Hurricane Threat Alters AL Schedule

In a precautionary move made as Hurricane Gordon took aim on Florida’s Gulf Coast, today’s game between the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Devil Rays at St. Petersburg, Fla., was postponed.

The Athletics were scheduled to leave town by charter flight soon after Saturday’s 5-2 victory over the Devil Rays. The main impact of the storm was supposed to hit early today.

If necessary, the game will be made up Oct. 2, the day after the regular season is scheduled to end. The A’s are tied with the Cleveland Indians for the American League wild-card spot.

Last September, the Athletics had two games at Baltimore postponed because of Hurricane Floyd.

Before Saturday’s game at Tampa Bay, A’s Manager Art Howe was again monitoring a hurricane.

“Two years in a row, that’s unbelievable,” he said.

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Rickey Henderson of the Seattle Mariners isn’t quite as close to Babe Ruth’s walk record as some people think.

While numerous sources list Ruth’s career walk total at 2,056, the commissioner’s office added six walks for Ruth last season after research by the Elias Sports Bureau and baseball’s historian, Jerome Holtzman.

Henderson entered Saturday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles six walks shy of tying Ruth’s record.

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Reliever Doug Brocail of the Detroit Tigers will sit out the last two weeks of the season because of inflammation in his pitching elbow.