Harazin Quits; Cashen Takes Over GM Duties
NEW YORK - Al Harazin resigned today as general manager of the New York Mets, a once-proud team that now has the worst record in baseball.
Harazin's departure comes a month after manager Jeff Torborg was fired and replaced by Dallas Green.
Former Mets general manager Frank Cashen will take over the day-to-day operations of the team for now. Cashen has been working as a Mets consultant.
Joe McIlvaine, a former Mets and San Diego executive who was fired by the Padres on June 9, is considered a possible replacement for Harazin.
Despite a roster filled with big-name players like Eddie Murray, Dwight Gooden and Bobby Bonilla, the Mets are 21-47 and trail first-place Philadelphia by 26 1/2 games in the National League East.
New York even has a record worse than the NL's two new expansion teams, the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies.
Harazin joined the Mets in 1980 as a vice president, and was named general manager on Sept. 27, 1991.
The Mets won the World Series in 1986 and finished first or second in the NL East the next four years. But they started to decline in 1991, falling to fifth place with a 77-84 record. They finished fifth again last year with a 72-90 record, and have sunk even lower this season.
The Mets haven't won two games in a row since April 16-17 at Cincinnati.
NAGY OPTS FOR SURGERY
CLEVELAND - Cleveland right-hander Charles Nagy decided he would undergo arthroscopic surgery rather than attempt to continue pitching with a sore right shoulder. The operation probably will end his season.
"I could have pitched with it again, but I might have hurt my arm and jeopardized my career," he said. "This was a decision I had to make. I have to get it fixed."
Nagy, who was 2-5 with a 6.31 ERA, went on the disabled list May 18 because of an impingement - a pinching together of muscle and other tissue - near his right rotator cuff.
CLEMENS ON DISABLED LIST
BOSTON - The Boston Red Sox put Roger Clemens on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Saturday.
Clemens (7-6) has a strain of the major groin muscle in his right leg that has bothered him for more than a month. It will not heal, Red Sox physician Arthur Pappas said, without time away from the pitching mound.
The Red Sox will call up 22-year-old right-hander Aaron Sele, a former Washington State Cougar. Sele is 8-2 with a 2.19 ERA in 14 starts.
SMOKIES GO SMOKELESS
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Knoxville Smokies Manager Garth Iorg and pitcher Travis Baptist were ejected from a 3-2 Southern League loss to Chattanooga.
What was their sin?
Baptist was chewing tobacco in the dugout Sunday. Iorg was chased for not stopping him.
The ban on possessing tobacco during games or in the clubhouse has been in effect in all the minor leagues since last Tuesday.
Baptist did not play Sunday. He was in the dugout when first-base umpire Bob Brooks ejected him during the sixth inning.
"He was wrong, and the umpires were right," Iorg conceded. "It's just a rule, and you've got to go with any rule. I happen to agree with this one."
NOTES
-- Atlanta's Tom Glavine and Los Angeles' Mike Piazza were named co-players of the week in the National League. Glavine (9-3) pitched two complete-game victories, beating the Mets 2-1 and the Expos 5-1. Piazza batted .435 with four home runs, including two in one game against Colorado, and had eight RBI and a 1.000 slugging percentage.
-- Detroit's Cecil Fielder, who hit .450 with six home runs last week, has been named the American League's player of the week. Fielder had two homers in a game twice and finished with 10 RBI, a 1.350 slugging percentage and 27 total bases.
-- National League president Bill White suspended six players for three beanball incidents, two of them involving the Los Angeles Dodgers. Colorado's Keith Shepherd was suspended for seven games, and Los Angeles' Ramon Martinez was penalized five for separate incidents in the same game. Suspended for three games were: Dodger Rick Trlicek, San Diego's Gary Sheffield, Chicago's Jose Bautista and Colorado's Charlie Hayes.
-- Atlanta Braves officials said outfielder David Justice had permission to leave the team before last night's game in Philadelphia.
Compiled from Associated Press, Boston Globe and USA Today.