Sports briefs 6/10/05

Baseball

• Nationals outfielder Marlon Byrd was suspended for two games and fined an undisclosed amount Thursday by Major League Baseball for his run-in with an umpire last week.

Byrd's agents have told the players' association that he will appeal.

Byrd knocked down umpire Joe Brinkman during an argument with another umpire during Washington's 7-3 victory over the Florida Marlins on June 4.

* Chipper Jones doesn't need surgery on his ailing left foot, but the Atlanta Braves third baseman will have to sit out four to six weeks while the injury heals.

Jones met Thursday with a foot and ankle specialist, Dr. Robert Anderson, in Charlotte, N.C.

Anderson advised against surgery, saying Jones should continue wearing an immobilization boot on his foot. That confirmed the findings of Dr. Joe Chandler and the team's medical staff after Jones underwent an MRI exam on Tuesday.

The MRI showed a partially torn ligament and a severe bone bruise.

Boxing

* Former WBA flyweight champion Eric Morel pleaded no contest Thursday to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.

The 29-year-old boxer was then found guilty by Judge William Foust of second-degree sexual assault of a child. The judge did not immediately schedule sentencing.

Morel, who faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, remained free on bail. The former Olympic fighter changed his earlier plea of not guilty.

College

* Illinois guard Dee Brown broke his right foot at an NBA camp and might withdraw from the June 28 draft. He is expected to be sidelined six to eight weeks.

Illini teammate Roger Powell also was injured at the pre-draft camp Wednesday at Moody Bible Institute, spraining his right ankle and leaving on crutches.

NBA spokesman Kent Partridge said Thursday that Brown broke the fifth metatarsal of his right foot during a game on Wednesday night.

Brown declared for the NBA draft last month but did not hire an agent, leaving open the possibility of returning to Illinois for his senior year.

* A federal judge delayed sentencing for a businessman convicted of paying a high school coach to steer a football player to Alabama following a newspaper report Thursday that the player's family got a big cut of the payoff.

The sentencing hearing for Logan Young, a longtime Crimson Tide booster, began Thursday afternoon but will continue Monday so new testimony can be received from his chief accuser, former high school coach Lynn Lang.

Defense lawyer James Neal said an article in The Commercial Appeal of Memphis casts doubt on whether defensive lineman Albert Means, the player at the heart of a recruiting scandal, was a helpless victim or a payoff recipient.

Football

* The Cleveland Browns are making a season-saving tackle for some high school football programs. The NFL club is donating $300,000 to fund nine city high school teams who otherwise would have had their 2005 football seasons canceled because of a lack of finances in one of the nation's most troubled school districts.

The Browns will announce the contribution at a Friday news conference in the team's Berea headquarters.

-- From wire reports