In Brief
BASEBALL
Rangers sign shortstop Andrus
to $14.4 million, three-year deal
Shortstop Elvis Andrus and the Texas Rangers finalized a $14.4 million, three-year contract Wednesday that avoided salary arbitration.
Andrus had asked for $3.6 million and had been offered $2.65 million.
The 23-year-old hit a career-best .279 with 37 stolen bases last year when the Rangers won their second consecutive American League pennant. He made $452,180.
Also: Emilio Bonifacio became the second player to defeat the Miami Marlins in salary arbitration this year.
Bonifacio was awarded a $2.2 million salary by a three-person panel rather than the Marlins' offer of $1.95 million.
Pitcher Anibal Sanchez beat the Marlins in a case decided Monday and will make $8 million instead of the team's $6.9 million offer.
Bonifacio hit a team-high .296 last year with five homers, seven triples, 36 RBIs and 40 steals in 51 tries. The infielder-outfielder made $425,000.
The Cincinnati Reds made two moves to improve their depth, signing outfielder Ryan Ludwick, a Durango High School and UNLV product, to a one-year contract and left-handed starter Jeff Francis to a minor league deal.
The 33-year-old Ludwick and the Reds have a mutual option for 2013. The outfielder batted .237 last season in 139 games with the Padres and Pirates, hitting 13 homers with 75 RBIs.
The 31-year-old Francis has struggled since he missed the 2009 season because of shoulder surgery. Last season, he was 6-16 for Kansas City with a 4.82 ERA in 31 starts.
Jed Lowrie and the Houston Astros avoided an arbitration hearing, agreeing to a $1.15 million, one-year contract.
Lowrie, a switch-hitting infielder who was eligible for arbitration for the first time, batted .252 with six homers and 36 RBIs in 88 games for the Red Sox last season. He made $450,000.
Russell Branyan agreed to a minor league contract with the New York Yankees and will try to win a bench job as a corner infielder during spring training.
Branyan hit .197 with five homers and 14 RBIs in 127 at-bats last season for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Angels, playing first base, third base and designated hitter.
Individual game tickets for Big League Weekend, between the Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers on March 17 and 18 at Cashman Field, will go on sale at noon Monday at the Cashman box office and through Ticketmaster.
Tickets for the 1:05 p.m. split-squad games are priced at $50 for field seats, $45 for plaza seats and $35 for reserved, berm and grandstand seating.
COLLEGE ATHLETICS
Big East adds another piece to
complex puzzle with Memphis
The Big East has acquired all the pieces needed to build a new coast-to-coast conference. Putting them all together, though, is going to take awhile.
The conference wanted to rebuild itself into a 12-team football league that can hold a championship game, and Memphis officially became that 12th member when it accepted an invite it has long coveted.
But the new Big East isn't scheduled to be fully functional until the 2015 football season. As for the next three years, what the Big East will look like is anyone's guess.
Memphis is the seventh school, and fourth from Conference USA, to sign up since December for future membership in the Big East. The Tigers will compete in the Big East in all sports.
Also: North Dakota will resume using its contentious Fighting Sioux nickname despite threats from the NCAA, the school's president said, marking the latest twist in a protracted fight about a name that critics consider offensive.
A state law repealed last year had required the university use its longtime nickname and logo that shows the profile of an American Indian warrior. But supporters of the name filed petitions late Tuesday demanding that the issue be put to a statewide vote.
University president Robert Kelley said the school decided to resume using the name and logo to respect the state's referendum process, which requires that the pro-nickname law be in effect while the secretary of state reviews the petition signatures.
Nick Rolovich, who orchestrated one of the top passing attacks in the NCAA as offensive coordinator at Hawaii the past two seasons, has been hired for the same job at UNR.
SPORTS AND THE LAW
Sandusky's lawyer seeks local
jurors, delay to lessen publicity
Jerry Sandusky's lawyer filed court paperwork arguing that jurors in his child sex abuse trial should be chosen from the community where he lives and suggesting that a trial delay might be the best way to address the intense publicity generated by the case.
Defense attorney Joe Amendola wrote that the former Penn State assistant football coach is opposed to a request by the state attorney general's office to bring in out-of-county jurors, saying publicity about Sandusky's case has been so pervasive that jurors from other counties also will have been saturated with news coverage.
Also: Two men suing Syracuse and basketball coach Jim Boeheim for defamation connected to the sexual abuse investigation of fired assistant Bernie Fine are only out to generate salacious headlines with tawdry court filings, lawyers for the university and the head coach said.
In the case's latest legal volley, attorneys for Syracuse and Boeheim argue there's no need to provide the names and addresses of players on the team in the 1990s, among other information, requested by Bobby Davis and Michael Lang through their high-profile lawyer, Gloria Allred.
Davis and Lang have claimed that Fine molested them when they were minors.
A former Virginia lacrosse player and the ex-girlfriend he is accused of killing traded allegations of infidelity and angry emails in the months before her death, with one of his messages saying: "I should have killed you," prosecutors said.
George Huguely V faces murder and other charges in the May 2010 death of Yeardley Love, who played on the woman's lacrosse team. During opening statements in Charlottesville, Va., Huguely's attorneys said he was "very drunk" the night Love died and incapable of plotting to kill her. They also disputed evidence prosecutors said shows Love's head hit a wall several times and that she died of blunt-force trauma.
MISCELLANEOUS
Three-goal rally in third period powers Ontario past Wranglers
Kevin Estrada scored with 1:11 left to cap the Ontario Reign's three-goal third period in their 4-3 win over the Wranglers in an ECHL game in Ontario, Calif.
Tristan King and Chris Huxley also scored in the final period for the Reign (27-14-4), who outshot Las Vegas 20-6 in the third and 38-26 for the game.
Sean Wiles scored his fifth and sixth goals of the season in the second period to put the Wranglers (30-15-4) up 3-1.
Las Vegas goaltender Mitch O'Keefe had 34 saves. Jean-Francois Berube stopped 23 shots for Ontario.
Also: The Detroit Red Wings will play the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2013 Winter Classic, a person with knowledge of the annual NHL game told The Associated Press.
Earlier, the University of Michigan Board of Regents authorized the athletics department to seek a contract with the NHL that would allow the league to hold next year's showcase at Michigan Stadium. The NHL has offered to pay up to $3 million for a license to use the iconic college football venue.
It appears Santonio Holmes is sticking around -- just as the New York Jets said he would.
By remaining on the roster through the second day of the NFL's waiver period, the talented but troublesome wide receiver will get $15.25 million in guaranteed money over the next two seasons. A clause in Holmes' contract, signed last offseason, kicked in Wednesday morning.
Michael Phelps is the latest athlete to use a hyperbaric chamber to aid his recovery from training.
The 16-time Olympic medalist said he had been sleeping "at 8,000 feet every night" for almost a year. The 26-year-old swimmer noticed he bounced back from workouts better when he trained at altitude, so he's trying a device that simulates that.
"We've been able to realize after going to Colorado Springs (Colo.) so many times that it is something that helps me recover," Phelps said.
The College of Southern Nevada softball team was swept by College of Southern Idaho, 6-2 and 14-8, in Scenic West Athletic Conference play at St. George, Utah. Alicia Firelein led CSN (5-9, 0-2 SWAC) by going 4-for-8 in the two games with two home runs and five RBIs.
