Eckersley Gets His Wish: Deal to Cardinals

Dennis Eckersley said goodbye to the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday, following his former manager, Tony La Russa, and pitching coach, Dave Duncan, to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Completing a long-discussed deal, Eckersley was traded from the A’s to the Cardinals for minor-league reliever Steve Montgomery, who led the double-A Texas League with 36 saves last year for Arkansas.

*

Major League Baseball owners have unanimously approved the sale of the Pittsburgh Pirates to a group led by Kevin McClatchy for $90 million. . . . Three players settled before undergoing arbitration hearings. St. Louis pitcher Todd Stottlemyre got an $8.5 million, two-year contract and Yankee reliever John Wetteland got a $4 million, one-year contract with a $4.6 million player option for 1997. Cardinal pitcher Donovan Osborne got a one-year deal for $675,000. . . . The Houston Astros today signed pitcher Scott Bankhead to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training as a nonroster player. . . . Catcher Todd Greene and infielder George Arias have agreed to contracts with the Angels. Both will be on the 40-man roster. Arias, 23, hit .279 with 30 home runs at double-A Midland. Greene, who split time between Midland and triple-A Vancouver, had 40 homers and 92 RBIs.

Olympics

A Chinese spokesman said the country plans to take part in the Atlanta Olympics, despite reports it was considering a boycott over the attendance of Taiwanese leaders.

The U.S. Dream Team was placed in a bracket with European powers Lithuania and Croatia for the Atlanta Olympics. The United States will open July 20 against Argentina.

The U.S. women will play preliminary games against Cuba, Zaire, Australian, South Korea and Ukraine, which won the European championship.

Jurisprudence

Felicia Moon showed up in court in Richmond, Tex., more than 90 minutes late after prosecutors said she fled with her 8-year-old son Jeffrey, defying a subpoena, as the misdemeanor assault trial began against her husband, quarterback Warren Moon.

Moon, the 39 year-old Minnesota Vikings quarterback, is accused of beating his wife during an argument at their suburban Houston home last summer. Felicia, also 39, repeatedly has asked that the charges be dropped and has said that she has forgiven her husband.

Seattle Seahawks tailback Lamar Smith said he “felt normal” and wasn’t drunk or impaired in any way when he smashed his car into a utility pole in a 1994 accident that partially paralyzed teammate Mike Frier.

Smith also testified that he didn’t initially correct police officers who believed another Seahawk, Chris Warren, was driving, because he didn’t want to contradict the team leader until he could talk to him.

Prosecutors claim Smith was impaired by both alcohol and speeding.

The man accused of killing Michael Jordan’s father was charged with assault in Lumberton, N.C., after an inmate was beaten bloody in a courthouse holding cell.

The charge was filed against Daniel Andre Green, 21, who is on trial on charges that he killed James R. Jordan during a highway holdup on July 23, 1993.

The new charge accuses him of assaulting George Hunt during a fight before the start of Green’s murder trial Monday morning.

Pro Football

The Indianapolis Colts, hoping to avoid the possibility of losing quarterback Jim Harbaugh, notified the NFL that he has been designated a “franchise” player.

The league’s top-rated quarterback last season, Harbaugh was an unrestricted free agent, meaning he could have signed with any other team without bringing anything in return.

The Philadelphia Eagles have re-signed safety Michael Zordich to a three-year contract.

Tennis

Alberto Berasategui of Spain beat third-seeded Jim Courier, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), in the first upset of the $1 million Dubai Open in the United Arab Emirates.

Names in the News

Dick Enberg of NBC Sports and Dan Jenkins of Golf Digest are going into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame. . . . Purdue quarterback John Reeves, hospitalized because of bacterial meningitis, was moved out of isolation into a regular patient ward.