Weekend Sports in Brief

BASEBALL

NEW YORK (AP) - Major League Baseball players ignored claims by clubs that they need to take additional pay cuts, instead proposing they receive a far higher percentage of salaries and a commit to a longer schedule as part of a counteroffer to start the coronavirus-delayed season.

Players proposed a 114-game regular season Sunday, up from 82 in management’s offer, a person familiar with the plan told The Associated Press. Done that way, the World Series could extend past Thanksgiving. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because no details were announced.

Opening day would be June 30 and the regular season would end Oct. 31, nearly five weeks after the Sept. 27 conclusion that MLB’s proposal stuck to from the season’s original schedule. The union offered scheduling flexibility to include more doubleheaders as baseball crams the games into 123 days, leaving little room for days off.

PRO BASKETBALL

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - With protesters taking to the streets across the United States again Sunday, Michael Jordan released a statement on George Floyd and the killings of black people at the hands of police.

“I am deeply saddened, truly pained and plain angry,” the former NBA star and current Charlotte Hornets owner said in the statement posted on the Jordan brand’s social media accounts and the team’s Twitter account. “I see and feel everyone’s pain, outrage and frustration. I stand with those who are calling out the ingrained racism and violence toward people of color in our country. We have had enough.”

SOCCER

BERLIN (AP) - Four young soccer players in Germany’s Bundesliga addressed the death of George Floyd in the United States with protests against police brutality and calls for justice over the weekend.

England’s 20-year-old winger Jadon Sancho, 21-year-old Morocco right-back Achraf Hakimi and 22-year-old Marcus Thuram made statements on the field on Sunday, following the example set by Schalke’s American midfielder Weston McKennie, 21, the day before.

Sancho scored his first hat trick in Borussia Dortmund’s 6-1 win at Paderborn with no fans present, but removed his jersey after his first goal to reveal a T-shirt with the handwritten message “Justice for George Floyd” on the front. Sancho was given a yellow card for taking off his jersey, but it didn’t stop teammate Hakimi from lifting his shirt to reveal the same message after he grabbed Dortmund’s fourth goal in the 85th minute.

Earlier, Thuram took a knee after scoring in Borussia Mönchengladbach’s 4-1 win over Union Berlin. On Saturday, McKennie wore an armband with the handwritten message “Justice for George” around his left arm.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The Major League Soccer Players Association voted to approve economic concessions for this season, including across-the-board salary cuts, while also agreeing to play in a proposed summer tournament in Orlando, Florida.

The proposal, made public by the union Sunday night, will now be sent to back to the league for approval by team owners.

“While a difficult vote in incredibly challenging times, it was taken collectively to ensure that players can return to competition as soon as they are safely able to do so,” the MLSPA said in a statement.

The MLS season was suspended March 12 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Teams had played just two games of the season.

MADRID (AP) - The Spanish league is resuming in less than two weeks with Real Madrid playing its games at the club’s training center.

Madrid will host Eibar on June 14 at the 6,000-capacity Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium, a venue used mostly by the club’s “B” team at the Ciudad Real Madrid center on the city’s outskirts.

AUTO RACING

BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) - Brad Keselowski inherited his second win of the season when Chase Elliott and Joey Logano collided as they raced for the victory Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Keselowski was in third with a lap and a turn remaining when he lucked into his second victory in three Cup races. Logano had cleared Elliott for the lead with three laps remaining, but Elliott was stalking him while seeking his second win in three days. They made contact in the fourth turn and drifted into the wall as Keselowski slid past with a lap remaining. He had just one trip around the .533-mile concrete bullring to close the victory.

Keselowski, in a contract year with Team Penske, got his first victory of the season last Sunday in the Coca-Cola 600. Elliott was roughly two laps away from the win when a caution flew and Keselowski inherited the lead when Elliott pitted.

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS

Jon “Bones” Jones tweeted Sunday that he’s giving up his UFC title in a pay dispute.

When one of Jones’ 2.3 million Twitter followers suggested he was hurting himself more than the UFC, Jones replied: “I hurt myself every time I walk out there and take a punch to the head and not feel my pay is worth it anymore.”

The 32-year-old Jones had been eyeing a fight with heavyweight Francis Ngannou, but said the UFC did not want to pay him enough. UFC President Dana White said the fighter wanted “crazy” money, citing demands of $15 million, $20 million and $30 million.

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Gilbert Burns dominated former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley to win a unanimous decision on Saturday night in the mixed martial arts promotion’s return to Las Vegas.

Brazilian heavyweight Augusto Sakai employed some unpunished gamesmanship to eke out a split-decision victory over Bulgaria’s Blagoy Ivanov in the penultimate bout of the UFC’s first show in its hometown since the coronavirus pandemic began.

The event was held without fans at the UFC Apex, a small gym with broadcast facilities on the promotion’s corporate campus. The UFC used minimal personnel to stage the fight, and the promotion said everyone involved was subject to strict health and safety protocols.

PRO FOOTBALL

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Pro Football Hall of Famer Floyd Little, who starred in the NFL for the Denver Broncos, has been diagnosed with cancer, according to a former Syracuse Orange teammate who has set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for treatment costs.

Pat Killorin, a center for Syracuse in the mid-1960s, created the fundraiser last Sunday.

Little, a three-time All-American at Syracuse from 1964-66, was selected sixth overall in the 1967 combined AFL-NFL draft by the Broncos. He spent his entire nine-year career with the franchise and rushed for 6,323 yards and 43 touchdowns. The 77-year-old Little, a native of New Haven, Connecticut, led the NFL in rushing yards (1,133) and yards from scrimmage (1,388) in 1971. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

ATLANTA (AP) - The College Football Hall of Fame is boarded up and assessing damage from a destructive night of protests in downtown Atlanta.

The facility’s most valuable trophies and artifacts were moved to a secure facility in case additional trouble breaks out amid nationwide unrest over the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded to police that he could not breathe.

Kimberly Beaudin, the hall’s chief executive officer, said the extensive glass facade of the nearly 95,000-square-foot building was shattered Friday night. Rioters also broke into the street-level gift shop, stole merchandise and left it “pretty trashed,” she added. But, other than some broken glass that fell into a large exhibition area shaped like a football field, the interior of the hall was not breached by the protesters.

TRACK & FIELD

SAN BENITO, Texas (AP) - Bobby Joe Morrow, the Texas sprinter who won three gold medals in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics while a student at Abilene Christian University, died Saturday. He was 84.

Morrow’s family said he died of natural causes at home in San Benito.

Morrow won the 100 and 200 meters in Melbourne and anchored the United States’ champion 400 relay team, matching the world record of 20.6 seconds in the 200 and helping the relay squad set a world record.