BALTIMORE (AP) — Needing a home run for the cycle in the eighth inning, Wyatt Langford was focused on exactly that.
Not that it changed his approach much.
“I was obviously feeling really good at that point,” Langford said. “Just kind of one of those things that happens.”
The Texas rookie completed the cycle with a three-run shot down the left-field line Sunday night, part of an 11-2 win by the Rangers against the Baltimore Orioles. It was the first cycle in the major leagues in 2024. By this time last season there had been four.
It was also the first career four-hit game for the 22-year-old Langford, who was drafted last year by the Rangers with the No. 4 overall pick and made a swift rise to the majors to make Texas’ opening-day roster this season.
“He’s just an exciting player," manager Bruce Bochy said. "He’s a ballplayer, and you love how aggressive he is. No fear on the bases. Out of the box, he’s looking to get the double or triple.”
Langford tripled in the fourth, and his RBI double in the fifth was a grounder into right-center field that he stretched into a two-base hit.
“How I was raised, I guess," Langford said when asked about running so hard. "My dad would beat the crap out of me if I didn’t. I’ll credit him for that.”
His speed having already made an impact, Langford needed more power after his sixth-inning single left him a homer shy of the cycle when he came up in the eighth.
“I was trying to hit a home run,” Langford said. “It kind of speaks for itself.”
Langford become the 11th Rangers player to hit for the cycle, the first since Carlos Gomez in April 2017 against the Angels. The only other Texas rookie to do it was Oddibe McDowell in 1985.
Langford was also the first player to hit for the cycle in a game aired on ESPN's “Sunday Night Baseball.”
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Texas Rangers' Wyatt Langford, right, slides to third base with a triple against Baltimore Orioles third baseman Jordan Westburg (11) and starting pitcher Cole Irvin, bottom, during the fourth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Texas Rangers' Wyatt Langford, right, celebrates his three-run home run with Adolis García (53) and Robbie Grossman, center, during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Baltimore. The three-run home run completed the cycle for Langford. The Rangers won 11-2. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Texas Rangers' Wyatt Langford hits a three-run home run during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Sunday, June 30, 2024, in Baltimore. The three-run home run completed the cycle for Langford. The Rangers won 11-2. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
Texas Rangers' Wyatt Langford, left, hits an RBI double in the fifth inning as Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez, right, looks on in a baseball game Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Albert Pena)
NEW YORK (AP) — Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, federal prosecutor and legal adviser to Donald Trump, was disbarred in the state on Tuesday after a court found he repeatedly made false statements about Trump's 2020 election loss.
A New York appeals court in Manhattan ruled that Giuliani, who had his New York law license suspended in 2021 for making false statements around the election, is now "disbarred from the practice of law, effective immediately, and until the further order of this Court, and his name stricken from the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law in the State of New York.”
A Giuliani spokesperson, Ted Goodman, said the man once dubbed “America’s mayor” will appeal the “objectively flawed” decision. He also called on others in the legal community to speak out against the “politically and ideologically corrupted decision.”
Giuliani’s attorney Arthur Aidala was more measured, saying his legal team was “obviously disappointed” but not surprised by the decision. He said they “put up a valiant effort” to prevent the disbarment but “saw the writing on the wall.”
The court said in its decision that Giuliani “essentially conceded” most of the facts supporting the alleged acts of misconduct during hearings held in October 2023. Instead, the decision said, he argued that he “lacked knowledge that statements he had made were false and that he had a good faith basis to believe the allegations he made to support his claim that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen from his client.”
The court said it found that Giuliani “falsely and dishonestly” claimed during the 2020 Presidential election that thousands of votes were cast in the names of dead people in Philadelphia, including a ballot in the name of the late boxing great Joe Frazier. He also falsely claimed people were taken from nearby Camden, New Jersey, to vote illegally in the Pennsylvania city, the court said.
The order states that Giuliani must “desist and refrain from practicing law in any form,” including "giving to another an opinion as to the law or its application or any advice” or “holding himself out in any way as an attorney and counselor-at-law.”
Before pleading Trump’s case in November 2020, Giuliani had not appeared in court as an attorney since 1992, according to court records.
The disbarment comes amid mounting woes for the 80-year-old Giuliani. In May, WABC radio suspended him and canceled his daily talk show because he refused to stop making false claims about the 2020 election.
He also filed for bankruptcy last year after being ordered to pay $148 million in damages to two former Georgia election workers over lies he spread about them that upended their lives with racist threats and harassment.
Giuliani on Monday asked a federal judge to convert his bankruptcy case from a reorganization to a liquidation, which would mean most of his assets would be sold off to help pay what he owes creditors. At the end of May, he had about $94,000 in cash on hand while his company, Giuliani Communications, had about $237,000 in the bank, according to court documents.
Giuliani is also facing criminal charges in Georgia and Arizona over his role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
He’s charged in Georgia with making false statements and soliciting false testimony, conspiring to create phony paperwork and asking state lawmakers to violate their oath of office to appoint an alternate slate of pro-Trump electors.
The Arizona indictment accuses Giuliani of pressuring Maricopa County officials and state legislators to change the outcome of Arizona’s results and encouraging Republican electors in the state to vote for Trump in December 2020.
Giuliani built his public persona by practicing law, as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan in the 1980s, when he went after mobsters, powerbrokers and others. The law-and-order reputation helped catapult him into politics, governing the United States’ most populous city when it was beset by high crime.
The Republican was lauded for holding the city together after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, when two hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, killing more than 2,700 people.
But after unsuccessful runs for the U.S. Senate and the presidency, and a lucrative career as a globetrotting consultant, Giuliani smashed his image as a centrist who could get along with Democrats as he became one of Trump’s most loyal defenders.
He was the primary mouthpiece for Trump’s false claims of election fraud after the 2020 vote, infamously standing at a press conference in front of Four Seasons Total Landscaping outside Philadelphia saying the campaign would challenge what he claimed was a vast conspiracy by Joe Biden and fellow Democrats.
Lies around the election results helped push an angry mob of pro-Trump rioters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to stop the certification of Biden’s victory.
Associated Press reporters Karen Matthews and Jennifer Peltz in New York, Michael Sisak in Fort Pierce, Fla., Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn. and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this story.
FILE - Rudy Giuliani arrives at the Fulton County Courthouse, Aug. 17, 2022, in Atlanta. Giuliani has been disbarred in New York. The former New York City mayor, federal prosecutor and legal adviser to Donald Trump received the decision Tuesday, July 2, 2024 from an appeals court in Manhattan.(AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
FILE - Rudy Giuliani talks to reporters as he leaves after his defamation trial in Washington, Dec. 15, 2023. Giuliani has been disbarred in New York. The former New York City mayor, federal prosecutor and legal adviser to Donald Trump received the decision Tuesday, July 2, 2024 from an appeals court in Manhattan. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE - Rudy Giuliani speaks during a news conference outside federal court in Washington, Dec. 15, 2023. Giuliani has been disbarred in New York. The former New York City mayor, federal prosecutor and legal adviser to Donald Trump received the decision Tuesday, July 2, 2024 from an appeals court in Manhattan.(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
