LOCAL

LOCAL
Host families sought
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Phantom Hockey team is seeking volunteers to serve as host families for its players this season.
The 24-player team competes at the Ice Zone in Boardman with games concluding in April.
To host a player, call (330) 965-7500.
REGION
Williams-Fields boutat Mountaineer set
CHESTER, W. Va. -- Sherman Williams of Miami will fight against Tye Fields of Des Moine, Iowa in a heavyweight fight at Mountaineer Race Track on Sept. 2.
The ESPN2 bout will send Williams (24-7, 13 KOs) against Fields (28-1, 27 KOs).
The co-feature has Chris Koval of Youngstown meeting Chad VanSicid of Columbus in a heavyweight bout.
Rockers game rescheduled
CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Rockers basketball game against the Connecticut Sun, which was originally set for Thursday, has been rescheduled for Gund Arena on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
All tickets with the Aug. 14 date will be honored.
For details call (216) 420-2200.
NATION
Mets' Floydto have surgery
NEW YORK -- New York Mets left fielder Cliff Floyd plans to play Monday, then have season-ending surgery on his troublesome right Achilles' tendon at the end of the month.
Floyd, 30, entered the day batting .271 with 18 homers and 62 RBIs in his first year with the Mets. He has played in pain most of the season, visibly struggling to run the bases or track down balls in the outfield.
Floyd, an NL All-Star in 2001, was traded twice in a three-week span last season -- from Florida to Montreal and then to Boston. He signed a $26 million, four-year contract with the Mets as a free agent last December.
Roddick advances
MASON, Ohio -- Seventh-seeded Andy Roddick easily advanced to the semifinals at the Cincinnati Masters, defeating Mariano Zabaleta 6-1, 6-2 on Friday.
Roddick, who won his first Masters Series title in Montreal on Sunday, is going for his second straight hard-court victory heading into the U.S. Open.
Max Mirnyi waited out a rain delay and then upset No. 6 seed Guillermo Coria 6-2, 7-5. The unseeded Mirnyi won despite two rain delays totaling almost three hours.
Wagner memorabiliafetches big bucks
PITTSBURGH -- Memorabilia from Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer Honus Wagner fetched $271,682 in an online auction that went extra innings into Friday morning, despite a historic power outage in the Northeast.
"It was fantastic," auctioneer David Kohler, owner of SportsCards Plus of Orange County, Calif., said Friday morning. "I'm still trying to wake up. We were still going until 2 a.m. West Coast time." The auction was originally scheduled to close Thursday.
"Even the glitch in the East Coast yesterday, I'll tell you, we really didn't notice it," Kohler said. "Some of the bidders told us they had their flashlights out and only their telephones were working, so they were calling in their bids."
The centerpiece of the 48-lot collection, a sterling silver loving cup that National League President Harry Pulliam gave to Wagner in 1907, brought $93,240, well above the $20,000 minimum bid.
Brown, Hayes tappedas HOF candidates
CANTON -- Tackle Bob Brown and wide receiver Bob Hayes are the seniors committee candidates for election into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
Brown played with Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Oakland from 1964 to 1973 and Hayes was a standout for Dallas (1965-74) and San Francisco (1975).
As the seniors committee nominees, Brown and Hayes will join 13 modern-era candidates on the list of finalists from which the induction class of 2004 will be chosen. The selection meeting will be held on Jan. 31, 2004, the day before the Super Bowl in Houston.
To be elected, Brown and Hayes must each receive the same 80 percent voting support that is required of all finalists. The 39 voters will elect between three and six new members.
This is the first year that there have been two seniors nominated.
Vindicator staff/wire reports