D2 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAY, AUGUST 23 , 2019
SOCCER
2 p.m. Spanish La Liga: Sevilla at Granada » beIN Sports
2:30 p.m. German Bundesliga: Borussia Dortmund at Koln » Fox Sports 2
3 p.m. English Premier League: Everton at Aston Villa » NBC Sports Network
4 p.m. Spanish La Liga: Villarreal at Levante » beIN Sports
8 p.m. MLS: Atlanta United at Orlando City SC » ESPN
10 p.m. Mexican Liga MX: Monterrey at Santos Laguna » Fox Sports 1
10 p.m. MLS: Seattle at Portland » ESPN
GOLF
5 a.m. European Tour: Scandinavian Invitation, second round » Golf Channel
9:30 a.m. LPGA Tour: CP Women’s Open, second round » Golf Channel
1 p.m. PGA Tour: Tour Championship, second round » Golf Channel
6 p.m. Korn Ferry Tour: Boise Open, second round » Golf Channel
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
6 p.m. Mallard Creek (N.C.) vs. Dutch Fork (S.C.) » ESPN 2
9:30 p.m. St. Thomas Aquinas (Fla.) vs. De La Salle (Calif.) » ESPNUTELEVISION AND RADIO
MLB
2:20 p.m. Washington at Chicago » MASN, WJFK (106.7 FM), WFED (1500 AM)
7 p.m. Tampa Bay at Baltimore » MASN2, WTEM (980 AM)
7 p.m. Atlanta at New York Mets » MLB Network
10 p.m. Boston at San Diego » MLB Network
NFL PRESEASON
8 p.m. Buffalo at Detroit » WUSA (Ch. 9), WJZ (Ch. 13)
WNBA
7:30 p.m. Las Vegas at Connecticut » NBA TV
7:30 p.m. Atlanta at New York » CBS Sports Network
AUTO RACING
6 p.m. IndyCar Racing: qualifying » NBC Sports Network
CFL
9 p.m. Winnipeg at Edmonton » ESPNBY JESSE DOUGHERTYSpend enough time around a major
league team — trail them from city to
city, shoot the breeze, press your ear
into their conversations — and you will
notice something: Players never know
what day of the week it is.
“Oh, it’s impossible,” Washington
Nationals closer Sean Doolittle said.
“Here’s how it goes: Every start of a
series is a Monday, no matter what.
Every last game of a series is a
Wednesday. But there are other
wrinkles, too, like how every day game
is a Sunday. So, wait, uh.. .”
Doolittle realizes the problem. By
that logic, if it can be called that, a day
game that finishes a series is both a
Wednesday and a Sunday. Having
talked himself into a riddle, further
complicating the issue, Doolittle
smiled, turned his palms to the
clubhouse ceiling and shrugged. That
was the blanket reaction when fellow
Nationals were asked how to follow the
calendar during the season. Nothing we
can do about it.
The challenge is playing a 162-game
schedule, with few breaks, while
traveling between cities and time zones.
The hotel rooms start to look the same.
So do the plane rides and bus trips to
the ballpark each day.
Just this week, the Nationals play
Thursday night in Pittsburgh at 7:05,
probably finishing past 10, then will
rush to their team charter and fly one
hour to Chicago in the dead of night.
They will be lucky to be in bed by 1 a.m.
Then they will wake up, confused and
bleary eyed, and crosscut Chicago to
Wrigley Field by 10 a.m. First pitch that
afternoon is at 1:20 p.m. Central.
So it’s hard to blame Doolittle, way
back in May, discussing a pair of rough
outings at his locker in Washington. Itwas a Monday. His most recent
appearance had come that past Friday.
But he kept referring to that
appearance as “Monday” — because it
was the first game of the series — and
proceeded to do so six times in a 12-
minute interview. Like, “I just didn’t
have it on Monday.” Or, “Monday didn’t
go my way, but if I get out there today
[editor’s note: actually Monday], I’m
confident these changes will work.” It
was trippy.
It was also hard to blame Andrew
Stevenson, bouncing across the country
between Fresno, Calif., and
Washington, brimming with
excitement that his wife was coming to
visit. He was just a bit confused about
when she would arrive. “She’ll be here
tomorrow, Saturday,” Stevenson said
before a day game in July. It was
Thursday.
And then there was Adrián Sanchez,
another fringe major leaguer, trying to
get a new glove delivered before he had
to play next. He asked Mike Wallace, the
Nationals’ clubhouse manager, if they
could get it by next-day shipping.
Wallace shook his head and told
Sanchez: “There’s no postage
tomorrow.”
“Why?” Sanchez asked. “It’s not
Thursday?”
“No,” Wallace said with a grin, having
spent decades keeping players on track.
“It’s Saturday. And there’s no delivery
on Sundays.”
Their lives are dictated by when the
team bus leaves the hotel (usuallyaround 3 p.m.), and when batting
practice and stretch begins (anywhere
between 4 and 5 p.m.), and when the
next first pitch is thrown (often 7:05, as
the sun’s fading). That’s it. Then they
shower, pack up their stuff, sleep and
come back to repeat the routine. There
are few deviations, if any, but there are
hurdles along the way.
Tanner Rainey learned in Cincinnati
that clocks can’t always be trusted. It
was late May at Great American Ball
Park, and Rainey and the relievers were
stretching at 4:15 p.m. But all the digital
clocks in the visiting clubhouse were
different. One read 4:11, another 4:08,
another 4:13. Rainey spun around the
room, looking at the whir of red digits,
and appeared stuck to the carpet. Then
he took the clocks out of the equation
altogether. He grabbed his glove and
walked out to the field.
“My old buddies make fun of me all
the time that I never know what’s going
on,” second baseman Brian Dozier said.
“You forget birthdays. You forget
appointments. From February to
October you’re in a really weird little
bubble. I just need to know what time
the bus leaves and go from there.”
A confession: I’m relatively new to
the baseball beat, about a year in, and so
now I never know what day of the week
it is either. I often wake up not knowing
what city I just slept in. I first realized
this in May, one morning in New York,
staring at the ceiling and wondering
where I was. So I started asking around
the clubhouse — veterans such as
Doolittle and Dozier, a younger guy
such as Stevenson, Manager Dave
Martinez — to see how the pros combat
this confusion of time and space.
What happened next shouldn’t
surprise anyone: They didn’t have much
to offer.
[email protected]QUOTABLE“I think senseless
violence is crazy. I think
why not use this
platform to bring
awareness.”
DONOVAN MITCHELL,
Utah Jazz guard, who wrote “End Gun
Violence!” on his sneakers for Team
USA’s FIBA World Cup tuneup game
against Australia on Thursday.NATIONALS: PERSPECTIVEWhat day is it? Don’t ask the Nats.
BASEBALLBY SAM FORTIERMajor League Baseball will pre-
vent its players, major leaguers and
affiliated minor leaguers from par-
ticipating in the Venezuelan Win-
ter League in accordance with
President Trump’s recent executive
order on the South American na-
tion, MLB confirmed to The Wash-
ington Post on Thursday night.
Trump expanded the United
States’ sanctions against Venezuela
on Aug. 5 to include a full economic
embargo. MLB said in a statement
it has “been in contact with the
relevant government agencies” re-
garding the actions and will “fully
adhere to the policies implement-
ed by our government.” The MLB
policy will last “until [MLB] re-
ceives direction from the relevant
agencies that participation by affil-
iated players is consistent with the
Executive Order,” MLB said. The
order will not prohibit native Vene-
zuelans in the major leagues from
returning to their home country in
the offseason.
Teams began informing their
players of the decision Thursday,
according to the Wall Street Jour-
nal, which first reported the news.
Many major league players partic-
ipate in winter leagues in warm-
weather countries during the off-
season to stay in shape and sup-
port local clubs.
There were 68 Venezuelan play-
ers on major league rosters as of
Opening Day, and the Washington
Nationals began Thursday with
four: outfielder Gerardo Parra,
pitcher Aníbal Sánchez, infielder
Adrián Sanchez (who was op-
tioned to Class AA on Thursday
afternoon) and infielder Asdrúbal
Cabrera. Venezuela has had more
than 400 players in the majors,
more than every other foreign
country except the Dominican Re-
public.
Protests broke out in Venezuela
in January after President Nicolás
Maduro began a second term in
office. More than a dozen coun-
tries in the hemisphere declared
his reelection illegal. The Trump
administration recognized oppo-
sition leader Juan Guaidó as the
country’s rightful leader and has
taken steps to remove Maduro
from power.
Even before the country’s cur-
rent unrest, players and their fam-
ilies have been the targets of crime
there. In 2011, kidnappers abduct-
ed then-Nationals catcher Wilson
Ramos near his home, and he
spent two days in captivity. Still,
major league players used to pop-
ulate the winter league. But short-
ly after the election of Maduro in
2013, Venezuela experienced a
downturn that has largely led to
MLB and its players shunning the
nation. Teams have closed their
academies there.
Venezuela is the second country
in the past four months to draw
scrutiny from MLB. In April, the
Trump administration barred
MLB from signing players directly
from Cuba despite a deal it signed
with Cuba in December.
[email protected]MLB won’t
let players
compete in
Venezuela
BY MATT BONESTEELPatrick Chung, a key compo-
nent of the New England Patriots’
defense in the past decade, was
indicted by a New Hampshire
grand jury on a felony cocaine-
possession charge Aug. 8, court
documents show. He is scheduled
to be arraigned on the charge in
Belknap County Superior Court
on Wednesday.
The incident occurred June 25
in Meredith, N.H., according to
court documents. Public records
indicate that Chung owns a home
on Lake Winnipesaukee in Mer-
edith, roughly 125 miles north of
Patriots team headquarters in
Foxborough, Mass.
A Class B cocaine-possession
felony in New Hampshire carries
a possible prison term of seven
years. The “Class B” indicates it’s a
first offense.
According to the Laconia Daily
Sun, an indictment in New
Hampshire is not an indication of
guilt but rather a finding by a
grand jury that enough evidence
of a crime exists to bring a case to
trial. During his arraignment
hearing, Chung will be told of the
charge against him and asked to
enter a plea (though an attorney
can ask to appear on his or her
client’s behalf ). If his case goes to
trial, court documents have tar-
geted March for jury selection,
according to Ben Volin of the
Boston Globe. It’s unlikely Chung
will face NFL sanctions until his
legal situation is resolved.
In a statement, the Patriots
said they were aware of the re-
ports involving Chung but would
not “be commenting while his
judicial proceedings take place.”
Chung was not spotted at Patriots
practice Wednesday, according to
multiple reports (New England
hosts Carolina in a preseason
game Thursday night). He has yet
to play in the preseason after
breaking his arm in Super Bowl
LIII and then undergoing offsea-
son shoulder surgery, though he
has been a regular practice partic-
ipant.
Chung, a 32-year-old safety, has
played nine of his 10 NFL seasons
with the Patriots and has 11 career
interceptions. He has started 70
of 80 possible regular season
games over the past five seasons.
[email protected]
PRO FOOTBALL
Chung is
charged
with drug
possession
JONATHAN NEWTON/THE WASHINGTON POST
Major league baseball players struggle to keep track of time. “Oh, it’s impossible,” Nationals closer Sean Doolittle said.Baseball players’ calendars
revolve around first pitch
and what time the bus leaveswashingtonpost.com/sports
TENNIS
S. Williams-Sharapova
match starts U.S. Open
Serena Williams and Maria
Sharapova will finally meet in
the U.S. Open, and they will do it
in their very first match.
A long-awaited Roger
Federer-Rafael Nadal
showdown could come only in
the final.
Williams and Sharapova, past
U.S. Open champions and two of
the biggest stars in women’s
tennis, were scheduled for an
opening-round matchup when
the draws were conducted
Thursday for the final major of
the year, which begins Monday.
Williams, renewing her bid for
a record-tying 24th Grand Slam
singles title, and Sharapova, who
has struggled since returning
from a doping ban two years ago
but remains one of sport’s most
popular players, have met in the
finals of the other three majors
and the 2012 Olympics but have
never played each other in the
U.S. Open. They haven’t faced off
since the 2016 Australian Open.
The men’s draw sent No. 3 seed
Federer into the top half,
meaning he could play top-
ranked Novak Djokovic in the
semifinals. They met in a classic
final in July at Wimbledon, where
Djokovic won in a fifth-set
tiebreaker.
Federer and No. 2 seed Nadal
have never played each other in
New York and could do so this
year only if both make the
championship match.COLLEGES
Former Maryland quarterback
Kasim Hill transferred to
Tennessee and will join the
program as a walk-on.
Hill, who has torn ligaments in
each of his knees during his
college career, won’t play this
season because of NCAA transfer
rules.
Hill started Maryland’s first
10 games as a redshirt freshman
last year before tearing the ACL
in his left knee. He had torn the
ACL in his right knee during
Maryland’s third game in 2017.
Hill completed 53.4 percent of
his passes at Maryland for
1,313 yards, 11 touchdowns and
four interceptions. Hill also ran
for 45 yards and one touchdown
on 13 carries....
Brandon Wimbush, who
started 16 games at quarterback
for Notre Dame before losing the
job and transferring, was named
the starter for Central Floridaafter winning a three-person
battle for the job.
Record-setting McKenzie
Milton will miss all of the
upcoming season while
recovering from a devastating
knee injury suffered last season,
and Darriel Mack Jr. still is
recovering from surgery on a
broken ankle he suffered before
camp opened....
Mississippi State named Penn
State graduate transfer Tommy
Stevens its starting quarterback.
The Bulldogs’ coach, Joe
Moorhead, coached Stevens
when he was Penn State’s
offensive coordinator from 2016
to 2018....
Georgetown’s seventh-ranked
women’s soccer team opened itsseason with a 2-1 victory over
James Madison (0-1) as Julia
Leas and Amanda Carolan
scored for the Hoyas in
Harrisonburg, Va. Iris Rabot
scored late for the Dukes....
Virginia Tech’s 25th-ranked
women opened their season with
a 3-0 victory over Liberty (0-1) in
Blacksburg, Va. Molly Feighan
and Mikayla Mance scored first-
half goals and Mak Graham
scored in the 69th minute....
Maryland’s women lost their
season opener, 1-0, to Georgia
Southern at Ludwig Field. Grace
Geise scored in the 37th minute
for the Eagles (1-0)....
William Ferguson, the Wake
Forest women’s volleyball coach
named in a scheme to help getwealthy children into elite
schools, resigned.
Federal prosecutors allege a
college counseling business
directed money to the program
and a camp controlled by
Ferguson in exchange for help
getting a student admitted.
Ferguson, who was placed on
leave March 12 after his name
surfaced in the sweeping college
admissions scandal, pleaded not
guilty....
Connecticut and Notre Dame
will play each other in women’s
basketball each season through
at least 2023-24, the schools
announced, extending the
contract between the fierce rivals
that was scheduled to run out
after the 2019-20 season.Overall, the Huskies are 37-13
against the Fighting Irish, but
Notre Dame has won four of the
past seven contests, including in
the national semifinals in April.MISC.
Napheesa Collier scored
19 points, Damiris Dantas had
17 points and a career-high eight
assists, and the Minnesota Lynx
beat the Dallas Wings, 86-70, in
Minneapolis....
In a game Sporting Kansas City
needed to keep its playoff hopes
alive, Erik Hurtado scored two
minutes from full time in a 1-0
win over Minnesota United in
Kansas City, Kan.
— From news services
and staff reportsDIGEST