Mattingly Files for Free Agency

Don Mattingly formally severed ties with the New York Yankees on Friday and filed for free agency but will continue to negotiate with the team.

Mattingly, 34, has been with the Yankee organization since he was drafted in 1979. The Yankees say they want him to remain in New York and his agent, Jim Krivacs, has spoken with the team several times about a new contract.

Four other baseball players filed Friday, increasing the total to 135 with two days remaining in the filing period. Joining Mattingly were Yankee teammate Wade Boggs, San Diego Padre pitcher Fernando Valenzuela and Texas Ranger pitchers Danny Darwin and Jeff Russell.

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Four days after discussions with Arizona Diamondback officials, former Yankee Manager Buck Showalter has agreed to sign on as the expansion team’s first manager, ESPN reported.

According to ESPN, Showalter will sign a seven-year deal next week with the Diamondbacks, who don’t begin play until 1998.

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Cleveland Indian pitcher Orel Hershiser, according to two sources, has threatened to retire if the Indians exercise their $1.5-million option on his contract for 1996. Hershiser was 16-6 with a 3.87 earned-run average for the American League champions.

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Houston Astro owner Drayton McLane Jr. said he will keep his team in Houston for the 1996 season. McLane’s announcement ended 2 1/2 weeks of speculation that he was about to sell the team to a group headed by Virginia businessman Bill Collins.

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San Diego switch-hitting third baseman Ken Caminiti got the payoff for a big season (.302, 26 home runs, 94 runs batted in) when he agreed to a two-year, $6.1-million contract. Pittsburgh third baseman Jeff King got a $5-million, two-year deal from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Catcher Ron Karkovice got a two-year contract from the Chicago White Sox worth $3.67 million.

Golf

Sweden’s Jesper Parnevik celebrated a hole in one, then finished with two bogeys to allow the U.S. team of Davis Love III and Fred Couples to increase its lead to four strokes in the World Cup of Golf in Shenzhen, China.

Love shot a six-under-par 67, and Couples added a 69 for a 19-under 269 total for two rounds on the Jack Nicklaus-designed ITPC at Mission Hills.

The $1.5-million event is the first major tournament in China.

While short sleeves replaced hand warmers at Myrtle Beach, S.C., Jim Colbert kept up his on-target iron play for a three-shot lead halfway through the Senior Tour Championship.

Colbert shot a 69 and has a two-day total of seven-under 140.

The only player who could keep pace at the Dunes Golf & Beach Club was Colbert’s playing partner, Isao Aoki, who also shot a 69 to go four under.

Liselotte Neumann shot a one-over 74 to maintain a one-stroke lead over Jane Geddes after the second round of the Women’s Australian Open in Melbourne.

Neumann, who had a five-stroke lead midway through the round, had a five-under 141 total on the Yarra Yarra course. Geddes also shot a 74 as players struggled with windy conditions for the second consecutive day.

Tennis

Defending champion Anke Huber knocked Gabriela Sabatini out of the $800,000 Advanta Championships in Philadelphia for the second consecutive year, upsetting the fourth-seeded player, 7-5, 6-2. Huber, seeded seventh, will face unseeded Lori McNeil in the semifinals. McNeil, ranked No. 63 in the world, upset second-ranked Conchita Martinez, 6-7 (7-3), 6-3, 6-2. Zina Garrison Jackson defeated Irina Spirlea of Romania, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4, and will face top-seeded Steffi Graf.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the local favorite in the Kremlin Cup, scored a 6-7 (7-2), 6-0, 6-0 victory over Byron Black of Zimbabwe in Moscow. Sixth-seeded Alexander Volkov, winner of last year’s Kremlin Cup, lost to unseeded Daniel Vacek, 6-2, 6-3.

Jim Courier lost to David Prinosil, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), in the quarterfinals of the Stockholm Open. “This was the best win of my career,” said Prinosil, who was born in the Czech Republic but is now a German citizen. Courier, who has won four tournaments this year and has climbed back to seventh on the ATP computer rankings after dropping out of the top 10 last year, had not lost a set in his first two matches.

Motor Racing

Finnish driver Mika Hakkinen was reported to be regaining consciousness in a hospital in Adelaide, Australia, after receiving head injuries in a high-speed accident during qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix. Hakkinen crashed 13 minutes into the first qualifying session. Damon Hill won the pole position for the season-ending race with a lap of 111.950 m.p.h.

Darrell Waltrip won a pole for the first time in more than three years, taking the top qualifying spot for Sunday’s NAPA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Waltrip turned a lap of 185.046 m.p.h. on the 1.522-mile oval to become the 15th pole winner of the season. Jeff Gordon, trying to wrap up his first Winston Cup championship, qualified eighth at 184.138.

Larry Ragland of Phoenix limped down the highway to claim victory in the Baja 1,000 off-road race.

Ragland finished at 7:20 a.m. Friday in his Chevrolet pickup truck with only partial use of his transmission and almost no brakes. He covered the 1,146 miles from Tijuana to La Paz in 20 hours, 14 minutes 12 seconds with an average speed of 56.45 m.p.h.

Paul Krause of Irvine was the overall winner of the motorcycle division.

Miscellany

The University of Miami came away hopeful after spending seven hours begging for leniency from the NCAA Committee on Infractions for violations in the football program. Miami has pleaded guilty to six of the 10 charges made by the NCAA and expects some penalties.

The University of Connecticut is violating a federal regulation by not providing more opportunities for women to participate in sports, according to a report presented to the school’s trustees. The study recommends the school add women’s lacrosse and ice hockey and decrease the number of men on the track and cross-country teams.

The reform-minded Knight Commission endorsed a proposed new governing structure for the NCAA that would give college presidents greater responsibility over athletic programs. The plan, approved by the NCAA Presidents Commission in June, will come to a vote at the NCAA’s annual convention in Dallas in early January.

World Boxing Council President Jose Sulaiman said punches to the kidneys and back of the head should be punished as harshly as head butts and punches below the belt and that there should be restrictions on weight loss.

Names in the News

Hawaii basketball player Tes Whitlock, a standout at Loara High and Saddleback College, was suspended for 16 games by the NCAA for his involvement in a college credit scam.