Sports briefs 5/27/06

Baseball

• Chicago Cubs catcher Michael Barrett appealed his 10-game game suspension Friday for his role in a bench-clearing melee with the White Sox last week in which he punched A.J. Pierzynski in the jaw.

Shortly after the suspension was announced, Barrett said he had already filed the appeal, hoping to get the suspension reduced. He was in the lineup Friday when the Cubs played the Atlanta Braves at Wrigley Field.

White Sox outfielder Brian Anderson got a five-game suspension for his participation in a brawl that led to four ejections. White Sox third base coach Joey Cora was suspended two games and Pierzynski, who knocked Barrett over the plate prompting the punch, was fined.

Barrett, Anderson and Cora also were fined undisclosed amounts.

* Cubs pitcher Mark Prior, on the disabled list all season with a sore right shoulder, will probably go on a rehab assignment at Class A Peoria either Monday or Tuesday.

Pitching coach Larry Rothschild said Prior would throw on the side at Wrigley Field today. Prior threw 64 pitches in a Rookie League game in Arizona on Wednesday.

Colleges

• A federal appeals court said Friday that Nolan Richardson wasn't a victim of racial discrimination when the University of Arkansas fired him four years ago.

The appeals court said that by the time of Richardson's complaint, university administrators already wanted to fire the only man to coach Arkansas' basketball team to a national championship.

Hockey

• Texarkana's minor league hockey team is leaving the southwest Arkansas city for a new home in Missouri.

Texarkana Bandits managing general partner Michael J. Brooks said Thursday that the team is moving to Chesterfield, Mo., next season because Texarkana doesn't have an "acceptable facility."

-- The Associated Press