Zo on Miami roster but he will not play
MIAMI (AP) Alonzo Mourning will have a spot on the Miami Heat playoff roster, even though he”s still not expected to play this season.
Coach Pat Riley said he would make the move as a precaution because he has been burned before by the NBA freeze on postseason rosters. Mourning is being treated for a kidney ailment discovered last October.
Riley said his comments don”t reflect any change in the prognosis that Mourning will miss the entire regular season and the playoffs.
“I have not coached this team at all with any plans of Zo coming back,” Riley said.
Yankees ink another Cuban to roster
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) The New York Yankees formally announced the signing of Cuban third baseman Andy Morales to a $4.5 million, four-year contract yesterday.
Morales was added to the Yankees” 40-man roster.
Morales is expected to start the regular season in the minors. He is considered a potential replacement for current third baseman Scott Brosius.
Morales joined the Yankees yesterday and was warmly greeted by fellow Cuban defectors, pitchers Orlando Hernandez and Adrian Hernandez.
Morales is best known for hitting a three-run homer in Camden Yards when the Cuban National Team beat the Baltimore Orioles 12-6 in a 1999 exhibition game.
Family first: season over for NHL”s Blake
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) Jason Blake of the Islanders will miss the rest of the season so he can be with his wife, who has thyroid cancer and is to give birth April 1.
Sara Blake is carrying the couple”s first child. The 23-year-old woman has a lump on her throat the size of a golf ball, according to her husband. He said she would be induced in one week, then undergo surgery.