Cal State Fullerton hires Rick Vanderhook as baseball coach

Cal State Fullerton has turned to another former Titans assistant to lead its baseball program. The university announced Friday that it had hired Rick Vanderhook as coach. He replaces Dave Serrano, who left for Tennessee.

Vanderhook, 50, received a three-year contract. Other terms were not disclosed. He has been UCLA’s hitting and outfield coach the last three seasons, but he is a former Fullerton player and longtime assistant.

“It is an honor to be back as the head baseball coach at Cal State Fullerton,” Vanderhook said in a statement released by the school.

This is the second time Fullerton has turned to a former George Horton assistant since Horton left the Titans in September 2007 for the University of Oregon.

Athletic Director Brian Quinn hired Serrano away from UC Irvine to replace Horton, choosing the former Titans pitching coach over Vanderhook, who at the time was the Titans’ associate head coach.

Vanderhook has won more than 900 games as a college assistant, and he has earned three national championship rings while at Fullerton — in 1984 as a player and in 1995 and 2004 as a coach.

— Mike Hiserman

PRO BASKETBALL

NBA players withhold new economic proposal

NBA players declined to present a new economic proposal to owners Friday, less than a week before the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement.

Dressed in matching T-shirts urging solidarity, about 40 players attended Friday’s negotiating session in New York, the final one scheduled before owners could vote on whether to lock them out if no deal is reached.

Owners had hoped for another proposal from the union, but players felt they had gone far enough after they offered a $500-million reduction in salaries over five years Tuesday, a move Commissioner David Stern termed “modest.”

“Why did we not make one? Because we felt that the one that we made previously was sufficient,” said Billy Hunter, executive director of the players’ association.

The owners are scheduled to meet Tuesday in Dallas. The sides could then meet at least one more time before the CBA expires June 30.

Stern and Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver offered few details of the four-hour session, nor would they speculate on what actions they would take Tuesday when the Board of Governors meets. Silver said it would be “premature to talk about where we’re going to find ourselves next week.”

The Chicago Bulls acquired the rights to No. 23 pick Nikola Mirotic from the Minnesota Timberwolves for No. 28 pick Norris Cole, second-rounder Malcolm Lee of UCLA and cash. The Timberwolves then sent Cole to the Miami Heat for the rights to Croatian guard Bojan Bogdanovic and a future second-round pick.

PRO FOOTBALL

NFL labor talks to resume next week

Two people familiar with the NFL labor talks told the Associated Press that the sides will resume negotiations early next week at an undisclosed site. The lockout is deep into its fourth month, and this will be the fifth set of “secret” meetings.

Those familiar with the negotiations spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are supposed to be confidential.

Although each side has acknowledged progress, a new collective bargaining agreement is not imminent. One of those knowledgeable about the talks said conference calls are being set up to discuss some topics, but not the major issue of splitting revenues. The person says that is being negotiated “face to face.”

GOLF

Tseng leads LPGA Championship

Top-ranked Yani Tseng shot a two-under-par 70 and had a one-stroke lead over Pat Hurst after the second round of the LPGA Championship, the tour’s second major of the year, at Pittsford, N.Y.

Battling a torrential downpour then a steady drizzle for nearly half her first nine holes, Tseng followed her first-round-best 66 with a grinding performance that put her at eight under overall. She won the LPGA State Farm Classic two weeks ago for her second LPGA Tour victory of the year.

Hurst shot a 67 in the morning before the heavy rain hit Locust Hill Country Club.

Morgan Pressel, Minea Blomqvist, and Hee Young Park were six under after 69s.

John Huston and Mark Wiebe shot seven-under 65s and shared a one-shot lead after the first round of the Champions Tour’s Dick’s Sporting Goods Open at Endicott, N.Y. Huston and Wiebe both had seven birdies in bogey-free rounds.

George Coetzee birdied four of his last six holes and shot a second straight five-under 67, putting him in a tie with Henrik Stenson (70) for the lead in the European Tour’s BMW International Open at Munich. Stenson and Coetzee were at 10-under 134, one stroke ahead of Pablo Larrazabal (67).

ETC.

Mayweather-Ortiz will be in Las Vegas

The return of Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the boxing ring will be to his old stomping ground. An MGM Resorts spokesman said Mayweather’s Sept. 17 welterweight title shot at champion Victor Ortiz of Ventura is officially set for the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, where Mayweather has fought his last four fights dating to 2006.

Mayweather (41-0, 25 KOs) has not fought since he defeated Shane Mosley by unanimous decision in May 2010. The bout will be televised on HBO pay per view. Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KOs) fought on undercards at MGM Grand twice in 2008, before the Manny Pacquiao-Oscar De La Hoya and Juan Manuel Marquez-Joel Casamayor main events that fall.

Mayweather and Ortiz will appear in Los Angeles on Wednesday for an 8 p.m. news conference open to the public at L.A. Live.

— Lance Pugmire

Former middleweight champion Gene Fullmer, heavyweight title contender Tony Tubbs of Santa Monica and Glendora’s former light-welterweight world champion Zack Padilla will be inducted into the California Boxing Hall of Fame at noon Saturday at Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City.

Boxing commentator Rich Marotta and Southland sports publicist Steve Brener will also be inducted, along with Willie Pep, who will enter posthumously.

The public is welcome. Tickets are $50. The Sportsmen’s Lodge is located at 12833 Ventura Blvd.

— Lance Pugmire

A former Green Bay Packers lineman whose teams won the first two Super Bowls will have at least one of his championship rings auctioned off to recover some of the $1.7 million the federal government says he owes in back taxes. Fuzzy Thurston, 77, played for the Packers from 1959 to 1967. Federal marshals have seized his Super Bowl II ring, and authorities are trying to track down his other Super Bowl ring along with other memorabilia to auction off in accordance with a court order.

The Galaxy was fined $5,000 by Major League Soccer for omitting David Beckham’s name from an injury report before its June 18 match against the Colorado Rapids. The league said in a release that the Galaxy knew Beckham would miss the game because of back spasms and deliberately left his name off the report.

Takuma Sato earned his first pole in the IndyCar series and will start Saturday night’s race at Newton, Iowa, on the front row with Danica Patrick. It’s the best start of the year for Patrick, who’s still looking for her first IndyCar win on American soil. Her lone win came in Japan in 2008.

Santa Anita will add natural sand to its new dirt track during a 10-day maintenance project beginning July 11. Santa Anita converted its synthetic surface back to dirt in December. Immediately after the installation, the track was hit with near-record rainfall and the composition of the newly installed soils was altered, resulting in too much silt and clay.