Cubs’ Baker to Testify in Steroid Probe

Chicago Cubs Manager Dusty Baker will testify in the Mitchell investigation into steroid use in baseball, and said he assumed he was called because of his relationships with Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa.

Baker managed Bonds with the San Francisco Giants and Sosa with the Cubs. Former Senate majority leader George Mitchell was appointed by Commissioner Bud Selig to look into the steroids problem.

“I don’t have any choice,” Baker said Thursday. “I was already scheduled to testify Aug. 2 and for whatever reason, it was canceled. All I know is I didn’t schedule it. I didn’t cancel it.”

Baker said he was not told the subject of the questions he’ll be asked, but guessed it was because he’d managed Bonds and Sosa.

“I don’t know why Sammy is involved,” Baker said. “I haven’t heard Sammy’s name mentioned.”

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Baltimore Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada apologized Thursday for making what appeared to be an obscene gesture toward the stands during Wednesday’s game in Toronto.

Tejada made a gesture after swinging through a pitch in the dirt from B.J. Ryan and being thrown out at first in the eighth inning. The Orioles lost the game, 4-3.

“I want to apologize to everyone, especially to the Orioles fans and the fans in Toronto, for my action in Wednesday’s game,” Tejada said in a statement posted on the Orioles’ website. “I was frustrated and should not have let things get to me. I am sorry and hope people will accept that and know that is not the kind of person I am.”

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New York Yankees pitcher Carl Pavano threw 2 2/3 innings in his first minor league rehabilitation start since surgery in May for a bone chip above his right elbow. Pitching for class-A Tampa against the Daytona Cubs, Pavano yielded three runs and five hits. He has not pitched in the majors since June 27, 2005.

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Pitcher Jeff Allison, the Florida Marlins’ first-round draft pick in 2003, was hospitalized in Medford, Mass., after a friend found him unconscious on a bathroom floor, surrounded by what police said was heroin paraphernalia. Team spokesman Matt Roebuck said the Marlins had no information on Allison, who was suspended indefinitely in March.