Cardinals Set to Get Vina for Acevedo

The St. Louis Cardinals have acquired Fernando Vina from the Milwaukee Brewers, contingent on the second baseman passing a physical, a St. Louis television station reported Saturday.

According to KSDK-TV, St. Louis has agreed to send relief pitcher Juan Acevedo and two minor leaguers to Milwaukee for Vina. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, citing an unidentified source, also reported the trade in today’s editions.

A knee injury limited Vina to 37 games last season. In 154 at-bats, he hit .266 with one home run, 16 runs batted in and five steals. He had 637 at-bats in 1998, batting .311 with seven homers, 45 RBIs and 22 steals.

Acevedo struggled in split duties as a starter and reliever last season after converting 15 of 16 save opportunities in 1998. In 1999, he was 6-8 with a 5.89 earned-run average, making 12 starts and saving four games.

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The Pittsburgh Pirates signed right-handed reliever Marc Wilkins to a one-year, $750,000 contract. . . . Kazuhiro Sasaki, the all-time save leader in Japan, signed a two-year contract with the Seattle Mariners. Sasaki, 31, had 229 saves in 10 seasons for Yokohama in Japan’s Central League.

Boxing

Isidro Garcia of Los Angeles, fighting on only two hours’ notice, won the World Boxing Organization flyweight title, outpointing Puerto Rico’s Jose Lopez with a unanimous decision at Indio.

Promoters had planned to cancel the bout after Alejandro Montiel of Mexico complained of no feeling in his right side and pulled out at 1 p.m. But Garcia walked into the Fantasy Springs Casino hotel lobby hours before the scheduled 5 p.m. start and was asked to fight.

“Somebody’s looking over me. What a Christmas present,” Garcia said.

Using a borrowed mouthguard, protector, and trunks, Garcia improved his record to 20-1-1. Lopez is 21-5-1.

Tim Austin stopped Chile’s Bernardo Mendoza with a flurry of punches in the first round at Robinsonville, Miss., to successfully defend the International Boxing Federation bantamweight title. . . . Javier Castillejo of Spain stopped bloodied Michael Rask of Denmark in the seventh round at Madrid to win his third World Boxing Council super-welterweight title defense.

Winter Sports

Pernilla Wiberg of Sweden won a World Cup downhill at St. Moritz, Switzerland, but the effort was physically damaging. In an event marked by crashes, Wiberg mastered the 2,780-meter Corviglia course in 1 minute 12.57 seconds, for only the second World Cup downhill victory of her career.

But a heavy landing on one of the course’s jumps aggravated a knee injury, previously sore from a crash in a super-G event.

Austria’s powerful men’s ski team collected its seventh World Cup victory, but, to the surprise of most, Hermann Maier was not the winner at Val Gardena, Italy.

Andreas Schifferer, 25, upset his older--and most feared teammate--by winning a downhill race.

Maier was relegated to third, behind Friday’s winner, Kristian Ghedina of Italy.

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Jennifer Rodriguez, a former in-line skater from Miami, won the 500- and 1,500-meter races at the U.S. Allround Speedskating Championships at West Allis, Wis. Rodriguez won the 500-meter race with a time of 40.62 seconds, and the 1,500 in 2 minutes 3.03 seconds at the Pettit National Ice Center. Joseph Cheek won the men’s 500 in 37.37, and Derek Parra won the 1,500 in 1:51.98. . . . Martin Schmitt of Germany won a World Cup ski jumping event at Zakopane, Poland, beating defending champion Janne Ahonen of Finland. . . . Christian Reich and brakeman Urs Aeberhard led a surprising Swiss haul of gold and silver medals in the two-man event of the World Cup bobsled event at Koenigssee, Germany. Reich, who also won the season opener at Lillehammer, Norway, swept to fastest times of 47.74 and 47.80 seconds in heats to finish at 1 minute 35.54 seconds and grab the lead in the overall Cup standings from Pierre Lueders of Canada. . . . Norway’s men took the top two spots in a 30-kilometer cross-country ski race at Davos, Switzerland, with Frode Estil claiming the first World Cup victory of his career and Espen Bjervig the runner-up. In the women’s 15K race, Olympic champion Olga Danilova of Russia edged teammate Larissa Lazutina, repeating last year’s triumph.

Motor Sports

Former Indianapolis 500 car owner and builder Grant King has died from injuries in a traffic accident near his Danville, Ind., home. He was 67.

King disregarded a stop sign and pulled into the path of a pickup truck about 9:15 a.m. Friday, police said. King’s pickup truck struck a fence and flipped several times. He was taken to a Danville hospital where he later died.

The other driver was not injured, police said.

King was a familiar face in the Indianapolis racing community. From 1964 through the early 1980s, he was either the owner, chief mechanic or builder of dozens of Indy 500 cars.

But his influence in the racing community ended when the FBI began investigating his business as part of a two-state stolen-car ring.

He pleaded guilty in November 1990 to four federal charges related to auto theft and the sale of stolen cars. The plea culminated a three-year investigation of King and others who were involved in stealing, retitling and selling stolen cars in central Indiana.

Viagra, the medication used to treat erectile dysfunction, will be the primary sponsor for a NASCAR racing team during the 2000 season.

Eel River Racing has agreed to place the Viagra name on its No. 27 Pontiac. The car will be driven by Jeff Fuller, and Barry Dodson will be the crew chief, the Charlotte Observer reported.

Olympics

Australia’s federal sports minister has threatened to expose any drug cheats at next year’s Sydney Olympics even if the International Olympic Committee refuses to name them.

Jackie Kelly told the Sydney-based Sunday-Telegraph that she would be prepared to identify any drug offenders even if the IOC was not.

Under the IOC’s regulations, only the IOC’s Medical Commission is informed of any positive tests. But Kelly, an outspoken anti-drug crusader, said cheats should be identified to the public as soon as the result was known.