Baseball
MARLINS-METS TRADE: Now that the Wayne Huizenga era is nearly over, the Florida Marlins' payroll is on the rise.Florida's catcher next season will be Miami native Jorge Fa-bre-gas, who is in the final year of a two-year contract that will pay him $1.85 million in 1999. The Marlins acquired him Friday from the New York Mets for right-handed reliever Oscar Henriquez and cash.
Gregg Zaun, who made $280,000 as Florida's starting catcher last season, was designated for assignment Thursday.
Hockey
SUSPENSION: Washington Capitals left wing Richard Zednik was suspended for four games and fined $1,000 by the NHL Friday for high-sticking Toronto Maple Leaf's defenseman Daniel Markov in a game Wednesday night.
Tennis
CHASE CHAMPIONSHIPS: Mar-tina Hingis blunted the power game of Mary Pierce 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 Friday night to gain a spot in the semifinals of the Chase Championships in New York.
The second-seeded Hingis will next play Romania's Irina Spirlea, with the winner advancing to the unique best-of-5-sets final in this season-ending event, the only time during the year pro women play more than three sets.
In the other semifinal, the world's top-ranked player, Lindsay Davenport, has another date with the Corel WTA Tour's hottest player, Steffi Graf. The Madison Square Garden meeting comes six days after Graf beat Davenport in the final of a tournament in Philadelphia.
Davenport advanced to the semi-finals by easily defeating eighth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France 6-0, 6-3 in Friday night's opener.
Graf advanced Thursday night with a dramatic 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over No. 5 Monica Seles in the best match of the tournament. It ran Graf's match winning streak to 12 as the 29-year-old German seeks her third title in three weeks.
Figure skating
LALIQUE TROPHY: Americans Nicole Bobek and Michael Weiss surprised Russia's world and European champions by taking the lead in the short programs at the Lalique Trophy competition Friday in Paris. The event is one of skating's Grand Prix series.
French couples led in both the ice dance and pairs to temporarily stop the Russians, who won all four titles at last week's meet.
Bobek skated a clean program to Flamenco music from the movie "Zorro." That placed her ahead of Ukraine's Elena Liashenko, winner of Skate Canada, and European champion Maria Butyrskaya, who beat Bobek at Skate America.