Athletics Forced To Hit The Road

The Oakland Athletics are moving their first six regular-season American League home games - possibly to Las Vegas - because a $100 million renovation of the Oakland Coliseum won’t be complete.

New Orleans and Phoenix also are under consideration for the games against Toronto and Detroit, and Athletics general manager Sandy Alderson said he hoped a decision will be made today.

By moving the games, Oakland will start the season with a 15-game road trip. Its home opener will be April 19 against the Chicago White Sox.

The A’s said construction will take place 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the next 33 days.

Clearing the bases

Baltimore left-hander David Wells doesn’t get to see much of his son during the season because the boy lives with his mother, from whom Wells is divorced. So the pitcher decided to do more than carry around a picture - he had the image of his Brandon tattooed on his right arm… . Wonder why managers insist they never have enough pitching? In St. Louis, injuries have already felled Mike Morgan, Danny Jackson and Donovan Osborne and all three may start the year on the disabled list. … When Colorado pitcher Marvin Freeman was torched for nine runs in 2/3 of an inning last week, manager Don Baylor defended him: “We’d been working on cutoffs and relays the other day, so Marvin helped us out quite a bit with that.”

Though most baseball types insist the best manager in baseball is Pittsburgh’s Jim Leyland, he will enter the season with a 777-772 career won-loss record… . The California Angels believe injuries will force relief pitichers Lee Smith and Bryan Harvey to open the season on the DL… . San Francisco star Barry Bonds had another lovely week. He got into a screaming match with teammate Mark Carreon and the next day bailed out on a long bus ride to Tucson by saying he had a sore wrist… . It’s been nine years since Detroit won a division championship and five years since it finished closer than 10 games out.

Athletics 6, Mariners 3

At Peoria, Ariz., Jason Giambi hit a three-run homer and five Oakland pitchers struck out 11 as the Athletics beat Seattle.

Giambi’s first homer of the spring came off minor-league pitcher Dean Crow, who gave up five runs.

Sterling Hitchcock went 3-2/3 innings and Bobby Ayala pitched two scoreless innings for the Mariners.

Edgar Martinez doubled twice for the Mariners, but Ken Griffey Jr. and Jay Buhner each went 0 for 3.

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