Nats have a COVID-19 outbreak
A COVID-19 outbreak affecting more than a third of the Nationals’ roster caused the postponement of the 2019 World Series champions’ season-opening three-game series against the visiting Mets.
Four of Washington’s players have tested positive for the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, and another five were quarantining after contact tracing determined they might have been exposed, general manager Mike Rizzo said Friday in a video call with reporters.
“We’re in crisis management mode,” Rizzo said.
His team is also in a holding pattern, uncertain when it actually will be allowed to play a game — or even hold workouts.
After games against the Mets scheduled for Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at Nationals Park were scratched, the next possible contest for the Nationals would be at home against the NL East champion Braves on Monday.
Atlanta lost Major League Baseball’s summer All-Star Game on Friday over the league’s objections to sweeping changes to Georgia voting laws that critics — including the CEOs of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola — have condemned as being too restrictive. The decision to pull the July 13 game from Atlanta’s Truist Park amounts to the first economic backlash against Georgia for the voting law that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp quickly signed into law March 25. Kemp has insisted the law’s critics have mischaracterized what it does, yet GOP lawmakers adopted the changes largely in response to false claims of fraud in the 2020 elections by former President Donald Trump and his supporters. The law includes new restrictions on voting by mail and greater legislative control over how elections are run.
College basketball: Oklahoma has hired Loyola’s Porter Moser as its men’s basketball coach, a person familiar with the situation said Friday. Moser will replace Lon Kruger, who retired last month after 10 years coaching the Sooners. Moser led Loyola to two deep runs in the NCAA Tournament — the Ramblers reached the Final Four in 2018 and the Sweet 16 this year. He went 188-141 in 10 years at Loyola and has a 293-242 record in 17 seasons as a college head coach, with stops at Arkansas Little Rock (2000-03) and Illinois State (200307).
NBA: Kevin Durant was fined $50,000 by the NBA on Friday for his offensive and derogatory language in social media messages to actor Michael Rapaport. Rapaport released images of the private messages Tuesday on his Twitter account, and they included homophobic and misogynistic language from the Brooklyn Nets star. Durant apologized Thursday, saying: “I’m sorry that people seen the language that I used. That’s not really what I want people to see and hear from me, but hopefully I can move past it and get back out on the floor.” He is hoping to return soon from a strained left hamstring . ... Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle will miss Friday’s game at the Knicks after testing positive for COVID-19 the morning of the game. Carlisle says he has been fully vaccinated since January and wasn’t experiencing any symptoms. The 61-year-old was hopeful it was a false positive and he would still be able to coach against New York.