NEW PHILLIES BOSS DOMBROWSKI PLANS RETOOL, NOT REBUILD
Dave Dombrowski wants to win again sooner rather than later.
The longtime executive moved to Nashville, Tenn., in September as a consultant for Music City Baseball but found out this week that expansion won’t be entertained for more than a year at least. So he finalized a deal Friday to become the Philadelphia Phillies’ president of baseball operations, convinced the team is not far from its first World Series title since 2008.
“I consider a retool, not a rebuild for sure,” said the 64year-old Dombrowski. “There’s too many good players on the club.”
He views the Phillies as “sort of a sleeping giant because they’ve got a big market. And they’ve got a good, solid owner that wants to spend money to win.”
He cited right fielder Bryce Harper, starting pitchers Aaron Nola, Zach Wheeler and Zach Ef lin, manager Joe Girardi and managing partner John Middleton as cause of hope.
More baseball
The Dodgers are not afraid to take f liers on players. They believe they can extract talent and resurrect careers better than anyone. Who better to take a low-cost chance on than someone you watched recently dominate? That’s what the Dodgers decided when they signed Brandon Morrow, a former
Padre, to a minor league contract. The club also announced it signed righthander Jimmy Nelson, right-hander Brock Stewart, left-hander James Pazos and infielder Carlos Asuaje, another former Padre, to minor league deals. They’re slated to attend big-league spring training as non-roster invites. The Dodgers also promoted Clayton McCullough to first base coach.
• The Brewers acquired minor league left-handed pitcher Leo Crawford to complete the trade that sent former All-Star reliever Corey Knebel to the Dodgers.
• The Rangers re-signed right-hander Jimmy Herget to a major league contract and designated outfielder Scott Heineman for assignment Friday.
Mixed martial arts
Ilima Lei-Macfarlane of La Mesa suffered the first defeat of her career Thursday night, losing her women’s flyweight title to Juliana Velasquez of Brazil via unanimous decision in the main event of Bellator 254 at Uncasville, Conn. Macfarlane, 30, had been the only women’s flyweight Bellator champion after winning the title in November 2017. Two judges scored the bout 48-47 and the other had it 49-46 in favor of Velasquez (11-0).
Local colleges
Redshirt junior
Kendall
Bird scored a career-high 16 points to lead the USD women’s basketball team (2-1) to a 98-56 victory over visiting San Diego Christian.
Soccer
It’s Robert Lewandowski’s turn to try to stop Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo from winning the FIFA best player award. The Bayern Munich forward joined the two standout players on the three-man shortlist announced. Lewandowski’s goals led Bayern to a sweep of titles this year — the Champions League, the German league, the German Cup and the UEFA Super Cup.
• Atlanta was awarded a berth in next year’s CONCACAF Champions League by the U.S. Soccer Federation’s board of directors.
Also
Brittney Arndt and Ashley Farquharson grabbed the last two available spots on USA Luge’s World Cup roster, rounding out the 10person team that is going to Europe with plans of competing in the final six races of the season starting in January.
NASCAR’s popular throwback weekend celebration at Darlington Raceway is moving from Labor Day weekend to Mother’s Day. Darlington is holding two races next season and decided to move the throwback weekend.