De La Hoya Fight Postponed After He Suffers an Injury

WBC welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya injured his right wrist, forcing a postponement of his Feb. 28 bout with Patrick Charpentier.

The fight is expected to be rescheduled for March 14 in Atlantic City, N.J., John Cirillo, a spokesman for promoter Bob Arum, said Tuesday.

Also postponed was Keith Mullings’ WBC super-welterweight title defense against David Ciarlante of Italy that was to have been part of an HBO-televised doubleheader.

Football

The Oakland Raiders named Skip Peete, 35, running backs coach at UCLA for the past two seasons and brother of Philadelphia Eagle quarterback Rodney Peete, as running backs coach.

Pittsburgh Steeler offensive coordinator Chan Gailey stayed overnight at Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones’ mansion and got a fourth interview for the coaching vacancy, one more than Terry Donahue and Green Bay Packer offensive coordinator Sherman Lewis.

The Cincinnati Bengals signed receiver Darnay Scott to what is believed to be a five-year, $15-million contract.

Former Buffalo Bill quarterback Jim Kelly, who turns 38 on Saturday, has asked the Baltimore Ravens for a three-year contract to return to the league and hoped for an answer within the next few days, his brother and agent, Dan Kelly, said.

The NFL has notified its 30 teams that the preliminary salary-cap figure for 1998 will be $51.507 million per team, up about $10 million from $41.5 million last season. The figure, which could increase by an additional $2 million, is due almost entirely to the new $17.6-billion television contract.

Steve Greatwood was named a USC assistant coach in charge of the offensive line, Coach Paul Hackett announced. Greatwood, 39, has held the same job with Maryland, the St. Louis Rams and at Oregon, where he played.

Baseball

An attorney for disgruntled former major league baseball players suing for a bigger share of royalties said in Oakland that the case was essentially about two things: “Cheating and a cover-up of that cheating.”

In his closing argument, Ronald Katz portrayed one of the main plaintiffs, Pete Coscarart, 84, of the Brooklyn Dodgers, as a humble man who stood up to major league baseball.

Coscarart, who helped the Dodgers win a pennant in 1941, is among 384 players who sued in Alameda County Superior Court claiming they were cheated out of royalties by major league baseball.

First baseman Rico Brogna and the Philadelphia Phillies agreed to a one-year contract worth $1.7 million. Carlos Perez, 12-13 with a 3.88 earned-run average for the Montreal Expos last season, agreed to a one-year, $1.5-million contract. He made $210,000 last season. . . . Minnesota pitcher Frank Rodriguez, 3-6 with a 4.62 ERA last season, became the first player to go to salary arbitration this year, asking for a four-fold raise from $220,000 to $880,000. . . . The Seattle Mariners became the fifth franchise to draw more than three million, but claim they still lost $4.1 million last season. . . . The San Francisco Giants named Jim Fregosi assistant to General Manager Brian Sabean.

Tennis

Second-seed Marcelo Rios and fifth-seeded Sergi Bruguera became the first seeded players to be eliminated in the first round of the $1-million Dubai Open, with Rios losing, 6-3, 6-3, to New Zealand’s Brett Steven and Bruguera falling, 6-3, 6-3, to American Jeff Tarango in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Top-seeded Jonas Bjorkman defeated qualifier David Nainkin of South Africa, 6-1, 6-3. Boris Becker, restricting himself to 10 to 12 tournaments this year, was in top form in defeating Tim Henman, 7-5, 6-0.

Top-seeded Anna Kournikova moved easily into the second round of the Paris Open, dominating France’s Alexia Dechaume-Balleret, 6-3, 7-5. Emilie Loit, an 18-year-old French qualifier who had never won a main-draw match, upset Bulgaria’s Magdalena Maleeva, ranked 29th in the world, 6-0, 6-2.

Sweden’s Thomas Nydahl defeated sixth-seeded Richard Fromberg of Australia, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-4, in the first round of the Sybase Open at San Jose.

Lindsay Davenport, ranked second in the world in singles and No. 1 in doubles, heads 11 players named to the 1998 U.S. Fed Cup team by captain Billie Jean King. Davenport was joined by Monica Seles, Venus Williams, Mary Joe Fernandez, Lisa Raymond, Kimberly Po, Serena Williams, Amy Frazier, Chanda Rubin, Nicole Arendt and Katrina Adams. The U.S. will play defending champion Netherlands April 18-19.

Miscellany

Albert E. Dotson Sr., 59, was named the first black president of the Orange Bowl Committee.