McGwire Sues Distributor of Pain Reliever

Mark McGwire is suing the distributor of a pain reliever, contending the company made false claims that he endorses the product and credits its use for enabling him to break the home run record last season.

McGwire’s suit is against People First Inc., distributor of The Freedom Formula. Its brochure touts the product as an all-natural pain reliever derived from rain forest plants.

The brochure even has a photo of McGwire holding a bottle of the product. But he has never endorsed it, the suit alleges.

*

John Rafalski drove seven hours Friday from Illinois to Detroit, then spent another 11 hours camped outside Tigers Stadium for tickets for either opening day or the last home game in the famed ballpark’s last season.

But only 33 minutes after the tickets went on sale, they were gone.

So it went--elation for some, frustration for others among the hundreds of Tiger fans who lined up Saturday in the misty chill outside the 86-year-old stadium, which opened April 20, 1912. Many sought the handful of tickets made available for the April 12 home opener against the Minnesota Twins, or the last of the roughly 11,000 tickets for the Sept. 27 regular-season finale against the Kansas City Royals.

The Tigers will play next season in a 40,000-seat, $285-million stadium being built in downtown Detroit about a mile east of the existing stadium.

*

The Tigers signed left-handed pitcher Justin Thompson to a two-year deal and signed reliever Sean Runyan to a one-year contract. Thompson is guaranteed $3.6 million, and could earn up to $4.3 million if incentives are reached. . . . Oscar Henriquez, a right-hander with an outside chance of earning a spot in the New York Mets’ bullpen, reported a strained shoulder and is expected to be sidelined for at least a week. . . . Potential baseball ownership groups in the U.S. capital perked up after hearing the Montreal Expos might be in trouble. Major league baseball has denied a request by the Expos to put off a Saturday deadline for having a new ownership group and stadium financing in place. The rejection increased the chances of the team eventually leaving town. In Washington and northern Virginia, there was some optimism that the area might get the Expos.