Testaverde to Drive Mustang? Maybe

Cleveland quarterback Vinny Testaverde said he was told the Browns will be known as the Mustangs when they begin play in Baltimore next season.

But a team spokesman says that’s not so.

“I don’t know where he got that from,” said David Hopcraft, a spokesman for the Browns, Tuesday in Baltimore.

Cleveland’s WKYC-TV reported Monday night that Testaverde made the comment in an interview while playing golf in Tampa, Fla.

Cleveland is trying to block the move, and a trial is set for Monday on the city’s claim that the team has a lease obligating it to play in Cleveland Stadium through 1998.

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NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue faced a skeptical, sometimes hostile House Judiciary Committee in Washington and asked for a change in federal antitrust law that would make his job more powerful.

Court interpretations of the law, and the $50 million price tag of losing the court case filed by Oakland Raider owner Al Davis, have made the NFL reluctant to fight teams that want to change cities, Tagliabue said.

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The Washington Redskins received tentative approval from the Prince George’s County Council in Maryland for a new stadium near Landover. . . . Dallas Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman underwent arthroscopic surgery to have loose bodies, bone spurs and scar tissue removed from his right elbow in a 75-minute procedure performed by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala. . . . The Canadian Football League officially returned to Montreal with the relocation of the champion Stallions from Baltimore.

Baseball

Dennis Eckersley, the Oakland Athletics’ lifetime saves leader, has asked the team to trade him to St. Louis, where he would be reunited with former A’s manager Tony La Russa.

The baseball players union, in response to management’s bargaining proposal of Nov. 15, will make a counter-proposal during a negotiating session in New York today.

Second baseman Eric Young and the Colorado Rockies agreed to a $1.05 million, one-year contract.

Miscellany

Patrick Kluivert scored with 20 minutes remaining, giving Ajax Amsterdam a 1-1 tie against Real Zaragoza in the first round of the European SuperCup in Spain. . . . Defender Roger Stanislaus, 27, was fired by third-division club Leyton Orient in London, five days after he was banned from soccer for one year for using cocaine. . . . Lonnie Bradley (23-0) of New York retained his World Boxing Organization middleweight title in New York, knocking out Randy Smith (16-2-3) of Rancho Cucamonga at 2:03 of the second round.

Jurisprudence

Daniel Andre Green, a man charged with killing Michael Jordan’s father, wore the dead man’s pants to court last week, the state’s key witness said in Lumberton, N.C. Larry Martin Demery said two suits were taken from James R. Jordan’s car after Demery and Green dropped his body in a swamp.

“The last time I saw one of the suits being worn--it was only the pants--was last week right here in this courtroom,’ Demery said.

The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games filed lawsuits against two companies it accused of illegal ticket selling.

Former heavyweight contender Henry Tillman was sentenced to 16 months in prison for using a fake credit card at the Hollywood Park Casino.

Names in the News

Natalie Williams, a star basketball player who also led the UCLA women’s volleyball team to two NCAA titles, was named the Pacific 10 woman athlete of the decade. . . . Hut Stricklin, coming off his best season, signed with Stavola Brothers Racing, his sixth Winston Cup racing team in the last eight years.