Sports Briefs: Bay, Mets reach agreement on 4-year contract

By: JournalNow Staff | JOURNAL STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
Published: December 30, 2009
Updated: December 30, 2009 - 1:10 AM

Free agent slugger Jason Bay and the New York Mets have reached a preliminary agreement, a person familiar with the negotiations said yesterday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because Bay must pass a physical for the deal to be completed. Bay is expected to sign a four-year contract for about $65 million.

Bay set career highs with 36 home runs and 119 RBIs last season for Boston. Bay is a lifetime .280 hitter and has averaged 30 homers and 99 RBIs in his six full seasons in the majors.

Bay fills a huge hole in left field for the Mets, who skidded to a 70-92 mark during an injury-plagued year. They especially needed a bopper after hitting a major league-low 95 homers in the first season at their spacious, new ballpark.

Bay produced in his 11/2 seasons with the Red Sox, but the sides couldn't agree on a new deal. The Mets wound up landing a top free agent -- a bat they needed for their decimated lineup, and the kind of splashy move their fans demanded general manager Omar Minaya make.

Bay and left fielder Matt Holliday were the biggest hitters on the market. Holliday, who split last season in Oakland and St. Louis, is seeking an even richer deal than Bay.

The deal returns Bay to an organization that once had him. A month after Minaya left the Mets' front office in 2002 to become Montreal's general manager, he traded Bay and another minor leaguer to New York for infielder Lou Collier.

Golf

■ Hannah Craver of Winston-Salem won the 12-14 age group in the Maples Girls Golf Tournament at the Little River Golf Resort in Pinehurst. Craver had a three-day total of 156 to win the tournament by two strokes. Victoria Allred of Pffafftown tied for fourth (167) and Mary Francis Hall of Elkin tied for seventh (171).

■ John Daly has received a sponsor's exemption to play in next month's Sony Open in Honolulu.

It will mark Daly's fifth appearance at the tournament at the Waialae Country Club. The tournament tees off Jan. 14.

This year's PGA Tour major champions -- Angel Cabrera, Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink and Y.E. Yang -- will also be in the field, as will Hawaii's Tadd Fujikawa, Dean Wilson and Parker McLachlin.

Miscellaneous

■ A former minority owner of Kentucky Speedway is suing the racetrack's one-time majority owner, seeking to have a judge declare he can't drop an antitrust suit in a move that would keep the litigation alive.

A group of four trusts operated by Richard Duchossois of Illinois filed suit yesterday against speedway founder Jerry Carroll, saying that Carroll doesn't have the legal right to stop an appeal of the suit against NASCAR.

The lawsuit against Carroll, filed in federal court in Covington, Ky., comes a day after Duchossois asked the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its rejection of the antitrust litigation. The appellate court earlier this month threw out the lawsuit.

The tangled litigation traces back to 2005, when Carroll and the minority owners sued NASCAR and International Speedway Corp., saying the two companies conspired to monopolize Sprint Cup races and cut the 1.5-mile oval at the Sparta-based Kentucky Speedway out of the loop.

A federal judge in Covington dismissed the lawsuit in 2007 and, in December, a three-judge panel from the 6th Circuit followed suit, saying multiple factors likely weigh on NASCAR's decisions about whether to grant Kentucky Speedway or any track a Sprint Cup race. Carroll, who sold the track to ISC in 2008, said immediately that the decision wouldn't be appealed further, prompting the lawsuit by Duchossois.

■ Chicago Blackhawks right wing Marian Hossa will lead Slovakia at February's Vancouver Olympics.

Hossa is one of 12 NHL players on the 23-player roster announced yesterday. Also headlining the team are Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara and New York Rangers forward Marian Gaborik, who is tied for the NHL lead in goals.

Former Buffalo Sabres star Miroslav Satan will make his fourth Olympic appearance.

Slovakia finished fifth at the 2006 Turin Games.

The other NHL players are goalies Peter Budaj of Colorado and Jaroslav Halak of Montreal; defensemen Milan Jurcina of Columbus, Andrej Meszaros of Tampa Bay, Andrej Sekera of Buffalo and Lubomir Visnovsky of Edmonton; and forwards Pavol Demitra of Vancouver, Michal Handzus of Los Angeles and Tomas Kopecky of Chicago.

Also yesterday, Norway announced that defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen of the Flyers and former NHL forward Patrick Thoresen are on its Olympics roster, and defender Karlis Skrastins of the Dallas Stars will headline the roster for Latvia's Olympic squad. Skrastins will be joined by defender Oskars Bartulis of the Philadelphia Flyers.