The Final 9

By Ian Browne / MLB.com

BALTIMORE -- First, the Red Sox breathed a sigh of relief. Then on Friday they went through the procedure of placing unbeaten starter Daisuke Matsuzaka on the 15-day disabled list -- retroactive to Wednesday -- with a mild strain of his right rotator cuff.
An MRI performed on Matsuzaka on Friday in Boston revealed no structural damage. The Red Sox are optimistic that Matsuzaka will be able to pitch right around the time he's eligible to come off the DL, which is June 12.

"There was no structural changes, which is really good news," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "The final diagnosis is a mild deltoid rotator cuff strain. The best way we can see to attack this is, we'll DL him, take the time down, strengthen, get him ready to pitch the rest of the season. That's kind of where we are."

STORY....

By Justice B. Hill / MLB.com

Dave Winfield doesn't want credit for the idea, but he can hardly escape getting credit for it since everybody else says Winfield came up with it.
And the idea is one that people across baseball are praising.

Winfield proposed having a "ceremonial" draft on June 5 for surviving players from the Negro Leagues. The draft would be a way for Major League Baseball to connect its past with its present, he said.

"You would truly bring the past into the present," said Winfield, a Hall of Famer and vice president with the Padres. "You would change these people's lives. You would change baseball history -- American history.

STORY....

By Enrique Rojas
ESPNdeportes.com

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Sammy Sosa, still without an offer to play in the major leagues, intends to retire from baseball after the next World Baseball Classic, according to published reports.

"It's part of the plan. It would be great if folks can see me for the last time wearing the uniform of the [Dominican Republic] National Team," Sosa told Hoy, a Dominican newspaper.

"It's always an honor to represent your country," added Sosa, whose motivation to play in the WBC increased once Felipe Alou, a fellow native Dominican, was named manager of the national club.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Sosa reiteriated his retirement plans.

"That's my wish," he said during a telephone interview from Miami, "to put on my country's uniform so people can see me playing again."

The second WBC, with 16 countries in the field, will begin play in March 2009. The Dominican Republic will play its first-round games in Puerto Rico.

ARTICLE....

By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com






LOS ANGELES -- Major League Baseball is teaming up with entertainers, foundations, businesses and three of the top four television networks -- ABC, CBS and NBC -- in the quest to find a cure for cancer.
The new initiative, called "Stand Up To Cancer," was introduced on Wednesday morning on all three networks and at press conferences at the Paley Center for Media in both New York and Beverly Hills.

"This initiative has presented an historic and unique plan to fight this deadly disease, and it is a privilege for me and Major League Baseball to join this magnificent effort," said Commissioner Bud Selig, a survivor of skin cancer. "We have pledged many of our valuable resources in an attempt to assist in every way we can."

STORY....

By Nick Zaccardi / MLB.com

CHICAGO -- Japanese cameramen hustled along the first-base side of Wrigley Field on Monday morning, following every step of Dodgers pitcher Hiroki Kuroda during pregame warmups.
Kuroda was on his way to meet a familiar face on the Cubs, an outfielder he played with in Japan. Kuroda made his way around the batting cage and found his friend.

He had a nice chat with Alfonso Soriano, his teammate in the Minor Leagues in the '90s. What, you were expecting someone else?

Well, the assembled reporters might have been. Eighteen Japanese media outlets are covering the Cubs-Dodgers series, about twice the usual amount for a game at Wrigley this season.

STORY....

Associated Press

Miami was selected as the top seed for the 64-team Division I college baseball tournament Monday, while two-time defending champion Oregon State was left out of the field.

The Hurricanes (47-8), who won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament for the first time, will host one of 16 four-team, double-elimination regionals that begin Friday. Miami, making its 36th straight tournament appearance to extend its NCAA record, was ranked No. 1 in various polls for the majority of the season and opens against Bethune-Cookman (36-20).

"There was a lot of discussion about who the No. 1 seed should be, and quite frankly, North Carolina and Arizona State all got a strong look at that position," Division I selection committee chairman Larry Templeton said. "At the end of the night, Miami's play toward the end of the season, particularly winning the tournament -- and we were watching that tournament as the selection process was going through -- probably convinced the committee."

The other national seeds, in order, are: North Carolina (46-12), Arizona State (45-11), Florida State (48-10), Cal State Fullerton (37-19), Rice (42-13), LSU (43-16-1) and Georgia (35-21-1).

The winners of each regional will advance to the super regionals, played June 6-9. The eight winners of the super regionals will play in the College World Series, which starts June 14 in Omaha, Neb.

STORY....

DENVER -- With his boss in town for some crisis management and a statement of support, Mets manager Willie Randolph may be having trouble distinguishing the fire from frying pan.
It was not immediately evident to Randolph on Saturday whether he should see general manager Omar Minaya's presence as the show of support Minaya claimed it to be or the prelude to an ominous overture.

"I thought I saw him in the back, sharpening his machete, so I don't know if that makes me feel too good," Randolph joked before the middle game of a three-game set with the Rockies. "He saw me coming, and he kind of slipped it in his back pocket. I don't know if that makes me feel any better."

And although Minaya's statements to the media during Friday night's extra-innings loss to Colorado presented an image of a unified front among the Mets brass, Randolph said that Minaya had not expressed those sentiments to him in person, with their conversations limited to "just chit chat like we usually do."

STORY....

By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com

Major League players, through the auspices of the MLB Players Association, ratified on Friday amendments to the current drug policy, a little more than a week after MLB's 30 owners unanimously approved the revisions to the collectively bargained agreement.
"When you think of where we were and where we are today it is remarkable," Commissioner Bud Selig said last week. "You often hear me say that we have the toughest testing program in sports, and we do. It's very comprehensive."

It was the third time since the drug policy was collectively bargained in 2002 that the owners and union reopened it to toughen the rules. This time, the changes reflected all of the recommendations made by former Sen. George Mitchell in his report analyzing the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball that was issued on Dec. 13.

FULL STORY....

By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com

Major League Baseball is making tentative plans to experiment with instant replay in the Arizona Fall League, according to a baseball official with knowledge of those discussions.

If that experiment proves practical and successful, MLB then is likely to continue the experiment next March during the World Baseball Classic and spring training games.


If no insurmountable problems arise, baseball could begin using replay -- though only to decide home run calls -- as soon as next season.


A top baseball official confirmed to The Associated Press Thursday that he will formulate a proposal for instant replay, although he wouldn't put a timetable on a replay plan.

"The times are such that our fans are used to seeing all the high technology and they're used to seeing the other sports that use these systems to make determinations, and the fans are clamoring for all the sports to look at that," said Jimmie Lee Solomon, the sport's executive vice president for baseball operations.

Story....

The Angels and the city of Anaheim have been selected to host the 2010 All-Star Game.
Commissioner Bud Selig is expected to make the announcement at a press conference at Angel Stadium on Wednesday, marking the fourth time the game will be played in the Los Angeles area since the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1958. The game is scheduled to be played on July 13, 2010.

The Angels, who expanded into the American League in 1961, have hosted the game twice, in 1967 and 1989. It'll be a first for the club, though, under the ownership of Arte Moreno, who purchased the team from Disney five years ago.

The decision has been in the works since last summer, when Selig said that the 2010 game and its three days of festivities certainly would go to an AL team. After Pittsburgh and San Francisco of the National League hosted back-to-back games in 2006 and 2007, Selig said he was determined to go back to the traditional rotation of one year at an AL site and the next at an NL site.

STORY....

By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com

LOS ANGELES -- Major League Baseball directed its 30 clubs on Wednesday to pick up the pace of each game by primarily moving hitters in and out of the batter's box quicker and making pitchers adhere to a strict 12-second limit in between pitches, rules that are already on the books.
The game's pace has been an object of discussion since last October's World Series, when the Rockies and Red Sox played a 4 hour, 19 minute Game 3 at Coors Field. Boston won the game, 10-5, and went on to sweep the World Series.

At that point, the matter became an acute concern of Commissioner Bud Selig and was discussed at great length at last November's general managers' meetings in Florida. It also came up for discussion at the owners' meetings last week in Milwaukee. Club officials were briefed on the subject by Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB's executive vice president of baseball operations, during a series of conference calls on Wednesday.

STORY....

By JIMMY GOLEN, AP Sports Writer

BOSTON (AP)—Jon Lester has survived cancer and pitched a World Series clincher for the Boston Red Sox.

Now he can add a no-hitter to his already amazing list of accomplishments.

The 24-year-old lefty shut down Kansas City 7-0 Monday night for the first no-hitter in the majors since Red Sox rookie Clay Buchholz threw one last September.

It was Lester’s first major league complete game. And what a way to do it.

“You don’t feel tired in that situation. You’ve got so much adrenaline going,” he said. “I’m sure it will hit me in the morning.”

Lester (3-2) allowed just two baserunners, walking Billy Butler in the second inning and Esteban German to open the ninth; he also had an error when he threw away a pickoff attempt.

Lester struck out nine, fanning Alberto Callaspo to end the game before pumping both fists in the air.

STORY....

ESPN.com news services

After losing out on a clear home run ball Sunday for the second time this season, the New York Mets might become the newest proponents of Major League Baseball instituting instant replay.

In Sunday's Subway Series finale, a Carlos Delgado fly ball down the left field line was ruled a three-run home run for the Mets by third base umpire Mike Reilly. After Yankees captain Derek Jeter argued, home plate umpire Bob Davidson overruled Reilly and called the ball foul.

Davidson readily admitted his mistake to reporters after the game.

"I (expletive) it up. I'm the one who thought it was a (expletive) foul ball. I saw it on the replay. I'm the one who (expletive) it up so you can put that in your paper," Davidson said. "Bolts and nuts, I (expletive) up. You've just got to move on. No one feels worse about it than I do."

The home run did not end up factoring in the outcome of the game as the Mets routed the Yankees 11-2.

ARTICLE....

ESPN.com news services

Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz had hoped to return by the end of May from a stint on the disabled list for an inflamed rotator cuff. That plan may have to be put on hold.


"It could be anywhere between the [late May] timetable I discussed and a lot longer," Smoltz told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for Monday's editions.

Smoltz told the newspaper that he had discomfort after bullpen sessions on Thursday and Saturday and that a cortisone shot and rest haven't solved his shoulder problems since doing on the 15-day disabled list.

ARTICLE....

ESPN.com news services

As many as 104 Major League Baseball players could be subpoenaed by federal investigators in connection with the BALCO steroid distribution case after the United States attorney's office obtained positive steroid test results from 2003, according to a published report.

The results, according to The New York Times, were part of the 2003 tests conducted by Major League Baseball that were intended to be anonymous. But through some deft legal maneuvering, the U.S. government seized the records from two different companies hired to provide the tests.

An anonymous source told the newspaper that the federal government plans to question all 104 players about their positive steroid tests and how they obtained whatever substance was found in their urine sample.

The potential list of suppliers named by the players would be sent to federal prosecutors around the country. The investigations that result from that information could lead to player names being revealed in court documents.

FULL ARTICLE....

Associated Press

TAMPA, Fla. -- Alex Rodriguez remains on target to rejoin the New York Yankees on Tuesday.


The third baseman, out since April 28 with a strained right quadriceps, hit a grand slam to center field during his 15 at-bats in a simulated game Sunday. He is scheduled to play in an extended spring training game Monday against Philadelphia minor leaguers before returning to New York.

"It's the best I've felt since the injury," Rodriguez said.

FULL ARTICLE....