Daily Sports Capsule

*Index*
BASEBALL	GOLF	TRACK
HOCKEY	FOOTBALL

BASEBALL

Chicago White Sox slugger Frank Thomas will undergo season-ending surgery on his injured right ankle Monday. The decision was made yesterday after consulation with Thomas and team officials, including general manager Ron Schueler. "We decided it was in everyone's best interest to go ahead and move Frank's surgery up instead of waiting until after the season ended," Schueler said. Thomas finished with a .305 average, 15 home runs and 77 RBIs. It's the first time he has not driven in 100 RBIs or hit at least 20 home runs since 1990, his first full season in the majors. ... National League president Len Coleman, upset with owners' proposals to strip his job of nearly all authority, plans to resign at the end of the World Series, several senior baseball officials said yesterday. Coleman, baseball's highest-ranking black official, has headed the NL since March 1994. He had been resisting the efforts of commissioner Bud Selig to switch control of umpires from the league presidents to Sandy Alderson, hired last year as Selig's executive vice president of baseball operations, and has fought with Selig over baseball's failure to hire more minorities. ... Indians starter Jaret Wright, injured twice this season with a strained muscle in his upper back, was activated from the 15-day disabled list. The right-hander has made only two starts in the past seven weeks between two trips to the disabled list with the back injury. He gave up no runs and only three hits over eight innings in two minor-league rehabilitation starts this month. Wright, who is expected to start Sunday at Chicago, is 7-7 with a 5.94 ERA in 21 starts. Cleveland also activated rookie right-hander David Riske from the 15-day disabled list and recalled infielder-outfielder Jolbert Cabrera, infielder John McDonald and left-hander Tom Martin from Triple-A Buffalo.

GOLF

Hal Sutton birdied the last two holes yesterday for a 5-under 67 and took a one-stroke lead over three players in the Canadian Open. Two weeks after he withdrew from a tournament out of frustration for the first time in his 17-year career, Paul Azinger had a bogey-free 66 at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario, and was at 137 along with Lee Janzen, who had a 71, and Steve Stricker, who had a 70. The group at 138 included Mark Calcavecchia, who had a 68, and David Sutherland, who bogeyed the last two holes but still had a 7-under 65. ... Tom Watson made a successful debut on the Senior PGA Tour, joining four others atop the Comfort Classic leaderboard at 6-under 66 in Indianapolis. Six days after turning 50, Watson overcame crosswinds to grab a share of the lead with Bobby Stroble, Bob Eastwood, Jim Dent and Gary McCord. Twenty-two players, including defending champion Hugh Baiocchi, were within five shots of the lead. Baiocchi, who finished the 1998 tournament with a record 20-under score, shot a 70. ... Colin Montgomerie, chasing a record-tying sixth title on the European Tour this season, had an 8-under 64 and took a three-stroke lead over Lee Westwood at the halfway mark of the British Masters in Woburn, England. Westwood, seeking a record-tying fourth straight European victory, shot a 66 and was at 134. A stroke behind Westwood was Italy's Silvio Grappasonni, while Bob May of the United States, England's John Bickerton and Scotland's Raymond Russell were at 136. ... Peter McEvoy, the Britain-Ireland 1999 Walker Cup team's non-playing captain, has nearly assured a victory over the United States before play begins today in the two-day match-play event. "Long gone are the days when we went into matches with the United States feeling inferior," said McEvoy. "We have champions on our team and we have a long run of golf success -- even in the Walker Cup. And we have the official No. 1 college player in the United States," he noted, referring to 21-year-old Englishman Luke Donald, who won the NCAA title this year for Northwestern. ... Se Ri Pak shot a 1-under 71 and her 138 total after two rounds of the Samsung World Championship of Women's Golf kept her two strokes in front of Laura Davies, who shot a 71 yesterday in Maple Grove, Minn. Karrie Webb and Rachel Hetherington were tied for third at 142 in the field of 19 players.

TRACK

Another world record for Noah Ngeny and another big payday for Gabriela Szabo provide the main attractions for today's IAAF Grand Prix final. Ngeny, the 20-year-old Kenyan sensation, broke Sebastian Coe's 18-year-old world record for 1,000 meters last Sunday at Rieti, Italy, clocking 2 minutes, 11.96 seconds. Now Ngeny will attempt to beat Hicham El Guerrouj's record at 1,500 meters. El Guerrouj, who set the mark of 3:26.00 last year, is not competing. Szabo, meanwhile, will be seeking to push her season's prize money total past $1 million. The Romanian can earn another $250,000 with a victory in the 3,000. Szabo would pass the $1 million barrier by $15,000 if she wins the race and the overall Grand Prix title. Szabo is tied at 84 points with 800-meter champion Maria Mutola of Mozambique.

HOCKEY

Five NHL players started this year's season in the Czech hockey league yesterday because of contract disputes with their North American clubs. HC Pardubice put together an "overseas" line in the match against HC Ceske Budejovice, fielding the Ottawa Senators' Radek Bonk with the New Jersey Devils' Patrik Elias and Brendan Morrison, the first ever American to play for a Czech team. Morrison and Bonk each scored a goal as Pardubice defeated Ceske Budejovice 4-1. Robert Reichel of the Phoenix Coyotes scored twice but his HC Litvinov was beaten by HC Trinec 5-2. The Buffalo Sabres' Vaclav Varada had two assists as his HC Vitkovice beat Havirov 3-0.

FOOTBALL

A jury acquitted football Hall of Famer Jim Brown of a charge that he made a terrorist threat to kill his wife by snapping her neck, but convicted him of a lesser charge of vandalizing her car. The jury of eight men and four women returned their verdict yesterday afternoon after 10½ hours of deliberation over two days. Brown and his wife, Monique were in the courtroom when the verdicts were read, but did not react to the decision. A judge scheduled sentencing for Sept. 23. At that hearing, Brown faces a maximum sentence of six months in the Los Angeles county jail.

-- Compiled from wire reports