fanfare 12/3/02

Baseball

Jim Thome, the most coveted hitter in the free-agent market, agreed Monday to a six-year contract with the Phillies, two baseball officials said. He accepted a deal worth about $87.5 million, one of the officials said on the condition of anonymity. For the deal to become final, the 32-year-old first baseman must pass a physical.

Tom Glavine probably will decide this week on where he'll pitch next year. The two-time Cy Young Award winner is being courted by the Mets, Philadelphia and Atlanta, but hasn't heard from the Braves in a week.

Reliever Mike Remlinger intends to leave the Atlanta Braves to sign with the Chicago Cubs. The contract is contingent on the left-hander passing a physical and an announcement could come as early as today. The deal is for three years and worth about $11 million.

Basketball

Wizards guard Juan Dixon sprained his left elbow in practice and is expected to miss three weeks.

Milwaukee Bucks forward Toni Kukoc could miss up to six weeks after right thumb surgery.

Colleges

Guard Kirk Hinrich, a preseason Associated Press All-American, will miss No. 14 Kansas' game Wednesday night with a strained back. Hinrich injured his back in the Jayhawks' loss to North Carolina in the semifinals of the Preseason NIT last week in Madison Square Garden.

Kentucky junior guard Antwain Barbour will be sidelined at least five weeks after breaking his left hand in practice Sunday. The 6-foot-5 Barbour started Kentucky's three games in last week's Maui Invitational and averaged 7.3 points and three assists.

Hockey

The Boston Bruins signed center Joe Thornton to a one-year contract extension. Thornton is second in the league in scoring with 13 goals and 20 assists in 23 games and he has a five-game point streak heading into today's game against St. Louis and has 11 multipoint games this season.

Obituary

Dave McNally, who pitched the Baltimore Orioles to their first World Series championship and later posted the landmark legal win that led to baseball's free-agent era and multimillion-dollar salaries, has died of cancer. He was 60. McNally died late Sunday in his hometown of Billings, Mont., said John Michelotti of Michelotti Sawyers & Nordquist Funeral Home. A three-time All-Star and four-time 20-game winner, McNally beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 1-0 to complete the Orioles' surprise sweep for the 1966 title. McNally's 1-0, 11-inning win over Minnesota in the 1969 AL championship series still stands as the longest complete-game shutout in postseason history. And he remains the only pitcher to hit a grand slam in the World Series.

People

An athlete with a food issue

It won't rank up there with Charles Barkley having to kiss a donkey on national TV, but Australian golfer Karrie Webb made a wager she probably would like to forget. After Annika Sorenstam won eight LPGA Tour events in 2001, Webb said she would eat her hat if Sorenstam could repeat that feat this year.

Would you believe ... 11 tour victories by Annika this year?

"Gulp. What best complements a cotton chapeau, red or white wine?" wrote Steve Elling in the Orlando Sentinel. "Care for an order of Vegemite with that, miss? Perhaps it'll go down easier as a sandwich."

Responded Webb: "I might have to add some salt and tomato sauce to it."

Webb can afford a sense of humor, since crow undoubtedly tastes more like chicken than donkey.

Quotes

Terry Bradshaw, as quoted by the Saskatoon StarPhoenix's Cam Hutchinson, on not being chosen for People magazine's list of sexiest men: "If I am not the sexiest man alive, explain why so many women married me?"

-- From wire reports