BASEBALL DAILY REPORT

Hugs and high fives greeted Cecil Fielder as he joined the New York Yankees Thursday night.

“I was nervous when I first grabbed the Yankee uniform,” Fielder said. “It has so much tradition. It’s an honor to wear it. It was great to get the reception I got from my teammates. It meant a lot.”

Fielder also got a warm greeting from manager Joe Torre, who immediately explained his rules: mustache but no beard.

“I guess I have to shave this before the game,” Fielder said with a smile as he touched his bearded chin.

Fielder was immediately inserted into the lineup at designated hitter, batting cleanup behind Paul O’Neill and in front of Tino Martinez. Fielder wore No. 25.

“The number is fine with me unless Joe Girardi wants to give me No. 45 (the number he wore at Detroit),” Fielder said.

Fielder said the cleanup spot was great because “they can’t pitch around me. I’ll be getting good pitches to hit.”

Torre said the Yankees dumped Ruben Sierra because he was no longer a power hitter.

“He tried but he just hadn’t been the home run threat we’d liked to have had,” Torre said. “I felt it would make us a better team to make the move.”

*

Still unable to reach an agreement on interleague play, the players’ association gave owners a two-week postponement Thursday on presenting a draft of the 1997 schedule.

Under the terms of the expired collective bargaining agreement, which remains in force due to a federal court order, owners are to give the union a draft schedule by July 1. When it became clear the sides wouldn’t strike a deal on interleague play by then, the union agreed to push back the deadline to Aug. 1.

While the sides are likely to reach an agreement that allows interleague play to start next season, owners are also preparing a schedule without interleague play.

*

Cincinnati’s Chris Sabo decided not to appeal his seven game suspension handed down by the National League Wednesday, so he began serving it Thursday with the Reds’ game in Montreal. . . . Cleveland recalled pitcher Albie Lopez from the minors and announced that the right-hander would start Thursday night’s game against Toronto. Lopez, 10-2 with a 3.87 earned run average with triple-A Buffalo, went 1-2 in four outings with the Indians earlier this season. To make room for Lopez, the club placed pitcher Alan Embree on the 15-day disabled list and sent infielder Scott Leius to Buffalo.