Sports briefs 10/1/05

Baseball

• Lou Piniella will not return as manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays next season, a decision that had long been expected after he questioned ownership's commitment to winning.

Piniella had one season remaining on a $13 million, four-year contract he signed in October 2002 but, according to the terms of a buyout, will be free to pursue other jobs after Sunday's finale.

Piniella has taken five teams to the playoffs in 19 seasons as a manager and won the 1990 World Series with Cincinnati. The Devil Rays were 67-92 going into Friday night's game against the Baltimore Orioles.

Basketball

David Harrison of the Indiana Pacers was sentenced to a year of probation Friday after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge stemming from one of the worst brawls in U.S. sports history.

He also must perform community service, undergo anger management counseling and pay a $250 fine.

Teammates Ron Artest, Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson entered the same pleas on the same charge and received the same sentence last week.

A fifth player, Anthony Johnson, pleaded no contest this month to a count of misdemeanor assault and battery and is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 7.

Golf

* Michelle Wie plans to announce Wednesday she is turning professional, six days before her 16th birthday, ending an amateur career in which she spent most of her time playing against the pros.

Two sources involved with her decision, both speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that Wie would make the morning announcement in Honolulu at a hotel near Waialae Country Club, where she has twice played in the Sony Open.

Miscellaneous

* Federal agents raided the laboratory and home of an Illinois chemist who authorities believe created one of the steroids at the heart of the BALCO sports doping scandal, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.

Investigators with the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigation division and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration searched Thursday in Champaign, Ill., at the home and laboratory of chemist Patrick Arnold, the newspaper reported, citing sources who wished not to be identified.

BALCO founder Victor Conte and vice president James Valente identified Arnold as the source of a once-undetectable steroid called "the clear."

Motorsports

While nearly everyone is watching the 10-man NASCAR Nextel Cup championship battle, Elliott Sadler is chasing an 11th-place finish that would pay his team a $1 million bonus and provide momentum for 2006.

Sadler got a leg up on the competition Friday by winning the pole for the UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway in the No. 38 Ford with a lap of 189.260 mph.

Kevin Harvick qualified second for Sunday's race at 189.032, but was sent to the back of the 43-car field after his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet failed inspection.

That moved Dale Jarrett up to second at 188.776, followed by two of the contenders for the title, Ryan Newman at 188.596 and Tony Stewart at 188.570.

The rest of the championship contenders were spread throughout the field.

-- From wire reports