Wednesday Sports in Brief
Thu, May 12, 2022
Other News (AP)
MLB
CHICAGO (AP) - The Cleveland Guardians are dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak that has sidelined manager Terry Francona and several of the team's coaches, leading to the postponement of Wednesday's game against the Chicago White Sox.
Shortly after Francona's positive test became known, Major League Baseball said there were "multiple positive COVID-19 tests" in Cleveland's organization and called off Wednesday's series finale to allow for more testing and contact tracing. No makeup date has been announced.
It's the first coronavirus-related postponement since the season started on April 7.
There are no known current cases among Cleveland's players.
SAN DIEGO (AP) - San Diego Padres manager Bob Melvin had prostate surgery Wednesday.
The team announced Melvin's surgery during its 7-5 loss to the Chicago Cubs. It had no further details and said it likely won't have any updates until next week.
Melvin said Tuesday that he didn't think he had cancer, but the doctors wouldn't know until the surgery. He said he hoped to miss only the first six games of the team's forthcoming nine-game road trip, which starts Friday night in Atlanta and continues through Philadelphia and San Francisco.
ATLANTA (AP) - Atlanta Braves catcher Manny Pina will have season-ending surgery after tests revealed ligament and cartilage damage in his left wrist.
Braves manager Brian Snitker said before Wednesday night's game against the Boston Red Sox that the loss of Pina means William Contreras will continue to serve as the top backup to starter Travis d'Arnaud. Contreras, 24, began the season with Triple-A Gwinnett.
Pina, 34, signed a two-year, $8 million deal with the Braves before the season.
NBA
DENVER (AP) - Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic earned a second straight NBA Most Valuable Player trophy Wednesday to become the second consecutive international player to win two in a row.
The 27-year-old from Sombor, Serbia, averaged 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds and 7.9 assists to take home MVP honors. Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo - who hails from Greece - earned the title in 2019 and 2020.
International players finished 1-2-3 in this year's MVP voting. Philadelphia's Joel Embiid, who led the league in scoring average, finished runner-up and Antetokounmpo was third. Devin Booker of Phoenix wound up fourth.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
The Atlantic Coast Conference is mulling a change to its football scheduling model that could include the elimination of divisions by 2023.
Discussions are taking place among league schools during the ACC's annual spring meetings in Amelia Island, Florida. Commissioner Jim Phillips told reporters there Wednesday that the league also plans to talk with ESPN as its TV partner with the ACC Network.
The focus is a 3-5-5 model that would have teams playing three opponents as permanent scheduling partners annually then rotating the other 10 teams over two seasons in the eight-game schedule (five one year, five the next).
As a result, teams would play every other league team twice in a four-year span.
AUTO RACING
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Tourism officials have committed $19.5 million over the next three years to sponsor Formula One races on a course that includes the Las Vegas Strip.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board voted unanimously Tuesday to spend $6.5 million per year to partner with Liberty Dice Inc. on the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Last week, parent company and F1 owner Liberty Media Corp. announced plans to pay $240 million for unspecified property near the Strip for a pit and paddock complex.
Plans were announced March 30 for Las Vegas to join Miami and Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on the F1 calendar next year.
WOMEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Wake Forest fired women's basketball coach Jen Hoover on Wednesday, parting ways with the former Demon Deacons player after 10 seasons.
The school announced the move Wednesday evening, with athletics director John Currie pointing to the program's overall trajectory as well as turnover on the coaching staff. Wake Forest has made the NCAA Tournament just twice, though Hoover guided the Demon Deacons there in 2021.
This year's team went 16-17 and just 4-14 in league play. After the season, all three assistants departed, with associate head coach Erin Dickerson Davis becoming head coach at William & Mary.
HORSE RACING
The jockey of Kentucky Derby upset winner Rich Strike is serving a four-day suspension handed down by Ohio racing stewards that his agent says won't prevent him from riding the horse in next week's Preakness.
Stewards suspended Sonny Leon last week for careless riding during the third race on April 27 at Thistledown Racecourse, east of Cleveland, during which they determined he "deliberately and aggressively" steered One Glamorous Gal toward the rail to block other horses in the stretch. Leon interfered with jockey Alexander Chavez aboard Ultra Rays, the ruling stated, and One Glamorous Gal was disqualified from third place and finished in sixth.
It is Leon's fifth suspension since last fall and includes a 15-day penalty in West Virginia for providing a false and altered document. Leon's original eight-day suspension in Ohio was reduced to four because he did not appeal; he began serving the penalty on Monday and it ends Thursday.
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