Fanfare 7/24/02

Briefly

Baseball

n Snubbed by Kenny Rogers, the Cincinnati Reds went to a backup plan Tuesday and acquired right-hander Brian Moehler from the Detroit Tigers in a five-player deal.

The 30-year-old Moehler has made only three starts this season in a comeback from major shoulder surgery. He was expected to start Wednesday against the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates.

General manager Jim Bowden was confident the Reds would get Rogers from the Texas Rangers for three minor leaguers, but Rogers blocked the deal Tuesday by invoking his no-trade clause.

The Tigers included cash in the deal to cover Moehler's one-year, $2.4 million contract.

Moehler had surgery last year to repair a torn rotator cuff and labrum and was limited to one start in 2001.

He was activated this month and made three starts, going 1-1 with a 2.29 ERA.

An arbitrator ruled against Graeme Lloyd, ruling the former Montreal Expos reliever must accept his trade to the Florida Marlins.

Lloyd, appalled by the prospect of pitching for Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria again, filed a grievance trying to reverse the eight-player deal that sent him to the Marlins on July 11.

Lloyd said the swap violated a no-trade clause in his contract. It listed the Marlins as one of 12 teams he couldn't be traded to, but his agents missed a Nov. 1 deadline to submit teams he could block deals to in 2002.

Cycling

n Lance Armstrong maintained his lead of 4 minutes, 21 seconds over Joseba Beloki in the 15th stage of the Tour de France .

Colombian rider Santiago Botero won in 5:55:16. Armstrong was ninth, 6:41 off the pace.

Botero's win was his second in this Tour. He stunned Armstrong to win the ninth stage, an individual time trial.

However, Botero is notoriously inconsistent. He finished a whopping 15 minutes off the pace in Sunday's climb up the Ventoux, and is seventh in the overall standings, 11:31 behind Armstrong. The 1997 Tour de France champion, Jan Ullrich, was banned from cycling for six months after testing positive for amphetamines.

Ullrich was given half the maximum suspension and was fined $1,400, the German cycling federation said.

Football

n Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell remained hospitalized Tuesday for a mild stroke, but plans to attend the opening Friday of his 42nd training camp as an owner.

Modell, 76. was resting at Johns Hopkins Hospital on Tuesday and was expected to be released today, team spokesman Chad Steele said.

Hockey

n The St. Louis Blues said Tuesday they have signed veteran forward Jason Dawe.

Dawe, 29, has spent the past two and a half seasons with the AHL's Hartford Wolfpack, the New York Rangers' top minor-league affiliate. Last season, he had 28 goals and 37 assists in 79 games.

The 5-foot-10, 189-pound forward has spent the previous three seasons with the Rangers organization.

Miscellaneous

n One of Dennis Conner's $5 million America's Cup racing yachts sank in the Pacific Ocean about a mile off shore Tuesday, the Coast Guard said.

All sailors aboard the 80-foot yacht were rescued. A salvage crew with a crane and air bags was headed to the scene, said Cathy Harvey, who works for Conner at his Long Beach compound.

People

Bowling a perfect game is tough, but how about doing it at 82 years old and just 17 days after a partial stroke?

A Vero Beach man did just that. Ted Byram had been temporarily incapable of speech and unable to lift his right arm - his bowling arm - a little more than two weeks before bowling a 300 during league play Wednesday at a Fort Pierce bowling alley.

Byram, who bowls five days a week and carries a 190 average, once rolled a 280 game. But never had he rolled 12 consecutive strikes.

Verbatim

n Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane isn't getting much sympathy with his threat to sell the team if baseball's economic structure doesn't change.

"When we first got here, the top teams were the Yankees and the Mets at around $110 million to $130 million in revenue," McLane said. "We moved into the new stadium, and all of a sudden we had revenue of $135 million. Unfortunately, our expenses, especially on salaries, also went up.''

To which catcher Gregg Zaun, the team's player representative, said: "When the big giants like Arthur Andersen go down and they're proven to be dirty, what are you going to think about the rest of these people and their creative bookkeeping?"

-- From wire reports