Ueberroth Threatens Open-Books Order in Baseball Talks

Commissioner Peter Ueberroth told major league baseball owners that he would order them to open their books to the players’ association if both sides in the current labor negotiations felt it would help reach a new collective bargaining agreement.

The union and the Player Relations Committee have been negotiating a new basic agreement for several months. Their next meeting is scheduled today.

“If Don Fehr and Marvin Miller (representing the players), and Lee MacPhail and Barry Rona (representing the Player Relations Committee) advise me this could be critical to negotiations and would remove any lingering lack of trust between the parties, in order to reach a successful conclusion, I would do it,” Ueberroth said.

The Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Sweden, West Germany and Austria have threatened to boycott the 1988 Winter Olympics at Calgary, Canada, if a revised hockey schedule is implemented, said Guenter Sabetzki, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation.

The six nations say that a revised schedule, expanded to 15 days, would interfere with domestic hockey schedules and add to the cost of their stay in Calgary, Sabetzki said.

The Calgary Olympic Organizing Committee had planned to have a revised hockey schedule approved later this year.

Phildadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode announced that the city had reached agreement with the Eagles and the Phillies on a 10-year extension of their lease at Veteran Stadium, assuring both teams would be playing there until 2011.

Goode said the lease will be binding to any group interested in purchasing the Eagles. The financially troubled Tose is seeking a buyer for the team, although the latest prospect, a group headed by Flyers owner Ed Snider, announced Tuesday it had dropped out of the bidding.

The fight card that features two World Boxing Council championship bouts has been postponed from March 21 until April 1 because doctors for Azumah Nelson, the WBC featherweight champion, recommended more rest for the fighter. Nelson was reportedly exhausted after touring Ghana while training for his upcoming title defense.

The championship fights between Nelson and Marcos Villasana for the WBC Featherweight title, and Julio Cesar Chavez and Ruben Castillo for the WBC super featherweight title will still headline the card to held at the Forum,

Oakland A’s pitcher Mike Norris, who missed all of last season with a shoulder injury, has been undergoing drug therapy since Feb. 15 after being arrested two days earlier, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

“We can confirm that Michael is and has been in a treatment center,” A’s Vice President Sandy Alderson said. “It would be premature to discuss the treatment or aspects of his subsequent care. We’re hopeful Michael will be in Phoenix sometime before the end of spring training.”

The world champion Detroit Tigers have been installed as 4-1 favorites to repeat as American League champions by Harrah’s Reno Race and Sports Book. The San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs are listed as co-favorites in the National League, also at 4-1.

Other National League odds: Dodgers and New York, 5-1; Atlanta, 6-1; Philadelphia, 10-1; St. Louis, 12-1; San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Montreal, 15-1; Houston, 20-1; Cincinnati, 75-1.

Other American League odds: Chicago and Toronto, 5-1; New York and Kansas City, 6-1; Baltimore, 8-1; Oakland, 12-1; Angels and Minnesota, 15-1; Boston and Milwaukee, 25-1; Seattle, 30-1; Cleveland and Texas, 50-1.

East Tennessee State basketball Coach Barry Dowd was fired amid reports that outgoing Auburn Coach Sonny Smith will be named as his replacement.

Dowd was fired Monday before his team beat Mississippi, 70-64, in overtime. That game was a makeup for a game that was to have been played Dec. 17, when a chartered plane carrying the team made a crash landing in Jasper, Ala., en route to the game.

Names in the News

Marcus Dupree, the $6-million Portland Breakers running back whose United States Football League career has stumbled from one injury to another, will be out for the rest of the season because of a damaged left knee.

Hana Mandlikova, who Sunday defeated Chris Evert Lloyd in the final of a $150,000 tournament at Oakland, has entered the $500,000 Chrysler Women’s Team Championships, a doubles competition at La Costa that runs Friday through Sunday. Her partner will be Rosalyn Fairbanks.

Shane Nelson, a linebacker who led the Buffalo Bills with 192 tackles in 1979, signed a free-agent contract with the San Diego Chargers.

The wife of French tennis star Yannick Noah, Cecilia, gave birth to the couple’s first child, Joakim Simon Noah, in a New York Hospital.