Cone Has Mild Tendinitis in His Pitching Shoulder

New York Yankee pitcher David Cone has mild tendinitis in his right shoulder, doctors said Monday, a day after he was forced to leave a game after only one inning.

Doctors determined that Cone did not have a recurrence of the aneurysm that sidelined him for four months last season.

The Yankees did not say when Cone will pitch again.

He is 12-6 with a 2.82 earned-run average in 27 starts. The 1994 Cy Young winner is third in the American League with 215 strikeouts in 185 innings.

“There’s no way I can start Friday [at Seattle],” Cone said.

*

Deion Sanders had another cortisone injection in his lower back and will sit out the Cincinnati Reds’ next two games while undergoing therapy.

Sanders said he is starting to worry that a bulging disk in his lower back will interfere with his plans to play in all of the Dallas Cowboys’ regular-season games. The two-sport star has had two cortisone shots in the last nine days.

“I was flipping through the channels and it made me think, ‘I’m going to be playing [football] in two weeks and I can’t even run?’ It’s hard for me to imagine,” Sanders said.

Sanders has felt pain and numbness in the back of his leg for several weeks. A cortisone shot on Aug. 9 eased the pain and he sat out only one game.

*

San Francisco Giant Jeff Kent’s three-game suspension, for initiating a bench-clearing brawl, was reduced by one game by the National League.

Kent had been suspended last week along with Chicago Cub catcher Tyler Houston for their roles in a brawl Wednesday in a game at San Francisco.

*

Boston Red Sox outfielder Wil Cordero, charged with assaulting his wife, rejected a deal that would have guaranteed no time in jail.

Instead, Cordero will face trial Oct. 20 on the accusations that he hit his wife, Ana, with a telephone, threatened her life and later violated an emergency restraining order.

The maximum penalty for conviction on the charges is eight years.

“We believe when we proceed to trial, a significantly different story will emerge,” said Cordero’s attorney, Kevin Burke. “It is our belief that if justice prevails he will be acquitted.”

*

The Chicago White Sox have acquired minor league shortstop Juan Bautista from the Baltimore Orioles to complete the July 29 trade for designated hitter Harold Baines.

Bautista, 22, was sent to the White Sox’s double-A farm club at Birmingham, Ala. He was hitting .250 with no homers in 21 games for double-A Bowie, Md.

*

An MRI on the left shoulder of San Francisco Giant pitcher Wilson Alvarez came back negative.

Alvarez, acquired in a trade with the Chicago White Sox on July 31, left Sunday’s game against the Montreal Expos in the fifth inning with tightness in the shoulder.

“Basically, the news is good,” Giant spokesman Bob Rose said. “There’s no ligament damage.”

But it was unclear whether Alvarez would make his next start.

*

Now that the St. Louis Cardinals have had a taste of Mark McGwire, they’re hoping he’s not just a rent-a-player.

General Manager Walt Jocketty, who engineered the trade with Oakland that brought McGwire to St. Louis on July 31, has talked to ownership about ways of signing him to a long-term deal and fitting the slugger into the budget.

“We’re going to try,” Jocketty said.

McGwire has emerged as the fans’ most popular player. The team opens the gates half an hour early so thousands can watch him hit tape-measure shots in batting practice.