Alex Johnson

Here's how things work these days: The manager, who improved his club by 26 victories last season, asks to have his status clarified by the general manager, who has saddled him with a lame roster, because the owner has the team on a shoestring budget until the new stadium opens. By way of reply, the general manager fires the manager. There went your career, Buddy Bell.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Angels lost an integral part of their bullpen Tuesday when left-handed reliever Scott Downs was placed on the 15-day disabled list because of a shoulder strain, an injury that could sideline him for several weeks. “We're comfortable with the fact that this won't push him back too far, but he might need a couple of weeks for this to settle down,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “Right now, it's a minor issue, and we want to keep it that way.” Downs, 37, will be replaced on the roster by left-hander Hisanori Takahashi, who was called up from triple-A Salt Lake and joined the team for Tuesday night's game against the Texas Rangers.

The family of a girl held captive for 10 months by two child molesters says state aid for her therapy was cut off while one of her kidnappers continues to receive money from the same fund. Tara Burke, now 8, was kidnapped in 1982. Nearly a year later she and another child escaped from a van parked in an industrial district of San Francisco. She had been repeatedly molested by kidnapper Luis "Tree Frog" Johnson and another man, Alex Cabarga.

Deep, deep, waay back in the center field seats sat Lee Pierce, and he was feeling good. With his shirt off, dark shades on and his feet propped on the empty seat in front of him, Pierce looked as if he might be napping in the brilliant afternoon sun. Then he took a sip of his beer, and you knew he was indeed awake and watching the game down there on the velvety grass of Anaheim Stadium.

LONDON -- Modern pentathlon has been in the Olympics since 1912, when Baron Pierre de Coubertin thought soldiers and cavalrymen needed their own event. He came up with the modern version (there had been pentathlon in the ancient Greek Olympics) that included fencing, swimming, shooting, horseback riding and running over the course of five days. De Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics, probably didn't envision a Mexican food stand at the riding grounds hawking burritos and chips and salsa, but, hey, times change.

With every volcanic eruption caused either by his wooden bat or thick head, Albert Belle follows in the footsteps of immortals, and not only to Cooperstown. Who says we don't have the great ones in our midst anymore?

PEOPLE Calling It Quits: Another prominent Hollywood lesbian couple split Tuesday, when singer Melissa Etheridge and director Julie Cypher announced they were ending their relationship after 12 years. The breakup of the couple--whose family pictures made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in January when they announced that rock legend David Crosby had fathered their two children--comes in the wake of last month's split of Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche.

The Angels can't shake the .500 mark. The offense is stagnant at times, particularly at the top of the lineup. Amid the mediocrity -- and despite it -- Garret Anderson is on pace for one of the best seasons in franchise history. Anderson hit two home runs and drove in four runs Thursday, sparking the Angels to a 7-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals at Edison Field.

The Colorado Rockies, who hoard healthy and productive pitchers with an almost religious fervor, dumped Scott Karl a week ago. Even with the Coors Field allowance for an inflated earned-run average, Karl did not pitch very well. He started nine games, won one and left town lugging a 7.68 ERA. So the Angels picked him up and gave him a start Tuesday. He did not pitch very well. In fact, he did not pitch past the third inning. But the Angels won.