BALCO Founder Conte Goes to Prison Today

BALCO founder Victor Conte is to begin serving a four-month prison sentence today for orchestrating an illegal steroids distribution scheme that reportedly involved such athletes as Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi.

Conte was sentenced in October to four months in prison and four months’ home confinement in a plea deal with federal prosecutors. He said he would report to a minimum security prison in Taft, Calif.

Conte founded and managed the Burlingame-based Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, where the steroids were sold. He pleaded guilty to money laundering and a steroid distribution charge, and dozens of other charges were dropped as part of his plea deal.

The lab counted dozens of prominent athletes among its clients, including baseball players Bonds and Giambi and Olympic track and field star Marion Jones, according to court records. None of the athletes named by Conte, some of whom testified before a grand jury, were charged in the scheme.

Greg Anderson, Bonds’ personal trainer, was sentenced to three months in prison and an additional three months’ home confinement after pleading guilty to money laundering and steroid distribution. Anderson also will report to prison today.

BALCO vice president James Valente was sentenced to three years’ probation, and track coach Remi Korchemny is expected to receive probation at his February sentencing.

Former St. Louis Blues forward Mike Danton, 25, wants a federal judge in East St. Louis, Ill., to reconsider a 7 1/2 -year prison sentence he received for plotting to kill his agent because he has not been transferred to prison in his native Canada as he says he was promised.

Danton, imprisoned in Fort Dix, N.J., asked Judge William Stiehl to order a new sentencing and free him in the meantime. He pleaded guilty in July 2004 to murder conspiracy charges related to what prosecutors said was his failed plot to kill agent David Frost.

Olympic 1,500-meter silver medalist Bernard Lagat refused to drop his lawsuit seeking $585,000 in damages from the IAAF and the World Anti-Doping Agency despite a proposed deal exonerating him of any doping offense. He was suspended for two months in 2003 for using the banned blood booster EPO before a negative second sample overturned a positive test. The case is scheduled to go to court in February.

PRO FOOTBALL

Holmgren Backtracks on Officiating Claim

Seattle Seahawk Coach Mike Holmgren said that he “kind of messed up” when he said the NFL told him there were officiating mistakes made during Sunday’s overtime victory over the New York Giants.

“What I should have said was, ‘I talked to the league, but what was said was confidential,’ ” he said.

Holmgren said he expected the league to fine him for breaching its confidentiality agreement between teams and the NFL officiating department regarding on-field decisions.

St. Louis Ram President John Shaw says he would be shocked if Mike Martz got medical clearance to return to coaching this season after stepping aside Oct. 24 because of endocarditis, a bacterial infection of the lining of the heart.

Beyond this season, Shaw said there had been no decision made regarding Martz’s future. There is widespread speculation that he won’t be back; next season is the final year of his contract.

Meanwhile, offensive tackle Alex Barron will undergo surgery thumb surgery today. There was no timetable for his return.

Tennessee Titan rookie receiver Brandon Jones will sit out the rest of the season because of a torn ligament in his right knee, suffered in Sunday’s victory over San Francisco.... New Orleans Saint tight end Ernie Conwell is expected to sit out the rest of the season after having left knee surgery for an injury suffered Oct. 30 against Miami.

BASEBALL

Mayor Expects Lease for Nationals’ Ballpark

Mayor Anthony Williams is confident Washington, D.C., and Major League Baseball will agree to a lease for a new Nationals’ ballpark without arbitration.

Williams spoke a day after Bob DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer, wrote him to express concern the city would not meet the Dec. 31 deadline in the agreement signed last year that led to the Montreal Expos’ move to Washington.

Some members of the D.C. Council have insisted they will not vote to approve a lease before baseball selects a new owner for the franchise, purchased by the other 29 teams in 2002.

The Philadelphia Phillies moved to strengthen their depleted bullpen, agreeing to an $800,000, one-year contract with free-agent reliever Julio Santana, 31, who played in Milwaukee last season. The Phillies lost closer Billy Wagner to the New York Mets, and aren’t re-signing Ugueth Urbina.

Jeff Cox was hired as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ third base coach, rounding out new Manager Jim Tracy’s staff. Cox had the same job with Florida.

HOCKEY

Red Wings’ Fischer Returns to Hospital

Detroit Red Wing defenseman Jiri Fischer, who collapsed in convulsions on the bench during a game last week, had another abnormal heartbeat this week and returned to a Detroit hospital for treatment.

He was released Wednesday and is to undergo further testing at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, the team said.

General Manager Ken Holland said doctors have told Fischer, 25, he should have no physical activity for a minimum of four to six weeks.

MISCELLANY

Daly Withdraws After Breaking Hand

Golfer John Daly withdrew from the Bard Capital Challenge in Las Vegas, saying he broke his right hand playing in an exhibition last weekend. It was not clear how Daly injured his hand or how long he would be out. Tournament officials said the injury happened at the Duff Challenge in Mesquite, Nev.

Goalkeeper Kasey Keller won the Honda Award as the best player on the U.S. national soccer team, adding it to the trophy he earned in 1999.

Keller received 344 points in voting by 206 sports journalists nationwide. Landon Donovan, who won the last three years, got 329 and DaMarcus Beasley 270.

Rice football Coach Ken Hatfield resigned, one day after he defiantly said that he did not anticipate any staff changes after a 1-10 season. Hatfield, 62, went 55-78-1 in 12 seasons at Rice.

Bobsledder Don Cole was suspended for two years after testing positive in August for stanozolol.

PASSINGS

Car Owner Kraines Dies of Heart Attack

Maury Kraines, owner of the 1992 Indianapolis 500 winning car, driven by Al Unser Jr., died Tuesday of a heart attack in his home in Rancho Mirage.

Kraines, the founder of Kraco Enterprises Inc., was 85.

Services will be today at 1 p.m. at Shalom Memorial Park in Sylmar.

-- Shav Glick