Floyd Signs One-Year Deal To Join Hometown Cubs

Cliff Floyd is coming home and hoping to be injury free after agreeing yesterday to a one-year, $3 million contract with the Chicago Cubs.

Floyd, a Chicago native, could split time in left field with Matt Murton and also give the Cubs a left-handed bat off the bench.

"It gives us a lot depth. It will enable us to survive if we have an injury by having an extra quality, quality player on the club, which obviously our depth was a problem last year when [ Derrek] Lee went down" with a broken wrist, Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry said.

Floyd, who spent the previous four years with the New York Mets, can make an additional $4.5 million this year in bonuses based on plate appearances and time on the active 25-man roster. The deal includes a mutual option for 2008 that could become guaranteed if he starts 100 games or has 425 plate appearances this season.

He could earn $17.5 million over two years if he has 550 plate appearances each season and $15.5 million if he has 500 each season.

Floyd, 34, was limited to 332 at-bats last year because of an injured Achilles' tendon and likely will serve as a backup with the Cubs. Alfonso Soriano is expected to start in center, with Murton in left and Jacque Jones in right.

· DOPING: The president of the World Anti-Doping Agency is seeking more flexibility to impose tougher sanctions for serious first-time doping and lighter measures for minor accidental cases, instead of a mandatory two-year ban in all cases.

Dick Pound also said at a symposium on doping in Lausanne, Switzerland, that WADA wants quicker decisions on drug cases, including immediate sanctions after a positive test and swift, decisive information from police probes.

· FIGURE SKATING: Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany became the first couple not representing Russia in more than a decade to capture the pairs title at the European Figure Skating Championships.

Savchenko and Szolkowy scored 199.39 points overall. Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov of Russia were second with 179.61, while the Polish husband-and-wife team Dorota and Mariusz Siudek were third on 170.91 in Warsaw.

The last pair not skating for Russia to win a European title was Mandy Woetzel and Ingo Steuer of Germany in 1995.

· SOCCER: D.C. United's Troy Perkins, Bobby Boswell, Bryan Namoff, Josh Gros and Brian Carroll were among 26 players invited to U.S. national team training camp before the Feb. 7 friendly against Mexico in Glendale, Ariz. Boswell and Namoff played in the Americans' 3-1 victory over Denmark last Saturday in Carson, Calif. . . .

Former U.S. national team captain Claudio Reyna signed a contract with the New York Red Bulls.

The signing reunited the midfielder with Bruce Arena, his former coach at the University of Virginia and the U.S. national team. The deal came one day after the English Premier League's Manchester City terminated Reyna's contract, clearing the way for the 33-year-old to join MLS.

· COLLEGES: Maryland Athletic Director Debbie Yow signed a contract extension that will run through August 2013. Yow is in her 13th year in the position.

· BOXING: Former WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, 36, will return to the ring in April, more than two years after injuries forced his retirement.

Vasyl Samokhvalov, who described himself as an "information adviser" to Klitschko, said that Klitschko, who retired with a record of 35-2 with 34 knockouts, would face Oleg Maskaev on April 21 in Moscow.

· SKI JUMPING: Ski jumper Jan Mazoch, who crashed last Saturday at a World Cup event in southern Poland, will be gradually brought out of his medically induced coma. Doctors at a hospital in Krakow, Poland, likely will take more than 10 hours to revive the 21-year-old Czech.

-- From News Services and Staff Reports