Fanfare 1/30/03

Briefly

Baseball

Five-time All-Star Andres Galarraga signed a minor league contract with the NL champion San Francisco Giants on Wednesday and was invited to spring training.

Galarraga, 41, hit .260 with nine home runs and 40 RBIs for Montreal last year. He made 72 starts at first base.

Galarraga closed out the 2001 season with the Giants, hitting .288 with seven homers and 35 RBIs in 49 games. He began that season with Texas.

Basketball

Indiana Pacers forward Ron Artest was suspended for four games Wednesday for his run-in with Heat coach Pat Riley and flashing an obscene gesture toward the crowd.

Artest also committed a flagrant foul on Heat guard Caron Butler by pushing him into the stands in Monday night's game in Miami.

The suspension, announced by Stu Jackson, NBA senior vice president of basketball operations, will cost Artest about $84,000 in pay. It started with Wednesday night's home game against the San Antonio Spurs.

The suspension was the second of the season for Artest. He missed three games for hurling a TV monitor and smashing a $100,000 camera in New York. He also was fined $10,000 for shoving Dallas' Raja Bell.

Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan was suspended for seven games by the NBA on Wednesday for shoving an official.

Sloan and official Courtney Kirkland exchanged words face-to-face in the first quarter of the Jazz's 102-92 victory at Sacramento on Tuesday night.

The coach argued that Kings guard Doug Christie stepped out of bounds on the sideline right near where Kirkland was standing. Sloan got down and put his hand on the spot where he thought Christie stepped out.

Sloan then pushed Kirkland in the chest and was ejected. As Sloan was escorted away by arena security, he motioned for Kirkland to come toward him.

Sacramento Kings forward Chris Webber will miss at least three weeks with a sprained left ankle, the same injury that sidelined him for the first 20 games of last season.

An MRI test was negative Wednesday, meaning there isn't anything broken.

Webber is averaging 23 points, 10.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists for the Pacific Division-leading Kings.

College

The Arizona athletic department is investigating whether its basketball team stole money and up to 80 candy bars from a vending machine in Lawrence, Kan., last weekend.

Lute Olson, coach of the No. 1 Wildcats, called the accusations "nothing but hearsay and rumor" at his weekly news conference Tuesday.

An unidentified Wildcats coach reimbursed the Marriott Spring Hill Suites in Lawrence for the missing candy, and manager Stephanie Bowler told the Tucson Citizen the hotel would not press charges. Associate coach Jim Rosborough said the payment was less than $100.

Police Lt. David Cobb told the newspaper a hotel guest saw young men wearing Arizona warmup jackets pilfer up to 80 candy bars and money from the machine late Friday night or early Saturday.

"The athletic department is beginning to investigate, obviously spurred on by the coaches' desire to get to the facts in the case," team spokesman Richard Paige said.

After Arizona (15-1) overcame a 20-point deficit to defeat Kansas 91-74 Saturday, police surprised the coaching staff by entering the locker room to interview players.

The team then left the arena with less than three hours to catch its flight out of Kansas City, Mo.

Hockey

Rookie coach Bryan Trottier was fired by the New York Rangers on Wednesday as the league's highest-paid team faces a sixth straight season without a playoff berth.

The Rangers have a payroll over $70 million but are last in the Atlantic Division just over halfway through the season.

Trottier, who starred for the rival New York Islanders for 15 years, replaced Ron Low in June but held the job just 54 games in his first head coaching stint.

The Rangers are 21-26-6-1 and sit in 11th place in the Eastern Conference, four points behind the Islanders, who currently hold the eighth and final playoff spot.