MLB
NEW YORK (AP) - Major League Baseball would consider expansion fees in the range of $2.2 billion for new franchises, though there are no current plans to add teams.
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke Tuesday during SporticoLive’s online discussion of its estimates to baseball franchise valuations. The company estimated the average MLB franchise value is $2.2 billion, led the New York Yankees at $6.75 billion.
Colorado and Miami paid $95 million each to join in 1993, and Arizona and Tampa Bay paid $130 million to join in 1998.
Manfred has said repeatedly that MLB will not consider expansion until the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays get new ballparks.
NEW YORK (AP) - Jerry Blevins, a left-handed reliever who split the bulk of his career between the Oakland Athletics and New York Mets, announced his retirement after 13 big league seasons Tuesday night.
The 37-year-old last pitched in the majors for Atlanta in 2019. He had been working at the Mets’ alternate training site in Brooklyn after failing to land a bullpen spot out of spring training.
Blevins was a 17th-round draft pick by the Chicago Cubs in 2004 and debuted in the majors with Oakland in 2007. He was with the A’s through 2013, compiling a 3.30 ERA. After struggling in 2014 with Washington, he ended up with the Mets, where he had two of his best seasons in 2016 and ’17.
He finishes his career 30-13 with a 3.54 ERA and seven saves in 609 games.
NHL
The NHL is preparing contingency plans if virus restrictions in Canada prevent travel between provinces or back and forth to the U.S. during the playoffs.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on Tuesday called the situation “wildly unpredictable.”
The NHL put off the thorny issue of cross-border travel before the season began by having all seven Canadian teams play in the same division for the entire regular season and first two rounds of the playoffs. Nothing has been decided about how to handle a potential problem.
HORSE RACING
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Essential Quality is the 2-1 morning line favorite and will start from the No. 14 post for Saturday’s 147th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
The $3 million, 1 1/4-mile marquee race for 3-year-colts is back on the first Saturday of May after being delayed to Labor Day weekend last fall because of the pandemic. About 45,000 spectators are expected at the track.
Rock Your World is the 5-1 second choice from the No. 15 slot with Known Agenda the 6-1 third choice despite drawing the rail in the 20-horse field. Hot Rod Charlie drew 8-1 odds as the fourth choice from the No. 9 slot.
NCAA
The NCAA Board of Governors voted Tuesday to give President Mark Emmert a two-year contract extension through 2025.
Emmert’s contract was set to expire in 2023, but the board voted unanimously to extend his deal, the NCAA said in a statement.
The announcement comes less than a month after the NCAA and Emmert drew sharp criticism for inequities between the women’s and men’s Division I basketball tournaments.
TENNIS
The All England Club says there will be play on Wimbledon’s middle Sunday starting in 2022.
That is a significant break in tradition for the grass-court Grand Slam tournament. There only has been play on the middle Sunday in the past when rain created a backlog of matches.
Wimbledon returns in 2021 after it was called off last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The club says it received 180 million pounds in cancellation insurance. That is about $250 million.
Some aspects of the 2021 tournament are still to be determined. That includes the number of spectators and prize money.
SOCCER
LYON, France (AP) - Europe’s most successful women’s soccer team has hired a woman as its coach for the first time with Lyon’s appointment of Sonia Bompastor to replace Jean-Luc Vasseur.
The seven-time European champion on Tuesday parted ways with Vasseur after the team recently was knocked out of the Women’s Champions League at the quarterfinal stage.
Lyon had won five consecutive Champions League titles but was eliminated by French rival Paris Saint-Germain this season. The 14-time French champions also trail PSG in the domestic league by one point.
The 40-year-old Bompastor, a former France midfielder and defender who played six seasons at Lyon, has a contract through June 2023. She was director of Lyon’s women’s academy for the past eight years.
LONDON (AP) - Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke said Tuesday he is “100% committed” to the Premier League club and will not be selling it, amid interest from the founder of music streaming service Spotify.
Arsenal fans have called for Kroenke to leave after he was one of the instigators of the ill-fated European Super League project.
Daniel Ek, the Swedish businessman who founded Spotify and is an Arsenal supporter, has said on Twitter he would be “happy to throw my hat in the ring” if Kroenke wanted to sell and reportedly has enlisted the help of former Arsenal players Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira.
MADRID (AP) - With a dominant start and a milestone goal by Christian Pulisic, Chelsea showed its strength against Real Madrid in the Champions League semifinals.
Chelsea took control early in Tuesday’s first leg to hold the Spanish powerhouse to a 1-1 away draw, with Pulisic becoming the first U.S. international to score in the tournament’s last four. He also surpassed DaMarcus Beasley to become the top American scorer in Champions League history with five goals.
SPORTS BUSINESS
The NHL and Turner Sports on Tuesday formally announced a seven-year agreement that begins next season and will put three Stanley Cup Finals on the TNT cable network.
The world’s top hockey league is eager to replicate the success found on Turner by the NBA.
Turner and corporate owner WarnerMedia surprised many with the acquisition. Longtime NHL partner NBC and Fox were seen as the favorites to get the second package after the league reached an agreement with ESPN last month.
OBITUARY
Miroslav Frycer, who defected from Czechoslovakia and spent most of his eight seasons in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs, has died. He was 61.
He died after an unspecified brief illness, the Czech league team Orli Znojmo said on its website Tuesday. Frycer had been the team’s coach since 2018.
Frycer, a forward, also played for Quebec, Detroit and Edmonton in the NHL. He represented Czechoslovakia at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics. After defecting from communist Czechoslovakia he joined the Quebec Nordiques for the 1981-82 NHL season. He was traded to Toronto during his rookie campaign and went on to play six more seasons there. He represented the Maple Leafs at the 1985 All-Star game.
His most productive offensive season came in 1985-86, when he had 32 goals and 43 assists in 73 games with Toronto.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Geno Hayes, a former NFL linebacker who starred at Florida State, has died. He was 33.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers confirmed his death Tuesday. He had liver disease and had been in hospice care at his parents’ home in Valdosta, Georgia.
Hayes spent four seasons with the Bucs, who drafted him in the sixth round in 2008. He then played one year with Chicago and two with Jacksonville.
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