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Vizquel to wear Aparicio's No. 11 for Sox

CHICAGO, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- New Chicago White Sox shortstop Omar Vizquel will wear the formerly retired number 11 of Sox great Luis Aparicio, Vizquel says.

Vizquel told The Chicago Tribune that Aparicio, the only Venezuelan in the Baseball Hall of Fame, gave him permission to wear his No. 11 after manager Ozzie Guillen declined to let Vizquel wear his own No. 13.

"One day I was hanging out with Luis Aparicio and I had the courage to ask if I could use his number," Vizquel, also a native of Venezuela, told the newspaper. "He thought about it for a while and with a little smile said it would be great. He said, 'If someone does it, I would like it to be you.'"

After getting Aparicio's permission, the White Sox "unretired" No. 11 for Vizquel to wear for what is likely to be the final year of his long major league career.

"If there is one player who I would like to see wear my uniform number with the White Sox, it is Omar Vizquel," Aparicio said in a statement. "I have known Omar for a long time. Along with being an outstanding player, he is a good and decent man."

Maryland postpones game against Virginia

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Feb. 9 (UPI) -- University of Maryland officials postponed Wednesday's men's basketball ACC game between the Terrapins and Virginia due to weather concerns.

The Washington area, which includes Maryland's College Park campus, was hit with more than 2 feet of snow last weekend and forecasters said another 10-15 inches were expected Tuesday and Wednesday.

A release from Maryland cited "continuing unprecedented weather conditions" in moving Wednesday's game against the Cavaliers to next Monday. Maryland said tickets for the Feb. 10 game would be honored Feb. 15 but a start time for the game was yet to be determined.

Despite the ongoing storm Saturday, Maryland played North Carolina in College Park, winning 92-71. School officials characterized conditions then as "challenging."

"Those circumstances now move from being challenging to impossible for campus staff to manage," the school said in announcing the postponement.

Zvonareva through to Pattaya second round

PATTAYA, Thailand, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Top-seeded Vera Zvonareva posted a straight-set victory Tuesday at the PTT Pattaya Open tennis tournament in Thailand.

Zvonareva stopped fellow Russian Ksenia Pervak 6-3, 6-2, piling up five service breaks over eight receiving games. She won nearly 60 percent of the points in the match and earned a second-round pairing against Italian Alberta Brianti, who overcame five drops of serve in a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 win over Sacha Jones.

No. 4-seeded Kazak Yaroslava Shvedova took out Ayumi Morita 6-2, 6-4 and eighth-seeded German Julia Goerges didn't lose a service game in a 6-4, 6-4 win over Anna Gerasimou in other first-round matches involving seeded players.

Also Tuesday, Taipei's Kai-Chen Chang claimed a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Varatchaya Wongteanchai; Kazak Sesil Karatantcheva stopped Suchanun Viratprasert 6-1, 7-5; Russia Ekaterina Bychkova survived a third-set tie-breaker for a 6-7 (4-7), 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) triumph over Nudnida Luangnam; and local favorite Tamarine Tanasugarn swept past Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1, 6-2 in 71 minutes.

The PTT Pattaya Open continues through Sunday, with the title worth $37,000.

Web site won't remove nude Hill photos

SAN ANTONIO, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- A Web site says it won't remove pictures of San Antonio Spurs basketball player George Hill's private parts.

The Web site, TheDirty.com, responded to a demand from the team's lawyer to remove the self-taken photographs from its site with a letter of its own saying it has no intention of doing so, TMZ.com reported Tuesday.

TheDirty's letter reportedly stated the Web site is within its right to post photos of "celebrities making fools of themselves."

TMZ said TheDirty's attorney informed the Spurs that trying to force it to remove the photos wouldn't work and would only bring more attention to them.