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Pedro Says His Numbers Are Clean

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The Associated Press

Published: February 15, 2008

PORT ST. LUCIE - Pedro Martinez said he knows his place in the Steroids Era.

"I dominated that era and I did it clean," he said. "I can stand by my numbers."

Martinez added, "I have a small frame and when I hurt all I could do was take a couple of Aleve or Advil, a cup of coffee and a little mango and an egg - and let it go!" he said.

Martinez said he would welcome a more stringent drug-testing program.

"I wish that they would check every day," Martinez said. "That's how bad I want the game to be clean."

Meanwhile, Dodgers catcher Gary Bennett, implicated in the Mitchell Report on drugs in baseball, spoke openly about his experience Thursday and acknowledged his regrets.

"With it all coming out, it was very embarrassing," he said at training camp at Vero Beach. "Going into it, I knew it was wrong. It was a situation in '03 that I was on the DL for 6 1/2 weeks with a partially torn MCL in my right knee. It got to a point where I was extremely frustrated, my knee was hurting. That led me to make a stupid decision."

The Mitchell Report said Bennett, playing for San Diego at the time, bought two kits of HGH from former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski.

"The Mitchell Report was accurate," Bennett said. "The biggest question I had was, 'Did it help me?' I have no idea. I have no way of knowing whether it did or didn't help. It still hurt after that. It got better as the season went along.

"Was what I did wrong? Absolutely. Do I regret it? Absolutely."

Schilling Ready To Begin Rehabbing Right Shoulder

FORT MYERS - Curt Schilling arrived at spring training to begin rehabilitating his right shoulder after apparently patching up his differences with the Boston Red Sox over the best way to treat it.

We just actually chatted with him," Epstein said, "and everyone seems to be on the same page."

That wasn't the case last week when the Red Sox and Dr. Craig Morgan, brought in by Schilling for a second opinion, differed strongly.

Morgan, who operated on Schilling's shoulder in 1995 and 1999, said the right-hander had a torn tendon and the only way he could pitch again is through surgery. The team insisted on rehabilitation.

Schilling reluctantly sided with the team, which could have voided his one-year, $8 million contract if he chose surgery.

The team hopes he can return in the second half of the season.

NATIONALS: Won their salary arbitration case against Felipe Lopez, who will make $4.9 million.

PADRES: First baseman Tony Clark, 35, finalized a $900,000, one-year contract.

ROYALS: Hideo Nomo hopes he will be able to help out the rotation, even though he had elbow surgery and hasn't pitched in the majors in two years.

The non-roster invitee went 5-8 with a 7.24 ERA in 2005 for Tampa Bay and he struggled in Venezuelan winter ball last year with a 6.59 ERA in 13 2-3 innings.

TWINS: Pitcher Francisco Liriano is having visa problems because of a drunken-driving arrest in 2006 and expects to be late for the start of spring training.

YANKEES: Chien-Ming Wang went to an arbitration hearing.

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