Holmes Signs for Bout With Spinks

Larry Holmes, who only last month said he would officially announce his retirement June 9, said Thursday that he has signed to fight light-heavyweight champion Michael Spinks for between $2.5 million and $3 million.

NBC reportedly wants to televise the bout May 20, but Spinks is balking at that date.

“The fight will happen, but not on May 20,” said Butch Lewis, Spinks’ manager. “Michael trains a minimum six weeks for all his fights. Is he going to go into the biggest fight of his life on four weeks of training? The promotion, everything, needs six weeks to do it right.”

Holmes indicated after defeating David Bey March 15 that he would not pursue Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record. Holmes is 47-0. Marciano is the only heavyweight champion ever to retire undefeated.

But Holmes said Thursday: “I might as well go for it. Everybody is pushing me. I’m talking 49 and 50. I’ll have to look at the situation after Spinks.”

The Illinois Supreme Court agreed to determine the constitutionality of city and state laws prohibiting the Chicago Cubs from playing night baseball at Wrigley Field.

The court granted a request by Gov. James R. Thompson and others to hear an appeal from a lower-court ruling that upheld laws banning night games at the only major league park without lights.

USC and Boston College have scheduled football games against each other in 1987 and 1988. The Trojans and Eagles will play at the Coliseum on Sept. 5, 1987, and at Boston on Sept. 3, 1988.

Monday’s middleweight title fight between Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns from Las Vegas will be shown on a closed-circuit telecast at the Sports Arena, beginning at 6 p.m.

The fight will also be shown at these other Southland locations, according to a Top Rank spokesman in New York: The San Diego Sports Arena, Bakersfield Civic Auditorium, Apple Valley National Guard Armory, The Hollywood Palace, College of the Desert gym in Palm Desert, the Country Club in Reseda and the Orange Show Pavilion in San Bernardino.

Quarterback Joe Montana and wide receiver Dwight Clark of the San Francisco 49ers are planning to open 50 fast-food restaurants, specializing in low-calorie meals, in northern California.

The restaurants, they said, will be part of the Atlanta-based D’Lites of America organization.

Mark Plaatjes, a native of South Africa, has been ruled ineligible for Monday’s Boston Marathon because of an international rule forbidding South Africans from competition.

“The rules are clear,” said Alvin Chriss, special assistant to the executive director of The Athletics Congress, the national governing body for track and field. “He’s a South African, and the International Amateur Athletic Federation has banned South Africans from international competition.”

The Pittsburgh Pirates have eliminated their ball girls, called the Pirettes, partly as a cost-cutting move.

The two girls, usually local college students, were posted along the foul lines to retrieve foul balls, which they handed to fans. They were paid $15 a game. But it was the cost of the baseballs, not the Pirettes’ salaries, that were the problem, the Pirates said. The club said it went through about 25,000 baseballs, at $3.50 each, per season.

Baltimore shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. has baseball’s longest active playing streak, 444 games. But it will end today if his sprained ankle doesn’t allow him to play against Toronto. He suffered the injury in the third inning of Wednesday’s 7-1 win over Texas but finished out the game.

A city official said that the USFL’s Birmingham Stallions, eight weeks behind in their rent, have asked for the use of Legion Field rent-free for this season.

“They’ve requested city assistance and all . . . they asked for everything,” City Council President David Herring said. “They asked for a waiving of the rent.”

The Boys Club of Hollywood is sponsoring two all-star basketball games tonight for boys’ and girls’ teams, composed of senior players from the Southern and City Sections. The girls’ game will begin at 6:15, the boys’ at 8:30, at the club.

Sweden’s Davis Cup tennis team, which fled Chile March 5 after a devastating earthquake, will play the postponed matches at Santiago April 19-21. The Swedes were in Chile preparing for the match last month when the quake struck, killing 130 people.

Names in the News

Bill Elliott, winner of two Grand National stock car races this year, won the pole for Sunday’s TranSouth 500 at Darlington, S.C.

Lennell Moore, Kansas junior-college basketball standout, will play for Tennessee Chattanooga next season. The 6-7 Moore had previously committed to Indiana.

The Indianapolis 500 entry list reached 79 with the addition of a car built by Carey-Ferguson-Quin Racing Corp., of Torrance. Dick Ferguson of Los Angeles is the driver.

John Ziegler, president of the National Hockey League, levied fines of $5,000 each against the Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames for a fight involving those teams during Wednesday night’s playoff game.

Edwin Moses, Olympic hurdles champion, heads a list of athletes competing in a two-night track meet tonight and Saturday at Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.