NBA-MLB Teams

David Wilder, who has been the director of player development for the Chicago White Sox the past two seasons, interviewed with Red Sox executives for the job that Theo Epstein walked away from Oct. 31.

Yankees

Mariano Rivera wants New York to bring back Tom Gordon as his setup man. Gordon became a free agent after New York was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs and wanted to explore whether a team desired him as a closer.

Rangers

Orel Hershiser resigned as pitching coach to become the team’s executive director. The move appeared to end Hershiser’s rumored candidacy for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ vacant managerial spot.

Nationals

Outfielder Jose Guillen will have arthroscopic surgery tomorrow on his left shoulder, which bothered him throughout the second half of the season. Second baseman Jose Vidro, meanwhile, won’t have an operation on his right knee.

He is Barry Bonds, which means he is 708 home runs in the big leagues and counting, about to pass Babe Ruth, just 47 home runs shy of Henry Aaron’s all-time home run record. You know what this makes Bonds, everywhere except San Francisco? It makes him baseball’s worst nightmare.
So far, and maybe forever, there is no positive steroid test with Bonds’ name attached to it. There has been a rumor around baseball for some time that Bonds might have tested positive in that original “survey” season of 2003. No such positive has ever surfaced, at least in public.

There is a list with more than 100 names on it, ballplayers’ names, from 2003. The Players Association is trying to hold on to that list; the government still wants it. These are the 100 or so dim bulbs of baseball who kept using steroids even when they knew testing was coming, maybe still convinced at that point that they were bulletproof, because of their union, where performance-enhancing drugs were concerned. And that doesn’t even count the ones who were using THG, then undetectable.

Maybe Bonds is on that list, maybe not. But whether he is or not, one thing does not change:

When he does break those records, Aaron’s record especially, there is going to be the feeling, with baseball fans everywhere, maybe even some Giants fans, that he had help getting there.

In a lot of ways, some of them symbolic, some real, the steroid era of baseball doesn’t end until Bonds’ career ends. Why? Because people think he did it, and not just accidentally, not just rubbing a steroid cream on himself and thinking it was flaxseed oil. We had betting slips with Pete Rose. So far, there is no such paper on Bonds.

So he will be the last one standing. Jason Giambi still will be around when Bonds is gone, but Giambi, as muscle-bound as he still is, is a small fry in the whole grand scheme of things compared to Barry Bonds, the greatest baseball player of his time, and one of the greatest of all time.

At least once next season - when Bonds passes Ruth - and then later on, maybe in September, if he passes Aaron, commissioner Bud Selig and Mr. Aaron himself will have to stand next to Bonds on the field and try to look as happy as the fans who are going to end up with the historic baseballs. If they can pull it off, all the other Best Actor nominees better look out at Oscar time.

Mark McGwire has disappeared from the public stage. Sammy Sosa won’t be far behind him. McGwire’s body broke down in a hurry at the end. So did Sosa’s. Fancy that. Rafael Palmeiro has become a pathetic figure as he tries to somehow preserve his Hall of Fame credentials now that the world has a positive steroid test on him, one announced after he pointed a finger at the Congress of the United States and said he’d never used steroids in his life.

Bonds, back now from one of the slowest healing knee injuries on record, isn’t going anywhere, at least until he leaves the game for good, leaves us with our doubts, or the firm belief that he did it, and might be still doing it. That he might be a step ahead of the testers the way he is a step ahead of all other players, with some concoction of human growth hormone, for which there still is no reliable test, and just enough testosterone that it doesn’t reach the threshold of a positive test.

We don’t know for sure and might never know for sure. We just know that Bonds said he used something known as “the clear” and “the cream” without knowing it was, and we know that his personal trainer, Greg Anderson, was as much a centerpiece of the BALCO case as was Victor Conte, and we have watched Bonds grow over the last 10 years the way his amazing numbers have.

The only way this changes is if there is a positive test with his name on it and someone can produce it. It would be a violation of Bonds’ privacy. It would. And some might say that if he has been using steroids over the past decade, as gifted a hitter and player as he was before that, then he goes to the head of the line with the drug cheats and deserves what he gets.

If Bonds cheated, he deserves what he gets from fans the way McGwire does, after the way McGwire took what the Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan calls “the Fourth-and-a-Half Amendment” in front of Congress. He deserves what Palmeiro has gotten since we got news of his positive test.

Baseball passed a big steroid policy last week, and that is what is really supposed to end the era of suspicion. Not as long as Barry Bonds keeps hitting them out of sight.

New York Knicks coach Larry Brown had a feeling that Stephon Marbury was ready for a breakout game.

And so he was. Marbury scored a season-high 27 points yesterday to help New York beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 103-92, giving Brown his first Knicks victory at Madison Square Garden.

“I thought Steph was phenomenal,” Brown said. “I loved the way he was being aggressive. I told people before the game he would play great.”

Marbury’s cousin Sebastian Telfair scored a career-high 27 points for the Blazers in his return home.

Channing Frye added 20 points and Jamal Crawford had 19 for New York. Zach Randolph had 17 points and Darius Miles added 16 for the Blazers.

Raptors 107, Heat 94

TORONTO - Toronto won its first game of the season by beating first-place Miami, ending the Raptors’ longest losing streak since 2003.

Chris Bosh had a season-high 27 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Raptors, who opened the season 0-9. Mike James added 25 points for Toronto.

Clippers 113, Warriors 101

LOS ANGELES - Elton Brand had 32 points and 10 rebounds and Corey Maggette scored 24 points as Los Angeles beat Golden State.

Cuttino Mobley had 22 points for Los Angeles and Sam Cassell added 14 points and 10 assists. The Pacific Division-leading Clippers improved to 8-2, the best start in the franchise’s 36-year history, and pulled back to a tie with defending champion San Antonio for the best record in the Western Conference.

Baron Davis had 21 points and 13 assists for the Warriors. Jason Richardson scored 20 points, but hardly put a dent in a 17-point lead the Clippers built in the third quarter.

Golden State led by as many as eight before the Clippers pulled ahead for good on a layup by Zeljko Rebraca.

Pacers 85, Rockets 74

INDIANAPOLIS - Ron Artest scored 24 points to help Indiana beat Houston.

Yao Ming led the Rockets with 24 points and 13 rebounds but was 8 for 21 from the field.

The Pacers (6-3) won their second in a row heading into a Thanksgiving night showdown with Cleveland.

The shorthanded Rockets (3-7) lost their third game in a row. Their top scorer, Tracy McGrady, missed the game because of a strained back.

SuperSonics 106, Kings 104

SEATTLE - Ray Allen scored 21 of his 28 points in the second half Seattle won its third straight, over Sacramento.

Sacramento center Brad Miller missed two free throws with 26.8 seconds remaining and the Sonics ahead, 103-101. Then Luke Ridnour made his two free throws seconds later to give Seattle a four-point lead.

Peja Stojakovic led Sacramento with 25 points - all in the first half - before a third-period hand injury let Allen and Seattle take over the game.

Nuggets 99, Grizzlies 83

DENVER - Marcus Camby had 21 points and 21 rebounds in 34 minutes to help Denver beat Memphis.

Carmelo Anthony added 21 points and 10 rebounds in 36 minutes, and Earl Boykins had 18 points for Denver (6-5), which moved over .500 for the first time this season.

Memphis got 24 points and 12 rebounds from Pau Gasol and 20 points from Shane Battier.

Bulls 96, Lakers 93

LOS ANGELES - Chris Duhon scored 11 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter, and Chicago beat Los Angeles despite 43 points by Kobe Bryant.

Michael Sweetney, who had 20 points and 12 rebounds, made a free throw with 24.8 seconds remaining to give the Bulls a 94-93 lead, and Bryant missed badly from close range about 10 seconds later.

Duhon was fouled and made two free throws with 11 seconds left to complete the scoring. Bryant and Lamar Odom each missed three-pointers before time expired.

Los Angeles played without starting forward Kwame Brown, who is expected to be sidelined up to two weeks by a strained right hamstring. Forwards Slava Medvedenko and Luke Walton are sidelined with injuries as well, leaving the Lakers very thin up front.

Kirk Hinrich had 16 points and eight assists and Luol Deng scored 14 for the Bulls. Duhon also had eight assists. Tyson Chandler had 15 rebounds to lead Chicago to a 48-38 advantage in that department.

Chris Mihm added 13 points for the Lakers.

Host Toronto won its first game of the season by beating first-place Miami, ending the Raptors’ longest losing streak since 2003.

Chris Bosh had a season-high 27 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Raptors, who opened the season 0-9 - the worst start in their 11-year history. Mike James added 25 points for Toronto.

The Raptors went on an 18-2 run late in the fourth to seal the victory and ended their longest losing streak since a 12-game skid from Dec. 18, 2002 to Jan. 10, 2003.

Toronto’s win leaves the Atlanta Hawks as the NBA’s only winless team.

Dwyane Wade had 33 points, nine assists and eight rebounds for the Heat, who were missing an injured Shaquille O’Neal. Wade scored six straight points and assisted on Jason Kapono’s open 3-pointer, giving Miami a 86-80 lead with six minutes left.

Noteworthy: O’Neal sprained his ankle Nov. 3 and still is at least one week away from returning to the lineup.

CLIPPERS 113, WARRIORS 101

Elton Brand had 32 points and 10 rebounds, Corey Maggette scored 24 points and host Los Angeles beat Golden State.

Cuttino Mobley had 22 points for Los Angeles, and Sam Cassell added 14 points and 10 assists.

Life is a lot more enjoyable for the Toronto Raptors now that they’ve finally won a game.

The rebuilding Raptors beat the Miami Heat 107-94 Sunday to snap a woeful nine-game losing streak. And, for now at least, all was right in Raptorland. “I feel good, I’m happy for those guys in there,” Mitchell said, pointing towards the Raptors locker-room, “Being the coach is one thing, but when you have to go out there in front of 19,000 people and prove yourself every night. . . those guys have to go out and be the focal point and hear the cheers and hear the boos and I’m proud of them.”

Bosh had 27 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Raptors, James added 25 points and six assists and Jalen Rose finished with 22 points.

The Raptors’ first victory came against one of the most dangerous teams in the East. Toronto won despite shooting a horrible 16 per cent in the first quarter and trailing by 15 points in the second.

The Raptors battled back with plain old hustle: they outrebounded the Heat 47-39, their shots started falling, and they took their first lead of the game on a basket by Bosh with 4:24 left to play.

“Miami thought it was going to be an easy win for them but they didn’t know we were hungry,” said rookie Charlie Villanueva.

Consecutive baskets by James and Villanueva gave the Raptors a 93-88 lead with 2:27 on the clock and the delirious crowd of 17,594 at the Air Canada Centre didn’t sit down for the rest of the game.

Elsewhere in the NBA on Sunday, it was: New York 103, Portland 92; L.A. Clippers 113, Golden State 101; Indiana 85, Houston 74; Denver 99, Memphis 83; Seattle 106, Sacramento 104; Chicago 96, L.A. Lakers 93.

At Toronto, the Raptors could do little wrong the rest of the way. James connected on a three-pointer with 1:45 left, part of a 14-point fourth-quarter performance for the guard, and Bosh added a basket for good measure with 1:14 on the clock to give Toronto a 10-point lead and cruise to a victory.

“We just got it done,” said Rose. “It wasn’t about the statistics, it wasn’t about shutting down Wade, because we didn’t, it was just about playing four quarters when we had a bad first quarter, finding a way to fight back when we got down during the game and making plays at the end of the game.”

The mood in the post-game dressing room was happy but subdued.

“You can always tell the difference, everyone likes each other again,” grinned James.

“The mood always lightens up after a win, the people are nicer, the food tastes better, practice is more fun,” added Bosh. “It definitely lightens up the mood and it gives us momentum.”

Dwyane Wade scored 33 points to lead the Heat (6-4), who were playing without Shaquille O’Neal, out with a severely sprained ankle.

The Raptors had been closing in on the NBA record for most consecutive losses at the start of the season (17) shared by the Los Angeles Clippers (1998-99) and Miami Heat (1988-89). The Raptors handily beat their previous worst start to the season, when they went 0-3 in 2000-01. But they’d been knocking on victory’s door this past week with close losses to Seattle, Philadelphia (two) and Boston.