Off the Wire

LITTLE ROCK — Report: Rocker on pharmacy list

The nationwide investigation into the illegal sale of steroids continues as published reports implicated more athletes, including former star relief pitcher John Rocker.

SI.com reported that Rocker, 1996 Olympic wrestling gold-medalist Kurt Angle, major leaguer David Bell and Victor Martinez, winner of the latest Ohio bodybuilding competition named for Gov.Arnold Schwarzenegger, all showed up on a client list of Applied Pharmacy, a Mobile, Ala., company raided in connection with the investigation.

Rocker's publicist told the Daily News in New York that he admitted taking HGH, now banned by Major League Baseball, but said it was for medical reasons.

"That was a growth hormone that was prescribed by a doctor in relation to his rotator cuff surgery in 2003, so I don't really think there is anything to the story," Debi Curzio, Rocker's publicist, told the Daily News for a story on the newspaper's Web site Tuesday night.

SI.com reported that Rocker received two prescriptions for somatropin between April and July 2003.

Bell told SI.com he received the shipment of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) last April but said the drug was prescribed "for a medical condition," which he declined to disclose.

Albany County (N.Y.) District Attorney David Soares says Signature Pharmacy in Orlando, Fla., was at the center of a web of businesses and doctors that illegally wrote prescriptions forsteroids.

Soares acknowledged that Martinez was an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the case. Martinez won the Arnold Classic bodybuilding competition Saturday in Ohio.

Martinez told The New York Times he bought testosterone from Steven and Karen Lampert of Anti-Aging Centers in Nanuet, N.Y., after their clinic told him he had low levels of the hormone. The Lamperts were arraigned Tuesday on drug-related charges and pleaded innocent.

BASKETBALL Report: Artest assault visible

Sacramento Kings forward Ron Artest slapped a woman's face and grabbed her repeatedly, causing visible injuries, according to a sheriff's report made public Tuesday. Artest was arrested Monday after a woman inside his home in the Sacramento, Calif., suburb of Loomis called 911 and said she had been assaulted. In a portion of the 911 tape released by authorities, the woman described injuries to her hand and leg. "Victim sustained visible trauma after being repeatedly grabbed by Artest and pushed to the floor," the Placer County Sheriff's Department report said. "Artest then slapped victim's face [and] by use of force prevented victim from leaving." The report also said Artest took a phone from the woman the first time she tried to call 911. Artest was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence and using force or violence to prevent the woman from reporting a crime. He was released from custody after posting a $50,000 bond and is awaiting a March 22 arraignment.

FOOTBALL Bengals LB sentenced

Cincinnati Bengals linebacker A.J. Nicholson was sentenced to two months in a sheriff's work program and two years' probation after pleading no contest to burglary and grand theft. JudgeKathleen Dekker sentenced the former Florida State player Monday in Tallahassee, Fla. He entered the plea last month to charges that he and an accomplice took electronic equipment and other items valued at $1,700 from the apartment of former Seminoles teammate Lorenzo Booker and his two roommates in May. Nicholson, a fifth-round draft pick last year, was suspended for the 2006 Orange Bowl after violating team policy by taking a woman to the team's Miami hotel. She accused him of sexual assault, but Nicholson was not charged. Nicholson was charged in the burglary a month after the Bengals drafted him. He hurt his hamstring in September and played in only two games last season.

The Denver Broncos said receiver Rod Smith (Texarkana) will be sidelined for about four months as he recovers from surgery on his left hip. The Broncos said Smith underwent a procedure to remove damaged or dead tissue from the hip area Feb. 26. He's expected back in time for training camp. Smith hasn't missed a game because of injury since a sprained ankle sidelined him in 2001.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Trent Green's agent, Jim Steiner, said the team is seeking to restructure Green's contract, which will pay him $7.2 million next season. The Chiefs are also entertaining offers for Green, who missed eight games last season with a severe concussion. Green, who is signed through 2009, is scheduled to make $7.7 million and $9.2 million in the final two years of his contract. Damon Huard, who filled in when Green was hurt last season, recently signed a three-year deal last month rather than become a free agent. Kansas City also has Brodie Croyle, last year's third-round draft pick, to compete with Huard.

South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia, arrested twice in recent weeks, will not participate in spring practice, which begins March 20, Coach Steve Spurrier said Tuesday. Garcia, 19, wasarrested Saturday and accused of damaging a professor's car with a key. Last month, Garcia was arrested and charged with drunkenness and failing to stop for a police officer. He was suspended from team activities but reinstated a few days later by Spurrier.

SOCCER U.S. set for Gold Cup

The defending champion United States will play Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago and El Salvador in the first round of this year's CONCACAF Gold Cup, the championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean. The Americans play in Carson, Calif., against Guatemala on June 7 and Trinidad and Tobago on June 9, then meet El Salvador on June 12 in Foxborough, Mass.

SLED DOG RACING Musher out of Iditarod

DeeDee Jonrowe, 53, who finished fourth last year, bowed out of her 25th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race after taking several nasty falls. Four-time champion Doug Swingley, 53, of Lincoln, Mont., already had dropped out after taking a spill on a stretch of icy trail. Lance Mackey, 36, was the first musher to arrive in Nikolai, Alaska, about 770 miles from the finish line in the 1,100-mile race from Anchorage to Nome.

FIGURE SKATING Carroll elected to World Hall

Frank Carroll, who coached Michelle Kwan to four of her five world titles, five of her nine U.S. championships and the 1998 Olympic silver medal, has been elected to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame. He is one of three coaches to have the men's and women's U.S. champion in the same year: Kwan and Timothy Goebel in 2001. He is a member of the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame.