Montreal plan is out for Rays
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Rays’ proposed plan to split their home schedule between Florida and Montreal has been rejected by Major League Baseball, principal team owner Stuart Sternberg announced Thursday. “Today’s news is flat-out deflating,” Sternberg said. The idea of playing in both the Tampa Bay area and Montreal has been discussed over the past several years after attempts to build a new ballpark locally failed. Montreal had an MLB franchise from 1969, when the expansion Expos began play, through 2004. The Expos moved to Washington and became the Nationals for the 2005 season. The Rays’ lease at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, where the team has played since its inaugural season in 1998, expires after the 2027 season. Despite reaching the World Series in 2008 and 2020, the Rays have annually ranked near the bottom in attendance. Sternberg said the Rays will explore its options in the Tampa Bay area, and he has no plans to sell the team or request permission to explore relocation from MLB.
› NEW YORK — Locked-out baseball players plan to make a counteroffer to management Monday, 11 days after clubs gave the union a proposal when the snail-paced negotiations resumed after a 42-day break. The players’ association asked MLB on Thursday to schedule the negotiating session, which is to take place in person. There is dwindling time to reach an agreement in time for spring training to start as scheduled on Feb. 16. The scheduled March 31 opening day is also increasingly threatened, given the need for players to report, go through COVID-19 protocols and have at least three weeks of workouts that include a minimal number of exhibition games. Players don’t receive paychecks until the regular season, and owners get only a small percentage of their revenue during the offseason. Those factors create negotiations that are a game of chicken until later in February, when significant economic losses become more imminent.
BASKETBALL
› STARKVILLE, Miss. — Que Morrison scored 14 points and Mikayla Coombs added 13 for the 13th-ranked Georgia Lady Bulldogs, who built a 27-point early lead and then held on to beat Mississippi State 66-63 on Thursday night, winning for the third straight game. Georgia (15-3, 4-2 Southeastern Conference) also ended a six-game skid against Mississippi State (11-6, 2-3) with its first victory in Starkville since 2012. Rickea Jackson’s jumper gave Mississippi State its only lead of the game, 63-62, with 53 seconds remaining. Coombs answered with a shot from the corner before Denae Carter missed a jumper for Mississippi State. Morrison added a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left, and Jackson then missed a 3-point attempt to end it. Jenna Staiti had 10 rebounds to go with eight points for Georgia, which outrebounded Mississippi State 50-28. Georgia will host No. 5 Tennessee on Sunday.