Clubs Remain Perfect

Clubs remained unbeaten in arbitration this year when Boston pitcher Aaron Sele lost his case but still got a raise of nearly 200%.

Arbitrator Anthony Sinicropi sided with the Red Sox offer of $1,126,000, rather than Sele’s request for $1.4 million. Sele earned $380,000 last season, when he was 7-11 with a 5.32 earned-run average.

The Sele decision was the third in a row in favor of teams, with four cases pending.

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The Baltimore Orioles and baseball officials don’t plan to bring Roberto Alomar and umpire John Hirschbeck together for a public reconciliation when the two meet again March 17.

Hirschbeck is scheduled to work a spring training game between the Orioles and Boston at Fort Myers that afternoon.

“Robbie and the Orioles are trying to put this behind us,” assistant General Manager Kevin Malone said. “He apologized and is looking ahead. We feel both Robbie and John Hirschbeck are professionals. They have dealt with the situation and it is over.”

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Pete Schourek is starting spring training a little behind the other Cincinnati Red pitchers, but expects to be ready on opening day.

Schourek is coming off elbow surgery in July.

“I’m going to hold back a bit during the first couple of days down here, but I expect to be on the same schedule as everyone else,” Schourek said. “Since the day after the surgery, I’ve had no problems. I used to be in 24-hour pain, but it all had to do with the scar tissue on the nerve. Once they freed that up, I’ve felt great. I’m going to be ready by opening day, no problems.”