Sports briefs 10/5/05

Baseball

• John Hart stepped down Tuesday as general manager of the Texas Rangers, clearing the way for 28-year-old Jon Daniels to become the youngest GM in major league history.

Hart's resignation came two days after the Rangers finished 79-83, their third losing season in four years under Hart and their fifth since winning their last AL West title in 1999.

Hart, whose teams won six division titles and twice went to the World Series in his last seven years in Cleveland ending in 2001, will be replaced by Daniels, who at 28 years, 41 days, is about 10 months younger than Theo Epstein was when he became Boston's GM on Nov. 25, 2002. Daniels was promoted from assistant GM and Hart will remain a team consultant.

* Jim Leyland, a major league scout for the St. Louis Cardinals has accepted the challenge of trying to turn around the Detroit Tigers.

Detroit signed Leyland on Tuesday to a three-year contract to replace manager Alan Trammell, who was fired a day earlier after three seasons.

The 60-year-old managed the Florida Marlins to the World Series title in 1997 and has won two NL Manager of the Year awards and three division championships.

* Injured reliever Carlos Almanzar of the Texas Rangers was suspended for the first 10 days of next season for violating baseball's steroids policy.

The announcement came Tuesday, shortly after the 2005 playoffs began. Almanzar is the 10th major league player banned 10 days this year under the sport's new policy, and the second Texas pitcher. Right-hander Agustin Montero was suspended on April 20.

Basketball

* The New York Knicks are ready to take a chance on Eddy Curry. And while they want doctors to sign off on the health of the 22-year-old center's heart first, they won't be looking at Curry's DNA profile.

The NBA approved a trade Tuesday that sends Curry and veteran center Antonio Davis from Chicago to the Knicks for forwards Tim Thomas, Michael Sweetney and Jermaine Jackson.

The trade, like all others, requires that all players pass a physical. In Curry's case, it will involve tests by a team of doctors to determine whether an irregular heartbeat that forced him to miss the last 13 games of last season and the playoffs was an isolated incident or an indication of a more serious problem.

The Bulls had demanded Curry take a DNA test to see if he is susceptible to cardiomyopathy, the ailment that killed former Boston Celtics guard Reggie Lewis and Loyola Marymount star Hank Gathers.

But Curry refused, saying the test violated his privacy because it could also be used to determine if he was predisposed to a host of other conditions going into his fifth NBA season.

As part of the trade, the Knicks also will give the Bulls a conditional first-round draft pick in 2006, two second-round selections in the next four years and the option of exchanging first-round picks with New York at a later draft.

Football

* Overall No. 1 draft pick Alex Smith was promoted to be the San Francisco 49ers' starting quarterback on Tuesday, ascending to the job after just four games as Tim Rattay's backup.

Smith will make his first NFL start on Sunday against Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts at Candlestick Park. The former Utah star played in two of the 49ers' first four games, mopping up in losses to Philadelphia and Arizona.