Today is Sunday, Sept. 7, the 250th day of 2025. There are 115 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 7, 1986, Bishop Desmond Tutu was installed as the first Black clergyman to lead the Anglican Church in southern Africa.

Also on this date:

In 1921, the first Miss America Pageant was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

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In 1940, Nazi Germany began an intense bombing campaign of Britain during World War II with an air attack on London; known as The Blitz, the eight-month campaign resulted in more than 40,000 civilian deaths.

In 1943, a fire at the Gulf Hotel, a rooming house in Houston, claimed 55 lives.

In 1963, the Pro Football Hall of Fame opened in Canton, Ohio and enshrined its first 17 members.

In 1977, the Panama Canal Treaty, which called for the U.S. to turn over control of the waterway to Panama at the end of 1999, was signed in Washington by U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos.

In 1996, rapper Tupac Shakur was shot and mortally wounded on the Las Vegas Strip; he died six days later.

In 2005, police and soldiers went house to house in New Orleans to try to coax remaining residents into leaving the city shattered by Hurricane Katrina.

In 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to make Bitcoin legal tender.

Today’s Birthdays:

Jazz musician Sonny Rollins is 95.
Singer Gloria Gaynor is 82.
Actor Julie Kavner is 75.
Rock singer Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) is 74.
Actor Corbin Bernsen is 71.
Actor Michael Emerson is 71.
Pianist-singer Michael Feinstein is 69.
Singer/songwriter Diane Warren is 69.
Actor J. Smith-Cameron is 68.
Actor Toby Jones is 59.
Actor-comedian Leslie Jones (TV: “Saturday Night Live”) is 58.
Actor Tom Everett Scott is 55.
Actor Shannon Elizabeth is 52.
Actor Oliver Hudson is 49.
Actor Evan Rachel Wood is 38.
Olympic gold medal swimmer Ariarne Titmus is 25.
Actor Ian Chen (TV: “Fresh Off the Boat”) is 19.

The newly minted Grand Casino Arena in downtown St. Paul hosted its first live event Saturday night when about 12,000 fans showed up to see country star Jason Aldean.

Somehow, it was Aldean’s first arena show in the metro since he headlined the former Xcel Energy Center back in 2014. In the interim, he played a pair of Target Field shows with Kenny Chesney in 2015, Treasure Island Casino in 2023 and the Winstock Country Music Festival last summer. (He was booked to play the X in March 2020, the week when everything shut down due to the pandemic.)

The most notable difference in Saturday’s show was Aldean doubling down on his commitment to conservative causes. His wife Brittany’s anti-trans comments in 2022 led to Aldean’s longtime public relations firm dropping him as a client and his controversial 2023 single “Try That in a Small Town” was criticized by some as an endorsement of racism and political violence.

For his current tour, Aldean partnered with Patriot Mobile, a company that bills itself as “America’s ONLY Christian conservative wireless provider” whose “mission is to defend our God given rights and freedoms.” Immediately after Aldean’s second opening act Nate Smith’s performance, Aldean popped up on the screens to shill for the company in a prerecorded ad. Then his DJ gave Patriot Mobile a shout-out and launched into a set that mixed the likes of Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)” with “Y.M.C.A.” and “Sweet Caroline.”

Judging by Aldean’s unimpressive stage, that Patriot Mobile money doesn’t go far. The stripped-down affair didn’t offer much in the way of flash and featured some of the smallest big screens in the business. That said, the well-lubricated crowd seemed perfectly happy to sing along and sway to Aldean’s many hits while spilling beers on each other. (Late in the show, Aldean noted that the crowd likely started drinking shots with their Eggo waffles for breakfast.)

Aldean has never had a particularly distinct voice. But he’s never pushed it too far, either, so his pipes have largely held up in the 20 years he’s been recording and touring. As he mentioned from the stage, he has a lot of albums and a lot of hits and he tore through 21 of them in a zippy 90-minute performance that rarely took time for a breath, let alone for a song that everyone in the arena didn’t know by heart.

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He opened with his debut single and signature song, “Hicktown,” with the guitars cranked up to late-’80s Motley Crue levels. From there, he rolled out his biggest smashes, including “Burnin’ it Down,” “Crazy Town,” “Dirt Road Anthem,” “My Kinda Party” and his most recent hit, “Whiskey Drink.” Even his slow songs like “You Make it Easy” are old-school arena-ready power ballads. Indeed, the spirit of throwback pop metal lingered throughout Aldean’s set, right down to his faux vintage Def Leppard T-shirt.

Aldean is a true pro when it comes to giving country audiences what they want, and Saturday night he did just that.

Natisha Hiedeman continues to play her best basketball of the season at the right time.

Coming off the bench, Hiedeman tied a career-high with 24 points, including a career-high-tying six 3-pointers, leading the Lynx to a 78-72 win Saturday at Golden State.

Nine of those points came in a 16-0 third quarter run that turned a seven-point deficit into a 61-52 lead heading to the fourth, quieting the packed house in San Francisco’s Chase Center.

Hiedeman is 21 for 33 from the field for 66 points in her past three games. She had 20 points Monday against Dallas and 22 Thursday in Las Vegas.

Hiedeman, who also had a team-high three steals, made a pair of free throws for a 74-69 lead with 55.2 seconds left. She finished 6 of 7 from the stripe; the Lynx were 14 of 16 as a team.

After a 3-point play by Veronica Burton got the Valkyries within two, Napheesa Collier got a friendly roll on a turnaround jumper for a four-point lead. Kayla McBride added two free throws with 18.4 seconds left after a Golden State turnover.

Collier scored 20 points and Courtney Williams added 14. Not showing up on the score sheet is the way Williams began to pick up the pace in the third quarter, helping set the tone.

Spot starter Jessica Shepard had 12 points and 13 rebounds. She took the place of center Alanna Smith, who has made a strong case to be named to the league’s first team All-Defensive Team, and is the latest starter to get a game off for rest purposes.

Shepard, so strong near the hoop at both ends, scored five points in a 10-0 Lynx run late in the third quarter for a 55-52 lead. That included a putback of a Collier miss.

Minnesota made 11 baskets in the third quarter, equaling its first half total when it shot just 31.4% and trailed 36-31, one point above their season-low for first-half points.

Guard DiJonai Carrington missed her second straight game with a subluxed left shoulder.

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KANSAS CITY — Minnesota Twins right-hander Joe Ryan made it through just two innings against the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night, his shortest outing since Aug. 7 2024, when he went two innings against the Cubs and exited because of a shoulder muscle strain that sidelined him for the rest of the season.

Ryan indicated the day before he was feeling ill, but there was no immediate concern about a different physical ailment related his poor results.

Ryan left with the Twins trailing 5-2. The club came in having lost five straight, including the series opener Friday.

A day before he took the mound at Kauffman, Ryan complained of feeling sick, something like a cold or the flu.

Ryan said he gave no thought to not pitching against the Royals, but his early results against them also turned out sickly. He allowed all five runs in the first, walking the first two batters before allowing a run-scoring double to Vinnie Pasquantino and a three-run home run to Salvador Perez. All nine Royals in the starting lineup batted in the first.

Coming in, Ryan had allowed 10 runs all season in the first inning. He also came in undefeated against the Royals for his career, owning a 1.34 ERA in nine starts, and was even more dominant at Kauffman.

Ryan fared better in the second inning, though it wasn’t clean. He allowed a two-out walk to Pasquantino and a broken-bat bloop single to Perez before getting a visit from pitching coach Pete Maki. Right-hander Thomas Hatch began to warm in the bullpen as Ryan surpassed 60 pitches, but Adam Frazier struck out to end the inning. Getting it over with allowed Ryan to smile as he walked off while chatting with Pasquantino.

Hatch relieved Ryan to start the bottom of the third. Ryan’s overall line over two innings: five runs allowed, four hits, four walks and two strikeouts. The outcome raised his ERA 24 points to 3.32.

Ryan entered with 155 innings pitched as he approached his career season-high of 161 2/3 innings, set in 2023. In Ryan’s previous outing Aug. 30, he shut out the San Diego Padres over seven innings, allowing five hits and a walk to go with eight strikeouts.

The Royals put on the offensive display without star shortstop Bobby Witt, who didn’t start because of back spasms. Witt exited early in the series opener Friday for the same reason.

Jeffers catching up soon, probably

The Twins had nothing official to say before the game about the health of Ryan Jeffers, who sustained a head contusion Thursday after getting hit on the head (via his catcher’s gear) twice on foul tips.

Unofficially, Jeffers appears to be trending toward avoiding the injured list and getting back in the lineup, though no return time has been specified. The Twins, who are unlikely to mount a playoff charge with a 62-79 record coming in, just want to be cautious. Jeffers returning to action Sunday is possible.

Jeffers also missed the series opener against the Royals, prompting the Twins to add Jhonny Peredes to the active roster to catch Pablo López’s return after three months away due to a shoulder muscle injury.

The Twins optioned outfielder DaShawn Keirsey on Friday to make room on the active roster for Peredes, but Keirsey remains with the club on its taxi squad because of the fluidity of the situation.

Line ’em up for Rocco

With Luke Keaschall starting at second base most days, Edouard Julien plays first base when he sees action. He’s made 17 straight appearances and 12 straight starts there, getting defensive results that are below average according to small-sample metrics. But, in a familiar refrain, the Twins are trying to see if Julien can get going offensively so he’s a candidate to help them in 2026.

As happened in 2024, Julien hasn’t been getting great results at the plate, either — he came in batting .193 with a .285 on-base percentage and a .310 slugging in 145 at-bats. But his expected numbers at MLB Statcast remain encouraging, with a .437 expected slugging and even a .242 expected batting average.

“I don’t really think too much about the results, even though I want them to be better,” Julien said. “It does seem like I’ve been getting a little bit unlucky, but you don’t get credit for expected results.

“I’m just happy to be with the big-league team, trying to show what I can do.”

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