Bora to Coach Nigeria in France

Former U.S. national team coach Bora Milutinovic, fired last month after coaching Mexico into soccer’s 1998 World Cup in France, was hired Wednesday to coach Nigeria in the June 10-July 12 tournament.

Milutinovic and Carlos Alberto Parreira will become the only men to coach four countries in the World Cup.

In 1986, Milutinovic took Mexico to the quarterfinals; in 1990, he guided Costa Rica to the second round; in 1994, he coached the United States to the second round.

Nigeria, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist, is grouped with Belgium, the Netherlands and South Korea.

On Tuesday, Parreira broke his two-year contract with Major League Soccer’s New York/New Jersey MetroStars to take over as coach of Saudi Arabia’s World Cup team.

Baseball

Korean Jae Weong Seo could be prominent in the New York Mets’ pitching plans.

“He has enough talent to be at the front end of our starting rotation,” General Manager Steve Phillips said after signing the 20-year-old right-hander. “We feel he will make an impact in short order.”

Jae went 8-3 as a sophomore last season at Inha University, which won South Korea’s collegiate championship.

The Mets reportedly are paying Jae a $1.7-million signing bonus as part of his minor league contract. They also signed his brother, Jae Hwan Seo, a 22-year-old outfielder-infielder who batted .339 with nine homers in 30 games as a senior at Inha last season.

A judge in Puerto Rico lifted a restraining order against former Boston Red Sox outfielder Wilfredo Cordero a week after Cordero’s wife, Ana Echevarria Morales, sought court protection from her husband, then relented after the couple resolved the “minor incident,” said Cordero’s lawyer, Jose Quinones Cruz.

Cordero, released by the Boston Red Sox after last season, is on probation after pleading guilty in Massachusetts to beating and threatening his wife in June. He received a 90-day suspended sentence and was ordered to attend regular counseling sessions.

Playing their first eight games of the 1998 season at home, the Angels will open April 1 against the New York Yankees. . . . The San Diego Padres signed a two-year working agreement with the Yucatan Leones of the Mexican Summer League and, in an unrelated move, invited Mexico City Red left-hander Roberto Ramirez to spring training. Ramirez is 68-32 with a 3.36 earned-run average in seven seasons with Mexico City. . . . The Cleveland Indians agreed to minor league contracts with catcher Pat Borders, who batted a career-high .296 while backing up Sandy Alomar last season, and infielder Jeff Manto, 33, who would be the Indians’ first right-handed option off the bench. . . . Outfielder Turner Ward and the Pittsburgh Pirates avoided salary arbitration when they agreed to a two-year, $1.6-million contract. Ward, 32, played in 71 games last season, batting .353 with seven home runs and 33 RBIs. . . . Houston Astro catcher Tony Eusebio agreed to a $700,000, one-year contract, a raise of $50,000. Eusebio, 30, played in 60 games for Houston last season and batted .274 with one home run and 18 RBIs. . . . Broadcaster Harry Caray will be joined by his grandson, Chip, on Chicago Cubs’ home telecasts next season.

Miscellany

Former heavyweight boxing champion Gerrie Coetzee of South Africa was questioned by police in Johannesburg in connection with a shooting that wounded a man believed to have threatened the fighter with a shotgun.

Chad Carvin, who rebounded from a serious heart condition to win four titles at the U.S. national swimming championships in February, withdrew from next month’s world championships at Perth, Australia. Carvin, of Laguna Hills, has been hampered because of a bulging disk in his lower back for several months.

Pete Sampras was named the U.S. Olympic Committee’s 1997 sportsman of the year. Sampras, who did not participate in the tennis event at the 1996 Olympics, is the first tennis player to win the award.

Jaycie Phelps, a member of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team that won the gold medal at the Olympics last year in Atlanta, underwent surgery on her left knee.

Benny Silman, 26, of San Diego, one of four men accused of conspiring with two former Arizona State basketball players to fix games in 1994, pleaded not guilty to 72 counts of sports bribery, money laundering and racketeering. Silman appeared before U.S. Magistrate Morton Sitver, who scheduled a Feb. 10 trial in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.

Syndicated radio talk-show host Jim Rome and New York Post sports columnist Wallace Matthews will be paired on a nightly half-hour cable television show on Fox Sports Net beginning Jan. 5.

Jayna Hefford scored two goals, including the decisive one with 2:05 remaining, to lead the Canadian women’s Olympic hockey team to a 5-4 victory over the United States at Burlington, Vt.