Blue Jays Keep Batting Coach

Larry Hisle, the Toronto Blue Jays’ batting coach whose future with the club seemed in doubt, will remain with the World Series champions after all, the Blue Jays announced Thursday.

It had been reported that Hisle would be replaced by former Blue Jay Willie Upshaw as batting coach. With the exception of bullpen coach John Sullivan, who retired and was replaced by Dennis Holmberg, Toronto’s coaching staff will return next season.

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Former Dodger players Nate Oliver and Ron Roenicke were hired by the team to fill the final two openings on its 1994 minor league staff.

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On the first of baseball’s off-season deadline days, teams decided against offering salary arbitration to 39 players and chose to allow them to file for free agency.

San Francisco catcher Jeff Reed was the only player to be offered arbitration before Thursday’s midnight deadline passed, while outfielder Joe Orsulak and the New York Mets and pitcher Mark Davis of the San Diego Padres were the only players to sign new contracts.

Figure Skating

Olympic champions Natalya Mishkutenok and Artur Dmitriyev of Russia defeated Canadian world champions Isabelle Brasseur and Lloyd Eisler to win the pairs competition night at a pre-Olympic meet at Lillehammer, Norway.

Jurisprudence

Former California basketball coach Lou Campanelli’s lawsuit over his abrupt firing last season was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Fern Smith. Campanelli, who claimed the firing damaged his reputation and his job prospects, failed to allege that University of California officials publicly disclosed the grounds for his dismissal or said anything to stigmatize him, according to Smith.

Hockey

Doctors in Philadelphia are expected to decide today whether to recommend that Flyer goaltender Tommy Soderstrom undergo a fifth procedure to remedy a heart abnormality that can cause rapid heartbeats.

Soderstrom left the Flyers’ game Wednesday at Ottawa after the first period because he experienced dizziness and light-headedness, symptoms consistent with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Four previous procedures couldn’t correct his condition.

Pro Basketball

The Clippers (5-1) will end their exhibition season with a game against the Dallas Mavericks (0-4) tonight in Dallas and a game against the San Antonio Spurs Saturday night in San Antonio.

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Miami Heat forward Grant Long will be sidelined a minimum of four weeks and will miss at least the first nine games of the season with a broken bone in his right hand.

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Former Fairfax High and Michigan standout Sean Higgins signed a one-year contract with a team in Greece.

Tennis

Boris Becker, Jim Courier and Sergi Bruguera, seeded second, third and fifth, respectively, were upset in the third round of the $1.65-million Stockholm Open in Sweden. To reach the quarterfinals, Mal Washington defeated Becker, 6-1, 6-3; Marc Rosset defeated Courier, 6-7 (7-5), 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), and Jonas Svensson defeated Bruguera, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Names in the News

Javier Sotomayor, world record-holder in the high jump, will head a team of seven Cuban national team members who will compete next year professionally for a Spanish track and field club. . . . Mills Lane will referee his 15th world world heavyweight title fight when he works next month’s bout between Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. . . . Former New York Giant Coach Allie Sherman will be honored as man of the year by fellow alumni of his Brooklyn (N.Y.) Boys High on Sunday, at Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City. . . . Everett Dean, 95, who coached Stanford to an NCAA men’s basketball championship and Indiana to three Big Ten co-championships, died Tuesday in Caldwell, Idaho.