World Baseball Classic to L.A.
The premier event in international baseball is coming to Los Angeles next year. Dodger Stadium will host the championship round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic, Major League Baseball said.
The United States team, rebuffed by many of the best American players, has reached the final four just once in the three tournaments and never has appeared in the championship game.
The 16-team tournament opens March 7 with first-round games in Miami, Tokyo, Seoul and Guadalajara, Mexico. The second-round games are scheduled for Tokyo and San Diego. The semifinal games are set for March 20 at Dodger Stadium. The championship game is scheduled there for March 22.
Patrick Reed shot five-under 66 to share the lead with Martin Laird at the Barclays in Farmingdale, N.Y.
The start of the FedEx Cup playoffs, with a $10million bonus waiting at the end, will also affect the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Qualifying ends after this week for the top eight, and then Davis Love III has four captain’s picks over the next month. Reed is winless this year and holding down the No. 8 position in the Ryder Cup standings.
Reed and Laird were a shot ahead of three other Ryder Cup hopefuls — Rickie Fowler, Kevin Chappell and J.B. Holmes, whose 67 was the best score among those who played in stronger wind in the afternoon. Defending champion Jason Day, the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, was among those at 68.
Three-time champion Lydia Ko was back on the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open leaderboard in Priddis, Canada.
The top-ranked Ko shot a five-under 67 at Priddis Greens in a round delayed for nearly three hours because of lightning, leaving her two strokes behind leader Chella Choi. Northern Ireland’s Stephanie Meadow was a stroke back after a 66. France’s Karine Icher was six under with four holes left.
The Colorado Avalanche hired Jared Bednar as their new head coach. He replaces Patrick Roy, who abruptly stepped down as coach and vice president of hockey operations earlier this month. Bednar spent the past 14 seasons as a minor league coach, most recently winning the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup with the Lake Erie Monsters, and the previous nine as a minor league player.
The Arizona Coyotes have acquired prospect Lawson Crouse and veteran Dave Bolland’s contract from the Florida Panthers for two draft picks. Arizona sent a 2017 third-round pick and a conditional 2018 second-rounder that could become another 2017 third to Florida. The Coyotes are taking on the final three years of the injured Bolland’s deal to pick up Crouse, the 11th pick in the 2015 draft.
Former Illinois football coach Tim Beckman, who had begun serving as a volunteer assistant with No. 22 North Carolina, was out Thursday, a day after Tar Heels Coach Larry Fedora defended allowing him to work in the program a year after Illinois had fired him amid allegations of player mistreatment.
UNC Chancellor Carol Folt said in a statement Thursday night she was “surprised and disappointed” after learning of Beckman’s role a day earlier.
Illinois fired Beckman shortly before the 2015 opener after a law firm hired by the university concluded he interfered in player medical decisions and pressured players to play through injuries.