Mantle Services Likely to Attract Thousands

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.

Tennis

MaliVai Washington used powerful serves and pinpoint baseline play to beat Andrei Chesnokov, 6-3, 6-1, in an opening-round of the Volvo International tournament at New Haven, Conn.

In addition, No. 10 Paul Haarhuis of The Netherlands beat Andrei Olhovskiy, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, and 1990 Volvo champion Derrick Rostagno, who has played only one tournament since undergoing 18 months of rehabilitation for an elbow injury, defeated Michael Joyce, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

The top eight seeded players in the field, which features six of the top 11 players in the world, including Andre Agassi and defending champion Boris Becker, received first-round byes.

Tim Henman of England defeated No. 16 Cedric Pioline in the RCA Championships at Indianapolis.

Golf

Doug Tewell shot a 7-under-par 65 to take the first-round lead in the 36-hole Jerry Ford Invitational at Vail, Colo. Tewell had an eagle and four birdies on the back nine on the Country Club of the Rockies course. He was one shot ahead of John Schroeder, Bob Lohr and Greg Twiggs opened with 5-under 66s on the easier Vail Golf Club course.

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, from UCLA, does not meet criteria related to appearances in competitive matches.

Miscellany

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan announced the lineup of the Football LA task force, a group of more than a dozen civic and business leaders that will attempt to lure a National Football League franchise back to the city.

Fredric Rosen, president and chief executive officer of Ticketmaster, will head the task force. The vice-chairman will be Steve Soboroff, president of the city’s parks and recreation commission, while other members include businessman Danny Villanueva, the former Ram and Cowboy kicker, and Sheldon I. Aumann, 1993 host chairman of Super Bowl XXVII.

Jose Alfredo Flores of Los Angeles stopped Charles Nwokolo of Hollywood in the third round of a scheduled 12-round junior middleweight bout at the Forum.

Marion Jones, a standout basketball and track athlete for the University of North Carolina, underwent surgery to repair a broken bone in her left foot. Jones, a graduate of Thousand Oaks High, was injured last Thursday while practicing with the U.S. women’s basketball team in preparation for the World University Games.

An auction of sports memorabilia from the Bruce McNaul collection fetched an estimated $325,000 in Hollywood. The highest-priced item was a “white border” baseball card set featuring four cards of Ty Cobb that realized $52,500.

Names in the News

Idaho State University football player Sam Carter, 21, pleaded not guilty to two counts of statutory rape. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison on the felony charges involving two 14-year-old girls. . . . Former NBA player Lloyd Daniels signed a one-year contract for $400,000 with Italian first-division basketball team Scavolini Pesaro. . . . Angie Lee, top assistant under Vivian Stringer at the University of Iowa, will replace Stringer as the Hawkeyes’ women’s basketball coach. Stringer left to become coach at Rutgers.

The St. Louis Blues re-signed free agent left wing Greg Gilbert. . . . Los Angeles attorney Cary Agajanian was named executive vice president of the U.S. Auto Club for the Indy Racing League. . . . The Hartford Whalers and center Darren Turcotte agreed on a three-year contract worth about $2.7 million.