Sports, Tuesday, May 12th

By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com 

Iowa Games Still Shooting for July:

Iowa Games officials are still planning on holding their summer games in July but the COVID-19 pandemic has forced several sports to be cancelled or adjusted.

Spokesman Cory Kennedy says air gun competition has been cancelled.

District qualifying for bowling has been moved to July and the bowling finals have been moved to August.

Figure skating and lacrosse has been cancelled, as well as high school trap shooting. All of our other sports and events are on as scheduled as of today.”

Kennedy says a lot will depend upon when the Iowa State University campus reopens.

We have a lot of events on their campus and we are talking about what their plan is. The best recommendation we have is to follow our social media pages — we update that as often as we can with information.”

The main weekend of competition, which includes the opening ceremonies, is July 16th through the 19th.

Iowa Wild Cancel Season:

Hockey is done in our state capitol of the season.

Yesterday, American Hockey League President and Chief Executive Officer David Andrews announced that the league’s Board of Governors has voted to cancel the remainder of the 2019-20 AHL regular season and the 2020 Calder Cup Playoffs due to the ongoing COVID-19 public health crisis, meaning the Iowa Wild’s season is officially over.

The AHL’s standings – sorted by points percentage – and statistics as of March 12, 2020, are considered final and official, and will serve as the basis for determining league awards for the 2019-20 season.

The Wild finished the 2019-20 year tied for second in the league with 82 points, accumulating a 37-18-4 record.

MLB to Start in July?

Major League Baseball owners approved a proposal yesterday that commissioner Rob Manfred plans to present to players today on a return-to-play scenario that will have baseball back in home stadiums by early July reports have indicated.

Among the changes Manfred is proposing to the player association are:

  • An expansion of playoff teams from 10 to 14
  • An 82-game season
  • The use of home stadiums in areas that have local and state government approval
  • A so-called spring training 2.0 that begins in June, with a season set for early July
  • A universal designated hitter
  • Geographical schedules, in which teams play only in-division opponents and interleague opponents in a similar area (i.e., American League Central teams play AL Central and National League Central teams.)
  • A 30-man roster with a taxi squad that would have upward of 50 players available

By this plan, Manfred believes the season could start by Fourth of July weekend with limited travel by bus for teams and essential personnel.

Spring training 2.0 would be held at home teams’ stadiums and would not include any games.