Sports briefs 5/18/05

Baseball

* Former major league pitcher Vida Blue was sentenced to six months in jail after failing to complete his probation from his latest drunken-driving conviction, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on its Web site Tuesday.

Blue can avoid incarceration by spending time in a residential alcohol treatment program. Blue needs to work out terms of his treatment with the San Mateo County probation department or he will begin his sentence on June 10.

Blue, a six-time All-Star who played most of his 17 major league seasons with the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants, failed to perform his required community service after pleading no contest in April 2004 to a misdemeanor drunken driving charge.

* Major League Baseball told the city of Miami and Miami-Dade County that they have until June 9 to revise financing plans for a new Florida Marlins ballpark now that the state Legislature has refused to chip in.

The letter from MLB chief operating officer Bob DuPuy to local government leaders also said baseball won't issue a letter of credit to cover cost overruns on the project, and reiterated that the Marlins can't stay in the open-air Dolphins Stadium for the team to have long-term success in South Florida.

The letter doesn't say what the consequences are for missing the deadline, but team officials met in Las Vegas with Mayor Oscar Goodman five months ago, and Goodman is trying to lure a franchise to his city.

"The Marlins are one of the only teams currently expected to continue losing money through 2006," the letter dated May 12 states. "We must collectively provide (commissioner Bud Selig) with the Marlins' path to financial stability."

Basketball

* Washington Wizards guard Juan Dixon will testify before a congressional committee looking into steroids in pro sports, the NBA players' union said Tuesday.

He's the only athlete slated to go to Capitol Hill on Wednesday or Thursday, when two House panels will hold separate hearings on steroid use and testing. Lawmakers on one already proposed a bill to govern drug-testing in U.S. pro sports; the leaders of the other plan to join Sen. John McCain in introducing legislation this week.

College

* Iowa State basketball coach Wayne Morgan was released from the hospital Tuesday after undergoing throat surgery for a condition known as sleep apnea.

Neither Morgan nor the university would say how long he was hospitalized. In his statement, Morgan said he would gradually work himself back to a full-time schedule over the next four weeks.

Morgan, 54, is 39-25 in two seasons at Iowa State. The Cyclones reached the semifinals of the NIT in his first season and made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament this past season.

Football

* Authorities in this northwest Chicago suburb are investigating the drowning death of the wife of a former Chicago Bears defensive end, officials said.

Nancy O'Bradovich, 65, was pronounced dead around 8 p.m. Friday at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights after drowning in an outdoor swimming pool at her Inverness home, said Barrington-Inverness Deputy Police Chief John Edwards.

An autopsy concluded O'Bradovich drowned, the Cook County medical examiner's office said.

Ed O'Bradovich was a defensive end for the Chicago Bears from 1962 to 1971 and was a member of the NFL champion team in 1963 under Bears' founder and coach George Halas.

Tennis

* Top-seeded Venus Williams routed Marta Marrero of Spain 6-0, 6-0 to reach the Istanbul Cup quarterfinals Tuesday.

Williams, who hasn't won a title in a year, hasn't played in two weeks and needed a confidence boost before the French Open, which starts Monday.

Third-seeded Anna Smashnova and No. 5 Anna-Lena Groenefeld won their first-round matches, but No. 6 Meghann Shaughnessy lost 6-3, 7-5 to Bulgarian qualifier Tszvetana Pironkova.

Smashnova defeated Catalina Castano of Colombia 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 to set up a second-round meeting with Jennifer Hopkins of the United States, while Groenefeld downed Mariana Diaz-Oliva of Argentina 6-3, 7-5, and will face Switzerland's Emmanuelle Gagliardi.

Other winners included Ivana Abramovic, Shahar Peer, and Elena Vesnina.