Texas acquired right-hander Brandon McCarthy from the Chicago White Sox in a five-player deal yesterday in which the Rangers gave up their 2003 first-round pick.

John Danks, 21, the ninth overall pick three years ago, and fellow right-handers Nick Masset and Jacob Rasner were sent to Chicago for McCarthy and 18-year-old outfielder David Paisano.

McCarthy, 23, has 65 major-league appearances (12 starts), and is 7-9 with a 4.39 ERA. He has 117 career strikeouts while walking only 50 batters in 151²/₃ innings. McCarthy worked primarily out of the bullpen for the first time last season, and was 10th in the AL with 75¹/₃ innings worked in relief. The Rangers plan to use him as a starter. The four other players in the deal have little or no major-league experience.

Olympics

Former Olympic biathlon champion Myriam Bedard, 37, was in police custody in Maryland on a child abduction charge after U.S. marshals found the Canadian athlete and her daughter at a hotel on the girl's 12th birthday. Quebec City police swore out an arrest warrant against Bedard on Dec. 8 after her former husband said she had taken their daughter from Quebec City without his permission. The daughter was to be reunited with her father in Quebec City. Bedard won gold in the 7.5-kilometer and 15-kilometer races at the 1995 Lillehammer Games.

Speed skating

Elli Ochowicz won all four races and Kip Carpenter won none, but both captured titles at the U.S. Sprint Long Track Speed skating Championships in West Allis, Wis.

Ochowicz won the 500-meter and 1,000-meter races for the second day in a row with times of 39.34 seconds and 1:19.34. Her sweep of two 500s and two 1,000s over two days at the Pettit National Ice Center gave her 158.015 points, 1.830 points better than Olympic medalist Chris Witty of West Allis.

Carpenter finished second in all four races to total 141.700 points and edge runner-up Tucker Fredricks by 0.565 points. Fredricks won the 500 for the second straight day in 35.31 and Shani Davis of Chicago repeated in the 1,000 in 1:09.91. Ochowicz also won the sprint title in 2003.

Hockey

A hockey stick believed to have been carved between 1852 and 1856 was sold at auction for $2.2 million and will be displayed at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. The hickory stick is purported to be the oldest hockey stick. The oldest stick now on display in the Hall of Fame is from 1881. Seller Gord Sharpe said 26 bids were submitted worldwide, with the winning bid from a Canadian who plans to offer the stick to the hall. Sharpe said the stick was carved by Alexander Rutherford and handed down to him by his great uncle, Melville Rutherford. Before the auction, Sharpe's stick was on display in a glass case in Wayne Gretzky's Toronto restaurant.

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins used two goals by Jonathon Filewich to drop the visiting Norfolk Admirals, 4-1, in American Hockey League play.

In the ECHL, Cincinnati beat the visiting Wheeling Nailers, 7-1.

Cycling

Jan Ullrich, the 1997 Tour de France winner, insists he can make a successful return to professional cycling. Ullrich, a 33-year-old German who doesn't have a team or a license, faces three investigations because of alleged links to the Spanish doping scandal that has engulfed his sport. No charges have been filed against Ullrich, and he has maintained his innocence.

"I know that the return to pro sport is a rocky road, but I am determined to fight and make it happen," Ullrich said Friday on his Web site.

Ullrich was fired by T-Mobile on the eve of this year's Tour de France. The decision by his team followed a Spanish police investigation that led to suspicions that Eufemiano Fuentes and other physicians provided top riders with performance-enhancing drugs from a Madrid clinic.

Soccer

Inter Milan tied the Italian league record with its 11th consecutive victory by rallying past Atalanta, 2-1.