‘Gashouse Gang’ Player Dies at 83

Burgess Whitehead, the last surviving member of the St. Louis Cardinal “Gashouse Gang” teams of the 1930s, died on Thanksgiving Day at his home in Windsor, N.C. He was 83.

Whitehead was a reserve second baseman on the Cardinals’ 1934 World Series champions in his first full season in the majors. He batted .227 backing up Hall of Famer Frankie Frisch, who was the Cardinals’ player-manager. Whitehead played 107 games with the Cardinals in 1935 before being traded to the New York Giants. He played for the Giants for five seasons and finished his career in Pittsburgh after World War II. Whitehead had a .266 batting average in nine major league seasons.

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Catcher Greg Olson was cut by the Atlanta Braves in an apparent move to make room for free agent Charlie O’Brien, Atlanta television station WSB reported. Olson was removed from the 40-man roster and designated for reassignment, which means the Braves have 10 days to try to trade him or release him. . . . Hensley Meulens was put on waivers by the New York Yankees to let him sign with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan’s Pacific League.

Pro Basketball

Police are investigating an allegation that Charles Barkley punched a man at the same Scottsdale, Ariz., pool hall-nightclub where a different man accused the Phoenix Sun forward of hitting him eight days earlier. Keith Stimson, 25, of Hermosa Beach, told police Barkley hit him in the mouth early Friday for no reason.

College Basketball

Four University of California basketball players, including leading scorer Jason Kidd, have been suspended for one exhibition, the school announced. Kidd, Lamond Murray, Ryan Jamison and Monty Buckley will sit out tonight’s exhibition against the Illawara Hawks of Australia because they missed “an academic obligation,” a school spokesman said.

Tennis

Grant Connell of Canada and Patrick Galbraith of the United States were granted a quarterfinal victory in the ATP World Doubles Championships after the withdrawal of brothers Luke and Murphy Jensen. Luke Jensen underwent an emergency appendectomy at a Johannesburg hospital after the Jensens had lost to Mark Kratzmann and Wally Masur in round-robin pool play. Connell and Galbraith will face Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis in one semifinal. David Adams and Andrei Olhovskiy will play Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in the other.

Hockey

The Florida Panthers traded veteran center Randy Gilhen to the Winnipeg Jets for center Stu Barnes. . . . Center Denis Savard of the Tampa Bay Lightning and defenseman Steve Smith of the Chicago Blackhawks were each suspended for four games without pay and fined $500 by the NHL for an incident in a game Nov. 20 at Tampa Bay.

New Hampshire, the eighth-ranked team in the nation, leads a field of four college hockey teams playing in the Great Western Bank Freeze-Out today and Sunday at the Forum. New Hampshire (8-1) will meet Miami of Ohio (2-5-1) in one semifinal at 7 tonight. The University of Toronto (4-9-1), the defending Canadian college runner-up, will play 17th-ranked Clarkson (2-3-2) in the other semifinal at 4 p.m. The consolation game will be at 1 p.m. Sunday, the championship game at 4.

Miscellany

Bonnie Blair, a double-gold medalist at the 1992 Olympics, won the 500 meters at Berlin in the season’s first speedskating World Cup competition. . . . Defending World Cup champion Anita Wachter of Austria won her second consecutive World Cup giant slalom ski race at Santa Caterina Valfurva, Italy.

The president of the Brazilian Football Federation has filed suit against Pele for saying in a November Playboy interview that the organization had been corrupt in business practices, the Jornal do Brasil reported. . . . Two days after collecting the gold and silver medals in the 4,000-meter bicycling race at the Central American and Caribbean Games, Conrado Cabrera and Noel de la Cruz of Cuba defected in Puerto Rico with the help of former Cuban cycling coach Jose Menendez. . . . Ron Shuman of Tempe won the Turkey Night Grand Prix midget auto race Thursday night at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale.