Braves

A PHOTO of Emmett Till's casket that I saw on Facebook last week chilled me to my core. I was reminded of that tragedy from our nation's history of a 14-year-old boy from Chicago visiting relatives in Mississippi during the summer of 1955, who offended a white woman and who wound up paying with his life. Next, I found myself staring at a photo of the Bryant Grocery and Meat Market, where Till and the shop owner's wife, Carolyn Bryant, whom Till is said to have whistled at, had encountered each other.

Third in a series that looks at the NL East teams.   ALTHOUGH there isn't any official documentation on such matters, this winter may have been the first in more than a half-decade when the Phillies lost out on a free agent to a division rival. In the winter of 2005-06, the Phils saw their own closer, Billy Wagner, leave for the New York Mets. Three years earlier, in a winter when they began a decade of free spending, the Phillies signed the biggest free agent on the market, Jim Thome, but saw Tom Glavine decide to leave the Atlanta Braves for the Mets, not the Phillies.

Justin Upton is joining older brother B.J. Upton in a new-look Braves outfield he expects to be called the best in baseball. He said he's not willing to endorse that label until it is proven in 2013. Arizona traded Justin Upton to Atlanta in a seven-player deal Thursday that sent former all-star infielder Martin Prado to the Diamondbacks. The Upton brothers join rightfielder Jason Heyward, who won a Gold Glove in 2012, in an outfield packed with power and speed. "If we push ourselves to the next level, I feel with the extra push from each other there's no question we can be the best outfield in baseball," Justin Upton said.

THE PHILLIES were in need of a righthanded power bat for the corner outfield, and early in the offseason they made an offer to free-agent centerfielder B.J. Upton. So, it wasn't too much of a leap to think that at some point Ruben Amaro Jr. kicked around the idea of trading for Diamondbacks star rightfielder Justin Upton, B.J.'s brother and, as of Thursday, the latest plotline in what is shaping up to be an ultra-competitive National League race. Turns out, the Phillies did look into Justin Upton, talking to D-backs general manager Kevin Towers on more than one occasion about a potential trade.

The sense of relief was clear in Haley Parks' voice. "This was definitely the first game," she said, "where I really thought, 'OK, I feel like I did last season.' " Parks, a 5-foot-10 guard, collected 14 points, 10 rebounds, and four steals in the Williamstown girls' basketball team's crucial 50-43 win at Tri-County Conference Royal Division rival Clearview on Thursday night. Four games into her freshman season, Parks was the Braves' leading scorer. In her fifth game, she suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament, cutting short a promising start and stealing a season from what should be a memorable career.

LIZA LAW didn't expect a line to form outside of Penn Alexander Elementary for registration until Sunday. "In a flurry of three hours, people were texting and emailing, saying, 'There's a line that's coming. You better get going,' " Law said Friday afternoon, bundled up from head to toe. She had left work early, preparing to camp outside the well-regarded West Philadelphia school until Tuesday morning to secure for her daughter one of 70 available seats. Law's daughter attends the Philadelphia School, a private school with $18,000 tuition.

WITHOUT QUESTION, the gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., committed evil. Millions of prayers have been said by all of us. Who could do such a thing? What do we tell our own children, who thankfully came home from school that Friday, about an act so cruel? Twenty minutes. That's the approximate time it took to rip 20 precious young lives and six of their teachers, including their principal, from this world. Moms lost babies and babies lost their moms. The hearts of 26 families have been thrust into a forever pain no one deserves.

As the year draws to a close, I want to pay tribute to a few brave men and women who have been fighting in 2012 for dignity, justice, and peace in some of the world's most troubled countries. My list is limited by space considerations. So I've chosen to focus on people I've been privileged to meet or whom I've learned about from contacts in their countries. What distinguishes them is that each has chosen to struggle, at great risk, for values that most of us take for granted - though their odds of success are small.

As a football coach, Williamstown's Frank Fucetola has always been a grinder, somebody who didn't get immediate results but persisted until he lapped the field. His first season as coach of St. Augustine in 1993, his team went 4-6. By the final one, in 1995, the Hermits were 9-2 and won the state Non-Public Group 1 title. Similarly when he was hired at Williamstown in 1996, there were some ups and downs, with just three of his first eight teams finishing at .500 or better. Fucetola, though, has shown he can build a program, and just as in his first head-coaching job, he eventually succeeded in his second - in a big way. This season, the Braves went 12-0, earning the South Jersey Group 5 and West Jersey Football League American Division titles.

Williamstown junior Marques Little talks about the Braves' championship victory over Southern Regional.