MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday he wants the sport to be ready to play as soon as it’s allowed to do so, and admitted he’s concerned about the restrictions a number of major league cities have placed on crowd gatherings in response to the coronavirus pandemic. MLB is considering a plan which would place all 30 teams in a centrallylocated spot near Phoenix, to play regular-season games without fans in mostly spring-training ballparks. Several players, however, have expressed concern over the plan due to the time they would be without their families.
Hall of Famer Roy Halladay had high levels of amphetamines in his system and was doing extreme acrobatics when he lost control of his small plane and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida in November, 2017, killing him, a National Transportation Safety Board report said Wednesday. Halladay had amphetamine levels about 10 times therapeutic levels in his blood along with a high level of morphine and an anti-depressant that can impair judgment as he performed high-pitch climbs and steep turns.
Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker says star pitcher Justin Verlander is back throwing again after undergoing groin surgery on March 17. The 2019 AL Cy Young Award winner was forced to leave a spring-training start on March 8, shortly before the league suspended all activities. Verlander would have missed the scheduled March 26 opener, but Baker said it’s likely he will be ready when the season eventually gets underway.