Sox Player Dodges Most Severe Charge

Chicago White Sox outfielder Tony Phillips won’t face criminal charges for punching a heckler during a game last week in Milwaukee, the district attorney’s office said Thursday.

Instead, Phillips and the fan, Chris Hovorka, 23, of Racine, Wisc., were cited for disorderly conduct and ordered to pay $287. The county charges, similar to speeding tickets, don’t carry jail time.

After a three-day investigation, assistant district attorney Rayann Chandler-Szychlinski rejected a recommendation by the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department that Phillips be charged with battery for punching Hovorka twice in the jaw during Chicago’s 20-8 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on May 15.

Under a misdemeanor battery charge, Phillips would have faced penalties of up to nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine.

But Chandler-Szychlinski decided Phillips and Hovorka “engaged in a mutual fight” and both “must be cited for disorderly conduct.”

Owners devise new offer

Baseball owners meeting in New York made another new proposal to players, offering to eliminate a luxury tax in the final year of the next labor deal and dropping their tax rate from 40 percent to 39.5 percent.

In the first negotiating session since April 29, owners offered both a five- and six-year contract. In the six-year proposal, the tax would cover the 1998, 1999 and 2000 seasons. In a five-year deal, the tax would be in 1997, 1998 and 1999.

Justice undergoes surgery

Outfielder David Justice, hero of Atlanta’s victory in the deciding game of last year’s World Series, will miss the rest of this season after 3 hours of surgery to repair a damaged right shoulder.

Dr. Joe Chandler, the team orthopedist who performed the operation, expects Justice to participate in spring training.

Justice dislocated his right shoulder on May 15 swinging at a pitch from Pittsburgh’s Denny Neagle.

Justice was hitting .321 with six home runs and 25 runs batted in this season.

Astros deal in talking stage

A Houston auto dealer and land developer is interested in buying a piece of the Houston Astros, whose sole owner is hoping to unload at least 35 percent of the team to cover financial losses.

But Astros owner Drayton McLane agreed with David Wolff that discussions are not serious and said he expected no movement on any deal until Houston’s stadium situation is resolved.

“There have been no serious negotiations,” McLane told Houston television station KRIV from his office in Temple, Texas. “He and I have continued to talk.”