Rays/MLB

Baseball to bring in ex-senator to investigate steroid allegations

By wire services
Published March 30, 2006

NEW YORK - Major League Baseball will investigate reports of steroid use by Barry Bonds and other players and plans to hire former U.S. Senate majority leader George Mitchell to lead the effort.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that plans were to be announced at a news conference today. Commissioner Bud Selig has not made his intentions public.

Selig's decision to launch the probe, first reported Wednesday by ESPN, comes in the wake of Game of Shadows, a book by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters that claims to detail extensive steroid use by Bonds and other stars. The commissioner has said for several weeks that he was evaluating how to respond to the book.

Some in Congress have called for an independent investigation. Mitchell, a Maine Democrat and a Red Sox director, has been a Marlins director and served on an economic study committee that Selig appointed in 1999.

Mitchell's possible involvement was first mentioned Wednesday in the New York Times. The name of a lawyer who will run the mechanics of the probe also was to be announced.

It would be difficult for baseball to penalize anyone for steroids used before Sept. 30, 2002, when a joint drug agreement between management and the players' association took effect. Baseball began testing in 2003 and started testing with penalties the next year.

ASTROS: Right-hander Roy Oswalt will start the opener Monday against Florida, his fourth straight opening-day assignment.

BRAVES: First baseman James Jurries, a candidate for a backup role, twisted his right knee rounding first after a single but walked off under his own power. Catcher Brian McCann was helped off after taking a foul ball to the groin. Both are expected to be available today. ... Right-hander John Thomson is day to day with tenderness in his pitching elbow.

DODGERS: Shortstop Rafael Furcal has a strained muscle in his back and is day to day. ... Second baseman Jeff Kent agreed to an $11.5-million, one-year extension through 2007.

MARINERS: Right-hander Kevin Appier was reassigned to minor-league camp, giving him time to get healthy and possibly return to the majors. The former All-Star, 38, hasn't pitched in the majors in 23 months because of elbow trouble.

MARLINS: Lenny Harris, 41, the career leader in pinch hits with 212, was released after being told he would not make the team.

NATIONALS: Right-hander Livan Hernandez, who had offseason surgery on the right knee that hampered him for much of 2005, allowed two runs, one earned, in six innings against the Dodgers and said his arm is 100 percent.

PADRES: San Diego is leaning toward putting first baseman Ryan Klesko on the disabled list with a sore left shoulder.

RANGERS: Right-hander Adam Eaton left his final spring start in the second inning with pain in his right middle finger, the same finger that sent him to the disabled list in San Diego last season. ... Right-hander R.A. Dickey, 31, who seems to have revitalized his career by learning a knuckleball, was picked as the fifth starter.

[Last modified March 30, 2006, 02:15:33]