Banner Graphic, Volume 21, Number 160, Greencastle, Putnam County, 12 March 1991 — Page 7

Mets’ Fernandez has broken arm

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) last year, the New York Mets’ problem was too many starting pitchers. This season, they may not have enough. Sid Fernandez broke a bone in his pitching arm Monday when he was hit just above the left wrist by a grounder off the bat of Houston’s Javier Ortiz. He will be in a cast for six weeks and will be sidelined for up to three months. FRANK VIOLA, WHO has bone spurs in his elbow, started Monday’s game against the Astros and was hit hard. Fernandez, who was injured in the fifth inning, had the wrist placed in a cast and a sling after Xrays showed a break about three inches above the wrist. He will not be able to resume throwing for at least nine weeks. “I’m just real disappointed,” Fernandez said. “It’s not a real bad break. It’s still in place it’s just shattered.” LAST SEASON, Fernandez was 9-14 with a 3.46 eamed-run average. He has a career mark of 78-59.

Palmer throws like Hall of Fame pitcher

BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) The fastballs weren’t so fast, the curves weren’t cutting, the control wasn’t crisp. Jim Palmer did not fool the Boston batters or himself. Even for a first start in the spring, this wasn’t good. PALMER, WORKING ON seven years’ rest, looked like a batting practice pitcher Monday in his comeback debut for Baltimore. He gave up two runs on five hits, a walk and a balk, and also aggravated a hamstring problem. At 45, Palmer didn’t think he would pitch like a Hall of Famer right away. But this was ugly of his 38 pitches, only 19 were strikes, just one on a swing-and-miss. His

Game isn’t over for Steinbrenner

NEW YORK (AP) George Steinbrenner’s lawyers are complaining again and this time they have a slightly new twist to their claim that Fay Vincent was out to get the New York Yankees owner. A Legal Aid lawyer who represented Howard Spira claims baseball investigator John M. Dowd showed bias against Steinbrenner as early as last March, just a week after Dowd’s probe began. IN A FIVE-PAGE affidavit signed last week, lawyer Roland Thau of the Federal Defenders Services Unit claimed Dowd told him privately in a meeting last March 26 that he was intent on finding evidence against the New York Yankees owner. “He told me that only the commissioner could bring ‘George’ down and that (he) had gotten away with a lot ... for years and that it was high time that he be dealt with,’’ Thau wrote of Dowd in the affidavit. Dowd denied the accusation, saying that he never met alone with Thau. Dowd said that Kevin Hallin an, the director of security for the commissioner’s office, was with him at all times. “THAT’S JUST NOT a fact,’’

Webster retires from NFL after 17 seasons

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) am what I am,” said Mike Webster. Then he corrected himself. “Or rather, I was what I was.” SEVENTEEN YEARS after an undersized, middle-round draft choice reported to the Pittsburgh Steelers, people now must get used to speaking of the great career of Mike Webster in the past tense. The perennial Pro Bowl center and a mainstay on Pittsburgh’s four Super Bowl champions, retired Monday, one week before his 39th birthday. “It’s been 17 wonderful years, but one thing you learn in this game is reality,” said Webster, who spent the past two years with the Kansas City Chiefs. “It’s time.” WEBSTER’S IMMEDIATE plans are uncertain. But Carl Peterson, president and general manager of the Chiefs, said the assistant coaching position that Webster originally was offered in 1989 is still open.

Fernandez has allowed 6.64 hits per nine innings, second only in major-league history to Nolan Ryan’s 6.54. The Mets couldn’t decide on whether on how to use Ron Darling and Bob Ojeda last season and both ended up unhappy because they didn’t get enough work as starters. “The entire day was just disappointing,” manager Bud Harrelson said after Houston beat the Mets 11-4 and dealt their pennant hopes a blow. “They (Houston) knocked us all around the ballpark.” ORTIZ’ GROUNDER did not appear to be hit that hard, but Fernandez failed to get a glove on it. “It wasn’t hit that hard,” Fernandez said. “It just took an overspin and came up. At least I can come back. It’s a setback. It’s always disappointing to have an injury like this. It was just a freak thing.” Harrelson said the injury was similar to one he sustained as a player in 1963. Harrelson said in his case the bone was displaced and he missed the entire season.

fastball barely reached 75 mph and the Red Sox hit most everything hard. “I was disappointed. I expected more from myself. I would like to have done better,” Palmer said. “But I think it would be premature to quit now. If I did, I still wouldn’t know if I could do it.” ORIOLES MANAGER Frank Robinson said Palmer will remain in the spring training rotation. “I’ll put him into his next start, whenever it is scheduled, unless he tells me he can’t go out there,” Robinson said. “I think it was a good outing for a guy who hasn’t been out there. “I’m not going to worry about judging him yet. I’ve said it takes a

Dowd said of Thau’s affidavit “It’s really sad. I never said anything like that. It’s just crazy. I don’t talk like that.” Commissioner Fay Vincent decided to investigate Steinbrenner after the New York Yankees owner’s $40,000 payment to Spira was revealed last March 18. Spira is scheduled for an April 8 trial on charges of attempting to extort Steinbrenner, who agreed last summer to give up day-to-day control of the team. Thau, 57, has been with Legal Aid since 1972. He represented Spira following his initial indicment last March, but later was replaced. Thau repeated his accusations in a telephone interview Monday and challenged Dowd and Hallinan to take a polygraph test. “EITHER HIS MEMORY fails him or he’s lying,” Thau said of Dowd. “I prefer to be charitable and conclude until I have evidence to the contrary that his memory fails him. What he’s clearly preparing for, if failure of memory is not the real reason, he is obviously preparing to deny what I said happened in my office and intends to use Hallinan to corroborate that denial.”

“I’m hopeful these people are going to stay with the Kansas City Chiefs in the future,” Peterson said of Webster and his wife Pam, who appeared with her husband at a news conference. “I stand in awe of this guy. “If anybody has played that position better in the history of the National Football League, I don’t know who has. This is truly a unique, special human being. His maturity and leadership are the best. The absolute best.” WEBSTER, WHO SPENT this season grooming rookie Tim Grunhard to succeed him, indicated his plans are uncertain. But he will most likely remain in football. Always in top condition at 6-foot-2, 260 pounds, he was called “Iron Mike” for playing in 177 consecutive regular season games before a dislocated elbow sidelined him for four games at the start of the 1986 season.

■ i 'dL ,

SID FERNANDEZ: Can’t throw for nine weeks

couple of starts before you can tell anything,” he said. “By the third start in the spring, you should start showing something.” PALMER, HOWEVER, DID not show any improvement over last week’s intrasquad game, in which Baltimore batters teed off. Plus, this time he hurt his hamstring, to go along with recent Achilles tendon trouble. “I felt something pop. It felt like Rice Krispies,” he said. “It’s going to inhibit me. I’m not worried about the performance as much as I am about being able to perform. “I just know I have to pitch better than I did to be effective,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re 45 or 25 if you don’t have com-

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mand, you’re not going to be successful.” PALMER, WHO RETIRED in 1984, is trying to become the first baseball Hall of Famer to resume playing. He did not get the decision in the 3-2 victory over Boston. At least Palmer looked like his old self, the way he did when he won the last game Sandy Koufax ever pitched, nearly a quarter-cen-tury ago. Palmer wore his familiar No. 22, which the Orioles took out of retirement, and showed off his usual high, leg kick. He even argued briefly with an umpire about a close call. “He threw great for a Hall of Famer,” said Wade Boggs, who singled twice.

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Reds haven’t given up on Armstrong

PLANT CITY, Fla. (AP) The meter is running on pitcher Jack Armstrong’s walkout. At the rate of SSOO a day since Thursday, it reached $3,000 today. General manager Bob Quinn has said the Reds have no plans to trade Armstrong, but the club is concerned because Armstrong already has missed one scheduled start. “WE WANT TO explore every avenue so we don’t become shortsighted. But right now, that’s not one of our options,” Quinn said about a possible trade. “We haven’t reached that point yet.” Armstrong said Monday night that he does not want to be traded. “That has never been a question,” he said. “I’m just looking for the uniformity of the team concept” ARMSTRONG, 26, walked out of camp March 4 when the Reds renewed his contract at $215,000 instead of the $315,000 he wanted. He made $107,000 last year, when he was 12-9 with a 3.42 earned run

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average. Armstrong, who doesn’t have enough big-league service to be eligible for arbitration, has threatened to sit out the season. “Either Jack really doesn’t understand the situation or he’s being ill-advised,” Quinn said. SCOTT BORAS, Armstrong’s attorney and agent, said that he told Armstrong he was risking millions of dollars and his career. “My advice is that you don’t walk out of camp if your only com cem is money,” Boras said. “We’ve covered all the economit* parameters, and it was Jack’s deci 4 sion. “Jack feel that the team unity that won the National League pennant and the World Series last year has been destroyed. He does not want to have in his gut the feeling that he is working for someone he does not respect.

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