Quick hits
Flames baseball to play in Boras Classic North
The defending Tri-City Athletic League champion Lodi High baseball team, coming off of a 23-win season, will play at the Boras Classic North, one of three Boras Classic tournaments on April 6 to 9.
The Boras North will take place at Army Depot Park in Sacramento, and will feature one of Lodi’s league foes — St. Mary’s — and three more Sac-Joaquin Section teams: Franklin-Elk Grove, Grante Bay and Oak Ridge.
Defending tournament champion Archbishop Mitty out of San Jose is in the field, along with fellow Central Coast Section teams Mountain View and St. Francis (Mountain View). The North Coast Section has the most teams, which include Acalanes (Lafayette), Cardinal Newman (Santa Rosa), Casa Grande (Petaluma), College Park (Pleasant Hill), Heritage (Brentwood) and Petaluma, and the Central Section has two teams: Clovis West (Fresno) and Liberty (Bakersfield).
The brackets will be released in February. Each team is guaranteed four games. The other two tournaments are in Southern California and Arizona. The championship games will be streamed on ESPN3.
Former Cal cheerleader sues school, coaches for ignoring concussion
BERKELEY — Melissa Martin filed the lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court on Wednesday against the school, her coaches and USA Cheer, which oversees the sport nationally, seeking damages and asking that “reasonable concussion protocols” be implemented for collegiate cheerleaders.
“I felt alone and voiceless for a long time,” Martin said Thursday. “We often talk about football players receiving concussions but rarely do we talk about other sports and, more specifically, rarely do we talk about female athletes experiencing concussions.”
Martin, 23, was a member of the Berkeley cheerleading squad from 20172018, according to the complaint, and suffered a serious concussion during an October 2017 practice when a teammate kicked her in the head. The suit alleges that Martin suffered a severe headache later that night as well as other concussion-like symptoms.
Head coach Lisa Keys, the suit claims, discouraged her from seeking medical attention and later forced her to perform while still suffering from concussion-like symptoms.
Martin’s symptoms were exacerbated, according to the lawsuit, when she was expected to attend rallies, practices and games even while not performing because of exposure to loud noise and bright lights.
Keys declined to comment in an email, referring questions to university officials. A UC Berkeley spokesman, Herb Benenson, said the university had not been served with the lawsuit.
— Fiona Kelliher and Elliott Almond,
Mercury News
Mickey Callaway fired as Mets manager after two seasons with team
The Mets’ Mickey Callaway era — two seasons marked by disappointment on the field and turnover in the front office — is over.
The Mets fired Callaway on Thursday, four days after his second season as Mets manager ended with the team again failing to make the playoffs.
Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon and general manager Brodie Van Wagenen flew to Florida Thursday morning to fire Callaway in person.
“While we fell short of our ultimate goals, Mickey helped us win nine more games this year than we did last year and he was a big part of our finishing 10 games over .500 this season,” Van Wagenen said in a conference call with reporters. “He brought consistent work ethic, good attitude and passion every single day. And as Jeff and I shared with him this morning, we have no doubt that these characteristics will allow him to find success in his next opportunity as he draws from these experiences going forward.