Major League Baseball
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The supply of Kirby Puckett bobblehead dolls for the Minnesota Twins’ game Sunday was somewhat depleted.
Someone stole up to a case of the figurines, according to David St. Peter, the Twins’ senior VP for business affairs. St. Peter said the exact number stolen wasn’t known, adding it could have been as low as one doll.
Metrodome security discovered Friday night that someone had broken into the truck where the team stores promotional items.
The team planned to add extra security officers as hundreds of people were expected to line up for the giveaway at Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Dolls were to be given to the first 15,000 fans.
Puckett, inducted this month into the Hall of Fame, was honored before Saturday night’s game in a ceremony that featured a video of highlights from his career.
ST. LOUIS (AP) – A slumping Mark McGwire was dropped to sixth in the St. Louis Cardinals’ batting order for the first time this season Sunday, against the Philadelphia Phillies.
McGwire, batting .185 with 21 homers and 44 RBIs, was benched by manager Tony La Russa in the first two games of the series.
McGwire entered in a double switch Saturday night and had a strikeout and a pop-up.
He has 89 strikeouts in 215 at-bats this season and has taken a called third strike 34 times.
McGwire has had difficulty coming back from offseason knee surgery and was on the disabled list for more than a month.
He entered Sunday’s game with 475 career at-bats in the sixth slot. He’s been used far more as a cleanup hitter (3,156 at-bats) and in the third spot (1,279). He’s hit fifth 892 times.
McGwire’s career numbers batting sixth were a .232 average, 35 homers and 96 RBIs.
National Basketball Association
CHICAGO (AP) – Michael Jordan’s possible return to the NBA this fall has been put in serious doubt by the rib injury he suffered in June, according to his personal trainer.
Tim Grover, who has worked with Jordan for the last 12 years, was quoted Thursday as saying he thinks missing a month of conditioning due to two cracked ribs makes it unlikely his 38-year-old client will be fit enough to launch a comeback.
“Taking those four weeks off for the ribs to heal, that was very crucial,” Grover told the Chicago Sun-Times. “That’s why I say no.”
Grover did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment Thursday. Jordan reportedly was at a fantasy camp in Las Vegas and could not be reached.
The former Chicago Bulls superstar, now president of basketball operations for the Washington Wizards, has been working out this summer to see if he could return at a high level. He said last month he would announce his decision by mid-September.
The rib injury, sustained during a scrimmage in a Chicago gym, was expected to sideline Jordan from six to eight weeks. He resumed playing a month later with the help of a protective flak jacket, but Grover said his workout efforts also have been complicated by his commitments to annual basketball camps and other travel.
Jordan is due to compete in scrimmages in Chicago next week with select NBA players as he assesses his condition.
“The workouts will be extremely intense, at least twice a day and at least three to four hours a day,”Grover said. “I just don’t think that will be enough time for us to give him the training and conditioning he’ll need to be ready to announce in two or three weeks whether he’s coming back.
“But while I’ll be very surprised if he comes back under these unfortunate circumstances, I won’t put anything past Michael. He is the greatest player and one of the most committed, competitive athletes I’ve ever met. … It’s just that there’s an awful lot of work to do and so little time to do it.”
National Football League
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Some NFL fans are in for a double whammy: Not only was the preseason opener canceled, there may not be a full refund for the ticket.
The cancellation of the Philadelphia Eagles preseason opener against the Baltimore Ravens on Monday left as many questions about ticket refunds as the viability of the Veterans Stadium turf. And a city official said he would withhold a $440,000 payment to the turf maker while investigating the problem.
Roughly 58,000 season-ticket holders who bought directly from the Eagles will automatically get refund checks in the mail, even if they didn’t plan to attend the game.
But those who bought single-game tickets from friends, scalpers or independent ticket agents may be in for a tougher time.
Those who bought their seats through Ticketmaster, either on the Internet or by phone, are only eligible for a partial refund. They can receive a credit equal to the ticket’s face value, but must give up the agency’s per-seat handling fee, plus any special-delivery costs.
The refund policy of ticket brokers may also vary.
Spectators who bought from scalpers are out-of-luck entirely.
The game was called off after NFL officials and players complained that the artificial turf was uneven. Grounds crews traced the problem to the soft clay on the stadium’s baseball diamond, which is covered with turf for football. The dirt had become waterlogged in heavy rain.
City Controller Jonathan A. Saidel said he would withhold a $440,000 payment to the Texas company that makes the artificial turf while he probes who is responsible for drainage problems that left areas around the bases, pitcher’s mound and home plate muddy and unstable, and why the city bought the turf without seeking other bids.
The company that makes and installs the NeXturf field surface at Veterans Stadium is blaming the city – not its product – for the cancellation.
Troy Squires, a spokesman for NeXturf manufacturer Southwest Recreational Industries, said the company is in charge of maintaining the turf, not what lies beneath it.
“We had all we could handle doing our own job. We couldn’t also do the job of others,”he said. “There is nothing wrong with the turf. It was basically that the stuff under the turf was mushy.”
Representatives of the Eagles, the NFL, the city and Southwest met throughout the day Wednesday to talk about solutions to the problem.
Mayor John Street, speaking to reporters, said he was confident the turf will be usable for future games. He defended the decision not to play the game.
“I don’t think we made the wrong call. The conversion, under those circumstances, was difficult,”he said.
Eagles spokesman Ron Howard said the team had no good estimate on how many fans were seeking refunds, outside of season-ticket holders.
The team expects the cancelation to cost between $5 million and $10 million.
Golf
DULUTH, Ga. (AP) – Tiger Woods claims he’s not in a major championship free fall.
His results might show otherwise.
After winning The Masters in April, Woods has failed to finish in the top 10 in the year’s final three majors, finishing 12th at the U.S. Open, 25th in the British and tied for 29th in the PGA Championship on Sunday.
He wore his traditional final-round red shirt, but Woods’ flashy game wasn’t around in the final round at Atlanta Athletic Club.
Instead of gunning for his third straight PGA title, Woods was just struggling to stay below par, with more groans and moans than roars from those following the golfing great.
Woods took yet another off week in stride.
“If you want to play this game for a long period of time, and I may be playing this game as long as Arnold (Palmer) has been playing – into my 60s and 70s competitively – I don’t think you can beat yourself up over every single shot and over every single round in every single tournament.
“What you can do is learn from it,”Woods added. “That’s what I’ve done in the past and I will continue to learn more from my good and bad – more so when you play bad.”
Woods has now finished out of top 10 in five straight tournaments – a first for the game’s all-time money leader.
“I’ve been blessed to have played as well as I have for two years, and on top of that I’ve had a lot of good breaks,”Woods said. “When you get the breaks going your way, they seen to accumulate and you seem to take advantage of them.”
Woods, who needed two long putts Friday over his final few holes just to make the cut, began the day at 1-under par and teed off three hours behind the final pairing of David Toms and Phil Mickelson.
Still, the crowds built to 10-deep along the first fairway, many hoping to see Woods make some kind of charge. A sign hung around one man’s neck that said: “Woods for President.”
“I came out to see him shoot a 60 so everybody will know they’re never safe no matter how far they are ahead,”said Fred Alley of Greensboro, N.C. “If he shot a 60, it would scare the whole field.”
No dice.
After driving it in the rough on No. 1 and saving par, Woods bogeyed No. 2 and it was clear no low round was on the horizon.
He finished the front nine the same place he started – at 1-under. Woods then hit his tee shot in the sand on No. 11 and threw his club after his approach shot fell 30 yards shy of the green and he bogeyed.
Some in the stands surrounding the 18th green saluted Woods anyway with a standing ovation as he walked around the lake on his way to a 1-under 279 finish.
But this was no tournament for Woods to shout about, even though he says his game is not that far off.
Normally long and accurate off the tee, Woods had only one of those components the last four days. His average driving distance was 316 yards, but Woods managed to hit just 32 of 56 fairways, a 57 percent clip. Woods is well aware that won’t cut it in most tournaments, let alone a major. He also averaged 31 putts a round – way too many to win the big one.
In fact, Woods rolled up 33 putts Sunday.
“I just didn’t have the feel on the greens that I did the last two days,”he said.
However, Woods refused to say he was in any kind of slump.
“It’s part of playing sports,”Woods said. “You can’t have everything going your way all the time, especially in this sport. It’s pretty fickle.”