Bell Has Issues With Pirates

Derek Bell, who batted only .173 last season, said he’ll go into “Operation Shutdown” and won’t risk injuring himself if the Pittsburgh Pirates do not give him the starting job in right field.

Manager Lloyd McClendon and General Manager Dave Littlefield said Bell, Armando Rios and Craig Wilson are competing and the starter hasn’t been decided. But Littlefield said Bell has done little to win the job.

“Nobody told me I was in competition,” Bell told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “If there is competition, somebody better let me know. If there is competition, they better eliminate me out of the race and go ahead and do what they’re going to do with me. I ain’t never hit in spring training and I never will.

“If it ain’t settled with me out there, then they can trade me. I ain’t going out there to hurt myself in spring training battling for a job. If it is [a competition], then I’m going into ‘Operation Shutdown.’ Tell them exactly what I said. I haven’t competed for a job since 1991.”

Littlefield told the Post-Gazette that Bell is “certainly” competing for a job.

“At this point, he hasn’t done a lot to show he deserves a lot of playing time. He just hasn’t performed,” Littlefield said. “Last year, he was injured. He looks healthy. We just have to see more production.”

Ray Knoblauch, the father of Kansas City outfielder Chuck Knoblauch and the coach who led Houston’s Bellaire High to four state titles in 25 years, died of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 74.

Knoblauch left Bellaire in 1986 with a 598-225 record but returned as the team’s pitching coach from 1994-97, when he retired.

Philadelphia third baseman Scott Rolen is shrugging off an apparent dispute with another member of the Phillies.

Rolen, who has had an on-again, off-again feud with Manager Larry Bowa, had a long and sometimes loud discussion under the stands at spring training Saturday with third-base coach John Vukovich, the Philadelphia Daily News reported Monday.

Rolen, who can become a free agent at the end of the year, shrugged off the discussion.

Seattle Manager Lou Piniella traveled to Tampa, Fla., from the team’s spring training camp at Peoria, Ariz., after his 83-year-old father, Louis, was hospitalized with pneumonia.

Texas acquired right-hander Luis Vizcaino from Oakland for right-hander Justin Duchscherer. Vizcaino, 26, was 2-1 with a 4.55 earned-run average last season. Duchscherer, 24, was 1-1 with a 12.27 ERA in five games with the Rangers.

The Houston Astros will dismantle today one of the four largest remaining signs bearing the former Enron Field.

The Astros bought back the naming rights to their ballpark Feb. 27. They paid about $2.1 million to get back the naming rights from Enron, the energy company that went bankrupt in December.

The stadium will be called Astros Field until a new naming rights sponsor is selected.