Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • 15

oivermes In an effort to trim costs, Ford Motor Co. is slashing 2,750 jobs in Britain and closing a plant similar to the Rouge complex, pace en. SATUHDJIY Mav13, 2000 Dowlin Scoreboard pay for it U-M to buy gear for 1 year; cost: $760,000 By MICHAEL ROSEN BERG IREE PKI SS SI'ORIS WRITER Golf Preps ON THE WEB www.treep.com phone Section will wear Nil DETROIT ranvYoni: 7 Wkimfe mi, i Vj Sjmat --m mttcjm mJm -'3 The Michigan Wolverines will wear Nike gear next season after all, And they will pay for it. The university has signed an agreement to buy equipment and apparel from Nike, even though the company broke off negotiations on a long-term contract in which Nike would have paid U-M, interim athletic director Bill Martin said Friday. The one-year deal will cost Michigan as much as $760,000, but the school will receive royalties of 7 to 10 percent on any U-M products Nike sells.

"It's strictly a purchase agreement," Martin said. "It's motivated by both our desire and Nike's desire I'm certain they were sincere about this not wanting to leave our athletes in the lurch. Everybody thought it was best to go ahead and fill the order." Nike recently broke off contract talks with U-M when the sides disagreed on several issues, including labor practices and money. The Wolverines would have received more than $20 million in the proposed six-year deal for outfitting all their athletic teams with Nike apparel and equipment. U-M is near the end of a similar six-year, $8-million contract with Nike.

"This is not an extension of the contract whatsoever," Martin said. "It's independent of it. There is no sponsorship. We're paying them." Nitkowski, Tigers rise from grief By MICHAEL ROSEN BERG I-REE PRtSS SPOR1S WRIUR Dean Palmer's fifth-inning solo homer off Roger Clemens and the 6-2 Victory just adds to the Tigers' mystery Back in New York, C. J.

Nitkowski's friends watched. Hours earlier, they had buried his friend, Danny Moriarty, who had died in a construction accident Sunday at the age of 27. Then they watched Nitkowski beat his hometown team, the New York Yankees, 9-7. That didn't halt the grief, of course, but with Moriarty's initials on his cap, Nitkowski tried to show everybody back home that he was thinking of his friend. "I flew home after the wake," Nitkowski said.

"I wanted to have a good game for him. I was thinking about him. He had tried to get in touch with me the night before (he died), and I didn't get a chance to call him back." Nitkowski pitched 5Vs innings Friday night, allowing two earned runs. It wasn't a gem. But it was a win, well earned.

Baseball forbids players from writing on their uniforms or caps, but Nitkowski ignored the rule. "You're not allowed to do that anymore they're pretty clear about that but I didn't care," he said. "I knew the game was going to be on in New York. I knew my friends were watching." For Nitkowski, it was a valiant end to a miserable week, and for Please see TICERS, Page 5B The Yankees were without their star shortstop Derek Jeter, sidelined with a strained abdominal muscle, and didn't get into Detroit until the wee hours of the morning after playing a makeup game Thursday night in New York. But there wasn't any sympathy in the Tigers' clubhouse.

The home team has more than enough problems of its own to chew on, thank you. What did Friday's win mean? In the long term, probably not much. You'll recall that the Tigers swept the Yankees in Detroit last Please see GUIDI, Page 5B sights on ond career IRL victory came in the Jan. 29 season opener at Orlando. He followed up on that by finishing seventh March 19 at Phoenix and fifth April 22 at Las Vegas.

Robbie Buhl The three-race start to the 10-event season adds up to 108 points, giving Buhl a 10-point lead over second-place Buddy Lazier. Scott Goodyear's 90 points rank third, 13 ahead of fourth-place Al Un-ser Jr. "I mean, this is a good position, a nice place to be right now," said Buhl, who owns a Please see INDY, Page 7B way 7 I No bones about it: The Tigers like Etit vs. worst: The Yankees still have the best record in the American League at 22-1 1 and the Tigers the worst at 1 0-23. So even if the Yankees play only a game above .500 the rest of the way and finish 87-75, the Tigers would have to go 77-52 to catch them.

In their dreams. to In their three previous games, the Tigers scored a total of two runs and batted .126, going 12 for-95, Friday night, with Roger Clem- ens starting for the Yankees, they scored nine runs and batted .410, going 16-for-39. This really isn't rocket science. Mice recovery: First baseman Tony Clark fell while chasing a Petty, 19, killed at 130 m.p.li. Fourth-generation driver hits wall in Busch practice tRli PRISS NLWS SERVICES LOUDON, N.H.

NASCAR's most famous' driving family has lost its youngest star. Adam Petty, stock car racing's first fourth-generation driver, died after a crash during practice Friday, five weeks after the family buried patriarch Lee Petty, his great-grandfather. The 19-year-old driver appeared to brush the wall in turn 3 before spinning out and smashing sideways into the concrete as he prepared for qualifying for today's foul pop-up in the third inning, then made a terrific recovery, producing not only a great catch but a metaphor for the Tigers' hopes this season. Every mor.lh, like e'eekwoik: Juan Gonzalez hit an RBI double in the third inning, just his second hit with a runner in scoring position this season. Coming into the game, Gonzalez was 1 -for-22 with runners in scoring position, second-worst in the majors.

San Diego's Al Martin was 1 -for-24. It's not the yard: The Tigers are now 5-9 at home and 5-14 on the road. Somebody, please disband the Blame Comerica Park movement. JULIAN H. GONZALt2 Detroit Free Press lead it gave them.

Palmer is at left. fore an enthusiastic crowd on a summery night at Comerica Park. Sixteen runs and 28 hits in this pitcher's paradise how could that happen? Yes, it got a little snug at the end, thanks to the Yankees' Paul O'Neill's two-run, ninth-inning homer. But what did you expect from a Tigers team that hasn't won a game by more than two runs in the last month? The evening was such a love-fest that the fans even stopped trying to boo Juan Gonzalez out of town for a few hours and instead cheered when his RBI double in the third inning opened the scoring and put the Tigers on top to stay. uhl sets Please see U-M, Page 5B I Do-river.

17' i. I i 1 7 in CB0(Ci rtlJ) j. CCTSOIIIILl I Ullh Wings note: Youth served in the semis WHILE our dear, old Red Wings rest in their rocking chairs, some sassy, young whipper-snappers are still skating toward the Stanley Cup. Colorado and Dallas will meet in the Western Conference finals this weekend, New Jersey and Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference finals. Each team is powered by veterans but pushed by spunky newcomers.

Colorado? Come on. If anyone knows about the Avalanche outside Denver, it's hockey fans in Detroit. General manager Pierre Lacroix has squirreled away top young talent since winning the Stanley Cup in 1996. Is it a coincidence that the Avs have eliminated the Wings two years a row? Maybe, maybe not. Chris Drury.

Milan Hejduk. Martin Skoula. Alex Tanguay. These are names we know by now. Drury and Hejduk already are established scorers.

Skoula was steady enough on defense to fill in for Ray Bourque in the second round. Tanguay can be good enough to draw drools from scouts. Dallas? Not dead yet. The Stars won the Cup last year but, thanks to some injuries and foresight, didn't stand pat. General manager Bob Gainey has patched holes in his roster through trades and free agency but also with prospects who have been capable of contributing in the playoffs.

Roman Lyashenko has chipped in a goal in eight games. Blake Sloan, a former University of Michigan player, has shown guts playing with a broken jaw on the Pleusc see COTSONIKA, Page 7B guzdi DASEX2ALL FOR ONE night anyway, the Tigers played the game the way manager Phil Garner envisioned coming out of spring training. The defense made some key stops, the pitchers bent but didn't break, and, for the most part, the hitters took smart approaches at the plate. The result was a most-welcome 9-7 victory over the defending champion New York Yankees be 2000 Four generations of stock car racing's royal family, from left in 1999: The patriarch, Lee; his son, Richard; Richard's son, Kyle; and Kyle's son, Adam. Lee died April 5, three days after Adam's Winston Cup debut.

ADAM PETTY, 1980 itue race IRL leader primed for Indy 500 practice today By STEVE CROWE FREE PRtSS SPORTS WRITER INDIANAPOLIS Entering the world's most famous race the May 28 Indianapolis 500 Robbie Buhl of Grosse Pointe Shores is parked atop the Indy Racing League. With his windows rolled up. "It's great, I guess, but not something I want to hear a whole lot about just yet," said Buhl, 3G. "But win this little race in May, man, and then we've got something to talk about." With practice opening today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Buhl and his first-year IRL team appear poised to challenge there and elsewhere. Buhl's sec- TOM COPtLANUCharlotte News Record dead of head injuries at 1:43 p.m., spokeswoman Eileen Hale said.

"I knew it was a hard hit," said spectator David Henderson, who was at a nearby concession stand. "At first, everybody thought it was just a crash. Then it was like the whole place went silent." Another fan, Andrew Watson, Please see PETTY, Page 7B Busch Grand National 200 on the 1.058-mile New Hampshire International Speedway oval. The red-and-blue No. 45 Chevrolet, which had been approaching 130 m.p.h., did not catch fire.

But Petty was trapped for about 20 minutes before rescue workers cut through the roof to free him. He was taken to Concord Hospital, where he was pronounced.