Baseball Notebook: Dal Canton, ex-pitcher, coach, dies

■ Pelicans: Bruce Dal Canton, a former high-school teacher who turned a good showing at a tryout camp into a long career as a major-league pitcher and coach, has died in Carnegie, Pa. He was 66.

Dal Canton died Tuesday of esophageal cancer. He worked until mid-May as the pitching coach at Class A Myrtle Beach, Atlanta's affiliate in the Carolina League.

Dal Canton went 51-49 with a 3.67 ERA from 1967 through 1977 with Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Atlanta and the Chicago White Sox.

Dal Canton, a right-hander, was used as both a starter and reliever, and found his best success with a knuckleball -- the darting pitch that also made him the 1974 AL leader in wild pitches with 16.

Before the Braves faced Pirates knuckleballer Tim Wakefield in the 1992 NL championship series, they brought in the 50-year-old Dal Canton to throw batting practice.

Dal Canton spent more than 25 years in the Atlanta system as a pitching coach, and had been at Myrtle Beach since 1999.

In June 1990, when Bobby Cox took over as manager of the Braves, Leo Mazzone replaced Dal Canton as their pitching coach.

In the mid-1960s, Dal Canton went to a Pirates' tryout camp, hoping for one last chance at a baseball career. The Pirates signed him and he made his major league debut with them in 1967.

Dal Canton went 8-2 with Pittsburgh in 1969 and then 9-4 with the 1970 NL East champions. After that season, the Pirates traded him with Freddie Patek to Kansas City. He was 8-10 for the Royals in 1974 and pitched his only two career shutouts.

■ Mets: Ambiorix Burgos, a 24-year-old reliever, was ordered by a judge to remain in jail in the Dominican Republic while awaiting trial for a hit-and-run accident that killed two women. Burgos told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the judge made the ruling out of concerns for his safety.

"I am going to come out of this fine because my conscience is clear, and I'm not worried this will affect my career because I haven't done anything," he said in the jailhouse interview.

Burgos is accused of abandoning the victims of the Sept. 30 accident and fleeing, charges that can carry six months to two years in prison. He disappeared after the accident but turned himself in on Tuesday. Witnesses say that Burgos was the driver of the Hummer that hit the two women, according to police. But Burgos told the AP that he was sitting in the back seat of the truck, with his cousin at the wheel.

■ Twins: Minnesota will keep backup catcher Mike Redmond for another season, paying him $950,000.

Redmond, 37, hit .287 in 38 games this season, with 12 RBIs. He has a .292 career average.

Redmond, a leader in the clubhouse, played fewer games this season. He played in 82 games in 2007, 47 in 2006 and 45 in his first year with the team in 2005.

Starter Joe Mauer, who won his second AL batting title in three seasons and was the starter in the All-Star game, stayed healthy this season and logged more time behind the plate.

Leg problems kept Mauer out of the lineup for a stretch of games last season.

■ Padres: San Diego cleared three more spots from its 40-man roster on Wednesday when it outrighted infielder Craig Stansberry and right-handers Tim Stauffer and Kevin Cameron to Class AAA Portland.

The 40-man roster is now at 32.

Stansberry played in 12 games, hitting .375.

Stauffer, San Diego's first-round pick in the June 2003 amateur draft, missed the entire season because of a right shoulder strain.

Cameron missed 73 games because of a sprained right elbow. He had no decisions and a 3.60 ERA in 10 relief appearances.

■ Reds: Dusty Baker is going back to youth baseball.

This weekend, Baker will be the fill-in coach for 9-year-old son Darren's 10-and-under traveling tournament team, Hard 90 Pastime out of Roseville, Calif., near the Bakers' Northern California home.

Baker, 59, spent his first season as manager of the Cincinnati Reds this year working with a roster of youngsters, but this of course will be much different. He finally gets to coach his son -- and in the Bay Area, no less. The tournament will be in nearby Sunnyvale.

"The head coach is away for the weekend. I begged my dad to coach the team," Darren said. "I'm very excited because it was his dream to always coach me."

Baker's son became a household name six years ago when, working as a San Francisco Giants bat boy, he ran onto the field near home plate during the World Series and was quickly scooped up by J.T. Snow to avoid being run over.

Darren always figured he'd have to wait for his father to retire before getting to have him as a coach. Baker recently told his son, "It's a dream of mine to coach you."

The team is ranked fourth nationally, No. 1 in Northern California and is coming off a title last weekend, according to Darren's mom, Melissa. Darren is the second baseman and occasional outfielder.

■ Dodgers: All these years later, Larry Bowa and Davey Lopes still disagree.

Bowa, now the Dodgers' third-base coach, played shortstop for Philadelphia in the 1977 NL championship series. Lopes, now the Phillies' first-base coach, played second base for Los Angeles in that matchup.

Both were involved in the key play from Game 3 that tilted the series.

With teams tied at one game each, the Phillies took a 5-3 lead into the ninth inning. They still led 5-4 with two outs and a runner on third when Lopes hit a hard grounder that bounced off third baseman Mike Schmidt and straight to Bowa.

Bowa fielded the carom and threw to first, and Lopes was called safe on a bang-bang play as the tying run scored.

Bowa said he's slowed the replay, sped up the replay and no matter the angle, Lopes was out.

"I know Davey says let it go, but he was out. He knows he was out and he can go look at that all day," Bowa said.

Lopes said he was safe and has never seen a replay.

"Why Larry keeps dwelling on it, I have no clue," Lopes said.

Lopes scored the winning run in a 6-5 victory and the Dodgers won the series with a 4-1 victory the next day.

■ Rays: Akinori Iwamura hit .389 with a home run and four RBIs in the first round of the playoffs, and Manager Joe Maddon of Tampa Bay figures his second baseman will keep swinging a solid bat.

"His confidence is very high right now," Maddon said yesterday. "I just want him to continue what he's been doing to this point."

Iwamura has had some of his better regular-season games against Boston. He has a .302 average against the defending World Series champions and has also hit five of his career 13 homers off Red Sox pitching.

"Boston is the team we're facing right now. There's no special feeling toward it," Iwamura said through a translator. "But it's a special team. It's a strong team."

Iwamura is 9 for 24 with one homer against Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Red Sox's starter for Game 1.