Others Balk, so Reds Hire Boone

A muddled search for a manager gave Bob Boone another chance to do what he loves best: run a major-league team.

The Cincinnati Reds introduced Boone as their manager Friday after two other candidates--Yankee third base coach Willie Randolph and their own Ron Oester--balked at below-market contract offers.

Boone, 52, agreed to a two-year contract with a club option for a third, meaning he’s not guaranteed to lead the team into its new ballpark in 2003.

Money and security didn’t matter to Boone, who managed Kansas City from 1995-97 and wondered if he’d ever get the chance to do it again.

“I’ve done this one other time in my life and found out how much I loved it,” Boone said. “I had the opportunity to manage in Kansas City and found that I loved managing more than I loved catching.”

Unable to lure Lou Piniella from Seattle, the Reds brought Randolph in for a second interview on Wednesday night.

The next morning, they offered the job to Oester, who spent all of his 17-year career in the Reds organization. He was elated at the chance, but troubled by the offer--$300,000 for the first year, $350,000 for the second.

When he rejected the offer and asked for more money, Oester said he was led to believe that club officials would ask owner Carl Lindner about an increase. The Reds took it as a rejection and turned to Randolph, who also declined.

“I was shocked this morning,” Oester said in a telephone interview. “. . . I don’t understand it. I guess they considered this a take-it-or-leave-it deal. I was just misled a little bit.”

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Free-agent outfielder Manny Ramirez has asked the Cleveland Indians for $200 million as part of a 10-year contract that would make him the highest-paid player in baseball history, according to a baseball management source, speaking on the condition he not be identified.

Neither Ramirez’s agent, Jeff Moorad, or Indian General Manager John Hart would comment directly about the specifics of the deal.

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Alex Rodriguez wants to beat the New York Yankees, not play for them.

The all-star shortstop is weighing his options as a free agent, but the Yankees aren’t one of his choices.

“I would like to sign with another team and help dethrone the Yankees--they’ve won too much already,” Rodriguez said.

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Outfielder Chin-Feng Chen, considered one of the Dodgers’ top minor league prospects, had surgery on his right shoulder to remove excess scar tissue.

“Chen is a great athlete and has a bright future,” Dodger General Manager Kevin Malone said. “We are glad that he is expected to be ready to play again by spring training.”

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The New York Mets signed free agent utility player Lenny Harris to a two-year, $2.2-million contract.

Harris, acquired from Arizona in June, hit .304 with three homers and 13 RBIs in 75 games with the Mets this season.

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Carlos Delgado, who signed a record four-year, $68-million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays last month, was the choice of his fellow players as baseball’s player of the year.

Delgado, who hit .344 with 41 home runs and 137 RBIs, edged finalists Barry Bonds and Todd Helton for the award, which is voted on by members of the Major League Baseball Players Assn.

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Roberto Alomar led off the game with a homer and Kazuhiro Sasaki closed it with a perfect ninth inning, leading the major leaguers to an 8-5 victory over Japan in the opener of the eight-game All-Star Series 2000.

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Joe Cubas did not break a contract promising a finder’s fee for getting Orlando Hernandez as a client, a Miami jury decided. Tom Cronin had asked the jury for $110,000 plus unspecified punitive damages for recommending Cubas to Hernandez while traveling to Cuba in 1995 during the making of a PBS documentary on Cuban baseball. . . . Former American League umpire Ken Kaiser was pulled over for speeding Thursday and a computer check showed he was wanted in Las Vegas for writing bad checks. His attorney, Tony Leonardo, could not say how much money Kaiser owed or who held the bad checks. . . . Chris Chambliss, who failed to get managing jobs with Arizona and the Dodgers, was fired as batting coach of the New York Yankees. . . . Rickey Henderson filed for free agency, one day after the Seattle Mariners decided to not pick up his option. The Angels’ Gary DiSarcina also filed, raising the overall number of players to 119.