briefs
Yankees worth $5B
Forbes estimates the New York Yankees are baseball’s most valuable franchise at $5 billion, up 9% over last year and 47% more than the No. 2 Los Angeles Dodgers at $3.4 billion.
The Yankees are second among all sports in Forbes’ evaluations to the Dallas Cowboys, listed at $5.5 billion in the last NFL ranking.
The Yankees’ YES Network broadcasts Forbes “SportsMoney” television show.
The Boston Red Sox are third at $3.3 billion, Forbes said Thursday, followed by the Chicago Cubs ($3.2 billion), San Francisco ($3.1 billion), the New York Mets ($2.4 billion), St. Louis ($2.2 billion) and Philadelphia ($2 billion).
Miami was last at $980 million, a drop of $20 million. Also near the bottom were Kansas City ($1.025 billion), Tampa Bay ($1.05 billion), Cincinnati ($1.075 billion) and Oakland ($1.1 billion).
Forbes estimates the MLB average team value rose 4% from last year to $1.85 billion, the smallest annual appreciation since a 2% rise in 2010.
Agent: Tua is healthy
Tua Tagovailoa’s agent says the quarterback is healthy and will be ready for training camp.
Tagovailoa held a virtual pro day with former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer on Thursday after the former Alabama star’s personal pro day was canceled because of the coronavirus outbreak. Video of Tagovailoa’s workout will be sent to NFL teams.
Tagovailoa injured his hip on Nov. 15 and had season-ending surgery two days later. He is expected to be among the top five picks in the NFL draft later this month.
“His health is just fine,” agent Leigh Steinberg told The Associated Press. “There’s two doctors that have seen him, Dr. Lyle Cain (Alabama’s orthopedic surgeon), and Dr. Chip Routt, who performed the surgery. Both have said that he is healthy and he’ll be lively and ready to go for training camp and the likelihood of recurrence is very low.”
Doctors cleared Tagovailoa to run and begin football activities on March 9 and he has been training with Dilfer, who won a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens.
“He’s running around, he’s bouncing around with high energy,” Steinberg said.
Tagovailoa replaced Jalen Hurts in January 2018 and rallied Alabama to a victory over Georgia in the national championship game. He won the starting job that fall, beating out Hurts, then led Alabama back to another title game, where it lost to Clemson.
Tagovailoa was the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2018.
UFC 249 fight canceled
UFC 249 was canceled Thursday after ESPN and parent company Disney stopped UFC President Dana White’s plan to keep fighting amid the coronavirus pandemic.
After defiantly vowing for weeks to maintain a regular schedule of fights while the rest of the sports world halted, White announced the decision to cease competition on ESPN, the UFC’s broadcast partner.
UFC 249 was scheduled for April 18 on ESPN Plus pay-per-view, and White planned to follow it with weekly fight cards from Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino on tribal land in California’s Central Valley.
White said he “got a call from the highest level you can go at Disney and the highest level of ESPN” asking him to cancel the shows. The UFC moved to ESPN in 2019 with a reported $1.5 billion deal.
White’s frustration with the decision was obvious after he had repeatedly vowed to fight on amid mixed public opinion. The UFC boss still remained upbeat, vowing to be “the first sport back” after the pandemic eases.
“Our relationship and partnership with ESPN has been an incredible one,” White said. “The powers that be there asked me to stand down and not do this event next Saturday. We were ready to go, and … Tachi Palace has had our back this whole time, has stood their ground and was willing to do this fight.”