BASEBALL

TREMBLEY PASSES AUDITION, GETS ORIOLES JOB FOR 2008

Before committing to making Dave Trembley the manager of the Baltimore Orioles in 2008, Andy MacPhail wanted to see how the team reacted to failure.

MacPhail, the club’s president of baseball operations, never got much of a chance.

After the Orioles bounced back from three straight losses to Seattle this month to win two of three against both Boston and New York, the two best teams in the AL East, MacPhail decided Trembley was the ideal choice to lead the Orioles. MacPhail extended Trembley’s contract through the 2008 season, with a club option for 2009.

SHEFFIELD TO MISS SERIES WITH YANKEES

Gary Sheffield will be out of the Detroit Tigers’ lineup for a while because of a sore right shoulder that has bothered him for more than a month.

“It’s too bad to play with right now,” Sheffield said yesterday. “It’s more inflamed than it’s ever been. I’ve gotten the last cortisone (shot) I could get. September 1 is just around the corner. If not, I go on the DL.”

The slugger said he would be out for at least for the remainder of the team’s current homestand, which ends Monday night. That means Sheffield will miss the upcoming four-game series against the Yankees, which begins Friday. Sheffield played for the Yankees the previous three seasons.

FOOTBALL

BRADY AND ACTRESS MOYNAHAN WELCOME BABY BOY

It’s a boy for Bridget Moynahan and New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady.

The actress gave birth to the baby in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Moynahan’s publicist Christina Papadapoulos said in a statement.

“Both mother and baby are doing well,” she said. Other details were not immediately released.

BETTIS SAID HE FAKED INJURY TO KEEP FROM BEING CUT

Jerome Bettis, the no. 5 rusher in NFL history, claims in a new book that he faked a knee injury during training camp in 2000 so the Pittsburgh Steelers wouldn’t cut him and install Richard Huntley as the starter. Bettis was worried offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride favored Huntley over him and the Steelers were ready to let Bettis go, partly so they wouldn’t have to give him a new contract. Huntley had just signed a $4 million, three-year contract. “Man, did I do a nice job of acting,” Bettis wrote in the book, “The Bus: My Life in and Out of a Helmet.” “The thing is, I wasn’t faking that I had an injury. I was just faking that the injury happened on that short-yardage play. I had to fool the coaches and the team’s medical department into thinking the injury had occurred on that play. Otherwise, the Steelers would have had their reason to cut me and my salary.”