Johnson Bolts Mets, Signs With Rockies

Howard Johnson, one of six active players to have hit 200 homers and stolen 200 bases, became the first free agent to sign with another team in baseball’s off-season, agreeing Friday to a one-year contract with the Colorado Rockies.

The switch-hitting Johnson, who will turn 33 on Nov. 29, is a veteran of 11 major league seasons, the last nine with the New York Mets. Johnson averaged 31 homers, 95 runs batted in and 32 stolen bases from 1987 through ‘91, but his production slipped dramatically the last two seasons, primarily because of injuries. Last season, Johnson batted .238 with seven homers and 26 RBIs, playing in only 72 games.

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Outfielder Oddibe McDowell agreed to a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers and was invited to the major league spring training camp. McDowell, 30, had not played since breaking his collarbone while with Edmonton in April of 1992.

Pro Basketball

The Denver Nuggets got guard Alvin Robertson from the Detroit Pistons for guard Mark Macon and forward Marcus Liberty. The Nuggets also received the 1995 second-round draft pick they originally had traded to Detroit for Anthony Cook, along with future considerations.

Robertson, sidelined because of a bulging disk in his back, hasn’t played in a preseason or regular-season game this season. He was suspended indefinitely by the Pistons after an altercation with personnel director Billy McKinney two days before the start of the season. A nine-year NBA veteran, Robertson was the NBA defensive player of the year in 1986. He ranks second on the NBA’s all-time steals list with 1,946, trailing only Maurice Cheeks. Macon, the No. 8 choice in the 1991 draft, has averaged 9.1 points. Liberty, a second-round pick in 1990, has averaged 7.9 points.

Michael Jordan will be paid his full 1993-94 salary of $4 million by the Chicago Bulls, the Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune reported. Jordan, who announced his retirement Oct. 6 after nine seasons with the Bulls, was scheduled to make $3.85 million in each of the final two seasons. Under the NBA’s salary cap, if the Bulls honor the final two years of Jordan’s contract, they will get a $2-million roster exemption each year, as long as they remain over the salary cap, which they are now.

Golf

Tom Watson holed a 96-yard sand-iron for an eagle two on the 16th hole and went on to fire a three-under-par 69 that protected his one-shot lead in a tournament in Miyazaki, Japan.

After a birdie at the 18th hole, Watson finished the two rounds at 134, one shot better than Barry Lane of Britain and two ahead of Fred Couples and Scott Simpson.

Hockey

Left wing Brian Bellows of the Montreal Canadiens will be sidelined for at least two weeks because of a cracked rib on his right side.

Florida Panther teammates Brian Benning and Mike Foligno were suspended by the NHL for violations in the same game, Benning for four games and Foligno for three. . . . The Hartford Whalers traded defenseman Dan Keczmer to the Calgary Flames for goalie Jeff Reese and future considerations.

Leaders of the striking NHL referees and linesmen will meet with league officials Sunday for their first negotiations since the walkout began. No site for the meetings has been announced.

Boxing

Ray Mercer won a 10-round split decision in his heavyweight rematch with Jesse Ferguson at Atlantic City, N.J. Mercer will go on trial in Manhattan beginning Dec. 6 on a charge of attempting to bribe Ferguson to lose their first fight, won on a unanimous decision by Ferguson on Feb. 6.

On the undercard, Charles Murray retained his International Boxing Federation junior-welterweight title with a fifth-round technical knockout against Courtney Hooper.

Zack Padilla of Azusa retained his World Boxing Organization super-lightweight title when Italian challenger Efrem Calamati failed to answer the eighth-round bell at Arezzo, Italy.

Names in the News

Former umpire Steve Palermo was reported in stable condition after nearly 10 hours of surgery in Worcester, Mass., on his spine in an effort to give him use of his left leg, damaged in a 1991 shooting.

A special arbitration panel will rule today whether German sprinter Katrin Krabbe will have to serve a two-year drug-related suspension and sit out the next World Championships.

Illinois football Coach Lou Tepper has agreed to a three-year contract extension. . . . Chris Ault said he will remain Nevada’s athletic director despite overtures from Nevada Las Vegas to take over its football program.

Ethel Van Degrift, who wrote skiing columns for The Times and other publications during the 1940s and ‘50s, died Thursday after a six-month illness. She was 86.