Martz Goes to the Lions After All

Mike Martz, the former coach of the St. Louis Rams, Wednesday became the offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions, a week after he turned down the job for financial reasons.

Contract terms weren’t disclosed.

The Rams fired Martz on Jan. 2, the day after St. Louis finished 6-10. He was away from the team for the last 11 games while recovering from a heart infection.

Martz, 54, led the Rams to the playoffs in four of his five full seasons, including a Super Bowl after the 2001 season, and helped the franchise win the 2000 Super Bowl as offensive coordinator. He had a regular-season record of 51-29 with the team and was 54-33 overall.

BASEBALL

Lease for Nationals

Concerns MLB Officials

Major League Baseball responded skeptically to a revised lease for the Washington Nationals that was approved early Wednesday by the District of Columbia Council, which rejected another proposal hours before.

Council members approved the lease after capping the city’s spending at just under $611 million.

Spokesman Rich Levin said in a statement that MLB was “very concerned about what we heard during the debate, and we need to read the materials and the legislative language so we can determine whether they are consistent with the agreements between Major League Baseball and the city.”

Washington said it has offered a non-guaranteed, incentive-laden contract to outfielder Sammy Sosa.

Sosa ranks seventh in home runs with 574. He batted .221 with 14 homers and 45 runs batted in last year in his only season with the Baltimore Orioles.

The Nationals agreed to an $850,000, one-year contract with catcher-first baseman Matthew LeCroy, who spent six seasons with the Minnesota Twins.

Center fielder Brady Clark, who led the Milwaukee Brewers with a .306 batting average last season, agreed to a two-year deal worth $7 million and avoided salary arbitration.... Infielder Alex S. Gonzalez, who played with Tampa Bay last season, agreed to a $750,000, one-year contract with the Philadelphia Phillies.... New York Yankee reliever Ramiro Mendoza says he plans to pitch for Panama in next month’s World Baseball Classic.... Wayne Krivsky was hired by the Cincinnati Reds as general manager. Krivsky spent the last eight years as assistant general manager with the Twins.

Henry Blanco’s double drove in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning, and host Venezuela defeated the Dominican Republic, 5-4, at Valencia, to win its first Caribbean Series title since 1989.

TENNIS

Navratilova Plans

to Play Full Schedule

Martina Navratilova, 49, said she plans to play a full schedule of doubles tournaments in 2006, including the Grand Slam events, and might take another stab at singles.

Navratilova retired in 1994 with a record 167 singles titles and having spent 331 weeks ranked No. 1. She returned to the tour as a doubles player in 2000 and had a first-round victory in singles at Wimbledon in 2004.

Former champion Mary Pierce defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues, 6-2, 6-4, in the second round of the Gaz de France at Paris. Also in the second round, Dinara Safina defeated Virginie Razzano, 6-4, 6-3, and Emilie Loit defeated Stephanie Foretz, 6-0, 6-3.

Andy Roddick is parting ways with coach Dean Goldfine after a little more than a year and will work with older brother John Roddick. The switch comes after Andy Roddick’s first-round upset at the U.S. Open last year, and a fourth-round loss to Marcos Baghdatis at the Australian Open last month.

The International Tennis Federation rejected Argentine Mariano Hood’s defense that he took finasteride, a banned substance, to prevent hair loss and suspended him for one year.

JURISPRUDENCE

NASCAR’s Kurt Busch Gets Community Service

NASCAR driver Kurt Busch was ordered to perform 50 hours of community service as part of a plea agreement over a reckless driving citation he received in November near Phoenix International Raceway.

The widows of two men killed in the Hendrick Motorsports plane crash in 2004 have sued the company, contending negligence. Randy Dorton, who ran Hendrick Motorsports’ engine program, and Scott Lathram, a helicopter pilot for driver Tony Stewart, died in the crash near Martinsville, Va.

MISCELLANY

Idaho Hires Erickson

as Football Coach

Dennis Erickson returned to Idaho to become head football coach at the school that gave him his start.

The 58-year-old Erickson got his first head coaching job at Idaho in 1982, before leaving after the ’85 season for a string of college jobs, including a stop at Miami that produced two national championships.

He has also been an NFL head coach with Seattle and San Francisco. At Idaho, he succeeds Nick Holt, who returned to USC as defensive coordinator.

Erickson signed a five-year deal worth about $200,000 a year, but with bonuses, it could be worth a total of about $1.5 million over the duration of the contract.

The Connecticut Sun of the WNBA said it signed Nykesha Sales, the franchise’s leading scorer, to a two-year contract. Sales was one of 30 unrestricted free agents in the league this off-season.... The New York Liberty re-signed forward Cathrine Kraayeveld.... Forward Crystal Robinson signed with the Washington Mystics after spending the last seven seasons with the Liberty.

Tim Lobinger of Germany registered the season’s best pole vault, in the EuroJump indoor meet at Goteborg, Sweden.

Lobinger cleared 19 feet 1 1/4 inches on his second try, improving his world-leading mark by two-fifths of an inch.

The Belgian Grand Prix was dropped from this year’s Formula One racing schedule but might be restored in 2007 once improvements are made to the course.

Longtime Times motorsports writer Shav Glick, who retired in January, will serve as grand marshal for NASCAR’s Auto Club 500 on Feb. 26 at California Speedway in Fontana.