Gretzky: New York Is My Kind of Town

Wayne Gretzky officially joined the New York Rangers on Sunday, ending a free-agent odyssey that had stretched from one end of the continent to the other.

“It’s been a hard three weeks for me,” Gretzky said at a news conference held at Madison Square Garden to announce his two-year contract. “So many teams were so nice to me and made some very lucrative offers. The hard part was, I could only choose one team.”

Gretzky said a big factor was playing again with Mark Messier, an old friend and teammate in Edmonton, and playing for a team “focused on winning a championship.” He acknowledged taking a pay cut to do it.

“I’m probably the only free agent to come to New York for less money,” said Gretzky, who made a league-high $6.54 million last year with the Kings and St. Louis Blues and will earn about $4 million annually plus incentives with his new deal. “My instincts were that maybe money wasn’t all that important. My gut feeling was that I wanted to come here.”

Tennis

Defending champion Thomas Muster never let Yevgeny Kafelnikov get untracked, recording a 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 victory to win the Mercedes Cup at Stuttgart, Germany.

Austrian Barbara Schett upset second-seeded Sabine Hack of Germany, 6-3, 6-3, to win the Palermo, Italy Grand Prix tournament, her first WTA tour victory. Schett also won the doubles title Saturday night with Slovakia’s Jeanette Husorova.

Prosecutors are preparing to drop a tax evasion investigation against Steffi Graf, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported. The magazine said the investigation would be closed soon because Graf had agreed to pay $2 million in taxes, but the report said that will have no effect on the status of her father, Peter, who goes to trial Sept. 5.

Golf

Argentine Vicente Fernandez became only the fifth qualifier to win a Senior PGA Tour event, shooting a 68 for an 11-under 205 and one-stroke victory in the Burnet Senior Classic at Bunker Hills Golf Course at Coon Rapids, Minn.

Bruce Crampton, bidding to become the fifth 60-plus player to win since the tour’s inception in 1980, finished one shot back, tied with Sam Snead.

Dottie Pepper, weakened by a virus, struck an excellent approach shot and birdied the final hole to overtake Brandie Burton and win the LPGA Friendly’s Classic at Agawam, Mass. It was Pepper’s third victory in five weeks.

Burton, who had led all day, missed a six-foot uphill putt for par on No. 18 that would have forced a playoff. Pepper closed with a 69 for a nine-under 279 total.

Willie Wood shot a 67 at Madison, Miss., to win the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic by one shot at 20-under 268 and record his first PGA Tour victory.

Kirk Triplett finished second, and Scott Hoch closed with a 65 to finish tied for third at 271 with third-round leader Greg Kraft.

Former Pepperdine standout Kevin Marsh won the second hole of a sudden-death playoff over Pat Duncan of Rancho Santa Fe to win the Southern California Golf Assn. Amateur championship at Santa Maria Country Club. Marsh’s final round of two-over-par 74 gave him a four-round total of 278.

Auto Racing

Rusty Wallace took his only lead with 30 laps remaining and held off a challenge from Ricky Rudd to win the Miller 500 at Long Pond, Pa.

Wallace stayed with the leaders most of the way, but never led until he passed Rudd on lap 171. He led the rest of the 200-lap race on the 2.5-mile tri-oval.

Eddie Hill won the top fuel title in the Mile High Nationals, defeating NHRA points leader Blaine Johnson with a quarter-mile run of 4.845 seconds at 288.92 mph at Morrison, Colo.

John Force won the funny car division for his eighth title of the year, Jim Yates took the pro stock for his fifth title and Matt Hines won the pro stock motorcycle for his first title.

Miscellany

Karolyn Kirby and Angela Rock defeated Lisa Arce and Patty Dodd, 15-11, to win the Long Beach Open at Belmont Shore.

Top-seeded Adam Johnson of Laguna Beach and Jose Loiola of Manhattan Beach won their third consecutive tournament on the AVP tour, defeating fifth-seeded Rob Heideger and Troy Tanner, 15-11, at Milwaukee.

Duane Cameron of Huntington Beach led Team Sony Autosound to its second victory, a 15-9 decision over Team Paul Mitchell in the Manhattan Open.

Free-agent guard Mark Price, limited to seven games with theWashington Bullets last season because of an injured foot, signed with the Golden State Warriors. Financial terms were not disclosed.