■ Cardinals: Mark McGwire is back in baseball, reunited with Tony La Russa as St. Louis hitting coach.
La Russa agreed to return for a 15th year as manager Monday with a one-year contract, the first time he hasn't had a multiyear deal with the team. All of his coaches will return except for Hal McRae, who will be replaced by McGwire
McGwire was not at the news conference at Busch Stadium, but La Russa and General Manager John Mozeliak said that there will be no effort to shield McGwire from questions about steroids.
McGwire hit a then-record 70 home runs in 1998 and retired with 583 homers and a .263 career average in 2001. He famously refused to answer questions about steroids use during a March 2005 congressional hearing, saying he wasn't there to talk about the past.
He has received just under 25-percent support from voters in his three appearances on the Hall of Fame ballot, well under the 75 percent needed. La Russa hopes that McGwire can use this position to repair a tarnished image.
"I'm a big fan of his," the manager said. "He's back in uniform and, hopefully, people will see his greatness. But the No. 1 reason he's here is to coach our hitters."
■ Indians: Manny Acta had two choices for his second job managing in the majors. He picked Cleveland over Houston, where his baseball career began.
Acta, Washington's former manager who turned down a chance to return to the Astros, was introduced as Cleveland's 40th manager yesterday. Acta signed a three-year contract with the Indians, who outbid the Astros over the weekend for him.
Acta spent 21/2 years with the Nationals, who fired him after a 21-61 start this season. He compiled a 158-252 record in Washington.
■ Padres: San Diego introduced Jed Hoyer as its new general manager yesterday.
Hoyer, who had been assistant to Boston GM Theo Epstein, was hired to replace Kevin Towers, who was fired during the last weekend of the season.
Padres vice chairman and CEO Jeff Moorad said that Hoyer is highly respected in baseball and is the right person to lead the Padres.
Moorad has said he wants a more "strategic approach" from his GM. Towers was known more as a seat-of-the-pants GM who built four NL West winners during his 14 seasons as GM, and had his 1998 club reach the World Series, where it was swept by the Yankees.
■ Yankees: Sports fans in New York overwhelmingly chose to watch a decisive baseball playoff game over a regular-season football matchup Sunday night.
The Yankees' chance to clinch a World Series berth went up against the Giants' meeting with the Arizona Cardinals. Fox said yesterday that its coverage of Game 6 of the AL championship series was watched by 26.4 percent of the market's homes with televisions and 40 percent of households with TVs in use at the time. The numbers for NBC's Sunday Night Football were 9.3 and 14.
Phillies fans were apparently scouting their next opponent: The figures were 20.6 and 31 for the ALCS in the Philadelphia market.
■ Pirates: Right-handed reliever Tyler Yates has chosen to become a free agent after Pittsburgh requested outright waivers on him.
Yates had Tommy John surgery in July to replace a torn ulnar-collateral ligament in his right elbow for the second time in his career. He is not expected to pitch again until the middle of next season. Yates also had the ligament repaired in 2002.
The Pirates apparently planned to offer Yates a minor-league contract, but he preferred to seek work in another organization. Yates made $1.3 million this season.
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