BRIEFLY : WILL TV CABLE SYSTEMS PULL PLUG ON ESPN?

Byline: - Daily News Wire Services

The cable industry's top executive doubts the nation's cable-TV systems will pull ESPN out of the expanded basic package of service to control soaring programming costs.

``I don't think that's going to happen,'' Decker Anstrom, president of the National Cable Television Association told reporters in Atlanta. ``I don't think that's serious.''

Anstrom was responding to a report Monday in The Wall Street Journal that some unidentified cable companies are considering breaking ESPN out of the expanded basic tier, which contains most cable TV networks. Instead, the network would be included in a smaller, separate package containing only sports channels.

Doing that would likely increase prices substantially to cable-TV viewers who want to watch ESPN but would modestly lower prices for customers who buy the expanded basic package of service, Anstrom said.

``I don't believe it . . . makes much sense for our customers,'' he said.

ESPN recently boosted by 20 percent the amount it charges cable systems.

That came shortly after ESPN agreed to pay a record $600 million for new NFL broadcast rights.

BASEBALL: San Diego Padres third baseman Ken Caminiti will be placed on the 15-day disabled list, probably today, because of a strained left quadriceps.

Mickey Mantle's family was unaware the FBI kept a dossier on the baseball great showing he was threatened by gamblers and blackmailed for having an affair with a woman.

Kansas City outfielder Jeff Conine worked out at Kauffman Stadium and was expected to be activated today after missing the first part of the season with a strained stomach muscle.

Third baseman Edgardo Alfonzo of the New York Mets will miss 3-6 weeks because of a strained rotator cuff in his right shoulder.

A year-long investigation into the gambling habits of White Sox slugger Albert Belle uncovered no evidence Belle bet on baseball or participated in any activity that would result in a suspension, the Chicago Tribune reported.

TENNIS: Michael Chang, finally recovered from a knee injury in March, honed his game for the French Open by defeating David Prinosil 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 in the second round of the $2.5 million German Open in Hamburg, Germany.

ETC: Kings center Ray Ferraro underwent surgery to repair torn cartilage in his left knee. . . . Some boys and girls as young as 10 are taking illegal steroids to do better in sports, according to the first survey to look at use of the bodybuilding drugs as early as fifth grade. The survey found that 2.7 percent of 965 youngsters questioned at four Massachusetts middle schools are using anabolic steroids. . . . Nazr Mohammed, whose shot-blocking and rebounding helped lead Kentucky to the NCAA basketball championship, said he would forgo a senior season and enter the NBA draft. . . . Boxer Julio Cesar Chavez, the prosecution's star witness in promoter Don King's insurance-fraud trial, testified Monday in New York that he never signed an allegedly bogus contract submitted to Lloyd's of London. . . . Former Buffalo Bills special-teams standout Steve Tasker joined CBS as a game analyst for its coverage of the National Football League.