23rd MLB team reaches 85% COVID vaccinations as shots slow
NEW YORK — A 23rd Major League Baseball team has reached the 85% vaccination threshold for players and other onfield personnel, which allows relaxed protocols, but there were few additional vaccinations in the past week.
Major League Baseball and the players’ association said Friday that 85.4% of tier 1 and 2 tier individuals had been fully vaccinated, up just 0.1% from the previous week, and 86.5% had received at least one dose, unchanged from the previous week.
Tier 1 includes players, managers, coaches, team physicians, athletic trainers and strength and conditioning staff.
Tier 2 includes ownership, front office staff, travel staff, head groundskeepers and ballpark operations staff.
Once a team reaches 85% vaccinations among tiers 1 and 2, it has the option to apply loosened protocols to tier 2.
There were no positive tests in the last week. There were 1,854 tests, down from 9,104 the previous week.
Three teams vying for two spots in Copa America quarterfinals
BUENOS AIRES — Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela are in the fight for the last two spots in the Copa America quarterfinals. The prize is likely Lionel Messi’s Argentina.
The top four in each group advance to the knockout stage of the troubled tournament in Brazil, rife with the coronavirus.
Group B has Brazil with nine points, followed by Colombia and Peru with four, Venezuela at three, and Ecuador counting two. Colombia is the only team that has already played all of its four group games.
If Peru doesn’t lose to Venezuela on Sunday it will advance for sure.
Ecuador needs to beat host and defending champion Brazil. Ecuador can still advance with a defeat as long as Venezuela fails to win against Peru and the goal difference doesn’t
change much. After three matches, the Ecuadorians have minus one and the Venezuelans minus three.
Group A has been decided with Bolivia missing out after three defeats. Argentina leads with seven points, followed by Paraguay with six, Chile five, and Uruguay four. Whoever finishes in the fourth position will face Brazil.
Kinsler, Valencia to play for Long Island Ducks
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Former major leaguers Ian Kinsler and Danny Valencia will play for the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League to get in shape to be part of Israel’s team at the Olympic baseball tournament.
Kinsler, 39, was a four-time All-Star second baseman who played in the major leagues from 2006-19 with Texas, Detroit, San Diego, the Los Angeles Angels and Boston. He currently is an adviser to the Padres.
Valencia, 36, was a first baseman, third baseman and outfielder who played from 2010-19 for Minnesota, Baltimore, Oakland, Toronto, Kansas City, Seattle and Boston.
Israel will play a series of exhibitions from July 11-20 in New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Israel will be joined at the Olympic baseball tournament by host Japan, the United States, Mexico, South Korea and the winner of this week’s final qualifier among the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands and Venezuela.
Whittenburg making one last stand at US gymnastics trials
ST. LOUIS — Donnell Whittenburg can see the end. It’s lurking out there somewhere. Probably this fall, whether he finds his way onto the U.S. Olympic men’s gymnastics team or not.
Seven years have come and gone in a flash. Whittenburg turns 27 in August. Hardly ancient, but the sport’s physical and mental demands have taken their toll.
Even in the final months of an enigmatic career, Whittenburg remains a bit of a puzzle. Built like an NFL middle linebacker — albeit one who stands just 5-feet-4 — Whittenburg has struggled to deliver on the promise he showed during his first years on the U.S. national team, when he helped the Americans win bronze at the 2014 world championships and followed it up with an individual bronze on vault a year later.
Those remain his only medals in major international competition. The Baltimore native was an alternate on the 2016 U.S. Olympic team and hasn’t been back to a world championship since 2017.
Yet there remain flashes of what might have been and perhaps still could be.
Whittenburg, when he’s healthy and fully engaged, remains one of the most powerful vaulters on the planet. He showcased it on the opening night of the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials on Thursday, making his way onto “SportsCenter’s” Top 10 by soaring through the air with a full-twisting double-back flip first done in competition by North Korea’s Ri Se Gwang.
The judges rewarded Whittenburg with a 15.05, one of two routines in any event that night to crack the 15.0 barrier. Yet four of Whittenburg’s other five rotations were nowhere near his best. While he remains a force on still rings — an event that caters to his combination of strength and control — he finished outside the top 10 on parallel bars, high bar, floor and pommel horse.
Steelers sign 5-time Pro
Bowl guard Turner to 1-year deal
PITTSBURGH — It didn’t take long for the Pittsburgh Steelers to find a replacement for David DeCastro.
The Steelers signed fivetime Pro Bowl guard Trai Turner to a one-year deal on Friday, a day after cutting DeCastro in a somewhat surprising move.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but Pittsburgh did find itself with a little money to spend after releasing DeCastro, a six-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro who served as the linchpin of a line that was among the league’s best for the second half of the 2010s.
Turner comes to Pittsburgh three months after getting cut by the Los Angeles Chargers. The 28-year-old Turner spent just one season in Los Angeles, playing in a career-low nine games.
Pittsburgh is hoping Turner can return to the form he showcased during a six-year stint with the Carolina Panthers, when he became a Pro Bowl fixture after the Panthers selected him in the third round of the 2014 draft. Turner made the Pro Bowl every year from 2015-19 before being traded to Los Angeles in 2020 for Russell Okung.
Nebraska athletic director Bill Moos retiring after 3 years
Nebraska athletic director Bill Moos abruptly announced his retirement Friday, saying he will step down next week.
The announcement came as a surprise because the 70-yearold Moos has said publicly he wanted to stay in the job until he was comfortable the Cornhuskers football program had been turned around.
“To understand just how special Nebraska is, you need to spend time here, meet our people, visit our cities and towns and sit in Memorial Stadium in a sea of red on a Saturday afternoon in the fall,” Moos said in a statement. “I step away completely content, knowing that our athletic program is reborn and rebuilt and that it has a solid, stable foundation.”
Moos had told the Lincoln Journal Star late last year he had no plans to retire before his contract expired in December 2022.
“We’re going to move the dial here, and I don’t want to be looking at that success from afar,” he told the newspaper. “I have every intention of fulfilling the contract.”