Sports Golf » 5 Sidelines » 6 SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 2020 • the PRESS DEMOCRAT • SECTION C Weather » 6
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Inside Baseball » 2 Sports Golf » 5 Sidelines » 6 SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 2020 • THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SECTION C Weather » 6 CORONAVIRUS SRJC » FOOTBALL Players across A teammate gone leagues Rashaun Harris, a defensive infected back on the Santa Rosa Junior College Bear Cubs football team, was killed 49ers player, several in in a drive-by shooting baseball, hockey tested while visiting his family in Sacramento in May. His positive this week older sister believes it was a case of mistaken identity. In PRESS DEMOCRAT NEWS SERVICES these photos shared by his family and SRJC coach Len- ny Wagner, Harris is seen as PHILADELPHIA — The San he poses with a teammate, Francisco Giants shuttered as a young teen, in his SRJC their spring complex due to uniform and at the beach. fears over exposure to the coro- He was 23. navirus and at least two other teams did the same Friday af- ter players and staff tested pos- itive, raising the possibility the ongoing pandemic could scuttle all attempts at a Major League Baseball season. Elsewhere, an unidentified San Francisco 49ers player reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 after an informal workout with teammates in Tennessee. The NFL Network reported PHOTOS Friday that one player who took COURTESY OF DAJONNAE HARRIS part in the workouts this week AND LENNY WAGNER in Nashville has tested positive. All the players who were there will now get tested to see if there is any spread. The Giants’ facility was shut after one person who had been to the site and one family member exhibited symptoms Thursday. In Florida, the Philadelphia Phillies shut their camp after five players tested positive for COVID-19. The Toronto Blue Jays also closed their site in Dunedin — about five miles from the Phillies’ camp in Clearwater — after a player showed symp- toms consistent with the virus. Also, the Houston Astros said a player working out at their spring camp in West Palm Beach, Florida, tested positive several days ago and was recov- ering. The 49ers declined to com- ment on the positive test for their unnamed player, citing Athletes far from campus during pandemic — with tragic ending for one federal and state privacy laws about the personal health of By PHIL BARBER Harris. “All he cared about was playing changed the world. employees. THE PRESS DEMOCRAT ball. He loved his family and his nieces “Those kids are like your kids,” SRJC Several 49ers players have and nephews. He had never been in police football coach Lenny Wagner said. “When been working out this week in f this were a normal year, Rashaun trouble.” they go away for breaks, I think you wor- Nashville while team facilities Harris would have been in Santa Rosa Rashaun will never get a chance to ry about them. I wouldn’t say ‘scared,’ but are shut down because of the Ion May 29, finishing up finals at SRJC make good on his promise. As he sat in you do fear their life will be complicated pandemic. and reflecting upon the end of spring his car across the street from the fami- in some way when they go home.” football practice. Instead, with the coro- ly home in Sacramento’s Meadowview Harris wasn’t the first Bear Cub to TURN TO VIRUS » PAGE C5 navirus pandemic shuttering classrooms neighborhood at about 10 that night, run into trouble outside the cocoon of and putting an end to spring sports ac- someone in a passing car shot at Harris campus. Last fall semester, one of his tivities, he and his teammates went their and killed him. Dajonnae is certain it was fellow cornerbacks, Eric Wilson, was shot various ways. a case of mistaken identity. during a trip home to Baltimore during Harris had joined his family in Sacra- It was a tragedy wholly its own, as a holiday break. Wilson’s father, who COLLEGE SPORTS mento, and on May 29 they all went out distinct and personal as any senseless directed him to Santa Rosa immediately to dinner. Harris again told them of his murder. But it was also a reminder of after high school to get his son away from dreams. the unique place a junior college, and a a high-risk neighborhood, hadn’t wanted “He said, ‘Once I make it, I’m gonna get sports program, can play in the life of him to come back home for visits. NCAA ban my mom out of the ’hood, my siblings,’ ” a young man. And it was reminder of recounted his older sister, Dajonnae the complicated ways this pandemic has TURN TO SRJC » PAGE C3 targets “This is a hard pill to swallow ... Out of all10 of us, he was Mississippi the one gonna make it.” DAJONNAE HARRIS, older sister of SRJC defensive back Rashaun Harris, who was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in May Confederate imagery in state’s flag criticized By RALPH D. RUSSO ASSOCIATED PRESS Emboldened by the athletes it serves, the NCAA is taking an- ‘Backwards Triple Crown’ arrives other stand on a social issue. The NCAA on Friday expand- HORSE RACING » Scrambled calendar has Belmont ed its policy banning states with prominent Confederate hosting Saturday’s first leg of three-race series symbols from hosting its spon- sored events, one day after the By BETH HARRIS like lightning really has struck Southeastern Conference made ASSOCIATED PRESS twice,” Knowlton said. a similar declaration aimed at Tiz the Law is the early 6-5 the Mississippi state flag. It’s been 17 years since Jack favorite for the Belmont, which The current NCAA ban, in Knowlton and his Sackatoga kicks off what Knowlton calls place since 2001, applies to what Stable pals rode yellow school a “backwards Triple Crown.” the NCAA calls predetermined buses to the Belmont Stakes. It Instead of completing the se- sites, such as for men’s basket- was a rollicking party on wheels ries of three races run over five ball tournament games. for the group that came to watch weeks, the Belmont is getting Mississippi is the only state their colt Funny Cide try to things started for the first time. currently affected by the policy. sweep the Triple Crown. The Kentucky Derby follows on The expanded ban — supported It didn’t happen that day. Sept. 5, with the Preakness fin- by all eight public universities Now, the ownership group ishing up on Oct. 3. in the state — means that even that buys just one or two New Tiz the Law is the only horse SETH WENIG / ASSOCIATED PRESS when sites of NCAA events are York-bred colts a year is back to in the race with Grade 1 stakes Robin Smullen rides Belmont Stakes hopeful Tiz the Law, left, as the determined by performance, as try again with Tiz the Law. He’s victories. He’ll try to buck his- horse is led around the track by trainer Barclay Tagg in Friday’s workout. they are in baseball, women’s the star of a 10-horse field for the tory as the first New York-bred basketball and softball, Missis- Belmont on Saturday, perhaps in 138 years to win the $1 million in the Belmont. Crown race we ran first, so we sippi schools will not be permit- the biggest event in U.S. sports race. His 82-year-old trainer, “Tiz The Law has been the have a superstar that we’re go- ted to host. since the coronavirus pandemic Barclay Tagg, is chasing a win best 3-year-old since January ing to see on Saturday.” “We must do all we can to en- shut down competition in mid- that eluded him in 2003 after basically, and he remains that,” This Belmont — rescheduled sure that NCAA actions reflect March. Funny Cide won the Kentucky retired Hall of Fame jockey Jer- from June 6 — will be run at our commitment to inclusion “I still wake up and kind of Derby and Preakness, only ry Bailey said. “He would have pinch myself and say it looks to lose his Triple Crown bid been favored in whatever Triple TURN TO BELMONT » PAGE C6 TURN TO FLAG » PAGE C3 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT • SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 2020 C3 SRJC Twins remove statue of CONTINUED FROM C1 Wilson survived, but the former owner Grif f ith shooting was one factor in his decision not to return to SRJC. ASSOCIATED PRESS Harris had grown up in Vallejo, but most of MINNEAPOLIS — The his family had moved to Minnesota Twins removed Sacramento a few years a statue of former owner ago. He joined them there Calvin Griffith at Target recently and got a job for Field, citing his racist re- Amazon. After dinner on marks in 1978 and saying May 29, he had remained the team could no longer in his car for a few min- “remain silent.” utes of alone time, as was Griffith’s statue was one his habit. of several installed when “I was the first one on the team opened the ball- the scene, because I ran park in 2010. Its removal outside when I heard the came on Juneteenth, the shots,” Dajonnae Harris traditional commemora- ELIZABETH FLORES / ASSOCIATED PRESS said. tion of emancipation of A construction worker walks past where a statue of former Sacramento Police enslaved African Ameri- Minnesota Twins owner Calvin Griffith stood outside Tar- Department officers cans, and on the same day get Field on Friday in Minneapolis, Minnesota. responded to the gunfire, a statue of a former Wash- and paramedics followed ington Redskins owner removal of this statue is what happened that day, shortly thereafter, ac- was removed from outside an important and neces- but who among us has not cording to a police press the team’s old RFK Stadi- sary step in our ongoing made a mistake? I know release.