BASEBALL

ATLANTA BRAVES INTERESTED IN BRINGING BACK TOM GLAVINE

The Atlanta Braves would like to bring back Tom Glavine after a five-year absence.

New general manager Frank Wren spoke with the two-time Cy Young Award winner and his agent, Gregg Clifton. Wren said yesterday he will call again next week, after teams can start making offers to free agents.

Glavine spent his first 16 major league seasons with Atlanta, then pitched for the Mets for five years. He lives in suburban Atlanta and was hoping to get an offer from the Braves after the 2006 season. Atlanta never made an offer, and he agreed December 1 to re-sign with the Mets.

“It wasn’t that we weren’t interested. It was just the timing of when Tom had to make a decision and when we could make a decision based on our roster and our payroll and where we were at the time,” Wren said. “We have flexibility this year to be more active in both the trade market and the free-agent market.”

Glavine, a left-hander who turns 42 in March, was 13-8 with a 4.45 ERA for the Mets this year, when he earned his 300th win. He was hit hard in his final two starts as the Mets collapsed down the stretch, including the season-ending loss to Florida when he failed to get out of the first inning.

RANGERS MUST FUND $9M MORE DEFERRED FOR RODRIGUEZ

Alex Rodriguez will still be on the Texas Rangers’ books for quite a while.

Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said yesterday the team must fund the original $9 million in deferred payments Rodriguez was owed for the remainder of the $252 million, 10-year contract he signed with the team before the 2001 season.

That money, $3 million for each of the next three seasons, was reconfigured into an assignment bonus at the time of A-Rod’s 2004 trade to the Yankees.

“Anything that was part of the assignment bonus is considered earned at the time to the trade,” Daniels said.

That means Rodriguez walked away from $72 million when he opted out of the contract: salaries of $24 million owed by the Yankees in each of the next three seasons.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

ALL 16 BIG EAST SCHOOLS TO PLAY IN 2009 TOURNEY

The Big East will include all 16 conference members in its postseason basketball tournament beginning in 2009, after leaving four schools out since expanding in 2005-06.

The presidents of the schools made the decision at their annual meeting in Philadelphia on Tuesday. The league’s coaches had fought for the inclusion of all the teams since the league expanded to its current size and only 12 were brought to New York for the tournament.

The expansion is for both the men’s and women’s tournaments.

FOOTBALL

SORE ANKLE DOESN’T PREVENT BURRESS FROM PRACTICING

Giants receiver Plaxico Burress practiced on a limited basis yesterday, less than an hour after coach Tom Coughlin said a persistent ankle injury would prevent him from working out.

The injury has prevented Burress from practicing almost the entire first half of the season, and the routine did not appear likely to change with the Giants (6-2) coming off a bye week.

But Burress approached Coughlin after the morning walkthrough and asked if he could try to practice for the first time since September 12.