Mientkiewicz Traded to Mets

Doug Mientkiewicz is bringing his good glove to the New York Mets. The ball is going to Boston, at least for a year.

The Mets acquired the former Gold Glove first baseman from the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday for minor league first baseman Ian Bladergroen.

New York made the decision to obtain Mientkiewicz after Carlos Delgado accepted the Florida Marlins’ $52-million, four-year offer Tuesday, spurning a proposal from New York.

“It just makes our defense that much better,” Met General Manager Omar Minaya said, adding that Mientkiewicz would help New York’s young infield, which includes third baseman David Wright, shortstop Jose Reyes and second baseman Kaz Matsui.

Mientkiewicz, 30, won the 2001 American League Gold Glove with Minnesota and caught the final out of Boston’s World Series sweep of St. Louis last October, the first Series title for the Red Sox since 1918. He kept the ball, which the Red Sox want back.

Mientkiewicz says Boston has asked to have it for one year, he intends to comply and the sides expect to reach an agreement within days.

Mientkiewicz said he would not receive any money and “probably” would get the ball back after a year.

Mientkiewicz came up to the major leagues with Minnesota in 1998 and was dealt to the Red Sox last July 31. A career .272 hitter, he slumped to a combined .238 with six homers and 35 RBIs last year for Minnesota and Boston, which used him as a late-inning replacement for Kevin Millar.

Mientkiewicz agreed last February to a $7-million, two-year contract that calls for a $3.75-million salary this year. The deal includes a $3.75-million team option for 2006 with a $450,000 buyout.

As part of the trade, the Red Sox agreed to pay the buyout if the Mets decline the option.

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Yuniesky Betancourt, a 22-year-old shortstop who fled Cuba on a raft in July 2003, agreed to a four-year, $2.8-million contract with the Seattle Mariners.

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Jurisprudence

Atlanta Thrasher forward Dany Heatley will resolve his vehicular homicide case before his scheduled Feb. 7 trial date, his attorney Ed Garland said in Atlanta.

Garland would not say whether Heatley plans to enter a guilty plea, but that appears to be his only option besides going to trial.

Heatley was indicted in July on vehicular homicide and five other charges in connection with a car crash in Atlanta that killed Thrasher teammate Dan Snyder, 25, on Sept. 29, 2003.

Former high school football coach Lynn Lang told a federal jury in Memphis, Tenn., that he got offers of money, a job and free law school for his wife before he accepted a $150,000 payoff to steer his best player, defensive tackle Albert Means, to sign with Alabama in 2000.

Lang, who coached at Trezevant High, testified for the second day at the trial of Logan Young, a Memphis millionaire on trial on federal bribery and money laundering charges. Lang is awaiting sentencing on a guilty plea to racketeering conspiracy

Lang also said that coaches at two other Southeastern Conference schools, Kentucky and Georgia, gave him money. He also testified that Tennessee, Mississippi, Michigan State and Arkansas offered money for Means but never paid.

Under cross-examination, Lang added Memphis to the list of schools that offered him a deal, testifying that then-coach Rip Scherer said he would arrange for Lang’s wife to attend law school free at the university.

Lang also told jurors that Arkansas offered him either an assistant-coaching job worth more than $80,000 a year or $150,000 in cash if he delivered Means and another player.

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Miscellany

Former swimmer Janet Evans, winner of four Olympic gold medals and one silver medal, was elected to the board of directors of the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles. Evans is a commentator and motivational speaker.

The AAF, whose endowment came from Southern California’s share of the surplus from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, awards grants to youth sports organizations, operates youth sports programs and manages a sports library.

The AAF also announced its latest grants, which will be distributed among 21 organizations and total $1.183 million. Kids in Sports, which works year-round with more than 1,000 parents, teachers and community volunteers at schools and parks, got the largest grant, $450,000.

The Southern California Tennis Assn. got $175,000 and the Exposition Park Intergenerational Community Center got $148,956 to provide swim lessons and support a swim team at Exposition Park.

Indiana running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis has withdrawn from classes and might transfer to another school after leading the team in rushing the last two seasons.

Ed Nizwantowski, the baseball coach at Peabody (Mass.) High, was fired after former players, including a first-round draft pick of the Florida Marlins, admitted being addicted to a painkiller.

Peabody Principal Patrick Larkin said Nizwantowski’s removal was not related to drug problems at the school. Nizwantowski was not fired from his job as football coach, but Larkin said the school would soon begin accepting applications for all fall sports coaching positions, including football.

Three former Peabody athletes died of drug overdoses in the last year, according to the Essex district attorney’s office, and two of Nizwantowski’s former standouts, Jeff Allison and Joel Levine, have admitted publicly they were addicted to the painkiller OxyContin.

Allison, Florida’s top pick in the 2003 draft, also spent three days in a Lynn, Mass., hospital in July because of a near overdose of heroin.

FBI agents raided the home of alleged steroid dealer Victor Conte and seized e-mail and other records as part of an investigation of grand jury testimony leaks in a broad sports-doping scandal, according to newspaper reports.

At least a dozen agents raided Conte’s San Mateo, Calif., home before 8 a.m., and within four hours seized a computer, cellphone and lab records belonging to the founder of Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News reported on their websites, each citing sources they did not identify.

According to the newspapers, agents were also looking for items involving track coaches Trevor Graham of Raleigh, N.C., and John Smith of Los Angeles. FBI agents were also trying to find records to prove that Conte leaked information to journalists.

Jonas Sandqvist made five saves to help Sweden end Mexico’s eight-game winning streak with a scoreless tie in an exhibition soccer match at San Diego. The game was the first sporting event other than baseball played at Petco Park.