Yankees, Red Sox Will Open Season

Major league baseball’s season opener will be played by the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in New York on Sunday night, April 3.

The game, originally scheduled for Monday, will be televised by ESPN2.

Although the dates for the remainder of the opening three-game series are not final, the Yankees and Red Sox probably will play Tuesday and Wednesday. The next week, New York is at Boston for the Red Sox’s home opener on April 11 at Fenway Park.

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Los Angeles developer Lewis Wolff, who was hired by the Oakland Athletics in 2003 to help find a new stadium, will decide in the next three months whether he will exercise an option to try to buy the team.

“He believes that in the next 90 days he would have come to some conclusion of either a purchase or non-purchase of the team,” said Sam Spear, a senior consultant for the A’s who spoke to Wolff on Thursday.

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First baseman Carlos Pena and the Detroit Tigers agreed to a one-year contract worth $2.575 million.

Pena hit .241 with a team-high 27 home runs in 142 games with the Tigers last season. He had career highs in games, at-bats (481), runs (89), doubles (22), homers and RBIs (82).

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The Atlanta Braves agreed to a $600,000, one-year contract with Gabe White, adding another left-hander to their bullpen. White, who split the 2004 season between the Yankees and Cincinnati, took a significant pay cut from his previous salary of $1.925 million. The Reds declined to renew White’s option at the same price for 2005, opting for a $200,000 buyout.

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Chris Hammond and the San Diego Padres agreed to a $750,000, one-year contract that is contingent on the left-handed reliever’s passing a physical next week.

He went 4-1 with a team-low 2.68 earned-run average out of the bullpen for Oakland last year, missing six weeks because of a strained pitching shoulder.

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While the Mets awaited word on where they stood in the Carlos Beltran negotiations, they reached a preliminary agreement on a one-year contract with infielder Miguel Cairo.

His deal, worth about $900,000, won’t be final until after he passes a physical, a baseball official familiar with the talks said on condition of anonymity.

Cairo hit .292 with six homers, 42 RBIs and 11 steals last season.

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Pittsburgh Pirate shortstop Jack Wilson, just signed to an $8-million, two-year contract, expects to be ready for spring training despite being hospitalized recently for an appendectomy.

Wilson’s appendix burst Dec. 21 at his Thousand Oaks home, requiring a rushed trip to a hospital. He was released Dec. 25.

The 6-foot, 175-pound Wilson has regained six of the 15 pounds he lost but is not ready to resume heavy weightlifting.

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Dwight Gooden is returning to his role as a special advisor to Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, the position he first held after his retirement at the end of spring training four years ago.