Major League Baseball
DETROIT (AP) Former Tiger shortstop Alan Trammell said he hopes history won’t repeat itself this week when voting results are announced Tuesday for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
“I’m anticipating a good amount of votes,’” Trammell told The Detroit News for a Sunday story.
This is Trammell’s first time on the ballot, and he isn’t expecting to be elected this year. But he’ll be on the lookout for an assuring sign that he might make it someday.
“I’d like to think so,” Trammell said over the phone from his California home. “It’s the highest honor for any player. I’d be overwhelmed.’”
A year ago, there were three Tigers – all Trammell’s teammates on the 1984 World Championship team – on the ballot for the first time. But the voters weren’t kind to Lou Whitaker, Kirk Gibson and Lance Parrish. None received the required five percent of the vote to stay on the ballot.
“I feel very good about what I accomplished with some great teammates,” Trammell said. “I feel I was in the forefront of a new breed of shortstop, combining some offense with defense. But for me to say I should be elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, that’s not my style.”
But what if he falls as far short as Whitaker?
“I’d be disappointed and shocked,” said Trammell, who takes pride that he and Whitaker “played baseball the way it was supposed to be played.”
“Sure, we could have used more seasoning when we came up, but we didn’t make many mistakes defensively. We were advanced as far as that goes, and the offense came later for both of us when we got physically stronger.”
Trammell-now the first base coach for the Padres-doesn’t have a defining qualification as a potential Hall of Famer except for the favorable way he compares to other shortstops who’ve already been inducted.
“Hopefully his last couple of seasons won’t hurt him as far as the voters are concerned,” Tigers’ General Manager Randy Smith said. “One thing Tram certainly has going for him, though, is that he’s a Hall of Fame person.”
Trammell isn’t the only Tiger of his time on the ballot. Pitcher Jack Morris was named on 22 percent of the ballots two years ago, but only 19 percent last year.
“I can’t quite figure how my total went down,” Morris said, “but the whole thing is so political. There’s no sense trying to understand it.”

ST. LOUIS (AP) Cardinals broadcasting legend Jack Buck was recuperating in a St. Louis hospital over the weekend after undergoing surgery for the second time in a month.
Buck, 77, had surgery for lung cancer in December. He underwent an operation Friday to remove an intestinal blockage. He was in stable condition Sunday, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, spokeswoman Jennifer Arvin said.
His son, fellow Cardinals broadcaster Joe Buck, said Sunday that in the doctor’s opinion, “it is completely 100 percent unrelated to the last procedure.”
The younger Buck said it appeared to be a fluke that it happened so soon after the last procedure. He said his father was hospitalized after experiencing stomach pain last week.
“He had an internal hernia a long time ago and a piece of that had calcified and broke off. It got into his intestine and caused him a lot of pain”‘ Joe Buck said. “They took that portion out and reattached the ends of the intestine. It was sort of like taking out a bad piece of wiring and reattaching the good ends.”
Buck said his father’s prognosis was good.
“They think he’ll bounce back quicker this time,” he said, adding that two surgeries in a short time are “a lot for anybody to withstand,” let alone for someone who is 77.
“The frustrating thing is that he was to the point the day before this happened that he looked great and was feeling good. Now he has to start over and get his strength back.”
Joe Buck said his father should be able to go home in a few days, and still plans to broadcast Cards games this season for the 48th year. He added that his dad already is able to get out of bed, and did not lose his sense of humor.
“I told him, ‘Your color is good,’ and he said ‘What color am I?’ And he is joking with the nurses. He’s quite a guy.”
The elder Buck, who has Parkinson’s disease and diabetes, was the radio voice of the NFL’s Monday night game for 16 seasons. He also did the play-by-play of the famous “Ice Bowl” NFL championship game in 1967, as well as the 1970 Super Bowl, three baseball All-Star Games and two World Series.

National Basketball Association
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) In a room packed with people, members of a new group took turns criticizing the city for trying to build a downtown arena for a National Basketball Association team.
About 130 people showed up Saturday for a two-hour forum organized by the Ax the NBA Tax committee. They crammed into a conference room at the Urban Government Center, standing along the walls and spilling into the hallway.
Nearly all the speakers opposed using public money to build an arena.
“The big question is who is going to pay for it?” said Peter Hayes, the committee’s co-founder and a Republican candidate for metro mayor.
“I’m still not convinced that this thing is financially sound,” said Ron Gambrell, a candidate for the new metro council. “In the end, tax dollars will pay for this arena.”
About 20 NBA supporters stood in the back, holding signs that advertised a pro-arena Web site, www.arenanow.com. Some spoke near the meeting’s conclusion.
Ray Manley, an aide to Alderman Dan Johnson, one of the arena project’s biggest supporters, urged people to “wait and look at the proposal and see what it means to this community.”
The forum was the first public event of what committee co-founders Christopher Smrt and Hayes promised would be a campaign to defeat the arena plan.
Many of the speakers, including Smrt, were Republican candidates for the metro council that assumes power in January 2003. However, a few people in the audience identified themselves as Democratic candidates.
Many deplored the fact that the Louisville Board of Aldermen might ultimately approve the arena plan-just a year before Louisville and Jefferson County governments merge.
Louisville hopes to attract the Charlotte Hornets franchise, which is looking for a new home. Other cities in the running for the team include New Orleans, Anaheim, Calif., St. Louis and Norfolk, Va.

WASHINGTON (AP) Michael Jordan became the fourth player in NBA history to score 30,000 points, reaching the milestone for the Washington Wizards against his old team, the Chicago Bulls.
Jordan, who began Friday’s game with 29,985 career points, scored his 15th point of the night by making the second of two free throws with 5:28 to go in the second quarter, giving the Wizards a 45-31 lead.
The game was halted for about 30 seconds during the next stoppage in play as the sellout crowd gave him a standing ovation, with several fans holding up large banners that read “Congratulations, Michael Jordan, 30,000 points.”
Jordan acknowledged the cheers with a brief wave.
Jordan joins Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387), Karl Malone (33,654) and Wilt Chamberlain (31,419) as the only players to reach 30,000. Jordan scored 29,277 in 13 seasons with the Bulls.

National Football Assocation
ST. LOUIS (AP) Marshall Faulk of the St. Louis Rams became the first player in NFL history with four straight 2,000-yard seasons in Sunday’s finale against the Atlanta Falcons.
Faulk, who entered the game with 1,921 yards, reached the milestone on a 21-yard first-down catch midway through the second quarter.
Despite missing two games with a knee injury, Faulk entered the game 79 yards behind Priest Holmes of the Chiefs for the league lead in total yards from scrimmage. He gained 65 yards in the first quarter, 44 rushing on four carries and 21 receiving on two catches.
The first of Faulk’s four straight 2,000-yard seasons came with the Colts. The Rams acquired him for two draft picks in 1999 and he was the league’s MVP last year.
Professional Golf Assocation
KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) Tiger Woods changed his stripes again.
Woods dyed his hair blond over the holidays last year, then shaved his head before arriving on Maui for the Mercedes Championships.
With the wind blowing so hard during the third round Saturday, he finally removed his cap a couple of times and revealed orange highlights on the top of his head.
“It’s the sun,” he joked.
And how does Mom feel about all this?
“He called me before he went scuba diving and said, ‘Mom, I have to do something with my hair again,’” Kultida Woods said. “After the holidays he showed me his hair and said, ‘Can I keep it?’ I said it was better than being a blond.”
Another New Year’s tradition continued. Mrs. Woods gave her son a tiger headcover with a message stitched in Thai that says, “Love from Mom.”

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