Relax and read: 5 recommended stories from MyAJC.com

The boyish Freddie Freeman with his mother Rosemary. (Photo courtesy of Freeman family)

The boyish Freddie Freeman with his mother Rosemary. (Photo courtesy of Freeman family)

It’s the weekend and rain is expected. So it is a good time to relax and do some reading and here’s five stories from MyAJC.com you might enjoy.

Rosemary Freeman’s boy does her proud

Before showing up at the World Baseball Classic, Freddie Freeman wore the tributes to his mother out of sight.

The cross that he never takes off has a compartment within, where a lock of his mother’s hair is preserved.

For the past three years, he has had stitched inside his baseball spikes Rosemary Freeman’s initials — RJF. She died in June 2000. The date of her death is also there inside his work shoe.

Now the California-born Freeman is suiting up for Canada. It’s a case of undisputed love, not confused national loyalties. He was there not for himself, not for country, but for one reason only — to serve the memory of his mother who was, as her son said, “Canadian through and through.”

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Don’t miss the Red Panda’s amazing halftime show

Born in China, Rong Niu has become a cult celebrity in the U.S., traveling across the country to NBA and college basketball arenas to perform her act, night after night. She is an annual feature of the ACC Tournament, her arrival anticipated by fans (and media) who attend this tradition-bound tournament annually.

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Georgia Tech pioneer finally gets his due

Harvey Webb was long aware of his minor place in Georgia Tech and state history, but didn’t think much of it. As a freshman at Tech in the 1967-68 academic year, he made the Yellow Jackets freshman team and became the first black Tech student to play for the basketball team.

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The ACC’s rising stars: Mike Brey and Notre Dame

Full disclosure from the AJC’s Mark Bradley: Mike Brey is my favorite coach now working. That’s not to say he’s the best — can’t put anybody ahead of Mike Krzyzewski — but he’s not far off. I think of Brey as Coach K minus the arrogance. Brey shows up on the sideline — he never wears a tie, opting for the casually chic unbuttoned dress shirt — and goes to work. He likes to speak about “game situations,” in which coaches whose teams aren’t stocked with one-and-done talent must excel. He’s tremendous at those.

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Tim Tebow: Plenty of buzz but no hits

Signed by the Mets in September to a minor league deal, Tim Tebow has cast a disproportionately large shadow over their spring camp. That was bound to happen, as he has blotted out the sun in college football, in the NFL and now at the rudimentary level of professional baseball. Drawing a crowd and fostering hot takes on sports talk shows has never been a problem for Tebow. But it appears playing baseball at the major-league level may be.

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