Yankees’ Williams Requests Record $9-Million Contract

Bernie Williams, looking at perhaps his final season with the New York Yankees, asked for a record $9 million in salary arbitration Monday.

New York countered at $7.5 million, the highest figure offered by a team and a raise of $2.2 million.

Williams’ agent, Scott Boras, said last month that negotiations for a long-term contract would cease once arbitration figures were exchanged and the outfielder would then file for free agency after the season.

Williams’ request topped the $7.65 million Dodger catcher Mike Piazza submitted last year. Piazza’s figure became moot later that day when he agreed to a $15-million, two-year contract.

Mike Mussina had received the highest offer from a team, $6.65 million from the Baltimore Orioles last year. He settled at $6,825,000, then agreed to a three-year contract worth $20,475,000.

If Williams wins his arbitration hearing, he will have the largest one-year contract in baseball history, topping the $8.5 million Toronto pitcher Pat Hentgen will receive in 1999.

Boston second baseman John Valentin submitted the second-highest figure, $7 million. Boston offered $5.5 million, matching Williams and the Yankees for the highest spread among the 60 players who exchanged figures with their teams.

Four other players asked for more than $4 million, among them Colorado pitcher Pedro Astacio, who already has agreed to a $23.3-million, four-year deal. Because the deal won’t be completed until after his physical, Astacio asked for $4,995,000. The Rockies offered $4 million.

Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte, eligible for arbitration for the first time, asked for a six-fold increase from $700,000 to $4.39 million and was offered $3.25 million.

Atlanta catcher Javy Lopez asked for a raise from $2.05 million to $4.3 million and was offered $3.5 million. New York Met pitcher Bobby Jones asked for $4.15 million and was offered $3.1 million.

Players and teams unable to reach agreements will have hearings during the first three weeks of February, and for the first time half the cases will be heard by three-man panels rather than individual arbitrators.

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Ted Williams and Bob Feller have petitioned the commissioner’s office to clear the late “Shoeless” Joe Jackson’s name and make him eligible to join them in baseball’s Hall of Fame.

“I want baseball to right an injustice,” Williams said in a statement supporting a petition he and Feller have submitted to baseball’s acting commissioner, Bud Selig, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y. Jackson and seven Chicago White Sox teammates were accused of trying to throw the 1919 World Series. They were acquitted in court but banned from baseball.

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The Angels signed left-hander Rich Robertson, who pitched for the Minnesota Twins from 1995 to 1997, to a minor league contract. . . . . Former Angel manager Buck Rodgers will return as manager of the Mission Viejo Vigilantes in the independent Western Baseball League, he said.

Miscellany

Ed Orgeron, defensive line coach at Syracuse, said he has accepted an offer from USC football Coach Paul Hackett to be a Trojan assistant.

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Central Florida football Coach Gene McDowell could resign as early as today over his role in a cellular phone scandal involving team members.

Details of McDowell’s departure were unclear, but Central Florida officials mentioned privately Monday that McDowell is expected to sign a plea agreement with prosecutors soon, The Orlando Sentinel reported in today’s editions.

A grand jury that has been investigating the case is scheduled to meet Thursday in Orlando.

Mike Tyson was expected today to announce that he would guest referee at Wrestlemania XIV. Instead, he accepted a challenge to get into the ring himself.

Just as Tyson was to make the announcement during the World Wrestling Federation’s “Raw is War” program, pro wrestler Steve Austin jumped out and challenged the boxer to a fight.

The two briefly scuffled in the ring. Afterward, WWF owner Vince McMahon announced that Tyson accepted the challenge.

McMahon said he would ask Nevada boxing officials if they would let Tyson wrestle.

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Two environmentalists reportedly plan to quit a watchdog group for the Nagano Olympics because they oppose the adjustments made to the men’s downhill course.

Washin Machida, head of the Nature Conservation Union of Nagano, and Zenichiro Koshiba, the secretary general, will leave the Nagano Prefecture Nature Conservation Study Council, the Kyodo News reported, to protest the decision to change the starting point of the men’s downhill.