MWSC names development coach
CARIBOU — Amber Dodge has been hired as the development coach at Maine Winter Sports Center.
Dodge replaces departing coach David Chamberlain.
Dodge, a Worthington, Mass., native, raced locally in high school, as well regionally at the J2 festival, Eastern High School Championships and at USSA Junior Olympics.
After school, Dodge worked summers in Switzerland for an outdoor adventure company and as a certified yoga instructor. During the winters she worked at the Aspen Cross Country Ski Center and coached the development team for the Aspen Valley Ski Club.
Prospect bowler qualifies for national tourney
BANGOR — McCauley Donna of Prospect earned a spot in the North Pointe National Junior Gold Championships after recording a 1,121 in six games during a Maine State Junior Gold tourney at Family Fun Bowling Center Saturday.
Donna qualified in the ages 16-20 division and will compete in the national tourney in Indianapolis next July. He joins Edward Kimball of South China who qualified for ages 15 and under with a 1,108 total.
Competing at the national tournament is one of the highest achievements in youth bowling as college recruiters are present and bowlers may earn scholarships.
Maine Junior Gold is looking for sponsors to help pay for the bowlers’ entry fees and possibly expenses. For more information contact Bonnie at 234-4049 orbookadvice@gmail.com
Indians cut ties with OF Grady Sizemore
CLEVELAND — Once the Indians’ leadoff hitter, their constantly hustling All-Star outfielder and the undisputed face of their franchise, Grady Sizemore meant everything to Cleveland.
It couldn’t last forever.
The Indians declined Sizemore’s $9 million contract option for 2012 on Monday, cutting ties with the popular injury-plagued center fielder and making him eligible for free agency.
“This was an exceptionally difficult decision,” general manager Chris Antonetti said. “We have a profound respect for Grady, his work ethic, his intensity and all the attributes he brings to the game. Baseball is a better game when Grady Sizemore is on the field playing.”
The move with Sizemore was expected as was the team’s decision to pick up starting pitcher Fausto Carmona’s $7 million option for next season. The Indians also have options on Carmona for 2013 and 2014.
The Indians have until 12:01 a.m. Thursday to exclusively negotiate with Sizemore, who can then begin talks with other major league teams.
Antonetti hasn’t ruled out re-signing Sizemore, but the price has to be right.
“We will stay in touch in the offseason and still hope to have him in the organization,” he said. “We have had dialogue with Grady and his agent over the past few weeks. We remain open-minded and Grady remains open-minded. I am confident he will consider us. We will consider him, but at this point, not at his option value.”
Injuries have sabotaged Sizemore’s career, limiting him to just 210 games the past three seasons. Sizemore, who at one stage of his career played in 382 consecutive games, has undergone five surgeries — two on his knees — in the past three years and is no longer a base-stealing threat.
The Indians, who were in contention before collapsing in September when injuries up and down the roster took their toll, have been patient with the popular 29-year-old. However, they have decided it may be time to move on without Sizemore and use some of the money that could have gone to him to use in free agency.
Antonetti flew to Arizona last Thursday to personally inform Sizemore of the team’s decision. It was hard for the team to part company with Sizemore, who batted .269 with 139 homers, 458 RBIs and 96 stolen bases in his career with Cleveland and played with an unmatched passion, perhaps one of the reasons his body has betrayed him in the past few years.
“The nature of his injuries are more traumatic, from sliding, diving,” Antonetti said. “We can’t expect him to play any different. He knows one way to play, with full effort and intensity.”
Sizemore played in only 71 games last season, batting .224 with 10 homers and 32 RBIs. It was his seventh full season with the Indians, who acquired him as a minor leaguer from Montreal in the 2002 blockbuster trade for ace Bartolo Colon.
Sizemore’s career has been in freefall since 2008, when he made his third straight AL All-Star squad. That year he hit 33 homers and stole 38 bases, joining Joe Carter as the only players in Cleveland history in the 30-30 club.
The following season, Sizemore went on the disabled list for the first time in his career. He played in just 33 games in 2010 before undergoing microfracture surgery on his left knee, a procedure that delayed the start of his 2011 season.
He made his debut on April 17 and batted .378 with four homers and nine RBIs in 11 games to end the month, showing flashes of being back to his former form. But Sizemore injured his right knee sliding into second base on May 10, went on the DL and was never the same. He finished the season on the DL and underwent another operation on his right knee.
With little to choose from at Triple-A Columbus, the Indians may offer Sizemore a one-year, incentive-laden deal. The club needs another starting outfielder to play with Michael Brantley and Shin-Soo Choo, who are also coming off injury-shortened seasons.
Mets bring in Citi Field fences, eye power surge
NEW YORK — While not exactly tearing down this wall, the New York Mets are putting up a new fence at Citi Field that’s shorter and closer to home plate.
In an effort to boost scoring at the pitcher-friendly ballpark, the Mets announced Monday they are cutting the field dimensions by as much as 12 feet next season, lowering the fence height to 8 feet all around and changing the fence color to blue with an orange line at the top.
“We’re targeting to try to fit in, to be more normal or more on average with everybody,” Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon said.
At their first offseason comments, the Mets said it was too soon to tell whether they would be competitive to re-sign free agent Jose Reyes. General manager Sandy Alderson said he expected David Wright will remain with the Mets next season.
The new fence will be erected in front of the ballpark’s daunting 16-foot black fence, which became known as “The Great Wall of Flushing.”
“You just keep looking at that thing, and that left-field wall kept getting higher and higher,” Alderson said.
According to STATS LLC, Citi Field was last in the major leagues in home runs during its first three seasons with an average of 1.43 per game. The ballpark’s 3.78 ERA was the sixth-lowest in the major leagues.
Right-center field is being brought in from 415 feet to 398, although the new sign doesn’t match up with the same angle as the old one. Left field comes in from 371 to 358 — with about 100 seats being added behind the new fence in left.
The “Mo’s Zone” fence in right field is being pulled in, creating even more of an overhang from the second deck. About 40 additional seats will be in that area.
Alderson, hired a year ago, revised the dimensions recommended by his predecessor, Omar Minaya.
“We didn’t want to completely alter the ballpark and make it into the proverbial bandbox,” Alderson said. “So that required looking at various dimensions and coming up with something based on home-run rates and park factors and so forth that was more or less neutral as between pitching and hitting, somewhere in the middle of all the ballparks.”
David Wright hit .279 at home with 22 homers, 103 RBIs and 179 strikeouts in the first three seasons at Citi Field, down from a .335 average at home with 37 homers, 118 RBIs and 105 strikeouts in the final three years at Shea Stadium.
“I don’t want to give you the impression that we’ve done this for David or we’ve done this for Ike (Davis) or we’ve done this for anybody in particular,” Alderson said. “It’s really about having a more neutral ballpark and maybe to even some extent, given that I think offense is exciting for many fans, maybe it will be slightly more entertaining.”
Alderson said the Mets projected they would have hit 81 more home runs at Citi Field over the last three seasons with the new dimensions and could have given up 70 more. During three years at Citi Field, there were only nine opposite-field home runs by left-handed hitters — and none by the Mets.
Dodgers hire 1st woman as head athletic trainer
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers have hired Sue Falsone as head athletic trainer, making her the first female to hold that job in major professional sports.
General manager Ned Colletti announced Falsone’s hiring Monday and said Stan Conte has been promoted to senior director of medical services.
Falsone (fal-SONY) became the first female physical therapist in the major leagues when she was hired by the Dodgers in 2007. She worked in that role through the 2010 season. The 37-year-old trainer will continue to work for Athletes’ Performance in Phoenix.
Falsone has also worked with players in the NFL, NBA and NHL.
She and current assistant athletic trainer Nancy Patterson give the Dodgers the first pair of female trainers on one staff in the history of the major leagues.
Indians acquire former Sox pitcher Derek Lowe
Derek Lowe’s durability — and price tag — were too much for the Cleveland Indians to resist.
The club acquired the 15-year veteran pitcher from the Atlanta Braves on Monday for a minor leaguer, a low-risk move designed to bolster Cleveland’s starting rotation.
The Indians got the 38-year-old Lowe, who has 166 career wins, in exchange for left-hander Chris Jones. As part of the deal, the Indians will only have to pay Lowe $5 million of the $15 million he’s scheduled to make in 2012. Lowe signed a four-year $60 million deal as a free agent with Atlanta before the 2009 season.
General manager Chris Antonetti said Lowe immediately assumes a spot in the Indians’ starting staff, where he’ll join Ubaldo Jimenez, Justin Masterson, Josh Tomlin and Fausto Carmona. Before the deal for Lowe was announced, the Indians picked up Carmona’s $7 million option for 2012.
“He’s a quality pitcher with durability, pitching 180 innings or more every year since 2002,” Antonetti said. “The last time he was on the disabled list was 1995. In addition to his durability, there’s some leadership potential. His experience will complement a very young rotation. One of our goals was to improve our starting pitching.
“This goes a long way towards that. Stability is important. Also, he can be a positive influence on young starting pitchers with similar skills.”
The Indians contended for most of 2011 before injuries and inexperience dropped them from the AL Central race. And while Lowe has some mileage on his right arm, Cleveland believes he has enough left to keep help next season.
Lowe has pitched in both leagues, as a starter and closer. One of just three pitchers in history with more than 160 wins and 80 saves, Lowe went just 9-17 with a 5.05 ERA in 34 starts last season, his third with Atlanta. His 17 losses led the league.
But with right-hander Carlos Carrasco out for the season following Tommy John surgery, the Indians, who traded top prospects Alex White and Drew Pomeranz to Colorado for Jimenez in July, needed another established starter and made finding one an offseason priority — through trade or free agency.
Atlanta had a surplus of young arms and were looking to move Lowe, a sinkerball pitcher.
Lowe was 0-5 in September for the Braves, and struggled with is mechanics for much of the season. After Atlanta faded down the stretch and missed the postseason, GM Frank Wren said, Lowe is 166-146 with a 3.94 ERA in 356 career starts. In addition to Atlanta, Lowe has pitched with Seattle, Boston and the Los Angeles Dodgers since breaking into the majors in 1997. His 334 games started since 2002 is the most in baseball over the 10-season span.
Jones, 23, went 7-1 with a 3.36 ERA in 43 appearances for Kinston (A).
Cubs to decline option on Samardzija