Puckett-Less Twins Knock Off Detroit
American League
Brad Radke and Matt Lawton made sure the Minnesota Twins didn’t need Kirby Puckett on opening day.
With vision problems keeping Puckett out of the opening-day lineup, Radke struck out a career-high eight and Lawton had two hits and two RBIs in Puckett’s place as the Twins beat the Detroit Tigers 8-6 Monday in Minneapolis.
Radke, making the first opening-day start, gave up five singles in six innings. Dave Stevens worked the ninth for the save.
Rangers 5, Red Sox 3
Arlington, Texas
Ken Hill, making his debut for Texas, allowed eight hits in 8-2/3 innings in a win over Boston.
Craig Worthington, starting because Dean Palmer has an injured hamstring, homered for the Rangers, who drew 40,484 to The Ballpark in Arlington, about 8,000 short of a sellout.
Hill struck out seven and walked none. After Tim Naehring homered in the ninth, Ed Vosberg finished for the save.
Blue Jays 9, Athletics 6
Las Vegas
Major league baseball made its Las Vegas debut, and Toronto beat Oakland behind homers by John Olerud, Alex Gonzalez and Domingo Cedeno.
The A’s were forced out of the Oakland Coliseum this week because of uncompleted renovations, so they’ll play their first six games at Cashman Field. The game drew 7,294 to the 9,353-seat ballpark, the home of the Triple A Las Vegas Stars.
Erik Hanson got the win in his Toronto debut, allowing three runs and four hits in seven innings.
Anaheim, Disney talking
This time around, the Walt Disney Co. and the city of Anaheim aren’t imposing any deadlines on working out a deal for Disney to buy the California Angels.
Disney’s bid to buy the team seems back on track with the drafting of a revised proposal on the remodeling and operation of Anaheim Stadium.
In the previous offer, Disney said it would pay $70 million of a proposed $100 million stadium-modernization plan. The city would have paid the rest of the cost.
The deal broke down over the length of Disney’s stadium lease and control of future development at the stadium property.
Puckett ponders life
Everyone wanted to know about Kirby Puckett’s blurry vision. Puckett wanted everyone to know about life.
While answering questions about a confounding eye problem for which the only cure appears to be time, Puckett reminded a room full of reporters that there are far more serious things to be concerned with.
He talked about a 17-year-old cancer patient he met in Florida. He talked about John McSherry, the N.L. umpire who collapsed during a game Monday and died.
How soon - or if - he returns to the Minnesota Twins didn’t seem to matter.
“What I’ve been thinking is how fortunate I really am,” he said after missing his first season opener since 1984. “There’s people in the world worse off than me.”