Sports
7A
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Th e Observer
Golf match to fund new Trice scholarship
Match takes place
Saturday at Buffalo
Peak Golf Course
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
UNION — An event coming
on Saturday will help ensure
Doug Trice’s impact lives on.
Buffalo Peak Golf Course,
Union, is the site this weekend
for the fi rst “Battle at the Peak,”
a fundraising golf match to sup-
port the newly formed Doug
Leon Trice Memorial Scholar-
ship, which was established in
honor of the local sports legend
and Special Olympics coordi-
nator who died in early May.
The match will feature Dana
Londin, Buffalo Peak golf pro,
and Eastern Oregon University
men’s basketball coach Carlito
Labarda Jr. against Kyle Dodds,
producer of the Johnny Ballgame
Show, and LHS graduate Joel
McCraw.
“Doug touched a lot of people
in the community,” Dodds said.
“I’ve known his family since I
moved here. I know his daughter,
son, (and knew) him.”
The match, which Dodds said
will be a scramble match play
format for the fi rst nine holes
and an alternate shot match play
format on the back nine, came
together from a series of discus-
sions between Dodds and Londin.
In fact, Londin said it started
partly due to him being a “key-
board warrior” commenting
during a segment on the Ball-
game Show, which is aired on
Facebook and YouTube. Londin
was watching a segment where
Labarda was being interviewed
and commented about taking
Labarda on his team in a 2-on-2
golf match against Dodds and
Mallory, the show’s host.
“The next day I read Doug’s
obit,” he said. “I didn’t know
Doug. I met him a couple times
briefl y, but that is the man every
man should strive to be.”
The Ballgame Show had
recently changed the name of a
segment focusing on area sports
standouts to the “Doug Trice
Memorial Local Legends” for
Trice, who died May 6.
Londin contacted Dodds with
the idea of honoring Trice with
a match-play tournament, and
Dodds was fully on board.
“It was on my heart and
it needed to happen,” he said
of honoring Trice. “Basically
(Londin) turned the light on and
I kind of ran with it. I contacted
Doug’s daughter Kiley and made
sure it was OK. We had the fam-
ily’s blessing, so from there I just
ran with it.”
All proceeds, Dodds said, will
go to the scholarship fund, which
will be $1,000 scholarships given
to one male and one female stu-
dent from La Grande High
School who “demonstrates aca-
demic and athletic achievement,
excellence of character with an
emphasis on volunteerism.” The
fi rst scholarships will be given
out in 2021.
Dodds said in the short
time since the golf match was
announced, the effort has
received the amount needed
to fund the fi rst year of the
scholarship.
“We’re just right around two
grand right now. We have this
year’s scholarships covered,” he
said. “We’re hoping to get dona-
tions out there.”
Londin said he hope the fi rst
couple of year’s worth of scholar-
ships can be taken care of.
“Now it’s kind of grown to
where we’re going to have hope-
fully a ton of people out at Buf-
falo Peak (watching),” he said.
The match itself will start at
10 a.m., but Londin said there
likely will be a gathering ear-
lier, around 9 a.m., for individ-
uals to share stories about Trice.
In addition to what is raised
through donations and sponsor-
ship, there a putting contest and
other golf games to help bring in
more funds.
Observer fi le photo
A golf match Saturday at Buffalo
Peak in Union will help fund the
2021 Doug Leon Trice Memorial
Scholarship, which was estab-
lished in honor of the local sports
legend and Special Olympics co-
ordinator who died in early May.
AP Source: MLB makes fourth proposal to players’ union
By Ronald Blum
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Major
League Baseball has made
a fourth proposal to the
players’ union aimed at
starting the pandemic-de-
layed season, a person
with knowledge of the
proposal said Wednesday.
The person spoke to
The Associated Press on
condition of anonymity
because no announcement
was made.
Another person
familiar with the session
said baseball Commis-
sioner Rob Manfred met
with players’ union head
Tony Clark in Arizona in
an attempt to restart talks
on the delayed season.
The person who disclosed
the meeting also spoke on
condition of anonymity
because no announcement
was made.
Clark has homes in the
Phoenix area and in New
Jersey, and he has been
in Arizona since spring
training was cut short on
March 12. The meeting
Monday was called at
Manfred’s request, the
As Florida virus test numbers
rise, NBA prepares for Disney
person with knowledge of
the meeting said.
The union has made
two proposals to start
the season, and the sides
remain about $1 billion
apart in guaranteed salary.
Players originally were set
to earn $4 billion in sala-
ries before the coronavirus
outbreak began.
The union cut off talks
players agreed to prorated
salaries, part of an agree-
ment that included a guar-
antee of service time even
if no games are played
this year.
Teams say they need
more pay cuts to afford to
play in empty ballparks.
Players say they will not
accept additional salary
reductions.
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TREASURE
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By Tim Reynolds
The Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. —
The rate of positive corona-
virus tests in the Orlando,
Florida, area has been
soaring in recent days. The
NBA hopes that doesn’t
matter.
After spending weeks
putting together an incred-
ibly elaborate series of
health and safety proto-
cols — the word “testing”
appears 282 times in the
document — the NBA
and the National Basket-
ball Players Association
believe they have done
what’s necessary for the
health and safety of the 22
teams and others that will
be part of the season restart
at the Disney campus near
Orlando next month.
Ready or not, basketball
is almost back.
“No one is suggesting
that this is going to be an
infection-free, guaranteed
environment,” NBPA exec-
utive director Michele Rob-
erts told The Associated
Press. “I guess, unless we
go to ... well, where would
we go? What state has the
lowest rate? There’s just
no way of fi nding a sterile
environment probably on
this planet, but certainly,
not in this country.”
Among the details that
were included in the pro-
tocols released to teams
Tuesday night: players will
be invited to wear what the
league calls a “proximity
alarm” that will set off an
audio alert when the person
is within 6 feet of another
person for more than fi ve
seconds and therefore not
following social distancing
guidelines, plus they can
choose to wear a ring that
will generate “a wellness
assessment derived from
metrics such as body tem-
perature and respiratory
and heart rate.”
Players and staff also
will be given thermome-
ters and a pulse oximeter
so they can track their data
and record it on the league’s
daily health platform.
Saturday, a day after
MLB’s last proposal, and
said additional negotia-
tions were futile.
Players told MLB
to unilaterally set the
schedule but Manfred said
MLB would not while
there was a threat of a
grievance.
The sides reached a
deal on March 26 in which
Photo by Stephen M. Dowell/The Associated Press
This March 12, 2020, fi le photo shows empty seats at the
Amway Center in Orlando, home of the NBA’s Orlando
Magic. The NBA makes about $1.2 million in gate reve-
nue for each regular-season game played with fans, and
there were 259 games remaining when the season was
suspended.
“I am optimistic about
the NBA’s return-to-play
policies and procedures,”
said Denver coach Michael
Malone, who found out last
month that he had already
beaten COVID-19 after an
antibody test showed he had
the virus. “They are going
to do whatever it takes to
make this the safest envi-
ronment as possible. There
are no guarantees and there
will be a risk, but I feel con-
fi dent in the measures to be
taken pre-Orlando and once
in Orlando.”
True, there will be a risk.
And the league acknowl-
edges that no plan can be
perfect.
“These Protocols are
designed to promote pre-
vention and mitigation
strategies to reduce expo-
sure to, and transmission
of, the coronavirus,” the
league said. “However, it is
possible that staff, players,
or other participants in the
resumption of the 2019-20
season nonetheless may
test positive or contract the
coronavirus.”
But by following strict
rules — including reg-
ular testing, no leaving the
Disney campus without
returning to quarantine,
no unauthorized guests, no
family members being per-
mitted to arrive until late
August and, though this
likely didn’t need to be said,
no spitting on the court —
the NBA and the NBPA
hope the risk is minimal as
teams prepare for a Disney
stay that could exceed three
months for the teams that
make the NBA Finals.
“It’ll still probably
bother everybody that we’re
not home,” Miami center
Bam Adebayo said. “But at
the end of the day, we’ll be
happy to play basketball.”
The NBA’s arrival at
Disney is looming as the
rate of positive tests around
the state is rising, and offi -
cials such as Gov. Ron
DeSantis are facing criti-
cism for re-opening many
parts of the state’s economy.
But if NBA players aren’t
venturing out among the
public, the hope is that no
matter what’s going on
beyond Disney’s fences, the
quasi-bubble for basketball
won’t be affected.
The rate of positive tests
in Orange County, which
includes Orlando, in the
seven-day period ending
Tuesday was 6.5%. For the
seven days preceding that,
it was 2.5% — meaning the
rate has more than doubled
in a one-week span.
For tests conducted
Tuesday, state offi cials said
that Orange County’s pos-
itive rate was 11.9% —
almost 10 times the rate of
1.4% recorded as recently
as June 3.
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