By the Associated Press
Major League Baseball
BALTIMORE-The Iron Man will be allowed to rust a little this season, Orioles manager Mike Hargrove has decided.
Third baseman Cal Ripken, who set the Major League record for consecutive games played, will play between “two to five times a week,” to give more time to backup Mike Kinkade.
Ripken was not in the starting lineup for the second time in three games Tuesday night as the Orioles opened a three-game series against Detroit.
“There are going to be some weeks when he’s going to play three times, some weeks when he might play five times, and some weeks when he plays two times,” Hargrove said in Wednesday’s editions of The (Baltimore) Sun.
Ripken has gotten off to a horrible start, batting .154 with six RBIs in 52 at-bats. Ripken got a late start in spring training because of a fractured rib-he only had 25 at-bats in camp.
There has been speculation this could be the last year for Ripken, who signed a one-year contract after last season. In February, he did not rule out the possibility that he could retire during the season if he struggled.
Hargrove said the move wasn’t related to the slow start.
“We’ve got to find out about our younger guys,” Hargrove said. “If we look up this summer and these guys haven’t played, what we’ve done has gone for nothing.”
“It’s not performance-related on Cal’s part … It’s all predicated on what Kinkade has showed.”
Ripken said he wasn’t surprised by the decision.
“I guess it would be a surprise if I had 20 hits in my first 40 at-bats,” Ripken said. “The irony of this is that I’m feeling better now than at almost any time I can remember in the past few years… I need at-bats on the field to get going.”
Hargrove said he didn’t consider Ripken a part-time player.
“Not in the true sense of it,” he said. “If you took out a dictionary, the definition might fit. But I don’t consider Cal a part-time player. He’s not a full-time player, but he wasn’t a full-time player last year.”
National Basketball Association
SALT LAKE CITY-John Starks was hospitalized Tuesday and missed Game 2 of Utah’s first-round playoff series against Dallas after undergoing what the team called “a minor medical procedure” for recent groin pain.
Starks, 35, was listed as questionable for Game 3 on Saturday in Dallas and probable for a possible Game 4, which would be played on May 1, if necessary.
Citing liability concerns, team owner Larry Miller refused to discuss Starks’ health.
“It’s not a basketball-related matter, so I’m afraid I can’t say anything about it,” Miller said shortly before tipoff.
Jazz vice president Kevin O’Connor said the procedure was unrelated to abdominal pain that put Starks in the hospital overnight earlier this week. Starks complained of cramps after eating ice cream on Sunday.
O’Connor said Starks was in good spirits Tuesday night at an undisclosed Salt Lake City-area hospital.
“I just talked to him a while ago on the phone and he’s doing good,” O’Connor said. “He sounded good. He was watching the Indiana-Philadelphia game on television.”
After leaving Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful on Monday, Starks attended practice but didn’t work out. He missed Tuesday’s shootaround leading up to Game 2 because of the groin procedure.
O’Connor said Starks would need three to four days to recover from the procedure but was expected to return to the team by this weekend.
“The main concern is for John to get healthy,” O’Connor said. “Any time you have a medical procedure, that’s the case.”
Starks scored four points in 13 minutes in Utah’s 88-86 victory Saturday in Game 1. The 12-year veteran from Oklahoma State averaged 9.3 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists during the regular season after signing with the Jazz as a free agent last summer.
MIAMI-Miami Heat guard Tim Hardaway, hobbled by a bruised left foot, will not play the rest of the Heat’s first round playoff series against the Charlotte
Hornets.
The Heat trail the series 2-0 and the injury to their starting point guard will make their chances for a miracle comeback even tougher.
Hardaway has been ineffective in the series, scoring a combined five points in 37 minutes in the two playoff games. The Heat have been outscored by 11 points when Hardaway is on the court.
Heat coach Pat Riley tabbed point guard Anthony Carter to start in Hardaway’s absence.
National Footbal League
NEW YORK-The Xodus has begun.
At least eight XFL players have signed NFL contracts, and as much as 100 could follow as NFL teams follow up the draft by acquiring free agents to fill their training camp rosters.
Even before last weekend’s XFL championship, in which Los Angeles beat San Francisco, players from the fledgling league sposnored by the World Wrestling Federation and the NBC broadcasting network had signed with NFL teams.
Among them are Memphis tight end Mark Thomas, who signed with Kansas City; defensive backs Tawambi Settles of the New York-New Jersey Hitmen and wide receiver Corey Nelson of Las Vegas, who went to Seattle; cornerback Hurley Tarver of Las Vegas, who signed with Green Bay; and tackle Jon Blackman of Las Vegas and linebacker Ron Merkerson of the Hitmen, who signed with Carolina.
Safety Kerry Cooks of Chicago and linebacker Joseph Tuipala of Las Vegas signed last Friday with Jacksonville.
Many NFL personnel privately welcomed the XFL as another venue for players who had failed to make the NFL to get additional experience. NFL teams scouted the XFL all season.
Among those who most likely will be signed are two former first-round quarterback busts-Tommy Maddox of Los Angeles and Jim Druckenmiller of Memphis. Another XFL quarterback, Jeff Brohm of Orlando, actually was on the Cleveland roster for the final game of last season even while under contract to the XFL.
But Maddox might have trouble getting back with the man who drafted him for Denver in 1992, Dan Reeves, who took him to the New York Giants and Atlanta, where he now coaches.
The Falcons just traded up to take quarterback Michael Vick with the first pick in last weekend’s NFL draft and also have veteran starter Chris Chandler and Doug Johnson, who showed promise as a rookie last season.
Maccabiah World Games
CLEMSON, S.C.-Southern Cal forward David Bluthenthal and former Oklahoma State guard Doug Gottlieb will lead the U.S. men’s basketball team at this summer’s World Maccabiah Games.
Clemson coach Larry Shyatt is heading the team. He announced the selections Wednesday.
“We feel we have assembled a group of quality young men and outstanding basketball players who will represent the United States with class, dignity and professionalism,” Shyatt said.
Bluthenthal, 6-foot-7, led the Trojans to within a game of the Final Four last month. He scored 27 points as Southern Cal upset Kentucky 80-76 in the round of 16 before his team fell to eventual NCAA tournament champion Duke, 79-69, in the regional finals.
Gottlieb, a 6-foot-1 point guard playing professionally in Russia, helped the Sooners to the NCAA regional finals in 2000, where they lost to Florida 77-65.
Shyatt said two other professionals will take part for the American team: 7-3 center Eric Gingold, formerly of Williams (Mass.) College who is playing in Belgium, and 6-5 swingman Gabe Frank, formerly of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and now in the Continental Basketball Association.
The rest of the team is made up of collegiate players.
Guard Tamir Goodman, a former Maryland recruit often referred to as the “Jewish Jordan” during his high school days, was chosen as an alternate.
The World Maccabiah Games, held every four years, will take place in Israel from July 16-26. Competitors, coaches and staff members must be Jewish to take part.
Shyatt says the team will meet at the end of June for a week of practices. They will leave New York for Israel on July 7.