FanFare 7/7/02

Briefly

Baseball

The Yankees pulled off another big deal, boosting their already stellar rotation by getting Jeff Weaver from Detroit early Saturday in a three-team trade that included Oakland.

As part of the deal, the Yankees dealt pitcher Ted Lilly and two top prospects to Oakland. The Athletics sent first baseman Carlos Pena to the Tigers.

Earlier this week, the AL East-leading Yankees acquired star right fielder Raul Mondesi from Toronto for a Double-A reliever.

To get Weaver, the Yankees gave up more.

"We had to seize the moment and acquire one of the best young starters in baseball," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. "We're a pitching-oriented organization. Pitching is what's going to make or break us."

Marlins outfielder Cliff Floyd could be traded to the Expos, the team whom he spent his first six professional seasons, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Saturday.

"They're a good team. ... They are getting better," said Floyd, who prefers not to play on artificial turf because of past knee problems, on Saturday. "Things aren't what you would like to see in terms of revenue and fans, but you're talking about my knees, something that can shorten my career."

According to the report, Floyd's contract states he can block trades to six teams, but Montreal is not one of them. Floyd reportedly took them off the no-trade list last offseason, never considering the Expos to be in the playoff hunt this season.

Motorsports

Rookie Tomas Scheckter won the pole for the Ameristar 200, shattering the Kansas Speedway record and knocking his Red Bull Cheever Racing owner and teammate off the front row as Infiniti-powered cars took three of the top four spots.

Scheckter, 21, turned in a fast lap of 218.547 mph on his second time around the 1.5-mile tri-oval, just after defending champion and 2002 points leader Sam Hornish Jr. set a short-lived record of 217.743 mph.

The Indy Racing League's eighth season will be the circuit's longest, with 16 events from early March through mid-October on the 2003 schedule.

The schedule includes the IRL's first international race, set for April 13 -- the third race of the season -- at Twin Ring Motegi, Honda's track north of Tokyo. Midwest dates are Kansas on July 6, Nashville on July 19, Gateway on Aug. 10, Kentucky on Aug. 17 and Chicagoland on Sept. 7.

People

It takes a lot of guts

Like grandpa's bromides, Jimmy Connors' take on tennis' majors, uttered nearly 20 years ago, is still true today.

"When you play in New York (at the U.S. Open), they come to see two guys kill each other," Connors said. "They know I'll go out and spill my guts to win. At the French, if you spill your guts, they just ignore it.

"And at Wimbledon, if you spill your guts, they'll ask you to clean it up."

Sisters sledge

The Williams sisters are quickly becoming to tennis parity what Tiger Woods is to golf, and Ted Schroeder has some bad news for Venus and Serena's competition: Get used to it. It can only get worse, because the sisters can only get better.

Said Schroeder, the 1942 U.S. and 1949 Wimbledon champion, of tomorrow's Wimbledon finalists: "Imagine what they could do if they learned the 75 percent of the game that they don't know."

Verbatim

Alex Kaseberg in the San Francisco Chronicle: "After watching the World Cup, one of the many things I don't understand about soccer is ripping off your shirt after a goal. We should pray this trend does not find its way to the Senior PGA Tour."

Ron Rapoport in the Chicago Sun-Times: "The latest manager of the Atlantic City Surf of the independent Atlantic Coast League is Mitch Williams. 'Wild Thing' took over for Tommy Helms this week, and the last-place Surf lost his debut on, ahem, a wild pitch in the 10th inning."

Mike Bianchi in the Orlando Sentinel: "Arizona Cardinal safety Pat Tillman is quitting the NFL to join the military. Was this necessary? I mean, if Tillman really wanted to be surrounded by hostility and animosity, he would have just signed with the Ravens."

-- From wire reports