Sports briefs 9/8/04

Baseball

The Chicago Cubs and Florida Marlins will play two doubleheaders to make up the three-game series that was wiped out last weekend in Miami by Hurricane Frances.

One game has been rescheduled as part of a doubleheader this Friday at Wrigley Field beginning at 1:20 p.m. CDT.

The teams, who met in the NL championship series last October and are currently battling for the wild card, will also play a doubleheader at Pro Player Stadium on Sept. 20, an off day for both teams.

Chicago Cubs starter Matt Clement had to leave in the third inning of Tuesday night's game with Montreal because of muscle stiffness and discomfort in his back and neck.

Clement had just given up a homer to Terrmel Sledge that gave the Expos a 2-0 lead when pitching coach Larry Rotschild and a team trainer went to the mound. The 2 2-3 innings were Clement's shortest outing of the season.

Hurricane Frances knocked over seven of the eight towers at the complex shared by the Marlins and Cardinals in Jupiter, Fla. One landed on the Cardinals' clubhouse, another on the press box. Damage is estimated to be at least $1 million.

Further north, at Port St. Lucie, damage to the New York Mets' spring training site was estimated to be even higher -- perhaps several million dollars. Sky boxes were destroyed, fences blown down and locker rooms flooded.

Basketball

Attorneys for the woman accusing Kobe Bryant of rape went on a public relations offensive Tuesday, appearing on network television to bolster her public image and dispel speculation that a settlement is in the works in her civil lawsuit against the NBA star.

"We fully expect that case to be aggressively litigated," attorney John Clune said on the CBS "Early Show." The criminal case against Bryant was dropped last week, but the civil suit seeking an unspecified dollar amount is pending in Denver federal court.

Hockey

Katie Wolfmeyer was "just a pawn" in former St. Louis Blues player Mike Danton's murder-for-hire plot, Wolfmeyer's attorney said Tuesday. Opening statements began in the trial for Wolfmeyer, the 19-year-old suburban St. Louis woman who was Danton's alleged accomplice.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Clark said Wolfmeyer was a willing participant in the plot. The trial is expected to last six days. Wolfmeyer faces federal charges of conspiring to arrange a murder for hire and using a telephone across state lines to arrange it.

Danton has already pleaded guilty and faces sentencing Oct. 22. Judge William Stiehl has ruled that Danton does not have to testify against Wolfmeyer.