Today is Thursday, July 4, the 186th day of 2024. There are 180 days left in the year. This is Independence Day.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

Also on this date:

In 1802, the United States Military Academy officially opened at West Point, New York.

In 1817, construction of the Erie Canal began in Rome, New York.

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In 1826, 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died.

In 1831, the fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, died in New York City at age 73.

In 1855, the first edition of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” was published.

In 1863, the Civil War Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, ended as a Confederate garrison surrendered to Union forces.

In 1910, in what was billed as “The Fight of the Century,” Black world heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson defeated white former champ “Gentleman” Jim Jeffries in Reno, Nevada; race riots across the country following the fight killed more than 20 people.

In 1912, the 48-star American flag, recognizing New Mexico and Arizona statehood, was adopted.

In 1939, Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees delivered his famous farewell speech in which he called himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

In 1946, the United States and the Philippines signed the Treaty of Manila, recognizing Philippine independence from the US.

In 1960, the current 50-star version of the US flag was adopted.

In 1976, America celebrated its bicentennial with daylong festivities; President Gerald R. Ford made stops in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Independence Hall in Philadelphia and New York, where more than 200 ships paraded up the Hudson River in Operation Sail.

In 1987, Klaus Barbie, the former Gestapo chief known as the “Butcher of Lyon,” was convicted by a French court of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison (he died in September 1991).

In 1995, the space shuttle Atlantis and the Russian space station Mir parted after spending five days in orbit docked together.

In 2012, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva cheered the apparent end of a decades-long quest for a new subatomic particle called the Higgs boson, or “God particle.”

In 2013, the Statue of Liberty reopened on the Fourth of July, eight months after Superstorm Sandy shuttered the national symbol of freedom.

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor Eva Marie Saint is 100.
Tuskegee Airman Harry Stewart Jr. is 100.
Queen Sonja of Norway is 87.
Actor Karolyn Grimes (“It’s a Wonderful Life”) is 83.
Broadcast journalist Geraldo Rivera is 81.
Funk/jazz trombonist Fred Wesley is 81.
Vietnam War veteran and peace activist Ron Kovic is 78.
Singer John Waite is 72.
International Tennis Hall of Famer Pam Shriver is 62.
Christian rock singer Michael Sweet (Stryper) is 60.
Actor-playwright-screenwriter Tracy Letts is 59.
Actor Becki Newton is 46.
TV personality Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino is 42.
R&B singer Melanie Fiona is 41.
Singer and rapper Post Malone is 29.
Malia Obama is 26.

Organizers of the Breakaway Music Festival say the two-night celebration of electronic dance music outside Allianz Field drew some 24,000 patrons last weekend to the first major music event since the soccer stadium’s opening in 2019.

The stadium area’s inaugural rave-style music festival also drew its share of noise complaints from residents as far away as Mendota Heights, including the Trudeau family, who figured the amplified sound “might be cheeky neighbors having a party. We could hear it indoors even with the television on — especially on the first night.”

While some neighbors east and west of the festival grounds barely heard the DJs, residents south of the stadium appeared to have an unsolicited front-row seat because of the way sound travels, which can be highly dependent on weather, speaker positioning and other variables. Ramsey County emergency dispatch received some 200 noise complaints last weekend, most of them likely linked to the stadium.

In a written statement this week, festival organizers promised “further sound engineering studies to improve upon the layout of our event, hopefully mitigating more of the impact to local residents” before a “hopeful return to St. Paul in 2025.”

Some St. Paul residents welcomed the arrival of so many visitors to the Midway, and called non-soccer events on the grounds well overdue after five years of limited economic activity in the United Village space outside and around the stadium itself.

Jarrod Fucci, president of Breakaway, issued a statement this week calling St. Paul’s event the largest Breakaway Music Festival of the season to date. Some 6,000 pounds of waste were diverted “through robust recycling programs, and unique to our event here in St. Paul, an event-wide composting program.”

The event team, he said, amassed the equivalent of more than 200 hotel nights, 90 flights and dozens of rented vehicles, and “we partnered with local vendors for event infrastructure like restrooms, fencing, barricade, tents, etc. and featured local food trucks around the event property.” There were also after-parties at local bars.

As for the sound, he said sound engineers will examine the positioning of stages, as well as start and end times to “optimize the event for both attendees and the surrounding community.”

“Breakaway prioritizes listening to the community and we hear their feedback regarding the amplified sound,” he continued. “We look forward to engaging with them as we plan our hopeful return to St. Paul in 2025.”

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Saints starting pitcher Louie Varland is a reluctant interview these days.

The 26-year-old right-hander’s responses to questions are as brief as they are guarded. No offense should be taken. Nor, for near certainty, is any offense intended.

The St. Paul native simply is more interested in finding answers in a season with more than its share of ups and downs, and spending a lot of time talking about it in the media probably doesn’t seem to him to be a good use of his time or energy.

Varland enters Thursday’s start at CHS Field with a 3-6 record and an earned-run-average of 6.56. He’ll make his 11th start of the season for the Saints with some momentum, having blanked the Iowa Cubs over five innings in his last start.

His last start at CHS Field, however, was a disaster. He gave up 11 earned runs on 11 hits in 2 1/3 innings against Toledo on June 23. Varland left the ballpark without making any comment and acknowledged on Wednesday prior to the Saints’ 21-6 loss to the Gwinnett Stripers that the rough outing indeed weighed heavily on him.

“It sucks; it’s not what you want at all,” Varland said. “Any competitive baseball player, it’s going to weigh a lot on them.”

Varland said he entered his start against Iowa with the mindset that he couldn’t wait to put the previous outing behind him. His success raised the question of what he changed from one start to the next.

“Nothing,” Varland said, adding, “That’s baseball.”

What made the start against Toledo all the more surprising was that Varland was coming off two solid outings with the Twins — one as a starter and one out of the bullpen. Once again, he chalked it up to, “That’s baseball,” but Varland knows he will be well served to find some consistent success.

The best way to do that, he said, is to learn from the bad and stay focused on doing the things needed to allow him to continue to improve.

Varland has worked with coaches this season and last to develop new pitches while fine-tuning others. His current repertoire includes five pitches: cutter, four-seam fastball, changeup, curveball and an occasional two-seam fastball.

Varland said he doesn’t have a pitch he considers his best, although his fastball reaches the high 90s. He said he typically throws his fastball 30% of the time.

“I’m going to throw every pitch every game,” Varland said. “It depends on the lineup and what the hitters struggle with.”

Varland has made 28 career appearances with the Twins, including 20 starts. It remains to be seen if his future is as a starter or a reliever.

“I think what’s best for the Twins (right now) is backing up starting pitching,” Varland said. “That’s why I’m at Triple-A, to be built up as a starter. I think everybody knows what I can do out of the ’pen,” referring to last year.

“So that can happen at any time. But the most important thing to help the team is starting pitching.”

It will be a win-win if he can get himself straightened out. He might even have something to say about it.

Briefly

Saints pitchers gave up a season-high 24 hits after allowing 20 on June 23. Infielder Diego Castillo pitched the ninth and gave up a grand slam.

The Stripers started the fifth inning with six consecutive hits against Saints starter Caleb Boushley and reliever Scott Blewett en route to a five-run inning.

Left-handed reliever Aaron Rozek, a Burnsville native, was called up from Double-A Wichita.

 

Wednesday night’s game promised to offer the Twins a glimpse at two of their brightest prospects.

Infielder Brooks Lee’s major league debut couldn’t have gone much better. Starter David Festa’s second game, well … that was a different story.

Lee, called up before Wednesday night’s game, collected his first two major league career hits and drove in a run. But Festa was knocked around for seven runs in the Twins’ 9-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers in the middle game of the series at Target Field.

Festa, who debuted last week in Arizona, had a start that mirrored in first in many ways. Only in this one, he didn’t have the same run support that earned him his first career win last time out.

After two scoreless innings, Festa ran into trouble in the third, allowing six hits — and five runs — before he was able to escape the frame. He had a similar inning that spiraled in his last start, giving up four runs in the fourth inning last Thursday.

The big blow in the inning was a Carson Kelly grand slam, sinking the Twins (48-38) into a hole from which they could never recover. The very next batter, Wenceel Pérez, went back-to-back with him.

Festa would pitch five innings in his start, giving up two more runs in his final inning of work as Colt Keith and Riley Greene began the frame with a triple and home run respectively.

The starter has now given up 12 runs in his first 10 innings of work in the major leagues since being added to the rotation in place of Chris Paddack, who is out with shoulder fatigue.

While his rough outing was enough to send the Twins to a blowout loss, they did see plenty to like from Lee, who got word of his call up earlier in the day on Wednesday while preparing for a game with the Triple-A Saints.

Though he started his night by looking at strike three, Lee’s second and third at-bats each ended with him standing on first base.

Lee lined a pitch past diving shortstop Zach McKinstry in the fourth inning, bringing much of the Target Field crowd to its feet for an ovation. As he stood at first, a big smile on his face, the rookie raised his hand to the crowd in acknowledgement.

In his next at-bat, he singled, bringing home a run. He finished the day 2 for 4.

The Twins’ only other run came in the third inning when Christian Vázquez hit a solo home run, his third of the year. That extended their streak to 21 straight games with a home run, a club record.

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