Flyers Send Recchi to Montreal in Deal

The Philadelphia Flyers sent high-scoring right wing Mark Recchi to the Montreal Canadiens in a trade for three other players Thursday.

Recchi, who led the club with 107 points last season, and a 1995 third-round draft pick were dealt for former all-star defenseman Eric Desjardins, 25, and forwards John LeClair, 25, and Gilbert Dionne, 24, the younger brother of Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne.

Recchi, 27, a two-time all-star with two goals and three assists this season, has averaged 110 points over the last four seasons.

Baseball

Darryl Strawberry, the former Dodger slugger whose career has been marked by drug and alcohol problems, pleaded guilty to tax evasion in White Plains, N.Y. Strawberry, released by the San Francisco Giants this week after failing a random drug test, failed to pay between $75,000 and $120,000 in taxes between 1986-90 and is expected to be sentenced to three months in jail and three months of home confinement and fined $150,000 to $250,000 under a plea agreement.

The Dodgers signed former major league outfielders Casey Candaele and Scott Pose to triple-A contracts, and will give them the option of becoming replacement players.

Candaele, 34, spent seven seasons with Montreal and Houston, batting .249 with 10 homers, 131 runs batted in and 36 stolen bases. He played last season with triple-A Indianapolis.

Pose, 27, who played last season for triple-A New Orleans, was the Florida Marlins’ starting center fielder for their inaugural game. He played 15 games for them, batting .195 with three RBIs.

Bernie Williams hit two home runs and Edgar Martinez drove in three runs to lead Puerto Rico to a 9-3 victory over the Dominican Republic and its third Caribbean World Series title in four years. Puerto Rico completed the round-robin tournament with a 6-0 record and the Dominican Republic finished 4-2 at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Tennis

Top-seeded Andre Agassi started slowly, then beat Marc Goellner, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, to advance to the quarterfinals of the San Jose Open. Jim Grabb upset his former Stanford teammate and doubles partner, sixth-seeded Patrick McEnroe, 7-5, 6-7 (8-6), 6-3, and also advanced into the quarterfinals, as did wild-card entrant Brian MacPhie, who beat Kenny Thorne, 6-4, 6-3.

Boris Becker needed less than an hour to beat Henri Leconte, 6-0, 6-4, in the second round at the $506,000 Marseille Open tournament.

Pat Cash of Australia advanced to the quarterfinals of the $1-million Dubai Open with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Spain’s Albert Costa and will play fourth-seeded Wayne Ferreira, the highest-seeded player left in the field.

Lisa Raymond upset top-seeded and defending champion Natasha Zvereva, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-4), to advance to the Ameritech Cup quarterfinals in Chicago.

Track & Field

British world-record holder Colin Jackson, who had last lost a hurdles race in August 1993, was beaten by American Allen Johnson, though both finished in 7.42 seconds at the Jose Maria Cagigal Memorial meet in Madrid, Spain.

Russia’s Irina Privalova ran 60 meters in 6.92 seconds, tying the world indoor record she set on the same track in 1993. In the same race, she was timed at 5.96 over 50 meters, breaking the 6-second clocking by Merlene Ottey of Jamaica at Moscow in 1994.

Five athletes, among them Mike Gravelle, America’s top-ranked discus thrower; and Gea Johnson, former NCAA heptathlon champion, were suspended after failing recent drug tests, the International Amateur Athletic Federation said. They face a four-year ban, as do Jamaican sprinter Aston Morgan, Lithuanian 800-meter runner Dalia Matuseviciene and Ecuador’s Freddy Fernando Caiza.

Johnson and Gravelle vowed to fight the punishment, claiming innocence.

Sailing

The last and fastest six of 10 entries in the Del Rey Yacht Club’s 13th biennial race from Marina del Rey to Puerto Vallarta are scheduled to leave the starting line today. Four smaller boats started Thursday.

The early leader among Thursday’s starters was Hasso Plattner’s Morning Glory, a Reichel/Pugh 50.

Miscellany

Wide receiver Michael Irvin agreed to a five-year, $15-million contract with the Dallas Cowboys that makes him the highest-paid receiver in football. Cowboy owner Jerry Jones said Irvin will get a $5-million upfront bonus. . . . Offensive guard Mark Bortz, 33, of the Chicago Bears retired, ending a 12-year NFL career that included appearances in two Pro Bowls and the 1985 Super Bowl. . . .

Laker forward Cedric Ceballos underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb at Centinela Hospital Medical Center. Ceballos is expected to miss six to eight weeks. . . . Julio Cesar Chavez (93-1-1) will fight in his 32nd title bout April 8 when he defends his World Boxnig Council super-lightweight title against Italy’s Giovanni Parisi (29-1) in Las Vegas.

The Atlantic 10 will have 12 schools next season, five of them first-year members after Virginia Tech, Dayton and La Salle officially joined. They join fellow rookies Xavier and Fordham. West Virginia and Rutgers will leave the league, which currently has nine teams, for the Big East.