Sports digest 6/25/02

AREA

Cape Riverdogs roll past Saline Co. 15-3

SIKESTON, Mo -- The Cape Girardeau Riverdogs improved to 8-10 by routing Saline County, Ill., 15-3 Monday night at VFW Stadium.

Tatum Kitchen pitched 5 1/3 innings and gave up just three hits and two unearned runs. Matt Stroup came on in relief and struck out nine in 3 2/3 innings.

Josh West was 3-for-4 with two home runs, including a grand slam in the first inning. West also had a double and six RBIs. Brent Self was 4-for-5.

The Riverdogs and Saline County will have a rematch Friday at VFW Stadium.

ELSEWHERE

Baseball

Attendance was up 16.2 percent and an average of nearly 31,000 fans attended games during the first segment of interleague play.

Games this season drew an average attendance of 26,604, but that number rose to 30,921 once the AL and NL faced off for 210 games over 15 days.

The NL leads the AL 109-101 so far this season and holds a 706-696 advantage since interleague play began in 1997.

Roberto Alomar of the New York Mets held a slight lead at second base over Montreal's Jose Vidro in the latest balloting for next month's All-Star game.

Alomar, acquired by New York from Cleveland in the offseason, is looking for a record 10th All-Star starting appearance at the position. He has 568,838 votes to lead Vidro by 17,825 heading into the final days of voting, according to figures released Monday.

Other NL position leaders are catcher Mike Piazza (943,466 votes) of the Mets, first baseman Todd Helton (513,959) of the Colorado Rockies, and third baseman Scott Rolen (407,953) and shortstop Jimmy Rollins (382,391) of the Philadelphia Phillies. The top three outfielders are Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs (960,225), Vladimir Guerrero of the Montreal Expos (617,965) and Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, who leads all NL vote-getters with 1,055,812.

Updated AL balloting will be released on Tuesday.

Boston Red Sox pitcher Frank Castillo was suspended for five games and fined an undisclosed amount Monday for making contact with an umpire in a game last week.

The right-hander was ejected in the seventh inning of Boston's 3-2 loss in San Diego last Wednesday for arguing a balk call made by three of the four umpires.

Basketball

Danny Manning, a former No. 1 overall draft pick, was waived Monday by the Dallas Mavericks.

Manning, 36, signed as a free agent by the Mavericks in August, played in 41 games, averaging 4.0 points and 2.6 rebounds in 13.5 minutes last season. He wasn't on the team's postseason roster after missing 23 games at the end of the regular season because of a lower back strain.

Boxing

A Panamanian fighter collapsed and died in his Las Vega hotel room Monday, some 36 hours after he was stopped in a title fight.

Pedro Alcazar was taking a shower and getting ready to fly home when he suddenly collapsed. A Nevada boxing doctor said Alcazar had shown no symptoms of being hurt until he fell about 6 a.m. at the MGM Grand hotel-casino.

"He had brain swelling from some cause," said Dr. Flip Homansky, who is also a member of the state's athletic commission. "It was a total surprise and we're not sure why it happened. But you can't ignore he was in a professional boxing match Saturday night."

The 26-year-old Alcazar, who was stopped in the sixth round of his 115-pound WBO title fight with Fernando Montiel, had been examined in the ring immediately after the fight and later in the dressing room.

Two doctors found nothing wrong and didn't even recommend he be taken to a hospital for precautionary tests, as often happens.

Alcazar brought a 25-0-1 record into the ring but was no match for Montiel.

-- From staff, wire reports