Mets’ Carlos Delgado to have surgery

New York Mets slugger Carlos Delgado will have arthroscopic surgery today on his right hip, and there’s no immediate word on when he might return to the lineup.

The Mets said Monday that Delgado has a bone spur and torn cartilage in his hip.

Delgado, 36, was put on the 15-day disabled list Saturday. The first baseman is hitting .298 with four home runs and 23 runs batted in. He had not played since May 10.

Milwaukee Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks will be sidelined for the rest of the season because of a torn sheath in his left wrist.

Weeks was injured Sunday in a game at St. Louis.

The Brewers said Weeks probably would have surgery this week. He was batting .272 with nine home runs and 24 RBIs.

Most World Series and American League Championship Series games will have an earlier start on Fox this year.

The network said that weeknight games will begin at 4:57 p.m. PDT, more than half an hour before last year’s first-pitch times. The start of Saturday night games could be even earlier, and Sunday games will continue to begin after the conclusion of the network’s NFL coverage.

No announcement was made about the NLCS or the division series, which are televised by TBS.

--

PRO FOOTBALL

Gruden joins ‘Monday Night’

Former Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden is replacing Tony Kornheiser on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” broadcast team.

The network said that Gruden will be in the booth with Mike Tirico and Ron Jaworski when the show starts its 40th season next fall.

Gruden led the Buccaneers to the 2003 Super Bowl title but was fired after last season after the team lost four consecutive games and did not reach the playoffs.

Gruden was an NFL coach the last 11 seasons, with the Buccaneers (2002-08) and Oakland Raiders (1998-01). He had a 100-85 record, leading his teams to five division titles.

Kornheiser cited a fear of flying in his decision to leave after three years.

The Philadelphia Eagles said that defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, 67, has taken an indefinite leave of absence while he continues treatment for a cancerous tumor on his spine.

Johnson, who was treated for melanoma in 2001, complained of back pain in early January and coached from the press box in the Eagles’ playoff win over the New York Giants and in their loss to the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC championship game.

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison, the NFL’s defensive player of the year, said he won’t join the Super Bowl champions when they visit the White House to meet President Obama on Thursday, just as he did when the Steelers were invited by President Bush in 2006.

Harrison said that he doesn’t believe the invitation is that special and that Obama would have invited Arizona had the Steelers not defeated the Cardinals, 27-23, with a last-minute rally.

The Steelers had no comment.

--

ETC.

Sharapova wins in return to tennis

Maria Sharapova of Russia played her first singles match on the women’s tennis tour in nearly 10 months and needed nine match points to defeat 68th-ranked Tathiana Garbin of Italy, 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-3, in the first round of the Warsaw Open.

Sharapova, winner of three Grand Slam events, had surgery last year for a torn rotator cuff in her right shoulder. She wouldn’t discuss the French Open, which starts Sunday and is the only major championship she hasn’t won.

USC defeated Texas, 4-1, in an NCAA men’s tennis semifinal and will face Ohio State for the national title today at College Station, Texas.

The No. 8-seeded Trojans are seeking their 17th national championship.

Ohio State defeated UCLA, 4-3, in its semifinal.

Former NBA forward Brian Grant revealed that he has Parkinson’s disease and is starting a website devoted to his fight with the neurological disorder.

Grant, 37, played parts of 12 seasons in the NBA with Sacramento, Portland, Miami, Phoenix and the Lakers.

Grant told ESPN.com that a combination of traditional and nontraditional treatments has already helped some symptoms subside.

Mike Smith, who rode Mine That Bird to a second-place finish in the Preakness Stakes, won’t ride the gelding in the Belmont Stakes on June 6 because of a commitment to ride Madeo in the $300,000 Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap at Hollywood Park that day.

Calvin Borel rode Mine That Bird to victory in the Kentucky Derby.