Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 116

67 section WEDNESDAY I MAY 1, 1996; 61 cd. Yankees win in record 4 hours, 21 minutes pitched the ninth for his fifth save. "Nothing can surprise you offensively in this game anymore," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "You look up at the scoreboard and see 10, 12, 14 runs by several teams every night. No lead is secure, certainly not in this league, not with lineups like Baltimore's, Cleveland's, Boston's, California's, Seattle's, you name them." Said Scott Kamieniecki, the first of the Yankees relievers, who allowed no runs and two hits in four were ejected by plate umpire Terry Craft in the sixth for arguing balls and strikes during Gerald Williams' at-bat.

Tino Martinez, who Steinbrenner gave a five-year, $20 million contract, hit a three-run home run off Keith Shepherd (0-1, 6.23 ERA) in the seventh. That put the Yankees ahead after the bullpen made up for an awful start by Andy Pettitte, who allowed nine runs and eight hits in one plus inning. But the Yankees came back. John Wetteland (4.09) innings: "Five runs doesn't seem to be too down for us in the second inning. Of course, the way things are now in this league, if you score 10 runs you might win.

Maybe." That was the case for the Orioles, Nine runs in the first two innings didn't get it done, not when starter Arthur Rhodes only made it 4 in-' nings. Jimmy Myers couldn't clean up the mess Rhodes started in what Please see Pettitte, Page C5 lion buys? That is the combined payroll of the teams, with the Yankees shelling out $52.9 million and the Orioles $49.4 million. What the Yankees' George Steinbrenner and the Orioles' Peter Angelos got for throwing all that money around was a game in which the lead changed hands four times as pitchers gave up 20 earned runs, 28 hits and 13 walks. In their first game against an American League East opponent this year, the Yankees showed ad mirable recuperative powers. They came back from a 9-4 deficit to beat Baltimore 13-10 and displace the Orioles atop the division.

It was the longest nine-inning game in terms of time, surpassing the mark of 4:18 set Oct. 2, 1962, between the Dodgers and Giants. The previous longest AL game was 4:16 June 8, 1986, between the Yankees and Orioles. Baltimore manager Davey Johnson and his catcher, Chris Hoiles, were not around for the finish. They By JACK O'CONNELL Courant Staff Writer BALTIMORE The Yankees and" Orioles spent the off-season trying njSHi to utwit each Irrr' 1 other with free nrfiin Oil agent signings.

They finally played each other Tuesday night, and after a record-setting, 4-hour, 21-minute marathon, there was one lingering thought. Is this what more than $100 mil- Tigers provide respite Jefferson hits two home runs It's too soon for this move by Whalers Jeff 4 Whalers general manager Jim Ruth- erford said Tuesday he plans to call NHL commissioner Gary Bettman today to ask for ideas on various cities he and owner Pete Karmanos can visit to explore moving their NHL franchise. "We don't have an exact day set and an exact city, but I'd say that probably could happen some time next week or the week, after," Rutherford said. "The commissioner will have a list of cities, because he's had them for a couple of years. That's part of his job.

"I don't think people in Hartford will be comfortable because it's a step closer to moving somewhere else, but I don't think they have to be nervous about it either. If we can reach our goal of 11,000 and come to a deal with the state, we can stabilize our franchise and stay here." Jim Rutherford is a really nice guy. He is a good hockey GM. But he also is such a serene, persuasive man, he could talk you out of a bomb shelter when you knew some urVionWt araaAr tiiicKaI tVia KuHvtn I. By PAUL DOYLE Courant Staff Writer BOSTON The meetings didn't work.

The one-on-one sessions be-tween players and coaches haven't II -W 1 A3 worked. The mm rope around the iiEKKt a. Lm batting cage didn't improve the hitting. The latest desperate act was to shuffle the coaching staff. Sammy Ellis replaced Al Nipper as pitching coach Tuesday.

And on the day Ellis took over, the Red Sox might have found the remedy: Play the Tigers every night. As sloppy and inept as the Red Sox have been, the Tigers may be worse. They allowed 16 hits and committed two errors in a 13-4 loss at Fenway Park. Rebuilding of Tigers weighs heavily on Fielder. Story, Page C5.

1 Rutherford says other cities are now an -option, Page Al. To WSFB-TV. To WTIC-AM. To The Cou-' rant. On TV.

On radio. In the Tuesday night, Rutherford continually coated the nut of his most pivotal statement with sugar and spice and everything nice. He said the Whalers are formulating their options. He said an extension to the ticket drive deadline is a very real possibility and uucsii i ilium ius yi unuuiiLcnieiu uuuui trier towns will put a wet blanket on it. He said terrific work has been done bv the trover-" Associated Press I Milt Cuyler stretches a second-Inning RBI triple into a run as Tigers catcher John Flaherty watches center fielder Chad Curtis' error.

Want goofy plays that rival the Red Sox's first month? Pitcher Brian Williams slipped and fell on his back as John Valentin's pop fly dropped for a single. Center fielder Chad Curtis bobbled a ball off The Wall as Milt Cuyler circled the bases for a triple and scored on the error. And catcher John Flaherty missed a throw to the plate as a run scored. After 25 games of circus baseball, the Red Sox weren't about to feel sympathy for the Tigers. The Red Sox (7-19) ended a three-game losing streak and showed life as the first of what could be many shakeups occurred.

Nipper's demotion is telling. If the offense doesn't improve, hitting coach Jim Rice could go next. The Tigers have theperfect staff to improve against. They have a 7.31 ERA and send a line of mostly unknown pitchers to the mound. Consider the group the Red Sox faced: Jose Lima, Mike Christopher, Randy Veres, Gregg Olson, Williams and Mike Myers.

The Red Sox got two home runs from Reggie Jefferson and a two-run homer by Mo Vaughn. Cuyler had a triple and a double, and Troy OTLeary a triple and a single. The 13 runs were the most for the Red Sox this season; the 16 hits tied their season high. They scored six runs in the fifth, their highest-scoring inning. "The offense has been better and the defense has been better," manager1 Kevin Kennedy said.

"We've come a long way. The problem has been putting zeros up there." Starter Tim Wakefield (2-3, 5.97) pitched five innings, leaving after a 20-minute rain delay in the fifth. Wakefield allowed six hits, three walks and four runs in five innings, striking out five. It wasn't as good as his previous two starts five runs in 13 innings but Wakefield was as good as he had to i The zeros were put up by middle reliever Rich Garces, who allowed Please see Wakefield, Page C5 ed Sox replace Nipper with Ellis Sx PI nor's office and the corporate community -He said merely visiting other cities doesn't I mean Compu Whale will move. I I'm sorry.

I I just can't swallow any more of Jim Ruth- erf ord's cotton candy. I can't swallow any more of Jodi Rell's and; John Rowland's cotton candy. I prefer Pete Karmanos screaming at mel for 20 minutes as he did a couple of weeks I ago. Because guess what? I'm screaming back now. I I was being the good community bell- ringer in early April when I wrote I had' serious doubts the Whalers could sell 1 1,000." season tickets in 30 days.

I The truth is, I thought 1 1,000 season tick- ets in 30 days was a cockamamie plan de- signed either by shrewd, calculating people 1 with an ulterior motive or by those suffering from severe delusions. 1 "Did I think we could get 11,000 in 30 days?" Rutherford said. "No. Did I think we could get a good read on the market to the point where we could get an extension and another extension to reach our goal? Yes." You want some truth, Connecticut hockey fans? Be scared. Be scared sick.

What? Do you think Bettman is going to spend a half-hour trying to convince Rutherford not to move when the team had sold less than 7,000 season tickets through early Tuesday night? Karmanos has set the extension number of 8,000 before a news conference Friday. What? Do you think Bettman will tell Rutherford to forget Nashville, Cleveland, Portland, Atlanta, and everywhere else because he thinks it's great that, as of Tuesday Please see Jacobs, Page C8 being a bullpen catcher, a role he had last season. Starrette was the pitching coach at the start of spring training last season. He was replaced by John Cumberland in spring training. Cumberland was replaced by Nipper July 18.

Nipper, 37, spent three vpars as a minnr lpatnip 5.66 and they were third in the AL with 137 walks in 232 innings. "I don't want this to be a reflection on Al Nipper's coaching ability," Kennedy said. "I explained to the team that this could happen to anybody, the players any of us in the room." Kennedy was apparently opposed to the move, although he did ask that Ellis join the team when the homestand began a week ago. Kennedy had also asked for another coach in the bullpen. General manager Dan Duquette, who seemed uncomfortable answering questions about the move, said the Red Sox needed more experience.

Ellis, 55, and Starrette, 57, have a collective 49 years of coaching experience. "When a team doesn't perform, you've got to find ways to make them perform," Duquette said. "There's such a small difference between winning and losing, and some pitch-Please see So far, Page C5 By PAUL DOYLE Courant Staff Writer BOSTON The first scapegoat has been identified. The Red Sox's awful start has cost Al Nipper his job as pitching coach. In a George Steinbrenner-like move, Nipper was reassigned to minor league pitching coordinator and replaced by Sammy Ellis.

Ellis, who has been minor league coordinator the past year, is the team's fourth pitching coach in the past 13 months and seventh since 1991. Ellis is a former Yankees pitching coach and was fired twice by Steinbrenner, who has a penchant for dismissing pitching coaches. "I feel very bad for Al," Ellis said. "I've been on the other side of this. I went through this with George." The Red Sox also added Herm Starrette as bullpen coach, replacing Dave Carlucci.

Starrette, the bullpen coach last season, left the organization after being reassigned to a minor league coach job. Carlucci will return to coach before he was pro- NIPPER moted to the Red Sox last season. He made an immediate impact when the Red Sox were 35-12 the next 47 games and won the American League East. Manager Kevin Kennedy was impressed with Nipper's intelligence and intensity. Nipper used video tapes in his sessions with pitchers, some of whom thought Nipper's approach was almost too intense.

This season, the results have been poor. After Tuesday, the Red Sox's team ERA was ext season Parcells' last with Patriots? Second-round pick Lawyer Milloy overcomes tough times. Page C2. Combined wire services Patriots coach Bill Parcells has renegotiated his contract so that it will expire I Owners approve Oilers' move NFL owners vote to allow the Houston Oilers to i move to Nashville. Page C2 i I Local report I Gwyneth Fallis scores six goals to lead Mercy past Windsor 1 6-3 in lacrosse.

Page C8 i CommStment from Freeman? Sources say Kevin Freeman, a 6-foot-6 forward i from Paterson, N.J., has given UConn an oral commitment. Page C7 In the C2 Racing jai alai CS Ontlwair C2 NBA playoffs C7 State college C3.C7 Scoreboard One of the reasons Parcells joined the Patriots in 1993 was the freedom he was given in personnel decisions. He took two years off from coaching because of health reasons after his second Super Bowl championship with the Giants in 1990. Parcells in 1994 led the Patriots to the playoffs, where they lost to Cleveland in the first round. He also was instrumental in the decision to draft quarterback Drew Bledsoe with the first overall pick of the 1993 draft.

If this turns out to be Parcells' last year with the Patriots, his final regular season game will be against the Giants Dec. 2 1 at the Meadowlands. taking wide receiver Terry Glenn of Ohio State with the seventh pick in the first round. Parcells had wanted a defensive player. According to the Globe, Parcells arrived at Foxboro the morning of the draft thinking he would be making the call but learned otherwise in a closed-door meeting with Kraft and Grier.

Parcells was not involved in the controversial fifth-round selection of Nebraska defensive tackle Christian Peter, who was released three days later because of a history of legal troubles, including a pending third-degree sexual assault charge. Parcells also did not attend the scouting combine in Indianapolis. after the 1996 season instead of 1997, the Boston Globe and ESPN reported Tuesday night. Two sources close to Patriots owner Robert Kraft told the Globe that Parcells approached Kraft late last season about Kraft agreed to the revision after the 6-10 season, before signing former Cleveland Browns coach Bill Belichick as assistant head coach, the Globe reported. ESPN contacted Kraft and Parcells, but neither would comment.

The reduced contract will cost Par-cells about $1 million in salary for the 1997 season. The move is another indication of growing discord between Kraft and Par-cells, who will turn 55 in August. Personnel director Bobby Grier ran the draft April 20-21, which included reducing his five- PARCELLS year contract to four years..