In Brief

BASEBALL

Hall of Famer Gwynn joins in attempt to buy Padres

Tony Gwynn's agent said Monday the Hall of Famer is joining movie producer Thomas Tull in an attempt to buy the San Diego Padres. Agent John Boggs said Gwynn's role with Tull's group hasn't been defined.

Tull, the chairman of Legendary Entertainment, is among several people interested in buying the Padres. Majority owner John Moores announced last month that he was selling the team after minority owner Jeff Moorad abandoned his attempt to gain controlling interest.

Gwynn played for the Padres his entire 20-season big league career. He is currently baseball coach at his alma mater, San Diego State.

In other Padres news, starter Cory Luebke said he'll have reconstructive surgery on his left elbow Wednesday to repair the ulnar collateral ligament. Luebke was 3-1 with a 2.61 ERA when he went on the 15-day disabled list May 2.

Also: Lance Berkman of the St. Louis Cardinals will be sidelined at least six to eight weeks with an injured right knee. The team said Berkman will have an arthroscopic procedure later this week.

Berkman has played just 13 games, also missing significant time with a pulled left calf muscle. He was batting .333 with a home run and four RBIs.

Neftali Feliz will be shut down for at least a month because of inflammation in his right elbow, the Texas Rangers said while putting their closer-turned-starter on the 15-day disabled list. The 24-year-old Feliz is in his first season as a major league starter, after he saved 72 games in two years as the team's closer.

Feliz is 3-1 with a 3.16 ERA. He has 23 walks and 37 strikeouts in 42 2/3 innings.

Boston Red Sox outfielder Cody Ross has a broken bone in his left foot and could be sidelined six to eight weeks. He has been out since fouling a ball off his foot Friday night against Philadelphia. An X-ray showed no breaks, but an MRI revealed a small fracture.

Ross is batting .271 with eight homers and 28 RBIs, one behind David Ortiz for the team lead.

Los Angeles Angels outfielder Vernon Wells will undergo right thumb surgery today and is expected to be sidelined eight to 10 weeks. The team said Wells will have surgery on the ulnar collateral ligament in his thumb.

Wells, who is batting .244 with six home runs and 12 RBIs, was hurt stealing second base in Sunday's loss at San Diego.

Cincinnati Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman was arrested for speeding and driving with a suspended license in central Ohio, only hours after he got his first save of the season in New York.

Police in Grove City provided The Associated Press with a copy of the arrest report showing Chapman was stopped on Interstate 71 going 93 mph shortly before 1 a.m. Monday. He had picked up the save in a 5-2 in over the New York Yankees on Sunday.

Big crowds at Nationals Park, Minute Maid Park and Yankee Stadium helped Major League Baseball set its top weekend attendance total since 2009. Interleague play began this season on Friday and boosted crowds.

Overall, MLB drew 1,652,935 fans for 45 games over the weekend. That was the most since a weekend in late July 2009 drew 1,684,095 for 46 games.

GOLF

Woods: 'I think I'm headed in the right direction'

Tiger Woods insists he is close to contending on a weekly basis, even if recent results suggest otherwise.

"I think I'm headed in the right direction," Woods said at Congressional Country Club, where he was promoting the AT&T National, which takes place June 28 to July 1.

"I'm going to try and continue to improve in incremental steps in every facet of my game, and try to make every facet of my game more efficient."

Woods has one PGA Tour victory this year, but his game has hit a slump recently, with a missed cut in Charlotte to go with 40th-place finishes at the Masters and The Players Championship.

"I've just played three events - I won a tournament (four) tournaments ago," Woods said. "If I get more efficient at what I'm doing, then I'm going to win golf tournaments."

Also: Anthony Kim will miss the rest of the FedEx Cup season to treat chronic tendinitis in his left arm. He has made only two cuts this year and has withdrawn from his last three tournaments.

Along with nagging pain in his left forearm, Kim hurt his right elbow when his club struck a rock while he was trying to hit out of a bush at the Texas Open.

MISCELLANEOUS

Irving, Lin to lead U.S. Select team vs. Olympians

Rookie of the Year Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin are among 13 NBA players chosen to the U.S. select team, which will scrimmage against the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team in Las Vegas in July.

Also picked were: John Wall (Washington), Ryan Anderson (Orlando), DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento), Paul George (Indiana), Kawhi Leonard and DeJuan Blair (San Antonio), Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors (Utah), DeMar DeRozan (Toronto), Taj Gibson (Chicago) and Klay Thompson (Golden State).

The U.S. Select team and the Olympic squad will report to Las Vegas on July 5 and work out from July 6 through July 11. Lin's participation is unclear, as he will be a free agent after his breakout season and might not take part until he signs a new contract during that week.

Also: The June child sex-abuse trial of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky will not be delayed, a judge ruled. The one-sentence order by Judge John Cleland did not explain his reasons, but it means the case will likely begin with jury selection inside a central Pennsylvania courthouse in barely two weeks.

Sandusky lawyer Joe Amendola had asked for the delay on May 9, arguing that he needed more time to find and interview witnesses, and that pending criminal charges against two Penn State administrators made them unavailable as witnesses.

Former West Virginia football coach Bill Stewart, who was hailed as Rich Rodriguez's successor but wound up leaving the school in a messy split, died in Morgantown of what athletic department officials said was an apparent heart attack. He was 59.

Stewart went 28-12 in three seasons after taking over when Rodriguez left for Michigan after the 2007 regular season. But Stewart resigned last summer and was replaced by Dana Holgorsen the same night.

The wife of fired Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine said in a libel lawsuit that ESPN ruined her life by reporting that she knew her husband was molesting children.

Laurie Fine said she has been forced into seclusion, had to sell her house and has been the target of widespread ridicule as a result of the ESPN reports.

Two ball boys accused Bernie Fine of molesting them decades ago. Fine has denied the allegations and has not been charged.

Las Vegas' Robert Byrd was selected to referee the WBO welterweight title fight between reigning champion Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley at the MGM Grand Garden on June 9, the Nevada Athletic Commission announced. The judges, all from Las Vegas, will be Duane Ford, Jerry Roth and CJ Ross.

Rafael Nadal showed he's still the man to beat on clay, defeating Novak Djokovic 7-5, 6-3 in a rain-delayed final to win his record sixth Italian Open and regain the No. 2 ranking.

After losing to Djokovic in seven straight finals - including Rome last year - Nadal has now won two straight against the top-ranked Serb after also capturing the Monte Carlo Masters on clay. Nadal also moved ahead of Roger Federer in the rankings, with the French Open starting Sunday.

Three girls high school basketball all-star games hosted by the Southern Nevada Girls Basketball Coaches Association will be held today at Basic High School.

The Sunrise Region game is scheduled for 5 p.m., followed by the Sunset game at 6 and an unsigned seniors game at 7.