Major League Baseball
Notebook: Dozens attend Calderon wake in Puerto Rico

By The Associated Press

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CANOVANAS, Puerto Rico — Dozens attended yesterday's wake for former Mariners outfielder Ivan Calderon, who was shot to death in Puerto Rico on Saturday night.

Calderon, 41, was shot from behind multiple times at point-blank range at a bar in northeastern Loiza, police said. No arrests have been made.

Initial reports had Calderon being shot in a store rather than in a bar.

Police superintendent Victor Rivera Gonzalez ruled out robbery, saying that detectives were investigating revenge as a possible motive. Calderon's killers sought him out to "execute him," Gonzalez said.

Calderon started his 10-season career in the major leagues with the Mariners in 1984. He was traded to the Chicago White Sox during the 1986 season, and was an All-Star in 1991 as a member of the Montreal Expos. Calderon's last season was 1993, and he retired with a .272 career batting average and 104 home runs.

Calderon sometimes loaned money to people and worked as a bondsman, and allegedly posted bail for a person accused of murder, police said.

But Calderon's widow, Elsabeth Figueroa, denied the account, saying he did not loan money to strangers. Calderon dedicated himself to his family and cockfighting, a legal sport in this U.S. Caribbean territory, Figueroa said.

"He's not like they're making him out to be," she said.

Calderon was a regular patron of El Trompo bar, and he arrived there as usual Saturday evening in his late-model yellow Corvette, police said.

Less than two hours later, two men approached Calderon and without warning opened fire on him, police said. He was hit at least seven times in the back of the head and the back with a .45-caliber weapon.

Ruben Sierra, an ex-Mariner who plays for the New York Yankees, attended the wake. He declined to speak to reporters.

Notes

• Right-handed pitcher Cory Lidle, previously with Toronto, agreed to a one-year, $2.75 million contract with Cincinnati.

• Outfielder David Dellucci, who played for the Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks last season, signed a one-year, $750,000 deal with Texas.

• Catcher Brook Fordyce, previously with Baltimore, agreed to a one-year contract with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, pending a medical exam.

• Because Edison International dropped out of its naming-rights agreement, the Anaheim Angels' park previously known as Edison Field has been renamed Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

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