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 who attended the service at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church in the Bronx, a couple of subway stops away from Yankee Stadium, remembered McSherry as a gregarious colleague.

“John’s size was big but it was dwarfed by his sense of humor,” he said. “His love for baseball was unsurpassed. He was always self-conscious. He’d say, ‘How’d I look on that play? Was I right on that play?’ ”

Like Gregg, Montague first met McSherry in umpiring school. He remembered not knowing what to make of this huge man. “I’m from California,” he said. “This was my first encounter with a New Yorker, a guy from the Bronx. 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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A West Side alternative may keep the New York Yankees from leaving town, but despite a study touting the proposed site for a new stadium, critics say the plan could leave fans without a way of getting to the ballpark.

A study commissioned by the city, state and the Yankees described access to mass transit as good at a proposed new field, but only fair at Yankee Stadium.

Three subway lines run directly to the ballpark in the Bronx. The proposed new site over rail yards near the Hudson River would be across the street from the Javits Convention Center, three blocks from the nearest subway.

“It’s quite a walk, 15 to 20 minutes,” said Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers Campaign, a mass-transit advocacy group.

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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, a dedicated trainer, 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.

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Seattle’s Randy Johnson, last year’s American League Cy Young Award winner, missed his scheduled start Friday night against the Milwaukee Brewers so he could spend some time with his wife, Lisa, and their new son, Tanner, who was born earlier in the day.

Johnson is scheduled to start tonight’s game against the Brewers.