Former No. 1 Pick Francona Is Phillies’ Choice to Manage

Terry Francona, named manager of the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday, said he wants his team to overachieve next season, which is probably the only way it will be any better than the last three seasons.

The Phillies have gone 190-231 since winning an unexpected NL pennant in 1993.

Francona, who has a two-year deal that will pay him $600,000, is used to rough spots. He was third-base coach last season for the Detroit Tigers, who were 53-109.

Francona, 37, brings a lifetime of baseball knowledge but no major league managerial experience to the job.

The son of former major leaguer Tito Francona, he was the first overall pick in the 1980 draft by the Montreal Expos.

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Acting Commissioner Bud Selig is expected to announce today that he has called a meeting of major league owners for next Wednesday in Chicago to vote on the proposed labor agreement. Twenty-one of the 28 clubs are needed to ratify the agreement, which would end a three-year dispute. Will they emerge with an agreement?

“Somehow, some way, I think we will,” he said.

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Reliever Mike Timlin agreed to a two-year contract with the Toronto Blue Jays worth $4,325,000. . . . The Baltimore Orioles plan to move shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. to third base next season, according to the team’s current third baseman, Todd Zeile. . . . Tony La Russa, who brought his intense style to a new league and led the St. Louis Cardinals to the NL Central championship, won the Associated Press manager-of-the-year award for the third time. . . . The Angels announced they will not raise ticket prices for next season. . . . The Texas Rangers declined to exercise contract options on pitchers Mike Henneman and Matt Whiteside and catcher David Valle.

Tennis

Pete Sampras and Boris Becker lost their opening matches at the Paris Open, with Becker denouncing the arena as a “zoo” and “madhouse.”

Marc Rosset reeled off 20 aces to beat Sampras, top-seeded and the defending champion, 6-4, 6-4.

Becker lost to Carlos Moya of Spain, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, then complained bitterly about the behavior of the spectators. Seeded players continued to fall, with nine of the 16 already out of the tournament before the end of the second round.

No. 5 Goran Ivanisevic, the 1993 winner, lost, 6-3, 6-2, to Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands. No. 10 Marcelo Rios lost to Czech qualifier Petr Korda, 6-3, 6-4.

Second-seeded Austrian Barbara Paulus defeated Russian teenager Anna Kurnikova, 6-4, 6-3, in the Kremlin Cup at Moscow.

Top-seeded Monica Seles took only 49 minutes to defeat Elena Likhovtseva, 6-2, 6-1, and advance to the quarterfinals of the Ameritech Cup in Chicago.

Seles will play Romania’s Irina Spirlea, who defeated Mary Joe Fernandez, 6-1, 6-2. Meredith McGrath breezed to a 6-3, 6-2 upset of fourth-seeded Iva Majoli.

Court proceedings began in Hamburg, Germany, in a civil lawsuit filed by Seles against the German Tennis Federation over her 1993 stabbing. Seles is seeking $16.3 million in damages for lost income after the attack, and is blaming the federation for lack of security.

Miscellany

A weightlifter in Jacksonville, Fla., lost his grip as he was bench-pressing a 185-pound barbell and the weight fell on his throat, severing his windpipe. Cliff Casteel underwent 90 minutes of surgery to rejoin the two-inch gap in his windpipe on Tuesday, and by Wednesday he was talking.

Mexico overpowered St. Vincent and the Grenadines, 5-1, in a soccer World Cup qualifier in Mexico City. Mexico has nine points and is atop the Group 3 CONCACAF standings, jumping ahead of Jamaica and Honduras, which have seven points each.

Names in the News

Jose “Pepe” Fernandez, 38, a scuba diver from Cuba, died while diving late Tuesday after an accident off Cabo San Lucas. Fernandez was the lead support diver for Francisco “Pipin” Ferreras, who is training for his attempt next month to set a world free-diving record of 450 feet on a single breath.

Charles Reed, a former Pacific 10 football and basketball official who also officiated NBA games in the mid-1970s, died Sunday in Los Angeles. Reed, a former president of the Southern California Basketball Officials Assn., had suffered a stroke in 1979. He was 68.