Boggs, McGee Top Hall List

Five-time American League batting champion Wade Boggs, two-time National League batting champion Willie McGee and eight-time All-Star Darryl Strawberry are among 12 players who will appear on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time.

Ryne Sandberg, Bruce Sutter, Jim Rice, Andre Dawson and Rich Gossage head the returning players on the ballots.

Boggs is 23rd on the career list with 3,010 hits and won two Gold Gloves at third base.

McGee is a four-time All-Star outfielder who had 2,254 hits and 352 steals.

Strawberry hit 335 homers in a 17-year career, including three seasons with the Dodgers.

Sandberg last year was 71 votes short of the required 75% needed for election.

Voting by the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America ends Dec. 31 and the results will be announced Jan. 4.

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Catcher Damian Miller and the Milwaukee Brewers finalized an $8.75-million, three-year contract after team doctors allayed concerns over his health.

The deal was agreed to last week, but the Brewers put off completing the agreement because they couldn’t find any of their team doctors to read MRI exam results before the holiday weekend.

Miller, 35, played 110 games for Oakland last season and batted .272 with nine home runs and a career-high 58 runs batted in.

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Catcher Doug Mirabelli became the first of the Boston Red Sox’s 16 free agents to re-sign, agreeing to a $3-million, two-year contract.... Catcher Gary Bennett agreed to a $750,000, one-year contract with the former Montreal Expos, who are bound for Washington.... Left-hander Dennys Reyes and the San Diego Padres agreed to a $550,000, one-year contract.

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The Toronto Blue Jays agreed to buy SkyDome, the team’s ballpark, for about $21.2 million. The 50,000-seat stadium, which opened in 1989, cost about $375 million to construct and was mostly funded by taxpayers. The Blue Jays, owned by Rogers Communications, will acquire the ballpark from Sportsco International LP, a Chicago-based group of investors who bought SkyDome out of bankruptcy court in 1999 for about $74 million.... A new ballpark for the soon-to-be Washington Nationals appeared to be headed to approval in a vote today after the chair of the District of Columbia Council decided not to oppose financing.