Lindh Wins Second Downhill of Season

Hilary Lindh continued her assault on the World Cup ski circuit with a downhill victory Saturday at Lake Louise, Canada. Lindh, winner of the season’s opening race in Vail, Colo., and second in Friday’s downhill here, won in 1 minute 39.90 seconds.

Florence Masnada of France, who briefly quit downhill racing, finished second in 1:40.08. Switzerland’s Heidi Zeller-Baehler improved her overall World Cup lead by finishing third in 1:40.40.

Lindh increased her World Cup downhill lead to 280 points, 34 more than defending champion Katja Seizinger, who was 10th Saturday. In the overall standings, Lindh has 284 points, second only to Zeller-Baehler’s 365.

Hockey

Don’t expect the NHL governors to cancel the season at their meeting Monday in New York.

So says Bob Clarke, general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers, a participant in collective bargaining talks with the locked-out players.

“There are still a couple of weeks left” before a drop-dead date, Clarke said.

Tony Granato and Mark Messier scored their fifth goals of the tour as Wayne Gretzky’s Ninety-Nine All-Stars overcame a slow start to defeat Vastra Frolunda, 5-2, at Goteborg, Sweden.

Baseball

Acting in the wake of guilty pleas by baseball show promoters to tax-evasion charges, federal investigators are trying to determine if some of the game’s stars failed to report income from autograph sessions.

According to reports, William J.F. Hongach and Michael Bertolini, who ran a 1989 show at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, N.J., featuring 11 sluggers with 500 or more homers, said at plea hearings that they made many payments in cash “with the understanding it wouldn’t be reported to the IRS.”

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Bertolini is a former business partner of Pete Rose, who is banned from baseball for his gambling associations.

Hongach’s plea statement, offered Aug. 19, said he had delivered $27,000 in cash to Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle without receipts being offered or requested.

Others at the show included Ted Williams, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, Reggie Jackson, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Mike Schmidt, Ernie Banks, Eddie Mathews and Willie McCovey.

The disclosures followed the indictment Thursday of the San Francisco Giants’ Darryl Strawberry for allegedly failing to report $500,000 in income from shows.

The St. Louis Cardinals announced that they will begin playing on natural grass at Busch Stadium beginning in 1996. Busch has had artificial turf since 1970.

College Football

Vanderbilt players were told that Coach Gerry DiNardo is leaving for Louisiana State, and newspapers in Louisiana and Tennessee reported the move, but neither school commented. DiNardo would replace fired coach Curley Hallman. . . . USC quarterback Rob Johnson sat out USC’s second Cotton Bowl practice Saturday with flu. The Trojans play Texas Tech on Jan. 2. . . . Penn State Coach Joe Paterno, whose 11-0 Nittany Lions will be the first Big Ten team to appear in the Rose Bowl with an unbeaten and untied record since 1979, was named the Walter Camp coach of the year. . . . A national championship season will mean a $50,000 bonus for Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne after the school’s Board of Regents unanimously approved the proposal in Lincoln, Neb.

Miscellany

Dennis Lundy, Northwestern’s all-time leading rusher, and Deon Lee, a member of the basketball team, were suspended for involvement in gambling, the university said in Evanston, Ill. Lee admitted wagering on college and pro football, but denies that it involved Northwestern games, and there is no evidence to the contrary, said Michael Weston, the school’s vice president and general counsel. . . . Amateur qualifying for the 1995 Nissan (L.A.) Open golf tournament will be held Dec. 19 at Yorba Linda Golf Club. The low qualifier earns a berth in the $1.2-million tournament to be held Feb. 19-26 at Riviera Country Club. Details: (714) 776-4653.