NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball is delaying the start of its season by at least two weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak. Opening day had been scheduled for March 26. MLB also has suspended the rest of its spring training game schedule. MLB continued to play into Thursday but changed course after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he strongly recommended to local authorities and organizers that they limit all mass gatherings. The March 26 start had been baseball’s earliest scheduled opening other than for international games. MLB had not had a mass postponement of openers since 1995, when the season was shortened from 162 games to 144 after a strike.
UNDATED (AP) — The NHL is following the NBA’s lead and suspending its season amid the coronavirus outbreak. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says the league is pausing its season with the hope of resuming it later and awarding the Stanley Cup. The move comes a day after the NBA suspended play following a player’s positive COVID-19 test. The NHL has not said any player has tested positive for the virus. The NHL is halting play with 189 games left in the regular season and sparking uncertainty about how many more if any could be go on before the playoffs. A handful of European hockey leagues have already called off the remainder of their seasons.
UNDATED (AP) — The major conferences in college sports have canceled their basketball tournaments because of the new coronavirus, putting the celebrated NCAA Tournament in doubt. The Power 5 conferences are the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC. Within minutes of each other, they announced that the remainder of their tournaments would not be played. All were preparing to play games in large arenas, but with few people in the buildings. Following the NCAA’s lead, most college conferences had announced that their basketball tournaments would be played with limited fan access. But today the men’s Division I conferences decided to shut things down.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The PGA Tour plans to keep playing, just without anyone watching from outside the ropes because of the coronavirus. Commissioner Jay Monahan says fans will not be allowed for the final three rounds of The Players Championship and the next three weeks up until the Masters. That affects the Valspar Championship in Tampa, the Dell Match Play in Austin, Texas, and the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio. Augusta National has not said what it will do for the Masters. Monahan says golf is different from other sports canceling events because it’s outdoors over expansive property.
UNDATED (AP) — IndyCar and NASCAR will both race this weekend without spectators over fears of the COVID-19 pandemic. IndyCar is scheduled to open its season Sunday on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. Only essential personnel will be permitted to attend. Competitors will also undergo a questionnaire for health screening before entry. NASCAR will race this week at Atlanta and next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway under similar restrictions. The NHRA has canceled much of the GatorNationals and IMSA rescheduled the 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida.
Previously
(AP) Some players self-quarantine after NBA suspends its season.
News that a Utah Jazz player has tested positive for the new corona virus has led to the suspension of the NBA season, and prompted members of other teams to go into quarantine.
The Washington Wizards say their players, coaches and basketball operations personnel will self-quarantine for the next three to four days. The Wizards played at the Utah Jazz on Feb. 29. Washington also played Tuesday against the New York Knicks, another recent opponent of the Jazz.
The Wizards say any players, coaches and staff who have flu-like symptoms will be tested for the virus COVID-19.
The Toronto Raptors say their players, coaches and traveling staff have been advised to isolate themselves for 14 days because they recently played the Jazz. The team says all members of the Raptors traveling party have been tested for the virus and await the results.
Toronto is one of five teams that have played the Jazz since the start of March. The others are Boston, Detroit, New York and Cleveland.
The NBA announced its decision to suspend the season until further notice on Wednesday night after learning that a player had tested positive for the virus. The NBA said the test result was reported shortly before the scheduled tip-off for Utah’s game at Oklahoma City. The game was called off and fans sent home.
In other virus-related developments:
— The Players Championship is keeping fans out for the final three days at the TPC Sawgrass. A person involved in the discussions over how to handle the new coronavirus tells The Associated Press that only key personnel will be allowed at the course. The tour is expected to announce an update later Thursday. The source says the policy will be in place at PGA Tour events for the next several weeks starting with the Valspar Championship next week in the Tampa Bay area. The only other times the tour has kept fans from the course were for safety issues related to weather.
— The National Hockey League says it is aware of the NBA’s decision to suspend its season and is continuing to consult with medical experts and evaluate options. The NHL says it expects to provide another update Thursday. So far, the NHL has not made any declarations about even holding games without fans in the stands. The Columbus Blue Jackets became the first team to announce that, beginning with their game tonight against Pittsburgh. The San Jose Sharks said they would hold their three home games in March in an empty arena.
— Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner John Swofford says the league men’s basketball tournament is ready to hold games as scheduled Thursday without fans in Greensboro, North Carolina. Swofford held a news conference Thursday morning, a few hours before the first of four quarterfinal games. The league had announced Wednesday that it wouldn’t allow the general public into tournament games amid concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus that has become a global pandemic. Swofford called it “a very fluid situation” that “changes daily now, and may well be changing hourly.” The NCAA announced yesterday it planned to conduct its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments next week with only essential staff and some family members of teams in the building.
— The ATP has suspended all men’s professional tennis tournaments for six weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak. No ATP Tour or ATP Challenger Tour events will take place through the week of April 20. The tournament at Indian Wells, California, scheduled to begin main-draw play Wednesday already had been called off. The affected events are the Miami Open, the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston, the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech, the Monte Carlo Masters, the Barcelona Open and the Hungarian Open. The next Grand Slam tournament, the French Open, is still scheduled to be held in Paris
— McLaren has withdrawn from the Australian Grand Prix, hours after six-time champion Lewis Hamilton questioned the wisdom of staging the season-opening Formula One race while other sports are canceling events because of the spreading coronavirus. A McLaren team member tested positive for the coronavirus after going into self-isolation in Australia. More than 300,000 fans regularly attend the Albert Park circuit over the first four days of the season.
— The International Basketball Federation says it is suspending all competitions indefinitely from Friday. The suspension includes games in the Basketball Champions League, which is a rival competition to the better known Euroleague, and the second-tier FIBA Europe Cup. The Champions League is part-way through its playoffs.
— Real (ray-AL’) Madrid says its soccer and basketball teams have been put in quarantine after a basketball play for the club tested positive for the coronavirus. The Spanish club says the soccer team was also affected because it shares training facilities with the basketball team.
GREECE-OLYMPIC FLAME
Amid virus precautions, Tokyo Olympic flame is lit in Greece
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The flame for the Tokyo Olympics was lit Thursday at the birthplace of the ancient games in a pared-down ceremony because of the coronavirus.
Standing in front of the ruined Temple of Hera in Ancient Olympia, a Greek actress playing the part of a pagan priestess used a concave mirror to focus the sun’s rays on a silver torch, causing fire to spurt forth.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach noted the “difficult circumstances” created by the virus outbreak, but stressed the IOC’s commitment to the success of the Tokyo Games.
The IOC has maintained that the July 24-Aug. 9 games will go ahead as planned — even as sports events in various countries are being curtailed or held without spectators — and urged all athletes to continue to prepare for the Olympics.
Fears of the coronavirus forced Greek officials to ban members of the public from attending the ceremony and severely curtail the number of invited officials and journalists. Normally, several thousand people from many countries gather on the earthen banks of Olympia’s ancient stadium to watch the ceremony.
