Jordan Gets a Minor League Demotion

Michael Jordan had an RBI single and dropped an easy fly for Class-A Prince William in his first game as a minor league baseball player.

Jordan, the three-time NBA most valuable player, was sent to the minors on Monday by the Chicago White Sox after going three for 20 in 13 spring games, but there is still some question as to where he will begin the season.

He was given today off, might play for triple-A Nashville on Wednesday and might work out with double-A Birmingham later this week.

“It’s wherever we can get him in games, where we can get him the most at-bats,” said Ron Schueler, White Sox general manager.

Jordan took his demotion well.

“More or less, it’s something I need to improve my skills,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me personally. I don’t think like I failed at anything.”

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Baseball’s top executive, Bud Selig, clashed with U.S. senators who accused owners of lying and gutting the power of the vacant commissioner’s office.

During a contentious 2 1/2-hour session in St. Petersburg, Fla., Selig repeatedly tried to avoid direct answers to questions from Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) and said the commissioner “has as much authority in this industry as any human being in the United States of America.”

Replied Metzenbaum: “I say BS.”

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Former Milwaukee Brewer pitcher Julio Machado was sentenced to a 12-year prison term for fatally shooting a secretary after a traffic accident in 1991, a radio station in Venezuela reported.

Football

The Houston Oilers will retain offensive tackle Kevin Donnalley after matching the Rams’ four-year, $4-million contract offer. The Houston Chronicle will report today that the team has decided to keep Donnalley because of the retirement of guard Mike Munchak. . . . Linebacker Lonnie Marts, an unrestricted free agent who spent the last four seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, signed a three-year, $3.3-million contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Skip Hicks, who became the first freshman to lead UCLA in rushing, with 563 yards last season, has a torn knee ligament and will have surgery Wednesday. Hicks was injured Saturday while competing in the long jump for the UCLA track team in a meet against California and Texas.

The Fresno County grand jury charged that nine Fresno State football players applied for food stamps, claiming they were homeless. The grand jury also charged that someone in the university’s athletic department knew in December of 1992 about the applications, but failed to make the players pay back any benefits they had received.

College Basketball

Jason Kidd, California’s All-American point guard, has called a news conference for Wednesday, and the San Francisco Chronicle reported the sophomore will enter the NBA draft.

John Wooden, whose UCLA teams won 10 national championships in 12 years, says it would be a mistake for the school to fire basketball Coach Jim Harrick. Harrick has been assailed for UCLA’s 112-102 loss to underdog Tulsa last Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

One of Harrick’s harshest critics has been former UCLA great Bill Walton, who played for Wooden from 1972-74 and led the Bruins to two NCAA championships and an 86-4 record over three seasons.

“I’d say in his six years, Jim has won 75% of his games,” Wooden told the Associated Press . “How many coaches in the country have won 75% of their games?”

Harrick has a 137-53 record (72%) at UCLA.

Figure Skating

Japan’s Yuka Sato was first in her qualifying group for the women’s competition at the World Figure Skating Championships at Chiba, Japan, and Michelle Kwan, 13, of Torrance was fifth. The other U.S skater, 16-year-old Nicole Bobek, failed to qualify.

Name in the News

Walter (Red) Tyler Jr., former Darlington Raceway president, died of a heart attack at 73 in Florence, S.C.