TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2003
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7B
Royals' Wilson competing for job after 18-month recovery
The Associated Press
SURPRISE, Ariz. — Kris Wilson's right elbow is sound again for the first time in nearly 18 months.
That's good news for the right-hander, who's trying to win a job — any job — on the Kansas City Rovals' staff.
Wilson ended the 2001 season with a tender elbow and started last season on the Royals' disabled list with right triceps tendinitis.
"This is the first time since the middle of the 2001 season that my arm has felt good," Wilson
said. "Last year when I came into spring training, it wasn't good.
"It feels good to come in healthy and strong. I can't even compare this spring training to
how I felt last spring training."
When the team broke camp last March, Wilson was left behind to rehab his arm in Haines City, Fla. When his arm was ready, Wilson toured the Royals' minor league system, going a combined 5-3 with a 2.08 earned run average. In three stops, he had 60 strikouts — to just six walks — in 82 1/3 innings.
"I was counting the days until I
left Florida," Wilson said. "My spring training lasted like 90-something days. It was a crazy year."
Wilson went 2-0 in 12 relief appearances when he was promoted to Kansas City, but the rest of his numbers were poor: 8.20 ERA, 29 hits, including seven home runs, in 18 2/3 innings.
All told, he threw only 90 1/3 innings all year.
"I was rusty," Wilson said.
"That is half of what I want to throw."
He played winter ball in the Dominican Republic to increase his innings, going 1-3 with a 3.46 ERA in 10 games, walking five and striking out 19 in 41 2/3 innings.
"I had success down there and I'm just looking to carry it over here," Wilson said. "It was a short offseason, but to me a good off-season. It felt good to go out there
and go six or seven innings and feel as strong as I did in the first inning."
Wilson prefers starting,but could wind up as a long reliever.
"I'll do what they want me to do, but I feel I'm better when I get the ball five days," he said.
General manager Allard Baird said he looked at Wilson more in a bullpen role but could use him as a starter if other pitchers don't perform well.
The Associated Press
ATLANTA — Greg Maddux is used to setting records. On Monday, he claimed another.
The four-time Cy Young Award winner avoided an arbitration hearing by agreeing to the largest one-year contract in baseball history, a $14.75 million deal with the Atlanta Braves.
The previous record for a one-year contract was pitcher David Cone's $12 million deal with the New York Yankees in 2000.
Maddux became a free agent after winning 16 games last season, but failed to draw much interest in the open market. He accepted the Braves' offer of arbitration in December, binding him to the team for the 2003 season.
Maddux had asked for $16 million and the Braves countered with an offer of $13.5 million.
The two sides split the difference, agreeing on a contract right in the middle and avoiding a hearing that was scheduled for Thursday in St. Petersburg, Fla.
"Greg called me (Sunday) and told me he had indications from the team that they wanted to make a step toward settlement," said Maddux's agent, Scott Boras. "He directed me to look at that, which we did."
Maddux, who will be 37 shortly after opening day, went 16-6 with a 2.62 ERA last season. He tied Cy Young as the only pitchers in baseball history to win at least 15 games in 15 consecutive seasons.
"We're delighted this issue is resolved and that we can now focus on his stature as a pitcher and his production for our team," Braves general manager John Schuerholz said.
Maddux is coming off one of his toughest seasons. Nagging injuries (back, calf, neck, side)
imited the right-hander to just 1991-3 innings — fewest since he was a rookie with the Chicago Cubs in 1987. He averaged only 5.9 innings per start and failed to pitch a complete game for the first time in his 16-year career.
Maddux was the first pitcher to win four consecutive Cy Young awards, a feat he accomplished from 1992-95. Arizona's Randy Johnson tied the record last season with his fourth in a row.
In 2002, Maddux made $13.1 million in the final season of a $57.5 million, five-year contract.
If Maddux's case had gone to a hearing, he was assured of breaking the arbitration record, win or lose. Braves outfielder Andruw Jones received the highest amount ever from an arbitrator, getting $8.2 million in 2001.
"We wanted to do a one-year deal because Greg has to make some personal decisions with regard to his family." Boras said.
Maddux, who lives in Las Vegas during the offseason, has a 9-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son. There has been speculation he would like to finish his career with a team closer to his home.
Likewise, the Braves are not expected to pursue the aging pitcher beyond 2003. Maddux will be their highest-paid player, and the team is intent on trimming salaries after claiming losses of more than $20 million each of the last two years.
It appears the cost-cutting moves already are working. With several lesser salaries still to be determined, the Braves are projected to have a payroll of around $91.3 million at the start of this season — a cut from last year's $94.5 million on opening day.
Even so, Atlanta should remain among the top 10 highest-spending teams in 2003.
Orioles pitcher dies of heatstroke
The Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.
— Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler died yesterday, less than 24 hours after complaining of dizziness during a spring training workout.
Team officials said the 23-year-old prospect was pronounced dead at Northridge Medical Center, where he had been in intensive care overnight. His wife, Kiley, due to deliver the couple's first child in April, was at his bedside.
The 6-foot-2, 239-pound Bechler was pale and feeling lightheaded Sunday while completing his final conditioning run at Fort Lauderdale Stadium.
The initial diagnosis was heat exhaustion and dehydration, but his condition worsened after he arrived at the hospital by ambulance.
William Goldiner, the Orioles' team physician, said doctors who treated Bechler believe
he died of
"multi-
organ
failure
due to
heat-
stroke."
He said
Bechler's body temperature reached 108 degrees.
"He would rebound at times. They thought they were getting ahead of it, and then another organ system would fail," Goldiner said at a news conference at the stadium.
Bechler, a third-round draft pick in 1998, made his major league debut last September, going 0-0 with a 13.50 ERA in three relief appearances. He was expected to begin this season with the club's new Triple-A affiliate in Ottawa.
He spent most of last season at Triple-A Rochester, going 6-11 with a 4.09 ERA in 24 starts.
Bechler was said to have reported to camp overweight. When asked about the pitcher's
conditioning, manager Mike Hargrove was quoted as saying it was "not good."
Goldiner said he wasn't aware of any evidence that Bechler had been taking a dietary supplement such as ephedrine, an amphetamine-like stimulant that has been linked to heatstroke and heart attacks.
Ephedrine has been banned by the NCAA and NFL but not by Major League Baseball.
The case was referred to the Broward County medical examiner's office.
The players were briefed about Bechler's condition during a clubhouse meeting before Monday's workout. They were summoned inside a short while later and told of his death.
"They told us about the situation, and everybody was in shock," Orioles pitcher Rodrigo Lopez said.
Bechler fell down while running drills on Sunday and Hargrove said he could tell Bechler
wasn't feeling well toward the end of the run.
"He was about 60 percent of the way through it when we noticed that he was a little white-faced," Hargrove said. "He was leaning against a fence
... which isn't unusual when guys get tired. We put him on a cart and brought him in and called the paramedics."
The National Weather Service said that at noon Sunday, the temperature in Fort Lauderdale was 81 degrees and the humidity was 74 percent.
Bechler's parents did not learn of his death until they arrived in Miami on Monday, Orioles executive vice president Jim Beattie said. His parents had traveled from their Oregon home after Bechler fell ill.
Bechler's wife was driving from Oregon to Florida when she learned he became ill. She took a flight from Salt Lake City on Sunday and got to Fort Lauderdale shortly before midnight.
Weather delays sporting events in Northeast
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Except for the twice-delayed Maryland-Wake Forest showdown, the only major sports in the mid-Atlantic region yesterday were sledding and snow-shoveling.
A weekend storm that dumped up to 4 feet of snow wiped out many Presidents Day sporting events, including numerous college basketball games and a Washington Wizards game on Michael Jordan's 40th birthday.
The Wizards' holiday matine against the Toronto Raptors was rescheduled for March 4. The evening game at the MCI Center
— No. 7 Pittsburgh at Georgetown — was rescheduled for Tuesday night.
Two other Big East games were called off: Villanova at Seton Hall and Miami at Providence.
Other Division I men's basketball postponements included Florida A&M at Howard, South Carolina State at Delaware State, Ohio at Akron, Chattanooga at Virginia Military, Appalachian State at Wofford and East Tennessee State at North Carolina-Greensboro.
Maryland and Wake Forest postponed their first-place Atlantic Coast Conference battle from Sunday night to yesterday afternoon at 4 p.m. The tipoff was then moved back to 5 p.m. as
school officials worked to properly staff the Comcast Center and make it safe for the fans.
Wake Forest arrived in College Park on Friday, anticipating the storm, and the officials also were in town. An exception was made to the ACC rule stating that a game should be played if both teams and the officials can make it to the arena.
Several racetracks canceled cards for Sunday and yesterday, and several minor league hockey games and women's college basketball games also were called off.
The storm was the worst to hit the mid-Atlantic and central Appalachian states in seven years. It caused at least 16 deaths and left 49 inches of snow in
Maryland's Garrett County in the central Appalachians.
Washington's Reagan National airport was closed yesterday. Baltimore-Washington International, which recorded its second-highest snowfall total ever, was attempting to reopen yesterday evening. Dulles International Airport managed to keep at least one runway open and had very limited commercial traffic.
Horse racing at Laurel Park in Maryland was postponed Sunday and yesterday. Maryland officials were forced to shuffle the two biggest races of the winter meet, the Barbara Fritchie Handicap and the General George Handicap. Both $200,000 events were moved to Saturday.
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