Baseball Approves Yankee-Net Merger

The first business-marketing merger of baseball and basketball teams won final approval Tuesday, clearing the way for the New York Yankees and New Jersey Nets to complete their get-together.

Baseball owners meeting in Irving, Texas, unanimously approved the deal, which already had been approved by the NBA.

The merger does not change control of either team, meaning George Steinbrenner is still boss of the World Series champions.

“There were some changes made overall, although George is still clearly running the New York Yankees,” Commissioner Bud Selig said. “We approved the transfer of some control to the YankeeNets board.”

It still is unclear when the Yankees and Nets will close their deal. Harvey Schiller, former U.S. Olympic Committee executive director, resigned last month as president of Turner Sports and is expected to become head of YankeeNets, the holding company for the two teams.

By merging, the Yankees and the Nets form an entity with year-round programming, allowing them to either create a new regional sports channel in New York or to negotiate with the Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and Time Warner Inc.’s Turner Broadcasting about forming a new regional sports TV channel.

Baseball owners also unanimously approved the sale of the Montreal Expos to a group headed by New York art dealer Jeffrey Loria, and the transfer of control of the Seattle Mariners to Howard Lincoln, former Nintendo of America Inc. executive, though John Ellis will continue to represent the team on baseball’s executive council.

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A misdemeanor sexual harassment charge against Lenny Dykstra was dismissed in Ventura.

The former outfielder for the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies faced misdemeanor charges of sexual battery and child annoyance after he was arrested Oct. 13 on a complaint filed by a 17-year-old female employee at a car wash he owns in Simi Valley.

A motion brought by the Ventura County district attorney’s office to dismiss charges was granted.

Golf

Tiger Woods was voted PGA Tour player of the year after putting together the best season in more than 40 years.

The award is based on a vote by the players, and Woods left little room for argument by closing out the year with five victories in his last six events, and becoming the first player to exceed $6 million in earnings in a year. Woods’ eight victories were the most since Johnny Miller won eight times in 1974.

Carlos Franco, the 34-year-old from Paraguay who won twice and was 11th on the money list with more than $1.8 million, was voted rookie of the year. Steve Pate was voted comeback player of the year.

Using a tactic traditionally reserved for desegregating schools and cleaning up corrupt unions, Massachusetts is asking for a court-appointed monitor to oversee a country club that discriminated against women.

Nine female golfers won a $1.97-million verdict against the Haverhill Golf and Country Club this fall when a jury unanimously decided the women were unfairly denied “primary memberships.”

In a motion scheduled to be heard next week in Suffolk Superior Court, the state attorney general asked Judge John Cratsley for an injunction that would prevent the club from treating women as second-class members. Among other remedies, it asks the judge to put a monitor in charge of the club for five years to guarantee the club’s compliance with state anti-discrimination laws.

Boxing

The Felix Trinidad-David Reid fight for Reid’s 154-pound World Boxing Assn. title, scheduled for March 4 at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace, has been postponed.

Instead, negotiations are underway for Trinidad to defend his World Boxing Council 147-pound title against Derrell Coley, perhaps in Puerto Rico in March.

The change also has renewed hope for a Trinidad-Oscar De La Hoya rematch June 17 in Las Vegas, although Trinidad still has a contract to fight Reid.

De La Hoya is expected to fight World Boxing Organization 147-pound champion Ahmed Kotiev, probably at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 26.

The condition of comatose boxer Stephan Johnson is continuing to deteriorate in an Atlantic City hospital, according to his manager Kenneth Woods, who said the 31-year-old Brooklyn fighter has contracted pneumonia and is battling a fever that has reached 104 degrees.

Miscellany

Former Rutgers basketball players Earl Johnson Jr. and Josh Sankes, along with former team manager Juan Carlos Pla, filed a civil-rights lawsuit seeking unspecified damages in Superior Court in Newark, N.J., accusing Coach Kevin Bannon of making them run wind sprints naked during a practice in 1997. . . . Team captain Roy Keane scored the only goal, giving European Cup soccer champion Manchester United a 1-0 victory over Brazil’s Palmeiras at Tokyo for the first Toyota Cup title won by an English club.

Pairs figure skater Paul Binnebose, a member of the U.S. national team, was released from a hospital in Newark, Del., where he spent more than two months after suffering a skull fracture. . . . It will be easier for WNBA teams to make trades under new rules. “Unbalanced” trades will be allowed, providing the number of players on either side of a deal does not exceed those on the other side by more than one.