Gretzky to Be Free Agent After Talks Break Down

Wayne Gretzky will become a free agent.

Hockey’s scoring king made the decision Thursday after contract talks broke down with the St. Louis Blues, the Canadian Press and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Gretzky, 35, can become an unrestricted free agent Monday, the day after his contract expires.

Negotiations between the Blues and agent Mike Barnett resumed last weekend during the NHL draft in St. Louis. Blues General Manager Mike Keenan said at the time he expected to have Gretzky re-signed by mid-week.

Barnett told the Canadian Press “it would serve no purpose to state where negotiations broke down.”

Before the season ended, the Blues proposed a three-year deal worth $21 million but withdrew the offer after St. Louis was eliminated by Detroit in the Stanley Cup quarterfinals. The Blues’ next offer was for approximately $14 million over two years, but money was not the only unresolved issue.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins signed Coach Eddie Johnston and General Manager Craig Patrick to new contracts and are hoping they can also entice Mario Lemieux into returning. Lemieux would pass up a contract worth nearly $11 million next season if he retires.

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The Kings signed right wing Kai Nurminen to a two-year contract. Nurminen, 27, was the Kings’ eighth-round pick in the 1996 draft. Nurminen will play for Finland in the 1996 World Cup, then report to the Kings’ training camp.

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Five days after the 1996 draft, the New York Islanders signed the top pick in last year’s draft, defenseman Bryan Berard, to a three-year deal.

Golf

Greg Norman staged a late charge and shot a six-under-par 64 at Cromwell, Conn., to match newcomer Joe Daley for a share of the lead in the first round of the Greater Hartford Open.

Norman, the defending champion, was three strokes behind Daley with four holes left. He surged with three birdies to join Daley on the top of the leader board.

“I’ll take 64 in the first round of any golf tournament,” Norman said. “It’s a good score. The golf course didn’t play that easy today.”

Daley, in his first full year on the PGA Tour, has finished no higher than a 35th-place tie and has missed the cut six times in 13 tournaments this year.

Football

Colorado Coach Rick Neuheisel agreed to a new one-year contract. Although details were not released, the package was believed to be worth $400,000 to $450,000. Neuheisel made about $350,000 in his first season as head coach. Neuheisel led the Buffaloes to a 10-2 season and a No. 5 final ranking last season.

Defensive end Derrick Ham, a reserve for the University of Miami, was suspended indefinitely for undisclosed reasons, becoming the fifth Hurricane player to be disciplined in the past two weeks.

The Seattle Seahawks traded safety Eugene Robinson to the Green Bay Packers for defensive end Matt LaBounty.

Jurisprudence

Former UCLA and NFL lineman Luis Sharpe’s failure to complete a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program could cost him up to four years in prison, a spokesman for the Maricopa County attorney said in Phoenix.

Sharpe, 36, who is recovering from a second gunshot wound in less than a year, may also face additional criminal charges stemming from a brawl with police, who found him with a bullet wound in his neck Tuesday night. Sharpe remained hospitalized in serious but stable condition as police attempted to learn who shot him and why.

Sgt. Mike McCullough, a Phoenix police spokesman, said the investigation made little headway.

Washington Bullet forward Rasheed Wallace was accused in a lawsuit of behaving “loudly, angrily and profanely” at a Durham, N.C., day care center and of blockading the center’s parking lot.

Last week, Wallace was charged with simple criminal assault for the same alleged incident, in which he is accused of cursing at the mother of his child--Chiquita Bryant--and blocking her car in the Toddlers Academy parking lot.

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A former Brown track coach sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted of raping one of his athletes had the guilty verdict overturned by the Rhode Island Supreme Court. William “Skip” Miller, 37, is entitled to a new trial because of two errors made by a Superior Court judge, the high court said in a unanimous decision.

A former professional umpire who claims he was fired because he is white sued Major League Baseball on grounds of racial discrimination. Craig J. Compton of Morrisville, Pa., is seeking more than $100,000 in damages and a job as a major league umpire. He contends he was released to make room for minority umpires in the major league ranks.

Miscellany

Graduation rates for male college basketball players were higher after last year’s decline (from 57% to 58%), while the percentage of women athletes graduating was down from last year’s high point (from 69% to 67%), the NCAA reported.

The heads of 32 major college sports conferences oppose paying college athletes but are interested in proposals to provide more financial aid, said Jim Delany, president of the Collegiate Commissioners Assn.

Vail, Colo., site of the World Cup ski finals next spring, will also play host to two women’s races in December that were taken from Aspen by the International Ski Federation. The races at Aspen, scheduled Dec. 6-7, were taken away when the resort refused FIS demands that a trail be altered to meet safety standards.

The Galaxy will play its first international soccer game July 11 at the Rose Bowl against the El Salvador national team.

Richie Hearn turned the fastest lap ever at a 1 1/2-mile oval (222.359 mph) during test runs at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

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TV-Radio columnist Larry Stewart is on vacation.