BASKETBALL

TIMBERWOLVES FIRE CASEY AFTER 4 STRAIGHT LOSSES

The Timberwolves fired coach Dwane Casey yesterday, one day after Minnesota lost its fourth consecutive game and only 1 1/2 seasons since he took over.

Casey, in his first head coaching job, was unable to solve the Tim berwolves’ inconsistencies and push them back into the thick of the competitive Western Confer ence, prompting vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale to make the move.

“We were at a point as a team where we were just treading wa ter,” McHale said. “The ups and downs, we just couldn’t find any consistency.”

The Timberwolves looked to be turning the corner at the start of the new year, when they opened 2007 with seven wins in their first eight games.

But they lost their next four games, including one to Phoenix without leading scorers Kevin Garnett and Ricky Davis, who were suspended. Garnett was sus pended by the league for a con frontation with Detroit’s Antonio McDyess, while Davis was sus pended by the team for acting out during Friday night’s game with the Pistons.

“It was just basically two steps up the hill and two steps down,” McHale said. “We were never able to establish a style of play that we could bank on over and over again.”

BASEBALL

YANKEE STADIUM ALL-STAR ANNOUNCEMENT SET

Baseball is set to announce Yan kee Stadium as the site of the 2008 All-Star game.

Commissioner Bud Selig will hold a news conference at New York’s City Hall with Mayor Michael Bloomberg on January 31. Selig has said since last sum mer that Yankee Stadium was a leading candidate for the game.

The ballpark, which opened in 1923, is scheduled to close after the 2008 season, and the Yankees will move into a new stadium, being built across a street, the following year.

DELGADO COULD MISS START OF METS SEASON FOR CHILD’S BIRTH

Mets star Carlos Delgado could miss a few games at the start of the regular season for the birth of his child. The first baseman said his wife was due to give birth to the couple’s first child within a few days of the Mets’ April 1 opener at St. Louis.

“My child comes first,” he told the newspaper El Nuevo Dia.

Delgado did not say whether his wife, Betzaida Garcia, planned to give birth in New York or his native Puerto Rico. The Mets said yesterday they were aware of the pregnancy.

FOOTBALL

JUDGE ALLOWS TANK JOHNSON TO TRAVEL FOR SUPER BOWL

Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tank Johnson will play in the Super Bowl — with court approval and a warning from a judge to stay out of trouble.

Cook County Judge John Moran granted a defense request Tuesday to allow Johnson to leave the state as he awaits trial on gun possession charges. The Bears will play the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl in Miami on February 4.

Moran set no special restrictions on Johnson but said he must obey the law “or dire consequences will result.”

HOCKEY

DEVILS’ PARISE SHINES IN YOUNGSTARS GAME

New Jersey forward Zach Parise had two goals and four assists to lead the Eastern Conference to a 9-8 victory over the Western Conference in the YoungStars game yesterday night.

Parise, a first-round pick by the Devils in 2003, was selected the MVP. Boston’s Phil Kessel scored his third goal four minutes into the third period, assisted by Pittsburgh’s Jordan Staal and Parise to give the East a 9–4 lead.

“It was fun. You could see the skill out there,” Parise said. “Then in the last 30 seconds the intensity picked up when we were only a goal ahead.”

The West scored the last four goals in the game, and had a chance to tie in the final 30 seconds when Jussi Jokinen of the hometown Dallas Stars — the lowest draft pick in the game, picked 192nd overall in the sixth round in 2001 — missed from the front of the net.