Sports briefs 10/22/04

Baseball

• A 21-year-old college student died Thursday of a head injury after a clash between police and a crowd of Red Sox fans celebrating their team's victory over the New York Yankees in the streets outside Fenway Park.

Victoria Snelgrove, a journalism major at Emerson College, was shot in the eye by a projectile fired by an officer on crowd-control duty. The nature of the projectile was not immediately identified but the weapons are meant to be non-lethal.

• The St. Louis Cardinals said Thursday that approval has been granted for its new minor league team to join the Texas League of Professional Baseball Clubs.

The Class AA team, called the Springfield Cardinals, will play its first home game April 12 in the $32 million stadium built by millionaire businessman John Q. Hammons.

The Cardinals needed Texas League approval to complete its purchase of the El Paso Diablos franchise. The Diablos had been a Class AA farm team for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Cardinals are relocating their players in Kodak, Tenn., to Springfield.

Basketball

• Carmelo Anthony was cited for marijuana possession before getting on a team flight last week, but the Denver Nuggets' star says the drug was left in his backpack by a friend. Anthony was issued a summons last Friday at Denver International Airport; he flew with his teammates to Milwaukee for the next day's preseason game but didn't play.

Anthony's attorney, Daniel Recht, said the marijuana was left in the bag by an out-of-town friend who borrowed the backpack last week. Anthony was charged with possessing less than 1 ounce of marijuana, a petty offense with a maximum $100 fine and no jail time.

Football

• Oakland Raiders defensive line coach Sam Clancy was taken from the team's practice facility on a stretcher Thursday and rushed to a hospital after complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath during practice.

Clancy, 46, had a breathing apparatus over his mouth when he was placed in the ambulance just prior to the end of practice.

Ricky Williams abruptly retired from the Miami Dolphins last summer because he disagreed with the NFL over a disputed drug test. Williams now wants to play again.

Attorney David Cornwell said Thursday the league "took a position regarding that test that we thought was inappropriate." "What we challenged was the testing and the specimen from last December's testing," Cornwell said after a 90-minute meeting with two NFL officials and a union representative aimed at resuming the star running back's career.

Tennis

• Andre Agassi breezed past fellow American Vince Spadea 6-1, 6-3 Thursday night to

In the quarterfinals, Agassi will meet Tommy Robredo, who overcame a sore shoulder to defeat Fernando Verdasco 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Earlier, hard-serving Ivan Ljubicic upset top-seeded Tim Henman 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to join Taylor Dent, Joachim Johansson, Luis Horna and David Nalbandian in today's quarterfinals.

Dent beat Tommy Haas, 7-6 (3), 6-2. U.S. Open semifinalist Johansson downed Antony Dupuis 6-1, 7-6 (6), Nalbandian eliminated Paradorn Srichaphan 6-3, 6-1, and Horna edged Andrei Pavel 7-5, 6-4.

-- From wire reports