Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry denied Wednesday that he said he would use the All-Star break to determine the future of manager Dusty Baker.

“My stance has never changed,” Hendry said. “Jim Hendry is operating under the same situation all along. There was never any comment by me that there would be a decision over the All-Star break. ... Nothing has changed.”

Speculation that Baker or some of his coaches would be fired over the break has been raging. Not so, says Hendry.

“People can write and say what they want,” he added.

The Cubs are 34-54 after sweeping Milwaukee in their final three games. Baker is in the fourth and final year of his contract, and will be on the bench when the Cubs open the second half of the season against the New York Mets on Friday.
The Cubs’ string of injuries continued at the All-Star game Tuesday night when their lone representative, Carlos Zambrano, was accidentally hit in the elbow by the fungo bat of American League coach Joey Cora.

Zambrano was near the batting cage to do an interview with Venezuelan reporters when Cora’s backswing inadvertently hit him. X-rays were negative and Zambrano was diagnosed with a bruise. He had been scheduled to pitch two innings for the National League but was unable to go.

Hendry said Wednesday that Zambrano was OK. The ace right-hander’s next scheduled start is Saturday against the Mets.

The Cubs have been hurt by first-half injuries to Kerry Wood, Mark Prior and Derrek Lee.

Wood has a partially torn rotator cuff and could miss the rest of the season. Prior, who started the season on the DL with a sore shoulder, is 0-4 and hurt his oblique muscle taking batting practice over the weekend. Lee, the 2005 NL batting champion, missed 59 games with a broken wrist.

Rick Casares had choices. He was offered a shot at professional boxing. With some practice, maybe he could have become an Olympian in the javelin. In 1950, as he sat in the swank University of Kentucky basketball office, the words seemed intoxicating.

"I want you to play for me," Adolph Rupp said.

Kentucky's football coach - an up-and-comer named Bear Bryant - wanted him, too.

But more than anything, Casares followed his heart. He wanted to be a Gator. And he listened to his head. Of all his talents, Casares was best suited for football.

Some people still think Casares, from Tampa's Jefferson High, was the greatest all-around athlete to play football at the University of Florida. Certainly, his versatility was a major highlight of UF's 1950s era under Coach Bob Woodruff.

If you examine the Gators record books, though, it's difficult to detect a mention of Casares, except in the dutiful listing of all-time lettermen. That doesn't do nearly enough justice to his legacy.

"If anybody got in Rick's way," said former Gators running back Mike Karaphillis, a former roommate, "their anatomy could get rearranged pretty quickly. He was a real sweetheart off the field. But man, was he a rough and tough runner."

Longtime fans of the Chicago Bears need no proof of that. After a 10-year NFL career, Casares retired as Chicago's all-time leading rusher (a record broken by Walter Payton).

At Florida, Casares' staying power is best related through anecdotes.

"Rick was a rock of a player," said former Gators quarterback Doug Dickey, UF's head coach from 1970-78. "The Florida program never had seen a total athlete like that before, and I think it probably has only had a handful like that ever since."

Picture Joakim Noah lining up at wide receiver.

Visualize Chris Leak launching 3-pointers at the O'Connell Center.

Impossible?

Not in the 1950s. Not with Rick Casares.

In football, he was the place-kicker and punter. He played some quarterback. But he was best suited at fullback, where, at 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, he seemed like a giant.

He was captain of the Gators basketball team, averaging a career double-double (15.9 points, 11.4 rebounds).

"He was one of those rare guys who would've done well in any sport," Dickey said. "We were just glad we had him on our side with the Gators."

How good was Casares? When recruiting analysts were polled in 2002 by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, only five modern-era players were deemed physically skilled enough to have jumped directly from high school to the NFL - running back Herschel Walker, defensive lineman Andre Carter, wide receiver Randy Moss, linebacker Junior Seau and Casares.

"That's really flattering," said Casares, 74, who lives in Tampa and said he's feeling great these days, despite two knee replacements, an ankle replacement and a shoulder replacement (all performed in the last 14 years).

At Florida, Casares had a pedestrian-sounding 1,163 career rushing yards on 361 carries. Five other Gators have topped that total in one season.

"People probably see my numbers and think, 'What's the fuss over this guy?'" Casares said.

Numbers can't tell the whole story. Casares might have been victimized by his versatility. It seemed that Woodruff never settled on a permanent position for his star player. Had Casares become the featured back at Notre Dame - another choice, by the way - a 25-carry-per-game workload might have put him into Heisman Trophy consideration.

Instead, at Florida, Gators fans enjoyed smaller doses of his power.

"We should've played him more," Karaphillis said. "When he got under way, they didn't know how to stop him."

The best example was in 1952, an 8-3 season that featured the first bowl game in UF history. Casares led a 30-0 win against Georgia by carrying 27 times for 108 yards and one touchdown. He also kicked three extra points and booted a 24-yard field goal.

"He was as great of a college fullback as I've ever seen," former Georgia coach Wally Butts once said. "That day [in 1952], I think he must have set some kind of all-time record for piling up yardage while carrying Georgia players on his back. We couldn't tackle him."

Casares never had enough of those days. His UF career was cut short by a serious automobile accident, then he was drafted into the Army. As it turned out, that was his big break. The Bears discovered him when he became an all-service running back while stationed in South Carolina. By then, he weighed 235 pounds.

"I couldn't be happier with the way my life turned out," Casares said. "When I made that recruiting trip to Kentucky, I was floating. They really wanted me.

"It boiled down to the fact that I was a Florida high school player and I felt I should go to Florida. People have always remembered me and treated me so nice. Sure, I probably didn't have the [college] career I could have had. But I'm proud to be a Gator. I made the right choice."

The Chicago Bears came to an agreement with their last two unsigned draft picks, S Danieal Manning and DT Dusty Dvoracek.

Manning, a second-round pick for the Bears, comes from Division II Abilene Christian. For his career, the 5-11, 201 lb safety, recorded 159 tackles, 11 interceptions, six forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries and two sacks. He is also the only active Abilene Christian player selected for the school's all-century squad.

Dvoracek, Chicago's 6-3, 305 lb third round pick, played his college career for the Oklahoma Sooners. He totaled 131 tackles, 16 sacks, one interception and three fumble recoveries. Dvoracek will be reunited with former teammate, Bears' Pro-Bowl DT Tommie Harris. The two played alongside each other for three seasons at Oklahoma, and will look to recreate that same chemistry that made them a formidable duo in the Big 12.

Chicago now has all seven of their 2006 NFL draft picks signed three weeks before the start of training camp.