Girardi and Leyland are managers of the year

Six weeks after being fired by Florida, Joe Girardi won the National League manager of the year award Wednesday for keeping the rookie-laden Marlins in contention nearly all season. Jim Leyland took the American League award after a quick turnaround with the Detroit Tigers.

Girardi received 18 of 32 first-place votes and 111 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America to beat out Willie Randolph of the New York Mets to become the first to win with a losing record (78-84). Randolph received 81 points.

Leyland won the award for the third time. He received 19 of 28 first-place votes and 118 points to top Minnesota’s Ron Gardenhire (93 points).

The Dodgers and Chicago White Sox would pay none of the projected $78 million to build a spring training facility in Glendale, Ariz., scheduled to open as soon as 2008, yet would keep all revenue, including ticket and concession sales, parking, signage and naming rights.

The partnership between the Phoenix suburb and the teams is contingent on both teams satisfying obligations with their current spring training hosts. The Dodgers can opt out of their lease in Vero Beach, Fla., by paying $15 million or by buying Dodgertown, where they have held spring training since 1948. The process might be tougher for the White Sox, who have been training in Tucson and must pay Pima County $28 million or find a replacement team.

-- Steve Henson

Tampa Bay won the negotiating rights to Japanese third baseman Akinori Iwamura, 27, with a winning bid of about $4.5 million.... Frank Thomas and the Toronto Blue Jays are close to agreement on a two-year contract, according to the Associated Press.

TENNIS

Blake becomes first semifinalist

James Blake, the last to qualify for the Masters Cup, became the first to make the semifinals with a 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Nikolay Davydenko in Shanghai. Rafael Nadal beat Tommy Robredo, 7-6 (2), 6-2.

The WTA Tour is considering legalizing in-match coaching at its tournaments.

Under the change, a player could speak to her coach on the sideline once per set during a changeover and between sets. The WTA will try that system at all of its Tier I and Tier II tournaments between the Australian Open and French Open in 2007.

SOCCER

Izzo scores twice in UCLA victory

Sal Izzo scored goals early and late in the first half to lead eighth-seeded UCLA (11-5-4) to a 3-0 victory over 13th-seeded Harvard (14-5-0) in the second round of the NCAA tournament at Drake Stadium.

The UC Santa Barbara men (14-7-0) reached the sweet 16 for the third time in four seasons by upsetting top-ranked and third-seeded Southern Methodist (17-2-4), 3-1, in the second round of the NCAA tournament at Dallas.

The U.S. soccer team will play Denmark in an exhibition Jan. 20 at the Home Depot Center in Carson.... Former U.S. coach Bora Milutinovic agreed to a four-year, $4-million deal to lead the Jamaican national team.

MISCELLANY

Paper: Lab erred on Landis’ sample

The French lab that tested Tour de France winner Floyd Landis’ urine gave the wrong number on his backup “B” sample in its report, writing it as number 994,474 when it was actually 995,474, the newspaper Le Monde reported. Landis tested positive for testosterone.

Aiming for a playoff atmosphere, the PGA Tour changed the final month of its FedExCup competition that starts next year, reducing the 144-man fields for the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston and the BMW Championship in Chicago before the final 30 players are left to chase the $10 million prize at the Tour Championship.

Under the revision, only the opening “playoff” event at the Barclays Classic in New York will have 144 players. The top 120 will advance to the Deutsche Bank and the field at the BMW Championship will be reduced to 70.

Michael Jordan could become an investor in a slot-machine parlor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania gambling regulators were told during hearings.

The NFL filed suit in New York state court to block Comcast from putting NFL Network exclusively on a pay sports tier in 2007. If Comcast succeeds, NFL Network will reach only a small portion of the cable television company’s 24 million subscribers.

Comcast does not have subscribers in the L.A. market.

-- Larry Stewart

After two days of longshots at Hollywood Park, things were much more formful in the pick six. A total of 157 tickets isolated all six winners in the sequence. Each was worth -- before taxes -- $11,177.60.

-- Bob Mieszerski

USC received a basketball letter of intent from Marcus Simmons, a 6-foot-5 swingman from Alexandria (La.) Peabody High.

-- Ben Bolch

PASSING

Services scheduled for trainer Garcia

Services will be held Friday at Live Oak Memorial Park in Monrovia for horse trainer Joe Garcia Jr., who died Sunday of cancer. Garcia was 54.