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Football

AFL may play next year

Arena Football League players and management reached agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement, paving the way for the league to restart play next year.

Both the players’ union and the league’s board must ratify the deal, which would cover four seasons from 2010 through 2013.

AFL acting commissioner Ed Policy called the agreement crucial to bringing back the indoor football league, which canceled the 2009 season due to the economy.

Baseball

U.S. forfeit a possibility

Team USA manager Davey Johnson already knows what he would do if injuries got so bad in the World Baseball Classic that he ran out of certain position players: He would forfeit.

The injury-plagued Americans were so shorthanded Sunday in a 9-3 win against the Netherlands that backup catcher Brian McCann played left field in the ninth inning.

Asked during the team’s batting practice Monday who his third catcher would have been, Johnson said he wouldn’t have even tried to put a player in that position for fear of injury – even if it meant elimination.

“I damn sure wouldn’t want to be lynched or hung up in some city if I put (Kevin) Youkilis behind the dish or something,” Johnson said, referring to the Red Sox first baseman. “I would definitely had to gone out and said we had to forfeit this ballgame. Yeah, I’d forfeit it.”

The injuries have piled up so much for the Americans that Johnson couldn’t say for sure who is going to start tonight against Puerto Rico, though he said it likely would be Chicago Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly.