Tired of Distraction, Mets Part Company With Bonilla

The New York Mets finally conceded that Bobby Bonilla’s future wasn’t with them.

The unhappy outfielder, owed $5.9 million for the final season of his contract, was put on unconditional waivers Monday after agreeing to defer his salary at 8% annual interest.

“It was a distraction and a problem we needed to address this off-season,” General Manager Steve Phillips said.

Bonilla will receive 25 payments of $1,193,248.20 each July 1 from 2011 to 2035, according to the revised contract, a total of $29,831,205. That’s $831,205 more than the five-year deal he signed with the Mets in December 1991 that made him baseball’s highest-paid player at the time.

After he clears waivers Wednesday, any team can sign him.

Bonilla, who will be 37 this season, batted .160 last year with four home runs and 18 runs batted in. Bothered by a knee injury, he had only 119 at-bats.

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Shortstop Tony Batista, acquired by Toronto from Arizona last June, agreed to a $16-million, four-year contract with the Blue Jays.

Batista, 26, batted .285 with 26 home runs and 79 RBIs for Toronto, which traded reliever Dan Plesac to the Diamondbacks on June 12 for Batista and right-hander John Frascatore. Batista batted .257 with five home runs and 21 RBIs for Arizona. . . . The Milwaukee Brewers hired former Toronto manager Tim Johnson as a scout.

Tennis

Third-seeded Magnus Norman of Sweden beat crowd favorite Scott Draper of Australia, 6-4, 6-4, in an opening match at the $350,000 AAPT championships at Adelaide, Australia.

While Draper was eliminated, fellow Australians Jason Stoltenberg and James Sekulov advanced to the second round.

Stoltenberg upset fourth-seeded Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, 6-3, 6-1. Sekulov defeated Italy’s Gianluca Pozzi, 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

The young U.S. team of Alexandra Stevenson and James Blake didn’t win a set in losing, 3-0, to Sweden in its first round-robin match in the Hopman Cup at Perth, Australia.

Asa Carlsson beat Stevenson, 6-4, 6-4, then Jonas Bjorkman held off a late rally by Blake, the 1999 No. 1-ranked U.S. college player, in winning, 6-3, 7-5. The Swedes then took the doubles, 6-3, 6-3. In another opening round match, Austria defeated Slovakia, 2-1.

Sixth-seeded Nathalie Dechy of France had an easy time against Nicole Pratt, dealing the Australian a 6-0, 6-2 loss in first-round play at the Australian women’s hardcourt tournament at Gold Coast, Australia.

In other matches, qualifier Jana Kandarr of Germany beat Tina Pisnik of Slovakia, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3, and Tathiana Garbin of Italy beat Magdalena Grzybowska of Poland, 6-2 6-3.

George Bastl of Switzerland upset sixth-seeded Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 7-5, in the first round of the Qatar Open at Doha, Qatar. . . . Top-seeded Elena Likhovtseva of Russia won her opening match at the Auckland women’s classic, beating Maria Alejandro Vento of Venezuela, 6-3, 6-3, at Auckland, New Zealand.

Winter Sports

The Czech Republic exploited several defensive lapses to beat the United States, 4-1, and qualify for the final of the world junior ice hockey championship at Stockholm. The Czechs will play Russia in the title game today. The Russians beat Canada, 3-2, in the other semifinal.

Skier-shooter Samppa Lajunen of Finland upset Olympic and world champion Bjarte Engen Vik of Norway to win a sprint Nordic combined World Cup competition at Oberwiesenthal, Germany.

Ski jumper Andreas Widhoelzl of Austria soared to his second consecutive World Cup victory on the Four-Hill Tour, landing the two longest jumps at Innsbruck, Austria.

Necrology

Services will be held 2 p.m. Thursday at Angelus Funeral Home, 3875 S. Crenshaw Blvd., for Barbara Williams, longtime USC women’s basketball administrative assistant. Williams, 49, died last Thursday in her sleep of a brain aneurysm. A USC employee since 1980, she had worked as the administrative assistant for the last four USC women’s basketball coaches.

Former California All-American basketball player Bob McKeen, who held the Bears’ career scoring record for 32 years, has died of heart failure at Oakland. . . . Ed Doherty, the only man to serve as head football coach at Arizona and Arizona State, has died at age 81 at Tucson. . . . Gary Adams, a golf club innovator known as “the father of the metal wood,” died at his Carlsbad home after a long illness. He was 56.

Miscellany

Strong winds and rough seas forced postponement of America’s Cup racing off Auckland, New Zealand