BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE MAJOR LEAGUES : Veteran Infielder Treadway Retires

Montreal Expo infielder Jeff Treadway retired Friday, ending his nine-year career in the majors that also included stops with the Dodgers, Cincinnati, Atlanta and Cleveland.

Treadway, 32, batted .240 in 50 at-bats after joining the Expos on May 23. A career .281 hitter, he led the NL in pinch-hitting last year for the Dodgers with a .481 average (13 for 27).

“I talked with him, exactly a month ago, about staying in baseball because he told me then he was thinking this would be his last year,” Expo Manager Felipe Alou said. “I was surprised when he told me he was quitting [after Wednesday’s game] because he can still pinch-hit.”

*

Cincinnati pitcher Xavier Hernandez, given an eight-game suspension for his part in a brawl last week with the Houston Astros, will sit out five games beginning today, NL President Leonard Coleman said. Coleman said Hernandez would be sidelined through Thursday, and that the other three games of the suspension would be delayed until after an appeal hearing. Coleman suspended and fined Hernandez for hitting two batters an inning after being warned for nearly hitting another batter.

*

New Jersey still wants to bring a baseball team to the state, but any proposal to build a stadium at the Meadowlands sports complex would be fraught with difficulties.

The New York Times reported Friday that New Jersey officials had drafted a proposal to build a 50,000-seat baseball stadium at the Meadowlands to lure the New York Yankees to the state.

New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority officials have said putting a stadium in the complex would interfere with the other venues located there. With 80,000 Giant or Jet fans packing Giants Stadium on Sundays in September, a baseball home game would create a traffic nightmare with 50,000 more fans trying to squeeze into the complex.

New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Friday he is optimistic the Yankees will remain in the city.