Bonds Adds Another Award

After Barry Bonds went hitless in his first 21 at-bats this season, he couldn’t have done much better for himself.

Seventy-three home runs. An unprecedented fourth most-valuable-player award. A record .863 slugging percentage. And now voted the Associated Press male athlete of the year.

Bonds won the honor Wednesday by edging three-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. Tiger Woods, who won in 1999 and 2000, tied for third.

Besides smashing Mark McGwire’s home run record, the San Francisco Giant slugger broke two of Babe Ruth’s records with 177 walks and the gaudy slugging percentage. Bonds hit .328 with 137 runs batted in and moved from 17th place to seventh on the career list with 567 homers.

Bonds received 33 first-place votes and 136 points from sportswriters and broadcasters to edge Armstrong, who finished second in the voting for the second consecutive year. Armstrong had 26 first-place votes and 127 points.

American League MVP Ichiro Suzuki and Woods tied for third with 43 points, though Suzuki had seven first-place votes and Woods, who also won the honor in 1997, had two. Randy Johnson was fifth and Allen Iverson was sixth.

Bonds, 37, is the 24th baseball player to win the AP award. Other baseball winners have included Bonds’ godfather, Willie Mays, who won as a member of the New York Giants in 1954. After briefly testing the free-agent market, Bonds accepted the Giants’ offer of salary arbitration and will be back in San Francisco for at least one more season.

“My grandfather told me, ‘The day that dog doesn’t learn a trick, it’s the day that dog is dead,”’ Bonds said. “If I get satisfied now, I might as well retire.”

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was chosen by the Sporting News as the most powerful person in sports, heading a list that also includes President Bush.

Bush was picked at No. 9, the first time a president has appeared on the list. The magazine said Bush, a former part-owner of the Texas Rangers, was chosen for his leadership after the terrorist attacks.

The magazine listed New York Yankee principal owner George Steinbrenner second, followed by News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, IMG founder Mark McCormack, Nascar Chairman Bill France Jr. and NBA Commissioner David Stern. The highest-ranking athlete on the list was Woods at No. 12.

Boxing

A six-bout card featuring heavyweights Steve Vukosa (3-0) and Manuel Quezada (3-1) in separate fights will close out the 17th year of the Irvine Marriott’s Battle in the Ballroom series tonight.

Vukosa, of Los Angeles, will face Aaron Brink of Huntington Beach, in Brink’s professional debut. Quezada, of Bakersfield, will meet Emanuel Laurents, of Los Angeles, who is also making his pro debut.

Also on the card: Rita Valantini of Los Angeles in her debut against Kim Reed (1-3) in a women’s featherweight bout; Sergio Espinoza (5-0) against Jose Rico (2-1) in a junior featherweight fight; Ulises Caballeros (3-0) versus Frankie Rios (1-0) in a junior middleweight fight; and welterweight Alfonso Gomez (2-1) against an opponent to be determined.

First bout is at 7:30; tickets, priced at $25 and $35, can be purchased at the Marriott.

Golf

Charles Howell III was named the PGA Tour’s rookie of the year after winning $1.52 million in prize money.

Bob Gilder was named rookie of the year on the Senior PGA Tour after finishing eighth on the money list with $1.68 million.

Howell, 22, made the cut in 20 of 24 starts this year and had five top-10 finishes. His best outing came in July at the Greater Milwaukee Open, where he lost in a playoff to Shigeki Maruyama.

Gilder, 50, won the Verizon Classic in February and the Senior Tour Championship in October.

Joe Durant, 37, was named the PGA Tour’s comeback player of the year.

Jurisprudence

The illness that left Al Unser Jr.’s daughter paralyzed from the waist down wasn’t diagnosed quickly enough, a lawsuit contends.

Intensive steroid therapy was ordered too late “to have any therapeutic value” for Cody Unser, according to a complaint filed Dec. 5 in district court in Albuquerque against Presbyterian Hospital and Dr. Michael C. Shannon.

A Massachusetts law firm filed the lawsuit on behalf of Cody and her mother, Shelley.

The daughter of the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner became ill Feb. 5, 1999. The rare disease was diagnosed the next day as transverse myelitis.

If the therapy had been started faster, “Cody’s injuries would have been significantly minimized or completely avoided,” the lawsuit said.

Soccer

Surprise leader Newcastle stayed three points ahead at the top of the English Premier League with a 3-0 win over neighbor Middlesbrough at London. Also, Robbie Fowler scored three goals in Leeds’ 3-0 win at Bolton and defending champion Manchester United beat Everton, 2-0.

Former MLS coach Thomas Rongen was hired as coach of the U.S. under-20 soccer team.

Passings

Sports agent Richie Bry, who represented Darryl Strawberry among others, died of a heart attack at 67 in St. Louis (Story, B section). ... Hank Soar, a longtime American League umpire, died at 87 in Pawtucket, R.I. (Story, B section). ...

Bobby “Cotton” Gallimore, a jockey in the 1960s and more recently a trainer, died at 62 in Hot Springs, Ark. Gallimore died of cancer Friday. ... Tom McBride, an outfielder on the Boston Red Sox team that lost to St. Louis in the 1946 World Series, died at 87 in Wichita Falls, Texas.