Flagship Radio Station Sues Depleted Marlins

The Florida Marlins have been sued by their flagship radio station, which claims that last season’s breakup of a World Series champion cost it profits.

The lawsuit, filed this week in Miami by WQAM and parent company Beasley-Reed Acquisitions, seeks an unspecified reduction in their rights fee from last season and for the next three seasons. Also named as a defendant is Marlin owner Wayne Huizenga’s Front Row Communications.

WQAM’s five-year, $15-million contract took effect before the 1997 season, when the Marlins won the World Series. The station wants to keep the games, but at a reduced price.

The Marlins lost 108 games last season.

Pro Basketball

In the NBA lockout, the new year began the way the old one ended.

For the second consecutive day, the players’ union refused to turn over its “final” offer unless owners agreed to a negotiating session.

Union attorney Jeffrey Kessler called it a stall tactic: “They are trying to delay the process of meeting so they can keep trying to put pressure on the players.”

Not so, said Jeffrey Mishkin, the NBA’s chief legal counsel.

“The reason for not having a meeting is that we have given our final offer and they have rejected it,” he said.

Miscellany

Washington Athletic Director Barbara Hedges isn’t wasting any time in her search for a new football coach.

After firing Jim Lambright this week, Hedges interviewed Husky assistant coaches, whose contracts expire June 30.

She also called Toledo Athletic Director Pete Liske, a former Washington administrator, to ask permission to interview Toledo Coach Gary Pinkel, a former Husky assistant.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer said Rich Brooks, the former Oregon coach and now defensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, indicated an interest in the job but said he has not talked with any school officials.

Australian Open champion Petr Korda had planned to retire at the end of 1998 but changed his mind because he wants to clear his name after failing a drug test.

The 30-year-old Czech said he fears he will have a “black mark” on his name for the rest of his life because people won’t believe his claim that he wasn’t aware that he took a steroid.

Italian Giovanni Soldini won the second leg of the Around Alone around-the-world yacht race after British rival and race leader Mike Golding encountered trouble.

Golding led by two days, 17 hours over Soldini after the first leg from Charleston, S.C., to Cape Town, South Africa.

A team of boat builders flew to assist Golding in a remote area north of New Zealand after he damaged his yacht.

Spain’s Miguel Prieto of Mitsubishi won the first leg of the Dakar Rally at Granada, Spain, in a repeat of the muddy three-mile prologue that began the 18-day trek.

Martin Schmitt of Germany leaped a course-record 123.0 meters to win the second event of the Four Hills ski jumping tournament at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

A women’s World Cup super-G at Maribor, Slovenia, was postponed because of fog and rescheduled for today.

Jerry Williams, who played defensive back and running back with the Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles before coaching the Eagles, died Thursday at Chandler, Ariz., after a battle with leukemia. He was 75.

He is survived by his wife, Marian, and five children.