Court Rules Raiders Can Proceed With Legal Claim

A court ruling has given the Oakland Raiders permission to proceed with a legal claim that they were falsely promised sellout crowds when they agreed to return to Oakland from Los Angeles.

Superior Court Judge Joe Gray ruled in Sacramento that the team had not waited too long to file the claim in response to a suit by the city of Oakland and Alameda County.

That suit sought a declaration that the Raiders were bound to the remaining 13 years of their lease, and a halt to the team’s interference with a plan to sell the Coliseum’s name to a corporate sponsor.

The Raiders filed a counterclaim, but city and county representatives said it should have been filed in 1995, when lagging ticket sales were known and before local agencies were committed to more than $80 million in taxpayer-guaranteed improvements to the stadium.

Gray’s ruling in favor of the Raiders will allow the team to go to trial to try to cancel the stadium lease and collect damages of up to $104 million for unsold tickets.

However, Staci Barber, a lawyer for the city and county, said there was no chance the Raiders would win cancellation of their lease.

Baseball

New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani scored a major victory in his efforts to replace Yankee Stadium with a new $1-billion ballpark in Manhattan when the state Court of Appeals refused to hear arguments that a referendum should be put on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Giuliani does not want the stadium issue put to a vote. Peter Vallone, the City Council speaker who is running for governor, does.

Joe DiMaggio will remain in a Florida hospital for at least a few more days after having his left lung drained again, Morris Engelberg, a longtime friend said.

The Hall of Famer, who will be 84 next month, was admitted Oct. 12 for treatment of a lingering case of pneumonia. DiMaggio also had fluid drained from his lungs last week.

Stanley Golub, a jewelry wholesaler who was one of the original owners of the Seattle Mariners, has died of pneumonia at 85.

Jurisprudence

Stephanie Bugusky, Albert Belle’s former girlfriend, has dropped battery and property damage charges against the Chicago White Sox outfielder. He, in turn, agreed to pay for damages done at her house and to drop a telephone harassment charge against her.

Mark Gastineau, former star defensive end for the New York Jets, has a plea deal that will get him out of jail and put him into drug, alcohol and violence counseling.

Gastineau surrendered to police Monday after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest. He had failed to appear in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of assaulting Patricia Schorr, then his girlfriend, now his wife.

Horse Racing

Instead of flying from New York to Kentucky for the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic, Skip Away will arrive after a 15-hour van ride.

Trainer Sonny Hine said that the lack of a convenient flight will force him to van Skip Away from his Belmont Park headquarters to Churchill Downs, where the Classic will be run on Nov. 7.

Skip Away, whose nine-race winning streak ended when he ran third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup on Oct. 10, will be favored in the Classic, a race he won last year at Hollywood Park.

Swimming

Harm Beyer, the chairman of the anti-doping commission of FINA, swimming’s world governing body, is not dismissing claims by two German swimmers that the sport is rife with performance-enhancing drugs.

Chris-Carol Bremer and Mark Warnecke, both world-class competitors, told German television last weekend that drugs such as EPO and testosterone are in heavy use.

Other swimmers attacked Bremer and Warnecke’s claims, but Beyer told the Associated Press, “When you go through the swimming pools at the competitions, there are too many hints that something is going on.”

Tennis

Nadezhda Petrova, a 16-year-old Russian, rallied to upset Iva Majoli of Croatia, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-0, in the first round of the Ladies Kremlin Cup in Moscow. . . . Jan Kroslak of Slovakia upset fifth-seeded Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) and David Prinosil of Germany ousted sixth-seeded Mark Philippoussis of Australia, 6-3, 6-7 (8-10), 6-3, in the first round of the Czech Indoor at Ostrava.