The baseball players’ union rebuffed a request to submit anonymous medical records to Major League Baseball’s steroids probe, several lawyers familiar with the negotiations told the Associated Press.
Former Sen. George Mitchell’s staff, which has been investigating steroids in baseball for more than a year, has been seeking medical records for several months.
The union has not agreed to a request for anonymous records because players fear information in them – such as age, height, weight and blood type – would be used to connect the records to specific players, the lawyers told the Associated Press.
During several meetings in March and April, the union agreed to a process under which teams would give players their own medical records and players could decide whether to release them to Mitchell.
New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina, a senior member of the union, predicted players wouldn’t disclose medical records to the probe.
“Aren’t all people’s medical records private?” he said Thursday. “They’re probably wasting their time.”
The legacy of Larry Doby, who followed Jackie Robinson across baseball’s color barrier as the American League’s first black player, will be honored when every member of the Cleveland Indians wears his number 14 on Aug.10.
“It’s something that definitely needed to be done,” Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia said. “I don’t think a lot of people know anything about (Doby), but he was definitely huge. You hear all about Jackie all the time, and people lose sight of the fact that Larry was the first black player in the American League.
“So he’s as much of an icon as Jackie is. Hopefully this will open up people’s eyes to what he did for the game.”
Toronto closer B.J. Ryan will miss the rest of the season after having ligament-replacement surgery on his left elbow. The left-hander signed a five-year, $47 million contract before the 2006 season.
Left-hander Scott Downs and right-handers Jeremy Accardo and Casey Janssen will share save opportunities in Ryan’s absence.
Toronto placed right-hander Victor Zambrano (strained forearm) on the disabled list and recalled Jamie Vermilyea from Triple-A Syracuse. Right-hander Shaun Marcum will move out of the bullpen and into Zambrano’s spot in the rotation.
Detroit reliever Joel Zumaya underwent successful surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in his right middle finger, but is expected to be sidelined for at least three months.
Cincinnati sent third baseman Edwin Encarnacion to Triple-A Louisville a day after his two throwing errors set up three unearned runs and a 3-2 loss to the Houston Astros.
More transactions in Scoreboard17C.
