Boggs Re-Signs With Yankees for $4 Million

The New York Yankees re-signed free agent third baseman Wade Boggs to a two-year contract worth about $4 million Tuesday.

The Yankees can now continue in their attempt to acquire first baseman Tino Martinez from Seattle and might have already done so.

A trade for Martinez was called off Sunday when New York withdrew third baseman Russ Davis from the package, which included pitcher Sterling Hitchcock. Seattle insisted Davis be part of the deal and, according to one source, the Yankees have complied.

Boggs, 37, hit .324 with five home runs and 63 runs batted in last season and won his second consecutive Gold Glove. He has hit .300 or better in 13 of 14 seasons, has a career .334 average and 2,541 hits.

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Paul Molitor agreed to a $2-million, one-year contract with the Minnesota Twins, his hometown team. The 39-year-old designated hitter also has the option to remain with the Twins in 1997 for $2 million. Molitor spent the first 15 years of his major league career in Milwaukee before moving to Toronto in 1992. He was voted most valuable player of the 1993 World Series with the Blue Jays. . . . The Florida Marlins signed free agent outfielder Joe Orsulak, 33, to a two-year deal worth $1,275,000. He hit .283 in 108 games last season with the New York Mets. . . . Seattle Mariner outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., who broke his left wrist May 26, had a four-inch metal plate and seven screws removed.

Tennis

With top-10 players falling out in rapid succession, Boris Becker squeezed into the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam Cup at Munich, Germany, the richest tennis tournament in the world. Becker had to battle hard to beat Cedric Pioline of France, 6-1, 6-7 (7-2), 9-7.

While Becker, ranked fourth in the world, advanced to the final eight and was guaranteed at least $250,000, No. 3 Thomas Muster and No. 5 Michael Chang were eliminated. Byron Black beat Muster, 7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 6-1, and Jacco Eltingh beat Chang, 7-6 (12-10), 6-3.

Goran Ivanisevic, ranked 10th, reached the quarterfinals, beating 1993 winner Petr Korda, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.

The tournament invites the 16 players with the best records in the four Grand Slam events that year--the Australian, French and U.S. Opens and Wimbledon--and the winner gets $1.625 million.

The entry list for next month’s Australian Open is the strongest in tournament history, tournament director Paul McNamee said. Every male player in the world’s top 30 has entered, including defending champion Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Becker, Muster and Chang, along with 18 of the top 20 women. The women’s entries are led by Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Mary Pierce.

Miscellany

The international swimming federation went too far by adopting four-year suspensions for first-time steroid offenders, top International Olympic Committee officials said at a meeting at Karuizawa, Japan.

At a special congress in Rio de Janeiro last week, FINA doubled its penalty for swimmers testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

The move, which followed a series of doping scandals involving Chinese swimmers, conflicts with IOC guidelines calling for two-year suspensions.

The decision has helped thwart the IOC’s efforts to standardize anti-doping rules and procedures among international federations.

In Sydney, Australia, leading swimming coach Scott Volkers called for a life ban on drug cheats, while the head of Australia’s anti-doping agency condemned world swimming’s governing body for its failure to implement an effective testing program.

Australian Sports Drug Agency executive director Steve Haynes said FINA secretary Gunnar Werner and his fellow directors should quit, following comments they made last week that China was too big to enable its athletes to be effectively monitored for drug abuse.

The IOC executive board approved the addition of snowboarding to the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, providing the premier showcase for one of the world’s fastest growing sports. Snowboarding joins curling and women’s ice hockey as new medal events for the Nagano Games.

An autopsy has failed to determine what caused the death of the son of Charlie Waters, former defensive back for the Dallas Cowboys and now an Oregon assistant coach. Cody Waters, a 17-year-old senior at Eugene’s Marist High, where he played soccer and football, died in his sleep Sunday night. The boy did not die of heart disease, coronary artery problems, a ruptured aneurysm or any other obvious cause, Frank Ratti, deputy medical examiner for Lane County, said. Further tests will be conducted.

James Sabatino, 18, who swindled more than 250 people out of Super Bowl tickets last January, has been sentenced in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to two years in prison and nearly $90,000 in restitution and fines.

The Palos Verdes Longhorns of Pop Warner football’s Pee Wee Division will play in the national semifinals Thursday in Orlando, Fla., meeting the Southwest regional representative.

Names in the News

Timo Liekoski, the top assistant coach of the 1994 U.S. World Cup team and a former U.S. Olympic team coach, has been named coach of Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew.

UCLA’s Chris Snitko and Ante Razov were voted onto the All-American soccer team by the National Soccer Coaches Assn. Snitko, a goalkeeper who recorded 31 shutouts and 47 victories in his Bruin career, was voted to the first team. Razov, UCLA’s top scorer, earned second-team honors.

Neil McCarthy, New Mexico State basketball coach, has been readmitted to Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, N.M., because of continued bleeding from his nose, which required surgery last week. He is listed in fair condition. . . . Jamal Kendrick, a junior forward, has been suspended indefinitely from New Mexico State. School officials said Kendrick had an unexcused absence from practice last Friday.

Former UCLA and Arizona Cardinal football player Luis Sharpe, 35, who was wounded by gunfire last week while being robbed in an area noted for heavy drug traffic, has been committed by his family to a substance-abuse clinic in Phoenix.