Share This StoryFacebookTwitteremailPrintLinkedinRedditVIRUS OUTBREAK-SPORTSBaseball until Christmas?UNDATED (AP) — The final pitch of the 2020 baseball season could be thrown closer to Christmas than Halloween. — Athletic trainers across the country are changing their routines and joining the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The National Athletic Trainers Association put together an app aimed at helping trainers assist understaffed hospitals. The app was intended to give health care providers a database to look for help nationwide. More than 950 athletic trainers have signed up over the last week.— Ottawa Senators radio color commentator Gord Wilson has tested positive for the coronavirus. Wilson’s wife, CTV Ottawa anchor Patricia Boal, confirmed the news Friday night during a newscast. The 59-year-old Wilson is recovering at home and both he and Boal, who has not tested positive for the coronavirus, have been in self-isolation since March 18. Boal said the diagnosis was confirmed Friday, about 11 days after Wilson was first tested.— The St. Louis Blues confirmed Friday that Fox Sports play-by-play announcer John Kelly has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. The team said in a post on Twitter that Kelly has been in self-quarantine at home since March 13.— USA Curling says additional participants at a tournament this month in Laurel, Maryland, have tested positive for the coronavirus. The United States Curling Association Club National Championships were held March 7-14 at Potomac Curling Club. Fox 5 DC reported that at least 20 people who participated in the event are sick. USA Curling also canceled the 2020 Arena National Championships scheduled for April 27 to May 2 in Gillette, Wyoming. The event will be held there in 2022 instead.— Spain’s Barcelona soccer team has delivered 30,000 masks to the Catalonia government to help fight the coronavirus pandemic. The club says the masks were made in China and donated by insurance company Taiping, a regional partner of the club. Barcelona said the “daily use” masks will be distributed to nursing homes.,Tampa Bay Lightning advance to face Dallas Stars in Stanley Cup finals, beating New York Islanders 2-1 in OT in Game 6 Associated Press March 28, 2020 — The postponement of the Tokyo Games has catapulted the sports organizations that make up the backbone of the U.S. Olympic team into crisis. At least one has already started layoffs and others are desperate to stay solvent. Some are expecting a major downturn in membership dues, while others are reeling from event cancellations totaling more than 8,000 across all sports. A database analyzed by The Associated Press shows combined projected losses of more than $121 million in revenue between February and June for 43 of the 50 national governing bodies that responded to a survey from the NGB Council in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.— The NCAA Division I Council is scheduled to vote on Monday whether to provide another year of eligibility to spring sport athletes. That includes sports such as baseball, softball and lacrosse. Those players had their seasons wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic. Providing similar relief to winter sport athletes, such as basketball and hockey players and wrestlers, will also be considered although there does not appear to be support for that.— Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens says guard Marcus Smart is doing well and remains in good spirits following his positive test for coronavirus last week. Smart announced his diagnosis on March 19, seven days after Utah Jazz All-Stars Rudy Gobert (goh-BEHR’) and Donovan Mitchell tested positive for COVID-19. Boston played the Utah Jazz on March 6. Other Celtics players and staff were also tested as a precaution and those tests have all come back negative.— ESPN NBA broadcaster Doris Burke has tested positive for the coronavirus. Burke made the announcement Friday on an ESPN podcast. Burke says she started feeling extreme fatigue on March 11, the day the NBA was shut down once it was learned that Utah center Rudy Gobert had tested positive. Burke was assigned the Denver-Dallas game on that date and fought through her symptoms to work that night. She said she had a three-day period of such deep fatigue that she couldn’t remain out of bed for more than five minutes at a time. She was eventually tested and received the results on Wednesday. — Santa Anita has stopped live racing because of the coronavirus after receiving instructions from the Los Angeles County Health Department. The track in Arcadia, California, was preparing to run eight races when the cancellation was announced. It’s not immediately known when racing will be allowed to resume. The Santa Anita Derby won’t be run on April 4 as scheduled. It’s the major West Coast prep for the Kentucky Derby, which itself has been pushed back from May 2 to Sept. 5.
Major League Baseball owners ratified a 17-page agreement with the union on Friday in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, with players willing to extend the season as long as needed to cover as close to a full schedule as possible.This season was to start Thursday and Game 7 of the World Series was on track to be Oct. 28. With opening day postponed until mid-May at the earliest, the final pitch could come as Frosty the Snowman starts popping up. The sides have discussed a regular season extending into October and a postseason in November.The deal provides for $170 million in advances from salaries that total more than $4 billion and guarantees service time to players even if no games are played this year. That means Mookie Betts, George Springer, Marcus Stroman, Trevor Bauer and J.T. Realmuto (ree-al-MOO’-toh) remain on track for free agency next offseason.In other developments related to the coronavirus pandemic:— Olympic officials have confirmed that the 6,200 or so athletes who had already punched their ticket for the Tokyo Olympics will keep their spots for the rescheduled games in 2021. It resolves one of the key questions for marathoners, open-water swimmers and hundreds of other athletes whose qualifying process came early in the 2020 sports calendar, before the coronavirus started shutting down sports across the globe. Still to be determined is how the rest of the spots at the rescheduled games will be allocated. Typically, the individual sports determine their qualifying procedures. — Seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson has joined the field for IndyCar’s inaugural online race as he contemplates driving in that series following his retirement from full-time stock car racing. IndyCar has followed NASCAR, IMSA and Formula One in setting up a virtual racing series to give fans content during the coronavirus pandemic that brought sports to a halt. IndyCar’s first race is Saturday and Johnson is the 26th driver to enter.— Commissioner Roger Goodell has told NFL teams that the draft will go on as originally scheduled next month. In a memo obtained by The Associated Press, Goodell said the draft will still take place April 23-25, but will be scaled down and “televised in a way that reflects current conditions.” It was originally planned as a big outdoor production in Las Vegas, but those plans were scrapped because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Teams were told to plan “to conduct draft operations in a location outside of your facility, with a limited number of people present, and with sufficient technology resources to allow you to communicate internally, with other clubs, and with draft headquarters.”— The Evian Masters women’s golf tournament has been moved to August because of the coronavirus outbreak. The event originally scheduled for July 23-26 will now be held on Aug. 6-9 at the Evian Resort Golf Club. Evian is one of the five majors on the women’s circuit. The decision was made by the LPGA Tour, the Ladies European Tour and Evian organizers.— The Big Ten has extended the suspension of all organized team activities through May 4.— Top-ranked tennis player Novak Djokovic (NOH’-vak JOH’-kuh-vich), his wife and their foundation are donating about $1.1 million, to help buy ventilators and other medical equipment for hospitals in Serbia. Djokovic says his foundation’s staff “will be monitoring everything” to get the equipment in place. Update on the latest sports
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