fanfare 7/14/02

Baseball

Roger Clemens was placed on the 15-day disabled list Saturday by the New York Yankees.

Clemens re-aggravated his strained right groin Friday night, and the six-time Cy Young winner will go to the team's spring training complex in Tampa, Fla., for rehabilitation. Right-hander Mike Thurman was recalled from Triple-A Columbus to take Clemens' spot on the roster.

The Walt Disney Co. might be willing to take a significant loss in order to sell the Anaheim Angels, a top major league official has suggested.

In an interview with Baseball America magazine, Bob DuPuy disputed the notion that owners can recoup operating losses simply by selling their teams for a profit and said that several franchises on the market cannot find buyers.

"We have one team that's been for sale for some time that has dropped the purchase price more than $100 million and still does not have a buyer," said DuPuy, baseball's president and chief operating officer.

DuPuy was unavailable to elaborate or otherwise comment on his remarks, but a highly placed baseball source confirmed DuPuy was referring to the Angels.

Bobby Bonds remained in the hospital Saturday, two days after having surgery to remove a tumor from his kidney.

Bonds, the father of star slugger Barry Bonds and a three-time All-Star during his 14-year major league career, had surgery at Stanford Hospital on Thursday. His condition was not released.

Barry Bonds said his father could be released next week. He did not know whether the tumor was cancerous.

Pitcher Zack Greinke, the sixth player take in the June draft, signed Saturday with the Kansas City Royals.

Greinke, 18, was 9-2 with an ERA of 0.55 for Apopka High School in the Orlando area.

Tennis

Mats Wilander, a winner of eight Grand Slam events, and Pam Shriver, part of the most productive women's doubles team in history, were inducted Saturday into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

In 1988, when he won three of four majors -- falling only at Wimbledon -- Wilander wound up as the world's top-ranked player. Overall, he won 33 singles titles, including seven Grand Slams. He also won the Wimbledon doubles title in 1986.

Shriver teamed with Martina Navratilova for 109 consecutive wins from 1983 to 1985. Twenty of her Grand Slam titles in doubles came with Navratilova.

People Has it been a year already?

Danny Almonte, last year's 12-year-old Little League phenom, is this year's 15-year-old graduate of Bronx Middle School 52, shopping for a high school.

In between, of course, he was exposed as the 14-year-old with a fraudulent birth certificate, leaving Little League World Series officials with forfeits and red faces.

"He says he can't wait to go," Almonte's guardian, Rolando Paulino, told the New York Daily News."The difficult part is deciding where."

Almonte will choose among three high schools -- one each in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan -- assuming, of course, his transcript passes the Wite-Out test.

Steve Fossett has swum the English Channel, finished the Iditarod dogsled race, competed in the 24 Hours of LeMans and became the first man to fly a hot-air balloon solo around the world. Steve Hummer of the Atlanta Journal Constitution asks, "Will he take the next, most perilous challenge when it is offered - managing the Cubs?"

"I can't believe anybody would pay a lot of money for DNA from Ted Williams because it's no guarantee of greatness," Roger Brigham told Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle. "Case in point: John Henry Williams."

1951 -- Citation becomes the first horse to win $1 million in a career by taking the Hollywood Gold Cup by four lengths in Inglewood, Calif. Citation retires after the race with total earnings of $1,085,760. Citation ran out of the money only once in 45 starts.

1985 -- Kathy Baker beats Judy Clark by three strokes to win the U.S. Women's Open.

1985 -- The Baltimore Stars defeat the Oakland Invaders 28-24 to win the United States Football League championship.

-- From wire reports