FIRST BLACK WOMAN HIRED AS COACH IN MINORS

The Boston Red Sox will hire Bianca Smith as a minor league coach, the Boston Globe reported Thursday, making her the first Black woman to serve as a coach in professional baseball history.

“She was a great candidate coming in,” Ben Crockett, the Red Sox vice president of player development who helped spearhead the hire, told the Globe’s Julian McWilliams. “She’s had some really interesting experiences and has been passionate about growing her skill set and development herself.”

Smith comes to the Red Sox from Carroll University in Wisconsin, where she served as hitting coach for the Division III Pioneers baseball team and an athletics administrator at the school. She previously had served internships with the Texas Rangers and Cincinnati Reds and also had worked in Major League Baseball’s corporate office. Smith, a softball player at Dartmouth from 2010 to 2012, also had served as a graduate assistant coach at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland.

Smith will work with the Red Sox’s rookie league team in Fort Myers, Fla., with a focus on position players.

Smith holds both a master’s degree in sports management and a law degree from Case Western Reserve. In 2019, she said she initially hoped to parlay her experience into becoming a general manager but found onfield coaching more to her liking.

“Originally, my goal was to be a (baseball) GM; it’s why I made sure to get a law and business degree,” Smith told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Now, I’m discovering — and I kind of already knew this — that I’m not a huge fan of being in the office all the time and want to coach. I wanted to go to a DIII school because I missed being on the field and working with the players. When I was in grad school, I was at every practice, every lift, traveling with the team. I missed that interacting.”

More baseball

The Chicago White Sox and reliever Evan Marshall agreed to a $2 million, oneyear contract, avoiding arbitration. The 30-year-old right-hander was 2-1 with a 2.38 ERA in 23 appearances last season.

NHL

The Canadian government, citing “national interest grounds,” gave its approval for the start of NHL training camps. It issued an exemption to the mandatory 14-day quarantine period for NHL players and team staff to return to the country.

The five provinces with NHL franchises, however, must give their approval for games between Canadian teams during the regular season, which is scheduled to start Jan. 13. The seven Canadian teams will play in a new North Division.

• Center Pierre-Luc Dubois, who led Columbus in goals, assists and points during the playoffs, signed a two-year, $10 million contract extension that keeps him with the Blue Jackets through the 2021-22 season.

Soccer

Manchester United striker Edinson Cavani was banned for three games by the English Football Association after using a Spanish term for Black people which he said was intended as an affectionate greeting.

• Real Sociedad won 1-0 at Athletic Bilbao in a Basque Country derby to end its winless run and streng then its hold on third place in the Spanish league.

• Just two days after announcing its dissolution, Swedish women’s champion Goteborg is back. The club received an “overwhelming ” response from potential investors after announcing that it can no longer compete financially with major European teams. As a result, Goteborg will defend its Swedish league title in 2021.

Also

Tommy Docherty, one of soccer’s great characters who managed Manchester United and Scotland, died. He was 92. Affectionately known as ‘The Doc,’ he died after a long illness.

• Former top-ranked Andy Murray pulled out of the Delray Beach Open to minimize his coronavirus risk as he looks toward the Australian Open.

• Former Chicago Bears cornerback Mike Richardson, who started for the 1985 Super Bowl championship team, was arrested Wednesday in Phoenix on suspicion of murder.