Sports briefs 1/29/05

Baseball

* The Boston Red Sox reached an agreement Friday with former first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz to display the baseball from the final out of the 2004 World Series while putting off the decision on who owns it.

The ball will be encased in a special plaque and join the World Series trophy on its victory tour.

Mientkiewicz kept the ball as a souvenir, and when the team asked for it back it touched off a controversy over its ownership. Mientkiewicz was since traded to the New York Mets.

Basketball

* Trail Blazers forward Darius Miles was suspended by the team for two games Friday after a verbal clash with coach Maurice Cheeks during a film session.

The Blazers suspended Miles for conduct detrimental to the team and insubordination.

He has appeared in 32 games this season, with 10 starts. He was averaging 12.9 points and five rebounds.

Colleges

* Calling the sexual attack "the most heinous I have seen," a 12-year judge Friday sentenced a former St. Louis collegiate football player to more than five centuries behind bars in a 2002 home invasion and rape.

St. Louis Circuit Judge Margaret Neill sentenced the former Washington University running back Bobby Collins Jr. to 540 years in prison.

Jurors last month convicted Collins of kidnapping, two counts of forcible rape, four counts of forcible sodomy, attempted forcible sodomy, burglary, robbery and 10 counts of armed criminal action.

Collins amassed 1,000 rushing yards on Washington University's football team in 2001 before dropping out of school in May 2002. Police arrested him in August 2003.

Golf

* Tiger Woods' caddie seriously injured his left hand Friday in an auto racing accident.

Steve Williams was driving in a heat of a modified saloon car competition at the Baypark Speedway in Tauranga when his car launched into the air and hit a safety fence. He said the skin on his left hand was torn back, exposing the bone.

"When the accident first came to an end I was obviously stunned for a minute. There was a massive amount of blood," Williams said. "I was looking down at my hand and saw bone. It's a pretty damaged hand."

Williams hopes to return to work for the Nissan Open at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, beginning Feb. 17.

Soccer

* Germany's biggest soccer scandal in more than 30 years deepened Friday when four people were arrested and a newspaper reported that a referee told prosecutors he was paid more than $65,000 to fix games.

The referee, Robert Hoyzer, admitted getting money for rigging three games and also implicated players and other refs, the newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung said.

Hoyzer said he was present when other referees received money from a Croatian-controlled betting ring in Berlin and had heard of players getting paid, the newspaper reported.

Tennis

* Jennifer Capriati had surgery on her right shoulder Friday and could begin rehabilitation within a week.

The operation was performed in Wilmington by Dr. Craig Morgan, who said he expects Capriati to return to a full playing schedule after rehab. Capriati hurt the shoulder at the Advanta Championships in November. The injury forced her to miss the Australian Open, an event she won in 2001 and 2002.