Wetteland, Rangers Reportedly Near Deal

Free-agent relief pitcher John Wetteland, who led the American League with 43 saves for the New York Yankees and was voted most valuable player of the World Series, is moving close to a deal with the Texas Rangers that could be completed early this week, the Associated Press reported on Sunday.

Dallas-area television stations reported that Wetteland was expected to arrive in the area today. But WFAN sports radio in New York reported that Wetteland, 30, has agreed to a $21-million, four-year contract.

John Blake, the Rangers’ vice president of public relations, refused comment on the report.

Texas has been seeking a closer since Mike Henneman filed for free agency after recording a career-high 31 saves.

Wetteland, who met last week with Ranger officials, made $4 million last season and turned down a $4.6-million player option after the Yankees beat the Atlanta Braves in the World Series. Wetteland is the first pitcher to record four saves in a World Series. He was 2-3 with a 2.83 earned-run average during the regular season and converted 43 of 47 save chances.

Soccer

St. John’s won its first national championship in any sport, defeating Florida International, 4-1, in the NCAA men’s final at Richmond, Va.

The Red Storm (22-2-2) received goals 78 seconds apart in the first half from Jesse Van Saun and Wojtek Krakowiak. Ben Hickey and Medufia Kulego also scored for St. John’s, which had the most goals in the NCAA final since San Francisco beat Indiana, 4-3, in overtime in 1980.

It was the most lopsided victory since San Francisco defeated Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, 4-0, in 1975.

Argentina stumbled again in World Cup qualifying, playing to a 1-1 tie against Chile at Buenos Aires.

Fernando Cornejo scored six minutes into the second half for Chile, but Gabriel Batistuta tied the score on a penalty kick in the 70th minute.

Argentina (2-1-3) is third in South American qualifying, trailing Colombia (5-0-2) and Paraguay (3-1-2). The top four teams advance to the 1998 World Cup in France along with Brazil, which qualifies automatically as defending champion.

Cesare Maldini, who led Italy’s Under-21 team to three consecutive European titles but who was criticized for a poor showing at the Atlanta Olympics, was hired as coach of the national team.

Maldini, 64, replaces Arrigo Sacchi, who quit two weeks ago after nearly five years on the job to once again coach AC Milan.

Winter Sports

Fritz Strobl led an Austrian sweep of the top four places, winning a delayed downhill for his first World Cup victory at Val D’Isere, France.

Strobl sped down the icy 2.1-mile Oreiller-Killy course in 1 minute, 51.61 seconds, edging Werner Franz by two-hundredths of a second.

Patrick Ortlieb, the world champion and 1992 Olympic gold medalist, was third at 1:51.72, with Josef Strobl, no relation to Fritz and the surprise 1994 winner at this site, fourth at 1:51.81.

Gunther Huber, Marco Menchini, Antonio Tartaglia and Massimiliano Rota of Italy turned in the two fastest runs to edge USA 1 and win a four-man bobsled World Cup race at Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy.

Italy 1 clocked 53.04 seconds in the first heat and 53.61 in the second for a total time of 1:46.65. The U.S. team of Brian Shimer, Bob Olesen, Chip Minton and Randy Jones was second in 1:47.03.

Shimer and Olesen combined Saturday to set a course record of 54.59 while winning a two-man race.

Markus Prock of Austria, two-time Olympic silver medalist and defending world champion, benefited from mistakes to win his second World Cup luge race this season at Altenberg, Germany.

Prock, looking to win his eighth World Cup overall title, trailed countryman Gerhard Gleirscher by about two-tenths of a second after the first of two runs. But Gleirscher encountered difficulty negotiating the tricky lower turns of the Altenberg track and finished third.

Slovenian teenager Primoz Peterka won a ski jumping event at Harrachov, Czech Republic and moved to first in the overall World Cup standings.

Peterka, 17, finished the sixth event of the season with 235.1 points.

Norway, anchored by individual overall leader Bjorn Dahlie, overtook Italy to win a men’s cross-country World Cup 40-kilometer freestyle relay by 12 seconds at Brusson, Italy.

Russia dominated the women’s 20-kilometer freestyle relay, finishing first and second ahead of third-place Italy.

Norway leads the men’s overall Nordic World Cup standings and Russia leads the women after three relay events.

Dahlie, a world and Olympic champion, helped Norway overcome a 39.3-second deficit.

Veronica Brenner of Canada gained her second consecutive victory in the aerials event of the freestyle skiing World Cup at La Plagne, France.

Michele Rohrbach of Switzerland was second and Stacey Blumer of the United States was third. The women’s aerials event was postponed from Saturday due to fog.

In parallel moguls, Thony Hemery beat Johann Gregoire of France in the men’s final and Minna Karhu of Finland beat American Donna Weinbrecht in the women’s final.

Franziska Schenk of Germany won her fourth World Cup race of the season, finishing first in the 1,000 meters at Ikaho, Japan.

Schenk, 22, a bronze medalist at Lillehammer two years ago, finished in 1 minute, 21.73 seconds, .57 ahead of Kyoko Shimazaki. Christone Witty of West Allis, Wis., was seventh in 1:22.95.

Name in the News

Mary Slaney of Oregon won the invitational portion of the Palm Desert 5K in a time of 15:24. Colorado’s Mark Coogan won the men’s invitational race in 13:57.