Former Senator Mitchell Will Head Olympic Probe

George Mitchell has another entry on his roll call of tough jobs--trying to get to the bottom of the biggest scandal in Olympic history.

Mitchell, the former Senate majority leader who helped broker peace in Northern Ireland and is expected to play a key role in President Clinton’s impeachment defense, was selected Tuesday to lead the latest investigation into possible bribery involving the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

He and four others, among them former White House chief of staff Ken Duberstein and baseball union chief Donald Fehr, will start their work for the U.S. Olympic Committee next week and hope to have a report by the end of February.

Meanwhile, an official in Zakopane, Poland’s, committee bidding for the 2006 Winter Olympics, questioned Juan Antonio Samaranch’s call to halt visits by voting IOC members to bid cities.

“Changing the rules in the middle of competition is a strange solution,” said Piotr Bak, deputy mayor of Zakopane.

He said Zakopane sent invitations to all of the more than 115 IOC members and had expected a significant number to visit.

Baseball

Pitcher Roger Clemens of the Toronto Blue Jays withdrew his trade demand, saying that he was prepared to report to spring training with the Blue Jays in February. Clemens, the only five-time Cy Young Award winner, had told the Blue Jays on Dec. 2 to trade him to a team closer to home or to a contender, citing an agreement he made with then-team President Paul Beeston in December 1996. The Houston Astros, Texas Rangers and New York Yankees were the chief contenders, but the Blue Jays couldn’t find a deal to their liking and teams were scared off by Clemens’ contract demands.

Marge Schott, owner of the Cincinnati Reds, and baseball officials agreed to extend her ban from most team operations for three months, through March 31, while she seeks a buyer for her controlling interest. Schott, 70, agreed in June 1996, to give up day-to-day operations of the team through the 1998 season. Under pressure from National League President Len Coleman and other baseball officials, she agreed Oct. 23 to sell her shares and extend the ban through Dec. 31.

First baseman Mark Johnson was released by the Angels, allowing him to sign with the Hanshin Tigers of the Japanese Central League. . . . Outfielder Rob Ducey agreed to a $400,000, one-year contract with the Philadelphia Phillies, a day after the Seattle Mariners cut him loose. . . . The San Francisco Giants bolstered their bench with the signing of free-agent utility player F.P. Santangelo to a one-year contract. . . . Pitchers Buddy Groom and Gil Heredia of the Oakland Athletics avoided salary arbitration by agreeing to one-year contracts. . . . Former Kansas City Royal manager John Wathan has been hired by the team as a special assignment scout. . . . Right-hander Kip Wells, the Chicago White Sox’s first-round pick in the amateur draft, agreed to a $1.5 million, one-year contract.

Miscellany

The father of Croatian tennis star Goran Ivanisevic and the head of the country’s national tennis association, were found guilty of slandering each other, Croatian media reported. A Zagreb court convicted Srdjan Ivanisevic and Suad Rizvanbegovic and sentenced them to 30-day prison terms or one-year suspended sentences for insulting and slandering the other, the Jutarnji daily reported. For more than a year, the elder Ivanisevic and Rizvanbegovic have quarreled about who should control Croatian tennis. The feud prompted Goran Ivanisevic to stop playing Davis Cup for his country and demand that Rizvanbegovic quit his post.

Richard Dumas, formerly of the Phoenix Suns, was charged in Tulsa, Okla., with possessing crack cocaine and drug paraphernalia. Dumas was arrested last week at a Tulsa motel room when officers came to serve an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for failure to pay a fine on a seat-belt charge.

Billy Mayfair will defend his title in the Nissan Open golf tournament Feb. 15-21 at Riviera Country Club.

A Polish soccer fan, Pawel Michalski, 19, was arrested in Krakow and charged with having thrown the knife that hit and injured Italian soccer player Dino Baggio during a UEFA Cup game there in October. Baggio needed five stitches for a head wound. If convicted, Michalski could go to jail for up 10 years. . . . Five months after losing the World Cup and his job, Mario Zagallo, former coach of the Brazilian national soccer team, has agreed to coach the Portuguesa club, the Globo TV network reported.

Organizers, threatened with loss of the date, have persuaded Championship Auto Racing Teams to return to Vancouver, Canada, in September for a champ car race. Complaints were many and loud after this year’s race, drivers questioning the safety of the track and car owners furious at finding used syringes and condoms in the areas set aside for hospitality and sponsor entertainment.

George Stricker, one of three American skippers left in the Around Alone around-the-world yacht race, has turned his battered boat back toward South Africa after pulling out of the race in the Indian Ocean. Stricker was fighting gale-force winds with all of his sails torn but one. The race started in Charleston, S.C., on Sept. 27 and will end there in the spring.

Randy Harvey is on vacation.