Torre to Have Cancer Surgery Thursday

Joe Torre paced back and forth, the locker room absolutely silent. His players wanted--no, needed--to hear from him, and the New York Yankees manager spoke without fear.

He will undergo surgery for prostate cancer Thursday in St. Louis, he told them, and there’s no timetable set for his return. And this, more importantly: Doctors believe they detected the disease in its early stages.

Though Torre told the club he would be back “soon,” there’s no telling when the World Series champions will have him in the dugout.

“I have no clue,” Torre, 58, said. “I will be taking a little extra time. I want to make sure when I come back, I’m strong enough.”

Dr. William Catalona, one of the nation’s top urologists, will do the surgery at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

Torre plans to leave the Tampa area Wednesday. He expects to be in the hospital for at least three days after the surgery, and has not decided where he will recuperate.

Though Torre told the club he would be back “soon,” there’s no telling when the World Series champions will have him in the dugout.

Speculation has ranged from opening day April 5 at Oakland to the All-Star break.

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Cub pitcher Kerry Wood, the National League rookie of the year last season, returned to Chicago for an MRI exam on his ailing elbow. Wood’s test results are expected today, the Cubs said.

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Umpires filed grievances last week to prevent the American League from sending them to Cuba for Baltimore’s historic exhibition game March 28 and to block the new interpretation of the strike zone.

The grievance over the Cuban game was interpreted by the commissioner’s office as an attempt to get more money for both the first leg of the series and the return game in Baltimore on May 3.

“We are not required to have major league umpires for the game in Havana or the game in Baltimore,” Sandy Alderson, the executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner’s office, said Monday, “If the umpires are not inclined to go, they won’t be invited to go.”

On other fronts, it’s not clear what the next step will be in the strike-zone grievance. Owners want umpires to call more high strikes. In a Feb. 19 memo, Alderson told them to raise the top of the strike zone to two inches above the top of the uniform pants--still below the definition called for in the official playing rules: the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants.

Umpires deny the strike zone is a problem, with some saying they do enforce the rule as written and others saying players don’t want them to call high strikes.

“Basically, they’re going against the rule book,” NL umpire Bob Davidson said. “I don’t think any player has any problem with it. I think baseball is succumbing to media pressure.”

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Sammy Sosa hit a home run during an exhibition game in Mesa, Ariz., over the left-field fence at HoHoKam Park, about 360 feet away. He hit the fastball from Oakland’s Gil Heredia over the 50-foot-high scoreboard, about 30 feet farther back. He hit it over the back wall of the ballpark, about 10 feet behind the board. He hit it over four full rows of cars in the parking lot, an estimated 460 feet away.

The home run tied him for the spring training lead at five with--you guessed it--Mark McGwire.

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Testing his surgically repaired right shoulder, the Kansas City Royals’ Kevin Appier labored through a brutal first inning where he threw 29 pitches and gave up two hits, three walks and two runs against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Appier, however, settled down the next three innings and gave up only one hit.

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Alex Fernandez, who missed last season because of rotator cuff surgery, gave up six runs--five earned--in 1 2/3 innings as the Florida Marlins lost to the Cleveland Indians.