Hurricane Floyd Wipes Out More Events

Hurricane Floyd washed away part of the sports calendar for a third consecutive day as it swept up the East Coast on Thursday.

The Oakland Athletics and Baltimore Orioles, who were rained out Wednesday, lost their second game to the storm. The games probably will be made up as a doubleheader Sept. 23, a day off for both clubs.

Even playing indoors didn’t guarantee that the games would go on.

Heavy rain and flooded roads caused postponement of NHL exhibitions matching the Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers at New York and the Washington Capitals against the Philadelphia Flyers at Philadelphia. The Capitals and Flyers will play Sept. 27. No new date was set for the game at New York.

The opening round of golf’s B.C. Open at Endicott, N.Y., was postponed, but organizers still hoped to get in all four rounds.

At Loudon, N.H., qualifying for Saturday’s New Hampshire 100 Busch North series race at New Hampshire International Speedway was rained out. The 44-car starting lineup was set based on the current standings and postmarked entries for the race.

Belmont Park in New York and Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands in New Jersey called off their horse racing cards.

International Sports

Atlanta Olympic officials admit offering college scholarships that weren’t accepted and possibly breaking the law three times while trying to land the 1996 Summer Games. But former organizing chief Billy Payne and former Attorney General Griffin Bell denied that the “excesses,” which appear in an amended report to Congress made public Thursday, were part of any vote-buying scheme. Rather, they said, they were the result of “overexuberance” by Atlanta bidders.

A panel of British scientists is investigating whether contaminated meat and unlicensed food supplements could be responsible for the spate of positive tests for the steroid nandrolone. UK Sport, which oversees drug testing in Britain, said that it was concerned by the possible impact of “external sources” of nandrolone metabolites. There has been a series of positive tests for nandrolone this summer in different sports, among them high-profile cases in track and field involving former Olympic 100-meter champion Linford Christie of Britain and Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey.

The world governing body of track and field asked the Jamaican and Cuban federations to provisionally suspend Ottey and high jumper Javier Sotomayor for positive drug tests.

Natalie Williams and Lisa Leslie each scored 18 points to push the U.S. women’s basketball team past Poland, 86-67, and into Saturday’s gold medal game of the USA Basketball International Invitational in Palo Alto. The U.S. will play Australia, an 88-58 winner against Brazil.

Miscellany

Defending champion Parma of Italy had a scare before defeating Kryvbas of Ukraine, 3-2, in one of more than three dozen first-round, first-leg European Champion Cup soccer games. . . . Former Galaxy coach Lothar Osiander will replace Brian Quinn as coach of the San Jose Clash in Major League Soccer.

Top-seeded Thomas Enqvist of Sweden reached the quarterfinals of the Samsung Open tennis tournament with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Alex Lopez-Moron of Spain at Bournemouth, England. . . . Qualifier Georg Bastl of Switzerland reached his first semifinal as he beat Anthony Dupuis of France 6-2, 6-4, in the President’s Cup at Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Paul Gregory, who once struck out Babe Ruth as a member of the Chicago White Sox, died at 91 in Tunica, Miss. . . . Allen Stack, a gold medalist in swimming at the 1948 Olympics, has died at his home in Honolulu. He was 71.

The Chicago Bulls renounced their rights to guard Ron Harper, 35, and re-signed forward Dickey Simpkins. . . . The Vancouver Grizzlies continued to bolster their roster, signing free-agent forward Grant Long to a three-year, $6.6-million contract. . . . The Philadelphia 76ers signed rookie center Todd MacCulloch and free agent Bruce Bowen. . . . Guard Rex Walters re-signed with the Miami Heat. . . . Rap mogul Master P, waived by the Charlotte Hornets during training camp last season, was invited to camp by the Toronto Raptors.

The NCAA championship cabinet, meeting in Indianapolis, suspended waivers approved earlier this season by committees governing competition in women’s soccer and women’s basketball. The committees had sought to ban from NCAA play any school with written policies against Sunday competition. The ruling clears the way for Brigham Young to play in the NCAA tournaments if the Cougars qualify. . . . Citing violations in Michigan State’s women’s track and field program and the men’s wrestling program, the NCAA said it was extending the school’s probation for two years. Michigan State, which was finishing the probation issued in 1996 for violations in its football program, will remain on probation until 2001, the NCAA said.