Ex-big leaguer Gamble dies of cancer at age 68
NEW YORK — Oscar
Gamble, an outfielder who hit 200 home runs over 17 major league seasons and was famous during his playing days for an Afro that spilled out of his helmet, died Wednesday of a rare tumor of the jaw. He was 68. His second wife, Lovell
Woods Gamble, said he was diagnosed with a benign tumor, ameloblastoma, about nine years ago. It became ameloblastic carcinoma in 2016 and he had the first of several operations that August. Gamble, who lived in Montgomery, Ala., entered UAB Hospital in Birmingham on Jan. 22 and died there early Wednesday. His wife said he never chewed tobacco.
A lefthanded hitter known for the crouch in his batting stance, Gamble had a .265 batting average and 666 RBIs while playing for seven big league teams, including the Cubs, Phillies, Indians, Rangers, Yankees, Padres and White Sox.
Gamble spent seven seasons with the Yankees in two stints. He had an endorsement deal with Afro Sheen but had to trim his hair to comply with owner George
Steinbrenner’s grooming policy when he joined the Yankees for the 1976 season.
After helping win the AL pennant, Gamble became expendable when New York signed Reggie
Jackson, and Gamble was traded to the Chicago White Sox for Bucky
Dent. While with Texas in 1979, Gamble was dealt back to the Yankees for
Mickey Rivers, and Gamble reached the World Series again with New York in 1981.
In addition to his second wife, he is survived by his first wife, Juanita
Kenner, three daughters and two sons. One of his sons, Sean Gamble ,is a former minor league baseball player and current scout for the Colorado Rockies. In other baseball news: • All-Star outfielder
Mookie Betts beat the Boston Red Sox in the first salary arbitration decision of the year and will get a raise from $950,000 to $10.5 million instead of the team’s $7.5 million offer. Arbitrators Daniel Brent, Mark Burstein and Phillip LaPorte ruled for Betts one day after hearing arguments in Phoenix. The 25-year-old hit .264 with 24 homers and 102 RBIs last year, when he made his second straight AL All-Star team.
The gap between Betts and the Red Sox was the largest among the 27 players who swapped figures with their teams on Jan. 12.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL UH assistant adds extra role
University of Houston tight ends coach James Casey will add the role of special teams coordinator next season, coach Major Applewhite announced Wednesday.
Casey, in his third year with the program, was in charge of the punt team and assisted on kickoff returns last season.
SOCCER Dash sign two midfielders
The Dash have added two midfielders to the roster for the 2018 season.
The club signed Americans Michaela Hahn and Allison Wetherington.
After a four-year career at Florida State, Hahn, 23, was picked ninth overall in the 2016 National Women’s Soccer League draft by the Western New York Flash.
Hahn was waived during preseason camp in 2017. Seattle claimed her off waivers in April but waived her in July. Hahn then signed with Apollon Limassol in Cyprus.
Wetherington, 23, earned two all-conference first team honors in her four seasons at the University of Portland. She was not selected in the 2017 NWSL draft.
PRO BASKETBALL Ex-pro Butler, wife die in crash
Former NBA forward Rasual Butler and his wife were killed in a single-vehicle rollover crash in Los Angeles early Wednesday.
The Range Rover crashed around 2:30 a.m. in the Studio City area and left a swath of damage along a major thoroughfare. L.A. police said in a statement that Butler was speeding before his vehicle jumped a curb, hit three parking meters and a concrete wall and then flipped over twice. The vehicle came to rest inside a shopping mall parking lot.
Butler, 38, and Leah LaBelle Vladowski, 31, were pronounced dead at the scene.
Butler was drafted in 2002 by the Miami Heat out of LaSalle University in his hometown of Philadelphia. He played for eight NBA teams during his 13-year career, including the Los Angeles Clippers, Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs.
Butler’s wife earned a measure of celebrity as an R&B singer. She placed 12th in the third season of “American Idol” in 2004.