During an eight-year major-league career that took him to five teams, Ryan Freel enjoyed a reputation among teammates as high-energy, outgoing and hilarious. That's why so many were shocked to learn that Freel, 36, was found dead Saturday in his Jacksonville, Fla., home with what police told the Florida Times-Union appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Sean Casey, Freel's former teammate with the Cincinnati Reds, tweeted about his death: "RIP Ryan Freel!! Great teammate, great guy, n loved his family! Such a sad day today with his passing! Awful news! Prayers are with his family!"
Freel played for the Reds from 2003 to 2008, and during one three-year stretch had 110 stolen bases. He was paid $11.55 million in his career, which ended prematurely because of a succession of injuries that plagued him after 2006. He was hit in the head with a pickoff throw in 2009, an injury that put him on the disabled list.
After retiring in 2010, Freel returned to Jacksonville, his hometown, and coached youth players for an organization called Big League Development. He was named head coach of St. Joseph Academy in June but resigned shortly after taking the job.
Freel was raised by his Cuban-American mother, who worked 16 hours a day as a teacher and housecleaner in Jacksonville. He credited her for his gritty, all-out style of play. Freel also had a goofy side. He told the Dayton Daily News in 2006 that he had an imaginary friend named Farney.
"He's a little guy who lives in my head who talks to me and I talk to him," he told the paper. "That little midget in my head said, 'That was a great catch, Ryan.' I said, 'Hey, Farney, I don't know if that was you who really caught the ball, but that was pretty good if it was.'"
Freel twice was arrested for alcohol-related offenses but said he'd stopped drinking. In 2005, he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence. In 2006, he was charged with misdemeanor disorderly intoxication.
"I have not had a sip of alcohol in (nearly) three years. I definitely learned from that," Freel told the Baltimore Sun when the Orioles acquired him in 2009. "Me and drinking probably wasn't a good thing. Kicking that whole thing was probably the best thing to happen for me, my family and my career."
His former teammates recall a personable, giving person. The Reds released a statement that said in part: "His teammates and our fans loved him for how hard he played the game, and he loved giving back to the community. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends."
Brandon Phillips, another of Freel's teammate with the Reds, tweeted, "Really hurt by his passing. You never will be forgotten."
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CAIRO (AP) — Egyptians voted on Saturday in the second and final phase of a referendum on an Islamist-backed constitution that has polarized the nation, with little indication that the result of the vote will end the political crisis in which the country is mired.
For some supporters, a 'yes' vote was a chance to restore some normalcy after nearly two years of tumultuous transitional politics following Egypt's 2011 revolution, or to make society and laws more Islamic. Opponents saw their 'no' vote as a way to preserve the country's secular traditions and prevent President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group from getting a lock on power.
"I came early to make sure my 'no' is among the first of millions today," oil company manager Mahmoud Abdel-Aziz said as he waited in line outside a polling station in the Dokki district of Giza, Cairo's twin city on the west bank of the Nile. "I am here to say 'no' to Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood," he said.
Another Giza voter, accountant and mother of three Sahar Mohamed Zakaria, had a different take on Saturday's vote.
"I'm voting 'yes' for stability," she announced.
Saturday's vote is taking place in 17 of Egypt's 27 provinces with about 25 million eligible voters. The first phase on Dec. 15 produced a "yes" majority of about 56 percent with a turnout of some 32 percent, according to unofficial results. Unofficial votes for the second round are expected late Saturday or early Sunday.
As was the case in last week's vote, opposition and rights activists reported numerous irregularities: polling stations opened later than scheduled, Islamists outside the polling stations trying to influence voters to say "yes," and independent monitors denied access.
The vote comes a day after clashes between Morsi's opponents and supporters in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. It was the latest outbreak of street violence in more than four weeks of turmoil, with the country divided first over the president's powers then over the draft constitution.
The clashes — in which opponents of Islamists set fire to cars and dozens of people were hurt — illustrated how the new constitution, regardless of whether it is adopted or not, is unlikely to ease the conflict over the country's future.
In Fayoum, the capital of an oasis province of the same name where Islamist groups have traditionally had strong support, a member of the local Christian community said she also supported the charter.
Hanaa Zaki said she was also voting "yes" for stability and an end to the country's deepening economic problems. Most Christians elsewhere in the country are seen to oppose the draft.
Speaking as she waited in line along with bearded Muslim men and Muslim women wearing headscarves, Zaki said: "I have a son who didn't get paid for the past six months. We have been in this crisis for so long and we are fed up."
In the village of Sanaro, also in Fayoum province some 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Cairo, farmer Azouz Ayesh sat with his neighbors as their cattle grazed in a nearby field. "I don't trust the Brotherhood anymore and I don't trust the opposition either. We are forgotten, the most miserable and the first to suffer. If I say 'yes' there will be stability and if I say 'no' there will still be no stability," he said.
"But I will vote against this constitution," he added.
In the neighboring village of Sheikh Fadl, a car fitted with loudspeakers toured the area with a man shouting, "Yes, yes to the constitution!" In the city of Fayoum, a man could be seen painting over posters urging people to vote "no."
In Giza's upscale Mohandiseen neighborhood, a group of 12 women speaking to each other in a mix of French, Arabic and English said they all intended to vote "no."
"My friends are Muslim and are voting 'no.' It's not about Christian versus Muslim, but it is Muslim Brotherhood versus everyone else," said one of the 12, Christian physician Shahira Sadeq. "Voting 'yes' does not mean stability."
Kamla el-Tantawi, 65, voted with her daughter and grand-daughter. "I voted 'no' against what I'm seeing," she said, gesturing to a woman standing close by wearing the full-face veil known as niqab and as a hallmark of ultraconservative Muslim women. "I lose sleep thinking about my grandchildren and their future. They never saw the beautiful Egypt we did."
"Morsi, God willing, will be better than those who came before him," said Zeinab Khalil, a mother of three who wears the niqab, said. "A 'yes' vote moves the country forward. We want things to calm down, more jobs and better education," she said, while waiting for her turn to vote in Giza's poor Imbaba district, a one-time stronghold of militant Islamists.
In part, Egypt's split has been over who will shape the country's path nearly two years after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago.
An opposition made up of liberals, leftists, secular Egyptians and a swath of the public angered over Morsi's 5-month-old rule fear that Islamists are creating a new Mubarak-style autocracy. They accuse the Brotherhood of monopolizing the levers of power and point to the draft charter, which Islamists on the Constituent Assembly rammed through despite a boycott by liberal and secular members. They are calling on supporters to vote "no."
Morsi's allies say the opposition is trying to use the streets to overturn their victories at the ballot box over the past two years. They also accuse the opposition of carrying out a conspiracy by former members of Mubarak's regime to regain power.
If the constitution is adopted, Morsi will call for the election of parliament's law-making lower chamber to be held within two months while giving the mostly toothless upper chamber legislative powers until the lower house is seated.
The upper chamber, known as the Shura Council, was elected by less than 10 percent of the country's 50 million registered voters. It is dominated by Islamists.
Morsi was already gearing up for the next steps after the constitution's passage, making a last-minute appointment of 90 new members to the Shura Council, a third of its total membership. Current rules allow him to do so, but if he waited until the charter was passed he could only appoint 10.
Friday's appointments added to the handful of non-Islamists in the upper house, but preserved the Islamists' overwhelming hold.
A spokesman for the main opposition umbrella National Salvation Front dismissed the appointments, accusing Morsi of setting up a token opposition much like Mubarak did.
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Associated Press writer Maggie Michael reported from Fayoum, Egypt.
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The owner of an Italian restaurant in Baltimore was going to talk to me about how his business was preparing for Obamacare, now that it is going to be the law of the land. But seeing the backlash faced by other businessmen who dared to suggest the law might have a less than salubrious impact on their businesses, he was having second thoughts.
On the day after the election, Papa John's CEO John Schnatter got in trouble after speaking to a group of college students about small businesses. Asked whether he thought Papa John's franchise owners might "cut people's hours back. . . so they wouldn't have to pay for health insurance," Schnatter responded, "It's common sense. That's what I call lose-lose."
An honest, almost innocuous answer. Yet the media portrayed Schnatter as the Pizza Grinch, scheming to snatch health care from the hands of his struggling employees just before Christmas.
Liberal groups announced boycotts, the company's Facebook page comments were filled with ire, Jon Stewart called Schnatter and other CEOs critical of the health care law "a—holes" on TV.
A survey by YouGov seemed to indicate that Papa John's "brand index" had dropped in the days following the fray. The media liked the idea that a businessman was being punished for saying that an expensive health care law was going to be expensive. "Restaurant Brands Suffering After Obamacare Rants," read a headline in Slate. The Huffington Post piled on: "Papa John's Obamacare Stance Costs Company Its Reputation."
Schnatter stepped in to do damage control, writing an op-ed in which he assured readers that he intended to comply with the law and was indeed "cool with" people having health insurance.
Other businessmen who publicly speculated about the effects this law would have on their businesses, like The Cheesecake Factory CEO David Overton and Denny's franchise owner John Metz, also came under fire.
"That's not something you want to find out on December 31, 2013, and then have to implement it on January 1, 2014," says Michelle Reinke, a health care expert at the National Restaurant Association.
She says that throughout the regulatory public comment process, the association has requested flexibility with certain regulations, and hopes things will become clearer once the "guidance" hardens into rules. "Restaurant owners need to educate themselves about how the law will impact their business and their employees," she said. "But until all the rules are on the table, it's hard to make decisions about the future."
For businessmen like the Italian restaurant owner, the uncertainty is the crusher. He doesn't know yet whether he'll be in the over-50 or under-50 employees category, so all he can do is hunker down and try to collect his data. He doesn't know if he'll be able to afford the health insurance plan he currently has for his employees once more of his workers qualify (until now, he has counted 34 hours per week, not 30, as full time). Does he need to change plans? If he's not at the 50-employee mark, will he be able to afford covering any of his employees or have to drop health coverage altogether?
All of this remains unclear. There is something, however, that he knows for sure. In the 1990s, he grew the restaurant, tacking on a sprawling complex to the little bar and kitchen where his Italian immigrant parents served spaghetti and meatballs starting in the early 1950s. He doubled its size.
He also laid the groundwork for further expansion. "When we re-engineered this building, we left in place the structure to support a 120-seat catering hall on the second level," he says. Now, it's out of the question.
"I'd always thought I'd do what my dad did," he says. "He was working in here till he was 73 and had a massive heart attack and died."
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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday granted his former butler a Christmas pardon for stealing the pontiff's private papers and leaking them to a journalist, one of the gravest Vatican security breaches in recent times.
The pope met for 15 minutes with Paolo Gabriele in the prison where the ex-butler was serving his sentence for the theft. Gabriele was subsequently freed and returned to his Vatican City apartment where he lived with his wife and three children.
The Vatican said he would not continue living or working in the Vatican, but that it "intends to offer him the possibility to serenely restart his life together with his family."
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope's meeting with Gabriele was "intense" and "personal," noting that Gabriele and the pope had worked together closely for six years.
The pardon closes a painful and embarrassing chapter for the Vatican, capping a sensational, Hollywood-like scandal that exposed power struggles, intrigue and allegations of corruption and homosexual liaisons in the highest levels of the Catholic Church.
Gabriele, a 46-year-old father of three, was arrested May 23 after Vatican police found what they called an "enormous" stash of papal documents in his Vatican City apartment. He was convicted of aggravated theft by a Vatican tribunal on Oct. 6 and has been serving his 18-month sentence in the Vatican police barracks.
He told Vatican investigators he gave the documents to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi because he thought the 85-year-old pope wasn't being informed of the "evil and corruption" in the Vatican and thought that exposing it publicly would put the church back on the right track.
The publication of the leaked documents, first on Italian television then in Nuzzi's book "His Holiness: Pope Benedict XVI's Secret Papers" convulsed the Vatican all year, a devastating betrayal of the pope from within his papal family that exposed the unseemly side of the Catholic Church's governance.
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