NFL approves Raiders move to Las Vegas

Invoking his father Al’s name, and copying what the Hall of Fame owner did with the Raiders, Mark Davis is moving the franchise out of Oakland.

NFL owners approved the Raiders’ move to Las Vegas 31-1 at the league meetings Monday. Miami was the lone dissenter.

“My father used to say the greatness of the Raiders is in the future,” Davis said. “This gives us the ability to achieve that.”

The vote was a foregone conclusion after the league and Raiders were not satisfied with Oakland’s proposals for a new stadium, and Las Vegas stepped up with $750 million in public money. Bank of America also is giving Davis a $650 million loan, further helping to persuade owners to allow the third team relocation in just over a year.

The Rams moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles in 2016, and in January the Chargers relocated from San Diego to LA.

“You know our goal is to have 32 stable franchises for each team and the league,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “We work very hard and never want to see the relocation of a franchise. We worked tirelessly over the last nine months or so on a solution. We needed to provide certainties and stability for the Raiders and the league.”

The Raiders, whose relocation fee of approximately $350 million is less than the $650 million the Rams and Chargers paid, likely will play two or three more years in the Bay Area before their $1.7 billion stadium near the Las Vegas Strip is ready.

“I wouldn’t use the term lame duck,” Davis insisted. “We’re still the Raiders and we represent Raider Nation.

“There will be disappointed fans and it’s important for me to talk to them to explain why and how.”

Las Vegas, long taboo to the NFL because of its legalized gambling, also is getting an NHL team this fall, the Golden Knights.

“Today will forever change the landscape of Las Vegas and UNLV football,” said Steve Sisolak, chairman of the Clark County Commission and a former member of a panel appointed by Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval to study the stadium tax funding plan. “I couldn’t be more excited for the fans and residents of Clark County as we move forward with the Raiders and the Rebels.”

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and a group trying to keep the team in Oakland, made a last-ditch presentation to the NFL last week. But that letter was “filled with uncertainty,” according to Goodell.

Monday, she asked owners to delay the vote, wanting to give her city a chance to negotiate with a small group of owners to complete a stadium deal at the Coliseum site.

“Never that we know of has the NFL voted to displace a team from its established market when there is a fully financed option before them with all the issues addressed,” Schaaf said in a statement. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t do everything in my power to make the case for Oakland up until the very end.”

Schaaf said the city presented a $1.3 billion plan for a stadium that would be ready by 2021. She said the existing Coliseum would be demolished by 2024, with the Oakland Athletics baseball team either moving to a new stadium at the Coliseum site or somewhere else in the city.

But the presence of the A’s in that sports complex was particularly troubling to the NFL, Goodell said.

“We understand the Raiders’ need for a new stadium,” A’s President Dave Kaval said. “Oakland is an incredible sports town and we would be sorry to see them leave. We commend the city’s and county’s efforts to keep the Raiders in Oakland. The mayor and her team have worked incredibly hard to save the franchise.

“We are focused on, and excited about, our efforts to build a new ballpark in Oakland and look forward to announcing a location this year.”

The Raiders’ move became more certain this month when Bank of America offered the loan. That replaced the same amount the Raiders lost when the league balked at having casino owner Sheldon Adelson involved and he was dropped from the team’s plans.

Davis on Monday thanked Adelson for his “vision and leadership,” saying the entire deal might not have happened without him.

Leaving the Bay Area is not something new with the Raiders, who played in Los Angeles from 198294 before heading back to Oakland. Davis was passed over last year in an attempt to move to a stadium in the LA area that would have been jointly financed with the Chargers. Instead, the owners approved the Rams’ relocation and gave the Chargers an option to join them, which they exercised this winter.

Now, it’s off to the desert for the Raiders. Well, in a few years.

“The opportunity to build a world-class stadium in the entertainment capital of the world,” Davis said, “is a significant step toward achieving that greatness.” Royals outfielder

will likely begin his first season in Kansas City on the disabled list after straining his oblique in a minor league game.

Soler, acquired from the Chicago Cubs in December for closer hurt himself on a swing Sunday. Soler went for a MRI Monday, and manager

acknowledged Soler was expected to be out of action when the Royals open next Monday at Minnesota.

Soler missed nearly two months last season with a pulled left hamstring. He was sidelined for three weeks in 2015 with a left oblique injury, plus another month with a sprained ankle. Yost also said

will open the season as the starting second baseman. Mondesi won the job over

and

Bad news first: The overnight television ratings for NASCAR’s race in California were down. The ratings were down for Phoenix, Las Vegas and Atlanta, too. Basically, nothing NASCAR does can stop this slide, it seems.

So what’s the good news?

Well, NASCAR really couldn’t have asked for a better start to its season.

Five drivers won the first five races. The lead changed in the waning laps each time.

Kyle Busch got into a fight on pit road that left him with a bloody gash on his forehead — generating all sorts of mainstream attention — and nobody was punished. Similarly, Austin Dillon avoided any penalty when he wrecked Cole Custer in retaliation.

Danica Patrick, for one, argued NASCAR did the right thing by withholding heavy-handed punishments.

“It makes for good TV,” she said, “and we handle it on the track ourselves.”

Professional partier — oh, and NFL star — Rob Gronkowski was the main attraction at the season-opening Daytona 500, and celebrities came out in full force to watch NASCAR on Sunday

Nationals release reliever Nathan

Veteran reliever

has been released by the Washington Nationals, ending his bid to make the team a week before opening day.

The Nationals also unconditionally released another righty reliever on Monday,

Nathan’s 377 career saves rank second among active pitchers and eighth in major league history.

The 42-year-old Nathan went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in only 6 innings with the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants last season as he worked his way back from a second Tommy John surgery to repair his right elbow.

Orioles name Gausman opening day starter

The Baltimore Orioles will have a new starter for their April 3 opener for the in Fontana, California. Among the many in attendance were Jada Pinkett Smith, Kaitlin Olson, Dean Cain, Terry Crews, Fred Savage, Scott Eastwood and Justin Hartley, “Kevin/The Manny” from NBC’s hit “This is Us,” who apparently caught NASCAR fever and attended various events over the last few months.

For all the handwringing over the ratings slump, NASCAR appears to be headed in the right direction.

Heck, even Clint Bowyer, one of the largest personalities in the series, is emerging from his lengthy slump. He finished third Sunday and wrote on Twitter: “first time in a long time I grabbed the bottle of Jack in the plane for the right reason.” Trust us, a happy Bowyer is good for everyone in NASCAR.

There’s parity among the manufacturers — Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota all have wins this season — and the younger drivers have found themselves in the mix every week. Kyle Larson, victorious Sunday, in theory could have five wins already this season. He ran out of gas while leading the Daytona 500, notched three consecutive runner-up finishes, then finally finished first at Fontana after several nail-biting restarts. first time in the last four years.

Manager said Monday that righthander to start against Toronto.

The move to start the 26-year-old Gausman wasn’t unexpected. Showalter had ruled righthander out of the opener when spring training began last month because of a sore right shoulder. Gausman was 9-12 with a 3.61 ERA last season.

Tillman, who had started the previous three openers, was hoping to become the first Orioles pitcher since

(1974-77) to start four straight openers. Instead, it’s Gausman, the fourth overall pick in the 2012 draft. Gausman is in his fifth season with Baltimore, but this will be the first time he began the season in the starting rotation.

But the bad news always comes on Monday, when the TV numbers are released. The ratings become the main focus of the sport: Naysayers fixate on decline; excusemakers trot out all manner of explanations.

How about this? NASCAR, no matter how many story lines or rule changes or celebrities lining the grid, is an underwhelming overall product. Even with its new stage format, events are too long in this day and age of instant gratification — even the NFL recently announced ways it is going to try to shorten games — and the racing itself often isn’t all that exciting until the end.

Another issue is that viewers are essentially being asked to tune in to watch colorful cars go in circles for 500 miles. When the cars themselves become the “stars,” it’s a lot harder to become emotionally invested in the product. It doesn’t help that Jeff Gordon, the sport’s biggest star for more than two decades, is now in the TV booth and Tony Stewart, the man of the people, is also retired.

The people left who need to be embraced are stuffed into cockpits, wearing helmets, and aren’t heard from until the end of the event. Their personalities are

Reds release Raburn

The Cincinnati Reds released outfielder

on Monday after he struggled in a bid to win a bench role.

Raburn turns 36 in April. He signed a minor league deal last month and hit .219 during spring training with seven hits, three home runs and seven strikeouts in 32 at-bats.

Under his contract, the Reds had to pay him $100,000 if he was still on the roster after Monday.

Raburn played seven years for Detroit and three for Cleveland before moving to the National League last season. He batted only .220 with Colorado last year, when he made $1.6 million. He played 47 games in left field, two in right field and five at first base for the Rockies.

FROM WIRE REPORTS hidden, too. It’s so different from, say, the NCAA Tournament, which once a year makes celebrities out of basketball players few have heard of.

Gonzaga center Przemek Karnowski has a beard of Bunyanesque proportions that earned its own Twitter account and made him famous over the last two weeks. North Carolina forward Luke Maye hit the shot of his life — the gamewinner Sunday over Kentucky to send the Tar Heels to the Final Four — then received a standing ovation when he showed up for his 8 a.m. class back in Chapel Hill on Monday.

Most other sports provide an opportunity for fans to feel the tension, see and hear the emotion, experience the highs and lows of the participants in real time. NASCAR hasn’t found a way to capture that, barring, of course, an angry Busch stomping down pit road at Las Vegas to take a swing at Joey Logano.

That’s as big a problem for NASCAR as the length of its races, its over-saturated 11-month schedule and the constant corporate-speak of its drivers. Figure out a way to show us more — take off the sunglasses, be engaging, give us energy and passion — and then maybe people will start watching again.