Weekly Update – Week of June 8, 2020 (COVID Week 13)

Baseball: MLB still not back. JPN Giants had 2 positive tests. Archer out til 2021. Carl Crawford arrested for assault. A’s minor mistake.

Basketball: NBA is returning!

Football: NFL’s plan to reopen practice facilities. Reche Caldwell killed.

Golf: Golf is back! Memorial to allow fans. Rose sponsors 7 women’s tourneys.

Olympic Sports: Gymnast Thomas dies. Naser’s 400m gold in trouble. Rademacher dies. IWF hid positive tests and millions of dollars.

Soccer: USSF lifting the ban on kneeling?

Baseball:

• MLB has still not reached an agreement on how to return to play. The MLB rejected the MLBPA’s proposal to resume play on June 30^th and would run through November (including post season).
• Yomiuri Giants have had 2 positive COVID tests so they have canceled their preseason exhibition game. The rest of the Japanese baseball teams are hoping to return to play on June 12. No immediate plans to delay this start but it sure won’t help!
• Pirates RHP Chris Archer had surgery for his thoracic outlet syndrome and now will not play until 2021. He will be in rehab for about 6-8 months.
• Former Dodgers Carl Crawford was arrested for assaulting his former gf in argument over the new man she was dating. He shot all the ammunition at his ex-gf’, Gabrielle Washington, house whiling demanding her dating information. You may recognize his name as 2 people drowned in his pool a couple of weeks ago.
• Oakland A’s made a mistake and will continue paying their minor league players for the remainder of the minor league season.

Basketball:

• NBA is returning! The NBA’s board and player’s union agreed to a 22 team, 8 game wrap up of the season and then playoffs. The restart of the season is scheduled at July 31^st in the Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports complex.
  • Top 8 teams before COVID: Bucks, Lakers, Raptors, Clippers, Celtics, Nuggets, Jazz and Heat

Football:

• NFL has set a plan in motion to open its facilities for practice. Currently only players needing rehab are allowed into the stadium.
• ‘Reche’ Caldwell was killed at his Tampa, FL home at the age of 41. So far his death has been ruled a homicide but no arrests have been made yet. Caldwell went to the Chargers in the 2002 NFL draft after a very successful career at Florida. He then played in the league until 2008. Caldwell had his own trouble with the law after being arrested for drug possession and intent to sell in 2014 then conspiracy to commit health care fraud in Jan 2020. He already spent 27 months in federal prison for the 2014 offense and was going to be sentenced later this month.

Golf:

• Golf is back this weekend! And 16 of the top 20 players are in for the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth. Those not competing are Tigers Woods, Adam Scott, Tommy Fleetwood and Patrick Cantlay.

• Memorial Tournament will be the first tournament to allow fans after the shut down of the PGA Tour. That tournament will be played July 16-19. People who bought week long passes will get access to a lottery to see who will get to attend but they can push their passes until 2021 if they wish.
  • Not only that but the John Deere Classic would be moved for one year to Dublin, OH, sponsored by Workday and will be played the week before Memorial with no fans.
• Justin Rose and his wife are sponsoring a 7-tournament series for British women professionals starting June 18 – July 31. Rose will give 35k to the winner.

Olympic Sports:

• Kurt Thomas died at age 64 from a stroke. He was the first US man to win a worlds gymnastics title in 1978 at the World Championships in France in the floor exercise. He competed in the Montreal Olympics in 1976 and was a gold medal favorite for the 1980 Olympics until the US boycotted it. His wife, Becky, and Kurt owned the Kurt Thomas Gymnastics in Frisco, TX. He was the first American break out star for the sport.
• Salwa Eid Naser is under investigation for her 3 ‘whereabout failures’ for doping tests before she won the 400m in upsetting fashion at Worlds in Doha last year. The Bahraini sprinter beat Miller-Uibo with a time of 48.14, the fastest time ever run since 1985 – WR set in 1985 (47.60). She could be stripped of her medal and banned from the Olympics depending on what the AIU says in the upcoming months. She incurred a 4^th miss in January.
• The 1956 Olympic boxing champion and gold medalist, Pete Rademacher, died at age 91 of natural causes. He was also a lineman at Washington State before defeating RUS Lev Mukhim in the title match at the Olympics in Melbourne.
• The International Weightlifting Federation found 40 positive doping tests that were hidden in the records along with millions in missing money. Those samples have now been turned over to WADA. Their president, Ajan, stepped down in April after 20 years in the position and a combined 44 years in the federation.

Soccer:

• US Soccer Federation is considering repealing the ban on players kneeling during the national anthem.

What to Watch this Week

Baseball:

• KBO is still on but now only in the wee hours of the morning (aka <5am).

Hockey:

• Stanley Cup replays on are this week almost nightly from 6-10

Golf:

• Thurs 6/11 – Charles Schwab Challenge – Round 1 @ 3pm on Golf Channel
• Fri 6/12 – Charles Schwab Challenge – Round 2 @ 3pm on Golf Channel
• Sat 6/13 – Charles Schwab Challenge – Round 3
  • 12pm on Golf Channel
  • 2pm on CBS
• Sun 6/14 – Charles Schwab Challenge – Round 4
  • 12pm on Golf Channel
  • 2pm on CBS

Motorsports:

• Wed 6/10
  • NASCAR: Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 @ 6pm on FS1
  • Monster Energy Supercross @ 7pm on NBCSN
• Sun 6/14
  • NSACAR: Dixie Vodka 400 @ 2:30pm on Fox
  • Monster Energy Supercross @ 7pm on NBCSN

Olympic Sports:

• Thurs 6/11 – Track & Field: IAAF Diamond League: Oslo @ 2pm on NBCSN