Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 17

Baseball Golf FRIDAY, MAY 3, 2002 RENO 5B MAJOR LEAGUE NOTEBOOK Big Unit to get his next start on Monday ASSOCIATED PRESS Forsman takes first-round lead at Compaq Classic do the things he normally does. padded wall in right-center and missed the ball, which bounced off and hit him near his left eye. Bradley was hitting .266 in 23 games with the Indians, who acquired him in a trade last July 31 from the Montreal Expos. Cabrera can play all three outfield positions and has bean playing some first base with the Bisons. He was batting .323 in 31 at-bats in Buffalo.

TORBORG SUSPENSION CUT TO ONE GAME: Florida Marlins manager Jeff Tor-borg will serve a one-game suspension today at Milwaukee for an ejection on April 8, with major league baseball reducing the penalty fiom two games. Torborg was ejected at the home opener against the Montreal Expos after umpires reveised a call that negated a three-run homer by Mike Lowell. Expos manager Frank Robinson had protested the call. Fans angry about the ruling threw magnetic schedules that had been a giveaway gift onto the field. A TV replay showed the ball hooked foul.

CARDINALS PLACE KLINE ON DL: St. Louis Cardinals reliever Steve Kline went on the disabled list Thursday, joining five St. Louis starters. Kline, who last pitched Sunday, has been hindered by a triceps injury and said he pitched hurt the last week of the team's recently completed 1 3-game trip. Kline said team doctors told him he'll be sidelined 3-to-4 weeks.

Results of an MRI exam showed no serious injury, but he won't throw for 10 days. Kline has a 3.72 ERA with one save in 1 1 games. The Cardinals already had pitchers Garrett Stephenson, Bud Smith, Woody Williams. Rick Ankiel and Andy Benes on the DL. The Cardinals purchased the contract of left-handed reliever Jose Rodriguez fiom iripie A Memphis.

TIGERS PLACE ANDERSON ON DL: The Detroit Tigers placed closer Matt Anderson on the 15-day disabled list Thursday while he recovers from a shoulder injury and recalled right-hander Fernando Rodney from Double-A Erie. Anderson is 2-1 with a 5.63 ERA. The move was retroactive to Saturday. PIRATES' MEARES TURNS DOWN HAND SURGERY: Pat Meares said he wili not have surgery on his injured left hand, wnicii has hampered his performance at the plate since 1999. The infielder has disagreed with management about whether he should play without the surgery.

Team oiticials say the decision has been left to Meares. Meares has two years left on his $1 million, four-year contract. A hand specialist consulted by the Pirates recommended surgery, but a University of Massachusetts doctor visited by Meares said another operation would not help him regain any strength or flexibility in his hand. If Meares is not taken off the disabled list by the Pirates, he likely would want to play elsewhere, but the team may be hesitant to let him go. The team has disability insurance that covers long-term contracts.

Those insurance payments might be threatened should Meares be released. GEHRIG'S SPEECH TO BE REPEATED IN ALSTRIBUTE: Lou Gehrig'sfamousfarewell speech, in which he called himself "the luckiest man on the face of the earth." will be repeated by celebrities in 15 major league parks before games on June I The unique promotion was created by major league baseball and Project ALS to call attention to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis the disease that took the Hall of Fame baseball player's life and now is commonly known as "Lou Gehrig's disease." "So rather than force him out there and throw him off of his routine and move the rest of the rotation around to accommodate, we'll just keep him on his regular start on Monday," he said. INDIANS' BRADLEY HAS EYE FRACTURE: Cleveland Indians center fielder Milton Bradley broke a bone near his left eye while trying to make a catch and may need surgery. Bradley was injured during Wednesday's game against the Anaheim Angels when a ball ricocheted off the outfield wall and hit him just below his left eye. Indians assistant general manager Neal Huntington said Bradley fractured his orbital bone and will be re-examined Saturday by Dr.

James Conforto. Huntington said Bradley will be out indefinitely and could need surgery. "We don't know yet," Huntington said. "We don't have a time frame. After more tests we'll have a better idea.

But any time you're talking about a player's eye, sure there is some concern." Bradley was wearing red-tinted glasses before Thursday's game and declined to speak with reporters before leaving Jacobs Field. The Indians said the 24-year-old player has double vision and tests showed that the iris in his eye was inflamed. Cleveland placed Bradley on the 15-day disabled list and recalled utilityman Jolbert Cabrera from Triple-A Buffalo. Cabrera has been in the minors while recovering from a gunshot wound to his buttocks. Cabrera was shot this winter in a failed carjacking in his hometown of Cartegena Colombia.

While lining up to catch Brad Fullmer's drive in Wednesday night's loss to the Anaheim Angels, Bradley leaped against the PHOENIX Randy Johnson, who missed his scheduled start Wednesday night for Arizona because of a strained lower back, will next pitch Monday night at home against Pittsburgh. Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly had considered starting Johnson against Montreal on Saturday, but decided to keep the Big Unit in his usual every-five-days slot. "He actually feels a lot better today than he did yesterday," Brenly said Thursday night. He threw a short side session out there and said it loosened up considerably while he was throwing." Johnson, picked Thursday as the National League pitcher of the month for April, tied a major league record he already shared by going 6-0 in the season's first month. Johnson, who has won three straight NL Cy Young Awards, leads the majors in wins, is tied with teammate Curt Schilling for the strikeout lead (61) and has a 1.37 ERA.

Brenly said it made more sense to keep Johnson in his regular slot. Jonnson missed his first start in nearly two years. "Starting pitchers are creatures of habit," Brenly said. "They fall into a routine of things they do on days between starts, and Randy at this point hasn't been able to would steer it off course. But it was his putting, with only 24 putts on the day, that gave Forsman the lead.

"I haven't had a 24-putt round in quite some time," Forsman said. "But I've been working hard on my putting." Beem, who teed off an hour after Forsman, shot a 29 on his first nine, then ran into the wind and had a 38 on the last nine. "It's my lowest nine in competition," Beem said. "I've probably shot it out messing around with my buddies, but certainly not in competition." Temperatures were in the high 80s and the wind gusted over 27-mph throughout the day. There were 466 birdies, 530 bogeys and 58 double bogeys on the Jack Nick-laus-designed course.

Cink made the strongest run of the players teeing off late in the day. Cink followed up two birdies on the front nine with birdies on four of the first six holes on the back nine before finishing with bogeys on 17 and 18 for a 68. ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW ORLEANS Dan Forsman, taking advantage of an early tee time on the windswept English Turn course, shot a 7-under-par 65 Thursday to take the first-round lead in the Compaq Classic. "We started first, there was no doubt that was a definite advantage because there was still some moisture on the ground," Forsman said. "I think the big difference this afternoon is that (the greens) are so hard and baked that it's treacherous around the hole.

And when the wind blows, there is so little friction on the grass that the ball could literally waver and be blown off." Rich Beem opened with a 67, Stewart Cink and Dudley Hart topped a group at 68, and defending champion David Toms shot a 69. Forsman, who won the last of his four PGA Tour titles in 1992, backed off three times because of the wind before sinkinga 12-foot birdie putt on No. 18, worried that the wind Soccer Even without marquee players, MLS will play during World Cup during the sport's grandest tournament. Around the world, countries that play their seasons during the Northern Hemisphere summer including World Cup qualifiers Sweden and Russia are taking a midseason break. "We are in such a unique position in this country," D.C.

United coach Ray Hudson said. "We are the new boys on the block as far as our national team and our league is concerned. It would be lovely to have the luxury of just turning out the lights, but I think the league's done well in balancing it." years ago, with no repercussions. In 1 998 we played through the World Cup in France and had quite a positive experience in terms of the profile and interest in soccer going up during that period," Gazidis said. "That reflected well in terms of our attendance and the interest in the league during that period.

We were a little bit afraid that we would get lost in the noise of the World Cup. That was not our experience. We think we are doing the right thing." Still, there's the principle of playing routine midseason games struggling to find its niche. Stars draw fans, and the loss of any recognizable name doesn't help. "It is not ideal," MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis said.

"We were faced with sonic difficult choices in terms of what we should do during this period. One of the things that is important to us is giving (coach) Bruce Arena and the U.S. national team every chance of success in the World Cup. With that in mind, we have been very cooperative in letting players go early so they can spend significant amounts of time together." MLS did the same thing four most affected, losing Chris Armas, DaMarcus Beasley and Josh Wolff for at least seven games one-fourth of the season plus more should the United States advance past the first round. San Jose will be missing tw players, Jeff Agoos and Landon Donovan.

No other team loses more than one. Eleven members of the U.S. team play for European clubs. No foreign MLS players are expect-t to be chosen by their countries for the World Cup. Altogether, that might not sound like an overwhelming impact on MLS, but the league is still ternational event.

And the NHL went into an hiatus during the Nagano and the Salt Lake City Olympics. But the MLS, starting this weekend, is blazing its own path. Major League Soccer begins a stretch of games without 12 marquee players who have just opened training with the U.S. national team for next month's tournament in Japan and South Korea. "The world stops for the World Cup except in the U.S.," said New Zealand national and D.C.

United defender Ryan Nelsen. The Chicago Fire will be the ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON The United States has the only major soccer league on the planet that will keep playing right through the World Cup. The rest of the world just wouldn't understand. American sports fans unfamiliar with soccer can't believe a big league would play six weeks of its season without its best players. The NFL, NBA, NHL or major league baseball would never dream of it imagine Derek Jeter missing more than a month of the Yankees' season to play in an in- tfT $1 XXX flDULfT DVD SflLE! With ony purdiaw of BUY AMY 2 GET 1 FREE 4 7, Wflt Discount Qltb 90OJ.Wtoflyt.

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