Mantle Services Scheduled for Today

The baseball world is focusing on Dallas today, saying goodby to Mickey Mantle in a funeral service his family chose not to keep private because of the Hall of Famer’s many fans.

Thousands are expected to attend the public service at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church. Mantle’s family would have preferred to keep it closed but instead will hold a separate, private wake, also today.

The former New York Yankee died Sunday of cancer at 63.

Bobby Richardson, a lay minister and former teammate whose counsel helped ease Mantle’s final hours, will officiate at the service. NBC broadcaster Bob Costas will deliver the eulogy.

Former teammates Whitey Ford, Moose Skowron, Hank Bauer, Johnny Blanchard, Yogi Berra and Bobby Murcer will serve as pallbearers.

Country singer Roy Clark will sing “Yesterday When I Was Young,” according to his spokeswoman, Carol Anderson. She said Clark and Mantle had been friends for 35 years, and Mantle had requested many years ago that Clark perform the song at his funeral.

Soccer

U.S. national team goalkeeper Brad Friedel has been refused a work permit to play for Sunderland in the English First Division.

The club said it would appeal the decision by the Department of Employment, which ruled Friedel does not meet criteria related to appearances in competitive matches.

Department guidelines say players must have appeared in 75% of their country’s international matches.

American national team striker Roy Lassiter said his arrest last week on 3-year-old burglary and forgery warrants is not going to stop his career.

“I don’t care who tries to put this in my face,” Lassiter said. “This is not going to stop me.”

Lassiter, 26, was reached at the U.S. team’s hotel in Norkopping, Sweden, where the Americans play Sweden Wednesday. The player admitted involvement in the two burglaries in Raleigh, N.C., in May and July of 1992, after his graduation from North Carolina State.

Lassiter is free on $5,000 bond while awaiting an Aug. 30 court date on two charges of breaking-and-entering and one count of forgery.

Miscellany

A second former Idaho State University football player pleaded not guilty to two counts of statutory rape.

Sam Carter, 21, faces a maximum penalty of life in prison on the felony charges involving two 14-year-old girls.

Angie Lee, Vivian Stringer’s top assistant at the University of Iowa, will replace Stringer as the Hawkeyes’ women’s basketball coach. Stringer left last month to become coach at Rutgers.

Lee was an assistant under Stringer the last six years. She was chosen after a national search that included interviews with Drake coach Lisa Bluder and Marianne Stanley, former coach at Old Dominion and USC.

Former NBA player Lloyd Daniels signed a one-year contract for $400,000 with Italian first-division basketball team Scavolini Pesaro.

The St. Louis Blues re-signed free agent left wing Greg Gilbert. Gilbert, 33, collected 11 goals and 14 assists in 46 games with the Blues last season.

Los Angeles attorney Cary Agajanian was named executive vice president of the United States Auto Club for the Indy Racing League.

The future of the Winnipeg Jets was again in doubt, with Spirit of Manitoba Inc. abandoning its effort to purchase the team before a midnight deadline. Spirit of Manitoba Inc. had until midnight to close a deal to buy 64 percent of the team held by Shenkarow and his partners for $23.5 million.