Hometown Broadcasting Sports Tuesday 6/23/20
23 June 2020 Sports
Major League Baseball plans to unilaterally issue a 60-game schedule for its shortest season since 1878 after the players’ association rejected a negotiated deal of the same length, putting the sport on track for a combative return to the field amid the coronavirus pandemic. Six days after Commissioner Rob Manfred and union head Tony Clark negotiated to expand the playoffs from 10 teams to 16, widen use of the designated hitter to National League games and introduce an experiment to start extra innings with a runner on second base, the deal was rejected by the Major League Baseball Players Association’s executive board in a 33-5 vote. Those innovations now disappear. MLB’s control owners approved going unilaterally with the 60-game schedule if the final arrangements can be put in place, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made.
MLB asked the union to respond by 5 p.m. EDT Tuesday as to whether players can report to training by July 1 and whether the players’ association will agree on the operating manual of health and safety protocols. The schedule would be the shortest since the National League’s third season.
Given the need for three days of virus testing and 21 days of workouts, opening day would likely be during the final week of July. MLB already has started to investigate charter flights that could bring players back from Latin America, another person told the AP, also on condition of anonymity because no announcements were made.
The union announced its rejection, and the vote total was confirmed by a person familiar with that meeting who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the balloting was not made public. The decision likely will provoke what figures to be lengthy and costly litigation over the impact of the coronavirus on the sport, similar to the collusion cases that sent baseball spiraling to a spring training lockout in 1990 and a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95 that wiped out the World Series for the first time in nine decades. It also eliminates a $25 million postseason players’ pool, meaning players will not get paid anything above meal money during the playoffs and World Series, and $33 million in advance salary that would have been forgiven for 769 players at the bottom of the salary scale with lower rates of pay while in the minors.
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The Guardian is reporting that the 2020 Ryder Cup will be postponed until 2021 and that an announcement will follow next week. A decision on the Ryder Cup has been looming since the coronavirus pandemic has shocked the sports world. The Golf Channel spoke with a spokesman for the PGA of America, who said the organization had no comment on the latest report.
Multiple players, including Steve Stricker, who is the 2020 U.S. Ryder Cup Captain, have spoken out that they would prefer the match be postponed if spectators weren’t going to be allowed at Whistling Straits. The PGA also announced that the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, scheduled for Aug. 6-9, will be played without fans.
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An event that began with a massive show of support for Bubba Wallace ended with one of Wallace’s best friends, Ryan Blaney, celebrating in Victory Lane for the second straight race at Talladega Superspeedway. In a frenetic overtime dash, Blaney won Monday’s GEICO 500 by .007 seconds over Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as crashing cars bounced off each other and the outside wall behind the top two finishers. The victory was Blaney’s first of the season, second straight at the 2.66-mile track and the fourth of his career. Aric Almirola finished third, Denny Hamlin was fourth and Eric Jones rounded out the top five. Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman, John Hunter Nemechek, Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick completed the top 10.
Bubba Wallace moved his way into the top 10 for the final 25 laps of Monday’s race but was ultimately short on fuel. He pitted when a caution came out with three laps to go and worked his way up to 14th over the final two green-flag laps.
It was a day that started ominously — and not because of the rain clouds that threatened to delay the race for a second straight day and in fact caused a stoppage of 57 minutes, 18 seconds after 57 laps were complete on Monday. News that a noose had been discovered Sunday evening in the garage stall of Wallace, the NASCAR Cup Series’ only Black driver, dominated national headlines and brought strong statements of condemnation from both NASCAR and team owner Richard Petty. Drivers and their crews assembled before the race to escort Wallace and his car to the head of the grid. The lasting image of the pre-race was Wallace being embraced by a succession of his fellow competitors.
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Dallas Cowboys Quarterback Dak Prescott signed the team’s franchise tag on Monday. Prescott will play and for $31.4 million. But there are still many unanswered questions about Prescott’s future, and how the story ends up beyond 2020. The July 15 deadline is still a big one. That’s the last day NFL teams can come to a long-term agreement with franchise-tagged players.
Signing the franchise tag might remove some leverage for Prescott. The Cowboys realistically can expect Prescott to be in camp on time and play in 2020 no matter whether an extension is signed. Bell never signed his second franchise tag with the Pittsburgh Steelers, so the team had no recourse against him.
Still, the Cowboys have maintained they want Prescott on a long-term deal. It will be a huge contract, perhaps the largest in NFL history or very close.
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