April 19, 2020 8:01 am
Youth sports leagues are bracing for even bigger financial losses with no end in sight for the shutdown of activity because of the outbreak. Communities with sprawling, empty fields and arenas are losing millions of dollars with lucrative tournaments canceled or postponed. Team sports participation dipped after the 2008 recession, so officials wonder what youth sports will look like when kids begin to return to fields and courts.
April 18, 2020 4:13 am
UNDATED (AP) – Two of college basketball’s young stars have announced they are entering the NBA draft before completing their eligibility.
The list of draftable players now includes consensus All-American and Mountain West Conference Player of the year Malachi Flynn, who will forego his senior season at San Diego State. Flynn became the most decorated player in Aztecs history in his one season at SDSU after transferring from Washington State and sitting out a year. Flynn averaged 17.6 points, 5.1 assists and 4.5 rebounds this season as the sixth-ranked Aztecs went 30-2. Cole Anthony is entering the NBA draft after just one season at North Carolina. He had been considered a likely one-and-done player and a high first-round draft prospect before his arrival in Chapel Hill. The son of former NBA player Greg Anthony set an ACC freshman record by scoring 34 points in his conference debut and finished the season averaging a team-high 18.5 points for the Tar Heels.
April 17, 2020 3:46 am
UNDATED (AP) – The PGA Tour is laying out an ambitious plan to resume its season, with hopes of a restart at Colonial on June 11-14 and keeping fans away for at least the first month.
Tour officials said Thursday that if government and health authorities give golf the green light, the tour will have an official event every week through Dec. 6 except for the week of Thanksgiving.
The Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas, was pushed back a month to June and would be followed by the RBC Heritage, which was postponed this week. The PGA Tour season would conclude with the Tour Championship on Labor Day, and a new season would start the following week (Sept. 10-13) in Napa, California. That would mean only one major – the PGA Championship – is held in this 2019-20 season, and as many as seven majors would apply to the following season. Meanwhile, the Canadian Open was added Thursday to the list of canceled events. The event was scheduled for June 8-14 at St. George’s Golf and Country Club in Toronto.
April 16, 2020 3:45 am
UNDATED (AP) – Little League has been benched. The youth baseball program that boasts more than 2.5 million kids spread over 6,500 programs in 84 countries is on hold at least until May 11 due to the corona virus pandemic.á Even that target date for a return to the sports lineup seems optimistic, and the fate of its signature event, the Little League World Series in August in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania is unclear. The LLWS is scheduled to run Aug. 20-30 and any kind of cancellation would stagger the hospitality industry. There is no timetable for a return to play.
April 15, 2020 3:47 am
UNDATED (AP) – New York Yankees co-owner Hank Steinbrenner has died. The oldest son of George Steinbrenner was 63. The team said he died at home in Clearwater, Florida, due to a long-standing health issue. Hank Steinbrenner was one of the four siblings who own the team’s controlling shares. He had hoped to succeed as father as the team’s controlling owner. Between the 2007 and 2008 seasons, he became the public voice of the Yankees ownership. He didn’t appear to have much involvement in the team’s operations in recent years and devoted more time to racing interests.
April 15, 2020 2:08 am
UNDATED (AP) – Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive lineman Willie Davis has died at 85. Davis was a five-time All-Pro who helped Green Bay win six championships from 1960-67, including the first two Super Bowls. He was voted to the NFL’s all-decade team for the 1960s and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1981, 12 years after he retired. Davis played his first two seasons with the Cleveland Browns after being taken in the 15th round of the 1958 NFL draft out of Grambling.
April 14, 2020 3:45 am
UNDATED (AP) – The XFL has filed for bankruptcy, likely spelling the end of the second iteration of the league. The filing Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware estimates the organization has between $10 million and $50 million in both assets and liabilities. Former coaches Bob Stoops and Marc Trestman are among the creditors with the largest unsecured claims. The WWE-backed XFL canceled the rest of its return season last month because of the coronavirus pandemic. It suspended operations and laid off its employees Friday. The XFL had eight franchises this season and played five games out of a planned 10-game schedule. It drew decent TV ratings early on and had deals with ESPN and Fox.
April 13, 2020 3:52 am
UNDATED (AP) – Former golfer Doug Sanders has died at age 86, according to the PGA Tour through a text from Sanders’ ex-wife, Scotty. Sanders was still an amateur when he won his first PGA Tour event in 1956 at the Canadian Open in a playoff. His best year was in 1961 when he won five times and finished third on the PGA Tour money list.
April 13, 2020 3:45 am
CHICAGO (AP) – Glenn Beckert’s baseball exploits can be overshadowed by his four Hall of Fame teammates, but his contributions were vital to the success of the Chicago Cubs during the late 1960s and early 70s. The four-time All-Star second baseman has died of natural causes at age 79, according to his family. Beckert won a Gold Glove in 1968 before earning All-Star berths over the next four seasons. He had the best strikeout-to-at-bat ratio in the National League five times and finished third in average when he hit a career-high .342 in 1971. Beckert teamed with shortstop Don Kessinger for his entire nine-year Cubs career to form one of the best double-play combinations in baseball. Beckert compiled a .283 average in an 11-year career that began with the 1965 Cubs and ended with the 1975 Padres.
April 11, 2020 3:56 am
The XFL has suspended operations and laid off its employees. Employees were told of the layoffs Friday during an in-house conference call. The upstart league backed by WWE canceled the remainder of its season last month because of the coronavirus pandemic, but promised to be back in 2021. The moves have left the league’s future in doubt. The XFL has eight franchises and played five games out of a planned 10-game schedule.
