BRIEFLY : ALVAREZ LEAVES GIANTS TO JOIN DEVIL RAYS.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays signed left-hander Wilson Alvarez to a five-year, $35 million contract Wednesday, adding a proven starter to the top of their rotation.

Alvarez, 27, has a career record of 71-54. He went 13-11 with a 3.48 ERA this season for the Chicago White Sox and San Francisco Giants.

The Devil Rays have made several big-name acquisitions in preparation for their first season. They signed closer Roberto Hernandez to a four-year, $22.5 million contract, and added Fred McGriff, Kevin Stocker and John Flaherty through trades in November.

``I had offers from competitive teams. . . . I could have gone somewhere like Cleveland or New York,'' said Alvarez, who lives in Sarasota, Fla. ``But I wanted to be here and be a part of something that's going to grow.''

OLYMPICS: The drug-testing lab at UCLA risks having its international license stripped unless it installs the latest high-tech machine for detecting steroids.

Prince Alexandre de Merode, chairman of the International Olympic Committee's medical commission, said UCLA was the only one of the 25 labs around the world accredited by the IOC which does not have the ``mass spectrometer'' testing equipment.

The deadline for installing the machines is Dec. 16. A new machine costs up to $500,000 and another $500,000 to install and maintain.

The UCLA lab is one of the biggest of the IOC-accredited labs around the world. It is headed by Dr. Don Catlin, who has worked closely with de Merode and the IOC over the years.

``I'm very definitely worried,'' Catlin said. ``I don't know how much of this is posturing and politics. . . . We're certainly not happy to be in the position we're in.''

Vladimir Pyshnenko, a member of the Russian relay team that set a world record in the Barcelona Olympics, and two other Russian swimmers tested positive for steroids.

ALSO: Morehead State athletic director and baseball coach Steve Hamilton, who was one of one of just two athletes to play in the World Series and the NBA Finals, died after suffering from colon cancer. He was 63.

A 6-foot-7 forward, Hamilton was selected by the Minneapolis Lakers in the second round of the 1958 NBA draft and went to the finals in his rookie season.

He later spent eight seasons with the New York Yankees as a left-handed pitcher, appearing in the 1963 and 1964 World Series. The only other athlete to play in an NBA Finals and World Series was Gene Conley, who played for the Celtics team that defeated Hamilton and the Lakers in 1959 and pitched for the world champion Milwaukee Braves in 1957.