Fanfare 7/8/02

Baseball

*** Zack Greinke, the Kansas City Royals' top pick in the June draft, said the club has increased its offer, but not enough for him to sign.

Greinke, a high school pitcher from Apopka (Fla.) High, attended the Royals Gulf Coast League game Saturday and met with scouting director Deric Ladnier.

Greinke was the sixth overall pick in the draft. The seventh pick, Prince Fielder, received a $2.375 million bonus from the Milwaukee Brewers, while Scott Moore, the eighth overall choice, received a $2.3 million bonus from the Detroit Tigers. The Cincinnati Reds gave left-handed pitcher Chris Gruler, the third overall selection, $2.5 million. All three were drafted out of high school, like Greinke.

Greinke said a $2.4 to $2.5 million bonus is "not in the range" he is seeking.

Greinke was 9-2 with a 0.55 earned run average as a senior in high school. Some teams also liked Greinke as a position player. He hit 31 home runs and drove in 144 runs, while never hitting below .444 in four seasons at Apopka High, in an Orlando suburb.

Greinke also has a baseball scholarship to Clemson.

Basketball

Sheryl Swoopes of the Houston Comets was the top vote-getter in final fan balloting to choose the starters for the WNBA All-Star game.

In results released on Sunday, the Comets' star forward received 97,631 votes and heads the Western Conference starters.

She is joined by teammate Tina Thompson at the other forward, center Lisa Leslie of the Los Angeles Sparks, and guards Sue Bird of the Seattle Storm and Ticha Penicheiro of the Sacramento Monarchs.

Forward Chamique Holdsclaw of the Washington Mystics was the leading vote-getter for the Eastern Conference All-Stars with 89,391 votes. The other Eastern starters are forward Tamika Catchings of the Indiana Fever, center Tari Phillips of the New York Liberty and guards Teresa Weatherspoon of the Liberty and Dawn Staley of the Charlotte Sting.

The All-Star game is July 15 at MCI Center in Washington, D.C.

Each conference's eight coaches will select the reserves, who will be announced on Wednesday.

Michael Cooper of the Sparks will coach the Western Conference, and Anne Donovan will coach the Eastern Conference.

Cycling

*** Lance Armstrong's bid for a fourth straight Tour de France title might be helped by his loss in the first stage.

Switzerland's Rubens Bertogliati won the opening stage Sunday, sprinting across the finish just ahead of Armstrong and the rest of the main pack.

Bertogliati also took the leader's yellow jersey from Armstrong, who had won Saturday's prologue.

Retaining the yellow jersey early in the race was not a priority for Armstrong, who isn't expected to bid for a commanding edge until the mountain stages later race.

"If you have aspirations to have the lead in Paris, holding on to the yellow jersey now is not part of the game plan," said Dan Osipow, director of operations for Armstrong's U.S. Postal team. "The jersey not only means more pressure, it means more work to defend it." Armstrong has only lost the yellow jersey once before -- in 1999, the year of his first Tour title, when he also won the prologue. That year, he regained the lead in the mountains and kept it until the finish.

Motorsports

Rain or shine, Michael Schumacher proved again that he's the best, winning the British Grand Prix for his seventh victory of the season and the 60th of his career. Next, he'll try to match a racing legend.

Schumacher beat intermittent rain with timely tire changes and slick driving on the 60-lap race on the Silverstone circuit in Silverstone, England, Sunday, winning his second British GP and moving closer to his fifth series title.

Rubens Barrichello, Schumacher's Ferrari teammate, was second -- the fourth 1-2 finish for Ferrari this season. Juan Pablo Montoya of BMW Williams was third.

The victory gave Schumacher a decisive 54-point lead over Barrichello with seven races remaining. He could match Juan Manuel Fangio's record of five titles at the French Grand Prix or on his home track in the German GP on July 28.

The next generation of Foyt racing arrived in victory lane Sunday as A.J. Foyt IV won the Infiniti Pro Series Kansas 100 in Kansas City, Kan., finishing just ahead of actor/driver Jason Priestley.

The 18-year-old Foyt -- grandson of four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt -- started from the pole and led 63 of the 67 laps in a race that was slowed for 24 laps by two caution periods.

"That was a real good race," Foyt said. "Good wheel-to-wheel action and good for the fans." Priestley finished second more than 2 seconds back, followed by Cory Witherill in third.

People

Momumental day for Reggie

An outsider in his own clubhouse when he reported to the Yankees 25 years ago, Reggie Jackson gained access to the inner sanctum of baseball's most successful franchise Saturday. Two decades after George Steinbrenner declined to re-sign him, the owner rectified his mistake by making the Hall of Fame slugger the centerpiece of Oldtimers Day. Clutching the hand of his daughter, Kimberly, to steady his nerves, Jackson stood still as three Yankees legends unveiled a plaque in his honor and welcomed him to Monument Park.

The man who termed himself "the straw that stirs the drink" in his first of five tumultuous seasons in pinstripes thus joined Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Phil Rizzuto and 14 other members of the Yankees family to whom plaques have been dedicated in the area beyond the left-centerfield fence at Yankee Stadium. His bronzed likeness will be fastened to the bleacher wall behind the monuments to Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Miller Huggins, and Jackson knew exactly whom to thank for the honor, the man he called "the best boss in the world, and the toughest" during pregame ceremonies.

"I'm fortunate to be there," Jackson explained later. "Thank goodness, someone thought I deserved it. There's a committee (that picks inductees) but there's only one guy that counts." That guy, Steinbrenner, long ago patched up differences with Jackson, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Yankee in 1993 and serves on the owner's special advisory group along with Berra, Don Mattingly, Clyde King and Dwight Gooden.

Verbatim

Greg Cote of the Miami Herald, on the complexities of college football's Bowl Championship Series: "The only three things on earth more confusing than the BCS are the NFL formula for rating quarterbacks, the directions for assembling a gas grill and the continuing gainful employment of television's Tom Arnold."

"I'm telling you the truth --I wasn't riding a motorcycle or washing my car. In a couple of days, I'll be ready to go, and apparently this is the best one to break because you don't use that one as much when you push off." Arizona Diamondbacks infielder Mark Grace after breaking his toe on a couch leg in the visitor's clubhouse in Cleveland.

-- From wire reports