Sports briefs 8/11/04

Baseball

Chicago Cubs star Sammy Sosa hit his 564th homer Tuesday night and moved past Reggie Jackson into sole possession of eighth place on the career list. Sosa, in an 0-for-15 slump, connected for a solo shot in the second inning off San Diego's Adam Eaton. It was Sosa's 25th homer of the season. Harmon Killebrew is seventh with 573.

Football

St. Louis Rams running back Lamar Gordon had surgery Tuesday on his left ankle and is expected to be out for four weeks, the organization said. At training camp in Macomb, Ill., Rams coach Mike Martz said Monday that Gordon planned to have surgery, possibly because of a bone chip.

First-round draft choice Kellen Winslow Jr. agreed to terms Tuesday night on a six-year contract with the Cleveland Browns, ending his 12-day holdout, a team source told The Associated Press. The contract is worth $29 million in guaranteed money and could bring Winslow up to $40 million if he reaches all his incentives.

General Motors Corp. began its defense Tuesday in a case filed by the family of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Derrick Thomas, who claim the automaker is accountable for his death because of the shoddy design of his sport utility vehicle. Lawyers representing Thomas' mother, Edith Morgan, his seven children and their five mothers, rested their wrongful death case Monday. GM's attorneys began their defense by beginning to reconstruct, in minute detail, the path of Thomas' Chevrolet Suburban on an icy January afternoon in 2000.

Jurors saw photos Tuesday detailing damage to the car, including the significant portion of the crushed roof above the driver's seat. The plaintiffs' attorneys claim the roof was too weak, and crunched down 8 to 10 inches, causing severe spinal injuries. GM contends Thomas died because he was driving too fast and without a seat belt.

Tennis

World No. 3 Guillermo Coria had arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder in Spain and expects to miss the U.S. Open this month.

Coria had surgery in Barcelona on Monday on his right shoulder, which has bothered him since the French Open. Nerve damage in the shoulder eventually forced him to retire during his first-round match in the Cincinnati Masters last week and pull out of the Athens Olympics.