Billy Martin Gets What He Asked for--Neil Allen--in a Trade

Relief pitcher Neil Allen of the St. Louis Cardinals was traded to the New York Yankees Wednesday for a minor league player to be named.

Allen, a 27-year-old right-hander who began his major league career with the New York Mets, was scheduled to join the Yankees for a four-game series that begins today in Minnesota against the Twins. Allen saved 67 games for the Mets from 1979 through 1982.

“I wanted him, asked for him and think he will be of great help to us in our stretch run,” Yankee Manager Billy Martin said. “The youngster has a live arm, with a major league fastball and a big-league curve.”

Michael Meredith, 17-year-old son of Don Meredith, former quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys and recently a television announcer, received a 10-year probated sentence after pleading guilty to charges of stealing a Porsche automobile and 15 sets of sunglasses. He also was ordered to make restitution of $17,935 and to enter a residential treatment program for troubled youths.

Don Meredith was in court in Fort Worth to escort his only son to the ELAN treatment facility, a private program in Maine for troubled youths.

Michael is the son of Meredith and his second wife, Sheryl King, who were divorced when Michael was 3. The youth had lived mainly with his mother in recent years.

Coach Chuck Knox and the Seattle Seahawks will take a first-hand look at quarterback Bobby Hebert, whose Oakland Invaders lost to the Baltimore Stars, 28-24, in last Sunday’s United States Football League title game.

Hebert, who became a free agent at the end of the USFL season, will be given a physical examination and a workout by the Seahawks today.

Larry Holmes’ International Boxing Federation heavyweight title defense against light-heavyweight champion Michael Spinks Sept. 21 will be held at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas.

Spinks, like Holmes, is unbeaten and is looking to become the first 175-pound champion to win a heavyweight crown. He can also team with his brother Leon to become the only brothers to have won the heavyweight title.

Jerry Wisz of Alhambra and Jim Woodward of the new Wood Ranch golf course in Simi Valley will meet today for the Southern California PGA match-play championship at the Los Angeles Country Club. Wisz, 32, reached the final by eliminating Clipper Cecil of Mission Hills, 1 up, and Woodward won his semifinal match over Gregg McHatton of Vista Valencia, 5 and 4.

Negotiators for major league baseball’s players and owners will return to the bargaining table today in New York for the first time since the union set Aug. 6 as a strike date.

“Now that there’s a date, we hope it will have some effect” on the stalled negotiations, union spokesman Mark Belanger said.

Belanger, a Baltimore Orioles shortstop from 1965 through 1981, is special assistant to Donald Fehr, the acting executive director of the players’ union.

The Tulsa Roughnecks soccer team, with a history of financial problems and now without a league to play in, has suspended operations. After the North American Soccer League suspended its 1985 season, the Roughnecks embarked on an exhibition schedule. They had won seven straight exhibitions and had a game scheduled Saturday against the Chicago Sting.

Lawyers for John (Hot Rod) Williams, former Tulane basketball star, asked that Memphis State Coach Dana Kirk be subpoenaed as a defense witness in Williams’ point-shaving trial set for Aug. 5.

Tulane’s game against Memphis State was one of two allegedly fixed in a scheme involving Williams, his teammates, some non-athletes at Tulane and others.

In Memphis, meanwhile, an investigation by Memphis State has found no evidence to support published allegations that Kirk offered $10,000 four years ago to sign star forward Keith Lee, university President Thomas Carpenter said.

However, Carpenter said evidence has been found of possible violations of other NCAA rules. He said that the athletic department may have been sloppy in handling government grants for students and that starting basketball center William Bedford may have borrowed luxury cars from school boosters.

The Angels’ Donnie Moore was among seven All-Star baseball players who visited a Minneapolis children’s hospital Tuesday before the All-Star game, but eight others who had promised to make the good-will visit were no-shows. Among the eight who failed to appear was Fernando Valenzuela of the Dodgers.

Sponsoring United Way officials said that those who missed the visit either had last-minute conflicts or had not recovered from Monday night’s All-Star party.

A number of Texas’ best high school football players plan to take easier classes this fall to avoid falling victim to the state’s controversial “no-pass, no-play” eligibility rule, according to a survey of 205 students conducted by a statewide football magazine. Seventy-eight of those polled--or 38%--said they planned to take easier classes.

The no-pass, no-play rule, which was passed by the Texas legislature in 1984 and upheld as constitutional last week by the Texas Supreme Court, requires students who fail at least one course with a grade under 70 to be suspended from extracurricular activities for six weeks.

The NCAA Basketball Committee selected Cal State Long Beach as host of the West Regional in the 1986 tournament and named the Superdome as the site for the 1987 Final Four competition.

Leslie Ward, sports editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, has resigned and will be replaced by Rick Arthur, now on the paper’s news desk.

Ward, who became sports editor shortly after the Olympic Games, will return to the paper’s city desk.

Names in the News

Duffy Waldorf of UCLA and Sam Randolph of USC have been named to the Walker Cup golf team, which will play Great Britain Aug. 21-22 at Pine Valley, N.J.

Jim Buss, 25, was named to succeed his brother, John, 28, as president and general manager of the Lazers indoor soccer team.

Track stars Chewuakii (Choo Choo) Knighten of Locke and Roman Gomez of Belmont have been named Southern California high school athletes of the year for 1984-85.

David Courtney will return to the Kings as public relations director after an absence of eight years.

World Boxing Council super-lightweight champion Bill Costello’s scheduled non-title bout against Dennis Horne Friday night at Poughkeepsie, N.Y., has been called off because Horne is having stomach problems. Costello will instead fight a six-round exhibition against Randy Michem of New Orleans.

Eliot Teltscher and Aaron Krickstein, who led the United States Davis Cup team to a first-round victory over Japan, were selected to play against West Germany in the second round.