Oakland Coliseum

Dear Stadium Doctor:Our new stadium presents an excellent opportunity to establish a non-smoking and/or a non-drinking area -- in other words, family sections. Is this being considered?Also, was the highly regarded and highly successful Oakland Coliseum experiment -- banning all smoking at the outdoor stadium -- ever contemplated?John SchleurPasadenaDear John Schleur:Thank you for your letter and for raising these excellent points about the new ballpark, which, as of late last night, still was located at Camden Yards.

At Oakland ColiseumDay ... ... ... Time ... ... ... TV ... ... StartersToday .. .. ... 4:05 ... ... ... HTS .. ... Ben McDonald (11-6, 4.26) vs.... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Ron Darling (9-9, 4.36)Tomorrow night ... 10:05 ... ... ... 54, 50 ... Mike Mussina (13-4, 2.94) vs.... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... undecidedSaturday .. ... ... 4:05 ... ... .. 54, 50 ... Sid Fernandez (6-4, 4.79) vs.... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. Todd Van Poppel (5-9, 6.51)

Auto racingDarwal Inc.: Named Jeff Hammond manager for driver Darrell Waltrip's Winston Cup team.BaseballAstros: Optioned P Jim Dougherty and P Donne Wall to Triple-A Tucson. Sent IF Mike Brumley and P Jerry to minor-league camp. Waived IF Ray Holbert.Blue Jays: Assigned P Frank Viola to Double-A Knoxville.Expos: Optioned P Derek Aucoin, OF Cliff Floyd and OF Ray McDavid to Triple-A Ottawa. Assigned P Ben Rivera, C Gilberto Reyes and IF Francisco Matos to Ottawa. Traded C Chris Howard to Mets for player to be named.

Blue Jays: Major-league baseball made its Las Vegas debut Monday night, and Toronto beat the Athletics, 9-6, behind homers by John Olerud, Alex Gonzalez and Domingo Cedeno. The A's were forced out of the Oakland Coliseum this week because of uncompleted renovations, so they'll play their first six games at Cashman Field. The game drew 7,294 to the 9,353-seat ballpark, the home of the Triple-A Las Vegas Stars.Indians: The crowd of 42,289 was the largest for a regular-season game at Jacobs Field and represented the 53rd straight sellout.

Athletics: All seven of Eric Chavez's homers this season have given Oakland the lead. Ben Grieve's homer was his first at home since July 18, 1998. Matt Stairs went 0-for-3, leaving him 2-for-26 on the A's nine-game homestand that ended yesterday and dropping his average to .239. With a no-decision, Kenny Rogers remains undefeated at Oakland Coliseum since 1994. He has won 16 straight decisions there.Rangers: Juan Gonzalez extended his hitting streak to a season-high nine games. Roberto Kelly left the game during his at-bat in the seventh with a strained left biceps.

The construction of Denver's Coors Field, proposed home of the National League's Colorado Rockies, may be delayed because the land could be contaminated with substances used to maintain railroad tracks, formerly on the site.Environmental engineers said the ballpark might not be ready for its planned opening in 1994 because a cleanup could take years.* PIRATES: President Carl Barger said he may step down before the season ends to concentrate on building the expansion Florida Marlins.Barger had said he hoped to remain with the Pirates for the full season and then move to Miami, an unprecedented arrangement that has drawn charges of conflict of interest.

SEATTLE -- Randy Milligan would like to be able to look back fondly on this year, but a lot is going to have to go right during the next few weeks to save his season.He has rebounded from a lengthy slump to go 9-for-19 during the past five games, but it will take a lot more than that for him to finish with a representative statistical performance. So Milligan is aiming instead at the one thing that would make 1992 a success no matter what -- a division title."If we make the playoffs or happen to go further," he said, "that would make this season the greatest ever."

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Shortstop Cal Ripken had a tough time negotiating the infield at the Oakland Coliseum this week, making three errors in the final two games of the series against the Oakland Athletics.Ripken had his first multiple-error game in more than a year Tuesday night, then bobbled a fourth-inning grounder by Mike Bordick in the series finale.In the space of less than 24 hours, he committed as many errors as he did during the entire 1990 season. He nearly doubled his error total for the season, going from four to seven.