For The Record

Won
By Shane Mosley, a junior middleweight bout with Fernando Vargas in Las Vegas last Saturday. It was the first major victory in three years for the former champ, who won by TKO when the fight was stopped in the 10th round because Vargas's left eye was grotesquely swollen. The 34-year-old Mosley (42-4) now plans to drop back to the welterweight division, where he held the WBC belt from 2000 to '02. (A natural 147-pounder, he bulked up to 152 to face the 153-pound Vargas.) "He tried to push me and shove me, and I was trying to keep myself away because he was so heavy," said Mosley (above right). "That fight showed that I'm a very strong welterweight."

Instructed
To negotiate contracts as if there will be no league salary cap in 2007, NFL player agents. Talks toward an extension of the collective bargaining agreement that expires after the 2007 season stalled last week, and NFL Players Association head Gene Upshaw informed agents that it's unlikely there will be a deal by March 3, the start of the free agency period. Under the current agreement, there will be no salary cap in 2007 if an extension isn't in place before then. (Negotiations have been held up by disagreement among owners on revenue sharing and another between the league and the union on what percentage of revenue should go to player salaries.) Said Upshaw, who predicted salaries could rise by 30% without the cap, "Once we get to [March 3], I don't see us getting a deal done anytime soon."

Died
At age 78, former Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler, from a degenerative brain disorder. Using the energy and daring he displayed as a world-class athlete, Chandler, starting in 1960, transformed the Times from a provincial daily into one of the country's leading papers; it won seven Pulitzer Prizes during his tenure, which ended with his retirement in 1980. Chandler was a track and field star at Stanford--he nearly made the 1952 U.S. Olympic team as a shot putter--and upon being named publisher of the Times said, "If someone were to hand me a shot put right now, I think I could put it 70 feet!" Chandler was also an accomplished surfer, hunter and motorcycle racer. In 1980 the Christian Science Monitor wrote, "If Otis Chandler hadn't existed, Ernest Hemingway would have created him."

Died
At age 81, actor Don Knotts, of pulmonary and respiratory trouble. The wiry West Virginia--born Knotts (above) was best known for his antics as Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show and landlord Ralph Furley on Three's Company. But in the 1976 film Gus he played the coach of a football team that used its mule mascot to kick field goals. Three years later he was a boxing trainer in The Prize Fighter.

Pitched
To Astros minor leaguers in Kissimmee, Fla., on Monday, the semiretired Roger Clemens. The 43-year-old former Astro, who hasn't said yet if he'll play this season, faced his son Koby, 19, who was drafted by Houston last June. The result? Koby hit a home run. "That was probably one of the harder fastballs I cut loose," the elder Clemens said. "He got my attention." Koby also got a taste of his dad's nasty side--he was brushed back in his next at bat. Afterward the seven-time Cy Young winner reiterated his stance on playing a 23rd season: He plans to pitch in the World Baseball Classic and then assess. "I've been trying to [retire] for a couple of years now and it's not working," he said.

Established
By the NBA, guidelines for player physicals, after a spate of heart-related problems in the last year. All players must now undergo echocardiograms, heart imaging exams that can detect defects missed by the electrocardiograms players now take. The change is meant to address a string of cardiac incidents: In October the death of Hawks center Jason Collier was traced to an enlarged heart. Former Timberwolves guard Fred Hoiberg and free-agent forward Robert Traylor are out for the year with heart ailments, and Lakers top draft pick Ronny Turiaf missed most of the season. The NBA is the first pro league to make echocardiograms mandatory.

Held
By Cincinnati apparel company Bygone Sports, a trademark on the name Washington Nationals, meaning the baseball franchise may change its identity to sell merchandise with its logo. Bygone, which sells Nationals-themed T-shirts and caps, applied for the trademark in 2002, when the Nationals were still the Montreal Expos, and received approval from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last month. Major League Baseball tried to negotiate a deal with Bygone in 2004, but last year MLB sued the company, which then countersued. "Bygone is nothing more than the typical squatter who tries to take advantage of someone else's reputation," Ethan Orlinsky, a lawyer for MLB, told The Washington Post. The paper reported that the Washington club will change its name if MLB loses the case. A trial is scheduled to begin on April 3.

Recommended
As a superior alternative to sports beverages, chocolate milk. According to a study published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, athletes who drank chocolate milk after a workout were able to exercise more intensely in a second workout than those who drank commercial sports beverages. Said co-author Joel M. Stager, professor of kinesiology at Indiana, "Chocolate milk contains an optimal carbohydrate-to-protein ratio, which is critical for helping refuel tired muscles." In the study chocolate milk performed better than a carbohydrate-replacement drink and similarly to a fluid-replacement beverage.

Suited up
For Greece (N.Y.) Athena High, team manager Jason McElwain (above), who played for the Trojans late in their home finale against Spencerport. McElwain, 17, a senior, is autistic, and coach Jim Johnson sent him in as a reward for his years of hard work for the team. Wise move: The 5'6" McElwain scored 20 points and hit six of 10 three-pointers--in four minutes of playing time. After sinking a buzzer-beater he was mobbed by players and spectators. "I was really hotter than a pistol!" said McElwain, who didn't begin speaking until age five. This fall he'll study business management at Monroe Community College in Rochester.