Sports briefs 8/7/04

Baseball

Jerry Colangelo, who brought Arizona a major league baseball franchise in 1998 and a World Series title three years later, is being forced out as chief executive officer of the Diamondbacks and will be replaced by Jeff Moorad, an agent for several top players. Moorad, who represents Boston's Manny Ramirez and other top players, takes over as chief executive officer on Jan. 1 and as chairman exactly one year later. Colangelo said he and the partners disagreed over whether the team should continue to follow a plan formed when the team came to Arizona in 1998. While Arizona spent heavily on free agents and beat the New York Yankees in a thrilling seven-game World Series three years ago, they have cut payroll and at 35-75 have the worst record in the major leagues.

Frank Thomas is out for the rest of the season and Magglio Ordonez might be, too. After the Chicago White Sox announced Friday that Thomas will miss the rest of the season as he recovers from a stress fracture in his left foot, manager Ozzie Guillen said he doesn't expect Ordonez to return. That would mean the White Sox would have to try and make up ground in the AL Central without their Nos. 3 and 4 hitters. Chicago had dropped nine of its last 11 before playing Cleveland, and was six games behind first-place Minnesota.

Major league executives planning the move of the Montreal Expos have spent most of the past two months concentrating on the bids of Northern Virginia and downtown Washington, a top baseball official said. Baseball met again Thursday with the Northern Virginia group, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The other areas that have submitted bids -- Las Vegas; Monterrey, Mexico; Norfolk, Va.; Portland, Ore., and San Juan, Puerto Rico -- have not officially been eliminated, but baseball has not devoted as much effort in recent weeks to examining their proposals, the official said. Two high-ranking team executives, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said this week that the choice pretty much had been narrowed to Northern Virginia and downtown Washington.

Basketball

The Los Angeles Lakers resumed their makeover Friday by trading Gary Payton and Rick Fox to the Boston Celtics for Chucky Atkins, Marcus Banks and Chris Mihm. The Celtics also received a conditional first-round draft pick and cash in the deal and sent a second-round pick to the Western Conference champions. A nine-time All-Star who averaged 18.3 points per game over his first 13 seasons, Payton averaged 14.6 points -- his lowest since the 1992-93 season -- and a career-low 4.2 assists in the regular season last year.

College

Texas senior running back Cedric Benson was sentenced to serve eight days in jail after pleading no contest Friday to misdemeanor criminal trespassing for an incident during the 2003 season. Police said Benson forced his way into an apartment last October to search for a stolen television. The charge was a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Travis County Judge Elizabeth Earle also ordered Benson to pay a $1,000 fine and up to $600 in restitution for the apartment's damaged door and court costs. Benson will be allowed to serve his jail time on weekends and he was booked into the Travis County Jail on Friday. He will be with the Longhorns when the team reports to training camp on Monday. Benson should finish his jail term before the season opener Sept. 4 against North Texas.

Miscellaneous

A St. Louis on-air sports personality and columnist turned himself in to the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department, where he was booked on a felony drug possession charge and later released. Charles Edwards, who goes by the on-air name "Charlie Tuna," surrendered Thursday night and was booked for felony possession of drugs. A department spokeswoman said Friday that Edwards, 57, of St. Louis was released on a $10,000 bond. Edwards has been on several St. Louis-area radio stations, and has been a panelist on KMOX Sports Open Line programs. He also writes a column for the St. Louis Argus newspaper.

Tennis

Lleyton Hewitt kept his poise in windy conditions and beat Marat Safin 6-4, 6-4 Friday to reach the semifinals of the $2.5 million Cincinnati Masters.

Tenth-seeded Hewitt, who hasn't lost a set during the tournament, will play Tommy Robredo on Saturday. Robredo beat Fabrice Santoro 6-2, 6-3 in a matchup of unseeded players.

Fourth-seeded Carlos Moya met No. 11 Andre Agassi and No. 2 Andy Roddick took on wild-card entrant Tommy Haas later Friday in the other quarterfinal matches.

Jennifer Capriati lost to unseeded Russian Elena Likhovtseva 6-2, 7-5 Friday in the quarterfinals of the Rogers Cup. Amelie Mauresmo of France also advanced to the semifinals with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Karolina Sprem of Croatia. The second-seeded Mauresmo won the tournament in 2002. Mauresmo advanced to a semifinal today against 10th-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia, who easily defeated 16-year-old Russian-born teenager Tatiana Golovin of France 6-3, 6-1.