, days after González was told her “B” urine sample had also failed doping tests, Mexican athletes voiced their support for her, representing sports from boxing and fencing to diving. And last month, the head of Mexico’s Olympic Committee said he wants González to focus on training at altitude for the Tokyo Olympics rather than worry about overturning her suspension in time for this summer’s Pan American Games.

In her defense against the doping allegation, González said she had not used any prohibited substances, and that if trenbolone was in her system, it must have come from meat she ate in the two days before the urine test. She added that the steroid is legal to use on livestock in Mexico. And she later claimed she had also been diagnosed with anemia and instructed to eat more meat.

In its response, the IAAF said the race walker’s explanation “is not sufficient on the balance of probability,” and that the concentration of trenbolone found in her sample was too high to have come from contaminated meat.

Officials also engaged a company called Pentad Security to look into González’s claims, including a hospital report she submitted as evidence of her anemia condition.

From the ruling:

“The Pentad Report considers the hospital report submitted by the Athlete to have been forged if one takes into account the incorrect data included in the report, such as the doctor’s name or telephone number, and the fact that ‘diagnosis of ferropenic microcytic hypochromic anaemia is not supported by the [Hospital Report] and is not compatible with the hematological values in the [ABP],’ as concluded by Professor D’Onofrio.” [referring to professor Giuseppe D’Onofrio, an IAAF expert witness]

The IAAF also said food receipts from restaurant and food trucks provided by González had also been fabricated. And it said that while González had initially described eating steak and pork, she later said she had also eaten liver.

“As the maximum permitted residues of trenbolone is five times higher in liver, she had an interest in having eaten liver,” the panel said in its ruling.

While it’s retroactive to last fall, the doping ban does not strip González of any medals or titles she won prior to last year’s failed test.

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With Some Players Bowing Out, Trump Hosts Red Sox At The White House

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President Trump holds up a Red Sox team jersey that was presented to him by outfielder J.D. Martinez Thursday at the White House.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP


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Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

President Trump honored the 2018 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox at a White House ceremony Thursday, lauding the team as a “shining example of excellence” in “an American sporting tradition that goes back many generations.”

But the tradition of an apolitical While House celebration has become something of a thing of the past, with the invitation from Trump becoming more of a loaded loyalty test, forcing players to pick sides. Roughly a third of the team skipped the event in protest.

The day began with many mocking the White House for its online gaffe welcoming the “Boston Red Socks” (sic).

“I need you to go to a store there in Boston and buy a package of red socks. Yes, that’s right, red ones. Well the Sox aren’t going to make it to the White House so I thought the President could welcome some actual red socks.” https://t.co/lrIdi7Dj35

— John Litzler (@JohnLitzler) May 9, 2019

But the Sox are having their own awkward moment, as those who attended the White House celebration, and those who passed, are divided almost perfectly along racial lines. Every white player went, while almost every person of color who wears a Sox uniform opted out, including Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Xander Bogaerts, and David Price.

Manager Alex Cora says it was the Trump administration’s position on hurricane relief to his native Puerto Rico that was keeping him away, according to the English online version of the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día.

“I’ve used my voice on many occasions so that Puerto Ricans are not forgotten,” Cora told the paper. “And my absence [from the White House] is no different. As such, at this moment, I don’t feel comfortable celebrating in the White House.”

President Trump poses with the 2018 World Series Champions Boston Red Sox at the White House in Thursday.

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images


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Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

The Red Sox players are hardly the first to stay home to protest the Trump administration, but it comes as the ball club has been making great efforts to live down its reputation as a racist organization, a legacy that owner John Henry has said has “haunted” the team. Last year, the team successfully fought to change the name of Yawkey Street alongside Fenway Park to distance the team from its late, former owner Tom Yawkey, who was known as much for his historically racist ball club as he was for his great philanthropy.

The team’s current owners have also launched a program promoting inclusion called “Take the Lead” and they have taken a zero tolerance stance against racist fans, banning offenders for life. Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy says the team didn’t want to make a political statement by snubbing the White house. But many say the Sox split decision is another kind of statement.

“It’s basically the white Sox who’ll be going” as one local sportswriter put it.

Alex Cora has confirmed newspaper report he will not make the trip to meet the president. So basically it’s the white Sox who’ll be going.

— Steve Buckley (@BuckinBoston) May 5, 2019

Many fans cringed at the optics and the message, tweeting “shame on you all” and calling out the players who went for not staying back in solidarity with their teammates.

Good for him! And shame on his disgusting teammates. Much love for JBJ and every @RedSox player who stands in solidarity with him and stays home https://t.co/dfqluQd312

— Annina García ? (@agcia87) May 9, 2019

The players who did attend beamed beside the President, as he praised their winning season. Red Sox starting pitcher Chris Sale called it, “a very high honor … that we appreciate.”

Outfielder J. D. Martinez, of Cuban descent, was the only person of color to attend. He thanked the president for his hospitality and for “a once in a lifetime opportunity to be honored … at the White House.”

The team has been trying to downplay any tensions in the clubhouse, and many players have declined to discuss their decisions. But former player David Ortiz was less circumspect, telling WEEI sports radio, he would have definitely skipped the event that he compared to, “shak[ing] hands with the enemy.”

“I’m an immigrant,” said Ortiz, who became as U.S. citizen after arriving from the Dominican Republic. “You don’t want to go and shake hands with a guy who is treating immigrants like [expletive].”

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Trump Gives Presidential Medal Of Freedom To Tiger Woods

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President Donald Trump awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tiger Woods during a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington.

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP


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Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

President Trump Monday awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to golfer Tiger Woods in a ceremony at the White House.

Trump praised Woods’ many accomplishments on the golf course and his ability to come back from debilitating physical adversity that might have permanently sidelined any other athlete.

“Tiger Woods is a global symbol of American excellence, devotion and drive,” Trump said as Woods stood by him. “These qualities embody the American spirit of pushing boundaries, defying limits and always striving for greatness.”

With his mother and two children in attendance, Woods thanked his family, personal friends and aides in brief and emotional remarks.

Tiger Woods with the Masters trophy after winning the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 14, 2019 in Augusta, Ga.

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Andrew Redington/Getty Images

“You’ve seen the good and the bad, the highs and the lows, and I would not be in this position without all of your help,” he said.

Trump has had a contentious relationship with many black athletes but Woods has a long history with the president.

Trump has long been a fan and recently, a business partner of Woods. He announced his decision to give the award to Woods in a tweet, after Woods won the Masters tournament last month at age 43, capping a remarkable comeback from personal turmoil and physical injuries.

Spoke to @TigerWoods to congratulate him on the great victory he had in yesterday’s @TheMasters, & to inform him that because of his incredible Success & Comeback in Sports (Golf) and, more importantly, LIFE, I will be presenting him with the PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2019

In February, Trump tweeted about a round he played with Woods and another champion golfer, Jack Nicklaus, at Trump’s course in Jupiter, Florida.

Everyone is asking how Tiger played yesterday. The answer is Great! He was long, straight & putted fantastically well. He shot a 64. Tiger is back & will be winning Majors again! Not surprisingly, Jack also played really well. His putting is amazing! Jack & Tiger like each other.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2019

Woods designed a golf course at a Trump property in Dubai. Trump also named a villa after Woods at his Trump Doral resort near Miami.

Not everyone is a fan of Trump’s decision to award Woods the Medal of Freedom, or of Wood’s decision to accept it. Writer Rick Reilly, whose book Commander In Cheat portrays Trump as a notorious flouter of golf rules, tweeted Woods should spurn the award, because he says, Trump “thinks golf should only be for the rich.”

How can @TigerWoods accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom from a man who thinks golf should only be for the rich? “Where you aspire to join a club someday, you want to play, (so) you go out and become successful.” … Bull. If that were true, there’d BE no Tiger Woods.

— Rick Reilly (@ReillyRick) April 16, 2019

Monday’s ceremony is the second time in less than six months that Trump has awarded Medals of Freedom. In November, the President gave the award to a number of people, including Elvis and Babe Ruth.

Woods becomes the fourth professional golfer to receive the medal, along with Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Charlie Sifford. Woods said in the ceremony that Sifford was a mentor and that he named his own son, Charlie, after him.

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