Tigers Hire Garner as Their New Manager

The Detroit Tigers will have a new manager to go with their new ballpark next season.

The Tigers replaced manager Larry Parrish with former Milwaukee Brewer manager Phil Garner on Thursday. The Tigers and Garner agreed to a four-year deal, terms of which were not available.

Commissioner Bud Selig, whose family was Garner’s former employer at Milwaukee, issued a statement Thursday saying he is investigating the hiring.

“In a letter to all clubs on April 14, 1999, I implemented a new initiative requiring all clubs to consider minority candidates” for various baseball jobs. Clubs were instructed to inform me personally of such openings and to provide me their list of candidates, to include minority representation, prior to making a decision. I am in the process of conducting a thorough review of the Garner hiring.”

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A man who ran from the stands and jumped on the back of Houston Astro outfielder Bill Spiers during a game at County Stadium pleaded not guilty to disorderly conduct charges at Milwaukee.

Berley W. Visgar faces 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. A pretrial conference is scheduled for Nov. 4.

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The Seattle Mariners can trade him, Alex Rodriguez said, but he won’t sign a contract extension with his new team.

Rodriguez, 24, can become a free agent after next season. Seattle probably will explore trade options if it cannot come to terms with Rodriguez, but any deal would be complicated by his vow not to sign an extension with his new club.

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The Kansas City Royals re-signed outfielder Jermaine Dye to a two-year contract. Terms of the deal were not released.