ALTOONA, Pa. — A deal to purchase the minor league Altoona Curve baseball team was finalized Tuesday following approval by the Eastern League, Minor League Baseball and Major League Baseball. Curve owners Robert Lozinak and J. Taylor DeWeese agreed in October to sell the Class AA Eastern League affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates to a group that includes hockey great Mario Lemieux and Steelers running back Jerome Bettis. The new ownership group will assume control of daily operations immediately, team officials said. Called Curve Baseball LP, the new group is headed by Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Greenberg. It was Greenberg who handled Lemieux’s legal affairs when he became part owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1999. The new owners have promised to keep the team in Altoona, a concern of Blair County commissioners. “Our group is excited not only to become involved with the Altoona Curve, but with the Altoona community and the central Pennsylvania region,” Greenberg said. “With all this franchise has going for it, we think we can become the best organization in the game.” Greenberg will be the club’s president and managing general partner. BASKETBALL Toronto Raptors forward Tracy Murray will miss the rest of the season after undergoing arthroscopic hip surgery on Tuesday. Murray, plagued by back spasms this season caused by the hip problem, hasn’t played since Feb. 18 at Detroit. Murray was averaging 5.7 points for the Raptors. FOOTBALL The Green Bay Packers signed quarterback Doug Pederson and defensive tackle Rod Walker to one-year contracts on Tuesday. Financial terms of the contract were not released. Pederson will return for his 10th NFL season and his sixth with the Packers. He made no passing attempts in two brief appearances in regular-season games against Carolina and Cleveland last season. Free-agent safety Tony Parrish agreed to a five-year, $12.03 million contract with the San Francisco 49ers, agent Joel Segal said. Parrish, a key contributor to the Chicago Bears’ top-rated defense last season, will get a $3 million signing bonus, Segal said. “Tony is a California guy and after meeting with their coaches and executives, he felt really comfortable with the 49ers,” Segal said. The 49ers also signed free-agent defensive end Sean Moran, a backup with the St. Louis Rams the past two seasons. The team wouldn’t confirm terms of either player’s contract. Parrish, who is from Huntington Beach, California, will probably start at strong safety in place of Lance Schulters, a free agent who the team said was demanding too much money to be re- signed. “As talks continued with Lance and his representative, it was very apparent that we were just too far away,” 49ers General Manager Terry Donahue said. Parrish started all 16 games last season, getting 67 tackles, three interceptions and one sack. The Bears allowed 12.7 points a game, the fewest in the National Football League, and won their first NFC Central Division title since 1990. Rod Jones, a backup tackle last year with the St. Louis Rams, signed a three-year contract with the Washington Redskins on Tuesday. The Redskins plan to start Jones at guard, a position he played earlier in his career with the Cincinnati Bengals. He played five seasons in Cincinnati before joining the Rams last year. The Redskins are trying to replace both starting guards from last season. Dave Szott signed as a free agent with the New York Jets. Ben Coleman is also a free agent, and the Redskins have made no effort to re-sign him. Jones, 28, has started 37 games in the NFL, mostly at tackle. He started one regular season game last season with St. Louis and all three playoff games — including the Super Bowl — because of an injury to Ryan Tucker. Jones hurt his groin during the Super Bowl and couldn’t finish the game. = Free-agent receiver Ricky Proehl agreed to a one-year contract to stay with the St. Louis Rams. The team didn’t disclose financial terms and agent Alan Herman didn’t return calls. The National Football League’s minimum salary for players with at least 10 years of experience is $750,000. Proehl, who has played for St. Louis since 1998, will be a backup again behind starters Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt. Re- signing Proehl became more important for the Rams after their third receiver, Az-Zahir Hakim, signed with the Detroit Lions on March 7. Proehl, entering his 13th season, played in all 16 games last year and made three starts, catching 40 passes for 563 yards and five touchdowns. He also caught a touchdown pass to tie the Super Bowl at 17-17 with 1:37 left, before the New England Patriots won on Adam Vinatieri’s last-second field goal. The National Women’s Football League will hold a second tryout for the Pittsburgh Passion, one of the league’s newest expansion teams, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday at Neville Island Memorial Park on Neville Island. The tryout fee is $35 for first-time participants. Anyone interested must be 18 years or older and have medical insurance. The NWFL will kick off its second season April 20th with 21 teams in five divisions. JURISPRUDENCE Cincinnati center Donald Little was arraigned Tuesday on two felony charges for allegedly kidnapping, beating and burning his roommate. The 23-year-old Little was being held in the Hamilton County jail in lieu of $50,000 bond. Police arrested Little on Monday night and charged him with felonious assault and kidnapping, prosecutors said. Little’s roommate, Justin Hodge, told authorities that Little invited him to his home Monday, where he accused Hodge of stealing money, then hit Hodge on the head with a whiskey bottle. Hodge also said he was tied with tape to a plastic lawn chair, burned with incense and beaten, the police report said. Hodge told police he was stabbed when he tried to escape. Police said more arrests were possible. OFF THE FIELD A man who impersonated Derek Jeter and Nomar Garciaparra to obtain baseball bats, then sold them on eBay, pleaded guilty to six counts of mail and wire fraud. Herbert John Derungs, 31, of San Francisco faces up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and restitution for each of the counts when he is sentenced July 1, prosecutors said Tuesday. Derungs admitted claiming to be shortstops Jeter, of the New York Yankees, and Garciaparra, of the Boston Red Sox, in e-mails sent to the Original Maple Bat Co. “I will place an order for 50-60 for the 2001 season, because my contract with Louisville Slugger is up, and I am trying to get a feel of what’s out there before I decide what bats to use next year. The sooner the better. Thanks Derek,” read one e-mail quoted in an affidavit. The company eventually sent 60 bats worth $3,319 to addresses in Lakewood, Wash., and Brisbane, Calif., prosecutors said. Original Maple never received any money, prosecutors said. Derungs also admitted selling the bats on eBay and claiming they were used in games by the players. In one case, one victim traded $6,000, a Mark McGwire bat and a Rogers Hornsby bat for 15 of the fakes. = Mills Lane, who has refereed some of boxing’s biggest fights, was hospitalized in intensive care Tuesday after suffering a stroke. Friends said the 64-year-old Lane was found unconscious in his home Monday morning and was taken to St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center. “His condition has definitely shown improvement through the night,” Dr. Philip Landis said. Lane suffered speech loss and weakness in his right side. He was listed in stable condition. “He has made progress,” said Dr. Paul Katz, a neurologist and stroke specialist. “The language is clearly the concern.” Lane’s wife, Kay, was out of town when her husband was stricken. Lane, a former district judge and NCAA boxing champion, gained national attention when he disqualified Mike Tyson for biting off part of Evander Holyfield’s ear in 1997. He resigned from the bench in 1998 to start a TV show and open a Reno law firm.

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