Sports

With Major League Baseball games to be played in empty stadiums, and the minor league season cancelled, fans are showing up at amateur leagues.

Millions of Americans tune in on January 1 to celebrate the New Year by watching the Rose Parade from Pasadena, California. But next year's parade has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"The truth is, we need less — not more politics in sports," wrote Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, a co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, to the WNBA's commissioner. The team's players strongly disagree.

Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler is a co-owner of Atlanta's WNBA team. The team's players have embraced the Black Lives Matter movement while Loeffler has called on the WNBA to drop its support for BLM.

NPR's Sarah McCammon talks with Crystal Echo Hawk, an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, about the Washington NFL team's announcement that it will retire its name and mascot.

The Washington Redskins have announced the team will be dropping its moniker, which is widely considered a slur against Native Americans. The head coach and team owner are developing a new name.

Washington's NFL team has announced they're retiring their controversial name and logo following a review.

Major League Baseball tried to make up for the non-existent fans at a Red Sox game on Friday. They used pre-recorded cheers and music.

In the wake of George Floyd's killing, Confederate monuments have fallen, food companies have scrubbed racist imagery from labels, and now, pro sports teams names are under fresh review.

NPR's Scott Simon and ESPN's Howard Bryant discuss the week's top sports stories, including the Ivy League calling off their season because of the pandemic.

So far, 71 players have tested positive for the coronavirus, the MLB said on Friday. "I'm actually kind of pleased it's as low as that," the league's medical director says.

Once the new college basketball season begins, Niele Ivey will take the court as The University of Notre Dame's head coach of its women's team, the school's first Black woman head coach in any sport.