Names In The News

Thursday night’s edition of “NBC Nightly News” featured a report on the declining number of African-American MLB players. NBC’s KEVIN CORKE said, “Baseball officials insist they’re rallying — 120,000 kids now play ball thanks to the league’s RBI program for inner-city children. But the sport still faces an uncertain future” (“NBC Nightly News,” 4/14).

MOVIE TIME: A documentary about Trail Blazers G SEBASTIAN TELFAIR, titled “THROUGH THE FIRE,” premieres at the TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL on April 21. The documentary “chronicles Telfair’s life from the public housing projects in Coney Island all the way to the NBA” (USA TODAY, 4/15)....In Boston, Fee & Raposa report PATTE PAPA, Events & Film Dir for the city of Boston, is reading the script for a movie-version of STEPHEN KING’s novel, “THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON,” which “is expected to film” in Boston this summer. Papa: “They want me to think about locations. I’m thinking Fenway Park” (BOSTON HERALD, 4/15).

NAMES: IRL driver DAN WHELDON appeared on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover” Thursday night where he invited the makeover recipient, a motorsports fan, to be his personal guest at the Indy 500 (“Extreme Makeover,” ABC, 4/14)....Yankees 3B ALEX RODRIGUEZ saved an 8-year-old boy from being hit by a truck Wednesday on Newbury Street in Boston. The truck came around a turn and Rodriguez pulled him out of harm’s way (Mult., 4/15).