New Yankee Wells Breaks Pitching Hand in a Fight

New York Yankee left-hander David Wells broke his pitching hand in a fight and will miss the start of spring training, his agent said Tuesday night in San Diego.

Wells, who signed a $13.5 million, three-year contract with the Yankees last month, could face felony assault charges after being involved in a fight Sunday night that left two other men injured, according to a police spokesman. No arrests have been made.

Wells’ agent, Gregg Clifton, said his client will be out for six weeks but did not give any other details of the incident.

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Oksana Baiul, the Ukrainian who figure-skated to Olympic gold in 1994, surrendered to police in Bloomfield, Conn., on charges that she drove drunk and recklessly when her Mercedes went off the road in an early Sunday morning crash.

Baiul had a blood-alcohol level of 0.168, according to a hospital report. The legal limit is 0.10.

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In their summation in a court in Mannheim, Germany, prosecutors said they are seeking a jail term of six years and nine months for Peter Graf, the father of Steffi Graf, who is charged with evading taxes on more than $26.5 million of her tennis earnings.

Final defense arguments were due to start Friday. The verdict is expected Jan. 24.

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Premier League goalkeepers Bruce Grobbelaar and Hans Segers were handed huge sums of cash by a Far Eastern betting syndicate to make sure their teams lost games, a jury in Winchester, England, was told in a trial of four people accused of conspiring to fix games between 1991-94.

Tennis

Ignacio Truyol, 23, of Spain became the first tennis player to be suspended from ATP tournaments for drug use after testing positive for an anabolic steroid and a stimulant. He was ranked No. 127 and will be banished for one year.

Football

Less than a month after taking the job, Maryland defensive coordinator Lou Tepper, fired in November by Illinois, resigned to pursue an unspecified head coaching position.

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Rocky Hager, who led North Dakota State to five North Central Conference football titles and two national championships, was forced out after a series of off-the-field problems, including an alleged sexual assault, with Bison players. . . . After threatening a lawsuit, Jamie Ponsoldt, a senior at Cedar Shoals High in Athens, Ga., has been approved to play by the NCAA clearinghouse, which, after reviewing his transcript and Scholastic Assessment Test scores, had turned him down, even though he had a 3.5 grade-point average and an SAT score of more than 1,200.

Names in the News

Sugar Ray Leonard, whose charisma and style endeared him to boxing fans, and flamboyant promoter Don King, often regarded as a ring rogue, will be enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y., on June 15. Also selected from the modern era in the class of 13 were former light-heavyweight champion Jose Torres, former welterweight champion Luis Rodriguez and former featherweight champion Chalky Wright.

The head of soccer’s governing body, Joao Havelange, said he wants to stage an exhibition between the Israeli and Palestinian national teams in New York in September.

Norwegian Kjetil Andre Aamodt won his first World Cup ski race of the season, edging Michael von Gruenigen of Switzerland by 0.17 of a second in a giant slalom in Adelboden, Switzerland.

Peter Ennis, coach of the Canadian women’s basketball team at the Atlanta Olympics, died in Sunbury, Ontario at the age of 50 because of an unspecified illness.

Baseball

The Chicago White Sox signed 1990 Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Doug Drabek to a one-year contract.