The WNBA players’ union is mulling over proposals to start its pandemic-delayed 2020 season, with the league hoping to begin play as early as next month.
The season was postponed because of the pandemic in early April, before training camps even opened. The league has been formulating plans for an abbreviated season, much as other professional leagues are doing, and the union is going over details of plans with its rank and file.
“I have been on the phone with players all day today, and more to come tomorrow and through the weekend to gather player feedback,” Terri Jackson, the executive director of the union, said in an email. “No decisions have been made. Players are considering their options — all their options.”
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The league is considering playing its season at one location, similar to the NBA’s plan to resume its season at the Walt Disney World Resort. ESPN reported Thursday that the WNBA wants to play at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., although the MGM Resorts in Las Vegas is also an option.
ESPN reported that the league was proposing a 22-game schedule beginning July 24, with playoffs that would end in October. Since 2003, WNBA teams have played 34 games, but they were set to add two to the schedule this year.
HORSE RACING
Honor A.P. wins Santa Anita Derby
Honor A.P. captured the $400,000 Santa Anita Derby by 2¾ lengths to move into the Kentucky Derby picture.
Ridden by Hall of Famer Mike Smith, Honor A.P. ran 1⅛ miles in 1 minute 48.97 seconds and paid $6.40, $2.60, and $2.20. It was Smith’s third straight win and fourth overall in the West Coast’s major prep for the Kentucky Derby on Sept.5.
The Grade 1 race was run without spectators or media at the Arcadia, Calif., track because of the pandemic.
‘‘I miss the fans, but I just got to pump myself up,’’ Smith said.
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Authentic returned $2.20 and $2.10 as the heavy 1-2 favorite, while Rushie was another 1¼ lengths back in third and paid $3.40 to show.
In the $300,000 Hollywood Gold Cup, 6-5 favorite Improbable won by 3¼ lengths over Higher Power. Ridden by Drayden Van Dyke, Improbable ran 1¼ miles in 2:01.69 and paid $4.60, $3, and $2.40.
Earlier, trainer Bob Baffert said undefeated Charlatan will miss the Kentucky Derby after being sidelined by a minor ankle issue.
And in Toronto, thoroughbred racing resumed at Woodbine Racetrack after a seven-week delay because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The 11-race card, with no fans in attendance, marked the first professional sports action in the Toronto area since March 10, when the Maple Leafs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning.
A total of 11 races ran at Woodbine with 118 entries. Racing had been scheduled to begin at Woodbine on April 18.
AUTO RACING
Scott Dixon rolls to season-opening victory
Scott Dixon, a five-time IndyCar champion, took the checkered flag at dusk at the Texas Motor Speedway in the long-delayed season opener in Fort Worth
It was his fourth win at the 1½-mile, high-banked oval, where drivers had also practiced and qualified earlier in the day. Because of the extended day at the track, the length of the race was shortened to 200 laps from its usual 248 at Texas, and was finished under two hours.
The 39-year-old New Zealander raced to his 47th career victory and matched A.J. Foyt’s record of 18 seasons with a win.
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“It was such a team effort,’’ said Dixon, third on the career wins list behind Foyt’s 67 and Mario Andretti’s 52. “It’s just so fast. Any situation we were in, we could just go for it.’’
After a restart with three laps left following a caution when his young teammate Felix Rosenqvist crashed, Dixon sped away in the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Honda for a 4.4-second victory over Simon Pagenaud.
Defending IndyCar champion and pole-sitter Josef Newgarden finished third behind Pagenaud, his teammate at Team Penske.
The massive grandstands that can seat well more than 100,000 people were empty, and not because of extreme heat — temperatures in the mid-90s with a heat index around 100 degrees throughout practice, qualifying, and even much of the race. No spectators were allowed, as will also be the case for the next race on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 4. The only at-track spectators were the people watching from their condos in the building overlooking Turn 2.
“It’s rotten that the fans aren’t here. I wish everybody was here to celebrate,” said Dixon, who extended his own record to 16 seasons in a row with a victory.
Governor Greg Abbott rode in the pace car for the first professional sporting event in Texas since sports shut down nationwide because of the pandemic.
Earlier at Atlanta Motor Speedway, A.J. Allmendinger cruised to victory by nearly two seconds over pole-sitter Noah Gragson in the Xfinity Series race.
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PROFESSIONAL SOCCER
EPL teams step up practice
Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal were among the clubs who stepped up their preparations for the Premier League’s return by holding practice matches.
Clubs are attempting to build up players’ fitness as well as get used to playing without fans before the league resumes on June 17 following a 100-day suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The league also announced that the sixth round of COVID-19 testing of 1,195 players and staff across the 20 clubs on Thursday and Friday produced no positives.
Wirtz makes history in Bundesliga
Bayer Leverkusen substitute Florian Wirtz became the youngest person to score a goal in the Bundesliga at age 17 years, 34 days, with an impressive strike against Bayern Munich in Berlin.
The attacking midfielder came on for the second half and wrong-footed Lucas Hernandez — the most expensive player in the league — before lifting the ball over Bayern gpalkeeper Manuel Neuer inside the far post for Leverkusen’s consolation goal in a 4-2 defeat.
Bayern and Bayer Leverkusen’s players wore black armbands against racism . Bayern’s players had ”Black Lives Matter” printed on their armbands, partly covering sponsor Qatar Airways’ logo on the left arm.
Germany’s soccer league was marked by other gestures against racism and support for the Black Lives Matter movement as Bayern Munich took another step toward a record-extending eighth straight Bundesliga title.
All of Borussia Dortmund and Hertha Berlin’s 22 outfield players took a knee in the center-circle together before the top tier’s late game with no fans present. Coaches and other team members from both sides did likewise beside the field, bringing to mind former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protest before games against police brutality and racial inequality.
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Dortmund’s players had warmed up wearing T-shirts with slogans such as “United together,” and “No justice, no peace.”
MISCELLANY
Gymnastics great Kurt Thomas dead at 64
Kurt Thomas, the first US male gymnast to win a world championship gold medal, has died. He was 64. Thomas’s family said he died Friday. He had a stroke May 24, caused by a tear of the basilar artery in the brain stem. After competing in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Thomas won the floor exercise in the 1978 world championships in Strasbourg, France. In the 1979 worlds in Fort Worth, Texas, he successfully defended the floor exercise title and won the horizontal bar. Thomas lost a chance for Olympic gold when the United States boycotted the 1980 Olympics. He then turned professional, starred in the 1985 movie “Gymkata” and worked as a television commentator . . . The NBA has told teams that playoff seeding will be based on winning percentage, and that any tiebreakers necessary after that will follow the usual procedures . . . The Chinese Football Association says six members of the national under-19 soccer team have been suspended for six months for violating coronavirus control measures by leaving training camp at midnight to go drinking. The 35-player training camp in Shanghai began on May 17 and ended Saturday.
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