Blue Jays Let Molitor Go Free; A’s Pick Up Eckersley Option

Toronto decided Wednesday to let Paul Molitor become a free agent, while Oakland decided to bring Dennis Eckersley back for next season.

Molitor, 39, will receive a $1-million buyout from the Blue Jays, who could have exercised a $4-million option.

Eckersley’s $2.25-million contract for next season was guaranteed by Oakland, even though he pitched in only 52 games last season. The contract had called for the option year to be guaranteed if he pitched in 54 games. But the A’s wanted him back.

Baltimore exercised its 1996 option on pitcher Jesse Orosco, but declined to exercise its $1.3-million option on pitcher Doug Jones and instead will give him a $100,000 buyout.

Milwaukee declined to exercise a $2.5-million option on center fielder Darryl Hamilton and settled a grievance with him for $275,000.

Seattle prevented reliever Norm Charlton from filing for free agency by offering him salary arbitration.

The New York Yankees have delayed their decision on Darryl Strawberry’s contract. The team said it would extend its deadline on the outfielder’s contract until today.

The Yankees hold a $1.8-million option for next season. The deadline on exercising it was Wednesday.

Twenty-six more players filed for free agency, raising the total to 56 after three days. Among them were Toronto outfielder Devon White, Dodger pitcher Ramon Martinez, Cleveland pitchers Ken Hill and John Farrell, Yankee catcher Mike Stanley, Oakland pitcher Steve Ontiveros and St. Louis reliever Tom Henke.

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The Dodgers, in an attempt to strengthen their bullpen in late-inning situations, signed free-agent right-handed reliever Darren Hall, formerly of the Blue Jays, to a one-year major league contract.

Hall, 31, tied a Toronto rookie record by saving 17 games in 20 opportunities in 1994. He was 0-2 with three saves and a 4.41 earned-run average in 17 games in 1995 when he underwent arthroscopic elbow surgery and missed the second-half of the season.

Hall received a clean bill of health Tuesday from Dr. Frank Jobe.

“I’ve liked him for a couple of years,” said Fred Claire, Dodger executive vice president. “I look at him as someone who can be a very key setup man for us and pitch in the ninth inning.”

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A plan to build a $300-million, baseball-only stadium in hopes of keeping Houston Astro owner Drayton McLane from moving the team is getting the cold shoulder from Houston officials.

“There is no guarantee whatsoever that if you improve the Astrodome or build a new stadium that Drayton wants that the team will sell more tickets to ballgames,” Steve Radack, a Harris County commissioner, said. “The Dome is perfectly suited for baseball because it was built for it.”

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California businessman Kevin McClatchy will have an extra week to complete his final offer for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Pirates announced that McClatchy has until 3 p.m. Tuesday to demonstrate he has the cash to complete the deal and to post an additional $2-million deposit. McClatchy already has put up a non-refundable $1-million deposit.

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National League President Len Coleman rejected the Houston Astros’ grievance against the Chicago Cubs over the Rick Wilkins trade. Houston acquired Wilkins on June 28 for Luis Gonzales and Scott Servais. Wilkins was disabled July 2 because of a herniated cervical disk and underwent surgery July 9. He was on the disabled list for 65 days.

“It is long settled in our industry that the principle of caveat emptor--’let the buyer beware’--applies to player transactions,” Coleman said. “Exceptions to this long-settled rule should be made only when there is evidence or purposeful concealment or intentional misrepresentation.”

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Sparky Anderson says he’s enjoying retirement since leaving the Detroit Tigers last month and doesn’t plan to manage a major league team again.

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The Tigers and Athletics have set up interviews this weekend with Buck Showalter about their vacant managing jobs, the New York Times reported today.

Olympics

An accountant hired by a public oversight board expressed heightened concern over whether Atlanta Olympic organizers can raise all the money budgeted for the 1996 Games.

Robert Pound of the accounting firm Price Waterhouse told the Metropolitan Atlanta Olympic Games Authority that the contingency fund in the $1.61-billion Olympic budget is now only about $14 million--less than half the $30 million reported last month by the organizing committee.

The cost of converting the Olympic stadium to a new home for the Atlanta Braves rose $23.4 million. The Metropolitan Atlanta Olympic Games Authority approved adding the expenditure to the $207 million the Olympic organizing committee already was paying to build the stadium for the Games and then turn it into a ballpark.

Tennis

Fifteen-year-old Venus Williams rallied to defeat fifth-seeded Amy Frazier, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, in the second round of the Bank of the West Classic at Oakland. In other matches, Mary Joe Fernandez won the first seven games and needed only 58 minutes to defeat Christina Singer, 6-0, 6-3; and Zina Garrison Jackson defeated best friend Katrina Adams, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Guy Forget of France defeated second-seeded Austrian Thomas Muster, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), in the second round of the Paris Open. Pete Sampras and Jim Courier advanced to the third round, but Goran Ivanisevic and Thomas Enqvist were ousted.

Sampras defeated Frenchman Arnaud Boetsch, 6-3, 6-4, and Courier scored a 6-1, 6-7 (2-7), 6-2, victory over Dutchman Jacco Eltingh.

Miscellany

Major League Soccer will conduct open tryouts across the country over the next two months in a talent search for American soccer players for the league’s inaugural season starting next April. Tryouts will be held in all 10 cities of the MLS, the FIFA and U.S. Soccer-sanctioned Division 1 soccer league. Los Angeles tryout date will be Dec. 2-3. For more information, call (800) 678-1328.

Steve Soboroff, long considered Mayor Richard Riordan’s man on the L.A. Coliseum Commission, has left that post and been replaced by attorney Lisa Specht. Soboroff, vice chairman of Football LA, has been working on plans to place football, basketball and ice hockey franchises in locations other than the Coliseum or Sports Arena, and said he considered it appropriate that he leave the commission.