FanFare 8/12/02

Briefly

Baseball

The Kansas City Royals optioned second baseman Carlos Febles to Triple-A Omaha after Sunday's game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Febles, the team's starting second baseman since 1999, was hitting .233 with four homers, 22 RBIs and 39 runs scored in 102 games this season. He went 3-for-4 with a home run in Sunday's 10-0 victory.

"We would like to see more offense," Royals general manager Allard Baird said. "We're going to need some offense from that position, there's no doubt about it. Defensively, we're very pleased with him. The makeup of the player is outstanding."

Baird said the Royals will fill Febles' roster spot today.

Tampa Bay second baseman Brent Abernathy was hospitalized with dehydration after the Devil Rays' 10-0 loss Sunday to the Kansas City Royals.

Abernathy played all nine innings in the 90-degree weather, going 1-for-3 with a walk. He began to cramp up after the game and was given two IVs in the Devil Rays' clubhouse before being taken out of Kauffman Stadium on a stretcher.

He spent the night at St. Luke's Hosptial for further observation.

"It's not life threatening," Devil Rays trainer Jamie Reed said. "It's not serious, but I don't want to take a chance at 30,000 feet."

Football

Seattle Seahawks starting quarterback Trent Dilfer is out indefinitely because of a sprained ligament in his right knee.

Team officials would not say when Dilfer could return. Dilfer and coach Mike Holmgren were both unavailable for comment.

Dilfer injured the medial collateral ligament of his right knee during the second quarter of the Seahawks' 28-10 exhibition loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday night.

Harrison Hill, a senior wide receiver at Kansas, has left the team after continuing to suffer from dehydration, coach Mark Mangino said Sunday.

Hill, who had been granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA after breaking his shoulder blade in four places during the Jayhawks' second game of 2001, leaves the school with 108 career receptions for 1,535 yards and seven touchdowns.

A starter in 34 of his 36 games at Kansas, Hill led the team and was fifth in the Big 12 with 47 catches for 591 yards in 2000.

Tennis

Chanda Rubin upset No. 3 Lindsay Davenport 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3 to win the JPMorgan Chase Open on Sunday in a final between two players making comebacks from knee surgery.

Davenport served for the match in the second set after trailing 3-0, but Rubin broke back and went on to beat the woman she used to compete against in the 12-and-under division.

Verbatim

Before the start of the season, Arizona pitcher Curt Schilling invested $25,000 in customized software for his computer. The database contains thousands of pitches he has thrown since 1996, with a file on 490 players listing their tendencies. And it lists tendencies of umpires.

"It is as important as everything else I do to get better," Schilling told the Cincinnati Post. "It allows me to go out every fifth day with a plan. It was one of the huge reasons for the success I had last year. You can see patterns in hitters and you try to find a way to exploit a weakness. I would not be the pitcher I am without it."

-- From wire reports