Mill Creek offers T-ball, slo-pitch softball

Mill Creek offers T-ball, slo-pitch softball

YOUNGSTOWN

Mill Creek Junior Baseball is offering 4-6-year-old coed T-ball for the first time. Cost is $40 per player.

The organization is bringing back 13-17 girls slo-pitch softball. For more information, visit the website www.millcreekjrbaseball.com.

Poland sets fund-raiser for Lakeview player

POLAND

Poland High School Athletic Department will hold a Bulldogs Unite fund-raiser at Friday’s basketball game against Lakeview.

Proceeds will be given to Alexis Rygalski, a Lakeview senior basketball player who is fighting against Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Michigan St. promotes Tressel’s nephew

EAST LANSING, Mich.

Michigan State has announced that Mike Tressel will be the team’s defensive coordinator after Harlon Barnett’s departure to Florida State .

Tressel had been a co-defensive coordinator for the Spartans with Barnett. Michigan State also announced Friday that former Kent State coach Paul Haynes has been hired as the Spartans’ secondary coach.

Tressel, the nephew of former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, has been on the staff for Mark Dantonio’s whole 11-year tenure as Michigan State’s coach.

Haynes was fired in November after five seasons as Kent State’s coach. He coached defensive backs at Michigan State in 2003 and 2004 before spending seven seasons on the defensive staff at Ohio State.

Longoria not a fan of riding a cart

SAN FRANCISCO

Evan Longoria just can’t envision it: a reliever riding in from the bullpen on a cart to speed up games.

Sounds utterly far-fetched for America’s tried-and-true pastime in the 21st century, right?

Yet that was one idea players had, along with cutting down on the time between innings by running split-screen commercials.

Longoria, acquired by San Francisco in a trade from Tampa Bay last month, has no interest in turning from his new third base spot at AT&T Park to watch a pitcher make way to the mound by cart from the bullpen behind his base.

“Let the guy run out,” Longoria said Friday.

On Thursday, the players’ association rejected Major League Baseball’s pace-of-game proposal.

MLB can implement its proposal from last offseason to install 20-second pitch clocks and limit mound trips by a manager, coach or player to one per pitcher in an inning before a mandatory pitching change.

Yates inducted into NASCAR Hall

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Robert Yates lived long enough to hear his name announced as a NASCAR Hall of Famer.

Although he lost his battle with liver cancer five months after he was voted into the Hall, Yates was able to write his own acceptance speech for Friday night’s ceremony. It was read by Dale Jarrett, a Hall of Famer who won the 1999 championship driving for Yates.

“When I started in racing, this was not the goal,” Jarrett read from Yates’ speech. “All I wanted to do throughout my career was win races. I would always say, I don’t race for the money, I race to win. For me, that’s what it’s always been about, but to be part of this year’s induction class is a true honor.”

Yates was a championship-winning car owner and engine builder who learned from Waddell Wilson and Junior Johnson. He built the powerplants for Bobby Allison’s 1983 Cup championship team, and the engines used when Richard Petty drove to his 199th and 200th victories — his last — of Petty’s career.

As a car owner, Yates drivers won 57 races that included three Daytona 500s. A year ago, as he was in his losing fight with cancer, Kurt Busch drove a Yates-powered car to the Daytona 500 title.

Staff/wire report