Rangers Hire Melvin as General Manager

Doug Melvin, the assistant general manager of the Baltimore Orioles, was hired as general manager of the Texas Rangers.

Melvin, 42, joined the Orioles in 1986 as a special assistant to the president. Two years later, when the Orioles lost 107 games, he became director of player personnel.

Melvin helped return the Orioles to near the top of the American League East by using first-round picks on pitchers Gregg Olson, Ben McDonald, Mike Mussina and outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds. None of Texas’ picks during that span are on a major league roster.

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The Chicago Cubs hired Ed Lynch, who in 1987 finished his eight-year pitching career with the Cubs, as general manager. He agreed to a three-year contract to replace Larry Himes, who was demoted to director of the club’s Arizona operations.

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About $235,000 was stolen from the Dominican Republic home of New York Yankee pitcher Melido Perez, police said. Perez, 31, was not in his Santo Domingo residence at the time of the burglary, police said.

College Basketball

Frank McGuire, 80, a Hall of Fame basketball coach at St. John’s, North Carolina and South Carolina, is gravely ill, according to officials at South Carolina. McGuire lives in West Columbia, S.C. He coached South Carolina from 1965-80, winning a school-record 283 games.

Pro Basketball

Charlotte Hornet center Alonzo Mourning, in a cast because of an injured toe, will sit out the next two weeks of training camp. Mourning sat out 21 games last season because of injuries.

Johnny Dawkins signed with the Detroit Pistons for the league minimum of $150,000 after he cleared waivers from the Philadelphia 76ers. Dawkins, 31, was waived last week by Philadelphia, which owes him $4.8 million over the next two seasons.

Cable television executive Christopher Cohan was introduced as sole owner of the Golden State Warriors. Cohan, who had owned 25% of the team, bought out chairman Jim Fitzgerald and president Dan Finnane.

Miami Heat first-round draft pick Khalid Reeves, who led Arizona to the Final Four last season, reportedly signed a five-year contract believed to be worth $8.5 million.

Houston Rocket Coach Rudy Tomjanovich, after spending the night at a Galveston, Tex., hospital for treatment of a viral infection, returned to Houston for additional medical tests.

Miscellany

Because of rough driving tactics during Sunday’s Mello Yello 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, driver Ricky Rudd was fined $10,000 and placed on probation for the remaining three races of the 1994 season, NASCAR announced.

Oklahoma State ended its 16-month search for an athletic director by hiring Terry Don Phillips to lead the Cowboys into the Big 12 Conference. Phillips is a senior associate athletic director at Arkansas.

Saint Louis University hired Doug Woolard as director of athletics. He was associate director of athletics at Washington State.

The 10th anniversary running of the Los Angeles Marathon will be dedicated to the memory of Fred Lebow, the founder of the New York Marathon in 1970 and one of the main forces behind the running craze of the ‘70s. He died Sunday of brain cancer in New York.

“Without Fred Lebow, the city of Los Angles Marathon would not be here today,” Los Angeles Marathon President Bill Burke said.

Olympic gold medalist Al Joyner’s civil rights case against the Los Angeles Police Department is likely to go to jury deliberations today.

Eight athletes and one coach disappeared from the Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan, and police were searching for them.

The missing were identified only by sport and country: an 800-meter runner and three cyclists from Sri Lanka, two soccer players and a karate coach from Nepal and two canoe racers from Pakistan.

A technical draw was declared in the 10-round flyweight bout at the Forum between Albert Jiminez of Mexico City and Mauro Diaz of Alhambra because of an unintentional head butt by Jiminez in the third round.