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Gagne Apologizes To Teammates

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The Associated Press

Published: February 19, 2008

PHOENIX - Eric Gagne, identified as a user of human growth hormone in the Mitchell Report, apologized Monday to his new Milwaukee Brewers teammates for "a distraction that shouldn't be taking place."

Gagne also said he feels "bad" for what his family and friends went through in the offseason, and lauded baseball for its efforts to clean up the game from performance-enhancing drugs.

However, the 32-year-old closer declined to answer questions, never addressed the specific accusations against him and only acknowledged the Mitchell Report once, in a separate statement in French to three visiting Canadian media outlets.

According to the Mitchell Report, steroids distributor Kirk Radomski told former senator George Mitchell he mailed two shipments of HGH directly to Gagne in 2004. According to the report, receipts of express mail shipments indicate Radomski received at least one payment from Gagne and two from then Los Angeles Dodgers teammate Paul Lo Duca on Gagne's behalf.

Gagne declined to meet with Mitchell prior to the release of the report and refused to address it with the media until Monday.

"Since 2004, Major League Baseball has done everything in their power to clean up the game and I think they've done a great job," Gagne said before his first workout with the Brewers. "Right now I just want to go forward. I think Major League Baseball is ready to go forward and, hopefully, all the fans are ready to do that."

Steinbrenner: Baseball Unfairly Picked On

TAMPA - Hank Steinbrenner insists baseball is being picked on for its trouble with performance-enhancing drugs, and claims the problem is bigger in football.

"I don't like baseball being singled out," the New York Yankees senior vice president said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Monday night.

"Everybody that knows sports knows football is tailor-made for performance-enhancing drugs. I don't know how they managed to skate by. It irritates me. Don't tell me it's not more prevalent. The number in football is at least twice as many. Look at the speed and size of those players."

Answered NFL spokesman Greg Aiello: "We've had year-round random testing with immediate suspensions since 1990 and we conduct approximately 12,000 steroids tests a year."

Mattingly Glad Yanks Bypassed Him For Job

VERO BEACH - Don Mattingly realizes the family issues he faces would have kept him from managing the New York Yankees and is relieved he was bypassed for the job last fall.

Mattingly arrived at the Los Angeles Dodgers' spring training facility Monday, and said his decision to be moved from the team's hitting coach to major-league special assignment coach for the 2008 season was a no-brainer since it will allow him to be with his children.

"A family decision is always an easy decision for me," he said. "It's the first time ever that I ever made a commitment to someone and not lived up to that, so that was hard. That bothered me, but sometimes when you are talking about your family, you've got to do things and that's just the way it is."

A former AL MVP during 14 seasons with the Yankees from 1982 to 1995, Mattingly spent the past four seasons as a coach in New York under Manager Joe Torre. After Torre left the Yankees, Mattingly lost out to Joe Girardi to be the manager and followed Torre to Los Angeles.

"I am really grateful I didn't get it," Mattingly said of the Yankees' managerial job.

Mattingly's private issues became public earlier this month when his estranged wife, Kim, was arrested and charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct after police say she refused to leave his property in Indiana.

The couple filed for divorce in November on the grounds of irreconcilable differences.

"You never want that. Obviously, that stinks. Obviously you don't want your laundry out there," Mattingly said. "I worry about it more from my kids' standpoint. I don't really worry about what people think, but the kids, it's a little bit different story."

ANGELS: Closer Francisco Rodriguez is going to arbitration and could be heading out the door at the end of the season.

Rodriguez, 26, who has a major-league leading 132 saves over the past three years, is unhappy that he doesn't have a long-term contract and said he may leave as a free agent after this season.

NATIONALS: Bret Boone came out of retirement to sign a non-guaranteed, minor-league contract with Washington, joining his younger brother, infielder Aaron, and their father, assistant general manager Bob, with the club.

Boone, who turns 39 in April, hasn't played in the majors since 2005, when he spent time with Seattle and Minnesota.

SELIG REVIEWING: Commissioner Bud Selig says he is still reviewing cases of players accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs outlined in the Mitchell Report.

Selig said he hoped to complete the review by spring training, but now he does not know when he will finish.

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