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They’re back! The iconic ruby slippers made famous by actress Judy Garland in the landmark 1939 film The Wizard of Oz return to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., this Friday after an 18-month hiatus and rejuvenating facelift.Since they were first exhibited in 1979, Dorothy’s Ruby ...

BIGGER, BRIGHTER, WHITER EVERY DIAMOND IS DIFFERENT. EVERY DIAMOND HAS A STORY TO TELL.   Fire & Ice Diamonds are the result of years of research conducted by the Gemological Institute of America and the American Gem Society. These exquisite diamonds are cut to precise ...

With a revolution raging in France in March 1791, Queen Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI prepared for their escape. The queen spent an evening carefully wrapping her most precious jewels in cotton and then packed them neatly into a wooden chest. The diamond, ruby ...

New York City’s Central Park — the verdant oasis of majestic trees, rolling lawns and bass-stocked ponds just steps away from the bustling metropolis — has been named by Celebrity Cruises as the most popular place in the world to pop the question.The company analyzed ...

As Princess Eugenie exchanged wedding vows with Jack Brooksbank on Friday at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, England, all eyes were on her magnificent emerald tiara.Dubbed the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara, the diamond-encrusted platinum headpiece features a 93.7-carat oval-shaped emerald center stone flanked by ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you romantic throwback tunes with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. In Tom Jones’s soaring rendition of “I (Who Have Nothing),” the Welch crooner assumes the role of a poor man trying to win ...

Gifted to the Smithsonian in 1977 by legendary jeweler Harry Winston, the “Opal Peacock” brooch showcases a 32-carat black opal sourced from Lightning Ridge, Australia. The cabochon-cut gem, which displays a vivid blue and green play-of-color reminiscent of a peacock’s plumage, is considered one of ...

Inspired by the constellations that light up the night sky of Canada’s remote Northwest Territories, “The Diavik Stars of the Arctic” will headline Rio Tinto’s upcoming “Specials” tender — a showcase of rough diamonds greater than 10.8 carats.Among the diamonds comprising The Diavik Stars is ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fun throwback songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, we step into our time machine and dial in May 10, 1970, the day The Jackson 5 performed “The Love You Save” ...

Rubies, diamonds and a sapphire boasting a total weight of 10.2 carats add patriotic pizzazz to the Washington Capitals’ 2018 Stanley Cup rings. The handcrafted, two-tone rings, which commemorate the 44-year-old franchise’s first championship, were unveiled to players, coaches and hockey staff during a private ...

Six-year-old Alyah “Tiny” Dutton was sure the beautiful diamond rings she found in the restroom of Ballantrae Community Park in Dublin, Ohio, belonged to a magic princess and that they needed to be returned to her right away.Tiny had been enjoying an outing at the ...

Jada Dubai’s new “Passion Diamond Shoes” — elegant stilettos made from real gold and embellished with two round 15-carat D-flawless diamonds — went on sale last week for $17 million and are said to be the most expensive pair of shoes in the world. The ...

A 71-year-old grandma from Aurora, Colo., is being credited with finding the largest diamond so far this year at Arkansas’s Crater of Diamonds State Park — the only diamond site in the world where amateur prospectors get to keep what they discover. The 2.63-carat diamond ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you inspirational songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, contemporary Christian artist Duawne Starling sings his wedding vows in the 2001 release, “With This Ring.”In the first verse, Starling describes the wedding ...

In terms of its saturation and intensity, the color of “The Pink Legacy” is “as good as it gets in a colored diamond,” according to the Christie’s exec who will be overseeing its sale in Geneva on November 13. The auction house is expecting the ...

Bravo’s Summer House reality stars Kyle Cooke and Amanda Batula confirmed their engagement on Instagram with a selfie of her gorgeous new ring.Cooke recently popped the question with a 2.5-carat diamond set on a yellow gold, split-shank band. Cooke told Bravotv.com that the diamond is ...

In a recent episode of ABC’s What Would You Do?, correspondent John Quinones and his team explored how average individuals might react if they witnessed a diamond engagement ring being swiped by a patron at a local nail salon. Would they intervene or mind their ...

An extraordinarily rare 48.86-carat vibrant red topaz is the newest member of the Smithsonian’s National Gem Collection. The teardrop-shaped gem, which was acquired for the museum by philanthropist Coralyn Wright Whitney, made its debut this past Thursday at the National Museum of Natural History in ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fresh songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, 24-year-old Lauv wears a special piece of jewelry to preserve the memories of a love that got away in his 2018 release, “Bracelet.”In ...

A 5-carat fancy vivid blue diamond named “Ai” — the Chinese word for love — will be flirting with a world record when it hits the auction block at Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite event in Hong Kong on October 3.The auction house is estimating ...

To director Glenn Weiss, the simple gold wedding band his dad placed on his mom’s finger 67 years ago is “more valuable than The Hope Diamond” — a fact that grew ever more significant when the Emmy winner proposed to his girlfriend Jan Svendsen on ...

On Wednesday of next week, a very rare and cleverly crafted platinum tiara with ties to Spanish royalty will be offered for sale at Bonhams, London.Reflecting the refined aesthetics of the Belle Époque period — the “beautiful era” of relative peace and prosperity prior to ...

Archaeologists working in the basement of a demolished theater in Northern Italy recently unearthed a soapstone jar literally bursting with Roman gold coins dating back to the 4th and 5th centuries AD. The pristine coins were pulled from the site of the former Cressoni theater, ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you uplifting songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the lyrics or title. Today, singer-songwriter Jason Mraz delivers a message of love, hope and infinite possibilities in his 2018 release, “Have It All.”Inspired by a spiritual encounter ...

Due to the inclement weather that is headed our way, we are closing today at 2PM and will stay closed tomorrow. We plan to open back up Saturday, 9/15/18 at 10AM. Our thoughts are with our neighbors to the South of us.Please stay safe.

Until last week, RNC Minerals had been running a ho-hum nickel operation at the Beta Hunt Mine in southwestern Australia. But, when a gold vein was discovered about 1,600 feet underground, the miner decided to do some deeper blasting — and the results were spectacular.From ...

Empowering colors and joyful hues dominate Pantone’s Fashion Color Trend Report for the Spring/Summer of 2019. According to the Pantone Color Institute’s experts, this new palette of 12 standout colors is illuminating the runways of NY Fashion Week, which runs through Saturday in Manhattan.Fiesta / ...

The largest fancy deep purplish-pink diamond ever graded by the Gemological Institute of America will headline Alrosa’s first-ever “True Colour” auction of colored polished diamonds. The 11.06-carat, cushion-cut gem is one of 250 colorful diamonds that Alrosa will display at the Hong Kong Gem & ...

Inspired by the “holey dollar,” Australia’s first official currency, The Perth Mint recently unveiled a $1.7 million collector coin that pays tribute to early prospectors of the nation’s most treasured natural riches — gold and pink diamonds.The Discovery coin weighs 2,000 grams (4.41 pounds) and ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fresh songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Gwen Stefani compares boyfriend and country star Blake Shelton to a sapphire in her 2016 release, “Rare.”In this song penned by Stefani and ...

FBI agents announced Tuesday that they had recovered the pair of Ruby Slippers snatched 13 years ago from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minn. Considered one of the most iconic pieces of Hollywood memorabilia, the Ruby Slippers were made famous by the child ...

An international team of researchers has uncovered archaeological evidence suggesting that precious amber — the golden-colored translucent gemstone formed from fossilized tree resin — was prized by our prehistoric ancestors and traded throughout the Mediterranean region.Researchers used a sophisticated technique known as infrared spectroscopy to ...

Today we shine our spotlight on the 330-carat “Star of Asia,” one of the world’s finest star sapphires and a stunning representation of September’s official birthstone.Originating from the historic Mogok mines of Burma (now Myanmar), the blue-violet sapphire is said to have belonged to India’s ...

Michael Jackson fans from around the world celebrated what would have been the King of Pop’s 60th birthday on Wednesday by bopping to a mega-mix of his greatest hits weaved together by super-producer Mark Ronson.In honor of Jackson’s “diamond” birthday, the five-minute audio track was ...

Spectacular gold jewelry from the West African nation of Senegal will be the focus of a brand new exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, in Washington, D.C.“Good as Gold: Fashioning Senegalese Women” will explore the history of Senegal’s gold, from past to ...

A Virginia man who had purchased a diamond engagement ring but was jilted before popping the question turned his heartbreak into hope by awarding the ring to a deserving Illinois couple.Steven Crocker was emotionally devastated last year when his girlfriend decided to break off their ...

The online Museum of Diamonds — a website dedicated to showcasing famous gems, such as the Hope, the Regent and the Kohinoor — is encouraging everyday people to share their engagement stories and name their diamonds so they can be immortalized for generations to come.“Every ...

Jesse Tober and Kasey Donovan starred in their own fairytale last Monday when they popped the question simultaneously in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland in California. The video of the spontaneous double proposal made them Twittersphere sensations and affirmed, once again, that a ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you super throwback songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones shine the spotlight on diamonds in their timeless tune, “Play With Fire.”A song that takes a ...

Utah resident Laura Forsling is one of the few people on the planet who can say that her marriage proposal was delivered by an African raven named Joe.Forsling was enjoying the bird show at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City last week when the ...

The modern birthstone list has been amended only three times in the past 106 years, so when the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) and Jewelers of America (JA) announced in 2016 that spinel would be joining peridot as an official birthstone for the month of ...

Back in January, Gem Diamonds announced the discovery of a gem-quality, 910-carat diamond at its Letšeng Mine. The D-color, Type IIa stone — which was later named the Lesotho Legend — was billed as the fifth-largest gem-quality diamond ever recovered. The rough gem sold in ...

In 1964, a 22-year-old Aretha Franklin declared in a song called “One Room Paradise” that she didn’t need to live in a castle or be showered with diamonds and pearls in order to be happy. A little one-room apartment would be totally fine as long ...

Despite being one of the highest-paid players in the NFL, New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski says he lives an “easy” and “normal” life. Gronk is famously frugal and claims he has never treated himself to a guilty pleasure — until now.While appearing on ...

San Diego city workers helped a couple rescue an accidentally trashed $30,000 engagement ring from the Miramar Landfill — and the whole operation took just four minutes.Typically, the nasty process of digging through mountains of stinky trash bags in a hazmat suit could take many ...

With their family’s home reduced to ashes in the aftermath of the deadly Carr wildfire, Jerry Ogle and his dad returned to their property off Iron Mountain Road in Redding, Calif., with the hopes of finding a very special heirloom amidst the devastation. It was ...

A team of archeologists from Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority unearthed an elaborately worked 2,200-year-old golden earring bearing the likeness of a horned animal. The hoop earring was discovered during excavations just outside Jerusalem’s walled Old City and was likely worn by ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you exceptional songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, the talented members of the One Voice Children’s Choir will dazzle you with their interpretation of Rihanna’s “Diamonds.” Their video at the end ...

A Memphis plumbing crew required a high-tech camera and a little bit of luck to successfully rescue a diamond engagement ring that a bride-to-be accidentally flushed down a second-floor toilet. The ring had traveled 21 feet through the waste line and was just 12 inches ...

Red Sox pitcher Joe Kelly said it was one of the “funniest, coolest and randomest” baseball stories he’s ever been part of. It all went down at Boston’s Fenway Park last week, and this is what happened…Tony La Russa, who owns three World Series rings ...

By studying minute inclusions trapped within blue diamonds, scientists have been able to determine that their origin is far deeper in the Earth than other diamond varieties. The journal Nature recently revealed that blue diamonds form about 400 miles below the surface, four times deeper ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you new songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Thai-German pop star Jannine Weigel performs “Diamonds,” a tune about a boyfriend who gives her the confidence to shine like a precious stone. ...

This October, Sotheby’s London will host its first-ever auction dedicated entirely to gold. Titled “The Midas Touch,” the sale will feature unusual golden artifacts cherry-picked from a wide range of Sotheby’s departments.According to the auction house, the various offerings will take collectors on a journey ...

Here’s a fun piece of trivia regarding peridot, August’s popular yellowish-green birthstone. According to the Smithsonian, peridot was first discovered on the Egyptian island of Topazios around 300 BC. The ancients anointed the vibrant green stone as the “gem of the sun” and appropriately named ...

Actress Brooke Shields told InStyle magazine how she made a secret pact with a delivery-room nurse so she could wear her father’s signet ring — on a chain — when she went into labor with her first daughter, Rowan. Shields’ beloved dad, Francis, had passed ...

We love to write about off-beat marriage proposals — especially when they’re related to food. For example, in February, we detailed a tasty McNugget proposal in Lincoln, Illinois, and earlier this month featured a sweet Kit Kat proposal in Washington, D.C. Today, we spotlight a ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you nostalgic songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today’s tune, “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby,” has its roots in New York City during the Roaring Twenties. In the song, ...

An Egyptian funeral mask crafted of gilded silver and dating back to 664-404 BCE is being called a “sensation” by archaeologists at Germany’s University of Tübingen. Discovered deep within a necropolis in Saqqara, Egypt, the mask of an ancient priest has eyes inlaid with calcite, ...

Men are willing to purchase more showy, expensive diamond engagement rings for women they perceive as being highly attractive, according to a study conducted at Western Oregon University. Researchers also discovered that women are more likely to expect bigger, pricier rings when partnered with less ...

In a message to her 489,000 Instagram followers, American Idol alum Katherine McPhee posted a selfie of her new engagement ring along with an emotional account of the last time she spoke with her late father, Daniel McPhee. She described the special, unforgettable moment when ...

Visitors to the The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City this fall will be treated to a dazzling display of 230 precious adornments dating from 2600 B.C.E. to the present day. Titled “Jewelry: The Body Transformed,” the exhibition explores from a historical perspective ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you uplifting songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, country music legend Alan Jackson explores the real meaning of a wedding band in his 2010 release, “True Love Is a Golden Ring.”In ...

Back in April, model and actress Emily Ratajkowski famously told The Tonight Show‘s audience how she accepted a paper clip engagement ring from beau Sebastian Bear-McClard when he popped the question at the Minetta Tavern in New York City.“He didn’t have a ring, so I ...

A quadrillion tons of diamonds lie 100 miles below the earth’s surface, spread across vast rock formations called “cratons,” according to a study published by a team of researchers from MIT, Harvard, the University of California at Berkeley and other top-tier institutions.The scientists made their ...

Precious-metals experts are claiming that the world is at “peak gold,” the critical point when the amount of gold mined out of the earth will begin to shrink every year, rather than increase. With aging mines yielding fewer ounces and the number of major new ...

A 3.14-carat purplish pink diamond known as “The Argyle Alpha” headlines the 2018 Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender – an annual showcase of the rarest pink, red and violet diamonds produced by Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine in Western Australia.The emerald-cut Argyle Alpha has the distinction of ...

Exactly 50 years ago this week, Paul McCartney and the Beatles were in a London recording studio bickering about “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” a song from the Beatles’ White Album that features Desmond Jones taking a trolley to a jewelry store to buy a “20-carat golden ring.” ...

A Washington, D.C., man who was widely ridiculed on social media for eating a Kit Kat bar the “wrong” way got the last laugh when The Hershey Company came to his rescue by creating a custom Kit Kat-shaped engagement ring box for his marriage proposal.On ...

We’ve all witnessed how Mother Nature works in mysterious ways, but who knew she was a World Cup soccer fan?Just three days prior to the Russian national soccer team’s exciting quarterfinal match against Croatia in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Russian mining giant Alrosa discovered ...

A California man turned a horrific scene into something beautiful Sunday when he found his wife’s bridal jewelry amidst the charred rubble of their devastated home and proposed to her all over again.“She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known, she’s the glue in our ...

Adventurer Josh Gates investigates the 2005 theft of one of the most iconic pieces of Hollywood memorabilia of all time — the ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz — during Tuesday night’s episode of “Expedition Unknown” on the ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you great songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Elton John sings about suffering from a broken heart in 2001’s “Dark Diamond.”In the song composed by John with lyrics by long-time collaborator ...

The “Lotus Ring” has just smashed the Guinness World Record for the most diamonds set in a single ring. By employing an ingenious design featuring 48 individual diamond-encrusted “petals,” Indian jewelers Vishal and Khushbu Agarwal were able to set a staggering 6,690 diamonds into an ...

Starting in 2022, the French ApoteoSurprise agency will be offering a week-long “Marriage Proposal Around the Moon,” which will literally launch couples into space on a 500,000-kilometer journey to the moon and back.Priced at $145 million, the proposal package includes all the requisite training and ...

Back in the late 1950s, TV advertising pioneer Rosser Reeves purchased an unmounted star ruby and carried it in his pocket for good luck.This was no ordinary ruby. With its rich red color and well-defined star, the 138.72-carat ruby was said to be the largest ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you awesome songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Taylor Goldsmith of the folk-rock supergroup The New Basement Tapes channels Bob Dylan in “Diamond Ring,” a nearly forgotten song about second chances.In ...

When Ben Adams and his girlfriend Elizabeth Kahle landed at DFW International Airport three weeks ago after a romantic European vacation, Adams was all set to surprise the love of his life with an engagement ring and marriage proposal.That plan got short-circuited when the airline ...

An all-star cast of 10 diamonds weighing a total of 1,453.06 carats yielded $32.5 million at Lucara Diamond Corp.’s “12th Exceptional Stone Tender” last week. The diamonds, which ranged from 40.4 carats to 472.37 carats, were all sourced in 2018 at the famous Karowe Mine ...

An eagle-eyed Long Island police officer with a metal detector and his quick-thinking colleague are being hailed as heroes after reuniting a Pennsylvania woman with the $20,000 engagement ring she lost last weekend on a Fire Island beach.What started out as a celebratory bachelorette weekend ...

Workers at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Shop in Derby, Conn., went above and beyond the call of duty to reunite a woman with the 3.3-carat loose diamond she forgot she had pinned to the inside of a donated sweater.The store’s Facebook page explained ...

On July 15, after a full month of heart-thumping competition, the members of a single national team will emerge as champions and experience one of the ultimate thrills in professional sports — raising aloft the 18-karat gold FIFA World Cup Trophy. Four years ago in ...

The Twittersphere was abuzz last week with the bitter-sweet story of how the destructive and horrifying volcanic eruptions of Kilauea were raining tiny green gemstones on the Big Island of Hawaii.On Monday, June 11, Twitter user @ErinJordan_WX wrote, “Friends of mine live in Hawaii, right ...

The Philadelphia Eagles marked their historic 2017 season and epic Super Bowl triumph over the New England Patriots with championship rings emblazoned with 219 diamonds and 17 green sapphires. Each ring boasts a gemstone total weight of 9.15 carats.The 10-karat gold rings are teeming with ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you the sweetest songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, country stars George Jones and Lacy J. Dalton sing the praises of a very special ring in their 1984 ditty, “Size Seven ...

After more than 20 years of Sherlock Holmes-like sleuthing, scientists are crediting teeny, rapidly spinning diamonds for generating the curious microwave “glow” coming from a number of regions in the night sky.In a new study led by researchers at Great Britain’s Cardiff University and published ...

In 1940, billionaire banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller married Margaret “Peggy” McGrath, and during their 56-year marriage the couple collected magnificent works of art and fine jewelry. Yesterday, 19 jewelry items from their massive collection hit the auction block at Christie’s New York, with most ...

The Diamond Producer Association’s high-profile “Real Is Rare” campaign scored 1.5 billion media impressions among the coveted 21-to-34-year-old demographic during its first 12 months of advertising, according to an independent research firm. Aimed at making an emotional connection with millennials via a storytelling approach, the ...

Former nurse and Jupiter, Fla., resident Carol Winig is on a mission to identify the honest little girl who found her engagement ring in a supermarket parking lot and turned it over to the store’s management. Winig wants to give the youngster a reward and ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you uplifting songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, alt-country rocker Ryan Adams compares a glorious, sunny day to June’s official birthstone in his 2007 ditty, “Pearls on a String.”The song, which ...

Antwerp’s brand new “DIVA” museum celebrates the Belgian city’s 570-year love affair with diamonds. Since the 15th century, traders from around the world journeyed to Antwerp to buy and sell luxury items, and the DIVA museum tells that story in a most unique way.Jérome, a ...

Dance superstar Stephen “tWitch” Boss helped choreograph an elaborate flash mob marriage proposal that Austin natives Patrick Barker and Johanna Alvarado will never forget.Barker had met tWitch on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where the former So You Think You Can Dance alum has become the ...

The precious pearl – adored by the world since the ancients — is June’s official birthstone. Today we’re featuring one of the most celebrated natural pearls, La Peregrina, whose history is steeped in both legend and lore. Meaning “pilgrim,” La Peregrina was considered a treasure ...

Luxury Swiss watch and jewelry brand Bucherer has teamed up with Harley-Davidson customizer Bündnerbike to create the blingiest, most expensive motorcycle in the world.The $1.9 million “Blue Edition” Harley-Davidson is adorned with 360 diamonds, including a 5.4-carat diamond ring displayed under an armored glass compartment ...

Utilizing an unmanned submersible vehicle at a depth of 600 meters, researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) positively ID’d the San José — a 62-gun, three-masted Spanish galleon that has been called the “Holy Grail of Shipwrecks.” The ill-fated ship had been en ...

Once owned by Catherine the Great, the world’s largest known freshwater blister pearl is expected to fetch more than $600,000 when it hits the auction block in The Netherlands this Thursday.Dubbed “The Sleeping Lion” due to its unusual shape, the extraordinary quarter-pound natural pearl is ...

Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you great songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, we present The Rolling Stones’ newly released, kaleidoscopic lyric video of their 1967 smash hit, “Ruby Tuesday.” The video premiered on Tuesday, of ...

Dancing With the Stars pro Cheryl Burke got engaged to Boy Meets World alum Matthew Lawrence in early May, but took to her Instagram just last week to reveal the sweet and sentimental elements that make her double halo engagement ring truly special.“While, obviously, I ...

Boxing great Floyd Mayweather — a man with a well-documented passion for fine jewelry and one of the wealthiest athletes in the world — gave his daughter Iyanna an 18-carat canary diamond ring for her 18th birthday.The platinum ring, which was designed by New York’s ...

Marlyn Sanchez is well known at Marlins Park in Miami because she’s frequently called on to sing the national anthem. So, when her boyfriend, Ralph Cabrera, arranged for her to throw out the first pitch before Wednesday’s contest between the Marlins and the Dodgers, Sanchez ...