Kidney Affliction Puts Carter on the Sidelines

Miami Dolphin receiver Cris Carter will be sidelined indefinitely because tests revealed kidney-function abnormalities, the team said Saturday.

Carter, who came out of retirement three weeks ago, sat out practice this week because he felt ill. He will undergo more tests.

The Dolphins would not elaborate on his condition and declined to say whether he had been hospitalized. Coach Dave Wannstedt would not comment.

Carter, an eight-time Pro Bowl selection, retired last spring after 15 seasons.

He struggled in his first game with Miami, a 24-10 loss at Green Bay on Monday night. Carter lost a fumble after his first catch and failed to catch a pass that was then intercepted. He finished with three receptions for 31 yards.

Carter, who turns 37 on Nov. 25, ranks second all-time to Jerry Rice in receptions (1,096) and touchdown catches (129).

Baseball

Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi hit consecutive home runs in the first and fifth innings, leading the major league All-Stars to an 8-1 exhibition victory over the Japan Series champion Yomiuri Giants at Tokyo.

Rodrigo Lopez, the Baltimore Oriole starter who finished second in American League rookie-of-the-year voting last week, held the Giants to one hit in five innings.

The All-Stars begin a seven-game series against Japan’s best players today.

Ichiro Suzuki was not available against Yomiuri because of a commitment in his hometown of Nagoya. He is in Japan to play for the first time since leaving to sign with the Seattle Mariners two years ago.

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Japanese slugger Hideki Matsui, who last week said he intended to play in the major leagues next season, said he is still unsure about his baseball future.

Matsui, 28, turned down a multiyear deal with Yomiuri in December. Major league teams can begin negotiating with Matsui on Wednesday.

College basketball

USC junior forward Jerry Dupree, who was suspended for the first six games of the season in an effort to help him concentrate on off-the-court issues, has now been given a weeklong hiatus by Trojan Coach Henry Bibby and will not rejoin the team until Friday.

“It’s not a suspension,” Bibby said. “His health was down and he hasn’t gotten back to where I’d like him to be. Once he gets back he can be a big asset to us. He just needed to get away from basketball for a minute and get his life together.”

Dupree, who sat out the first two weeks of practice because of a stomach infection, was the only Trojan missing from USC’s 95-76 exhibition victory over the L.A. City All-Stars 2 in front of 357 at the Lyon Center. Junior guard Desmon Farmer had 24 points, including four three-pointers, eight rebounds and three assists, sophomore guard Errick Craven had 22 points and four steals and junior college transfer Roy Smiley had 17 points and six rebounds.

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Former Louisiana Tech coach Leon Barmore and Texas Tech Coach Marsha Sharp will be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame next spring.

Former Maryland point guard Tara Heiss, Texas businessman Claude Hutcherson and AAU All-Americans Patsy Neal and Doris Rogers also will be inducted. An official announcement will be made today.

Golf

Bradley Dredge of Wales birdied the last two holes for a par 71 to take a one-stroke lead after three rounds in the Volvo Masters at Sotogrande, Spain.

Dredge was at three-under 210, a shot ahead of Argentina’s Angel Cabrera (76) and Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie (72).

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Annika Sorenstam took a big step toward winning her 10th LPGA title this year, shooting a seven-under 65 for a one-stroke lead in the Mizuno Classic at Otsu, Japan.

South Korea’s Grace Park and Gloria Park were one stroke behind. Each shot a 69.

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Fuzzy Zoeller shot a five-under-par 67 for a three-stroke lead after one round in the Senior Slam at Superstition Mountain, Ariz.

Don Pooley and Stewart Ginn each shot a 70, and Jim Thorpe offset five birdies with three bogeys and a double bogey for a 72. The tournament ends today.

Tennis

Angelique Widjaja, 17, defeated top-seeded Tatiana Panova, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, and Cho Yoon-jeong beat Lina Krasnoroutskaya, 6-4, 7-6 (3), in the semifinals of the Volvo Women’s Open at Pattaya, Thailand.

Auto Racing

Scott Wimmer won the Basha’s Supermarket 200 under a yellow flag, but Saturday was Greg Biffle’s day.

Biffle clinched the NASCAR Busch Series championship, leading all but the last 16 laps of the 200-lap race at Phoenix International Speedway. He finished third, just ahead of series runner-up Jason Keller.

Wimmer, a distant third in the standings, won for the third time in the last seven races.

Figure Skating

Japan’s Yoshie Onda nearly landed a triple axel in winning the women’s event in the Nations Cup at Gelsenkirchen, Germany, and Olympic silver medalist Evgeny Plushenko put an artistic touch on his new short program to take the lead.

Chinese world champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo easily won the pairs, and Bulgarian ice dancers Albena Denkova and Maxim Stayivski earned their first major victory.

Jurisprudence

The University of South Florida must decide if it still has grounds to fire a women’s basketball coach accused of racial discrimination.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled Friday that one of the two reasons on which the university based the dismissal of Jerry Ann Winters was invalid.

The school fired Winters in December 2000, contending the coach, who is white, dismissed black player Dione Smith from the team shortly after Smith complained about racism. The school contended Winters lied about her knowledge of the accusations in an affidavit.

The court ruled Winters did not retaliate against the player, but let stand the school’s conclusion that she breached her contract by lying in the affidavit.

Smith is one of 12 players and a coach to sue, complaining of racism at the school. The two sides have agreed to a settlement, subject to a judge’s approval.

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Rulon Gardner, the Olympic wrestling heavyweight champion who in February lost a toe to frostbite, defeated Eddy Bengtsson, 3-0, in the Kurt Angle Classic Greco-Roman event at New Orleans.