Players will take time to answer MLB owners’ proposal

Baseball players will take at least a few days and possibly until next week to respond to Major League Baseball’s proposed sliding scale of salary slashing for a pandemic-delayed season in ballparks without fans.

Stars Mike Trout and Gerrit Cole would lose the most under the proposal teams made Tuesday, about 77% of the $36 million each they were set to be paid this season.

A big leaguer earning $1 million or less would keep at least 43% of his salary under the six-tier scale. About 460 of approximately 900 players on rosters and injured lists when spring training was stopped in mid-March due to the new coronavirus make $1 million or less.

“Interesting strategy of making the best most marketable players potentially look like the bad guys,” Milwaukee pitcher Brett Anderson tweeted.

The players’ association called the proposal “extremely disappointing.” The union has argued players already accepted a cut to prorated shares of their salaries in a March 26 agreement.

MLB would like to start the season in early July in empty stadiums and proposed an 82-game regular-season schedule. Union head Tony Clark has not commented publicly on the proposal.

Former Atlanta catcher Biff Pocoroba, who played in the 1978 All-Star Game and was a backup on the Braves team that won the NL West title in 1982, has died at age 66. No cause of death was given.

Pocoroba spent his entire 10-year career with the Braves, first joining the team in 1975. His best season came in 1977, when he batted .290 with eight homers and 44 RBIs.

The Nevada Athletic Commission unanimously agreed during a teleconference to allow two UFC events and two Top Rank boxing shows in Las Vegas over the next two weeks.

The decision ends the moratorium on combat sports that has been in place in Nevada since March 14, when the commission stopped competition amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The UFC immediately confirmed its plans to stage a show without fans in attendance Saturday night at the UFC Apex arena on its expansive corporate complex in Las Vegas, followed by the UFC 250 payper-view show at the same place June 6.

Top Rank is expected to hold boxing shows at the MGM Grand on June 9 and June 11.

Citing the importance of sports to the state’s economy, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak announced that sporting events could return if promoters followed health rules approved by the appropriate authorities.

The commission approved stringent coronavirus safety protocols to accompany the return of combat sports to their hometown.

The show Saturday will be headlined by former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley facing Gilbert Burns.

Pro soccer returns to the U.S. next month when the National Women’s Soccer League starts a 25-game tournament in a pair of stadiums in Utah that will be kept clear of fans to protect players from the coronavirus.

Players from the nine teams will train and live at two Salt Lake City-area hotels, the league announced Wednesday. All players will be tested for COVID-19 before leaving for Utah, and then will be regularly screened during their monthlong stay.

The tournament begins June 27, with games to be televised and streamed by CBS and its online and broadcast affiliates.

Premier League soccer clubs voted unanimously to return to contact training, including tackling, as the English top flight moved a step closer to a resumption after the shutdown caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Clubs last week began the first phase of ‘Project Restart’ after agreeing to a return to training in small groups under strict limitations and no contact.

A third round of testing took place on Monday and Tuesday with another four positives, the Premier League said.

The Pittsburgh Penguins will head into whatever becomes of the NHL postseason without forward Nick Bjugstad.

The team announced that Bjugstad underwent spinal surgery to repair a herniated disk. General manager Jim Rutherford said the surgery was necessary after Bjugstad had a “setback” while recovering from a lower-body injury suffered just before the NHL went on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two horses from the barn of two-time Triple Crownwinning trainer Bob Baffert have tested positive for a banned substance, according to published reports.

The New York Times and Louisville Courier-Journal on Tuesday cited unidentified sources in reporting the positive tests occurred during the recent meet at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas.

According to the Times, one of the horses to test positive was Charlatan, an undefeated colt considered to be a top contender for the Belmont Stakes on June 20. That race will open this year’s Triple Crown series. Charlatan won a split-division of the Arkansas Derby on May 2.

The Times reported Baffert’s other horse to test positive is Gamine, a 3-year-old filly who won at Oaklawn on the same day. The newspaper said both horses tested positive for lidocaine, a regulated anesthetic widely used in equine medicine.

Baffert has requested a second round of testing on his horses’ samples.

Moussa Cisse is close to securing a high school diploma and reclassifying to the college basketball recruiting class of2020.

The 6-foot-11 Cisse announced on social media that he opted to graduate a year early and is near a decision on where to enroll for the 2020-21 school year. Six finalists are in the running for Cisse, a top-10 recruit according to multiple recruiting sites (No. 8 in both the ESPN and 247Sports composite Class of ‘21 rankings): Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgetown, Kentucky and LSU.

Chase Elliott snapped Kyle Busch’s sevenrace Truck Series winning streak and collected a $100,000 bounty for beating NASCAR’s most successful truck driver Tuesday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Kevin Harvick announced before the race he would donate $50,000 to Covid-19 relief for any full-time Cup driver who finished ahead of Busch. Marcus Lemonis, the CEO of Gander RV & Outdoors, which sponsors the Truck Series, agreed to match Harvick’s pledge, bringing the total to $100,000 for pandemic relief.

Elliott rubbed a little salt in the wound after the race, borrowing Busch’s celebratory bow after the race.

Persistent rain forced Wednesday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway to be postponed. The Alsco Uniforms 500 was rescheduled for today (4 p.m., FS1).