Luxury Tax Bites Orioles for More Than $10 Million

While the New York Yankees won the most, the Baltimore Orioles paid the most.

Baltimore’s total bill for the three years of baseball’s luxury tax was $10,643,897, according to management records obtained by the Associated Press.

The Yankees, who won the World Series twice in the three years of the tax, were second at $9,919,651, followed by the Dodgers at $2,712,672, Boston at $2,205,960 and Cleveland at $2,065,496.

Only three others teams wound up with bills during the three years of the tax: Atlanta ($1,795,582), the New York Mets ($1,137,992) and Florida ($139,607).

Teams received their bills for the last year of the tax Jan. 10, and they are payable Jan. 31.

For 1999, the Yankees had the high tax bill for the second time in three seasons: $4,804,081. They were followed by the Orioles ($3,475,048), the Dodgers ($2,663,079), the Mets ($1,137,992) and the Red Sox ($21,226).

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Two new investors have paid $7.7 million to be a part of the San Francisco Giants’ ownership group.

John Scully, an investment banker not related to the former Apple Computer president of the same name, and Nancy House are now minority owners.

Scully is director of the Mill Valley-based investment firm SPO Partners & Co.

College Football

Chad Pennington and Chris Redman, considered by most scouts as the top two quarterbacks in the NFL draft, each directed two scoring drives in leading the North to a 24-21 victory over the South in the Senior Bowl at Mobile, Ala.

Pennington got the starting nod, but played only four series. The Marshall quarterback threw for 92 yards and a four-yard touchdown pass to UCLA’s Danny Farmer in the first quarter.

Pennington completed 11 of 14 passes and was the game’s most valuable player.

Redman, of Louisville, entered the game on the North’s third possession and played five series. He didn’t throw for any touchdowns, but led the North on two scoring drives. He helped the North take a 14-7 second quarter with a nine-play drive that ended with a six-yard touchdown run by Ohio State’s Michael Wiley.

He later led the North on its game-winning drive, moving them 12 plays--and completing a 15-yard pass to Farmer on fourth and 11--before Michigan State’s Paul Edinger kicked the go-ahead field goal with 5:19 to play.

Redman completed 12 of 20 passes for 134 yards.

Wisconsin linebacker Donnel Thompson blocked Jimmy Kibble’s 25-yard field-goal attempt as time expired and the North tied the South, 28-28, in the Hula Bowl at Wailuku, Hawaii.

Quarterback Todd Husak of Stanford, selected the South MVP, led his team to two scores. UCLA’s Durell Price scored on a one-yard sweep.

Heisman Trophy winner Ron Dayne of Wisconsin played briefly for the North and gained 21 yards in six carries, including a nine-yard touchdown run.

Track and Field

Pole vaulter Lawrence Johnson, who set the San Diego Indoor Games record last year at 19 feet 1/4 inch, cleared only 17-8 1/2 to win this time. The big drop-off was due to Johnson breaking his right ankle in a motorcycle accident in June.

Johnson failed in his three attempts to clear 18-4 1/2, then took a practice jump at 18-8 and nailed it. The two other vaulters failed to clear any height.

In the featured men’s mile, American Jason Pyrah led for the first 10 1/2 laps of the 11-lap race before Bernard Lagat of Kenya flew past him to win in 3 minutes 59 seconds. Pyrah was second in 4:02.37.

Mark Crear, the silver medalist in the 110-meter hurdles in the Atlanta Olympics, won the 55-meter hurdles in 7.17 seconds. Amy Acuff, a 1996 Olympian, won the women’s high jump at 6 feet. Nathan Leeper, the 1998 NCAA champion, won the men’s high jump at 7-4 1/2.

Germany’s track and field federation asked its legal panel to impose a two-year ban on 1992 Olympic 5,000-meter champion Dieter Baumann, who tested positive for the steroid nandrolone. If the panel follows the recommendation, Baumann probably will be banned and miss this summer’s Olympics in Sydney.

Winter Sports

Austrian Fritz Strobl overcame a driving snowstorm to win for the second time in his World Cup career on the treacherous Streif course at Kitzbuehel, Austria.

Strobl, who smashed the record as the fastest man down the Streif when he won here in 1997, covered the harrowing course--dramatically shortened because of poor visibility at the top of the Hahnenkamm--in 1 minute 46.54 seconds.

Austria’s Hermann Maier, who collected his 25th World Cup victory in Friday’s super-G, was looking to equal compatriot Franz Klammer for the most World Cup wins by an Austrian man, but finished fourth in 1:47.49.

A year after she burst on the scene at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, with successive wins, France’s Regine Cavagnoud stunned her rivals again by coming back from a major knee injury to win a World Cup downhill on the same course.

Cavagnoud was clocked in 1:34.01. Austria’s Tanja Schneider finished nearly a second behind, in 1:34.94.

Defending World Cup moguls champion Ann Battelle of Steamboat Springs, Colo., won her first World Cup event of the season, using a nearly flawless run to overtake four other skiers at South Lake Tahoe, Calif. Janne Lahtela, the men’s current World Cup champion and points leader, led a 1-2-3 sweep by Finnish men.

Gymnastics

Dominique Moceanu was not among the 15 gymnasts invited to Bela Karolyi’s second pre-Olympic training camp. Eleven others failed to make the cut after the first camp, held last week at Karolyi’s ranch outside Houston.

The gymnasts invited to the second camp were: 1996 gold medalist Amy Chow, two-time defending national champion Kristen Maloney, 1997 national champion Vanessa Atler of Canyon Country, Jeanette Antolin of Huntington Beach, Alyssa Beckerman, Jamie Dantzscher of Palmdale, Annabeth Eberle, Katie Hardman, Robin Phelps, Dana Pierce, Elise Ray, Sierra Sapunar, Tasha Schwikert, Jennie Thompson and Morgan White.

But Moceanu isn’t out of the Olympics just yet. Karolyi, the national team coordinator, has established escalating criteria for conditioning and skills, and Moceanu could be invited to later camps if she meets those.

Miscellany

Yolanda Griffith scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the U.S. women’s basketball team opened a seven-game European tour with a 56-47 victory over Poland at Warsaw. Katie Smith and DeLisha Milton each scored nine points for the Americans and Lisa Leslie had nine rebounds.

Open-wheel racer Larry Deaton, 41, of Clovis, Calif., was killed in a three-car accident during the opening day of the Laughlin Desert Challenge in Nevada.

Tommi Makinen of Finland, seeking his fifth World Rally championship, won the Monte Carlo Rally in Monaco for the second consecutive year.