Despite Record, Mets Fire McIlvaine

Joe McIlvaine was fired Wednesday as general manager of the surprising New York Mets, the apparent victim of a personality conflict with co-owner Fred Wilpon and Manager Bobby Valentine.

Steve Phillips, 34, was promoted from assistant general manager to fill the McIlvaine vacancy and will be given a contract through the 2000 season. McIlvaine, who was offered another job in the organization, was the Mets’ scouting director when they picked Phillips in the 1981 June draft.

The Mets, coming off their sixth consecutive losing season and beset by injuries at the start of the year, have rebounded. They are 51-42 after Wednesday night’s 6-5 loss to the Chicago Cubs.

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The Houston Astros signed an agreement with local officials which they said all but assured the baseball team would stay in the city.

The agreement commits the city of Houston and Harris County to paying up to $180 million for a new downtown stadium while the National League team and a group of business backers pay the rest of the expected total cost of $250 million.

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Longtime baseball broadcaster Loel Passe, whose homey “hot ziggity dog and sassafras tea!” was known to two generations of Houston Astros fans, died Tuesday of cancer. He was 82.

Passe, who spent almost a half-century in Houston, died at his home.