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March

March 1 -- John Rocker's suspension was cut in half to the first 14 days of the regular season. Shyam Das, making his first decision as baseball's independent arbitrator, also cut Rocker's $20,000 fine to $500.

March 1 -- Josh Evans, a Tennessee Titans starting defensive tackle, was suspended for the 2000 season by the NFL for violating the substance-abuse policy.

March 1 -- The Arena Football League reinstated its 2000 season, saying most of its players have agreed to form a labor union. The league owners canceled the season on Feb. 24 after the players had filed a class-action antitrust suit on Feb. 1.

March 2 -- St. Louis tied an NHL record with its 10th straight road victory, defeating Atlanta 5-2. The Blues equaled the road mark set by the 1983-84 Buffalo Sabres. The Blues tied Florida 1-1 in Miami two nights later.

March 3 -- Edward Fryatt tied a PGA Tour record with eight consecutive birdies in the second round of the Doral-Ryder Open. The only others to make eight straight birdies were Fuzzy Zoeller in the 1976 Quad Cities Open, and Bob Goalby in the 1961 St. Petersburg Open.

March 3 -- Stacy Dragila set the world indoor pole vault record for the third time this season. Dragila's latest record-smashing performance of 15 feet, 1 3/4 inches came during the USA Track and Field Championships.

March 6 -- Shaquille O'Neal of the Los Angeles Lakers scored an NBA season-high 61 points and had 23 rebounds in a 123-103 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. It was the 52nd time in NBA history that a player scored 60 or more points. O'Neal, who also had 23 rebounds, shot 24-for-35 from the field and 13-for-22 from the line.

March 12 -- Annika Sorenstam won the Welch's-Circle K Championship to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame, beating Pat Hurst on the second playoff hole for her 19th career title.

March 13 -- The NBA fined the Seattle SuperSonics and Toronto Raptors $100,000 each after their coaches refused to wear microphones for an NBC telecast on March 12. The NBA withdrew the fines on March 17.

March 14 -- Sean Elliott completed his comeback to the NBA seven months after a kidney transplant, returning to play in San Antonio's 94-79 victory over Atlanta. Elliott, who played 12 minutes and was 1-for-3 from the field, brought wildly cheering Alamodome fans to their feet with a dramatic dunk five minutes into the third quarter.

March 14 -- Defending champion Doug Swingley drove his dog team to victory in 9 days, 58 minutes in the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, breaking his previous record and joining an elite group of Alaskans who are three-time winners.

March 14 -- The Boston Red Sox pitched their first perfect game since Cy Young, but they did it in an exhibition game. Six Boston pitchers combined on the 5-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. Pedro Martinez struck out six in three innings, then Fernando De La Cruz pitched two innings and Dan Smith, Rheal Cormier, Rich Garces and Rod Beck one apiece.

March 16 -- New Jersey Devils owner John McMullen agreed to sell the team for about $175 million to Puck Holdings, a company affiliated with YankeeNets, parent company of the New York Yankees and New Jersey Nets.

March 16 -- Austria's Hermann Maier, super-G title already in hand, thrashed the opposition by nearly 2 seconds in the last super-G race of the season at the World Cup Finals in Bormio, Italy. Maier's 28th career victory vaulted him to a World Cup-record 2,000 points in overall standings. He beat teammate Fritz Strobl with a time of 1 minute, 40.08 seconds, greatest margin in World Cup history.

March 16 -- Neil Walker twice took down the 50-meter backstroke world record on the first day of the World Short Course Championships in Athens, Greece. Walker twice took down the record, first with a time of 24.04 seconds in his heat, and then with 23.42 in the semifinals. Both times were better than 24.11 held by Australia's Matt Walsh since Jan. 14.

March 17 -- Sweden's Lars Frolander and Therese Alshammar set world records in the 100-meter butterfly and freestyle races at the World Short Course Championships. The United States also set a world record in the men's 800-meter freestyle relay, and Russia's Roman Sludnov also broke one in the 100-meter breaststroke semifinals.

March 18 -- Pavel Bure had his fourth three-goal game of the season -- which included his 50th goal of the season -- in Florida's 4-2 win over the New York Islanders.

March 18 -- Colorado's Ray Bourque became the first NHL defenseman to score 400 career goals in a 4-3 loss to Detroit.

March 18 -- Neil Walker and Jenny Thompson of the United States set world records in the 100-meter individual medley and butterfly events at the World Short Course Championships. Therese Alshammar of Sweden also set her second world record at the championships when she sliced half a second her own the 50-meter freestyle record with a time of 23.59.

March 19 -- Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt withstood back pain to win World Cup slalom crown. He is the only non-Austrian man to win a title this season after Hermann Maier claimed the other four -- an achievement not done since 1987.

March 19 -- Sweden's Lars Frolander, Neil Walker of the United States, and Russia's Roman Sloudnov added three new world records for a total of 15 at swimming's World Short Course Championships. Walker's 50.75 shaved better than one-half second off the 100-meter backstroke record, shattering the previous 51.28 set by countryman Lenny Krayzelburg last month in Berlin. It also gave the 23-year-old from Verona, Wisconsin, his fifth world record. Frolander swam 23.19 in 50-meter butterfly qualifiers, while Sloudnov set the 200-meter breaststroke mark in 2 minutes, 7.59 seconds.

March 20 -- The new union of baseball umpires, the World Umpires Association, agreed to eliminate separate American and National league staffs as part of an interim agreement with the commissioner's office.

March 22 -- The financially troubled Professional Bowlers Association was sold for a reported $5 million to a group headed by Internet entrepreneur Chris Peters, who once left his Microsoft job to become a bowler.

March 22 -- Pat Verbeek of the Detroit Red Wings scored twice in a 2-2 tie with Calgary to become the 28th player in NHL history with 500 career goals.

March 24 -- Michael Johnson smashed more than a half-second off the world record in the rarely run 300 meters at the Engen Grand Prix in Pretoria, South Africa. Johnson was timed in 30.85 seconds, breaking the mark of 31.48 set by Danny Everett of the United States and Roberto Hernandez of Cuba on Sept. 3, 1990.

March 26 -- Joseph Forte, the first freshman to lead North Carolina in scoring, had 28 points to send the eighth-seeded Tar Heels to a 59-55 victory over Tulsa in the South Regional final. North Carolina earned its record-tying 15th Final Four trip and third in the last four years.

March 26 -- Karrie Webb shot a 2-under 70 for a 14-under 274 total to win the Nabisco Championship by 10 shots over defending champion Dottie Pepper.

March 26 -- Russian pairs champions Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze withdrew from the World Figure Skating Championships in Nice, France, after Berezhnaya failed a drug test. The withdrawal came a day before they were to begin their short program.

March 26 -- The Orlando Magic equaled an NBA record-low for points allowed in a half by holding the Miami Heat to 19 in the second half of a 94-69 victory.

March 26 -- Keon Clark's blocked shot gave the Denver Nuggets three players (Raef LaFrentz and Antonio McDyess the others) with at least 100 blocks for the season. They are the 10th NBA team to do it, the last being New Jersey in 1992-93 with Sam Bowie, Derrick Coleman and Chris Dudley. The Nuggets beat the Nets 112-110.

March 28 -- Alexei Yagudin easily won the men's short program at the World Figure Skating Championship. The championships were dominated by events off the ice, following the unsettling razor attack on the top French skating pair earlier in the day, and the sudden doping withdrawal of the defending pairs champions Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze. Stephane Bernadis was cut on the forearm by a man wielding a razor when he opened his hotel room door.

March 29 -- Two years after losing the National Football League, NBC got back into football -- with the World Wrestling Federation's XFL venture.

March 29 -- A majority of NCAA Division I football and basketball game officials who were surveyed said they gamble, with some betting on sports and using bookies, according to a University of Michigan study.

March 29 -- The Los Angeles Lakers' 108-99 victory over Vancouver improved their record to 60-12. The 72 games marked the second-fewest in which the Lakers recorded 60 wins, trailing only the 1971-72 team, which won 69 games overall.

March 29 -- In the first major league game outside the United States, Canada and Mexico, Shane Andrews and Mark Grace homered as the Chicago Cubs beat the New York Mets 5-3 in the season opener in Tokyo.

March 30 -- Robert O'Kelley made five 3-pointers and finished with 19 points to lead Wake Forest to a 71-61 victory over Notre Dame in the final of the National Invitation Tournament.

March 30 -- Russia's Alexei Yagudin won his third title in the World Figure Skating Championships. Canada's Elvis Stojko finished second, and American Michael Weiss was third.

Files from AP