June 1, 2020 3:46 am
UNDATED (AP) – Major League Baseball’s players have proposed a 114-game regular season, up from 82 in management’s offer. That’s according to a person familiar with the plan who told The Associated Press that the proposal includes no additional pay cuts beyond the one they agreed to in March. Opening day in the coronavirus-delayed season would be June 30 and the regular season would end Oct. 31, nearly five weeks after the Sept. 27 conclusion that MLB’s proposal stuck to from the season’s original schedule. The union offered scheduling flexibility to include more doubleheaders. A player would receive about 70% of his salary under the union plan. MLB’s offer Tuesday included a sliding scale in which those at the $563,500 minimum would get about 47%. Top-salaried players like Mike Trout and Gerrit Cole at $36 million would receive less than 23%. Players are OK with MLB’s plan to increase the number of postseason teams from 10 to 14. Management would expand the postseason for just this year, but the union would like it to run through 2021.
May 31, 2020 8:00 am
Four-year colleges facing budget shortfalls stemming from the pandemic are approaching an unwelcome milestone: In coming days, the number of eliminated sports programs will almost surely pass 100. Research by The Associated Press found a total of 97 teams eliminated at four-year schools through Friday. The count includes only teams cut with the coronavirus outbreak and its impacts cited as all or part of the reason. Of the 78 teams lost in Divisions II and III and the NAIA, 44 were from three schools that closed at least in part because of financial fallout from the pandemic. No Power Five conference school is known to have dropped any sports. Most of the 19 Division I teams cut — 15 men’s, four women’s — are from schools in the so-called Group of Five conferences. Some of the cuts might not have been made, critics say, if decision-makers had considered the benefits those sports brought to the schools as a whole.
May 30, 2020 3:52 am
UNDATED (AP) – The NCAA has released a long and detailed plan to help schools bring athletes back to campus during the pandemic. The move comes as schools across the country prepare for the return of athletes as early as June 8. The NCAA last week lifted a moratorium on athletic activities starting Monday. That cleared the way for voluntary workouts and training to begin at team facilities. Schools have already started putting plans in place to test athletes, coaches and staff for the coronavirus and implement social distancing. The NCAA says its plan is offered as guidance, consistent with federal and local public health guidelines
May 29, 2020 3:44 am
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) – Chase Elliott was able to celebrate a victory that capped a very busy stretch for NASCAR. Elliott reeled in Kevin Harvick with 27 laps remaining and closed out the win at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Elliott was charging hard on Harvick with about 35 laps remaining when he asked if he had enough fuel to make it to the finish. He stayed on the track and came away with his first Cup win of the season. Elliott shook off a pair of tough losses to finish about 2.2 seconds ahead of runner-up Denny Hamlin. Ryan Blaney was third, followed by Ricky Stenhouse and Kurt Busch. The rain-delayed event closed a frantic 12-day stretch that featured four Cup races, two each in North and South Carolina.
May 28, 2020 3:44 am
UNDATED (AP) – The NHL continues to formulate plans for a possible return this summer. The league has advised teams to prepare for a roster of 28 players and an unlimited number of goaltenders for training camp and the playoffs. Several general managers say they were told that would be the anticipated roster limit. Each team is limited to 50 personnel of any kind in one of the two cities that would host games. The NHL announced Tuesday that it has abandoned the regular season and will go straight to a 24-team postseason if play is allowed to resume. The league shut down March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The NHL has had 16-team playoffs since it became a 21-team circuit before the 1979-80 season. The NHL says training camp isn’t expected to begin before early July. Games could begin in late July or early August.
May 27, 2020 3:51 am
NEW YORK (AP) – A rookie at the major league minimum would make a higher percentage of his salary than multimillionaire stars like Mike Trout or Gerrit Cole under a sliding-scale proposal by big league teams that players found “extremely disappointing.” Major League Baseball made the proposal to the players’ union on Tuesday during a digital meeting rather than the 50-50 revenue-sharing plan that owners initially approved for their negotiators on May 11. In addition, the union said “the sides also remain far apart on health and safety protocols” aimed at starting the pandemic-delayed season around the Fourth of July. Salaries in the major leagues range from $563,500 at the minimum to $36 million each for Trout, the three-time MVP outfielder on the Los Angeles Angels, and Cole, the pitcher signed by the New York Yankees as a free agent. According to a study by The AP, 369 of 899 players have salaries of $600,000 or less, according to the rosters frozen in March.
May 27, 2020 3:49 am
UNDATED (AP) -The NHL will abandon the rest of the regular season and go straight into the playoffs with 24 teams instead of 16 if it is able to resume play. The decision, announced Tuesday by Commissioner Gary Bettman, is not a guarantee that games are coming back. The NHL and the NHL Players’ Association must still figure out health and safety protocols and solve other issues, including where to play. Still, ironing out the format represents significant progress since global sports were largely shut down in March as the coronavirus outbreak turned into a pandemic. Bettman has said the goal has always been to play again and award the Stanley Cup, but details remain uncertain. Instead of limiting the Cup chase to the usual 16 teams that qualify for the playoffs, the league and players agreed to expand the field to 24 of its 31 teams because of the unusual circumstances. The top four teams in each conference ranked by points percentage will play separate round-robin tournaments to determine seeding. The remaining 16 teams will be seeded by conference. Games are expected to be played in two hub cities and Bettman said and 10 are in the running: Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, Dallas, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis/St. Paul in the U.S. and Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver in Canada.
May 24, 2020 6:06 am
PALM DESERT, Calif. (AP) – Former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf was arrested in Southern California on Friday. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said the second player taken in the 1998 draft was taken into custody on a domestic battery charge in Palm Desert, about 110 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Leaf was being held on $5,000 bail at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility. Leaf finished third in Heisman Trophy voting in 1997 and led Washington State to the Rose Bowl. Drafted by the Chargers, he won just four of 18 games as a starter in three seasons with the team. He was 0-3 with the Dallas Cowboys in 2001 and finished his four-year career with 14 touchdown passes and 36 interceptions.
May 23, 2020 4:27 am
(AP)-The Pittsburgh Steelers are holding back a portion of their ticket inventory for the 2020 season to be ready in case social distancing measures are required in stadiums this fall. Individual single game tickets went on sale Friday. Team spokesman Burt Lauten says the club withheld 50% of the allotment as a “proactive” measure should the NFL use social distancing guidelines.
May 22, 2020 3:52 am
UNDATED (AP) – The Major League Baseball Players Association has given management a wide-ranging response to a 67-page proposed set of protocols for a season to be played during the coronavirus pandemic. The union says it addressed protections for high-risk players, access to pre- and postgame therapies, testing frequency, protocols for positive tests, in-stadium medical personnel and sanitization procedures. Players viewed many of the concepts in the original draft submitted last week as over-the-top, such as arriving in uniform at the ballparks, a prohibition on them leaving without team permission and a ban on guests other than immediate family members. Players also objected to a ban on the use of showers and hydrotherapy. The union wants more frequent testing than management’s proposed “multiple times per week.” MLB is expected to make an economic proposal to the union within a few days.
