Phillips’ Reign Officially Over

After spearheading a plan that cost 22 major league umpires their jobs, which led to his Major League Umpires Assn. being voted out of power, Richie Phillips is officially out of power.

Phillips and the umpires’ union on Friday lost their appeal to the National Labor Relations Board to overturn the election that kicked them out in November.

“Today’s NLRB decision removes any doubt that major league umpires will be represented by our new union,” said American League umpire John Hirschbeck, one of the leaders of the insurgents who won the November representation election, 57-35.

Umpires, many angry at a failed mass resignation plan that backfired in July and cost 22 of them their jobs, voted to be represented by the Major League Umpires Independent Organizing Committee.

Phillips and the MLUA appealed, claiming owners illegally helped the new union during the election. The MLUA has two weeks to appeal the decision.

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Former Dodger pitcher Hideo Nomo, 31, agreed to a one-year, $1.25-million contract with Detroit and could earn an additional $3.25 million in performance bonuses. . . . The Chicago Cubs avoided salary arbitration with another former Dodger pitcher, Ismael Valdes, agreeing to a one-year contract thought to be worth $5,737,500--the midpoint between what he asked for and what the team offered. . . . Former New York Yankee first baseman Don Mattingly will be a spring training instructor with the team, the New York Times reported. . . . Workers at Miller Park, the Milwaukee Brewers’ future stadium, began lifting a 230-ton section of the ballpark’s retractable roof for the first time since another crane collapsed last July 14, killing three workers. . . . Outfielder Curtis Pride, the first deaf player in modern major league history, signed a minor league contract with the New York Mets. . . . Pittsburgh signed left-handed pitcher John Smiley, 34, to a minor league contract. . . . Pitcher Bill Pulsipher, 26, was reacquired by the Mets from the Brewers for 29-year-old infielder Luis Lopez. The Mets traded Pulsipher to the Brewers on July 31, 1998.

Boxing

Lennox Lewis has sued promoter Don King, charging that King fraudulently got him to sign a contract that obligates Lewis to fight a sick man. The suit centers on the contract the undisputed heavyweight champion signed with King on Aug. 24. Court papers say that for Lewis to get a second shot at Evander Holyfield’s title after their first fight ended in a draw, King required him to agree that if he won, he would have to fight then-No. 1 World Boxing Assn. contender Henry Akinwande, who has hepatitis. Lewis beat Holyfield but refused to fight Akinwande. . . . Mike Tyson spent 45 minutes in a London police station, seeking protection from his fans. In England to fight British titleholder Julius Francis, Tyson was mobbed by more than 1,000 fans in the south London neighborhood of Brixton.

Miscellany

Tom Welch and Dave Johnson, the two men who are the focus of an investigation into the Salt Lake City Olympic scandal, were awarded bonuses totaling nearly $400,000 after the city won the bid to host the 2002 Winter Olympics. Now, 13 months after the scandal erupted, federal investigators hope to tie those bonuses to a scheme to buy International Olympic Committee votes in support of the city’s bid, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Friday.

Swiss snowboarder Daniel Loetscher, 25, was killed at Leysin, Switzerland, when he crashed into a pillar at the end of the parallel giant slalom. . . . Sarah Steen, the 21-year-old Kenyon College student driving the van last week that crashed and killed women’s swim team member Molly Hatcher, also 21, will be cited for a failure to control, a traffic offense, rather than vehicular homicide. . . . Oliverio Rincon, a 32-year-old retired international cyclist and Tour de France veteran, was kidnapped by armed gunmen who burst into his parents’ home at Duitama, Colombia. . . . University of Washington cornerback Omare Lowe got a deferred sentence and wide receiver-kick returner Terry Tharps got a suspended sentence and two-year probation stemming from disturbances at a school fraternity in May. . . . The attorney for the owner of the horse Valhol has filed notice that he will appeal a judge’s ruling upholding the disqualification of the horse as winner of the Arkansas Derby. Valhol jockey Billy Patin was ruled to have carried a banned electrical device during the April 10 race.

Hawaii football Coach June Jones was awarded a three-year contract extension, giving him a seven-year deal worth $320,000 a year. . . . Magic Johnson scored 34 points and made two free throws with five seconds left as his Swedish team, Magic M7, held off the Norrkoping Dolphins, 105-102, at Norrkoping, Sweden. . . . Austria’s Hermann Maier won his third super-G of the season on the Streif course at Kitzbuehel, Austria. . . . Martina Glagow led a 1-2-3 German sweep in the women’s 7.5-kilometer biathlon World Cup race at Anterselva, Italy, with no misses from the shooting range and a time of 24 minutes 22.8 seconds. . . . Britain’s Nicky Gooch won the 1,500-meter men’s race at the European Short Track speedskating championships at Borimo, Italy, with a time of 2:33.339. . . . The two leading cars in the Dakar Rally finished the 380-mile 15th stage in exactly the same time, and the team of Jean-Louis Schlesser of France and Henri Magne of Andorra are heading to overall victory in Cairo on Sunday.