Montreal Continues to Shed Contracts

The fire sale in Montreal continued Friday when the Expos traded popular slugger Henry Rodriguez and his $2.3-million salary to the Chicago Cubs for right-handed pitcher Miguel Batista.

Rodriguez, 30, agreed to a $2.7-million, one-year contract with the Cubs that gives him the chance to make $500,000 more in bonuses if he has 550 plate appearances.

He was the seventh veteran to leave the Expos in recent weeks, following Pedro Martinez, who was introduced in Boston on Friday as the major leagues’ most highly paid player at $75 million for six seasons; Mike Lansing; David Segui; Doug Strange; Dave Veres and Darrin Fletcher.

Rodriguez hit .244 last season with 26 home runs and 83 runs batted in. Batista was 0-5 with a 5.80 earned-run average in 21 games during the final six weeks of the season for Chicago. He went 9-4 with a 4.20 ERA in 14 starts and 17 relief appearances at triple-A Iowa.

Switch-hitting first baseman Segui and Seattle agreed on a two-year, $4.75-million contract.

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Joe Carter, who spent the last seven seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays, agreed to a one-year, $3.3-million contract with the Baltimore Orioles. . . . Looking for a backup outfielder, the New York Mets acquired Rich Becker from the Minnesota Twins for Alex Ochoa. . . . Catcher Mike Matheny and the Milwaukee Brewers agreed to an $800,000 contract, nearly four times his $210,000 salary last season. . . . Bip Roberts, who spent most of last season in Kansas City before being traded to Cleveland, agreed to a one-year, $2.3-million contract with the Detroit Tigers that gives him an option for 1999. . . . Left-handed pitcher Kirk Rueter agreed to a three-year, $8.5-million contract with San Francisco.

Golf

Jay Sigel’s 10-foot birdie putt on the sixth playoff hole was the difference as he and Gil Morgan beat Jack Kiefer and Bob Duval, 1-up, in the Senior PGA division of the Diners Club Matches at La Quinta.

In another senior match, Walter Morgan and Bob Eastwood defeated Dave Stockton and Larry Nelson, 2 and 1, to join Sigel and Morgan as the only undefeated teams.

Tom Lehman and Duffy Waldorf, the two-time defending champions of the PGA division, defeated Jim Furyk and Lee Janzen, 3 and 1, despite Furyk’s hole in one at the 188-yard 11th hole.

In LPGA play, Nancy Lopez parred the 395-yard 18th hole and she and Laura Davies beat Karrie Webb and Kelly Robbins, 1-up.

Skiing

Former world aerials champion Nikki Stone of Westborough, Mass., ignored blizzard conditions to finish with 181.24 points for the eighth win of her career, and veteran Britt Swartley of Blue Bell, Pa., led four U.S. men in the top 10 with his first victory and 248.46 points at Tignes, France.

An eight-inch snowfall wiped out a women’s World Cup giant slalom at Val D’Isere, France.

Olympics

Athletes training in U.S. Olympic Committee residence programs face no-notice, around-the-clock drug tests under a plan announced Friday. Eager to avoid a recurrence of a recent drug-abuse case among teenage weightlifters, the USOC said about 200 athletes could expect knocks on their dormitory doors early next year.

Miscellany

Florida State baseball player J.D. Drew, Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning and Tim Duncan, a former Wake Forest basketball player now with the San Antonio Spurs, are among the 10 finalists for the 1997 James E. Sullivan Memorial Award, given by the Amateur Athletic Union to the nation’s top amateur athlete.

Retired Fresno State football coach Jim Sweeney has been accused of calling his former secretary a “Prozac Queen,” asking her to show more cleavage and forcing her to carry money to players and coaches in complaints filed by Vickie Gould, 52, who is seeking $2.5 million in damages.

Liu Ailing scored four goals in China’s 10-0 win over Taiwan, and Kim Kum-Sil scored North Korea’s only goal in a 1-0 win over Japan in games that provided the first two qualifiers for the 1999 Women’s World Cup of soccer.

Nigeria’s soccer association is awaiting government approval to hire former Mexico and U.S. coach Bora Milutinovic as its coach.