BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : McSherry Is Eulogized by Gregg

With tears streaming down his cheeks, umpire Eric Gregg talked about his friend, John McSherry, at a memorial service in New York for the 51-year-old umpire who died on opening day in Cincinnati.

“There was nobody like him,” Gregg said. “When I went to umpires school in 1971, he picked me up at the airport. He had that big voice. He said, ‘You must be Eric Gregg.’

“I modeled myself after him. I tried to call balls and strikes like he did. He was the ideal umpire, a big man with a big voice.”

Gregg said his friend’s death left him in shock. Like McSherry, he is a big man, listed at 325 pounds. “We all have mirrors,” he said. “You’ve got to think about it. My wife keeps after me, calling me after games, asking me what I’m going to eat.”

Ed Montague, speaking for more than a dozen umpires at the service, remembered McSherry as a gregarious colleague.

“John’s size was big but it was dwarfed by his sense of humor,” he said. “He reminded me of a drill sergeant the way he yelled at Eric, myself and [Steve] Rippley. But he was big teddy bear with that gruff outside.”

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Bill Pulsipher, one of the New York Mets’ talented young pitchers, received a second recommendation that he get surgery on his injured left elbow. . . . Minnesota’s Marty Cordova, the 1995 American League rookie of the year, was not in the starting lineup Friday against the Baltimore Orioles because of a strained abdominal muscle. Cordova suffered the injury while working out Thursday, an off day for the Twins. Another Twin, Matt Walbeck, had surgery Friday to remove the hamate bone in his right hand. He is expected to be out six to eight weeks. . . . Philadelphia Phillie first baseman Gregg Jefferies underwent successful surgery on his left thumb after tearing a ligament in it Thursday night against Colorado.