McDowell Gets Knocked Out

Cy Young Award winner Jack McDowell of the Chicago White Sox was knocked unconscious during a fight in the New Orleans French Quarter early Thursday but was not charged.

Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, 28, was involved in the incident and booked for public drunkenness and disturbing the peace, Sgt. Elizabeth Wigginton said.

Wigginton originally said that McDowell, 27, also was charged but then said he wasn’t.

Wigginton said the fight reportedly started about 4:15 a.m. when Vedder spit in the face of another man.

McDowell, a rock musician in his spare time, was treated for a cut lip and scalp lacerations inflicted by a bouncer.

*

Relief pitcher Norm Charlton, recovering from major surgery on his left elbow, refused a minor league assignment by the Seattle Mariners and became a free agent. . . . Curt Flood finally received the Gold Glove he won after the 1969 season. After that year, the St. Louis Cardinals’ center fielder challenged baseball’s reserve clause with a lawsuit that eventually reached the Supreme Court. No one is sure why Flood never received his award.

Tennis

Martina Navratilova, playing in a tournament she won four times and facing an opponent less than half her age, lost to Mary Pierce, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, in the quarterfinals of the Virginia Slims Championships at New York.

Pierce, 18, registered her second consecutive upset in the $3.5-million season-ending tournament. She advanced to the semifinals, where she will meet the winner of tonight’s match between Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Jana Novotna.

In another quarterfinal, top-seeded Steffi Graf crushed Amanda Coetzer, 6-1, 6-2.

Pete Sampras advanced to the semifinals of the ATP Tour World Championship at Frankfurt, Germany, by beating Stefan Edberg, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3).

Edberg, ranked No. 5, is 1-1 and could still reach the semifinals if he beats Goran Ivanisevic today.

Ivanisevic needed smelling salts to overcome breathing problems and went on to defeat Sergi Bruguera, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).

Andrei Medvedev of Ukraine beat Michael Chang, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, to earn a semifinal match with Sampras.

Pro Basketball

Charles Barkley has been accused of punching a man in a Scottsdale, Ariz., bar who says the Phoenix Sun star cursed two women trying to start a conversation with him.

Lt. Mike Keeley identified the man as Edward Durham, 36, of Glendale, Ariz. Durham was accompanying the two women. He said in his complaint that Barkley became verbally abusive in telling the women to leave him alone.

Hockey

Brian Rolston and Ted Crowley had two goals each as the United States defeated Norway, 10-5, in the Telehockey Cup pre-Olympic tournament at Lillehammer.

The Chicago Blackhawks have reached tentative agreement with defenseman Chris Chelios on a five-year deal worth about $12.5 million, the richest contract ever negotiated by the team.

Miscellany

St. John’s, citing “sensitivities to Native American communities,” will no longer call its sports teams the Redmen, a nickname it has used since 1922. The school said it has appointed a committee to come up with a new name. No timetable has been set. . . . Police have charged two men with the murder of a spectator at Wales’ World Cup soccer qualifying game against Romania. John Francis Hill, 67, was struck with a fireworks rocket before the final whistle as Wales lost, 2-1, to Romania at Cardiff Arms Park in Wales.

Names in the News

Golfer Heather Farr, who underwent surgery three times in a week to stop brain hemorrhaging, suffered seizures and remained in critical condition in a Scottsdale, Ariz., hospital. . . . Wilfredo Vazquez of Puerto Rico successfully defended his World Boxing Assn. junior-featherweight title in Tokyo by winning a unanimous decision over Japanese challenger Hiroaki Yokota. . . . Alexi Grewal, the only male Olympic road champion in U.S. history, is retiring from bicycle racing at the age of 33. Grewal was a 1984 Olympic champion. . . . Neale Stoner, former athletic director at Illinois and Cal State Fullerton, was named men’s golf coach at San Diego State.