FanFare 11/10/02

Baseball

The Cardinals plan to announce an increase in ticket prices Monday. Letters notifying season-ticket holders of the increase were mailed Friday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Saturday. The Cardinals, with a payroll that is already challenging its projected $79 million cap for next season, reached the decision within the past two weeks.

It might be a fight to the finish if Tom Glavine decides to leave Atlanta. Both the Mets and Yankees have contacted Glavine's agent, Gregg Clifton, who expects to follow up with both New York teams and various other suitors during this week's general managers' meetings in Tucson, Ariz., various New York newspapers reported.

The Athletics gave Boston permission to talk to general manager Billy Beane about the same job with the Red Sox. Beane received a three-year contract extension through 2008 last spring from owner Steve Schott. He has built the A's into a contender despite one of baseball's lowest payrolls. Red Sox spokesman Kevin Shea said he could not immediately confirm the club had received permission to speak to Beane.

Colleges

Former Louisiana Tech coach Leon Barmore and Texas Tech coach Marsha Sharp will be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame next spring along with four others. The names of the six inductees will be made official today between the Louisiana Tech-Texas Tech game and the Tennessee-Oklahoma matchup at the State Farm Classic, which benefits the Hall of Fame. The first class was inducted in 1999. Barmore and Sharp are joined by former Maryland and USA Basketball point guard Tara Heiss, Texas businessman Claude Hutcherson and AAU All-Americans Patsy Neal and Doris Rogers.

Golf

Annika Sorenstam took a big step toward winning her 10th LPGA title of the year, shooting a 7-under-par 65 for a one-stroke lead in the Mizuno Classic.

Fuzzy Zoeller shot a 5-under-par 67 for a three-stroke lead after one round in the Senior Slam. Zoeller birdied three of the first six holes to overtake Don Pooley, made birdie at Nos. 10 and 16 and parred the 18th hole by two-putting from 40 feet, sinking a 5-foot comebacker to preserve his lead.

Football

Dolphins receiver Cris Carter will be sidelined indefinitely after tests revealed kidney-function abnormalities, the team said. Carter, who came out of retirement three weeks ago, missed practice this week because he felt ill and will not play today against the Jets.

Motorsports

Scott Wimmer won the Basha's Supermarket 200 under a yellow flag, but this was Greg Biffle's day. Biffle clinched the NASCAR Busch Series championship, leading all but the last 16 laps of the 200-lap race at Phoenix International Speedway. He wound up third, just ahead of series runner-up Jason Keller.

Skating

Japan's Yoshie Onda nearly landed a triple axel in winning the women's event at the Nations Cup, and Olympic silver medalist Evgeny Plushenko put an artistic touch on his new short program.

Russia's Yevgeny Lalenkov won the 1,500 meters, missing the track record by less than a half-second in the first World Cup speedskating event of the season. Lalenkov finished in 1 minute, 47.39 seconds, barely missing the mark of 1:47.01 set by Norway's Adne Sondral in 1999.

Tennis

Monica Seles' laser-like service returns kept her in the nearly two-hour match before she lost 7-5, 6-4 to Venus Williams in the quarterfinals of the WTA Championships late Friday night. Second-seeded Williams will play No. 5 Kim Clijsters in the semifinals of the season-ending tournament that determines the WTA Tour's final rankings. Clijsters beat No. 4 Justine Henin 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinal.

-- From wire reports