Report: DiMaggio Has Lung Cancer, Suffered Heart Attack

Joe DiMaggio, who has been hospitalized for more than a month, has lung cancer and suffered a heart attack last week, TV station WPIX reported Monday.

The station, which televised New York Yankees games for 48 years, cited three sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. WPIX news executives declined to elaborate on the sources.

The Hall of Fame Yankee outfielder has been hospitalized in Hollywood, Fla., since Oct. 12 for what his attorney Morris Engelberg said was pneumonia and a lung infection. However, WPIX said DiMaggio, who will be 84 on Wednesday, had a tumor removed from his lung last month.

It said that when Yankee owner George Steinbrenner canceled a planned visit last week, he was told DiMaggio “probably wouldn’t have recognized him anyway.”

The report also said friends of DiMaggio were concerned about who was in control of his estate, which WPIX said includes an estimated $20 million in collectibles and memorabilia.

Jurisprudence

Mike Tyson has fended off a lawsuit by negotiating a settlement with two men who say the former heavyweight boxing champion attacked them after a traffic accident.

They have agreed in principle to settle the dispute, said Glenn Culpepper, an attorney for Abmielec Saucedo, who claims Tyson punched him in the face. The other man, Richard Hardick, told police that Tyson kicked him in the groin after a minor accident Aug. 31 involving Tyson’s wife, Monica, in Gaithersburg, Md.

Terms were not disclosed. Tyson still faces criminal misdemeanor assault charges.

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Former University of Cincinnati basketball player D’Juan Baker was given three years probation at a sentencing hearing in Cincinnati. He pleaded guilty last month to aggravated assault for striking his girlfriend.

Golf

The Masters announced sweeping changes in its invitation list, a move that probably will increase the number of players in the field while making sure they are among the world’s best.

The Masters next spring will take the top 50 players from the World Golf Rankings who have not otherwise qualified. And starting with the 2000 tournament, winning a PGA Tour event will no longer be worth a spot in the Masters, although there will other ways golfers can qualify.

Tennis

Pete Sampras, trying to retain his No. 1 men’s tennis ranking for a record sixth consecutive year, will not face Andre Agassi in his opening group in the season-ending ATP World Championship at Hanover, Germany.

Sampras will be matched against Karol Kucera, Carlos Moya and Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the round-robin part of the $3.5-million event, which begins today, featuring the year’s top eight players. Agassi, who suffered a back injury during practice Monday, was allowed to begin play Wednesday. He will be in the same group with No. 2 Marcelo Rios, Alex Corretja and Tim Henman.

Basketball

NBA Commissioner David Stern and union director Billy Hunter held a brief scheduling meeting in New York, but the sides in the NBA labor dispute won’t meet again until Saturday.

The Sparks said they would have an announcement today and it’s expected the WNBA team will say that the “interim” part of Coach Orlando Woolridge’s title has been erased. Woolridge is the third coach of the Sparks, who have played two seasons in the WNBA.

Former UCLA coach Billie Moore, former Bruin player Denise Curry and the late Darlene May, who was Cal Poly Pomona’s coach and an internationally recognized official, are among 26 inductees named to the inaugural class of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. They join a previously reported list that includes Cheryl Miller and Ann Meyers Drysdale.

Motor racing

Jeff Gordon, who had 13 victories in winning the Winston Cup championship, was named motor racing’s driver of the year. He was the unanimous choice of a 15-member panel of motor racing journalists.