Sports briefs 10/28/05

Baseball

• New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman is staying with the only team he's ever worked for, agreeing Thursday to a three-year contract worth more than $5 million.

With the decisions of Cashman and manager Joe Torre to stay with the Yankees, New York can start on its offseason moves next week.

* Bobby Valentine managed his team to a Japan Series title, and now the Chiba Lotte Marines want to make sure he's coming back.

The Marines will offer Valentine a new contract worth more than $8.6 million over three years, the Yukan Fuji sports daily reported Thursday. The former manager of the Texas Rangers and New York Mets repeatedly has said he will return.

Valentine guided the Marines to their first Japan Series title in 31 years, completing a four-game sweep Wednesday. He is the first foreign manager to reach the Japan Series since Hawaiian-born Wally Yonamine in 1974. He also is only person to manage in the Japan Series and World Series.

Basketball

* All-Star forward Grant Hill was expected to miss three to six weeks after he has surgery for a sports hernia.

Hill, the Orlando Magic's second-leading scorer last season, saw several specialists after he was pulled from the lineup Oct. 19. The club said Thursday that Dr. William Myers would operate next week in Philadelphia.

Olympics

Sprinter Jerome Young was formally stripped of his relay gold medal from the 2000 Olympics on Thursday for a positive doping test a year before the games.

The International Olympic Committee also reinstated Colombian cyclist Maria Luisa Calle's bronze medal from the 2004 Athens Games.

Young was a member of the winning U.S. 1,600-meter relay squad in Sydney. He ran in the preliminaries but not the final.