Jeter Wins Big in Arbitration

Shortstop Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees won his salary arbitration case Tuesday when a panel of three arbitrators awarded him the $5 million he was seeking for the coming season.

The World Series champions are the first team to lose an arbitration case this off-season.

Jeter finished third in balloting for the American League’s most-valuable-player award after batting .324 with 19 home runs, 84 runs batted in, 30 stolen bases and a league-leading 127 runs.

The 24-year-old all-star earned $750,000 last season, his third in the majors. The Yankees submitted an offer of $3.2 million during a 4 1/2-hour hearing Monday.

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Alex Fernandez of the Florida Marlins, coming back from a torn rotator cuff that sidelined him after the 1997 National League championship series, will start the season opener April 5 against the New York Mets if he’s ready, Manager John Boles said. . . . The St. Louis Cardinals agreed to a $500,000, one-year contract with shortstop Shawon Dunston. . . . The Mets signed pitcher Armando Benitez to a one-year, $1,987,500 contract, avoiding salary arbitration.

Olympics

Gifts to U.S. Olympic Committee officials during Salt Lake City’s efforts to be the American bidder for the Winter Games are under investigation by an elite ethics panel.

The disclosure, in a letter, was the first public sign of the direction of the inquiry, one of six into the bribery scandal surrounding the Utah capital’s successful quest for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

In Utah, meanwhile, a former U.S. skiing official said he had told investigators about Salt Lake-paid ski trips for three USOC members, and had identified one of them.

In other developments:

* While the Justice Department gathers evidence, a former federal prosecutor now working with Salt Lake Olympic organizers claimed boosters broke no laws while bidding for the 2002 Winter Games.

“I did consider a lot of the criminal theories and I don’t see criminal conduct,” said Beth Wilkinson, a leading attorney on the team that prosecuted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. “Some of their activities could be seen as unethical, but that’s a long way from being criminal.”

* Letters are on the way to IOC members implicated in Salt Lake City’s bribery scandal, telling them they have until the end of the month to say why they shouldn’t be expelled.

A six-man IOC inquiry panel will meet then and make recommendations to the executive board, which can order further expulsions.

* In Rome, Primo Nebiolo, the powerful president of world track and field, offered his first formal support for embattled IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch. Nebiolo’s statement was issued through the Council of the Assn. of Summer Olympic International Federations, over which he presides.

* In Santiago, Chile, Christian Rodriguez, the secretary general of Chile’s Olympic Committee, has submitted his resignation but claims he played no part in the Salt Lake City bribery scandal, published reports said.

* In Santo Domingo, the head of the Dominican Republic’s Olympic Committee denied a newspaper report that he received inflated travel expenses from Sweden.

Miscellany

Chris Spielman, the all-pro linebacker who sat out last season to be with his wife while she recovered from breast cancer surgery, was obtained by the Cleveland Browns in a trade with the Buffalo Bills.

The Jacksonville Jaguars signed Kyle Brady to an offer sheet that would make him the highest-paid tight end in the NFL. The New York Jets have seven days to match the five-year, $14.4-million offer because Brady is a transition player. The deal reportedly includes a $4-million signing bonus. . . . The Philadelphia Eagles agreed to terms with free-agent wide receivers Charles Johnson and Torrance Small. . . . The Jets agreed to terms with a pair of former Baltimore Ravens, tight end Eric Green and defensive end Mike Frederick. . . . The Denver Broncos agreed to terms with former Kansas City Chief cornerback Dale Carter.

Five newly signed University of Washington football players who lost their eligibility because of an NCAA rules violation have been reinstated by the NCAA, the school announced.

All five were visited in their homes Jan. 31 by assistant coaches working under new head Coach Rick Neuheisel. The visits came during an NCAA quiet period and violated NCAA rules.

The players are John Anderson, of Boca Raton, Fla.; Clayton Hathorne, of Menlo Park, Calif.; Chris Massey, of Moreno Valley; Domynic Shaw, of Oakland and Jerome Stevens, of Oxnard.

The 20-year-old daughter of NFL Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff was found strangled on a community college campus at Redwood City, Calif., police said.

A murder warrant was issued for the young woman’s boyfriend, who was believed to have taken her car.

Tonya Harding announced her latest comeback to figure skating, saying there has been a recent easing of her lifetime ban from the sport for her role in the 1994 attack on Nancy Kerrigan.

That was news to the U.S. Figure Skating Assn., which emphasized that nothing has changed.

“We have not changed our stance on a lifetime ban for Tonya Harding,” USFSA spokesman Bob Dunlop said. “That’s about as simple as I can make it.”

Samuel Bartholomew, captain of the 1939 Tennessee football team that was undefeated and unscored on during the regular season, died Sunday night of pneumonia in Kingsport, Tenn. He was 81.

Top-seeded Todd Martin held off a strong challenge from qualifier Jonathan Stark to win his opening match in the $825,000 Kroger St. Jude tennis tournament at Memphis, Tenn., 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 7-5.

Second-seeded Mark Philippoussis, No. 3 Tommy Haas and No. 4 Michael Chang all play today.

Top-seeded Alex Corretja of Spain, beset by a slew of errors, lost to 19-year-old Marat Safin of Russia, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, in the first round of the $850,000 ABN AMRO indoor tennis tournament at Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Another Russian, second-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov, defeated qualifier Rainer Schuettler of Germany, 7-5, 6-3.

Iva Majoli of Croatia, troubled by injuries since winning the 1997 French Open, lost to Ai Sugiyama of Japan, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, in the first round of a $500,000 WTA tournament at Hanover, Germany.

Sprinter Maurice Greene won the 60-meter event at the Jose Maria Cagigal meet at Madrid, Spain, in 6.49 seconds, a tenth of a second off the world record of 6.39 that he set at last year’s competition.