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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said that if the league’s players feel the quality of the ice at the Olympics in Milan is unsafe, “then we’re not going to play.”

“It’s as simple as that,” Daly told reporters after the NHL board of governors meetings on Monday.

Daly told league owners Monday that he didn’t believe construction issues with the Olympic ice hockey rink were “insurmountable.”

The main hockey arena in Milan is scheduled to be finished Feb. 2. The women’s hockey tournament begins three days later, and the men’s tournament, with NHL players set to participate in the Olympics for the first time in over a decade, begins Feb. 11, leaving very little wiggle room.

The Olympic arenas will feature three games a day for nearly three weeks, which will challenge the resiliency of the ice. Daly categorized the updates the NHL and NHLPA received last week as positive, but said the league was upping its efforts to help see through the arena.

“We have offered and they’re utilizing our ice experts and technicians and outside providers,” Daly said. “We’re basically moving everybody there to try to help get this done in a way that’s acceptable for NHL athletes. And I’m cautiously optimistic it will be fruitful.”

The NHL will have ongoing access to the ice. That will include being on site for a test event scheduled for the main rink from Jan. 9-11.

On Monday, the IIHF acknowledged the two rinks in Milan would be about 3 feet shorter than a standard NHL rink (196.85 feet by 85.3 feet, instead of 200 feet by 85 feet) — which goes against the agreement the NHL and NHLPA signed with the IIHF in July.

Daly said the league found out about the skewed dimensions last week, and he was not sure how it happened. Some federations were made aware earlier, but Daly said nobody raised the issue to him and the league did not notice the difference in several site visits because it wasn’t anything “perceptible to anybody. It’s not like people bring tape measures there.”

But the NHL and NHLPA are willing to look past that for now — though they will insist the rink for the 2030 Olympics in France is built to NHL standards.

“The players association has canvassed the players and apparently they did not believe it to be a big issue, health and safety issue or a competitive issue,” Daly said.

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators played games on a similar-sized rink last month at the Global Series in Sweden; the solution was to move the lines so the missing ice was accounted for in the neutral zone rather than either offensive zone. Daly said they did not receive any feedback from players after those games.

Organizers have insisted there is no Plan B for the Olympic hockey tournament to be held elsewhere if the rink is not ready. Daly said the NHL also doesn’t have a contingency plan yet if it decides the ice is not suitable.

“I mean, it kind of is what it is,” Daly said. “Having said that, if you’re faced with that being the reality, then you have to think about what you do next. “

The NHL will go dark for a two-week period during the Games. Asked if it was possible to reconfigure the schedule if necessary, Daly said he wasn’t sure yet.

“Well, I can’t tell you exactly what we do,” he said. “What I’d say is, I think in emergency-type situations like that in the past, I think we’ve responded appropriately, came up with good solutions and I have no doubt that we’ll be able to come up with good solutions if we’re faced with that.”

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Braves sign vet OF Yastrzemski to 2-year deal

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Braves sign vet OF Yastrzemski to 2-year deal

ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves signed veteran outfielder Mike Yastrzemski to a two-year deal Wednesday that includes a club option for 2028.

The 35-year-old Yastrzemski hit .233 with 17 home runs and 46 RBIs in 146 games last year between San Francisco and Kansas City.

Yastrzemski, who spent the first six-plus seasons of his career with the Giants before being sent to the Royals in July, will make $9 million in 2026 and $10 million in 2027. Atlanta holds a club option for 2028. Yastrzemski will make $7 million if the Braves pick up the option. He will receive a $4 million buyout if they do not.

The versatile Yastrzemski, the grandson of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, can play all three outfield positions and is a career .238 hitter. His best season came in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign, when he batted .297 with 10 homers in 54 games and finished in the top 10 in NL MVP voting.

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Rule 5: Yanks pick Winquest, Rockies get Petit

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Rule 5: Yanks pick Winquest, Rockies get Petit

ORLANDO, Fla. — The New York Yankees made their first selection in a Rule 5 draft since 2011 on Wednesday, taking right-hander Cade Winquest from the St. Louis Cardinals.

Winquest was one of 13 players — and 12 right-handed pitchers — chosen in the major league portion of the draft.

The Rockies took RJ Petit, a 6-foot-8 reliever, with the first pick from the Detroit Tigers. Petit, 26, had a 2.44 ERA in 45 relief appearances and two starts between Double A and Triple A last season. The Minnesota Twins chose the only position player, selecting catcher Daniel Susac from the Athletics.

Clubs pay $100,000 to select a player and must keep him on the active major league roster for the entire following season unless he lands on the injured list. Players taken off the roster must be offered back to the former club for $50,000.

The 25-year-old Winquest recorded a 4.58 ERA with a 48% groundball rate in 106 innings across 25 games, including 23 starts, between Single A and Double A last season. He features a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and touches 98 mph plus a curveball, cutter and sweeper. He is expected to compete for a spot in the Yankees’ bullpen next season.

Right-hander Brad Meyers was the last player the Yankees had chosen in a Rule 5 draft. He suffered a right shoulder injury in spring training and was on the injured list for the entire 2012 season before he was offered back to the Washington Nationals. He never appeared in a major league game.

Also picked were right-hander Jedixson Paez (Colorado from Boston), right-hander Griff McGarry (Washington from Philadelphia), catcher Carter Baumler (Pittsburgh from Baltimore), right-hander Ryan Watson (Athletics from San Francisco), right-hander Matthew Pushard (St. Louis from Miami), right-hander Roddery Munoz (Houston from Cincinnati), right-hander Peyton Pallette (Cleveland from Chicago White Sox), right-hander Spencer Miles (Toronto from San Francisco), right-hander Zach McCambley (Philadelphia from Miami) and right-hander Alexander Alberto (White Sox from Tampa Bay).

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Joe Buck joins father, wins HOF’s Frick Award

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Joe Buck joins father, wins HOF's Frick Award

Even though Joe Buck is more widely known these days as the voice of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” his broadcast career is rooted in baseball, including calling the most World Series games on television.

On Wednesday, Buck received a call that he thought was at least a few years down the line. He found out he received the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting by baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Buck is not only the 50th winner of the Frick Award, he joins his father, Jack, to become the only father-son duo to win the honor. Jack Buck, who broadcast St. Louis Cardinals games from 1954 until 2021 and was the lead announcer on CBS’ baseball package in 1990 and ’91, received the award in 1987.

“I am shocked in many ways. I didn’t think this was coming right now,” Buck said. “I was saying to the group that called to tell me that my best memory of my father as a Major League Baseball broadcaster was in 1987 in Cooperstown, New York, and what it meant to him, what it meant to our family to see him get the award. To see the joy and the pride that he had for what he had done.”

Joe Buck will receive the award during the Hall’s July 25, 2026, awards presentation in Cooperstown, a day ahead of induction ceremonies. At 56, Buck becomes the second-youngest Frick Award winner, trailing only Vin Scully, who was 54 when he was named the 1982 winner.

Buck grew up in St. Louis and called games for the Triple-A Louisville Redbirds in 1989 and ’90 after graduating from Indiana University. He joined his father for Cardinals broadcasts in 1991, a job Joe held through 2007. Jack Buck died in June 2002 at age 77.

“I was lucky to call Jack Buck my dad and my best friend. I’m lucky that I’m Carol Buck’s son. I tend to downplay awards and what have you because of always feeling like I had a leg up at the start of my career and I did. I’m the first to admit it. But I am happy that when I was a kid, I paid attention and I wanted to be with him. I think the greatest gift my dad gave me was allowing me to be in the room with him. I’d like to think there’s still some stuff out in front of me, but this is the greatest honor I could receive. And to know what he would be thinking and feeling on this day, that’s the part what makes it special.

“I recall him saying [during his speech] that he was honored to be the eyes and the ears for Cardinal fans, wherever the Cardinals went, and he was very proud of being the conduit between wherever the Cardinals were playing and those fans that were listening. That always resonated with me.”

Buck joined Fox Sports when it started doing NFL games in 1994. Two years later, it got the rights to Major League Baseball and Buck was made the lead announcer with Tim McCarver as the analyst. McCarver retired from broadcasting after the 2013 season and received the Frick Award in 2021.

Buck was 27 when he called his first World Series in 1996. He would go on to do the Fall Classic in 1998 and then annually from 2000-21. His 135 World Series games make him one of six U.S. play-by-play announcers to reach the century mark calling either the Fall Classic, NBA Finals or Stanley Cup Finals. Scully had 126 World Series games on radio and television.

Buck also worked 21 All-Star Games and 26 League Championship Series for Fox before joining ESPN in 2022 as the voice of “Monday Night Football.”

Since going to ESPN, Buck called a game on Opening Day last year and worked a Cardinals game with Chip Caray in 2023. Buck said there is the possibility of doing a couple more games for ESPN in the future.

“I think of myself as a baseball announcer probably first because that’s what I was around the most. I love the game. I’m a fan of the game,” he said. “I still dream as a baseball announcer at night. I think all announcers have the same nightmare where you show up at a game and you can’t see anybody on the field, you don’t know anybody’s name and you’re trying to fake your way through a broadcast. Those are all baseball games in my dreams. So it’s in my genetics, it’s in my DNA. I grew up at Busch Stadium as a kid and yeah, baseball is always kind of first and foremost in my heart.”

Buck also becomes the sixth broadcaster to win both the Frick Award and the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, joining Jack Buck, Dick Enberg, Curt Gowdy, Al Michaels and Lindsey Nelson.

A broadcaster must have 10 continuous years of experience with a network or team to be considered, and the ballot was picked by a subcommittee of past winners that includes Marty Brennaman, Joe Castiglione and Bob Costas, along with broadcast historians David J. Halberstam and Curt Smith. At least one candidate must be a foreign-language broadcaster.

Voters are 13 past winners — Brennaman, Castiglione, Costas, Ken Harrelson, Pat Hughes, Jaime Jarrín, Tony Kubek, Denny Matthews, Michaels, Jon Miller, Eric Nadel, Dave Van Horne and Tom Hamilton — plus historians Halberstam, Smith and former Dallas Morning News writer Barry Horn.

John Rooney of the Cardinals and Brian Anderson of the Milwaukee Brewers were ballot newcomers this year, joining returnees Skip Caray, Rene Cardenas, Gary Cohen, Jacques Doucet, Duane Kuiper and John Sterling. Buck was on the ballot after being dropped last year, and Dan Shulman was on for the third time in four years.

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