State might OK fans at MLB games
California’s major league ballparks were closed to fans for every game last season, but Gov. Gavin Newsom indicated Wednesday that they could be open to fans for every game this season.
“We’re working on the final details,” Newsom said Wednesday at an appearance in Long Beach. “We’ve been working very closely with Major League Baseball and others across the spectrum.”
That means the Dodgers could raise their first World Series championship banner in 32 years with thousands of fans in attendance, even though Dodger Stadium would be far from full.
Newsom stopped short of a guarantee, since a resurgence of the coronavirus could derail plans. But he noted that the state’s positivity rate has fallen to 2.2% and hospitalizations for the virus have dropped 43% in the last two weeks.
“We have confidence that when you look forward to April, to opening day,” Newsom said, “and where we are likely to be if we all do our jobs, if we don’t let our guard down and spike the ball — wrong sport — then I have all the confidence in the world that fans will be back safely, in a lot of these outdoor venues.”
What Newsom would essentially approve is a modification of the state guidelines, which for now ban fans at professional sports.
The modification would acknowledge that games can be held safely at limited capacity, and with health and safety protocols, including mask wearing and distance between seating groups.
The Dodgers could sell 11,200 seats to Dodger Stadium at 20% capacity and 14,000 seats at 25% capacity.
— Bill Shaikin
Nearly 12 months after shutting down all sports competitions and activities because of the novel coronavirus, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced that interscholastic competition will resume. The decision is a major policy change from Supt. Austin Beutner, who said in November that if it wasn’t safe enough for students to be in classrooms, it wasn’t safe enough for sports competitions to take place on a field. Students have been attending classes via computers and will continue to do so.
— Eric Sondheimer
New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone took a leave of absence from the team to get a pacemaker and intends to return to work in a few days . ... Washington Nationals
left-hander Jon Lester is leaving spring training camp to have surgery for the removal of his thyroid gland . ... Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Tim Locastro tested positive for COVID-19.
The new president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee stopped short of saying there would be no foreign fans at this year’s games, but she certainly hinted at it after online talks with IOC President Thomas Bach and others.
“If the situation is tough and it would make the [Japanese] consumers concerned, that is a situation we need to avoid from happening,” organizing committee President Seiko Hashimoto said.
Following months of speculation about Sam Darnold’s future in New York, Jets general manager Joe Douglas said he’d be willing to listen to trade offers for the 2018 No. 3 overall draft pick . ... The Minnesota Vikings will stick with Kirk Cousins at quarterback.
Top-seeded Daniil Medvedev’s 12 aces weren’t enough as the Australian Open runner-up lost 7-6 (4), 6-4 to Dusan Lajovic in the first round of the ABN AMRO at Rotterdam.
Former NFL player Kellen Winslow II was sentenced to 14 years in prison for multiple rapes and other sexual offenses against five women in Southern California, including one who was homeless when he attacked her in 2018.
Cornel Marculescu, the executive director of swimming’s governing body FINA, resigned after 35 years in charge in which the sport transformed its commercial appeal but was often troubled by doping.
Joe Altobelli, the manager who led the Baltimore Orioles to their most recent World Series title in 1983, died at the age of 88.