BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : Sanders Expected to Skip Baseball

Deion Sanders is to announce today he is temporarily putting his two-sport career on hold to concentrate on being the NFL’s only two-way player, according to the Associated Press. Sanders, who made $2.5 million playing baseball last season but doesn’t have a contract now, has decided not to try latching on with a team in time for spring training.

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In an effort to cut the time of games, major league baseball is considering asking umpires to call strikes on pitches at the knees this season.

“We’ve been working on that time of game thing,” Bill Murray, the executive director of baseball operations of the commissioner’s office, said Monday night. “We don’t know where we’re coming out right now. I’m waiting for input from the union.”

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The Cleveland Indians signed pitcher Brian Anderson to a two-year contract with an option for the 1998 season. The Angels traded Anderson, a left-hander, to the Indians last week for pitchers Jason Grimsley and Pep Harris.