FanFare 1/13/03

Baseball

Right-hander Paul Wilson agreed to a $4 million, two-year contract with Cincinnati on Sunday, a move that general manager Jim Bowden said will give the Reds a proven fourth starter. Wilson, 29, who was not offered a contract by Tampa Bay by the Dec.20 deadline, was 6-12 with a 4.83 ERA last season for the Devil Rays. He pitched a career-high 193 2/3 innings, including at least six innings in 23 of his 30 starts.

Basketball

Milwaukee Bucks owner Herb Kohl is willing to sell a majority interest in the team. Kohl, a Democratic senator from Wisconsin, has asked a New York investment banking firm and NBA commissioner David Stern to help him assess the franchise and its value, and help identify people or investor groups that would have an interest in the team, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Yao Ming's knee injury is not serious, and he was in a good enough mood Sunday to joke about his fledgling acting career. Yao left Houston's game against Denver on Saturday night late in the first quarter with a mild ligament sprain on the outside of his left knee. He said he will play tonight against Boston, and will wear a brace to protect the knee.

Colleges

Texas A&M receivers coach Keven Sumlin was named Colorado's wide receivers coach. Sumlin, 38, will replace Jon Embree, who will become passing game coordinator at UCLA. Sumlin played linebacker at Purdue. He was an assistant coach at Purdue, Washington State, Wyoming and Minnesota.

Football

The Jacksonville Jaguars have talked with Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz and will conduct several more interviews to fill their coaching vacancy this week, a league source told The Associated Press. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Ferentz had a preliminary interview with Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver last week, although that didn't necessarily make him a front-runner to replace Tom Coughlin. The source said Weaver was waiting to see how the weekend's playoff games went before he scheduled interviews for the week, and that Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey and 49ers coach Steve Mariucci would be on the Jaguars' list if they're available.

Golf

Trevor Immelman made a 6-inch birdie putt on the first playoff hole to beat Tim Clark and win the South African Open. Immelman, who opened the final round three strokes off the lead, made a 12-foot birdie putt the final hole of regulation to complete a round of 5-under 67 and move into tie with Clark at 14-under 274 at Erinvale Golf Club.

Olympics

U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive Lloyd Ward says he did nothing wrong in trying to steer Olympic business to a company with ties to his brother. Now the USOC will decide. The USOC's executive committee meets today to consider Ward's case, and he could be cleared, censured or fired.

Sailing

Switzerland's Alinghi made it two wins in a row in the America's Cup challenger final, taking advantage of a crew error by San Francisco's Oracle for a 40-second victory. Alinghi needs three more victories in the best-of-nine series to advance to the America's Cup final in February against defenders Team New Zealand.

Soccer

Japan surprised defending World Cup women's champion United States by playing to a scoreless tie Sunday, snapping the Americans' 12-game winning streak. The U.S. came out sluggish in the first 10 minutes before applying offensive pressure through the rest of the first half. But the Americans could not sustain an attack in the second half and failed to score for the first time in 17 matches since a scoreless tie against Germany on Jan. 25.

Tennis

Venus Williams shook off the rust of a two-month layoff and advanced to the second round of the Australian Open with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over 45th-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova. After falling behind 0-3 because of some wild shooting, Williams used a stronger serve to carry her through a match in which she and the Russian were nearly even in errors.