Striker Edson Buddle back with Galaxy

High-scoring striker Edson Buddle is back with the Galaxy after agreeing to a deal Wednesday, only hours after being released by his German club.

Buddle scored 42 goals in 87 regular-season games over four years with the Galaxy before accepting an 18-month contract to play for Ingolstadt in the 2 Bundesliga following the 2010 Major League Soccer season. Buddle, 30, also played with the Columbus Crew, New York Red Bulls and Toronto FC before joining the Galaxy.

His best MLS season was his final one, in which he scored a career-high 17 goals and was named to the U.S. World Cup team. For his MLS career, he has 90 goals in 231 regular-season games, making him the eighth-highest scorer in league history. Terms of his new Galaxy contract were not released.

— Kevin Baxter

PRO FOOTBALL

Raiders hire Knapp as offensive coordinator

Oakland Raiders Coach Dennis Allen made the first hire for his new staff, bringing back Greg Knapp as the team’s offensive coordinator.

Knapp spent the last two seasons as quarterbacks coach in Houston but was coordinator in Oakland under Lane Kiffin and Tom Cable in 2007-08.

Knapp has 17 years of experience as an NFL assistant, including stints as a coordinator in San Francisco, Atlanta, Oakland and Seattle. He helped the Texans make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history in 2011 despite losing starting quarterback Matt Schaub to a season-ending foot injury after 10 games.

ETC.

Sparks get Coleman from Washington

The Sparks acquired guard/forward Marissa Coleman from the Washington Mystics in exchange for guard Noelle Quinn, the team announced.

Coleman, who was drafted No. 2 overall by the Mystics in 2009, has averaged 7.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists over her three-year WNBA career.

Quinn, a former UCLA player who was selected fourth overall by the Minnesota Lynx in 2007, played for the Sparks from 2009 to 2011, averaging 7.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists.

—Melissa Rohlin

The Daytona 500 will offer a record purse of more than $19 million, and the winner of NASCAR’s biggest race is guaranteed a minimum of $1.4 million.

Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway also announced a $200,000 bonus for the driver leading at the halfway point of the race, scheduled for Feb. 26.

The Daytona 500 Mid-Race Leader Award will not be automatically awarded if the race is under caution at Lap 100. The bonus will then be rolled over and paid to the driver leading the race at the completion of the fifth consecutive green flag lap following the caution.

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Reliever Francisco Cordero and the Toronto Blue Jays finalized a $4.5-million, one-year contract.

The 36-year-old right-hander was 5-3 with a 2.45 earned-run average and 37 saves in 43 chances for Cincinnati last season, reaching 30 saves for the seventh time. He held batters to a .198 average, the lowest of his career.

Cordero, a three-time All-Star, has a 44-45 record with a 3.17 ERA and 327 saves, 12th on the career list. He is expected to fill the setup role for closer Sergio Santos, acquired in December from the Chicago White Sox.

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Charlie Spoonhour, the popular, homespun coach who took St. Louis to three NCAA tournaments behind a prolific offense, died in Chapel Hill, N.C., after battling a lung disease. He was 72.

Spoonhour, who also coached at Missouri State and Nevada Las Vegas, died Wednesday, said Chuck Harker, the funeral director at Walker’s Funeral Home in Chapel Hill. Spoonhour learned in 2010 that he had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which required a transplant at Duke University Medical Center in nearby Durham, N.C.

In 19 seasons as a Division I head coach, Spoonhour was 373-202.