Newswire : Royals Must Honor...

An arbitrator has ruled that the Kansas City Royals must honor the terms of a contract signed with pitcher Vida Blue before he was released by the team in 1983 and later pleaded guilty to a drug charge.

The ruling, issued earlier this week by arbitrator Richard Bloch, is expected to cost the team between $1 million and $1.5 million.

“That’s good to hear, real good,” said Blue, who is seeking to return to baseball.

Blue, 35, and three other members of the 1983 Royals pleaded guilty to drug charges, received three-month prison sentences and were suspended from baseball for varying periods.

The St. Francis Yacht Club of San Francisco, determined to return the America’s Cup to the United States, is readying construction of the first phase of a high-tech, $10-million challenge to the current Cup holder, Australia.

The next America’s Cup race series will start Jan. 31, 1987, on a 25-mile open ocean course off the coast of Fremantle near Perth in western Australia. Winds there usually reach 25 m.p.h.--conditions common on San Francisco Bay.

University of Pittsburgh freshman running back Craig (Ironhead) Heyward of Passaic, N.J., will have to appear in court on a simple assault charge for allegedly hitting another student in the face with with a wooden crutch in a Pitt dormitory Jan. 22.

The victim, sophomore Matthew Black, suffered a broken nose, a cut under his eye that took 40 stitches to close and nerve damage to his upper lip. Heyward, who is recovering from knee surgery, first got into a fight with his roommate, freshman running back Zeke Gadson of Frogmore, S.C., after Gadson had turned down the volume on Heyward’s stereo. Heyward then allegedly hit Black, who was standing in the hall, with his crutch from behind.

A $525,000 suit was filed against Chicago White Sox catcher Carlton Fisk by Michael Curtin, who alleges Fisk choked and beat his son while breaking up a fight after a basketball game.

Curtin alleges in the suit that Fisk struck 13-year-old Daniel Curtin in the head and threw him to the ground after the boy got into a fight with Fisk’s son, also 13, during a game at a church in Lemont, Ill., Feb. 2. Fisk, 37, is a coach for his son’s team.

For the second straight day, the New York Mets won a salary arbitration over one of their top relief pitchers when an arbitrator ruled that left-hander Jesse Orosco would have to play the 1985 season for a salary of $650,000.

Orosco, who had been seeking an $850,000 salary, had a 10-6 record, a 2.59 earned-run average and 31 saves in 1984. His save total was the third-best in the National League.

Thursday, arbitrator Arvid Anderson ruled in favor of the Mets in their arbitration with reliever Doug Sisk. Sisk will be paid $275,000 in 1985 rather than the $470,000 for which he had asked.

Clemson Athletic Director Bill McLellan has requested and been granted an indefinite leave from his duties at the school, officials announced.

The action comes in the wake of increasing criticism of his handling of the department in recent years, including an investigation of reputed drug use by athletes at the school.