Sports briefs 1/19/05

* The Cardinals' Albert Pujolsearned his fourth straight baseball man of the year honor from the St. Louis chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America on Tuesday.

He batted .331 with 46 home runs and 123 RBIs, and had 51 doubles for the second straight year. Pujols was third in the NL MVP voting. He's the only player in major league history to hit 30 or more homers in his first four seasons.

Former teammate Woody Williams also was honored with the Darryl Kile award, voted upon by teammates to honor the pitcher who died of a heart attack during the 2002 season.

Williams, 38, signed a free agent contract with the Padres after going 45-22 in three-plus seasons with the Cardinals. Last year he was 11-8 with a 4.18 ERA but his 18 quality stars mached that of Chris Carpenter, who was 15-5.

His clubhouse contribution also was highly valued. He's the second recipient of the Kile award, following Mike Matheny.

Carpenter and fellow pitchers Jeff Suppan and Jason Isringhausen also received awards, and outfielder So Taguchi was named rookie of the year.

Colleges

* Missouri defensive lineman C.J. Mosley will forgo his senior season of eligibility and enter the NFL Draft, the team announced Tuesday.

Mosley had said he would return for his senior season before reconsidering and signing with National Sports Agency, a player representative firm in St. Louis. By hiring an agent, Mosley loses his NCAA eligibility and cannot return to Missouri.

The Associated Press named Mosley to its All-Big 12 team after he recorded 61 tackles and 6.5 sacks in his junior season.

Arnold Palmer will give the spring commencement address at Wake Forest University, his alma mater.

Palmer will address graduates May 16 in an outdoor ceremony on campus, the school announced Tuesday.

Palmer played golf for the Demon Deacons from 1948-50 before spending three years with the Coast Guard. He won the Southern Conference championship in 1948 and '49, and was the medalist at the NCAA championship in '49 and '50.

Hockey

* A minor league hockey player was suspended for 25 games Tuesday for hitting a referee.

Mike Wolf of the Flint Generals was disciplined by the United Hockey League for striking referee Steve Marofsky in the chest after a linesman pulled the 6-foot-5, 275-pound right wing away from a player in a Jan. 12 game at Port Huron.

Two other Flint players were suspended: defenseman Kam White for six games for making contact with Marofsky later in the game, and right wing Mike Kinnie for two games for receiving a match penalty.

Wolf received an automatic 10-game ban for hitting the referee, with another 15 games added on for the severity of the act.

Horse racing

* A New York horse trainer and a harness racing driver were among 17 people who pleaded innocent Tuesday to charges that they fixed a race at Aqueduct as part of a gambling ring.

Trainer Gregory Martin and harness driver Rene Poulin entered their pleas in U.S. District Court, where they and 15 others were charged last week in an 88-count indictment after a federal investigation outlined a gambling operation that processed more than $200 million in bets over four years.

All were free on bail.

Martin and Poulin were charged with doping a horse with a performance-enhancing "milkshake" before a Dec. 18, 2003, race at Aqueduct. The horse, A One Rocket, won. If convicted, both men face up to 25 years in jail.

Martin, 37, is the son of Hall of Fame trainer Frank "Pancho" Martin.