Baseball roundup: Young pleads guilty in N.Y.

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Detroit Tigers slugger Delmon Young pleaded guilty Wednesday to aggravated harassment for shouting an anti-Semitic slur and tackling a man to the ground outside a New York City hotel last spring.

The 27-year-old outfielder, who became a free agent after the World Series, was ordered to complete 10 days of community service and enroll in a program at the Museum of Tolerance New York as part of the Manhattan District Attorney’s office restorative justice program.

“Delmon clearly regrets what happened and took the necessary steps to put this issue behind him today,” his lawyer, Dan Ollen, said in a statement. “He has learned from this experience and will continue to do everything he can to improve himself as a person and player.”

Newspaper seeks buyer for stake in Colorado Rockies

DENVER — The Denver Post is seeking to sell its minority ownership in the Colorado Rockies.

The Post holds a 7.3 percent state in the major league baseball club that is majority owned by brothers Dick and Charlie Monfort.

Ed Moss, CEO of the Denver Post, said Digital First Media, which operates MediaNews Group, owner of the newspaper, is seeking to sell the minority stake in the Rockies as the Post focuses on core print and digital business.

“We’ve made great strides in growing our audience in the last few years, so when we look at anything that the company is involved in, what we want to do is have our focus on our core business,” Moss said. “And anything that’s not tied to it, we’re going to evaluate whether we want to stay associated with those businesses or not.”

Forbes magazine recently valued the franchise at $464 million, which would put the newspaper’s stake at more than $33 million.

The Post has held its stake in the team since the Rockies were founded more than two decades ago and Moss said the decision to seek a buyer for its stake is not a reflection of the team’s ownership or the newspaper’s relationship with the Monforts.

Big Mac returns to SoCal as Dodgers hitting coach

LOS ANGELES — Mark McGwire was hired Wednesday as hitting coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he’ll work with All-Star sluggers Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier.

McGwire spent the past three seasons in the same job with the St. Louis Cardinals, where he starred during parts of his 16-year major league career. During McGwire’s tenure, the Cardinals led the National League in batting average (.269) and on-base percentage (.337), ranked second in runs (2,263) and fourth in slugging percentage (.416).

He worked with All-Star sluggers Carlos Beltran, Lance Berkman, Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols, while helping develop 2011World Series MVP David Freese.

The job is a homecoming for McGwire, who is from the Los Angeles suburb of Pomona and currently lives in Orange County. He played college baseball at Southern California and was a member of Oakland’s 1989 World Series champion team.

Mets, OF Jason Bay terminate contract

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Jason Bay and the New York Mets ended their unproductive relationship after three miserable seasons when they agreed Wednesday to terminate the outfielder’s contract with one guaranteed season remaining.

The deal makes the 34-year-old a free agent and allows the team to spread out the remaining $21 million it owes him.

After signing a $66 million, four-year deal before the 2010 season, the three-time All-Star hit .234 in three injury-plagued seasons with 26 homers and 124 RBIs, including a .165 average with eight homers and 20 RBIs this year. Sidelined by concussions and rib injuries, he played just 288 games for the Mets.

Bay was owed $16 million for next season and a $3 million buyout of a 2014 option, plus the final $2 million installment of his $8.5 million signing bonus was payable by next June.

“Jason has a tremendous work ethic. There was never any question about it,” Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said. “Unfortunately, the results weren’t there, and we are in a results-oriented business.”

An All-Star in 2005, 2006 and 2009, Bay signed with the Mets after hitting .267 in his final season for Boston with career bests of 36 homers and 119 RBIs.

“Jason is a great teammate, hard worker, standup guy, and true gentleman,” Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon said. “Like Jason, we had planned for the kind of production here that he enjoyed in Boston and Pittsburgh, where he established himself as one of the game’s top players.”

Bay missed the final two months of the 2010 season because of a concussion sustained while slamming into the left-field fence to make a catch at Dodger Stadium. He was out for the first three weeks of 2011 with a strained ribcage. This year he was on the disabled list from late April until early June because of a broken rib, then missed another month with a concussion when he crashed into the wall at Citi Field while trying to catch an inside-the-park homer by Cincinnati’s Jay Bruce.

“There’s not a player who tried harder to succeed or was more frustrated and disappointed than Jason himself,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “I’ll miss Jason’s presence in the clubhouse as a player, teammate, and person.”

Bay joins the exodus of big-name players from the Mets, who have finished fourth in the NL East for four straight years. Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes and Francisco Rodriguez left a year ago.

New York hopes to negotiate long-term deals with third baseman David Wright and pitcher R.A. Dickey, who both can become free agents after the 2013 season.

Tags: sports, mlb