Heart Problem Puts Williams in Hospital

Ted Williams was hospitalized in fair condition Saturday in Gainesville, Fla., reportedly with congestive heart failure.

Officials at Shands Hospital declined to provide more information at the request of the 82-year-old Hall of Famer’s family.

“We can confirm that he is here and he’s in fair condition,” hospital spokeswoman Mary Bechtel said Saturday.

The Boston Globe reported that Williams was admitted with congestive heart failure, and doctors are strongly considering implanting a pacemaker to control his heart rate.

The Globe reported Williams was admitted to Shands early Monday, and doctors say it is hard to speculate on his prognosis.

“He’s been commenting on how good the food is, and that’s a rarity,” Williams’ son John Henry told the Globe by phone from the hospital. “They’re taking as good care of him as they possibly can.”

Williams was the last major leaguer to hit .400, batting .406 in 1941.

He appeared at Fenway Park in the summer of 1999 when he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the All-Star Game.

*

After not receiving what he deemed an acceptable offer from the New York Mets, left-hander Mike Hampton said he would file for free agency.

The Mets are still the only team that can sign Hampton, or negotiate money with him, before Saturday.

“I’m not surprised or disappointed,” Met General Manager Steve Phillips said. “We understand each other’s positions and would still like to work out a deal. It’s a matter of the market determining where we should go.”

*

Omar Vizquel’s two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning at Tokyo gave a touring major league all-star team a 7-5 victory over Japan--its second win in a row in the series. . . . The FBI has seized three computers belonging to a college student after an obscene photograph and message appeared on the New York Yankees’ Web site the night they won the World Series. Andres Salomon, a computer major at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., said the FBI agents allowed him to save any schoolwork from his two laptops and one desktop computer on Oct. 28. Altering or defacing a Web site is a federal crime punishable by a fine or up to five years in prison.