SoCal Varsity Awards: Harvard-Westlake's Ryan Neapole tops the All-Varsity Boys Water Polo Team  —  The Southern California News Group honors the region's top fall sports athletes:  —  SoCal Varsity Awards special section is in Sunday's edition of your local SCNG newspaper.  —  PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Yasiel Puig reunites with Cincinnati Reds hitting coach, good friend Turner Ward  —  It was a familiar scene after Yasiel Puig's home runs last season: He completed his trot around the bases, walked back into the dugout, high-fived his teammates and then planted a kiss on hitting coach Turner Ward's cheek.

Baseball notes: Dodgers' Kelly is happy to be going home  —  Joe Kelly helped the Boston Red Sox win a World Series title.  His next goal is to try to win one for the team he grew up rooting for and defeated in October.  —  The Dodgers on Friday officially announced signing Kelly …

Texan of the Year finalist Adrian Beltre brought a love of baseball to Texas Rangers fans  —  Athletes provide the rest of us with lesser motor skills the joy of living vicariously.  And when they are good guys, too, so much the better.  —  Such is Adrian Beltre, one of the greatest players …

Red Sox writer refuses to vote Mariano Rivera into Hall of Fame  —  Leave it to a Red Sox scribe to rain on Mariano Rivera's historic quest.  —  Bill Ballou, of the Worcester, Mass., Telegram, spent about 1,500 words Saturday arguing that the Yankees legend shouldn't receive a bid into the Hall.

Who will counsel MLB, union to avoid labor strife?  —  Underneath the anticipation of Manny Machado's tour of teams and a continued flurry of trades, the Associated Press published news jarring and yet completely unsurprising to some agents and executives — for the first time since 2004 …

A's to re-sign RHP Mike Fiers to two-year deal  —  The Athletics and Mike Fiers have agreed to a two-year contract for the right-hander to return to Oakland, according to MLB.com.  —  MLB.com reports that the deal, which is pending a physical, could be worth up to $15 million.

Cubs remaining relatively quiet while NL Central rivals make their moves  —  Photos of Theo Epstein, the Cubs' president of baseball operations.  —  Chicago Tribune  —  The Cubs' official 2018 postseason T-shirts were marked down from $40 to $10 at a local sporting-goods store Saturday morning.

Detroit Tigers mailbag: Have we seen rock bottom yet in rebuild?  —  The mailbag has hit the holiday season, and there isn't much left on the Detroit Tigers' wish list other than netting a prospect haul for right fielder Nicholas Castellanos.  —  At the Winter Meetings, they got their shortstop —