MLB negotiations:
MLB tells players at most 60game season; 50 or fewer games possible.
Fivetime PGA Tour winner Nick Watney on Friday tested positive for the coronavirus, the first player with a confirmed infection since golf resumed its schedule last week.
Watney, a Sacramento native, withdrew from the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head Island, S.C., and must selfisolate for at least 10 days under the tour’s protocols.
On the course, Webb Simpson shot a 6underpar 65 to improve to 12under 130, good for a oneshot lead over Bryson DeChambeau (64) and Corey Conners (63). Thunderstorms rolled through the island late in the afternoon and halted play.
Jordan Spieth had another good finish with two birdies over his last four holes, but all that did was salvage a 70. He was six behind. Rory McIlroy (65) made the cut with one shot to spare.
NHL: Canada has approved the NHL’s returntoplay proposal that could lead to one or more cities north of the border serving as host sites for the league’s 24team playoff format.
Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Lightning closed their facilities after three players and “additional staff members” tested positive for the coronavirus.
Baseball: The Minnesota Twins removed a statue of former owner Calvin Griffith at Target Field, citing his racist remarks in 1978 and saying the team could no longer “remain silent.”
Griffith moved the Washington Senators to Minnesota for the 1961 season, and the franchise was renamed the Twins. During a speech in Minnesota to a Waseca Lions club in 1978, he said he decided to make the move “when I found out you only had 15,000 blacks here,” the Minneapolis Tribune reported at the time.
1 Former A’s pitcher Zach Neal threw onehit ball for six innings to lead the Seibu Lions over the Hokkaido NipponHam Fighters 30 as Japanese baseball began after a threemonth delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Neal became Seibu’s first foreign Opening Day starter since Taiwan’s Kuo Taiyuan in 1995.
All 12 teams were in action without live fans; former Baltimore AllStar outfielder Adam Jones went 0for3 in his debut for the Orix Buffaloes, a 91 loss to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles; In the Tokyo Dome, Yomiuri defeated the Hanshin Tigers 32, the Giants’ 6,000th victory dating from 1934.
1 Albert Pujols reportedly will pay the salaries of the Los Angeles Angels’ furloughed employees in his native Dominican Republic for five months, which amounts to roughly $180,000.
Soccer: A group of black Major League Soccer players has formed a coalition to address racial inequities in the league and across soccer, and to try to posi
In Europe, Paul Pogba made an immediate impact on his return from surgery, earning a penalty converted by Bruno Fernandes that recovered for Manchester United a 11 draw at Tottenham in the English Premier League; In the Spanish league, Barcelona was held at Sevilla to a 00 draw.
Hospitalized: Alex Zanardi, the race car champion who transitioned into a gold medalist Paralympian after losing both of his legs, was seriously injured in a handbike race and underwent brain surgery at a hospital in Siena, Italy.
Courts: A federal judge dismissed a sexual discrimination lawsuit against the University of Saint Joseph that accused Hall of Fame men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun of harassment.