Speculation on Sosa Still at Forefront

A media horde continued to follow Sammy Sosa on Wednesday, irritating some of Sosa’s Chicago Cub teammates in the Wrigley Field clubhouse before the game against the New York Mets. But there were no new developments on a possible trade to the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.

In New York, where the Red Sox played the Yankees, Red Sox infielder Manny Alexander, who played with Sosa in Chicago and remains a close friend, said Sosa has told him “where he’d be happy.”

Alexander would not say where.

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South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond and Rep. Jim DeMint met with baseball Commissioner Bud Selig in Washington, asking that Shoeless Joe Jackson’s lifetime ban be ended so he can become eligible for the Hall of Fame. . . . Jason Schmidt, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ opening day starter, won’t need surgery on his aching right shoulder but probably will be out six to eight weeks. . . . The Tampa Bay Devil Rays put third baseman Vinny Castilla on the 15-day disabled list because of lower back inflammation. . . . Bob Tiefenauer, 70, a relief pitcher who played for six teams in the 1950s and 1960s and spent 40 years in baseball, died at his home in Desloge, Mo.