Young America

Seeking a pass rusher to complement Bruce Smith, the Buffalo Bills yesterday signed Jim Jeffcoat, who will be 34 when he plays his first game for the Bills. Jeffcoat played 12 seasons with Dallas and won two Super Bowl rings in the Cowboys' two victories over the Bills. He is the Cowboys' all-time sack leader with 94.5. He had eight sacks last season, but only one in the final eight games. The Bills signed Jeffcoat to a three-year deal that will pay him a little less than $1 million a season.

After 18.55 miles of sailing, Dennis Conner pushed Stars & Stripes across the finish line three seconds ahead of Young America yesterday, the closest finish in the 1995 America's Cup trials in the waters off San Diego. Three seconds translates to less than half the length of a 75-foot racing sloop. The previous closest margins in the 1995 trials were a 12-second win by Team New Zealand over Nippon on Jan. 31, and a a 14-second victory by America3 over Young America on Jan. 29. The closest finish ever in an America's Cup trial was Italy's one-second win over New Zealand in 1992.

Penn State quarterback Kerry Collins was honored yesterday as the Maxwell Football Club's college football player of the year. Penn State coach Joe Paterno finished ahead of Nebraska's Tom Osborne to win the club's award for college coach of the year. On the professional level, New England Patriots coach Bill Parcells and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young were the winners of the pro coach and pro player of the year awards. Paterno, Parcells and Young all were unable to attend the club's 58th annual awards ceremony yesterday, said club president Ron Jaworski.

Denver Nuggets center Dikembe Mutombo, who complained bitterly last week after being passed over for the NBA all-star team, was named to the Western Conference squad yesterday to replace injured Lakers forward Cedric Ceballos. Ceballos, who had been chosen by coaches as a reserve, tore a ligament in his right thumb Friday in an 88-74 loss to the Nuggets. Mutombo was the next-highest vote-getter among coaches. The 7-foot-2 Nuggets center is the league leader in rebounding, with an average of 12.9 per game, and has an NBA-best average of 3.66 blocks.

Heavyweight champion George Foreman, ignoring the World Boxing Association's threat to strip him of his title, will defend against German Axel Schulz in April, Foreman's promoter, Bob Arum, announced yesterday. "It is full speed ahead with the Schulz fight. You have my absolute insurance that he won't change his mind," Arum told Reuters in a telephone interview. The WBA's world championship committee last week voted unanimously against Foreman's request for an exemption to fight the lightly regarded Schulz instead of its highest-ranked available contender, Tony Tucker.

Raymond Floyd missed three birdie tries as the stakes and the tension mounted in the Senior Skins Game, then rolled in an 8-footer at No. 17 to win the richest hole - $290,000 - in skins history yesterday in Kohala Coast, Hawaii. The birdie putt came after Arnold Palmer had missed from 10 feet and Jack Nicklaus from 14 feet at the par-4, 411-yard 17th hole and gave Floyd the Senior Skins title for the second consecutive year. Floyd also led the first day of the 1995 tournament, with $130,000.

In an effort to restart the baseball strike talks, the owners' negotiating team will meet Thursday in Washington with special mediator W.J. Usery. Speaking on the condition he not be identified, a management official confirmed the meeting yesterday and said events of no great significance were expected. "It's just a meeting to look everyone in the eye and say, 'You've got to get this settled for the good of the country,' " the official said. Owners broke off talks Dec. 22 and implemented their salary-cap proposal the following day. The sides haven't met since.

Firery Ensign, firing past front-runner Batty at the top of the Meadowlands Racetrack's homestretch, held off a late challenge by Cherokee Colony to win last night's $500,000 Young America Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths. The 2-year-old colt, who had finished a dull fifth in Belmont Park's Champagne Stakes in his previous start, carried Jorge Velasquez to his fourth Young America victory and his biggest win since returning to the United States this summer after riding for a year in Europe.

The only solemn moment on the schooner Yankee's 2 1/2-hour sightseeing sail happens a few minutes after the tall ship casts off from Atlantic City's Farley State Marina. Casting off is a dramatic moment. Captain Dave Franchetta and his two-man crew scurry over the broad deck, throwing off ropes as diesel engines gently move the 80-foot sailboat away from the dock. Passengers, sitting on wooden benches, stare up at the Yankee's twin masts and snap pictures of the receding tower of Trump's Castle, the sagging boat houses and the bright white Coast Guard station along the Snug Harbor Inlet.

The only solemn moment on the schooner Yankee's 2 1/2-hour sightseeing sail happens a few minutes after the tall ship casts off from Atlantic City's Farley State Marina. Casting off is a dramatic moment. Captain Dave Franchetta and his two-man crew scurry over the broad deck, throwing off ropes as diesel engines gently move the 80-foot sailboat away from the dock. Passengers, sitting on wooden benches, stare up at the Yankee's twin masts and snap pictures of the receding tower of Trump's Castle, the sagging boat houses and the bright white Coast Guard station along the Snug Harbor Inlet.