Wednesday Sports in Brief

NFL

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles Rams center Brian Allen says he tested positive for COVID-19 three weeks ago.

Allen is the first active NFL player to acknowledge testing positive during the coronavirus pandemic.

The third-year pro is not hospitalized and is “feeling good,” according to a statement issued by the Rams on Wednesday night only after Allen spoke to Fox Sports about his positive test.

Allen became the team’s starting center last season. He played in nine games before missing the rest of the year with a knee injury.

Allen is expected to start at center again this season. He was a fourth-round draft pick out of Michigan State in 2018, playing largely on special teams as a rookie.

The 24-year-old Allen was training and rehabilitating at the Rams’ training complex when he began to feel symptoms last month.

MLB

NEW YORK (AP) - Rob Manfred wants Major League Baseball to be in position to take the field whenever government and health officials give the go-ahead.

“I think it’s incumbent upon us to turn over every stone to try to play the game in 2020 if there’s any way we can in the environment,” the baseball commissioner said Wednesday during an interview with The Associated Press.

Spring training was suspended March 12 because of the new coronavirus pandemic and the season’s scheduled start on March 26 delayed. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended all gatherings of 50 people or more be put off through mid-May.

Among the plans baseball is investigating is basing all 30 teams in the Phoenix area and using the 10 spring training ballparks there, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chase Field and possibly college facilities. Games would be played in empty stadiums; players, staff and broadcast crews and technicians would be kept in controlled environments, such as ballparks, hotels and MLB-arranged transport.

“We have tried to be cautious about trying to go too soon, based on what the public health situation is,” Manfred said. “I think we all need, no matter what your predilection is, to wait for the situation to unfold more, give us more information and then make realistic decisions about what’s possible.”

HOUSTON (AP) - Houston manager Dusty Baker celebrated Jackie Robinson’s legacy on the 73rd anniversary of the fall of the major league color barrier and lamented the lack of African Americans in today’s game.

“It’s frustrating because we’ve talked about it forever … but it seems like the numbers are dwindling instead of increasing,” Baker said Wednesday.

Only 7.7% of big league players on opening day rosters last year were African American, down from 17% in 1990. Baker and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts are the only two African American managers in the majors.

Baker appreciates that the league is making a “conscious effort” to get more young African Americans involved in baseball through programs like Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities and is optimistic there can be a turnaround in the upcoming years.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - Baseball Hall of Famer Roy Halladay had high-levels of amphetamines in his system and was doing extreme acrobatics when he lost control of his small plane and nosedived into Tampa Bay in 2017, killing him, a National Transportation Safety Board report issued Wednesday said.

Halladay had amphetamine levels about 10 times therapeutic levels in his blood along with a high level of morphine and an anti-depressant that can impair judgement as he performed high-pitch climbs and steep turns, sometimes within 5 feet (1.5 meters) of the water, the report says about the Nov. 7, 2017, crash.

The maneuvers put loads of nearly two-times gravity on the plane, an Icon A5 Halladay had purchased a month earlier. On the last maneuver, Halladay entered a steep climb and his speed fell to about 85 miles per hour (135 kph) . The propeller-driven plane went into a nosedive and smashed into the water. The report says Halladay, 40, died of blunt force trauma and drowning.

The report does not give a final reason for the crash. That is expected to be issued soon.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

The commissioners of the nation’s major college football conferences held a 30-minute conference call Wednesday with Vice President Mike Pence and stressed that college sports cannot return from the coronavirus shutdown until campuses have reopened.

The 10 commissioners, along with the athletic director of Notre Dame, comprise the College Football Playoff management committee.

“We were able to talk about the differences between us and professional sports,” American Athletic Conference Commissioner Mike Aresco said. “We talked about how academics and college athletics were inseparable.”

Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Pence asked good questions and was “hopeful and optimistic” about the fight against the coronavirus.

The White House has said it is important to re-open the U.S. economy, though the details on how that will happen will be complicated and likely involve local, state and federal guidelines on safety. President Donald Trump has also been engaged with professional sports leagues with the multibillion-dollar sports industry on hold.

The college football season is scheduled to begin Labor Day weekend, but many questions remain to be answered for a sport that is the lifeblood for many athletic departments.

WNBA

NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Liberty traded All-Star Tina Charles to the Washington Mystics on Wednesday as part of a three-team deal.

New York received the 12th pick in the WNBA draft from Washington as well as the ninth and 15th picks from Dallas. The Liberty also received Tayler Hill from the Wings and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough from the Mystics. Dallas got Washington’s first-round pick in 2021 and New York’s second-round pick in 2021.

The Liberty also received the Mystics’ second- and third-round picks next season.

SOCCER

NEW YORK (AP) - Major League Soccer is launching an elite youth competition platform for teams that had been in the U.S. Soccer Federation’s development academy, which folded Wednesday due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Launched in 2007, the USSF academy had included competitions in five age groups.

MLS said it will include U.S. and international teams in the new venture. It plans league season matches, and regional and national tournaments with international teams. MLS intends to expand coaching education and improve player identification.

MINSK, Belarus (AP) - The start of the new women’s soccer season in Belarus has been delayed by fears that players have been exposed to the new coronavirus, but the men’s league shows no sign of stopping.

The women’s league was due to start its 2020 season on Thursday, but the Belarus soccer federation said Wednesday it is now “suspended until further notice.”

The federation added that “several” players had contact with “possible carriers” of the coronavirus.

Belarus is the only country in Europe still playing professional men’s soccer games with spectators in the stands.

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) - Scottish clubs have voted to end the season for leagues below the top-flight Premiership with immediate effect amid the coronavirus pandemic, organizers said Wednesday.

A resolution by the Scottish Professional Football League to halt the season, and determine final placings by the points per game of each club, was passed after second-tier team Dundee reversed its earlier intention to reject the proposals.

Dundee was the last of the 42 teams in Scotland’s league system to vote. Its vote meant the resolution reached the 75-percent approval threshold required to pass.

CYCLING

PARIS (AP) - The Tour de France has new dates, and it will be followed by cycling’s two other major races.

Because of restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic, the iconic race around France will now start on Aug. 29 and finish on Sept. 20. The Giro d’Italia and the Spanish Vuelta, cycling’s two other Grand Tours, will take place after the French race.

The International Cycling Union announced the Tour’s new dates on Wednesday after consulting with race organizer Amaury Sport Organisation. The race was originally scheduled to start on June 27 in Nice.

It’s the first time since the end of World War II that the race is not starting in July.

WWE

STAMFORD, Conn (AP) - WWE started releasing professional wrestlers on Wednesday in budget cuts related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The moves came even with the company allowed to continue to run live TV shows in Florida after Gov. Ron DeSantis deemed WWE an essential business.

Pro sports were added to a list of businesses permitted to stay open in an April 9 memorandum to include “employees at a professional sports and media production with a national audience … only if the location is closed to the general public.”

The amendment allows World Wrestling Entertainment, run by CEO Vince McMahon in the Orlando area, to continue putting on shows - without fans.

WWE announced Wednesday it made various moves to cut costs and improve cash flow, including: reducing the salaries of executives and board members; decreasing operating expenses; cutting talent expenses, third party staffing and consulting; and deferring spending on the construction of the company’s new headquarters for at least six months.

WWE cut a slew of performers, including ones known professionally as Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows.

OBITUARY

Willie Davis, a Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive lineman who helped the Green Bay Packers win the first two Super Bowls, has died. He was 85.

The Packers confirmed Davis’ death to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Wednesday, as did his former teammate and fellow hall member, Dave Robinson.

Davis died in a Santa Monica, California hospital. His wife, Carol, told the Packers her husband had been hospitalized for about a month with kidney failure.

A 15th-round draft pick from Grambling, Davis began his NFL career by playing both offense and defense for the Cleveland Browns in 1958 and ’59. He had his greatest success after getting traded to the Packers.

He remained with the Packers until finishing his NFL career in 1969 as a five-time All-Pro. Although tackles and sacks weren’t measured at the time Davis played, his 22 career fumble recoveries showcased his dominance and big-play ability.

He was voted to the NFL’s all-decade team for the 1960s and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1981.

NEW YORK (AP) - Former Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Dámaso García, a two-time All-Star in the mid-1980s, died Wednesday in his native Dominican Republic. He was 63.

His son Dámaso Jr. confirmed García’s death to The Associated Press. The son said he passed away at 7.15 a.m. in Santo Domingo. He was at home with his wife Haydée Benoit.

Two years after retiring with the Montreal Expos, García was diagnosed with a brain tumor and underwent surgery in 1991. He was told he possibly only had six to eight months live. He recovered, but had to deal with speech and mobility issues afterward.

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