Off the wire
BASEBALL Marlins, Brewers moved
The Marlins’ three-game series starting Friday against the Brewers will be moved from Miami to Milwaukee because of South Florida’s recovery from Hurricane Irma. The first game at Marlins Park after the hurricane will instead be Monday, when the New York Mets begin a three-game series at Miami. Marlins officials didn’t want to strain the resources of police and fire rescue crews to work the Brewers games during the recovery. “Marlins Park stood ready to host the games, but we all agreed that burdening public service resources was not the proper course of action,” team President David Samson said in a statement. “All of our employees, as well as our entire community, have other needs that must take a priority.” Major League Baseball agreed the decision was in the best interests of South Florida, Samson said. The retractable roof at Marlins Park is fully operational, Samson said, although 6 percent of the roof membrane will need to be replaced after the season because of storm damage. The games in Milwaukee will be at 7:10 p.m. Central on Friday, 6:10 p.m. Saturday and 1:10 p.m. Sunday.
Napoli’s role limited
Mike Napoli will remain active but in a limited role for the remainder of the Texas Rangers’ season, General Manager Jon Daniels said Wednesday. Two magnetic resonance imaging tests showed that Napoli has a stress reaction in his lower right leg. The condition began bothering Napoli during last week’s series in Atlanta. Napoli was not in the lineup for Wednesday’s game against Seattle at Globe Life Park but will be available to be used off the bench. Daniels said the club will “manage” its use of Napoli. Napoli is the third regular to incur a significant injury in the last two weeks. The Rangers are also without third baseman Adrian Beltre and center fielder Carlos Gomez.
MMA Jones stripped of title
The UFC has stripped its light heavyweight title from Jon Jones for a third time and reinstated Daniel Cormier as the 205-pound
champion after Jones’ latest failed doping test. The mixed martial arts promotion announced its decision Wednesday after the California State Athletic Commission changed the result of Jones’ victory over Cormier on July 29 to a no-contest. Cormier lost the belt to Jones in a third-round stoppage at UFC 214 in Anaheim, Calif. Last month, USADA announced Jones had violated the UFC’s doping policy with a second positive test. The California commission made its no-contest ruling after Jones’ backup sample also failed a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency test for the same substance, the banned steroid Turinabol.
TENNIS Serena announces daughter
Go ahead and add another title to Serena Williams’ collection: Mom. The tennis star announced via social
media on Wednesday that she gave birth to a girl named Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. Williams posted about her baby on Instagram and Twitter accounts and is heard saying in a video, “We had a lot of complications, but look what we’ve got.” Williams, 35, said in late December that she was engaged to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Williams wrote Wednesday that their daughter was born on Sept. 1 and weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces. Williams won her 23rd Grand Slam singles championship at the Australian Open in January. She has not competed anywhere since but has said she intends to return to competition by next year’s Australian Open, which starts on Jan. 15.
OLYMPICS Doping cases dismissed
The World Anti-Doping Agency has agreed to dismiss all but one of the first 96 Russian doping cases forwarded its way from sports federations acting on information from a report detailing cheating in the country. The cases stem from an investigation by Richard McLaren, who was tasked with detailing evidence of a scheme to hide doping positives at the Sochi Olympics and beforehand. The 95 dismissed cases, first reported by The New York Times, were described by WADA officials as not containing enough hard evidence to result in a solid case. There are at least 900 more cases being pursued, and a WADA spokesman told The Associated Press it is the agency’s understanding that sports federations are considering bringing cases forward.
MEDIA White House responds to Hill
The White House on Wednesday responded to ESPN SportsCenter host Jemele Hill’s comments on Twitter, where she called President
Donald Trump a “white supremacist.” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said during a press conference Wednesday that Hill’s tweet about the president was “one of the more outrageous comments that anyone could make and certainly something that I think is a fireable offense by ESPN.” ESPN made clear Tuesday that the cable sports channel’s views do not reflect those of Hill. “The comments on Twitter from Jemele Hill regarding the President do not represent the position of ESPN. We have addressed this with Jemele and she recognizes her actions were inappropriate,” ESPN said in a statement. Hill posted the tweet about Trump during an exchange she had with other Twitter users about Kid Rock, who had recently given a racially charged speech during a concert. Hill had posted an article about the singer and was responding to comments about that. It is unclear whether ESPN will discipline Hill for her comments. ESPN suspended Hill once before, in 2008, when she compared rooting for the Boston Celtics to having sympathy for Adolf Hitler in a column. Hill, who was a sports writer at The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C., from 199799, declined to comment Tuesday night.