Digest

BASEBALL

New Sunday morning MLB games on NBC

Major League Baseball and NBC agreed to a new Sunday morning package of broadcast streams that will start at 11:30 am and noon EDT.

The deal that requires all other big-league games on those days to be scheduled to start no earlier than 1:30 pm.

The package announced Wednesday starts May 8, with the Chicago White Sox at the Boston Red Sox. That game will be broadcast by NBC in addition to being streamed on Peacock. All other games will be available only on Peacock.

The first six games are to start at 11:30 am and the remainder of the package at noon.

The scheduling appears to take into account the collective bargaining agreement between MLB and the players' association, which states that "not more than four games per league per year may be scheduled or rescheduled to start between 10:30 am and noon."

There already is one pre-noon game on each season's schedule, a Patriots Day game at Boston's Fenway Park on the third Monday of April that starts just after 11 am.

Peacock also will televise the All-Star Futures Game. NBC televised MLB from 1957 to 2000.

Ramirez, Guardians agree on $124m deal

Jose Ramirez forced the Guardians to go deep into their pockets.

The All-Star third baseman agreed to a $124 million, five-year contract on the eve of opening day with Cleveland, a record-setting deal for a franchise that hasn't been able to swing with baseball's big spenders over the years.

Ramirez's deal runs through the 2028 season, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Ramirez still must take a physical and numerous other details need to be finalized before the contract is official, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The deal includes a full no-trade clause and is the biggest in team history, more than doubling the $60 million committed to slugger Edwin Encarnacion five years ago.

It will be baseball's 16th contract of $100 million or more since the end of the World Series.

The Guardians open the 2022 season－their first game since changing their name from the Indians－in Kansas City on Thursday.

SOCCER

Everton in free-fall as relegation woes deepen

Everton's status as an ever-present in the English Premier League is under serious threat.

Frank Lampard's team tumbled to within a point of the relegation zone after conceding in the 85th minute to lose 3-2 at Burnley in a wild, end-to-end match on Wednesday.

Everton, which recently announced losses of more than 100 million pounds ($130 million) for the third straight year, has nine games to save its season but is facing an extremely difficult run-in.

Its next four opponents are Manchester United, Leicester City, Liverpool and Chelsea.

"They have to keep going," Lampard said of his players. "If we didn't know we were in a fight before, we certainly do now."

Burnley hadn't scored in its last four games－and had netted only eight times in the past four months－but still managed to breach the Toffees' flaky defense three times and move above Watford into 18th place, within a point of 17th-place Everton.

TENNIS

Tsonga to call it quits after Roland Garros

Former Australian Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga announced Wednesday he will retire after the French Open, hoping to put the final touches on an injury-plagued career in front of his home crowd.

The 36-year-old Frenchman reached a career-high ranking of No 5 in 2012, but has dropped to No 220 following his latest lengthy injury layoff. That means he can't enter the main draw at Roland Garros automatically through his ranking, and will have to rely on being granted a wild-card entry by organizers.

Tsonga is the first member of a gifted generation of French players that emerged nearly 20 years ago－which also includes Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon－to call it quits.

"This is the last thrill," Tsonga said in a video. "This will be my 15th Roland. I hope that I will stay fit before and be able to be the one I have always been in that tournament."

Tsonga reached the semifinals twice at the French Open, in 2013 and 2015.

He has won 18 ATP titles and made it to the Australian Open final in 2008, losing to Novak Djokovic.

Agencies