FanFare 2/11/03

Briefly

Baseball

Right-hander Terry Adams avoided arbitration by signing a $2.9 million, one-year deal with the Phillies on Monday. Adams was 7-9 with a 4.35 ERA in 46 appearances in his first season with the Phillies last year.

Colleges

Nineteen players were ejected following a bench-clearing brawl that overshadowed Eastern Kentucky's 89-72 men's basketball win over Tennessee State in Richmond, Ky. The fight erupted with 8:13 left in the game and Eastern ahead 72-58. Eastern's Shawn Fields had the ball when a hard foul was called on Tennessee State's Cedric Bryson, and players from both benches poured onto the floor. The game resumed with a four-on-four contest and ended with seven players on the court after Tennessee State's Jeremy Jackson fouled out.

Football

Bob Ferguson was introduced as the Seahawks' new general manager, a job that means working with the man he replaces, coach Mike Holmgren. Holmgren relinquished the general manager's role under pressure in December after the team's 7-9 season, saying he would concentrate solely on coaching.

Team officials have apprised all three known candidates up for the San Francisco 49ers head coaching vacancy that a decision will be made by the end of the week, ESPN.com has learned. No more definitive timetable was offered to the three candidates -- defensive coordinators Jim Mora Jr. of San Francisco, Ted Cottrell of the Jets and Greg Blache of the Bears -- nor were they informed about any other potential candidates to succeed Steve Mariucci. All three known candidates had second interviews last week.

Golf

Annika Sorenstam could be offered an exemption to the Colonial and become the first woman in 58 years to play on the PGA Tour, a magazine reported. Golf World cited unnamed sources as saying Bank of America, in its first year as the title sponsor, wants Sorenstam to play. The Colonial is May 22-25 in Fort Worth, Texas. The 32-year-old Swede, who last year won 13 times around the world and shattered the LPGA Tour scoring average, said two weeks ago she would love to compete against the men if offered an exemption.

Hockey

The Rangers added another high-priced All-Star to their struggling lineup, reacquiring Alexei Kovalev from the cash-strapped Pittsburgh Penguins in an eight-player trade. The Penguins sent Kovalev, their second-leading scorer, forward Dan LaCouture, and defensemen Janne Laukkanen and Mike Wilson to the Rangers for forwards Rico Fata and Mikael Samuelsson, defensemen Richard Lintner and Joel Bouchard, and what is believed to be $4 million.

Rod Bryden's bid to buy back the Ottawa Senators was accepted by the team's creditors but still must be approved by the court. Bryden's offer is believed to be worth more than $130 million, and he said he was optimistic the court would agree to the deal. He said the sale will make the team debt free.

Motorsports

Robert Huffman won the rain-shortened NASCAR Goody's Dash Series 150, his second straight victory at Daytona International Speedway. The race, cut from its scheduled 60 laps to 44, had been postponed from Sunday by rain.

Jeff Gordon's divorce case spilled over to the race track when attorneys for his wife tried to subpoena several car owners at Daytona International Speedway. NASCAR officials did not allow process servers into the track. Most of the top teams have been subpoenaed at their home offices in the past month, and all have refused to open their books to Brooke Gordon and her lawyers.

Soccer

Peter Nowak, the Chicago Fire's first player and its captain for five seasons, is retiring and will work with the team in an undisclosed role.

Verbatim

NBC's Jay Leno, on why his network decided to televise Arena Football League games: "Because we couldn't afford donkey basketball."

On the air

College men's basketballMichigan St. at Wisconsin, 6 p.m., ESPN

Western Michigarn at Eastern Michigarn, 7 p.m., FOX-Midwest

St. John's at Villanova, 8 p.m., ESPN2

Georgia at Kentucky, 8 p.m., ESPN

High school boys' basketballKennett at Notre Dame, 7 p.m., KAPE-1550

Central at Jackson, 7 p.m., KREZ-104.7, KCGQ-99.3

Dexter at Bell City, 7 p.m., KBHI-107.1

MotorsportsWinston Cup practice, 11 a.m., SPEED

Craftsman Truck Series qualifying, 2 p.m., SPEED

CHARTER CABLE SPORTS KEY --CNBC (ch. 53), ESPN (42), ESPN2 (43), Lifetime (49)Fox-Midwest (45), Fox-Central (352), Fox-Pacific (353), Fox-Sunshine (351), Fox-World (350), FX(50), Golf Channel (46), MSNBC (55), Outdoors (38), Outdoor Life Network (74), Oxygen (75), Speed Channel (44), TNT (48). Listings and times are provided by the networks and individual stations and are subject to change.

Area events

High school boys' basketballCentral at Jackson, 7:30 p.m.

Kennett at Notre Dame, 7:30 p.m.

Perryville at Herculaneum, 7:30 p.m.

Festus at St. Vincent, 7:30 p.m.

Dexter at Bell City, 7:30 p.m.

Oak Ridge at Meadow Heights, 7:30 p.m.

Sikeston at Oran, 7:30 p.m.

Woodland at Advance, 7:30 p.m.

Kelly at Scott City, 8 p.m.

High school girls' basketball

Kelly at Chaffee, 7:30 p.m.