Martinez Says He Has Agreed to Six-Year, $75-Million Deal

National League Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez said Wednesday he had agreed to a six-year, $75-million contract with the Boston Red Sox.

Martinez said Boston has two option years that could raise the total amount of the contract to $92 million over eight seasons.

Team spokesman Kevin Shea said that while a long-term contract for Martinez is a priority, no deal had been completed. Jim Bronner, the pitcher’s agent, declined comment.

“I’m a little ashamed to say how much I signed for,” Martinez told Radio Universal in the Dominican Republic.

The total dollars and the average salary of $12.5 million would be a baseball record.

The largest package to date is Gary Sheffield’s six-year, $61-million contract with Florida that starts next season. The highest average salary is the $11.5 million Greg Maddux will average in his five-year, $57.5-million contract that starts with Atlanta next season.

A baseball lawyer, speaking on the condition he not be identified, said his understanding was that the contract called for Martinez to receive $72.5 million for six seasons and that Boston would have a team option for 2004 at $17.5 million with a $2.5-million buyout. That would make the contract worth $90 million over seven seasons, an average of $12,857,143.

Martinez was acquired by the Red Sox from Montreal on Nov. 18 after going 17-8 with a major league-leading 1.90 earned-run average. He had 305 strikeouts, second in the majors behind Curt Schilling.

Martinez made $3,615,000 last season and was eligible for salary arbitration this winter and free agency after next season.

“I thank God that I was chosen to show the people that with effort they can do anything,” Martinez said. “I come from a world of much poverty and, thanks to God, I’ve been able to get to where I am today.”

Red Sox General Manager Dan Duquette was on his way to the Dominican Republic to finalize a deal with Martinez.

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The New York Yankees added some stability at designated hitter when they agreed to a contract with veteran switch-hitter Chili Davis. The pact reportedly is a two-year deal worth nearly $10 million.

Davis, 38 next month, batted .279 with a career-high 30 home runs and 90 RBIs in 140 games for the Kansas City Royals last season. It was his only season in Kansas City after four with the Angels.

Davis has 328 homers, the third-highest total for a switch-hitter. He gets a $1-million signing bonus and annual salaries of $4 million. The Yankees have a $4.6-million option for 2000 with an $800,000 buyout.

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Mark McGwire, whose 58 home runs were the most in the major leagues since 1961, was selected as The Sporting News’ 1997 Sportsman of the Year.

McGwire, traded from the Oakland Athletics to the St. Louis Cardinals on July 31, joined Babe Ruth as the only players to hit 50 or more homers in consecutive seasons.

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Charlie O’Brien and Chad Kreuter signed with the Chicago White Sox, filling a catching void created by the departure of Ron Karkovice and Jorge Fabregas. O’Brien agreed to a two-year, $1.4-million contract and Kreuter signed a one-year, $635,000 deal.

The White Sox also hired Wallace Johnson, 40, as their new third base coach. He replaces Doug Rader, who resigned at the end of the season.

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Cornell professor Dana Eischen has agreed to become baseball’s independent arbitrator, replacing Nicholas Zumas, who was fired by players and owners June 30. . . . The Cincinnati Reds traded outfielder Curtis Goodwin to the Colorado Rockies for pitcher Mark Hutton. Goodwin batted .253 with one home run, 12 RBIs and 22 stolen bases in 85 games for Cincinnati in 1997. Hutton, from Australia, was 3-2 with a 4.48 ERA in 40 games with the Florida Marlins and the Rockies. . . . The Montreal Expos traded relief pitcher Dave Veres to Colorado for switch-hitting minor league outfielder Terry Jones. . . . The Pittsburgh Pirates agreed to terms on a one-year contract with free agent left-hander Jeff Tabaka, 33, who will earn $300,000 if he is in the major leagues next season and $70,000 if he is in the minors.

Soccer

Italy’s Juventus, the European Champions’ Cup winner in 1996 and the runner-up in ‘97, advanced to the quarterfinals of this season’s tournament, beating England’s Manchester United, 1-0, on an 84th-minute goal by Filippo Inzaghi in Turin.

Inzaghi’s header with six minutes left gave Juventus one of the two wild-card berths for second-place teams. The six group winners were Germany’s Bayern Munich, defending champion Borussia Dortmund of Germany, Dynamo Kiev of Ukraine, Manchester United, AS Monaco of France and Spain’s Real Madrid. Bayer Leverkusen got the other wild-card spot, giving German teams three places in the quarterfinals.

The draw for the quarterfinals is Dec. 17.

Winter Sports

Picabo Street, the United States’ top skier, and Pernilla Wiberg of Sweden, last year’s overall World Cup winner, will make their season debut today in the World Cup super-G at Val d’Isere, France.

Street, the 1996 world champion and two-time World Cup downhill champion, tore ligaments in a crash in Vail, Colo., last year and missed the entire season. Wiberg injured her knee in Solden, Austria, two months ago and passed on the season’s first nine races.

If Street gets through the Val d’Isere race without a problem, she would make her downhill debut the following week at Veysonnaz, Switzerland.

“My goal is still to be ready for [the Winter Olympics at] Nagano in February and I feel I made some good progress the last two weeks,” Street said. “My knee is feeling stronger but what I’ve needed is just more on-snow time. And I got a lot the past two weeks.”

Boxing

Negotiations for a heavyweight unification bout between Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield will be called off unless a contract is signed by Friday, according to Lewis’ promoter, Panos Eliades.

Eliades said Lewis, the WBC champion, will fight James “Buster” Douglas or Shannon Briggs in March if no deal is reached with Don King by Friday for a match with Holyfield, the IBF and WBA champion.

College Hockey

The NCAA men’s Division I ice hockey championship will be played in Southern California for the first time in 1999. The event will be co-hosted by the Los Angeles Sports Council and the University of Alaska Anchorage at the Pond of Anaheim on April 1 and 3.

NCAA guidelines mandate the host community be affiliated with a Division I hockey program.

Miscellany

Former Golden State Warrior Rick Barry, 53, was hired to coach the developmental United States Basketball League’s newest member, the New Jersey Shore Cats.

NBC Sports and the United States Golf Assn. agreed to a four-year television contract extension beginning in 2000, which keeps the USGA’s major championships--including the U.S. Open--on NBC through 2003. Terms were not announced.

Seven athletes and one chancellor will be inducted into UCLA’s Athletics Hall of Fame in ceremonies later this month. Former chancellor Charles E. Young will be joined by Paul Caligiuri (soccer), Tim Daggett (gymnastics), David Greenwood and Frank Lubin (basketball), Doug Partie (volleyball) and Cal Rossi (football and baseball).

Curt Fraser, coach of the International Hockey League’s Orlando Solar Bears, was suspended for two games and fined $1,000 and five players--Mel Angelstad, Ben Hankinson, Pat Mikesch, Eric Nickulas and Kevin Smyth--and the team’s equipment manager, Scott Moon, were fined $100 each for an altercation with fans in a Dec. 2 game against the Detroit Vipers at Auburn Hills, Mich.