Sports briefs 12/26/03

Baseball

A San Francisco Giants fan who allegedly was slugged by former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Garrett Stephenson in a postgame ruckus during the 2002 National League playoffs has sued the Cardinals and the now-unemployed pitcher for $11.5 million. David Richardson, 36, of South San Francisco, claims he missed six months of work, lives in constant pain and may need neck fusion surgery because of the blow from pitcher Stephenson. The incident happened outside Pacific Bell Park on Oct. 13, 2002, after the Giants won Game 4 of the National League Championshiop Series.

The New York Yankees were told by the baseball commissioner's office that they owe $11.82 million, a baseball official told The Associated Press under the condition of anonymity. New York's payment is due by Jan. 31. A tax rate of 17.5 percent this year means the Yankees' final payroll, for tax purposes, was $184.5 million. The other 29 teams all stayed under the tax threshold of $117 million established by baseball's new collective bargaining agreement.

Basketball

Minnesota's Latrell Sprewell was fined $25,000 by the NBA for cursing at New York Knicks chairman James Dolan and screaming at the team's bench during the Timberwolves' 98-92 win Tuesday night.

Golf

Herman Keiser, the 1946 Masters champion, died from complications of Alzheimer's Disease on Wednesday. He was 89. The five-time PGA Tour winner, a Springfield, Mo., native, beat Ben Hogan by a stroke in the 1946 Masters, Keiser's first trip to Augusta after serving nearly three years in the Navy in World War II.

Hockey

Center Alexei Yashin of the New York Islanders is expected to miss 10 to 12 weeks after partially severing tendons in his right wrist in Tuesday night's 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. Yashin's right arm was cut by the skate of Flyers center Michal Handzus during a scramble that led to Arron Asham's game-tying goal. The cut resulted in two partially-severed extensor tendons and a severed sensory nerve. Yashin underwent surgery by Islanders orthopedist Dr. Kenneth Montgomery at Lenox Hill Hospital and will be in a cast for four weeks before rehabilitation can begin.

--From wire reports