Muser Gets a Chance to Manage Royals

Bob Boone, his team 10 games under .500 and his boss out of patience, was fired as manager of the Kansas City Royals and replaced Wednesday by Tony Muser, hitting coach of the Chicago Cubs.

“It’s been my dream for about 30 years to have an opportunity to take a team and make it better,” said Muser, who turns 50 on Aug. 1. “I’d had eight interviews. But it was like I’d had eight at-bats and never hit the ball out of the infield. I hope I spend the rest of my baseball career in Kansas City.”

The Royals, who finished the first half of the season with an eight-game losing streak, also fired hitting instructor Greg Luzinski and first base coach Mitchell Page.

Frank White, a former Royal second baseman who won eight Gold Gloves, will take over for Page, while Tom Poquette, another former Royal who was the organization’s roving hitting instructor last season, replaces Luzinski.

Last year, after the Royals finished last for the first time in their history, General Manager Herk Robinson gave Boone a ringing endorsement and a two-year contract extension.

But this season, despite the addition of productive players such as Jay Bell, Jeff King and Chili Davis, a near-total collapse by the bullpen left the Royals 36-46 at the All-Star Break, 9 1/2 games behind Cleveland in the AL Central.

Boone, 49, part of a three-generation baseball family, had a 2 1/2-year record of 181-206 with the Royals.

“I think it’s a club that’s capable of playing better than .500 baseball, better than we’ve played in the last two weeks,” Robinson said. “The way we played in the last two weeks was unacceptable.”

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The All-Star game was a strikeout for Fox.

For the third consecutive year, the TV rating sank to an all-time low. The American League’s 3-1 victory over the National League got an 11.8 rating, down 11% from last year’s game.

Fox, which estimated the game was watched by 32.9 million people, was televising its first All-Star game, and baseball officials said that may have contributed to the drop.

Still, it was the highest-rated All-Star game among the major sports, topping the NBA (11.2), NFL (9.1) and NHL (2.8). It also was Fox’s highest-rated program since the Super Bowl in January (43.3), and its highest-rated Tuesday night since Game 3 of last year’s World Series.

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Wil Cordero, the embattled left fielder of the Boston Red Sox, had doctors clear his way to return to the ballclub, possibly as early as tonight’s game against Toronto.

Cordero, who submitted to psychiatric evaluations as part of a professional counseling program, hasn’t played since June 25.

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Triple-A baseball is getting a face-lift.

Owners of the minor league baseball teams, meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, over the all-star break, voted to realign from three leagues into two starting with the 1998 season.

The vote keeps the teams of the International League and Pacific Coast League together, but splits the American Assn. between the new leagues--one with 14 teams and the with 16.

The realignment must be approved by the National Assn. of Professional Baseball Leagues and must be reviewed by Major League Baseball.

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New York Yankee pitcher Dwight Gooden escaped possible criminal charges after reaching an out-of-court settlement with a Texas cab driver he allegedly assaulted.

Police in Arlington, Texas, said they had gathered enough evidence to file misdemeanor charges against Gooden for the May 17 incident, but the driver, Ziauddin Hakim, told them he had reached a deal with the star pitcher.

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San Diego Padre outfielder Greg Vaughn said that his surgically reconstructed right rotator cuff is in good condition and that his orthopedic surgeon, Lewis Yocum, “told me if I get the opportunity to play, I should play.”