A’s Reach Pact With Coliseum

The Oakland Athletics extended their lease at the Coliseum through 2007 on Tuesday, securing the team’s short-term future and likely pushing it further down the list of candidates for contraction.

Owner Steve Schott remains committed to building a baseball-only stadium in the East Bay for the A’s, but he reached another compromise in his team’s stormy relationship with its government landlords at the Coliseum, their home since 1968.

“We’ve put the A’s in position to stay and play baseball at the Coliseum while we look at sites for a new stadium,” Schott said. “Now the real work begins.”

With their relatively small fan base and outmoded stadium, the A’s were thought to be among the second tier of candidates for the contraction favored by Commissioner Bud Selig.

The A’s will pay $500,000 annually in rent over the first three years of the agreement, with increases to $550,000 in 2006 and $600,000 in 2007.

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Seattle Mariner shortstop Carlos Guillen pleaded not guilty at Kirkland, Wash., to a charge of drunken driving.

Guillen, 26, was arrested early in the morning June 13 by police in suburban Clyde Hill, east of Seattle, after being stopped for speeding. Police said he was clocked at 89 mph in a 60-mph zone.

Officers said a portable breath test showed Guillen’s blood-alcohol level was .093. The state’s legal limit is .08. Portable breath tests are not admissible in court.

Guillen refused to take a breath test at the Clyde Hill police station. On Tuesday, Municipal Court Judge Albert Raines granted a request by Guillen’s lawyer, Douglas Cowan, to have evidence of that refusal suppressed.

Cowan said Guillen, from Venezuela, did not fully understand what officers asked him to do when he was arrested. Guillen speaks limited English. Cowan said Guillen tried to reach a teammate or lawyer for advice after his arrest.

A translator was in court to translate the proceedings for Guillen.

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Shortstop Khalil Greene won the Golden Spikes Award as the top amateur player in the nation after helping Clemson win the College World Series.

Greene, selected 13th overall by the San Diego Padres in the June draft, batted .470 with a school-record 27 home runs and 91 runs batted in.