Palmeiro, Orioles Agree to a $30-Million Deal

Free-agent first baseman Rafael Palmeiro and the Baltimore Orioles agreed Sunday night to a multiyear contract, believed to be worth about $30 million for five years.

Palmeiro, 29, batted .295 with career-highs of 37 home runs and 105 runs batted in last season for the Texas Rangers.

“He’s such a solid hitter,” Oriole General Manager Roland Hemond said. “He also hits with authority. We’ve been trying to add some left-handed hitting to our club for a long time.”

Palmeiro is the second prominent free agent signed by the Orioles during the off-season. Pitcher Sid Fernandez, formerly with the New York Mets, got a three-year, $9-million deal on Nov. 22.

Palmeiro became available when Texas signed Will Clark, his former teammate at Mississippi State, to a $30-million, five-year deal on Nov. 22.

Skiing

Guenther Mader of Austria won the opening super-G ski race of the season at Val D’Isere, France and increased his World Cup overall lead.

Norway’s Kjetil Andre Aamodt, who raced after one of his team’s coaches died Saturday night, finished second. Tommy Moe of Missoula, Mont., was third.

It was Mader’s 10th victory of his career. He won the giant slalom at Park City, Utah, last month and has been in the top five in three different types of races this season: slalom, giant slalom and super-G.

Mader increased his season World Cup total to 316 points after five races. Aamodt is second at 285.

Pernilla Wiberg of Sweden scored her first World Cup slalom victory of the season with a powerful second run at Veysonnas, Switzerland.

College Football

Jeremy Foley, athletic director at Florida, said he will not try to block conversations between Gator Coach Steve Spurrier and the NFL’s new expansion teams, the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Spurrier and former Washington Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs have been considered co-favorites for the Carolina job, and Spurrier also is expected to be a top candidate for the Jaguars. Redskin owner Jack Kent Cooke has said that Gibbs is still under contract to his club.

Foley confirmed there was a clause in Spurrier’s contract prohibiting him from leaving Florida to coach an NFL team in the state of Florida--the Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the Jaguars. However, Foley said he would not enact the clause if Spurrier enters into discussions with the Jaguars.

Hockey

The NHL Officials Assn. is looking into a dispute with the NHL over the recently settled contract that ended the 17-day strike by on-ice officials.

Responding to a report that the officials were ready to stage a wildcat walkout, Don Meehan, chief negotiator for the officials, said: “We wouldn’t do something such as that unless we had a full meeting of the membership.”

Peter Ferraro had two goals and three assists, including the go-ahead score in the final period, leading the United States hockey team to a 9-6 exhibition victory over Russia.

The victory, highlighted by five U.S. goals in the final period, ended a seven-game tour against the Russians, part of a tuneup for the Lillehammer Olympics. The Americans won the series, 6-1.

Miscellany

French maxi yacht La Poste arrived in Fremantle, Australia to take eighth place overall in the 13,987-mile second leg of the Whitbread Round the World Race. La Poste’s time of 29 days, 4 hours 39 minutes will be amended by the race’s international jury to compensate for the period La Poste spent searching for, and escorting, the disabled Italian yacht Brooksfield.

Sao Paulo of Brazil beat AC Milan of Italy, 3-2, at Tokyo in the Intercontinental Cup and won its second consecutive world club soccer championship.

Adele Carnesecca, mother of Hall of Fame basketball coach Lou Carnesecca, died in New York City after a long illness. She was 93.