Hostetler Will Re-Sign With Raiders Today

Injury-plagued quarterback Jeff Hostetler will re-sign with the Oakland Raiders today, a team official said Monday.

Team spokesman Mike Taylor confirmed the agreement, but said the Raiders will not disclose terms of the contract. The signing had been scheduled for Monday, but was postponed because Hostetler was out of town.

The 34-year-old unrestricted free agent was bothered by a sore right elbow and finished last season a week early because of surgery on his left shoulder.

Hostetler originally figured to attract interest from several teams, including Pittsburgh, which lost starter Neil O’Donnell to the New York Jets, and Philadelphia. But the Raiders had the right to match any offer Hostetler received.

Limited by that stipulation, Hostetler made only one official visit, to Philadelphia on Feb. 26, but the Eagles signed free agent Ty Detmer instead.

Soccer

Major League Soccer announced that its inaugural game Saturday at San Jose between the San Jose Clash and Washington D.C. United is a sellout. Peter Bridgewater, the Clash president, said the crowd of more than 31,000 at Spartan Stadium will be the largest for a pro sports event in the city.

Baseball

Former major leaguer Graig Nettles was named manager of the Bakersfield Blaze of the Class-A California League, team General Manager Jack Patton said.

Nettles’ managerial experience is limited to half a season as player-manager of the St. Lucie Legends of the Senior Baseball League.

Jurisprudence

Portland Trail Blazer guard Rod Strickland pleaded guilty to hitting his girlfriend. He faces up to a year in jail if he fails to attend a therapy program for batterers.

Brown University lawyers began arguments at Boston in the appeal of a 1995 ruling that the Ivy League school violated a law banning sexual discrimination at institutions that receive federal funding. U.S. District Judge Raymond Pettine ordered Brown to create four new varsity-level sports for women to comply with Title IX, the 1972 discrimination law.

Pettine ruled last August that Brown’s offer to cut men’s sports and expand women’s junior varsity teams was not adequate and amounted to “attempting to pad the women’s varsity participation numbers.”

A grand jury indicted Virginia basketball recruit Melvin Whitaker Jr. on a charge of slashing the face of freshman Cavalier football player Maurice Anderson during a pickup basketball game at Charlottesville, Va., after the two got into an argument March 5 at a university recreation center.

Championship Auto Racing Teams Inc. filed a lawsuit saying it is entitled to use the brand name “IndyCar.”

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Michigan, is a response to a March 19 letter from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that said the Speedway is ending a 1992 licensing agreement concerning the IndyCar name.

Olympics

Army Capt. Glenn Dubis became the first of seven shooters to be selected to the U.S. Olympic shooting team after he compiled a three-day score of 1,971.8 in the air rifle competition at the Olympic trials in Atlanta. Dubis edged Capt. Rob Harbison, a member of the Army tank corps, who shot 689.3 Monday to total 1,970, and became the second shooter to qualify.

Other team members chosen were Elizabeth Bourland and Jean Foster, women’s rifle; and Josh Lakatos, Bret Erickson and Lance Bade, trap shooting. Twenty-four spots remain to be filled.

China’s long-distance track coach, Ma Junren, was hospitalized because of a serious intestinal ailment, according to Kan Fuling, chief of China’s track and field team. During Ma’s absence, assistant coach Liu Qi is training the medium- and long-distance runners.

Miscellany

Ascent Entertainment Group Inc., which owns the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, signed a $20-million agreement to purchase 49 acres of land from Southern Pacific as a site for a new downtown basketball and hockey arena.

The deal is seen as a significant step toward groundbreaking for the proposed $150-million Pepsi Center.

Darrell Robinson, once one of the top 400-meter runners in the world, was alert and communicating after coming out of a coma in Seattle. His sister told The Seattle-Post Intelligencer that Robinson had fallen into the coma after drinking antifreeze in a suicide attempt.

Magdalena Maleeva, overcoming humid weather that made for slow play, celebrated her 21st birthday by defeating Lisa Raymond, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), in the second round of the Family Circle Magazine Cup at Hilton Head Island, S.C.

Southern Mississippi hired James Green as men’s basketball coach. Green, 35, had been an assistant at Iowa State for the last two years. He replaces M.L. Turk, who resigned on March 12 after 20 seasons at the school.