Hunter Confirms He Has Lou Gehrig’s Disease

Hall of Fame pitcher Jim “Catfish” Hunter, who ushered in the era of escalating baseball salaries when he signed the sport’s first lucrative free-agent deal in the 1970s, has Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Hunter’s wife, Helen, said Monday that her husband went to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore last week after experiencing trouble with his motor skills. Doctors there confirmed that he had the fatal disease, which attacks nerves in the spinal cord and brain and causes progressive paralysis.

“He’ll start sometime this week taking the only medication for [the disease],” his wife said from the family’s farm in Hertford, N.C. “It helps prolong [life]. It slows [the disease] down.”

Hunter, 52, began noticing weakness in his arms in March and last week said he had lost strength in both his arms and hands.

Hunter won 224 games in a 15-year career with the New York Yankees and the Oakland and Kansas City Athletics, and won the American League Cy Young Award in 1974.

Pro Basketball

Antonio McDyess, one of the most sought-after NBA free agents, fired agent Arn Tellem and replaced him with Tony Dutt, who also represents Shawn Kemp, Tellem’s office confirmed.

In the NBA lockout, no negotiations between owners and players are scheduled, although the union’s negotiating committee and several team player representatives will meet in New York on Wednesday to discuss strategy.

Boxing

A news conference has been tentatively set Nov. 17 in New York for Mike Tyson to announce he will fight Jan. 16 at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas.

The opponent still hasn’t been signed, but Francois Botha of South Africa remains the front-runner. If Tyson’s handlers can’t come to terms with Botha in the next few days, they will turn to either Vaughn Bean or Brian Nielsen of Denmark.

Jose Badillo knocked down Antonio Ramirez (12-1-4) three times in the third round, but had to hang on at the end of a 10-round junior-lightweight-tournament semifinal match to win a unanimous decision at the Forum.

Badillo (22-2, 15 knockouts), who was knocked down in the fourth round, will face Javier Jauregui in the finals Feb. 8. In the semi-main event in front of the crowd of 3,164, Edgar Ruiz (14-1-1, 10 knockouts) knocked out Jose Luis Benitez (19-3, 16 knockouts) 37 seconds into the fifth round to win the North American Boxing Organization’s vacant welterweight title.

Tennis

Former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands underwent surgery on his left knee in Rotterdam.

Fourth-seeded Byron Black of Zimbabwe defeated Martin Damm of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-3, on the opening day of the $1.1-million Kremlin Cup tennis tournament at Moscow. . . . Japanese qualifier Takao Suzuki upset eighth-seeded Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, in the opening round of the Stockholm Open. . . . Argentine qualifier Eduardo Medica upset Fernando Meligheni of Brazil, 6-4, 1-6, 6-1, in the opening round of the Chevrolet Cup at Santiago, Chile.

Seventh-seeded Patty Schnyder beat Silvia Farina, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4, in the first round of the the Advanta Championships at Villanova, Pa. Also advancing to the second round were Lisa Raymond, Amanda Coetzer, Natasha Zvereva and Kimberly Po. Lindsay Davenport will begin play today.

Skiing

Skier Picabo Street, the 1998 Olympic gold medalist in thesuper G, indicated that she probably will concentrate on slalom events after the accident in Switzerland eight months ago that shattered her left leg and tore up her right knee.

“I have a real strong feeling that I am going to be too afraid to run downhill again,” said Street, the lone American to win the World Cup downhill crown. “And if I am afraid to run downhill, I would be afraid to run super G.”

Street, who won the world downhill title in 1995-96, said her goal is to compete in 2000 and to be racing in the 2002 Olympics at Salt Lake City.

Swimming

Gary Hall Jr., who won four medals at the Atlanta Olympics, was cited for marijuana use by swimming’s governing body but remains eligible to compete.

Hall had been suspended for three months by the drug panel of FINA, the international federation, for testing positive for marijuana. However, FINA deducted the three months served by Hall under a temporary suspension, meaning he faces no further penalty.

Names in the News

Dick Moroso, a champion drag racer who later became a major supplier of racing parts, has died of brain cancer at a hospice in Branford, Conn. He was 59.

Jeremy Scott Cornell, a junior college wrestler from Sacramento, was killed when a van carrying him and some teammates rolled over on Interstate 17 north of Phoenix, authorities said.

Miscellany

Dr. David Cowan, a British expert on performance-enhancing drugs, recommended that athletes’ blood, as well as urine, be tested at the Sydney Olympics. But Dr. Wade Exum, director of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Drug Control Administration, said that blood testing would be unnecessarily “invasive” and no more effective.

The Sarazen World Open, a golf tournament played in Georgia the last five years, will be played in Europe in 1999.