Erhardt Lands Coordinator’s Job With Jets

Ron Erhardt is headed from the best team in the AFC to the worst in the NFL.

Erhardt, the offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers the last four years, was released by the AFC champions last week. On Monday, he was hired for the same job by the New York Jets, along with tight ends coach Pat Hodgson, who also was let go by the Steelers.

Pittsburgh special teams coach Bobby April is also apparently leaving. Steeler Coach Bill Cowher and Saint Coach Jim Mora said April would return to his hometown team in New Orleans to coach. But April said he was only in discussions with several teams and had not yet been offered a position.

Cowher has already filled one of his openings by promoting receivers coach Chan Gailey to offensive coordinator.

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Mike Shula, an assistant with the Chicago Bears for the last three seasons, became the NFL’s youngest offensive coordinator when he was hired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The youngest son of former Miami Dolphin Coach Don Shula joins the staff of new Buccaneer Coach Tony Dungy, who said the 30-year-old former Buccaneer quarterback will run an offense similar to the one the Bears ran last year.

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The Miami Dolphins terminated the contracts of veteran wide receiver Gary Clark and offensive lineman Bert Weidner.

Baseball

Darrell Brinkley’s two-run single in the sixth inning broke a 1-1 tie and lifted Mexico to a 9-1 victory over Venezuela in the Caribbean Series in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Mexico (2-1), an upset 7-6 winner over the major leaguer-laden Dominican team in Saturday’s opener, scored three times in the sixth, twice more in the seventh and three times in the ninth.

Dodger Omar Daal started for Venezuela, striking out seven and giving up one run in five innings, but left with the game tied, 1-1, because of a two-hour rain delay.

In the second game, the Dominican Republic scored three runs in the second inning, two on a hit by Tony Batista, and defeated Puerto Rico, 3-0.

California businessman Kevin McClatchy, who is in the process of buying the Pittsburgh Pirates, is undeterred by the last-minute pullout of one of his biggest investors. McClatchy filed his final paperwork with major league baseball on schedule. On Thursday, scrap metals dealer Bill Snyder of Sewickley, Pa., yanked his $5-million investment.

Fifty-two percent of San Francisco’s voters favor a measure to construct a $255-million privately financed stadium in the city’s China Basin District, according to a San Francisco Chronicle poll.

Thirty-four percent oppose the measure, which will appear on the March 26 ballot, while 14% of those surveyed were either undecided or had no opinion.

Boston Red Sox infielder Wil Cordero, obtained last month from the Montreal Expos, avoided an arbitration hearing by agreeing to a $1.85-million, one-year contract. . . . Catcher Lenny Webster agreed a $397,500 one-year contract with the Philadelphia Phillies, avoiding arbitration.

Swimming

The parents of U.S. swimmer Jessica Foschi, who tested positive for steroids last summer, have filed suit in New York State Supreme Court seeking to prevent U.S. Swimming, the sport’s ruling domestic body, from “reinterpreting the rules of swimming.”

The suit also seeks to prevent U.S. Swimming or the U.S. Olympic Committee from interfering with Foschi’s right to compete until U.S. Swimming permits an independent laboratory to retest the sample, which originally tested positive for steroids.

Bob Foschi said the family wanted the sample tested to determine whether the positive result was because of inadvertent consumption, sabotage or lab error. The Foschis contend the retesting is provided for under the rules of swimming.

Winter Sports

On a treacherous course that took out the favorites, Werner Perathoner of Italy took risks and wound up with his first World Cup victory of the season, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

With a daring run on the partly icy Kandahar course in the last super-giant slalom before the World Championships, Perathoner beat Luc Alphand of France, the winner of Friday’s downhill.

Lasse Kjus, the overall World Cup leader, and his Norwegian teammate Atle Skaardal, previous leader of super-G standings, missed gates and were eliminated.

Hans Knaus of Austria, who finished tied for 14th, took over the super-G lead. Kjus remained the overall leader.

Basketball

A youth league coach and his junior high-age players in Alexandria, Ky., angry about losing a game, punched and kicked two referees and slammed them with metal chairs, witnesses said.

Police were investigating and no charges had been filed.

The referees, Brian Sizemore, 28, and David Wolfe, 26, were treated for face and head injuries and released from a medical center.

The referees had declared the game over after the Bandits coach, James Pouncy, cursed and threatened them, witnesses said.

Pouncy rushed the two officials, and his seventh- and eighth-graders followed, witnesses said. They hit the referees in the head with metal chairs, pounded them with a basketball, and punched and kicked them after they fell to the floor, witnesses said.

Miscellany

British boxing officials want to question world champions Frank Bruno and Nigel Benn over reports they are consuming 150 vitamin pills a day in training. Bruno is scheduled to defend his title against Mike Tyson in Las Vegas on March 16. Benn defends against Thulane Malinga of South Africa on March 2 in Newcastle, England.

Bob Woolf, who represented Larry Bird and other top athletes, overcharged players and engaged in an apparent conflict of interest while investing their money, according to a Boston Globe story.

“He was trying to do his very best for his clients, give them a good future and protect them after their playing days were over,” said Woolf’s widow, Anne Woolf.

Former Ireland international player Mick McCarthy was selected to succeed Jack Charlton as manager of the nation’s soccer team.