Wednesday's Sports in Brief

By The Associated Press

Here's a look at Wednesday's sports in brief around the world.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Brad Lidge and the Philadelphia Phillies finished off the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 in a three-inning sprint Wednesday night to win a suspended Game 5 nearly 50 hours after it started, capturing their first World Series title since 1980.

Left in limbo by a two-day rainstorm, Pedro Feliz singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh and Lidge closed out his perfect season to deliver the title Philly craved for so long.

Bundled in parkas and blankets, fans returned in force to Citizens Bank Park and saw the city claim its first major sports championship in 25 years. No more references needed to those sad-sack Phillies teams of the past and their 10,000-plus losses.

Tied at 3, Pat Burrell led off the seventh with a drive off the center-field wall against J.P. Howell. Chad Bradford relieved and one out later Feliz singled home pinch-runner Eric Bruntlett to deliver the city’s first title since the NBA’s Sixers won it all in 1983.

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — A minor league pitcher accused of throwing a ball that hit a fan in the forehead was indicted Wednesday on two counts of felonious assault.

Julio Castillo, 21, who was pitching for the Peoria Chiefs of the Midwest League, is accused of throwing into the stands during a July 24 game at Dayton that featured a 10-minute, benches-clearing brawl. The fan was treated for a concussion at a hospital and released.

A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Castillo on one count of felonious assault with a deadly weapon and one count of felonious assault causing serious physical harm.

NFL

ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) — Former Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin filed a grievance with the NFL to claim the lost salary he maintains he is still owed by the team.

Kiffin was fired late last month for cause because of what owner Al Davis described as acts of insubordination and lying by his second-year coach.

Kiffin was still owed about $2.6 million from the three-year contract that he signed in January 2007. But Davis has refused to pay, leading to the grievance. Commissioner Roger Goodell will ultimately rule on the grievance, but there was no date for a hearing scheduled.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators have asked the NFL commissioner to make game broadcasts on the NFL Network available on free television to more fans.

The league has said it provides free broadcasts in the home cities of competing teams. But 13 lawmakers said in a letter this week to Roger Goodell that the NFL is too narrowly interpreting what a home city is.

The senators want quick action so fans in every market receive free TV access to games played by their closest team or the team it has been historically aligned to. Eight games will air this season on the NFL Network, which is available in less than 40 percent of households.

NBA

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The Golden State Warriors signed Don Nelson to a contract extension, hours before the veteran coach opened his 30th NBA season against New Orleans.

The club refused to divulge terms of the deal, but Nelson said last weekend he had all but agreed to a two-year extension to his current deal, which expires after this season. Nelson also said the financial terms were roughly the same as those in his first contract, meaning he’ll make roughly $12 million in the new deal.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden will miss two to four weeks because of a a mid-lateral sprain of his right foot.

Oden, who missed all of last season after knee surgery, injured his foot in the first quarter of the Blazers’ 96-76 season-opening loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night.

Oden missed four field goals and two free throws in 13 minutes of play.

The 7-foot center was the top pick in the 2007 draft. But even before his rookie season started, it was postponed by microfracture surgery on his right knee.

OLYMPICS

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — The rough economy has not hurt ticket sales for the 2010 Olympics. With a little more than a week to go in the first phase of sales, packages to the Winter Olympics are selling out.

About 120 packages that contained tickets to the gold medal men’s hockey game were gone two weeks after they went on sale, said Jean-Paul Modde, the president of CoSport, the official hospitality provider for the Vancouver Olympics. In addition to the packages, CoSport manages the sale of individual tickets in several countries outside Canada and says demand remains high.

CHICAGO (AP) — Disgraced track star Marion Jones says she often thinks she would have won gold medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics even if she hadn’t taken performance-enhancing drugs.

Jones gave her first post-prison interview on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” broadcast Wednesday.

Jones said she made a mistake by lying to prosecutors when they showed her a designer steroid and asked if she’d taken it. She maintains she thought it was flaxseed oil.

She was released last month from a Texas federal prison after completing most of her six-month sentence for lying about steroid use.