Dodger rookie given 8-game suspension

Tuesday, June 3, 1997 | 11:32 a.m.

SUN WIRE REPORTS

Rookie second baseman Wilton Guerrero of the Los Angeles Dodgers tried to beat one of baseball's most sacred rules and got caught. He has been punished accordingly.

Guerrero was suspended for eight games and fined an undisclosed sum by NL president Len Coleman on Monday for using a corked bat in a game at St. Louis a day earlier.

Guerrero admitted he knew the bat was corked before it shattered when he grounded to second leading off Sunday's game at St. Louis. He was ejected when umpires saw the bat had been altered.

"I have learned of my penalty from the league office and I accept it with full responsibility," Guerrero said in a statement issued by the Dodgers shortly the decision was announced. "I will say once again, as I said yesterday, I apologize to my team, to the league and to all of baseball."

Guerrero said Sunday it was the first time he had ever used a corked bat.

* IRABU WORKOUT: A 45-pitch workout in the blistering Florida sun didn't reveal anything about Hideki Irabu that the New York Yankees didn't already know. The 28-year-old right-hander with the richest contract ever given a major-league rookie showcased a fastball that tops 90 mph, a slow, big-bending curve and a sharp-breaking forkball that frustrates hitters anticipating pure heat. "It's not easy to pick up the rotation on that pitch," said Yankees prospect and former Las Vegas Star Homer Bush. "You see it and say, 'Oh, nice fastball.' Before you know it, it's out of the zone." Irabu, a former Japanese pro star who signed a four-year, $12.8 million deal with the Yankees last week, worked three simulated innings of 15 pitches each Monday.

* GOOD NEWS FOR GUZMAN: Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Juan Guzman will not need surgery on his broken right thumb after all. Guzman, who broke the thumb last Wednesday while fielding a grounder in a game against the New York Yankees, had the fracture and a minor dislocation checked Monday by Dr. Frank McCue in Charlottesville, Va. When the break was first discovered, the team feared it had lost its No. 3 starter for up to six weeks and even possibly for the season. Surgery would have required a screw set in the bone. Guzman is to keep the thumb in a splint until he comes off the disabled list June 12.

* ALL-STAR UPDATE: Seattle Mariners outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., the major league home run leader with 25, leads American League players in early fan balloting for the All-Star game released Monday. Griffey, selected to the AL's starting lineup each year since 1990, has received 877,090 votes for the July 8 game at Cleveland. He was the overall vote leader in 1994 and 1996, and topped the AL in 1991 and 1993. Baltimore third baseman Cal Ripken, a 14-time All-Star who has started the last 13 years at shortstop, is second overall at 643,105. With Ripken's shift to third base, Seattle's Alex Rodriguez tops shortstops at 464,923.