Knoblauch

New York Mets general manager Joe McIlvaine is considering putting together a package to acquire All-Star second baseman Chuck Knoblauch from the Minnesota Twins, club sources said.Knoblauch recently won $4.67 million in salary arbitration after Minnesota failed to sign him to a multi-year contract.

It's a fact The White Sox, who picked 18th in last week's draft, are the only team since 1991 without a top 10 selection. Milestone Sammy Sosa of the Cubs has reached 20 home runs for the 10th straight season. The number .167: Chuck Knoblauch's bat ting average when the Royals placed him on the 15-day dis abled list Thursday.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The education of a rookie is an ongoing process, even when it's Chuck Knoblauch, who is virtually certain to be the American League's Rookie of the Year.The Minnesota Twins' second baseman was standing on second for the first time since Sunday, when he hit a two-run double in the sixth inning that gave the Twins a 5-5 tie in the game that won them the pennant.Looking on Sunday at the SkyDome was a crowd of more than 50,000. The only people present yesterday were the Twins, resuming preparation for the World Series, and a few dozen media types at the Metrodome.

NEW YORK - Bringing back pitcher Curt Schilling on short rest last night for Game 4 of the World Series also meant that Arizona manager Bob Brenly was forcing Miguel Batista to again step aside. Brenly hoped he wasn't stepping on anyone's feelings. Batista has gotten pretty good at swallowing his pride and waiting his next opportunity, convinced it's for the good of the team. Rather than take his scheduled turn last night, he was held back for tonight's matchup with former Oriole Mike Mussina, who took the loss for New York in the Series opener.

TORONTO -- You watch Chuck Knoblauch play second base for the Minnesota Twins and you figure baseball is going to survive. You figure they can shower the world with lockouts and holdouts and colossal egos, but the game is going to be fine as long as there are kids breaking in like this.Kids who don't so much play the game as wear it, sliding headfirst and getting banged up and diving around, hitting breaking balls to the opposite field and putting down Cooperstown bunts and taking to the postseason as though they were wizened old galoots.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Chili Davis finished it off, but Chuck Knoblauch was the key figure in the improbable comeback by the Minnesota Twins yesterday."Two outs, two strikes and [Gregg] Olson on the mound -- that's as deep a hole as you can get into," said ex-Orioles hitting coach Terry Crowley, who now performs the same duties for the Twins. "You have to just put it [the ball] in play, make something happen."Which is exactly what Knoblauch did -- for the first time in his career against Olson. "I think it was my first hit off him," the Twins second baseman said of his two-out single to right field.

The Minnesota Twins may have upset the delicate balance of power in the American League East yesterday when they reportedly agreed to trade impact second baseman Chuck Knoblauch to the New York Yankees for four minor-league prospects and cash.Knoblauch, who batted .291 and scored 117 runs in 1997, will move right to the top of an already solid offensive lineup and improve the Yankees' up-the-middle defense, without costing the club a player who would have made the club's 25-manmajor-league roster this season.

NEW YORK - It doesn't take much these days to irritate Chuck Knoblauch. Remove him from second base, or the lineup, and he's liable to skip pre-game fielding. Ask him about the possibility of returning to his position tonight for Game 3 of the World Series and he grows impatient with the question. Knoblauch opened the season as the New York Yankees' starting second baseman, but continued problems throwing the ball to first caused manager Joe Torre to replace him with the more reliable Luis Sojo.

Quote: "George said to me last winter, 'What do we need to get better?' I said, 'Knoblauch.' Boom, we get Knoblauch. That's the way he is." -- Yankees pitcher David Cone on George Steinbrenner and the acquisition of second-baseman Chuck Knoblauch.It's a fact: Former Blue Jays Otis Nixon, Orlando Merced and ZTC Paul Molitor were all in the Twins' starting lineup in Toronto last night.Who's hot: The Tigers' Luis Gonzalez is hitting .667 with five RBIs in two games.Who's not: The Devil Rays' Wilson Alvarez, a $35 million free agent, is 0-1 with a 23.14 ERA after his 2 1/3 -inning outing against the Tigers on Tuesday.

MINNEAPOLIS -- In a World Series that produced so many memorable plays, it is somewhat ironic that not even the principals can agree on the one that may have decided Game 7 here last night.Both managers, Bobby Cox of Atlanta and Tom Kelly of Minnesota, said they not only didn't think Lonnie Smith was decoyed on a play in the eighth inning, but that he wasn't running on the pitch when Terry Pendleton doubled to left-centerfield.However, both of the Twins' middle infielders, second baseman Chuck Knoblauch and shortstop Greg Gagne, insisted both accounts were wrong.

So, how hard can this predicting business really be? Did you need an astrologer to tell you that the New York Yankees would win another world championship in 2000? That the Phil Jackson-Shaquille O'Neal-Kobe Bryant triangle offense would shape the Los Angeles Lakers into NBA champions? That Marion Jones would wear more gold around her neck at the Olympics than Michael Johnson does on his feet? Hardly. And 2001 seems pretty straightforward, too: JANUARY: Following the lead of NBC, which hired Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura as a commentator on XFL games, Fox names President George W. Bush to its baseball broadcasting team.

NEW YORK - Orlando Hernandez went into his Game 3 start for the New York Yankees last night with a career 8-0 record in the postseason and some flu-like symptoms that briefly raised questions about his availability. Manager Joe Torre checked on Hernandez around 6:30 p.m. and became encouraged after seeing "El Duque" swinging a bat in the clubhouse. A potential crisis had been averted, leaving the focus where it belonged in this World Series - on New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza's splintered bat. "If there was anything going on, it was probably a little cold or something," Torre said of Hernandez, who wound up pitching fine, allowing four runs in 7 1/3 innings with 12 strikeouts - a Yankees World Series record.

NEW YORK - It doesn't take much these days to irritate Chuck Knoblauch. Remove him from second base, or the lineup, and he's liable to skip pre-game fielding. Ask him about the possibility of returning to his position tonight for Game 3 of the World Series and he grows impatient with the question. Knoblauch opened the season as the New York Yankees' starting second baseman, but continued problems throwing the ball to first caused manager Joe Torre to replace him with the more reliable Luis Sojo.

NEW YORK -- Chuck Knoblauch and Chad Curtis.If anything, they figured to be goats of this World Series, not heroes.Knoblauch is the guy who was unable to complete a simple throw to first base, unable to conquer the mental demons that diminished his reputation as one of the game's top leadoff hitters.Curtis is the guy who barely made the postseason roster, the guy who criticized the popular Derek Jeter when the Yankees' shortstop appeared to fraternize with Alex Rodriguez during a fight with the Seattle Mariners.

ATLANTA -- Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox and his counterpart, the New York Yankees' Joe Torre, are taking different approaches to setting up their rosters for the World Series.Cox apparently will stand pat, though he has until noon today to change his mind. He'll most likely stay with nine pitchers and keep Jorge Fabregas as a third catcher because of continued concerns over the knee of Eddie Perez, the Most Valuable Player of the National League Championship Series."We're still worried about Eddie's knee blowing out," Cox said.

NEW YORK -- Chalk it up to the "Curse of the Bambino" if you want, but the Boston Red Sox have their hands plenty full with the modern-day players who inhabit Yankee Stadium. The Red Sox hung tough for two nights, but the defending world-champion New York Yankees had the last word each time, going up two games in the American League Championship Series with last night's 3-2 victory. Name your unlikely hero. Rusty right-hander David Cone delivered a gutsy seven-inning, seven-hit performance and matched his postseason high with nine strikeouts on the way to his seventh victory in 10 career postseason decisions.

It's a fact The White Sox, who picked 18th in last week's draft, are the only team since 1991 without a top 10 selection. Milestone Sammy Sosa of the Cubs has reached 20 home runs for the 10th straight season. The number .167: Chuck Knoblauch's bat ting average when the Royals placed him on the 15-day dis abled list Thursday.

PHILADELPHIA -- The New York Yankees set an American League record with 114 regular-season victories last year. Now, they're having trouble living up to one of the greatest single-season performances in baseball history."