ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 2, 1997 TAG: 9704020058
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS
Baseballs commemorating Jackie Robinson's first season were used Opening Day.
Montreal was the first team to win in 1997, a befitting start to a season dedicated to Jackie Robinson.
The Expos scored the winning run in the ninth inning - on a bases-loaded walk - to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 Tuesday in Montreal, the city where Robinson briefly played before joining the Brooklyn Dodgers.
As a tribute to Robinson breaking the color barrier 50 years ago, special commemorative balls were used in each team's home opener and players and umpires wore Robinson patches on their uniforms.
Opening Day also was noteworthy in other aspects:
Albert Belle made his debut with the Chicago White Sox and paid immediate dividends on the team's $55 million investment. Belle, whose defection from Cleveland to Chicago was baseball's biggest off-season story, drove in the first run of the new season with a first-inning double. He added a home run in the eighth inning.
In Cincinnati, Deion Sanders returned to baseball with a big game to help the Reds over the Rockies.
Sanders, who took last season off to become a two-way player with the Dallas Cowboys, went 2-for-4 with an RBI, a pair of stolen bases and two runs scored.
Cal Ripken and the Baltimore Orioles have yet to reach an agreement in negotiations designed to extend Ripken's current contract beyond this season.
Ripken and Orioles general manager Pat Gillick had set Opening Day as the deadline for talks on the contract extension. Ripken, 36, is entering the final season of a $32.5 million, five-year contract.
In Cleveland, a 26-year-old woman testified that Cleveland Indians pitcher Jose Mesa struck her in the mouth with a bathroom door and fondled her against her will in a motel room.
Mesa, the premier closer in the American League the past two seasons, is charged with rape, two counts of gross sexual imposition, felonious assault and theft. He faces three to 10 years in prison if convicted of rape and two to eight years if found guilty of assault.
In San Diego, the Padres scored an opening-day National League record 11 runs in the sixth inning and got consecutive home runs from Chris Gomez, Rickey Henderson and Quilvio Veras in beating the Mets 12-5.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB