BASEBALL
TORONTO (AP) - The state of Pennsylvania won’t allow the Toronto Blue Jays to play at PNC Park in Pittsburgh amid the coronavirus pandemic, health officials announced Wednesday, becoming the second jurisdiction to say no to the team as the baseball season begins this week.
Canada already denied the Blue Jays’ request to play in Toronto because the regular-season schedule would require frequent travel back and forth from the United States, where COVID-19 cases are surging.
A source familiar with the matter told The Associated Press the Blue Jays are now engaged in talks with the Baltimore Orioles about playing “home games” at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The official said the Orioles are trying to help Toronto however they can but says there are lots of logistics to be worked through yet in terms of feasibility. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said the Blue Jays are working on other contingencies, too.
- By Rob Gillies.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Mookie Betts and the Los Angeles Dodgers struck baseball’s first big-money deal since the coronavirus pandemic decimated the sport’s economics, a $365 million, 12-year contract on Wednesday through 2032 that removes the top offensive player from next offseason’s free-agent class.
The outfielder, who turns 28 in October, was acquired by the Dodgers from the Boston Red Sox on Feb. 10 along with pitcher David Price for three players.
Betts had agreed to a $27 million, one-year deal with the Red Sox, a salary that has been reduced to $10 million in prorated pay because of the shortened season.
His deal is baseball’s second-largest in total dollars behind the $426.5 million, 12-year contract for Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout covering 2019-30.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - Mike Trout has decided to play for the Los Angeles Angels in the shortened baseball season, although his year will be paused in a few weeks by the birth of his first child. The three-time AL MVP confirmed his decision Wednesday before the Angels’ final exhibition game against the San Diego Padres at Angel Stadium.
Trout expressed uncertainty this month about the safety of this unique major league campaign, saying he wouldn’t risk his growing family’s health to participate. After three weeks of experience with the regulations put in place by the Angels and Major League Baseball, Trout is cautiously optimistic about baseball’s ability to hold a season safely.
NEW YORK (AP) - Marcus Stroman has a torn muscle in his left calf, the team announced Wednesday evening - a major blow to the Mets just two days before their season opener.
The All-Star pitcher was expected to follow two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom in a rotation already minus No. 2 starter Noah Syndergaard all year because of Tommy John surgery.
Mets manager Luis Rojas said the club doesn’t anticipate Stroman needing surgery and he will be evaluated on a week-to-week basis.
HOCKEY
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Philadelphia Flyers signed Oskar Lindblom to a $9 million, three-year contract extension Wednesday only weeks after the promising forward completed radiation treatments for a rare form of bone cancer.
The Flyers hope the 23-year-old Lindblom can be among the 31 players who will travel with the team to Toronto for the Aug. 1 scheduled resumption of the hockey season. Lindblom hasn’t played since December when he was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a tumor that grows in the bones or in the tissue around bones. He had 11 goals and 18 points in 30 games this season.
Lindblom completed radiation treatments July 2.
SOCCER
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Charlotte’s new Major League Soccer team is following the sport’s traditional European and South American style of having just the city name and no formal nickname.
The team, scheduled to start play in 2022, will be known as Charlotte FC.
Other plain old FCs in the league include Cincinnati, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto, though Los Angeles spells out Football Club, and Cincinnati and Dallas place the FC before rather than after the city.
Nashville, which started play this year, is known as Nashville SC. The initials stand for soccer club.
OLYMPIC SPORTS
Olympic gold medalist Justin Olsen retired from bobsled on Wednesday and immediately got hired by USA Bobsled and Skeleton as one of its start coaches.
Olsen and fellow Olympic medalist Garrett Hines are now overseeing the start program for the Americans, and they will be based in Lake Placid, New York - where the Olympic Regional Development Authority is building a state-of-the-art iced push track facility.
SPORTS BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Islanders have reached a 20-year naming rights deal for their new arena with wealth management service UBS.
The facility on the grounds of the Belmont Park racetrack will be called UBS Arena at Belmont Park, and it is projected to open in time for the 2021-22 NHL season.
A $1.5 billion project, it will also include surrounding redevelopment expected to generate some $25 billion in economic activity. The Islanders and UBS said Wednesday that 30% of construction contracting dollars are earmarked for state-certified minority- and female-owned businesses, with an additional 6% to service-disabled, veteran-owned businesses.
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) - The Women’s British Open is keeping its title sponsor and getting a slightly different name.
The R&A announced Wednesday that AIG, a New York-based finance and insurance group, has extended its title sponsorship of the women’s major by two years through 2025.
And now that the R&A is charge on running the event, it said its official title will be the AIG Women’s Open. It previously was called the Women’s British Open.
COURTS
CONROE, Texas (AP) - Prosecutors on Wednesday dropped the drunken driving and illegal handgun charges against Buffalo Bills defensive lineman Ed Oliver, who had been arrested in May during a traffic stop in Houston’s northern suburbs.
The charges are dropped due to lack of evidence after blood test results showed no intoxication, said Kelly Blackburn, spokesman for the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. No further prosecution was expected, he said.
That raises a question, Gary Patterson, Oliver’s attorney, said.
“It begs the question as to why he was arrested in the first place,” he said in an email to The Associated Press.
OBITUARY
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Carlton Haselrig, a Pro Bowl right guard for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the early 1990s who is also the only wrestler in NCAA history to win six individual national championships, died Wednesday. He was 54.
Pat Pecora, who coached Haselrig to heavyweight division championships at both the NCAA Division II and Division I levels in the 1980s at the Pittsburgh-Johnstown, said Haselrig had been in declining health in recent years. The school said in a statement that Haselrig’s death was due to natural causes.
Haselrig, who didn’t play a down of college football after suffering an injury during his freshman year at Lock Haven, spent five years in the NFL after the Steelers took him in the 12th round of the 1990 draft. His career was cut short in the mid-1990s due to a battle with alcohol and substance abuse. He dabbled in mixed martial arts in the late 2000s, going 3-2 before retiring.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - Former UConn basketball player Stanley Robinson has died of unknown causes at a family residence in Birmingham. He was 32.
Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said Robinson was found unresponsive by a family member Tuesday at 7:45 p.m. in his hometown. He was pronounced dead at the scene 11 minutes later.
Robinson, who had turned 32 on July 14, played at UConn from 2006-10. The 6-foot-9 forward started 103 career games and averaged 9.8 points and 6.2 rebounds over four seasons.
He was Alabama’s Mr. Basketball at Huffman High School and was a starting forward on the Huskies’ Final Four team in 2008-09.
___
More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Please read our comment policy before commenting.