El Nino Curtails M’S Drills
El Nino reported to Seattle Mariners spring training in Peoria, Ariz., Tuesday and brought along a downpour that shortened the third day of workouts for Seattle pitchers and catchers.
Pitchers ran and those who were scheduled to throw did so from the mounds in the covered batting cages.
Even if fields are too wet for serious practice today, most of the best-known Mariners will have something to do when a video crew begins shooting spots for the team’s 1998 ad campaign. The players involved have all seen and OK’d a variety of scripts - all of them funny.
Old-timers win lawsuit
A group of former players was awarded $58,000 and interest by an Alameda County, Calif., jury for royalties owed by major league baseball for the use of their pictures and names.
Ronald Katz, a lawyer for the players, said the total jury award, with interest, should surpass $80,000. Although it is not a substantial amount when distributed among the 384 former players in the class that brought the lawsuit, he was pleased with the outcome.
“We’re batting a thousand,” he said. “We sued for two things, and we got two things.”
The jury award was for late payments to the players.
Park signs for two years
The Los Angeles Dodgers re-signed right-handed starting pitcher Chan Ho Park to a two-year contract.
The 24-year-old Park was 14-8 with a 3.38 earned run average with the Dodgers last season. Financial terms of the contract weren’t disclosed. Park made $270,000 last season.
Owners win again
Baseball owners improved to 3-0 in salary arbitration when a three-man panel ruled for the Arizona Diamondbacks in their case against catcher Jorge Fabregas.
Fabregas will get $875,000 this year rather than the $1.5 million he requested.
Baltimore outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds, scheduled for a hearing, agreed to a $7 million, three-year deal.
Houston pitcher injured
Houston right-hander Bob Scanlan fractured a bone in his left forearm and will be sidelined for four to six weeks.
The injury occurred when Scanlan’s spikes caught in a batting cage, general manager Gerry Hunsicker said. As he tumbled to the ground, Scanlan used his arm to break the fall.