List of postponements at a glance

Major League Baseball is not ready to make anything official yet as it studies its options in the aftermath of Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the United States, but league sources say one tentative plan is to resume play Friday.

According to the tentative plan, clubs will resume their regularly scheduled games this weekend, and games postponed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday will be made up Monday through Wednesday, Oct. 1-3. Then, the start of the playoffs will be delayed until the weekend, likely Friday, Oct. 5. Currently, the playoffs are scheduled to begin Tuesday, Oct. 2.

Sources close to the commissioner's office confirmed the scenario Wednesday afternoon. However, nothing was made official, and sources say plans in this very sensitive situation remain fluid. Among other things, baseball continues working with and watching government officials in Washington, waiting for them to take the lead.

Adding to the sensitivity of the situation is the NFL remains undecided as to whether or not it will play its scheduled games this weekend, and several baseball officials are concerned with announcing plans to resume Friday only to have the NFL follow with an announcement it is canceling its games, thus leaving baseball out on a limb.More ...

NFL decides to call off Week 2 games

The NFL will not play its 15 games this weekend following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

League vice president Joe Browne did not say whether the games were canceled or postponed.

Pat Hanlon, vice president of communications for the New York Giants, said: "I wouldn't use the word canceled, but we're not playing this weekend."

The postponement was the first for non-strike reasons by the NFL, which played two days after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963. Commissioner Pete Rozelle said it was the worst decision he made in 29 years in office.

College football: Some playing, some not

College football couldn't agree on how to respond to this week's terrorism, with the Atlantic Coast and Big East conferences postponing games and the SEC playing on "to bring our people together."

The Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-10 were even divided internally -- with each of those conferences playing some games and putting off others.

In a Wednesday conference call of major I-A conference commissioners, the group was unable to come up with a plan.

"I'm sure everybody's preference would be for life to be normal and therefore play the games that were scheduled," ACC commissioner John Swofford said. "But life isn't normal. These are extremely extenuating circumstances and consequently those circumstances have been very impactful."

Among the dozens of games suspended were two marquee matchups in the state of Florida -- No. 13 Washington at No. 1 Miami and No. 10 Georgia Tech at No. 6 Florida State.

A third game -- No. 8 Tennessee at No. 2 Florida -- will be played in Gainesville, Fla. The SEC said it decided to go forward with its games "to bring our people together." The league said is will donate $1 million from weekend receipts and TV fees to help victims of the attacks.

• Amended schedule

NHL cancels first preseason games

The NHL canceled all of Saturday's preseason games, and the league will likely decide on the status of Sunday's games Thursday.

The NHL offices, located in Manhattan, were closed Wednesday but expected to reopen Thursday. The New York Rangers called off plans to hold their training camp at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. The team was scheduled to train at its home arena for the first time in its 76-year history.

Practice was postponed until Thursday, but will be held, without fans in attendance, at the team's training facility in Rye.

PGA-related events off; LPGA will play

All PGA events for this weekend have been called off, including the World Golf Championships, Tampa Bay Classic, Vantage Championship and BUY.COM Oregon Classic.

The LPGA says it will play its Safeway Classic in Portland, Ore.; however, if there is a national day of mourning, the tournament format will be shortened to allow LPGA players to participate in the national show of respect and honor.

NASCAR undecided, but IRL will race Sunday

NASCAR has postponed the New Hampshire 300 on Sunday and the truck race scheduled for Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth has also been postponed. The IRL will race Sunday.

News and notes

Baseball's move was without precedent since 1918, when the season was cut short by almost a month because of World War I. It raised the total of postponed games to 45, calling into question whether the regular season could be completed as scheduled in 2½ weeks.

Baseball was the most immediately affected of the major sports, with teams fighting for playoff berths and Barry Bonds hopes to hit eight more home runs to break Mark McGwire's record of 70.

The terrorist attacks brought professional and college sports to a standstill nationwide, and it was unclear when they would resume:

• The minor leagues postponed playoff games Wednesday for the second consecutive day and the New York-Penn League canceled the remainder of its championship series, declaring Brooklyn and Williamsport co-champions.
• The undisputed middleweight championship fight between Felix Trinidad and Bernard Hopkins set for Saturday at Madison Square Garden was postponed in the wake of terrorist attacks. No new date was set, but organizers are leaning toward a time in October. More...
• Garnet "Ace" Bailey, 53, a former NHL player with Boston, Detroit and St. Louis, and director of pro scouting for the Los Angeles Kings, was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, one of two planes that hit the World Trade Center. Mark Bavis, an amateur scout for the Kings, also was aboard. More...
• Olympic officials said security for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics will re-evaluated. A $200 million plan to protect athletes and spectators is no longer sufficient, said Mitt Romney, president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. IOC president Jacques Rogge said Wednesday the games will go on as planned from Feb. 8-24. "These dramatic events will not awaken us to security issues. But, for legitimate reasons, we will reassess and re-evaluate everything," Rogge said.
• Major League Soccer postponed all four of Wednesday night's games. In Columbus, Ohio, the U.S. Women's Cup doubleheader involving the United States against Japan and Germany vs. China was canceled.
• The Thoroughbred Racing Association canceled all its cards Tuesday, and Wednesday's racing was called off at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill.; Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore; and Turfway Park in Florence, Ky. Belmont Park in New York called off its cards through Friday.
• European soccer's governing body postponed all its matches for the rest of this week "out of a mark of respect" for the victims of the attacks. Eight Champions League and more than 40 UEFA Cup matches were scheduled to be played Wednesday and Thursday. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, criticized UEFA for allowing eight Champions League games to be played Tuesday, saying: "As the whole world found itself exposed to the terrorist threat and as the American people plunged into mourning, it was decided -- in an inopportune way, to say the least -- to play the scheduled games."
• FIFA said its four World Cup qualifiers in Asia will be played this weekend and will go forward with the World Under-17 Championship, set to start Thursday. "In tragic circumstances such as these, football must symbolize the ideals of fair play and nonviolence," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said. "The world today is no longer the one we knew. But football must remain a beacon of hope."

As for baseball, it was only the third time the major leagues postponed an entire day's schedule for a reason other than labor strife, according to Scot Mondore of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

The others were Aug. 2, 1923, when President Warren G. Harding died; and June 6, 1944, when Allied forces invaded France in World War II. Exhibition games were called off on April 14, 1945, two days after the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In Pittsburgh, the New York Mets left a hotel across the street from a federal building and moved to the suburbs as a security precaution.

Atlanta pitcher John Burkett, at home in Dallas following an off-day, borrowed the car of former teammate Rusty Greer and planned to drive about 850 miles to Atlanta, where he had been scheduled to pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.

"I felt obligated to my team to be there," he said. "I would've felt sick watching the game at home, knowing I could've and should've been there, but wasn't."

The Associated Press contributed to this report