Sports digest 5/3/02

Baseball

Lou Gehrig's famous farewell speech, in which he called himself "the luckiest man on the face of the earth," will be repeated by celebrities in 15 major league parks before games on June 1. The unique promotion was created by major league baseball and Project ALS to call attention to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the disease that took the Hall of Fame baseball player's life and now is commonly known as "Lou Gehrig's disease."

Basketball

The Hornets' proposed move to New Orleans was unanimously supported by the NBA's Relocation Committee. Owners of the league's 29 teams will decide May 10 whether the team can move, with 15 votes needed for final approval. The recommendation came as Hornets officials in New Orleans reached an agreement in principle with state officials on a 10-year contract for the NBA team to play in the New Orleans Arena.

Boxing

The Mike Tyson-Lennox Lewis heavyweight title fight will be available on pay-per-view in about 50 million homes at a recommended price of $54.95 -- both record highs. HBO and Showtime wrapped up distribution deals with cable and satellite systems this week. The June 8 fight at the Memphis Pyramid will be the first boxing match jointly distributed and marketed by the two cable networks.

Colleges

Three new bowl games were certified by the NCAA, bringing the number of Division I postseason football games to 28. The decision to add the games came one week after a two-year moratorium limiting the maximum number of bowl games to 26. The new bowl games will be the San Francisco Bowl, Hawaii Bowl and Charlotte (N.C.) Queen City Bowl.

Golf

Dan Forsman, taking advantage of an early tee time on the windswept English Turn course, shot a 7-under 65 to take the first-round lead in the Compaq Classic. Rich Beem opened with a 67, Stewart Cink and Dudley Hart topped a group at 68, and defending champion David Toms shot a 69. Forsman, who won the last of his four PGA Tour titles in 1992, backed off three times because of the wind before sinking a 12-foot birdie putt on No. 18, worried that the wind would steer it off course. But it was his putting, with only 24 putts on the day, that gave Forsman the lead.

-- From wire reports