ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 14, 1997 TAG: 9701140082
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS
Arnold Palmer remained hopeful Monday about his chances of beating prostate cancer after receiving encouraging test results at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
``The fact that he is upbeat about it is encouraging to all of us,'' said Doc Giffin, Palmer's spokesman and longtime confidante. ``And I'm sure that, in turn, would be very encouraging to the millions of people that love him.''
Details of Palmer's examinations were unavailable. The medical center issued a brief statement Monday afternoon saying only that doctors were ``encouraged by initial test results,'' and spokeswoman Shelly Plutowski said Palmer, 67, still was undergoing tests into the early evening.
It was unclear how long Palmer would remain at the medical center. One option would be surgery, Giffin said. Plutowski said more would be known this morning.
BASEBALL Owners seek new commissioner
Four years, four months after major-league baseball last had a commissioner without the word ``acting'' or ``interim'' before it, the owners will embark this week on yet another search for the right man for the job. How long it will take or where it will end nobody knows.
Bud Selig, who has served as acting commissioner since Fay Vincent resigned under pressure Sept.7, 1992, and the executive council will appoint a search committee at the owners' meetings this week in Scottsdale, Ariz. The committee most likely will be the executive council itself.
The owners also will vote on placement of the two expansion teams. The Arizona Diamondbacks will join the National League in 1998 and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays will join the American League, creating two 15-team leagues.
* General Motors Corp. will drop its complaint against Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott if she goes through with a planned sale of her Chevrolet-Geo dealership, a GM lawyer told an Ohio hearing examiner.
GM has accused Schott of faking car sales - including using names of executives running her baseball team - at the Chevrolet-Geo dealership she has owned for 16 years.
* Carol Habben, a former player in the women's baseball league chronicled in the 1992 film ``A League of Their Own,'' has died following a lengthy illness. She was 63.
Habben, who died Saturday, was a center fielder and catcher for the Rockford (Ill.) Peaches of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1951 and 1952 and the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Lassies in 1953.
ETC. UConn guard top female athlete
Jennifer Rizzotti, whose record-setting playmaking helped lead Connecticut to the NCAA women's basketball Final Four last season, was selected as the nation's outstanding woman college athlete.
Rizzotti, who set single-season records in assists (222) and steals (112) while helping the Huskies to a 34-4 record last season, succeeds former teammate Rebecca Lobo as winner of the Honda-Broderick Cup.
* Jim Mora interviewed for the vacant San Diego Chargers coaching job. Mora, 61, resigned as coach of the New Orleans Saints on Oct. 21, midway through his 11th season as an NFL head coach.
Chargers general manager Bobby Beathard said he received permission to speak with Jacksonville offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride and Carolina defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, whose teams lost in the AFC and NFC championship games, respectively, Sunday.
* Figure skater Oksana Baiul was driving under the influence when she ran her car off a road while returning home from a night out in Hartford, Conn., during the weekend, a hospital report shows.
Baiul, who at 19 is two years under the legal drinking age in Connecticut, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.168 percent after the accident early Sunday morning, according to the report obtained by The Associated Press.
She required 12 stitches to close a cut on her scalp.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines KEYWORDS: GOLFby CNB