Fast Break

Basketball

Saunders’ firing may start trend

In the morning, the Detroit Pistons fired Flip Saunders. By the afternoon, the players were put on notice.

“I’m not going to sit here and make Flip the scapegoat,” president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said Tuesday. “Everybody is in play.”

Dumars publicly put his entire lineup on the trading block, less than a week after the Pistons lost in the Eastern Conference final for the third straight year. Among those available: four players who have been together since winning the 2004 NBA title together, plus another starter who just finished his fourth season with the team.

Saunders signed a four-year contract worth up to $26 million three years ago. The Pistons averaged nearly 59 victories in three regular seasons under Saunders.

Horse racing

Eight Belles memorial planned

Eight Belles will be interred at the Kentucky Derby Museum and honored by Churchill Downs through charitable contributions and the renaming of a race.

The 3-year-old filly broke two ankles after finishing second to Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby on May 3. She was euthanized on the track.

The track said it will plant a tree in honor of Eight Belles and the filly’s remains will be buried at its base. The memorial is planned for the museum’s courtyard near the grave sites of four Kentucky Derby winners.

An interment date has not been set.

Baseball

Griffey’s 600th will have to wait

Ken Griffey Jr., one homer shy of 600, did not start for the Cincinnati Reds for the second consecutive day.

The 38-year-old outfielder played in 54 of Cincinnati’s first 57 games, but he sat out of the first game of a four-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night because of general soreness.

Griffey appeared as a pinch hitter on Tuesday and drew a walk. Reds manager Dusty Baker said Griffey could be back in the lineup tonight.

The only other players to hit 600 homers are Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Sammy Sosa.