Belle Has Important Physical Today

Albert Belle has been working diligently in the batting cage at the Baltimore Orioles’ spring training camp, certain that he will begin the season in right field.

Yet there is a chance he may never play again.

Belle faces a very important physical today. If his arthritic right hip is deemed acceptable by team physicians, he will join the rest of Baltimore’s position players in the first full-team practice of the spring.

If Belle fails the physical, the 34-year-old outfielder could be through. However, according to baseball’s collective bargaining agreement, he would be entitled to a second opinion by a non-team doctor.

“I feel like right now I can play. How many games, I couldn’t tell you,” he said.

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Ted Williams made a cross-country flight and checked into a rehabilitation hospital in San Diego to continue his recovery from open-heart surgery.

Sharp Memorial Hospital is just a few miles from where the 82-year-old Williams grew up. In past years, the Hall of Famer often made trips early in the year to visit his hometown.

Williams had been at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center since having surgery on Jan. 15. He left the Manhattan hospital on Monday morning for the flight to California.

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San Diego Padre Manager Bruce Bochy says he is toying with the idea of batting Tony Gwynn fifth.

“You want to keep your options open,” Bochy said. “I’d hate to move him out of the two or three hole. . . . But he’s a good RBI man. I think he’s the best clutch hitter in the game.”

Said Gwynn: “I just want to play. It won’t bother me.”

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The Chicago White Sox are still awaiting the arrival of left-hander David Wells at their spring training camp in Tucson.

Wells was excused for personal business when the rest of the pitchers reported last Friday. He was scheduled to arrive today, but agent Gregg Clifton told team officials that now his client is being delayed until Thursday.

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Kerry Wood, 1998 NL rookie-of-the-year award winner, agreed to a $1.94-million, one-year contract with the Chicago Cubs. . . . The Cincinnati Reds received permission from baseball’s 29 other teams to sign outfielder Deion Sanders to a minor league contract after the original deal had been blocked by the commissioner’s office. . . . Right-hander Ramiro Mendoza, sidelined for the second half of the 2000 season because of shoulder problems, might stay in Florida next month when the New York Yankees leave spring training if he doesn’t get enough work in the exhibition season.