BASEBALL
ATLANTA (AP) — Luis Garcia of the Washington Nationals became the first player born in the 2000s to hit a homer in the big leagues.
The 20-year-old second baseman made history with a two-run shot into the right-field seats off Atlanta’s Touki Toussaint in the second inning.
The youngest player in the majors, Garcia was born on May 16, 2000. He was called up by the Nationals on Friday after Starlin Castro went on the injured list with a broken right wrist.
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Seattle Mariners pitcher Kendall Graveman said Monday he has a benign bone tumor in his cervical spine but intends to continue pitching.
Graveman, who spoke after making a rehab outing, started this season in Seattle’s rotation and made two starts before going on the injured list with a neck spasm.
He said the symptoms first developed in 2018 and a diagnosis of the tumor came last season while he was recovering from Tommy John surgery in the Chicago Cubs organization. He said the location of the tumor makes it difficult to do a surgical procedure.
FOOTBALL
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington Football Team on Monday hired Jason Wright as team president, making him the first Black person to hold that position in NFL history.
At 38, he becomes the NFL’s youngest team president and will run the organization’s business operations with coach Ron Rivera maintaining control over football decisions.
Wright, a running back for seven years with Atlanta, Cleveland and Arizona, was a captain for the Cardinals and their NFLPA representative during labor negotiations in 2010-11.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Canadian Football League canceled its 2020 season Monday because of the pandemic, marking the first year since 1919 the Grey Cup won’t be awarded.
The move by the nine-team league dashed hopes of a shortened season in the hub city of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Commissioner Randy Ambrosie said the decision was in the “best long-term interests” of the league.
TENNIS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wimbledon champion Simona Halep will skip the U.S. Open, saying Monday she is putting her health first and prefers to stay in Europe during the coronavirus pandemic.
Halep, a former top-ranked player who is currently No. 2, won the title in Prague on Sunday.
Six of the top eight women in the WTA rankings won’t play in New York. No. 1 Ash Barty and defending champion Bianca Andreescu have also withdrawn.
Other women who won’t be playing include No. 5 Elina Svitolina, No. 7 Kiki Bertens and No. 8 Belinda Bencic.
SOCCER
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Barcelona fired coach Quique Setién on Monday, three days after the team’s humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, the first step in what it said would be “a wide-ranging restructuring” of the club.
The decision was announced after an urgent board meeting summoned by president Josep Bartomeu in Barcelona. The club also announced new elections for March 2021 and said “profound changes” were coming for the first team.
A replacement to Setién was not immediately announced but Spanish media said Dutch coach Ronald Koeman was the front-runner to take charge. The former Barcelona defender was reportedly already in Barcelona.
MMA
Long-reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones says he is vacating his title and probably moving up to heavyweight.
Jones made the declarations on Twitter on Monday, although the UFC didn’t immediately confirm them.
Jones and the UFC have both acknowledged contentious negotiations in recent weeks about the long-reigning champ’s next bout and the direction of the 205-pound division. Those discussions apparently culminated in Jones deciding to walk away from the division he has dominated when able to fight.
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — WNBA All-Star center Liz Cambage is set to return to the Australian women’s basketball league after signing with the Southside Flyers.
Cambage is missing the WNBA season for the Las Vegas Aces after being medically excused by the league’s independent panel of doctors, who deemed her to be at high risk for getting severe illness if she contracted COVID-19.
Basketball Australia announced Cambage’s signing on Tuesday for the season which is scheduled to start in November.
OBITUARY
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — Boyd “Tiny” Grant, the basketball coach who led Colorado State and Fresno State to the NCAA Tournament, died Monday. It was his 87th birthday.
Colorado State announced Grant suffered a stroke over the weekend and didn’t recover.
Grant was a guard for Colorado State under coach Jim Williams before embarking on a coaching career. After stints as an assistant coach for the Rams and at Kentucky, he became a head coach in the junior college ranks. He took over at Fresno State in 1977-78 and would lead the Bulldogs to three Western Athletic Conference championships, three NCAA Tournament appearances and the 1983 NIT Championship. Grant was inducted into the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993.
Grant became the coach at Colorado State for the 1987-88 season. In four seasons, Grant went 81-46 and took the Rams to two NCAA Tournaments.
He retired in 1991 with a career record of 275-120. Grant also was inducted into the Colorado State Athletics Hall of Fame and the National Junior College Basketball Hall of Fame.
LONDON (AP) — Angela Buxton, a British tennis player who was the doubles partner of Althea Gibson when the American became the first Black person to win a major title in 1956, has died. She was 85.
The International Tennis Federation announced the death of Buxton on Monday, describing her as “an early pioneer of equal rights.”
Buxton and Gibson won the doubles titles at the French Open and Wimbledon in 1956, with Buxton also reaching the singles final at the All England Club that year. Gibson won the singles title at the French championships in 1956 and went on to win the singles titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 1957 and 1958.
Buxton was forced to retire at the end of the 1957 season, at the age of 22, because of a serious hand injury.
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