Creighton has reached an agreement with the Omaha Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority (MECA) for the Bluejays to play their home games at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, the future home of the College World Series starting in 2011. The MECA board approved a 10-year lease agreement with Creighton on Tuesday.

Under the lease agreement, Creighton will play some home games in 2011 and all of its home games in 2012 at the new park. [...] Continue Reading »

Gary Carter is leaving the Atlantic League for Division II baseball.

Carter, the Hall of Fame catcher best known as a player for the Expos and Mets, will become head coach at Division II Palm Beach Atlantic, near his Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., home. Carter managed the Long Island Ducks in 2009 and in the independent Golden League in 2008, after managing for two seasons in the Mets farm system.

Carter, 55, has lived in the area since 1982—the Expos used to have their spring training home in West Palm Beach—and his daughter is a softball coach at the school. He will work with present Sailfish head coach Rob Avila this coming season and will take over the program on his own on June 1, 2010.

He’s the second Hall of Famer coaching in college, joining San Diego State’s Tony Gwynn.

The New York Times is reporting that the NCAA has agreed to pay former Oklahoma State lefthander Andy Oliver $750,000 to settle the lawsuit between the two sides. Oliver had sued the NCAA after he was ruled ineligible for being represented by a lawyer in negotiations with the Twins after he was drafted in high school.

The more significant development with the settlement is that it marks a return to the status quo. In February, Erie County (Ohio) judge Tygh M. Tone ruled in Oliver’s favor and prohibited the NCAA from enforcing its "no agent" rule. But today, Tone dismissed the case at the parties’ request and vacated the order that barred the NCAA from enforcing the "no agent" rule.

Clearly, the rule is vulnerable to legal challenges, but for now, at least, the NCAA can go back to prohibiting players from having representation in their dealings with pro clubs. [...] Continue Reading »

Former Oklahoma State and current Detroit Tigers lefthander Andy Oliver has settled his lawsuit with the NCAA, just two weeks before a jury trial was scheduled to begin in Ohio.

Oliver already won the first phase of the trial when an Ohio judge ordered the reinstatement of his eligibility in February. Oliver also sued the NCAA for breach of contract and damages, and those complaints were settled this week. Terms are confidential.

"I believe we would have tried and won a very large judgment, the NCAA would have appealed and this would have dragged on for three to five more years," Oliver’s lawyer, Rick Johnson, told the USA Today. " . . . This was all about the right to counsel. (The NCAA) punished this kid because he had a lawyer. It was absurd from the beginning, and it should never have come to this."