ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 23, 1996 TAG: 9611260029
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
*Durham's minor-league baseball club will move up from Class A to Class AAA beginning in the 1998 season.
The Durham Bulls baseball club on Thursday was awarded one of the two triple-A expansion franchises and will be the affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays when they begin play the same year. The other franchise has not yet been named.
The new club, which will keep the Bulls' name, will replace the Class A Carolina League affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, which has played at Durham Bulls Athletic Park for the past two seasons after operating at Durham Athletic Park from 1980 to 1994.
Mike Hill, the Bulls vice president and general counsel, said the Bulls would like the Class AAA franchise assigned to the International League.
BASKETBALL
* Northwestern can bar a scholarship basketball player with a heart condition from playing, a federal appeals court in Chicago ruled.
The decision by the 7th U.S. Circuit of Appeals reverses a lower court, which ordered the Big Ten school to allow Nicholas Knapp to play.
Knapp, a sophomore who has yet to practice or play for Northwestern, collapsed when his heart stopped after playing in a pickup basketball game at Peoria (Central) High School on Sept. 19, 1994.
His heartbeat was restored through defibrillation and doctors later implanted a defibrillator in his abdomen to help protect him if he experiences another episode.
Northwestern had already offered Knapp a scholarship and the school decided to honor its pledge to pay for his schooling. But it barred the 6-foot-5 guard from playing due to his health.
Knapp sued the school, claiming it had violated his rights under the U.S. Rehabilitation Act.
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines KEYWORDS: BASEBALL 2DAby CNB