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In brief

Men fight about sale of Bonds' baseball

The two men unable to agree on who owned Barry Bonds' 73rd home run ball now can't agree on how to sell it.

That leaves the record ball still locked in legal limbo.

A judge in San Francisco ruled last month neither should get it outright -- Alex Popov gloved the ball for an instant, and Patrick Hayashi ended up with it.

Now the only thing the men can agree on is to postpone a court order that requires them to unload the ball and split the money, perhaps $1-million.

Under Judge Kevin McCarthy's order, Popov, Hayashi and their lawyers were to have met with Judge Richard Kramer to sort out the details of the sale by Dec.30.

"We've had a couple of meetings with Kramer and decided to postpone the decision," said Martin Triano, Popov's lawyer. "We agreed to postpone to take the holidays off."

He did not say whether Popov was planning to appeal McCarthy's decision. Hayashi said he was disappointed he didn't get the ball but will not appeal.

Hayashi said the best way to resolve the dispute was to hand the ball to an independent seller.

GOLF: Protesters who intend to picket Augusta National Golf Club's all-male membership policy during the Masters might have difficulty getting close to the club. "Our No.1 objective is public safety," Richmond County sheriff Ronnie Strength told the Augusta Chronicle. "We would not allow anyone to be there and picket and cause a public safety problem." Strength said the sidewalks are too narrow and there will be too many pedestrians and vendors on Washington Road to allow a large protest there. Martha Burk, the chairwoman of the National Council of Women's Organizations, said she is consulting her attorney and a federal attorney about local law enforcement's jurisdiction over the matter.

TENNIS: Serena Williams and James Blake won singles matches and teamed for a mixed doubles victory, leading the United States past defending champion Spain 3-0 in the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia. ... Monica Seles defeated Peng Shuai 6-2, 6-0 to reach the semifinals of the Hong Kong Challenge. ... Meghann Shaughnessy beat Lina Krasnoroutstkaya 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) in the second round of the Australian women's hardcourt championship in Gold Coast. ... Former world No.3 Mary Pierce lost 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to her doubles partner, Paola Suarez, in the second round of the ASB women's classic in Auckland, New Zealand. ... French Open champion Albert Costa lost to Swedish qualifier Andreas Vinciguerra 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 in the second round of the $1-million Qatar Open. ... Second-seeded Paradorn Srichaphan beat John van Lottum 6-2, 6-4 to reach the Tata Open quarterfinals in Madras, India.

SKIING: Felix Gottwald won for a Nordic combined sprint for the first time in more than a year, edging Ronny Ackermann by 0.4 seconds in a World Cup event in Oberhof, Germany. Gottwald finished in 20 minutes, 52.3 seconds. ... Primoz Peterka won the Four Hills jump in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Peterka overcame strong wind to cover 123.5 meters on both jumps, finishing with 264.6 points.

RUNNING: Karl Savage and Janelle Kraus set meet records in winning the New Year's Eve 4-mile run at Central Park in New York. Savage finished in 19 minutes, 7 seconds to break the mark of 19:22. Kraus won the women's division in 22:05, three seconds better than the record.

HORSES: Jerry Bailey rode Nothing To Lose to victory in the Grade III $100,000 Tropical Park Derby at Calder in Miami. Sweetrickydancer, ridden by Eibar Coa, rallied to win the $100,000 Tropical Park Oaks for fillies, her fourth straight grass victory. ... William Beatson's Wilzada took the lead at the start and beat Blinded by Love by 5 lengths in the Interborough Handicap at Aqueduct in New York.

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