Tuesday Sports in Brief

NHL

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman raised the possibility Tuesday of not completing the regular season in order to squeeze in time to award the Stanley Cup.

Bettman also acknowledged during an interview with NBCSN the league is considering having games played at neutral sites in the event not all teams will be allowed into their home rinks.

Bettman, however, stressed these are among myriad options being considered with nothing determined because it will take at least two more weeks to gain a clearer picture on how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the league’s 31 markets.

Bettman had not previously raised the possibility of shortening the regular season, which was halted on March 12 with 189 games remaining.

MLB

BOSTON (AP) - Red Sox left-hander Chris Sale says he has no regrets about the timing of his recent Tommy John surgery and is confident he can return as a stronger pitcher following his yearlong rehab.

Sale had the procedure on his left elbow on March 30, getting his ulnar collateral ligament replaced by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles. The Red Sox said the surgery was a success.

Sale is expected to miss 14-15 months, which would put him on track to return in the middle of the 2021 season.

The Boston ace said having observed and interacted with several teammates and friends who had the surgery helped put his mind at ease about the road he has ahead of him to get back on the mound.

OLYMPICS

About 6,500 athletes who already have earned their spots for the Tokyo Games are in for 2021 under redrawn qualifying regulations published Tuesday by the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC released its rewritten roadmap for qualifying for the games, which were rescheduled due to the coronavirus. They’ll be held July 23 through Aug. 8 next year.

The new deadline for qualifying is June 29, 2021, and entry lists are due a week later. Individual international sports federations will still be in charge of their qualifying procedures.

Many sports allow athletes to qualify by compiling results over a series of events. The IOC urged the federations to find a balance “between protecting those athletes who were close to qualifying based on the previous 2020 deadlines and also ensuring the best athletes at the Olympic Games” by taking into consideration performances in 2021.

AUTO RACING

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton and Carl Edwards were among the new nominees for NASCAR’s next Hall of Fame class announced Tuesday under a revamped voting protocol.

The new process starting this year splits the nominees into three ballots; Modern candidates, Pioneer candidates and Landmark candidates. Two entries from the 10 Modern candidates will be elected, along with one entry apiece from the five-candidate Pioneer and Landmark categories.

Janet Guthrie, the first woman to run in the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500 and Coca-Cola 600, returns as a nominee to the Landmark category after a one year absence.

Burton, Earnhardt, Edwards, Jake Elder and Banjo Matthews are all first-time nominees for the Hall of Fame.

Others on the Modern ballot include crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine, Neil Bonnett, Harry Gant, Harry Hyde, Larry Phillips, Ricky Rudd, Kirk Shelmerdine and Mike Stefanik.

Sam Ard, Ray Fox, John Holman, Marvin Panch, Jim Paschal and Red Vogt did not carryover from the 2020 ballot.

The Pioneer ballot is: Elder, Matthews, Red Farmer, Hershel McGriff and Ralph Moody.

The Landmark ballot is: Guthrie, Alvin Hawkins, Mike Helton, Dr. Joseph Mattioli, Ralph Seagraves.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said Tuesday he hopes to have his team return to its facilities on May 1, a proposed timetable that would defy federal social-distancing guidelines and was quickly disputed by the university and its athletic director.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended against gatherings of 50 or more people through May 11 to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, which as of Tuesday had infected more than 380,000 people in the United States - more than any other country in the world - and killed 81,000 worldwide, including at least 12,000 in the U.S.

Gundy, who has been outspoken about his right-wing politics, also said in a conference call with reporters that the media has been too negative in its coverage of what he called the “Chinese virus.”

Gundy said he hopes there will be enough tests available in a few weeks that he could get his assistant coaches and support personnel tested for the virus, followed by the players, so his program can get back to business.

Following Gundy’s comments, OSU issued a statement saying, essentially, that the decision about when to bring the football team back together wouldn’t be up to the coach.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL AWARDS

BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) - Obi Toppin of Dayton won the John R. Wooden Award as the nation’s outstanding college basketball player.

Toppin, along with Saddiq Bey of Villanova, Luka Garza of Iowa, Myles Powell of Seton Hall and Peyton Pritchard of Oregon, also won positional awards from the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Toppin also received the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year.

Bey received the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year award. He averaged 16.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists and shot 45% from 3-point range.

Garza was named the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year. He averaged 23.9 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks.

Powell earned the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year. He averaged 21 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists.

The Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year went to Pritchard, who averaged 20.5 points, 5.5 assists and shot 82% from the free-throw line.

SOCCER

GENEVA (AP) - Russian officials on Tuesday flatly denied bribing a FIFA voter with millions of dollars to support the country’s winning 2018 World Cup bid, after American prosecutors revealed new details about the alleged payments.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had no part in bribing FIFA executive committee members to win the World Cup hosting vote in December 2010. So did Russia’s top soccer official Alexey Sorokin, who led the bid.

The indictment said high-ranking FIFA official Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago received $5 million in bribes to vote for Russia from 10 different offshore shell companies, which used correspondent accounts in the U.S.

ASUNCION, Paraguay (AP) - Retired soccer star Ronaldinho was released from a high-security jail in Paraguay on Tuesday after more than a month, but was ordered to serve house arrest at a luxury hotel while he’s investigated for using a false passport to enter the country.

The Brazilian entered the hotel about four hours after the ruling. He was transported in a police van and was allowed in after sanitary precautions due to the new coronavirus outbreak.

Ronaldinho, the Brazilian former FIFA player of the year, and his brother Roberto de Assis were also told to pay bail of $800,000 each.

Ronaldinho, who helped lead Brazil to the 2002 World Cup title, was jailed on March 6 after entering the small South American country with a false Paraguayan passport. He told local authorities in a hearing that the document was a gift from a Brazilian businessman, Wilmondes Sousa Liria, who was also jailed.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Real Salt Lake has announced it will cut the salaries of some employees and furlough others while play is suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The team said in a statement that it will reduce salaries of all executives and staff, and decrease staffing levels across the organization, which includes furloughs for some employees.

RSL said it would re-staff once the league returns. Major League Soccer suspended all play on March 12.

MUNICH (AP) - Thomas Müller signed a two-year contract extension with Bayern Munich, the German champions said Tuesday.

The 30-year-old attacking midfielder’s contract had been due to expire at the end of next season but he is now tied to the team until 2023.

Müller has been with Bayern for 20 years, winning eight German titles and the 2013 Champions League, and marked his 500th senior game for the club in November.

HORSE RACING

Days after raising hopes of a return by the start of May amid the coronavirus outbreak, British horse racing organizers announced the postponement of two of their biggest flat-racing festivals and added that the prestigious Royal Ascot meeting might only be staged without the public.

The Guineas Festival at Newmarket on May 2-3 and the English Derby Festival at Epsom on June 5-6 will not take place on those dates, The Jockey Club said Tuesday, removing two of the few remaining major events on a British sporting calendar otherwise wiped out by the pandemic.

Then came the announcement that Royal Ascot on June 16-20, an event typically attended by Queen Elizabeth II and other royals, would not be open to the public - if the event can take place at all.

OBITUARY

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Timmy Brown, a running back and kick returner who won an NFL championship with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1960, has died. He was 82.

The Eagles announced Tuesday that Brown died on Saturday.

Brown is sixth on the franchise’s all-time list for touchdowns (62), seventh in total yards from scrimmage (7,049), eighth in rushing (3,703 yards) and seventh in TDs rushing (29).

Brown is the team’s all-time leader in average yards per touch (6.52) and he still holds the franchise record for most kickoff returns (169), most kickoff return yards (4,483), and most kickoff returns for touchdowns (5). He was the first NFL player to return two kickoffs for TDs in the same game, doing it in a 24-23 win over Dallas on November 6, 1966.

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