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MLB will change disabled list to injured list

Lynn’s Katie Burt tries to see around Hingham’s Brian Boyle at Predators practice. Brooks Batten/Nashville Predators

Major League Baseball will no longer use the phrase “disabled list” for the roster of injured players. In the future, it will be known as the “injured list.” The change, first reported by ESPN, came after a push by advocates for disabled people, who objected to the term. “The disability community identifies with the term ‘disabled,’ ” said Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, which encourages greater inclusion of people with disabilities in society. “When it’s used incorrectly, when someone is injured, not disabled, that’s offensive.” . . . Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred says management is focused on pace-of-game changes for 2019 and bolder ideas proposed by players, such as expanding the designated hitter to the National League, are too complicated to be put in place for this season.

“People with disabilities do not consider themselves injured,” he added, noting that disabled people like former New York Yankee Jim Abbott, a pitcher with one hand, had played baseball successfully. “Someone who tears an ACL is not permanently disabled.”

Manfred is encouraged the players' association responded to management's proposal for a pitch clock and a three-batter minimum for a relief pitcher unless an inning ends.

Harper, Giants have talks, ‘mutual interest’

Bryce Harper and the Giants met in the slugger’s hometown of Las Vegas with the sides having what new San Francisco baseball operations chief Farhan Zaidi called “mutual interest.” Zaidi, the club’s new president of baseball operations, would not say whether an offer was extended to the star outfielder and lefthanded hitter . . . Indians All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor likely will miss the start of the season with a strained right calf. Lindor sustained the injury recently while working out in Orlando, Fla. The Indians anticipate he’ll be out up to nine weeks.

NFL

Dolphins’ Flores names Caldwell assistant

Former Colts and Lions coach Jim Caldwell has been hired by new Dolphins coach Brian Flores as assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach. Caldwell was among 16 members of Flores’s staff, which included new offensive coordinator Chad O'Shea and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, both former Patriots assistants, as well as former Patriot assistants Josh Boyer as defensive pass game coordinator and Jerry Schuplinski as assistant quarterbacks coach . . . Pro Football Hall of Famer Bill Polian will preside over the opening weekend of the newest pro spring league, the Alliance of American Football.

The former NFL GM co-founded the AAF with Charlie Ebersol, a TV and film producer. He'll be in San Antonio on Saturday to watch the Commanders play the San Diego Fleet and in Tempe on Sunday to see Arizona host Salt Lake. The other opening-weekend games are Atlanta at Orlando and Memphis at Birmingham.

Basketball

Budenholzer, Malone to coach All-Stars

The perk of getting to coach the All-Star Game goes to the staffs of the teams with the best records in the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference by Feb. 3 — which this year meant the Bucks’ Mike Budenholzer and the Nuggets’ Michael Malone got the jobs . . . UConn leading scorer Jalen Adams will be out 4-6 weeks because of a sprained MCL in his left knee suffered during the Huskies’ loss to Temple on Wednesday.

Miscellany

Kim soars in halfpipe world championships

The 18-year-old Chloe Kim added a world championship to her overflowing collection of halfpipe titles, outdistancing second-place finisher Xuetong Cam of China by 9.5 points on a frigid afternoon in Park City, Utah. Kim is now the reigning Olympic, X Games, US Open, and world champion . . . Second-year Revolution coach Brad Friedel was inducted into the inaugural class of Blackburn Rovers Hall of Fame . . . Flyers forward James van Riemsdyk has been fined $5,000 for high-sticking Kings defenseman Alec Martinez . . . Lynn native Katie Burt of the Boston Pride and US women’s national team was in goal at Friday’s Nashville Predators practice . . . John Leonard, Jack Suter, and Marc Del Gaizo each had a goal an assist to help the No. 2-ranked UMass men’s hockey team beat BU, 4-2 . . . No. 15 UMass Lowell shut out Boston College, 3-0, on goals from Ryan Dmowski, Nick Marin, and Ryan Lohin . . . Five players scored for No. 17 Harvard as it dropped No. 20 Union, 5-3. Defenseman Adam Fox collected four assists.

. . . Former champion Tomas Berdych reached the Open Sud de France semifinals in Montpellier, France, the hard way, saving two match points in a 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (5-7), 7-5 win against Filip Krajinovic. The two players were meeting for the first time on the ATP Tour, and made it a match to remember.

. . . David Williams II, the first black athletic director in the Southeastern Conference and an ‘‘incomparable leader’’ at Vanderbilt, died Friday, hours before his retirement party. He was 71. He died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the university said. The cause was not disclosed. His last day as athletic director was Jan. 31.