Sunday FanFare 5/4/03

Briefly

Baseball

The Mets placed struggling slugger Mo Vaughn on the 15-day disabled list Saturday and recalled catcher Jason Phillips from Triple-A Norfolk. Vaughn was sidelined with inflammation in his left knee.

Basketball

Tim Duncan of the Spurs has won the balloting for the NBA's Most Valuable Player award, The Associated Press learned. Duncan becomes the first player since Michael Jordan in 1991 and 1992 to win the league's most coveted individual award in consecutive seasons. An official announcement will be made today.

Instead of scouting reports the New Jersey Nets will confide in Rodney Rogers to find out the best way to get past the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Rogers, a former teammate of Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker as a Celtic last year, will be used to give insight on how the Celtics usually get their two sharpshooters open looks. Rogers, the Nets bullish backup power forward, probably knows the Celtics, through his experience with the team, better than any scouting report.

Colleges

The University of Miami could announce it is joining the ACC as early as this week, according to several reports. Miami is seen as the lynchpin for the nine-school ACC adding three schools, breaking into two six-team divisions and staging a conference championship game in football.

Hockey

Jean-Sebastien Giguere finally looked like the goaltender the Stars pounded in the regular season, not the brilliant postseason record-setter he's become. Facing elimination, the top-seeded Stars got early goals from Rob DiMaio and Stu Barnes, then a short-handed goal from rookie Niko Kapanen to knock out Giguere after two periods and beat the Mighty Ducks 4-1 Saturday in Game 5 of their second-round series.

Radek Bonk and Marian Hossa each had a pair of power-play points, and the Senators overcame an early deficit with five straight goals Saturday to beat the Flyers 5-2. The Senators lead the best-of-seven series 3-2 and can advance to the Eastern Conference finals against New Jersey with a win at Philadelphia on Monday.

Motorsports

Rookie Brandon Bernstein led Top Fuel qualifying for the second straight week, topping the field at the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. Bernstein set track records by covering a quarter-mile in a career-best time of 4.505 seconds at 327.98 mph. John Force, Greg Anderson and Geno Scali also led their divisions in the $1.4 million race.

Tennis

Vera Zvonareva and Conchita Martinez Granados will compete for their first career title after winning their semifinal matches at the Croatian Bol Ladies Open. Zvonareva, an 18-year-old Russian who's seeded third, reached her second final by defeating American Samantha Reeves 6-3, 6-4. The unseeded Martinez Granados advanced to her third final by beating fellow Spaniard Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 6-0, 1-6, 6-4.

Area digest

Weed, Mealy, Vanden Brook win tournament

The team of Catherine Weed, Deb Mealy and Brenda Vanden Brook posted a two-shot victory in the recent Women's Golf Association's White Elephant Tournament at Cape Girardeau Country Club.

The threesome had a team total of 33, beating three teams tied at 35.

On the air

Arena footballLos Angeles at Arizona, 2 p.m., WPSD

BoxingSteve Quinonez (30-6-1) vs. Michael Clark (30-2-0), IBA Americas junior middleweight championship; Jhonny Gonzalez (17-4-0) vs. David Vasquez (17-8-3), WBC bantamweight championship, 5 p.m., FOX-Midwest

College baseballSoutheast at Tennessee-Martin, 12:45 p.m., KGIR-1220

College softballBig 12 championship game, 2:30 p.m., FOX-Midwest

GolfItalian Open, 7 a.m., TGC

BMW Charity Pro-Am, 12:30 p.m., TGC

Michelob Light Open, 1 p.m., ESPN2

HP Classic of New Orleans, 2 p.m., KFVS

Bruno's Memorial Classic, 5 p.m., CNBC (same-day tape)

MLB

Montreal at St. Louis, 1 p.m., WDKA, KZIM-960, KBXB-97.9

Colorado at Chicago Cubs, 1:10 p.m., WGN

Seattle at Chicago White Sox, 7 p.m., ESPN

Motorsports

Spanish Grand Prix, 6:30 a.m., SPEED

Southern Nationals, 3:30 p.m., ESPN2 (same-day tape)

AMA Superbike, 5 p.m., SPEED

NBA playoffsOrlando at Detroit, 11:30 a.m., ESPN

Portland at Dallas, 2:30 p.m., WSIL

CHARTER CABLE KEY:CNBC (ch. 53), ESPN (42), ESPN2 (43), Lifetime (49)Fox-Midwest (45), Fox-Central (352), Fox-Pacific (353), Fox-Sunshine (351), Fox-World (350), FX(50), KBSI (9), KFVS (7), MSNBC (55), Outdoors (38), Outdoor Life Network (74), Oxygen (75), Speed Channel (44), TBS (10), The Golf Channel (46), TNT (48), WDKA (17), WPSD (6), WQWQ (33), WSIL (3). Listings and times are provided by the networks and individual stations and are subject to change.

Area events

College baseballSoutheast at Tennessee-Martin, 1 p.m.

College softball

Southeast at Eastern Kentucky, noon