Sports briefs 5/20
WPIAL sets sites
The WPIAL released the pairings and sites for its baseball semifinals set for Wednesday in four classifications.
Second-seeded Canon-McMillan will play No. 3 North Allegheny in Class 6A at Washington & Jefferson’s Ross Memorial Park. That game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
In Class 2A, top-seeded Fort Cherry will play fourth-seeded Riverview at Gateway High School in Monroeville. Game time is 4 p.m.
NHL
Adam Foote is out as coach of the Vancouver Canucks, fired Tuesday as part of the organization’s latest purge of staff following a last-place finish in the NHL this season.
Foote lasted just one year in the role after being promoted from an assistant to succeed Rick Tocchet, who decided to leave when his contract was up. The Canucks lost 57 of 82 games to end up 14 points lower than the next-closest team in the league standings.
Assistant coaches Kevin Dean, Scott Young and Brett McLean also were dismissed.
Vancouver has made just two playoff appearances over the past decade and soon will have a fifth coach in six seasons.
Baseball
The long wait is nearly over for Gerrit Cole and the New York Yankees.
Cole is scheduled to return from Tommy John surgery Friday night and make his season debut against the Tampa Bay Rays, his first big league outing in almost 19 months.
A six-time All-Star and the 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner, Cole hasn’t pitched in the majors since October 2024 in Game 5 of the World Series versus the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“It’s been tough. I mean, I’ve missed it quite a bit,” he said Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. “There’s been some blessings along the way as well. I talked about my family, and spending time with my boys. But largely I’m just looking forward to being really tired and having that exhaustion, like, mean something.”
Cole was set to throw a bullpen Tuesday and will be on a pitch count Friday, manager Aaron Boone said.
NBA
Jason Kidd is out as coach of the Dallas Mavericks after five seasons, and two weeks after the club hired former Toronto Raptors executive Masai Ujiri as team president and governor.
The team said Tuesday it was parting ways with Kidd, describing the move as a mutual decision. The Hall of Fame point guard led the franchise to its only championship as a player in 2011.
When asked about the future of Kidd at his introduction on May 5, Ujiri was noncommittal, saying he would talk to Kidd while evaluating all aspects of the team.
Kidd made two deep playoff runs with Luka Doncic, reaching the NBA Finals in 2024, two years after a loss to Golden State in the Western Conference finals.
The Mavericks traded Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2024-25 season, getting Anthony Davis as the centerpiece in a deal that backfired badly on the franchise.
Horse racing
NBC Sports said Tuesday that this year’s running of the Preakness Stakes was the most watched since 2021.
An average of 5.5 million viewers tuned in on NBC or Peacock on Saturday, with a peak audience of 7.1 million for the race itself won by Napoleon Solo. A social media post noted that NBA and Major League Baseball games promoted the 151st running of the race this time.
Ratings were up 22% from last year despite Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo not running and there being no chance at a horse sweeping all three legs of the Triple Crown. This was the third time in five years the Preakness took place without the Derby winner.
NBC said the Derby earlier this month was the most watched on record with an average of 19.6 million viewers.