Off the wire
BASEBALL Sale to miss all of 2020
Boston Red Sox ace Chris Sale will have Tommy John surgery on his left elbow, an operation that would keep him out the entire 2020 baseball season if and when it resumes after the coronavirus pandemic. The team made the announcement on Thursday, two weeks after saying that the 30-year-old left-hander had a flexor strain near the elbow. At the time, the Red Sox hoped Sale would avoid the operation that usually requires a full year to recover from. Sale is 109-73 in 10 major league seasons is entering the second season of a six-year, $160 million contract. After helping the Red Sox win the 2018 World Series, he went 6-11 with a 4.40 ERA in 25 starts last year, his fewest wins and starts and highest ERA in a full season since 2012.
Giants’ Beede facing surgery
San Francisco Giants right-hander Tyler Beede will undergo Tommy John elbow surgery today. Beede’s surgery will be performed by Texas Rangers physician Dr. Keith Meister in the Dallas area. Beede left an exhibition game after one inning on March 3 with tightness in his elbow, and an MRI exam the following day showed he had a flexor strain and a UCL sprain. The club gathered additional opinions on the injury before Meister determined surgery the best decision. Beede had been competing for a spot in San Francisco’s starting rotation. He went 5-10 with a 5.08 ERA last season for the Giants.
SLED DOG RACING Bad weather confronts mushers
Nearly a third of the 57 mushers in this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race have quit the race before finishing, including a musher who activated an alert button seeking rescue Thursday morning because of weather conditions. Thomas Waerner of Norway won this year’s race, crossing the finish line in Nome, Alaska, early Wednesday. Eighteen other mushers have completed the race by Thursday with another 20 still on the trail. For musher Nicolas Petit, a native of France who now lives in Girdwood, Alaska, it’s the third consecutive year he’s encountered problems late in the race, including getting lost in a blizzard two years ago and his dogs quitting on him last year. Petit on Thursday activated his alert button between the checkpoints of Elim and White Mountain, which is the second-to-last checkpoint in the race. Race marshal Mark Nordman reports the area was experiencing a large coastal storm, which was affecting the trail. A search and rescue team helped Petit and his dog team to a shelter cabin. Nordman spoke to Petit on a satellite phone to confirm that both the musher and his team of 11 dogs were fine. This year’s race started March 8 with 57 mushers. Since then, 17 have voluntarily withdrawn form the race and one was removed for not being competitive.
HOCKEY Predators sign forward Smith
The Nashville Predators have signed forward Cole Smith to a oneyear, two-way deal for the 2020-21 season. The Predators announced the deal Thursday. Smith, 24, just finished his senior season at North Dakota where he scored a career-high 11 goals and had 18 points in 34 games. The 6-foot-3, 197-pound forward played on both the power play and penalty kill as a senior and helped North Dakota win its conference’s regular-season title. He finished with 51 points in 137 games over four years at North Dakota.
BASKETBALL Three men’s teams in isolation
Men’s basketball players, coaches and staff at Siena College, Illinois-Chicago and Wright State are self-isolating as a precaution after two officials who called the school’s games tested positive for the coronavirus. Siena spokesman Mike Demos said Thursday the school learned earlier in the week that two officials who worked Siena’s game against Manhattan in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament on Wednesday, March 11 at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. had tested positive for the coronavirus. Demos said New York state and Albany County health department officials advised self-isolation for 14 days from the date of possible exposure. Fans who attended the game are not considered to be at risk, he said. The two officials were not identified.