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Gunshot Wounds Woman at Stadium

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From Associated Press

A fan was shot and wounded in the stands at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., during a Kansas City Royal-Pittsburgh Pirate game, officials said.

Moments later, a second shot struck another fan’s chair in the upper deck.

Police said they don’t know whether the shots came from inside or outside the stadium.

The 64-year-old woman, whose name was not released, was sitting in the lower level along the right-field line about 10 p.m. Friday when she was hit by a bullet that passed through part of her abdomen and hit her left elbow, a Royal spokesman said.

The woman was able to walk to the stadium’s first-aid station and was taken to Truman Medical Center. The woman was hospitalized overnight and released early Saturday, a hospital spokesman said.

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Kansas City police spokesman Sgt. Floyd Mitchell said witnesses reported hearing a “pop” and then the woman was hit by the bullet.

Mitchell said a second shot was reported just after 10 p.m. A woman leaning forward in her upper-deck seat also heard a loud pop. When she looked back, she saw a hole in her seat and a bullet on the ground behind her. She was uninjured.

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Randall Simon got a chance to talk to former Atlanta Brave teammate John Rocker--the man who referred to him as a “fat monkey”--and said they spoke as if nothing had happened between them.

Simon, a black Caribbean player, started at first base Saturday night for Columbus against Rocker’s Richmond Braves in an International League game at Columbus, Ohio. Rocker didn’t pitch and didn’t leave the clubhouse until he came to the bullpen to watch the final three outs.

But Simon and Rocker bumped into each other during pregame warmups and briefly shook hands. Simon was released by Atlanta in spring training and signed with the New York Yankees’ triple-A farm team.

“He came over and said hi,” Simon said after Columbus’ 7-5 victory. “We talked for a little bit. He told me I looked younger, like I was 18, because I don’t have a mustache. Just regular things. But we’re friends. There was nothing more than that.”

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The New York Yankees signed 35-year-old Dwight Gooden to a minor-league contract, the Sunday Record of Hackensack (N.J.) reported.

Gooden, released by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays two weeks ago, told the paper he was “totally blown away” at the opportunity to pitch for the Yankees again.

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Rookie shortstop Rafael Furcal of the Braves was charged with drunk driving and underage alcohol consumption.

Police in suburban Cobb County, Ga., said Furcal, 19 and the youngest player in the majors, was arrested early Saturday morning after failing a sobriety test in the parking lot of a Kroger grocery store.

Cobb police spokesman Dana Pierce said Furcal’s car swerved into a median about 5 a.m. EDT, springing an oil leak. Kroger employees called police to report a suspicious person in the parking lot, and officers found Furcal there.

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