Fanfare 10/21/02

Baseball

Mel Harder, who won 223 games during a 20-year career with the Cleveland Indians and pitched against such greats as Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio, died Sunday. He was 93.

Harder died at his home in Chardon, about 25 miles east of Cleveland, at 3:30 a.m., according to his grandson, Dan Itschner.

Basketball

Yao Ming has finally joined the Houston Rockets.

Yao, the NBA's overall No. 1 draft pick, landed in Houston Sunday in time to see his new team play the Orlando Magic in an exhibition game at Compaq Center.

The 7-foot-5 center's arrival came after months of contract negotiations, releases from the Chinese government and a pledge of allegiance to the Chinese national team.

Soccer

League MVP Carlos Ruiz scored in the 23rd minute of overtime Sunday to give the Los Angeles Galaxy their first Major League Soccer title with a 1-0 victory over the New England Revolution in Foxboro, Mass.

The Galaxy had lost their three previous visits to the MLS Cup. New England was playing in its first, but it had the advantage of playing in its home stadium in front of a championship game-record crowd of 61,316.

Tennis

Andre Agassi won his record 15th Masters Series title when Jiri Novak pulled out of Sunday's final at Madrid, Spain, with a groin injury.

Agassi moved within 43 points of No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt in the ATP Champions Race.

Novak hurt himself in Saturday's semifinal win over qualifier Fabrice Santoro.

Patty Schnyder beat second-seeded Lindsay Davenport 6-7 (5), 7-6 (8), 6-3 Sunday at the Swisscom Challenge in Zurich, Switzerland.

Davenport, a three-time Grand Slam tournament champion and former No. 1, dropped to 0-4 in finals since returning from knee surgery in January.

Schnyder won her first title of the year by beating the defending champion for the first time in six career meetings.

Maja Matevzic of Slovenia won her first WTA Tour title with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Iveta Benesova in Sunday's VUB Open final in Bratislave, Slovakia, that lasted 38 minutes.

-- From wire reports