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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Bad Breaks Adding Up For Twins

From Wire Reports

First Denny Hocking. Then Rick Aguilera. Then Kirby Puckett. Then Matt Walbeck. Now Chuck Knoblauch and Dave Hollins.

The list of ailing Minnesota Twins seems to grow longer each day after a befuddling string of unusual injuries. Even the manager’s son has been in the hospital, and the most frequently asked question in the Twins’ clubhouse Wednesday was, “Who’s next?”

“It’s tough being in a Twins uniform this week,” Knoblauch said.

Hocking, Aguilera, Puckett and Walbeck went on the 15-day disabled list in the final 10 days of spring training, and Knoblauch was hit on the left hip with the first pitch of the season Monday.

He was plugged in the same spot in the fifth inning of Tuesday night’s game, and left at the start of the sixth. He was in the lineup Wednesday, playing with padding over the bruise. Several Twins indicated before the game that there would be retaliation, and there was when Frank Rodriguez hit Detroit second baseman Mark Lewis in the back with the first pitch in the third inning.

But mostly the Twins were concerned with getting through the game healthy, something they haven’t often been able to do the last two weeks.

They weren’t able to do it.

After reaching base safely in eight straight plate appearances and hitting a two-run home run in the second inning, Hollins left with a strained left hamstring in the fifth. The former Spokane Indians standout is listed as day-to-day.

“These things are just part of the game,” said Twins trainer Dick Martin. “You can’t start thinking it’s doomsday.”

Dialing for dollars

“Pacific Bell Park - I think that has a nice ring,” said John Polumbo, the telephone company’s president of consumer communications.

The name also has a nice price. Pac Bell and the San Francisco Giants announced they have formed a “strategic alliance” in which the telephone company will pay $50 million for the right to name the team’s new downtown stadium.

Coming eight days after residents here voted overwhelmingly to approve the proposed $255 million stadium, the name sale puts the Giants well on the way toward securing financing for the first privately-built baseball park since Dodger Stadium was constructed in Los Angeles 30 years ago.

Anaheim OKs Disney

The Anaheim City Council voted 3-2 to approve a memorandum of agreement with the Walt Disney Co. for a 33-year lease of Anaheim Stadium, with Disney retaining a 20-year bailout option.

Immediately, Disney announced that it has renewed an agreement to buy a minority interest in the California Angels from Gene Autry and his wife, Jackie, and take over operational control of the American League team.

Wisconsin governor seethes

Gov. Tommy Thompson blasted Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf for criticizing the Milwaukee Brewers’ stalled plan for financing a new stadium.

Thompson suggested that Reinsdorf, who called it absurd for Brewers president Bud Selig to contribute $90 million for the stadium project, “wants to try and con the people of Wisconsin.”

“Here’s a guy that went down to Florida and conned the St. Petersburg people into building a stadium for him,” Thompson said. “Then he came back and conned the people of Illinois. Now he’s not satisfied, now he wants to try and con the people of Wisconsin.”

Clearing the bases

Alan Benes, younger brother of opening-night starter Andy Benes, makes his major league debut today, giving St. Louis its first brother pitching duo since Lindy and Von McDaniel in 1958… . Houston’s Derek Bell has hit better than 300 in each of the last eight months… . Ryne Sandberg went 0 for 5 for the Chicago Cubs, with three strikeouts, and is hitless in eight at-bats… . Six-time N.L. batting champion Tony Gwynn of San Diego is off to a .556 start… . When the Mets overcame a 6-0 deficit on Monday, they staged the biggest opening-day reversal in the N.L. this century… . Bret Boone’s wife, Suzi, gave birth to their first child, a girl, in Cincinnati, hours before the Reds second baseman flew to Birmingham, Ala., for arthroscopic surgery to remove four bone chips from his right elbow.