BASEBALL

MARTINEZ PULLS OUT OF ALL-STAR GAME

Pedro Martinez pulled out of the All-Star game yesterday, saying he wouldn’t be able to take the mound in the exhibition because he’ll start for the Mets two days earlier.

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who will lead the NL team in Tuesday’s All-Star game at Detroit, was informed of Martinez’s decision yesterday morning, Mets spokesman Jay Horwitz said. Phillies reliever Billy Wagner was added to the NL All-Star roster.

Martinez is scheduled to start Sunday against the Pittsburgh Pirates. “I would love to go if I would get at least one more day of rest,” Martinez said. “With just one day in between games, I can’t pitch like it’s a regular game. I don’t want to hurt myself up there. I would like to compete, but if not, let somebody else go get the opportunity.”

The Mets right-hander is 9-3 with a 2.80 ERA and leads the National League with 129 strikeouts. He finished third among NL pitchers in player voting. Mets manager Willie Randolph and general manager Omar Minaya said they supported Martinez’s choice to skip the All-Star game.

Also yesterday, Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins was added to the NL All-Star roster as a replacement for Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Cesar Izturis.

BASEBALL, SOFTBALL DROPPED FROM OLYMPIC PROGRAM

Baseball and softball were dropped last night from the Olympic program for the 2012 Summer Games in London.

Each of the 28 existing sports was put to a secret vote by the International Olympic Committee, and baseball and softball failed to receive a majority required to stay on the program. The other 26 sports were retained.

Baseball and softball are the first sports cut from the Olympics since water polo in 1936. The IOC will consider replacing them with two sports from a waiting list of five sports: golf, rugby, squash, karate, and roller sports.

Baseball has been vulnerable because it doesn’t bring top Major League players to the Olympics. Softball has been in danger because of a perceived lack of global appeal.

FOULKE UNDERGOES KNEE SURGERY

Struggling Red Sox closer Keith Foulke had arthroscopic surgery to repair damaged cartilage on his left knee yesterday, just one development on a busy day of roster shuffling for first-place Boston.

The Red Sox designated outfielder Jay Payton for assignment, activated outfielder Adam Stern from the 60-day disabled list, sent left-hander Lenny DiNardo to Triple-A Pawtucket, and traded Ramon Vazquez to Cleveland for Alex Cora in a deal involving utility infielders.

Foulke will begin rehabilitation immediately, and team doctor Thomas Gill said recovery from this type of surgery typically takes about six weeks.

BASKETBALL

REDD AGREES TO RE-SIGN WITH BUCKS

Coveted free agent Michael Redd agreed yesterday to re-sign with the Milwaukee Bucks and play alongside no. 1 draft pick Andrew Bogut and T.J. Ford rather than return to his home state of Ohio to serve as LeBron James’s sidekick in Cleveland.

Redd accepted Milwaukee’s six-year offer for between $90 million and $96 million, his agent, Kevin Poston, told the Associated Press. The Cleveland Cavaliers offered $70 million over five years, the most they could offer.

The 6-foot-6-inch shooting guard from Ohio State averaged a career-high 23 points last season and has averaged 17.7 points since Milwaukee drafted him in the second round in 2000.

GOLF

WIE IN POSITION TO MAKE CUT AT JOHN DEERE CLASSIC

Fifteen-year-old Michelle Wie shot a 1-under 70 at the John Deere Classic yesterday, giving her a shot at becoming the first woman in 60 years to make a cut on the PGA Tour. The top 70 players and ties make the cut, and Wie was on the right side of it when she finished her round.

Hunter Mahan shot an 8-under 63, while Glen Hnatiuk and Craig Bowden were two strokes back (65).

Babe Didrikson Zaharias is the last woman to make a cut on the PGA Tour, doing it at the 1945 Tucson Open. No woman played on the tour again until 2003, when Annika Sorenstam teed it up at the Colonial and Suzy Whaley qualified for the Greater Hartford Open. Both missed the cut. Wie has played the Sony Open the last two years. She missed the cut by a stroke in 2004, when she shot a 68 in the second round. She missed the cut by seven strokes this year.

Wie struggled early, when she fell to 2-over with back-to-back bogeys on nos. 5 and 6. But she made a 12-footer on the 11th hole to get back to even par, then made another birdie on the par-5 17th to get to 1-under par.

HOCKEY

NHL, PLAYERS DENY REPORTS OF DEAL

The NHL and the players’ association are closing in on a new collective bargaining agreement, but both sides denied a report yesterday that a deal had been reached. The Los Angeles Times reported that the sides had completed negotiations to end the lockout that wiped out all of last season. But the league and the union said that is premature.

“The media report that the NHL and the NHLPA have an agreement in principle is simply not true,” Bernadette Mansur, the NHL vice president of communications, said in an e-mail statement.

TENNIS

NADAL, FERRERO TO MEET IN QUARTERS AT SWEDISH OPEN

Top-seeded Rafael Nadal and Juan Carlos Ferrero won second-round matches in straight sets at the Swedish Open yesterday, setting up a quarterfinal between the Spaniards.

Nadal, the French Open champion, ousted Spain’s Alberto Martin 6-2, 6-4. Ferrero, the 2003 champion at Roland Garros, beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-4 in another all-Spanish match on center court.

Spain’s Oscar Hernandez also reached the round of eight. He defeated seventh-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 in a match delayed by thunderstorms, marking the first time since 1977 that a Swede hasn’t reached the quarterfinals. Hernandez will meet Jiri Vanek after the Czech outlasted French qualifier Florent Serra 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

– Associated Press