BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE MAJOR LEAGUES : Van Slyke Happy to Sign With Orioles

Andy Van Slyke got what he wanted, a job with the Baltimore Orioles, but the veteran outfielder had to take a sizable pay cut in order to extend his baseball career. He signed a one-year deal Friday that calls for a base salary of $550,000 and up to $250,000 in performance incentives.

Van Slyke, 34, had a $3.65-million contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates last season. Asked if he was pleased with his deal with the Orioles, Van Slyke shrugged twice. He then said, “I’m happy I got a contract.”

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Rick Sutcliffe, apparently unwanted at 38, retired with a rookie-of-the-year and Cy Young awards to show for 16 seasons in the major leagues. The right-hander, whose career record was 171-139, pitched last season for the St. Louis Cardinals, compiling a 6-4 record with a 6.42 earned-run average. . . . Former Cy Young winner Frank Viola, 35, who missed most of last season because of an elbow injury, agreed to a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. . . . Three-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddux, slowed by chickenpox, pitched impressively in an intrasquad game and will be the Atlanta Braves’ opening-day starter. . . . Roger Clemens will leave spring training so he can return to Boston for tests on his sore right shoulder, he said after cutting short another warm-up session. Manager Kevin Kennedy said the Red Sox will wait for the test results before deciding whether to put Clemens on the disabled list. . . . Texas Ranger outfielder Juan Gonzalez, who will sit out up to three weeks because of a herniated disk in his lower back, was re-examined by the team’s spine consultant in Dallas on Friday. . . . The Cincinnati Reds put backup outfielder Eric Anthony on the 15-day disabled list after he was scheduled for arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone spur in his left elbow. . . . Cleveland Catcher Sandy Alomar was cleared to play again after missing the last three exhibition games because of a sore left knee. . . . The Indians signed right-handed pitcher Jason Grimsley to a two-year deal and came to terms on one-year contracts with five other players--outfielder Manny Ramirez, infielder Herbert Perry and right-handed pitchers Paul Shuey, Albie Lopez and Jim Lewis.

A tax-watchdog group has joined the fight against a sales-tax increase to build a domed baseball stadium in Phoenix. The quarter-cent Maricopa County tax hike, approved in February 1994, took effect April 1, a few weeks after major league owners picked Phoenix as one of two 1998 expansion cities.