Editor’s Note

Due to an earlier deadline of 8 p.m. throughout the pandemic, some games might not make it into the print edition of your Valley Press. Please find the following full stories on our website at www. avpress.com: National Basketball Association: Magic at Clippers.

Angels add relievers Tony Watson and Steve Cishek

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Angels added a pair of relievers three days before their opener, agreeing to $1 million, one-year contracts with left-hander Tony Watson and side-arming, right-hander Steve Cishek on Monday night.

Watson was released from a minor league contract with Philadelphia on Friday after allowing five runs — four earned — and nine hits in five innings over seven spring training appearances. He struck out seven and walked two.

Watson, 35, is 4025 with 32 saves and a 2.80 ERA in 10 major league seasons with Pittsburgh (2011-17), the Los Angeles Dodgers (2017) and San Francisco (2018-20). He leads active lefthanders in appearances since 2011.

Cishek was released Thursday from a minor league contract with Houston after seven spring training appearances. The 35-year-old allowed three runs — on three solo homers — and seven hits in 7 2/3 innings with 12 strikeouts and two walks.

He is 32-37 with 132 saves and a 2.78 ERA in 11 major league seasons with the Marlins (2010-15), St. Louis (2015), Seattle (2016-17), Tampa Bay (2017), the Chicago Cubs (2018-19) and the Chicago White Sox (2020).

Both took less than they would have gotten had they been added to major league rosters under their original contracts this season: Watson $3 million and Cishek $2.25 million.

Los Angeles placed right-hander Luke Bard on the 60-day injured list.

Marlins’ reliever James Hoyt traded to Angels for cash

MIAMI — Right-handed reliever James Hoyt was traded to the Los Angeles Angels by the Miami Marlins for cash Monday.

Hoyt went 2-0 with a 1.23 ERA in 24 games for the Marlins last season. He has also pitched for the Astros and Indians and has a career ERA of 3.71 in five seasons.

He became expendable in Miami after the Marlins added several relievers during the offseason.

Raised fists, kneeling during anthem OK at US Olympic trials

The U.S. Olympic

and Paralympic Committee will not sanction athletes for raising their fists or kneeling during the national anthem at Olympic trials, previewing a contentious policy it expects to stick to when many of those same athletes head to Tokyo this summer.

The USOPC released a nine-page document Tuesday to offer guidance about the sort of “racial and social demonstrations” that will and won’t be allowed by the hundreds who will compete in coming months for spots on the U.S. team. The document comes three months after the federation, heeding calls from its athletes, determined it would not enforce longstanding rules that ban protests at the Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee’s Rule 50 is an ongoing source of friction across the globe. Many U.S. athletes have spearheaded the call for more freedom in using their platform at the Olympics to advance social justice causes. But others, both in and outside the U.S., balk at widespread rule changes that they fear could lead to demonstrations that sully their own Olympic experiences.

The wide-ranging debate traces its most-visible roots to the ouster of U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos from the 1968 Games. Their raised fists on the medals stand in Mexico City led to the seminal snapshot of social protest in sports history.

With guidance from its recently formed Council on Racial and Social Justice, the USOPC released a list of do’s and don’ts as part of its document. The list of allowable forms of demonstration included holding up a fist, kneeling during the anthem and wearing hats or face masks with phrases such as “Black Lives Matter” or words such as “equality” or “justice.”

Supreme Court case could change the nature of college sports

WASHINGTON — A

Supreme Court case being argued this week amid March Madness could erode the difference between elite college athletes and professional sports stars.

If the former college athletes who brought the case win, colleges could end up competing for talented student athletes by offering over-the-top education benefits worth tens of thousands of dollars. And that could change the nature of college sports.

At least that’s the fear of the NCAA. But the former athletes who sued say most college athletes will never play professional sports and that the NCAA’s rules capping education benefits deprive them of the ability to be rewarded for their athletic talents and hard work. They say the NCAA’s rules are not just unfair but illegal, and they want schools to be able to offer any education benefits they see fit.

Blue Jays’ 3rd homestand at spring ballpark in Dunedin DUNEDIN, Fla. — The Toronto Blue Jays will play their third homestand of the season at their spring training ballpark in Dunedin, Fliorida, because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Toronto announced Feb. 18 that its first two homestands will be at TD Ballpark and on Tuesday added 10 games from May 14-24 against Philadelphia, Boston and Tampa Bay.

Twenty-two of 81 home games have been switched to Florida from the Rogers Center. Toronto hopes to return home at some point in 2021.

Another possible site for home games is Sahlen Field, home of their Buffalo Bisons Triple-A farm team.. The Blue Jays played home games during the shortened 2020 season in Buffalo and were 17-9 there.

The TD Ballpark in Dunedin seats about 8,500 fans and had a major renovation in 2019-20. The Blue Jays intend to limit capacity to 15%.