Today is Wednesday, July 10, the 192nd day of 2024. There are 174 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 10, 1940, during World War II, the Battle of Britain began as the German Luftwaffe launched attacks on southern England. (The Royal Air Force was ultimately victorious.)

Also on this date:

In 1509, theologian John Calvin, a key figure of the Protestant Reformation, was born in Noyon, Picardy, France.

In 1890, Wyoming was admitted as the 44th US state.

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In 1925, jury selection took place in Dayton, Tennessee, in the trial of John T. Scopes, charged with violating the law by teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. (Scopes was convicted and fined, but the verdict was overturned on a technicality.)

In 1929, American paper currency was reduced in size as the government began issuing bills that were approximately 25 percent smaller.

In 1951, armistice talks aimed at ending the Korean War began at Kaesong.

In 1962, the first active communications satellite, Telstar 1, was launched by NASA.

In 1985, the Greenpeace protest ship Rainbow Warrior was sunk with explosives in Auckland, New Zealand, by French intelligence agents; one activist was killed.

In 1991, Boris N. Yeltsin took the oath of office as the first elected president of the Russian republic.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush lifted economic sanctions against South Africa.

In 2002, the House approved, 310-113, a measure to allow airline pilots to carry guns in the cockpit to defend their planes against terrorists (President George W. Bush later signed the measure into law).

In 2015, South Carolina pulled the Confederate flag from its place of honor at the Statehouse after more than 50 years.

Today’s Birthdays:

Singer Mavis Staples is 85.
Actor Robert Pine is 83.
International Tennis Hall of Famer Virginia Wade is 79.
Folk singer Arlo Guthrie is 77.
Baseball Hall of Famer Andre Dawson is 70.
Rock singer Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys) is 70.
Banjo player Bela Fleck is 66.
Actor Fiona Shaw is 66.
Singer/actor Jacky Cheung is 63.
Actor Alec Mapa is 59.
Country singer Gary LeVox (leh-VOH’) (Rascal Flatts) is 54.
Actor Sofia Vergara is 52.
Actor Adrian Grenier (grehn-YAY’) is 48.
Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (CHOO’-ih-tehl EHJ’-ee-oh-for) is 47.
Actor Thomas Ian Nicholas is 44.
Singer/actor Jessica Simpson is 44.
Actor Emily Skeggs is 34.
Pop singer Perrie Edwards (Little Mix) is 31.
Actor Isabela Merced is 23.

Rain delays ended the St. Paul Saints’ road game after just five innings on Tuesday night, with the Louisville Bats taking the win 8-1.

When a leadoff double from Jair Camargo gave the Saints their first hit in the second inning, the Bats were already up 4-0. Louisville added three in the third. Then after a rain delay, Edouard Julien got his fourth home run with the Saints, their sole score of the night.

In the fourth inning, Brock Stewart began his rehab assignment, which had been in the offing after a successful bullpen session before the Twins’ Friday night game against the Houston Astros at Target Field. Stewart struck out one and walked two.

Ronny Henriquez took over for him at the bottom of the fifth and surrendered a solo home run to the Bats’ Hernán Pérez.

The rain returned, bringing the game’s third delay, and after 30 minutes the umpires called the game.

The teams meet again in Kentucky for game two of the series at 5:35 p.m. today.

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Charlie Stramel knows the haters are talking.

He grew up in the age of social media, and while he has done a pretty good job steering clear of some of the negative things being said about him online, it’s virtually impossible for him to avoid all of it.

“Everybody has their opinion,” he said. “It is what it is.”

Never mind that Stramel is still in the early stages of his career and doesn’t turn 20 years old until this fall. Some people are already labeling the him as a bust after the Wild selected him in the first round of the 2023 NHL draft.

Not that the outside noise matters much to him.

As far as Stramel is concerned, proving the Wild right is way more important than proving the haters wrong,

“It definitely helps put a chip on my shoulder,” he said. “I’m coming into this season with something to prove.”

Talking to reporters on Tuesday afternoon at TRIA Rink in St. Paul with development camp in full swing, the 6-foot-3, 225-pound center wasn’t hiding from the fact that his play last season left something to be desired.

He was supposed to be an impact player for Wisconsin, who used his massive frame to dominate whenever he hopped over the boards. Instead, he struggled to produce much of anything in a limited role, and ultimately transferred to Michigan State in search of a fresh start.

“I think adversity is going to come and go, for sure, in a guy’s career,” Stramel said. “Obviously we went through a little bit of that.”

After making his decision to transfer this spring, Stramel returned home to Minnesota this summer knowing he needed to improve every part of his game. He has spent time working out at Royalty Sports Performance near White Bear Lake, while also skating at Braemar Arena in Edina.

The most important thing for Stramel, however, is finding a way to play with a sense of physicality once again.

His combination of size and strength was a big reason the Wild took a chance on him on the first place as they forecasted him as somebody who could make a difference in front of the net. He admitted that he got away from that at Wisconsin, and he knows he needs to harness that at Michigan State.

“Just getting back to my identity,” he said. “I’ve got to stick to the player I am and the player I’m hopefully going to be at the next level.”

Asked about his confidence, Stramel said he has felt it steadily increase this summer as he has continued to put the work in. You can see glimpses of that with the way he’s carrying himself at development camp. Now the key for Stramel is continuing to trend in the right direction.

“I feel like I’m in a good spot right now,” he said. “Just got to keep working.”

Wisconsin’s Charlie Stramel (28) against Penn State during the second period of an NCAA hockey game on Friday, Oct 28, 2022, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)

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CHICAGO — Marney Gellner may not have achieved her lifelong goal yet — becoming a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” — but if you had told a young Gellner growing up in Minot, North Dakota, that one day she would be announcing her favorite baseball team’s games, well, she probably wouldn’t have believed you.

Gellner has vivid memories of hopping in the family’s Chevy Impala and driving from Minot to the Twin Cities to catch games at the Metrodome.

She wasn’t, as she put it, “laying in the weeds, praying for her chance,” to call Twins games. But when Twins senior broadcast director Andrew Halverson called to ask if she wanted to fill in for Cory Provus this week in Chicago, she jumped at the opportunity.

“If I had ever known that that girl would be sitting, calling the game, that would have blown my mind,” she said of her younger self. “Now it feels like it’s been a natural progression. But from that point, I would have been in complete disbelief.”

When Gellner took the microphone on Monday to call the Twins’ game against the Chicago White Sox, she also made history, becoming the first woman to call play-by-play in the club’s history.

Gellner had previously called three Twins spring training games on the radio in March 2019. It was then when she introduced her home run call, “Better call Mama.”

She broke that out after Trevor Larnach launched a first-inning home run on Monday. And she took her own advice earlier in the day, calling her own mother, Lola, before her history-making first game.

Gellner said she was “super proud” of the trailblazing aspect of the achievement — and also ready to move on from that because this feels like a natural step for her in her career.

“The way that Dan Gladden, Justin Morneau, (Timberwolves analyst) Jim Petersen, the way they treat me is not as a female broadcaster,” Gellner said. “And I forget about the part that it’s kind of rare and the female part. … We have come to a place where it’s so much more normal and accepted, and that’s where I like to be.”

While Gellner has extensive experience covering the Twins, her focus has been primarily on basketball of late. She is currently in her 14th season as the play-by-play announcer for the Minnesota Lynx, and she spent the past week researching the Twins in between calling WNBA games.

In the days leading up to the series, she reached out to Provus and his predecessor, Dick Bremer, going over things like timing with analysts, logistical things and pronunciations to help prepare.

And then, on Monday, she took the microphone and made history.

“Somebody did say something to me about, ‘What a wonderful example for your daughter to be able to see you,’” Gellner said. “And I was like, ‘Yes, that is true. And also for my son to see it, for the boys to be hearing a woman call a baseball game and not go, ‘What?’ So both are true.”

Minnesota Twins left fielder Oswaldo Arcia, center left, and reporter Marney Gellner, center right, are doused during an interview after Arcia drove in the winning run against the Los Angeles Angels in the 12th inning of a baseball game Sunday April 17, 2016 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Andy Clayton-King)

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