Little League World Series canceled for the first time
This year’s Little League World Series and the championship tournaments in six other Little League divisions have been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Little League President
announced the cancellations in a Facebook Live broadcast Thursday afternoon from league headquarters in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, saying it would be “impossible” to hold the events amid ongoing restrictions on large gatherings and travel.
The Little League Baseball World Series was scheduled to take place Aug. 20-30 in South Williamsport.
The Series has been held every August since 1947 and has never been canceled. Next year was to be the 75th playing of the tournament; that milestone has been pushed back to 2022.
Meanwhile, Keener said local leagues can begin play after May 11 and hold district all-star tournaments as long as they adhere to local and state guidelines.
ETC.
NASCAR confirmed that it will resume its season without fans starting May 17 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina with the premier Cup Series racing three more times in a 10day span. NASCAR joins the UFC as the first major sports organizations to announce specific return to play plans since the coronavirus pandemic shut down U.S. sports in midMarch. Charlotte Motor Speedway will host the Coca-Cola 600 on May 24 to mark 60 consecutive years the longest race on the NASCAR schedule will be held on Memorial Day weekend. There was no word on rescheduling the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway that was postponed in March. The sanctioning body is holding off on scheduling events at tracks that require air travel and hotel accommodations. The revised schedule for now stays at tracks within driving distance of Charlotte-based race teams and in states that have started reopening.
Team presidents met Thursday and emerged with belief that there are still ways to resume the season, and Dallas owner also expressed optimism that the league will find a way out of the coronaviruscaused shutdown. “Every intention is to return to play and try to create the best environment we can for the league and for the fans,” San Antonio Spurs CEO said after participating in the call with top team officials. “And we’re all on board for that.”
Paris SaintGermain has been declared French league champion after the soccer season ended early because of the coronavirus pandemic.
PSG led second-place Marseille by 12 points and played one game less. … An Israeli bank and its Swiss subsidiary agreed to pay over $30 million for their role in conspiring to launder more than $20 million in kickbacks to soccer officials, becoming the first financial institutions implicated in the FIFA scandal to reach a resolution with U.S. prosecutors. The scheme took place through the banks’ Miami branch from 2010-15, with many of the payments tied to marketing rights for the Copa America.