Thumb Surgery Will Sideline Gonzalez

American League MVP Juan Gonzalez of the Texas Rangers will undergo surgery today to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb and will probably be sidelined until mid-May.

“Whenever you lose the most valuable player in the American League, it’s a big loss,” Ranger spokesman John Blake said. “We’re just going to have to fill the void and get him back as quick as we can.”

Gonzalez, who hit 47 home runs last season, was injured Jan. 28 when he slipped on wet artificial turf while chasing a ball in a Puerto Rican winter league game.

The injury was originally diagnosed as a sprained ligament, but doctors discovered the tear Thursday.

After the surgery, Gonzalez will have to wear a hard cast on the thumb for seven to 10 days.

*

Former Cy Young Award winner Mark Davis, 36, signed a minor league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, who start National League play in 1998. Davis will play this season with the High Desert Mavericks of the California League.

*

The Detroit Tigers and Comerica Bank announced the arrangement of a multi-bank loan that will provide $145 million in financing required by the team for the development of a new Tiger Stadium scheduled to open in 1999. Comerica, the lead lender, will be joined by 11 other banks.

*

Danny Darwin signed a minor league contact with the Chicago White Sox. Darwin, 41, will be invited to spring training as a nonroster player. He will get $275,000 if he makes the team, and could earn an additional $275,000 in performance bonuses.

Darwin, a 19-year veteran, has a 158-161 record with a 3.71 ERA. He split last season with Pittsburgh and Houston, going 10-11 with a 3.77 era. In 1990 with the Astros, he led the National League with a 2.21 ERA. Darwin’s younger brother Jeff is on the White Sox’s 40-man roster.

*

Outfielder Wonderful Monds and pitcher Jamie Walker agreed to one-year contracts with the Atlanta Braves.

Tennis

Chanda Rubin and top-seeded Jana Novotna advanced to the semifinals of the Austrian Open. The other semifinal will have second-seeded Karina Habsudova against third-seeded Judith Wiesner. Rubin battled her way to a 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, victory over Barbara Rittner. Novotna had no problems with Magdalena Maleeva, 6-0, 6-2. Habsudova rolled to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over eighth-seeded Asa Carlsson and Wiesner beat sixth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat, 7-5, 6-2.

Winter Sports

Germany’s Ricco Gross won the men’s 20-kilometer individual biathlon world championship at Osrblie, Slovakia.

Gross, a double Olympic champion and a 1991 World champion in team events, won his first title in individual events with a time of 52 minutes, 4.6 seconds.

Ian Edmondson, 39, won a silver medal in the acro-skiing event to give the United States its first medal of the World Freestyle Ski Championships at Nagano, Japan.

Switzerland’s Marco Zarucchi, a part-time bank clerk who was demoted to the B circuit last month, earned his fourth victory on the tour by winning the Nordic combined World Cup B competition at Mt. Van Hoevenberg, near Lake Placid, N.Y. Teammate Andi Hartmann was second, more than two minutes behind.

Miscellany

Olympic champion skater Oksana Baiul said on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that she’d had “four or five” Long Island iced teas before crashing her Mercedes but contended she was not drunk from that amount because “I’m a Russian.”

Former Olympians Allen Johnson and Gwen Torrence won by one-hundredth of a second in the Chase Millrose Games before a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden.

Johnson beat Courtney Hawkins in 7.64 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles. Torrence led all the way in winning the women’s 60-meter dash in 7.13.

Mickey McCardie, a running back for USC in 1941-42 and ‘46-47, died in Los Angeles Wednesday. He was 74. McCardie, an All-City running back at Manual Arts High, led the Trojans in total offense in 1942 and ’46 and was the team’s rushing leader in 1942. Services will be held at the Grace Chapel at Inglewood Cemetery on Feb. 11 at 11 a.m.

The Dallas Cowboys have hired Jack Reilly as quarterback coach. Reilly, 51, has been an NFL assistant coach since 1985 and was the offensive coordinator for the Rams the last two seasons.

J.B. Brown, former Miami Dolphin cornerback, signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Terms were not disclosed.

Herb Brown, 60, former NBA coach and Indiana Pacer director of player development, will coach the United States basketball team in this summer’s Maccabiah Games in Israel. Brown is the older brother of Pacer Coach Larry Brown.

Jurisprudence

Two sports-gambling rings near the University of Florida have been shut down, according to Gainesville police. They made one arrest and filed 10 sworn complaints against people, mostly students, who allegedly met secretly to place bets. Most of the bets were on pro and college football games.

Pittsburgh Steeler safety Darren Perry, 27, waived a preliminary hearing on a drunk-driving charge. Perry was charged with fleeing Dec. 14 after crashing his sport-utility vehicle into the back of a small sedan driven by Sally Barton. Barton, 54, and Perry settled out of court and Perry publicly apologized.