Kendall to get $4.25 million

Jason Kendall will be guaranteed $4.25 million under the one-year contract he and the Milwaukee Brewers intended to finalize today.

The Brewers reached a preliminary agreement last week with the catcher and planned a news conference today at Miller Park

Kendall hit .270 with 19 RBIs in 57 games with the Chicago Cubs this year after a midseason trade from Oakland. Before the deal, he batted .226 with 33 RBIs for the Athletics.

Kendall earned $13 million this year, the final season of a $60 million, six-year extension he agreed to with the Pirates in November 2000.

More baseball

• The Arizona Diamondbacks offered a contract to Japanese pitcher Hiroki Kuroda, joining a handful of teams to express interest in the right-hander.

• Pitcher Doug Brocail and the Houston Astros agreed to a $2.5 million, one-year contract, a deal that includes a team option for 2009.

• Former Colorado Rockies pitcher Dan Serafini was suspended for 50 games Tuesday, the second player to fail a test for a performance-enhancing drug this season under Major League Baseball's testing program. The 33-year-old left-hander played in three games and allowed two earned runs in a third of an inning with the Rockies last season.

Tennis

Russian Davis Cup team captain Shamil Tarpischev was emphatic. Marat Safin wasn't going to suddenly appear for the Davis Cup final.

There were questions whether Tarpischev, known for his craftiness, might bring in Safin at the last minute.

Safin is 29-18 in the Davis Cup, and he won the decisive point in Russia's 3-2 win against Argentina in the final in Moscow last year.

Horse racing

Racing at The Meadows is canceled today because high winds Monday sheared or snapped several construction poles that took down power and phone lines. Racing will resume tomorrow.

• Bill Hartack, a Hall of Fame jockey and five-time Kentucky Derby winner, has died while on a hunting vacation. He was 74.

Track

World 400-meter champion Christine Ohuruogu won her appeal against a lifetime Olympic ban for missing doping tests. The 23-year-old British runner was cleared to compete in next year's Beijing Olympics after the ruling by a sports arbitration panel.

Soccer

A soccer tournament among Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will start in 2009 and be held every two years. The Football Association of Ireland said commercial arrangements and match dates for the Celtic Cup are still being completed.

Yachting

BMW Oracle Racing won its court case against America's Cup champion Alinghi yesterday, giving the American syndicate the right to race the Swiss team in a head-to-head series for the title next July. Golden Gate Yacht Club, the home of BMW Oracle Racing, sued because of a dispute with Alinghi's Societe Nautique de Geneve over the rules for the next race.

Cycling

A top company ended its sponsorship of professional cycling because doping scandals have put the sport in peril. Deutsche Telekom AG, recently known as T-Mobile and considered on of the top teams on the ProTour, has sponsored a team since 1991.

Former T-Mobile rider Patrik Sinkewitz, fired recently after testing positive before the Tour de France, testified that doping was widespread at the team, both before and after Jan Ullrich was its main star.

Volleyball

Penn State volleyball player Christa Harmotto (Hopewell High School, 2005 Post-Gazette Female Athlete of the Year) has been selected Big Ten Conference Player of the Year.

Elsewhere

Dr. J. Robert Cade, who invented the sports drink Gatorade and launched a multibillion-dollar industry that the beverage continues to dominate, died of kidney failure in Jacksonville, Fla. He was 80.