Padres’ Caminiti, Gwynn Hurting

San Diego Padre third baseman Ken Caminiti and outfielder Tony Gwynn did not play against Colorado on Thursday because of injuries.

Caminiti, the 1996 NL most valuable player, injured his left hamstring Wednesday night against Oakland and is expected to sit out the four-game series against the Rockies.

Caminiti, batting .249, said the injury could be as bad or worse as when he strained his right hamstring April 20. He sat out the next two games, then aggravated the hamstring May 11 and was put on the 15-day disabled list.

“It hurts more, but it’s not black and blue like the other one was,” Caminiti said. “That one got black and blue overnight. Sometimes you wake up and they feel a lot better.

“I can probably come back and play in a couple of days, but I’m just going to evaluate and see. I don’t want to take 15 days. When I let it sit for five or six days, it was perfect, but they already put me on the 15-day disabled list.”

Gwynn, second in the league with a .393 batting average, also sat out because of an Achilles’ tendon injury.

Gwynn, who wore a bootlike splint on his right foot to immobilize his inflamed right Achilles’ tendon, said his injury isn’t as severe as the Achilles’ injury that forced him to sit out 30 games last season.

“I’m fine with it; everyone else is panicking,” said Gwynn, who suffered the injury Sunday but kept playing before aggravating it Wednesday. “I’ll be back in there before they know it. Everybody else is looking at the worst. It’s not even close to last year.”

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Cub shortstop Shawon Dunston was put on the 15-day disabled list because of a leg injury. He hasn’t played since June 8, when he injured his left hamstring while running out a grounder.

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A lawsuit filed by a Tennessee clergyman after he was prohibited from hanging a religious banner at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati during the 1990 World Series has been settled.

The Reds, the city of Cincinnati and Hamilton County paid a total of $20,000 to the Rev. Guy Aubrey of Cleveland, Tenn., to settle the lawsuit, lawyers said. The city operated Riverfront--now known as Cinergy Field--in 1990 and Hamilton County owns the ballpark, home of the Reds.

Aubrey displayed a banner marked “John 3:16” for a biblical passage when he attended the second game of the 1990 Series between the Reds and Oakland Athletics. Aubrey said he was told his sign violated major league baseball’s policy and was escorted out of the stadium.

U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel ruled that the Reds’ policy for banning such signs was unconstitutionally vague. In 1993 the Reds changed their policy to permit only “baseball-related” signs. Aubrey then brought a sign that read “Go Reds-John 3:16,” but he was again removed from the ballpark.