MLB sues insurance providers
Major League Baseball and all 30 of its teams are suing their insurance providers, citing billions of dollars in losses during the 2020 season played almost entirely without fans due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The suit, filed in October in California Superior Court in Alameda County, was obtained Friday by The Associated Press, says providers AIG, Factory Mutual and Interstate Fire and Casualty Company have refused to pay claims made by MLB despite the league’s “all-risk” policy purchases.
The league claims to have lost billions of dollars on unsold tickets, hundreds of millions on concessions, tens of millions on parking and millions more on suites and luxury seat licenses, in-park merchandise sales and corporate sponsorships. It also cites over a billion dollars in local and national media losses, plus tens of millions in missed income for MLB Advanced Media.
It says all of those losses should be covered by their policies.
MLB cut short spring training and postponed the start of its regular season in March, then began a truncated schedule in late July during which fans were barred from stadiums.
Teams were limited to 60 regularseason games, down from 162.
Most postseason games were played without fans, though there was limited capacity of about 11,000 per game for the National League Championship Series and World Series at Arlington, Texas.
■ The Rangers hired Chris Young as executive vice president and general manager Friday, bringing the Major League
Baseball executive home to work under president of baseball operations Jon Daniels, the club’s GM since 2005. Young pitched 13 seasons in the majors, the first two with the Rangers after the 6-foot-10 two-sport standout grew up in Dallas and played baseball and basketball at Princeton. The 41-year-old had been with MLB since May 2018.
Emiliano Grillo made birdie on half of the holes Friday on his way to an 8-under 63 that gave him a three-shot lead going into the weekend at the Mayakoba Golf Classic. No one was close enough to catch Grillo, who was at 12-under 130. Tony Finau one-putted six consecutive holes in the middle of his round, four of them par saves and none tap-ins, and posted a 66. He was at 9-under 133, along with Tom Hoge, who had a 67. ... Jessica Korda, Anna Nordqvist and 19-year-old Yealimi Noh share the second-round lead Friday in the LPGA Tour’s Volunteers of America Classic. Korda shot her second straight 2-under 69. The five-time LPGA Tour winner played the first 12 holes in 4 under, then dropped a stroke on the par-5 13th and parred the final five. Nordqvist closed with a bogey on the par-4 18th for a 68. She parred the four par-5 holes. Noh, the 2018 U.S. Girls’ Junior winner, had the best round of the week with a 66. She had six birdies — four in a row on Nos. 17-2 — and a bogey.
Golf:
WNBA: The Liberty have the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft for the second consecutive year, winning the lottery Friday. The Liberty had the best chance to win the lottery at 44.2%. The Dream were second at 27.6% and the Wings third at 17.8%.