Rockies Lose Walker for Eight Weeks

Colorado outfielder Larry Walker will be out for at least eight weeks after breaking his left collarbone Sunday while crashing into the center-field wall at Coors Field. Walker was hitting .283 with 14 home runs and 43 runs batted in.

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Cincinnati Red owner Marge Schott is not the villain some people think, says Pete Rose, who managed the team for her before being forced out of baseball.

“The thing about Marge Schott is that she’s actually two people,” said Rose, in Harrisburg, Pa., for a baseball card show. “Marge is the happiest person in the world when she goes to the ballpark.

“She’ll sit there for 2 1/2 hours every night, sign autographs, talk to the writers and the TV guys. But when the lights go out and it’s time for her to go, she goes home alone. She has no immediate family, no kids or friends,” Rose told the Patriot-News.

After Schott made a series of insulting remarks about ethnic and religious groups, baseball owners began trying to force her out of day-to-day operation of the Reds. While Rose said he doesn’t agree with her comments and called them “bad,” he added: “I think Marge Schott is harmless. What she has to do is she has to learn to keep her mouth shut.”

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Reliever Blas Minor was traded by the New York Mets to the Seattle Mariners for minor league infielder Randy Vickers. Minor was 0-0 with a 3.51 earned-run average in 17 games. . . . The Boston Red Sox re-acquired outfielder Lee Tinsley, getting him back from Philadelphia for minor league pitcher Scott Bakkum. Boston traded Tinsley, reliever Ken Ryan and outfield prospect Glenn Murray to the Phillies in January for reliever Heathcliff Slocumb and prospects Rick Holifield and Larry Wimberly.