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. Don’t get me wrong. I’m still being paid very nicely. But my gut feeling was that I wanted to come here. I was always intrigued by New York. I always thought it was a great place to play.”

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 an ongoing 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 is to go on trial Sept. 5 on charges of evading up to $13.3 million in taxes on $28 million of his daughter’s earnings between 1987 and 1993.

Golf

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, flubbed a six-foot uphill putt for par on No. 18 that would have forced a playoff. Pepper closed with a three-under-par 69 for a 9-under 279 total.

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

Wood, who had won five major junior titles and nine collegiate events, had four consecutive rounds below par. He hit 67 of 72 greens in regulation and made only four bogeys in four trips around the 7,157-yard Annandale Golf Club.

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

Kevin Marsh of Goleta 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.

Marsh, who played for Pepperdine from 1992-1996, played the first 68 holes without a bogey and had a six-shot lead over Duncan with six holes to play in regulation. He then double-bogeyed at 15 and 18, while Duncan birdied 13 and 17 to force the fourth playoff in the tournament’s 97-year history.

Pro Football

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed both of their first-round picks, defensive end Regan Upshaw and defensive tackle Marcus Jones. They also signed their second-round pick, fullback Mike Alstott, and re-signed guard Jim Pyne.

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, finishing three-tenths of a second ahead of Rudd.

Beach Volleyball

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 at Manhattan Beach.