Messi named three-time player of year

SOCCER

Messi a three-time winner

Already considered one of soccer's greats at age 24, Lionel Messi yesterday became the first to win FIFA player of the year three times in a row.

The Barcelona and Argentina forward received the FIFA Ballon d'Or award for 2011, beating club teammate Xavi Hernandez and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo.

The only other three-time winners are Ronaldo (1996-97, 2002) and Zinedine Zidane (1998, 2000, 2003). The FIFA award was renamed last year when it merged with France Football's Golden Ball.

GOLF

Tiger to return to Pebble

Tiger Woods is returning to the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am for the first time in 10 years.

Woods announced on his website he will start his PGA Tour season Feb. 9-12 at Pebble Beach, which he said "might be the prettiest place on Earth." It has not been pretty enough to get him back to the Monterey Peninsula, except for the 2010 U.S. Open, at which he tied for fourth.

Stricker opens year with win

Steve Stricker kicked off the new PGA Tour season with a victory in the Tournament of Champions in Kapalua, Hawaii, though he didn't make it easy on himself.

His five-shot lead was reduced to one shot after only six holes before Stricker pulled himself together with back-to-back birdies and closed with 4-under-par 69 to win by three.

NHL

Blue Jackets fire Arniel

After weeks of lopsided losses and blown leads, the Columbus Blue Jackets fired second-year coach Scott Arniel.

In announcing Arniel's dismissal and the elevation of assistant Todd Richards to interim head coach, general manager Scott Howson said the season had "gone off the rails."

Under Arniel, the Blue Jackets were 11-25-5 this season -- the worst record in the NHL.

Richards was 77-71-16 as coach of the Minnesota Wild from 2009-11. His first game leading Columbus will be tonight in Chicago.

Arniel is the seventh NHL coach to lose his job this season.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Morgan State coach suspended

Morgan State basketball coach Todd Bozeman has been suspended indefinitely without pay after being involved in a physical altercation with one of his players during a victory at South Carolina State on Saturday night.

Bozeman is accused of punching senior guard Larry Bastfield during the game. The extent of the contact between Bozeman and Bastfield is being reviewed by officials of both schools.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Paternos make donation

Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and his wife donated $100,000 last month to Penn State, money that was split between a library and an undergraduate fellows program that bear the family name.

Sue Paterno described the contributions to the Paterno Liberal Arts Undergraduate Fellows Program and the Paterno Library as an annual gift.

-- APRUNNING

ESPN2 gets NYC Marathon

ESPN2 will televise the New York City Marathon on Nov. 4, the first time since 1993 (on ABC) that the event will be shown live nationally. Since 1993, the race had been shown locally on New York stations WPIX or WNBC.