The Pitcher Pedro Martinez gave away just six hits to record his first shut-out in almost four years as the Boston Red Sox won 6-0 against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the American League on Thursday night.

DAVID CONE wanted a two-year deal from the New York Yankees, but the right-handed pitcher settled for a lucrative one-year contract with the World Series champions yesterday. The former Cy Young Award winner, who turns 37 in January, agreed to the shorter contract after the Yankees offered $12m (pounds 7.7m) for 2000.

BASEBALL

FOR THE decade on either side of 1970, Catfish Hunter was one of the American League's most dominant pitchers. In 1968 he threw the AL's first perfect game, retiring all 27 hitters he faced, and his 224 career victories and 3.26 lifetime earned run average guaranteed him a place in baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. But his historical significance lay elsewhere. For James Augustus "Catfish" Hunter, down-home boy from rural North Carolina, was a man who changed the financial balance of power in sport.

DAVID MOORCROFT has attacked the International Amateur Athletic Federation over their handling of the drugs allegations surrounding Linford Christie.

MARK MCGWIRE completed his collection of home-run stadiums in Cincinnati, as the St Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds 6-5.

DAVID CONE pitched what was only the 14th perfect game in American Major League history on Sunday night, as the New York Yankees beat the Montreal Expos 6-0 here.

LAST THURSDAY, the Seattle Mariners opened a new baseball stadium worthy of Xanadu. The 44,000-strong crowd that piled into Safeco Field for the inaugural game against the San Diego Padres were treated to stunning sunset views of the city skyline and mountains, a demonstration of the fancy retractable roof, a firework display and a rousing concert by the Seattle Symphony.

A MEXICAN whose alleged killing spree in the US earned him the name of the Railway Killer turned himself in yesterday, after his family apparently persuaded him to surrender. He is believed to have been involved in at least eight killings, and perhaps dozens more.

TODAY'S

After the Year of the Bat, hopes are high for the new baseball season.

TIM JOHNSON, the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, yesterday had his US major league baseball career derailed after he lied about his military service in Vietnam. He was about to start his second year with the Jays, but has been fired by the American League team and replaced by the veteran Jim Fregosi.