The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Irving will remain out while unvaccinated
Kyrie Irving can keep refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
He just won’t play for the Brooklyn Nets until he does.
The Nets announced Tuesday that Irving would not play or practice with them until he could be a full participant, ending the idea that he would play in only road games.
Irving hasn’t said he isn’t vaccinated, asking for privacy when he spoke via Zoom during the team’s media day on Sept. 27.
But he had rarely been with the team in New York, where a mandate requires professional athletes playing for a team in the city have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to play or practice in public venues.
MLB
ASTROS ELIMINATE WHITE SOX » It was Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman once again.
Led by their Octobertested stars, the Houston Astros are going back to the AL Championship Series for the fifth straight year.
Altuve hit a three-run homer, scored four times and stole a base, and Houston eliminated the Chicago White Sox with a 10-1 victory in Game 4 of their AL Division Series on Tuesday.
Correa and Bregman each hit a two-run double as the Astros bounced back from Sunday night’s 12-6 loss with their usual relentless brand of baseball. Michael Brantley had three hits and two RBIs.
Next up for Altuve and company is Game 1 of the ALCS against former Astros bench coach Alex Cora and the Boston Red Sox on Friday in Houston.
The Red Sox eliminated Tampa Bay with a 6-5 victory in Game 4 on Monday night.
BRAVES OUST BREWERS» Freddie Freeman hit a tie- breaking home run off Mil- waukee closer Josh Hader with two outs in the eighth inning and the Atlanta Braves advanced to the NL Championship Series for the second year in a row, finishing off the Brewers, 5-4.
The Braves won the bestof-five Division Series three games to one, advancing to face either the 107-win San Francisco Giants or the 106win Los Angeles Dodgers with a trip to the World Series on the line.
The game was tied at 4 when the Brewers brought on Hader to make sure it stayed that way.
The hard-throwing lefty struck out Eddie Rosario and Dansby Swanson, but he couldn’t get past the 2020 NL MVP.
Golf
J.R. SMITH CONTINUES COLLEGE DEBUT » J.R. Smith stepped into a hornets nest in his first college golf tournament and it had nothing to do with his high score.
The 36-year-old two-time NBA champion was literally
stung by hornets while completing his round Tues- day for North Carolina A&T on the second day of Elon’s Phoenix Invitational.
“To get stung on the bas- ketball court or in an arena, never happens,” said Smith, now a freshman walk-on. “That’s one of the very few things you don’t have to worry about (in basketball) – other animals. When I got stung, I was like ‘No way.’”
The hornets just added to the sting of Smith’s birdieless round of 8-over-par 79 on the Donald Ross-designed layout. Combined with his two rounds Monday, he finished at 29 over 240 – in 81st place out 84 entries.porendiscia comnis resto evelecturem. Explita verchit facia.
NHL ONLY FOUR NHL PLAYERS UNVACCINATED »
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the league has only four unvaccinated players as it opens up the 2021-22 season.
Bettman was in attendance for the regular-season opener between the
back to back Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night.
“Everybody banding together to do the right thing,” Bettman said. “Maybe that’s why hockey is the ultimate team sport.”
Bettman said NHL officials and all the personnel that come into contact with the players are vaccinated.
““It’s something we take seriously,” Bettman said. “Health and safety has been and will continue to be paramount.”
There are still COVID-19 cases involving players that are fully vaccinated.
The expansion Seattle Kraken were missing a number of players due to Covid-19 protocols for their first game Tuesday night at Las Vegas.
The Lightning have expressed a continuing interest in hosting an outdoor game in Tampa, Florida but the weather conditions in the state remain a major obstacle.
“Do I have severe weather concerns, the answer is yes,” Bettman said.