Sports briefs 6/11/05

Baseball

• The "cursed" 1919 contract that shipped Babe Ruth from Boston to the Bronx sold at auction Friday for a staggering $996,000, delighting its new owner - a die-hard Yankees fan - and a hunger-relief group designated to receive a financial windfall from the sale.

"I was prepared to pay almost whatever it took," said Pete Siegel, head of Manhattan-based Gotta Have It Collectibles, after his winning offer. "I'm not saying a billion dollars, but whatever price I needed to secure it."

The crowd at Sotheby's burst into cheers when the final hammer came down after 15 minutes of intense bidding. The five-page typed contract recorded the unprecedented deal blamed for dooming generations of Red Sox fans to heartbreak as victims of "The Curse of the Bambino." The price was nearly double the presale estimate for the Dec. 26, 1919, contract, signed by owners Harry Frazee of the Red Sox and Jacob Ruppert of Yankees, and nearly 10 times the $100,000 cost of purchasing Ruth.

It was a deal that had lasting repercussions in both cities. The Red Sox, with Ruth, had won the World Series one year earlier. They wouldn't taste a title again until last year, when "The Curse" was finally broken with their World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

In between, the Yankees won 26 championships while Boston suffered some of the most agonizing defeats in baseball history. Ruth went on to become one of the most dominant and recognizable figures in all sports.

* Making clear they won't stand pat, the NL East-leading Washington Nationals acquired second baseman Junior Spivey from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for pitcher Tomo Ohka, hours before the right-hander was scheduled to start Friday.

The Nationals also picked up two right-handers off waivers Friday, Ryan Drese and Jacobo Seuqea.

Spivey, a 2002 NL All-Star, will fill a hole left by injured second baseman Jose Vidro.

Spivey, 30, is batting .236 this season. He set career highs by hitting .301 with 16 homers and 78 RBIs in 2002.

Ohka went 4-3 with a 3.33 ERA this season. He was fined after turning his back to Frank Robinson when the Nationals' manager went to the mound to pull Ohka in the fourth inning of his last start.

Golf

* One of Karrie Webb's shortest putts of the day meant the most.

The 30-year-old Australian rolled in a 2-foot par putt to cap a 2-over 74 in the opening round of the LPGA Championship on Thursday, and when the ball dropped into the cup, Webb officially became a Hall of Famer.

Completing the round was the final requirement to reach the LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame for Webb, the winner of six major titles and 30 overall LPGA Tour events.

"It's amazing," she said. "I've known for a few years that all I had to do was stand upright for 10 tournaments a year." Advertisement Click Here Webb earned the required 27 points to qualify for the hall with her victory in the 2000 U.S. Women's Open. She repeated as Open champion the following year and needed only to play on the LPGA Tour for 10 years to qualify.

Hockey

* The NHL and the players' association concluded 26 hours of small-group meetings on Friday and will meet again Monday in Toronto.

The two sides met over four days in New York, marking the sixth straight week of discussions.

"There was healthy dialogue and progress continued to be made on many operational issues relating to a new collective bargaining agreement," league vice president Bill Daly said Friday in a statement. "We will resume meeting early next week."

Tennis

* French Open champion Rafael Nadal believes he needs to gain more experience on grass before he can win the title at Wimbledon.

The 19-year-old Nadal, who won the French Open after beating top-ranked Roger Federer in the semifinals and Mariano Puerta in the final, lost his opening match on grass Wednesday at the Halle Open in Germany.

"I'm going to go to Wimbledon to enjoy myself and do my best, but I know that it's a very tough tournament and it's not the best surface for us," Nadal said Friday. "My intention is to go and learn so that one day I'll be able to do something great there."

Nadal had won 24 straight matches before his loss to Alexander Waske.

-- From wire reports