Sports Briefs
By the Associated Press
Major League Baseball
VERO BEACH, Fla. – Gary Sheffield, a six-time All-Star, wants to be go to Atlanta, the New York Yankees or New York Mets, or be given more money and a contract extension by the Los Angeles Dodgers, whose agreement with him runs through the 2004 season.
Unwilling to meet his contract demands, the Dodgers are trying to deal him.
Braves general manager John Schuerholz refused to comment Tuesday.
Malone already had offered Sheffield to the Mets for either Mike Piazza or Edgardo Alfonzo, but Mets GM Steve Phillips said those two players were virtually untouchable.
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said he might not be able to afford to deal for Sheffield.
Sheffield, 32, hit .325 with 43 homers and 109 RBIs last season.
He is due $9.5 million in each of the next two seasons and $11 million in 2003. There’s a team option for 2004 at $11 million. The left fielder is seeking a long-term contract extension and pay raise that would make him one of baseball’s more highly paid players.
Devon White, meanwhile, apparently is unhappy with the thought of being Los Angeles’ fourth outfielder.
White, 38, could be difficult to trade because of his age, salary and recent history. He is in the final season of a three-year, $12.4 million contract. He played just 47 games last year and suffered a partial tear to his left rotator cuff on May 2.
White batted .266 with four homers, 13 RBIs and three steals last year after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder following the 1999 season.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Barry Bonds, the three-time MVP, opened spring training on Tuesday by asking the Giants either to begin negotiations on a contract extension or to consider a trade. His agent, Scott Boras, called the Giants later in the day in hopes of beginning just such a process.
Bonds will make $10.3 million this season is eligible for free agency after the season. He wants to stay in San Francisco and would like an answer from the Giants before the regular season begins.
Bonds, 36, hit .306 with a career-best 49 homers and 106 RBIs last season. The nine-time All-Star ranks 17th on the majors’ home run list with 494.
Bonds worked out at Scottsdale Stadium on Tuesday, the Giants’ reporting day for position players. Counting this year, the team has given him $74.45 million.
Bonds said he would listen to offers that were less than what he might make elsewhere-but if the Giants plan to let him go, he also would waive his no-trade clause for theright destination.
TITUSVILLE, Florida – Bob Buhl, who helped pitch the Milwaukee Braves to the 1957 World Series title and later set a major league record for futility at the plate, has died. He was 72.
Buhl died Friday at his family’s home in Titusville, his grandson Chris Sheldon said Tuesday. Buhl had been battling pneumonia and emphysema.
Buhl’s road roommate while with the Braves, Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews, died Sunday.
Buhl was 166-132 with a 3.55 ERA from 1953-1967 with Milwaukee, the Cubs and Philadelphia. He pitched in a Braves’ rotation with Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette and made the National League All-Star team in 1960.
Buhl led the league in winning percentage in 1957 (.720) while going 18-7 and topped the NL with four shutouts in 1959.
The right-hander finished third in the Cy Young Award voting in 1957 after the Braves brought Milwaukee its first World Series championship.
Buhl started Games 3 and 6 of the Series against the New York Yankees, but did not get past the third inning in either outing in going 0-1.
The Cubs traded Buhl in April 1966 to Philadelphia as part of deal for Ferguson Jenkins.
Buhl joined the Braves in their first year after moving from Boston and went 13-8. Later in his career, he often excelled against the Dodgers, beating Brooklyn eight times in the 1956 season.
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