Congressman Sends Letter to Selig

Prompted by an upcoming book about Barry Bonds, a congressman who sponsored legislation calling for tougher drug testing in pro sports wrote a letter Wednesday asking baseball Commissioner Bud Selig about his role in policing steroid use from 1998 to 2002.

“As commissioner, you have the essential responsibility to safeguard the integrity of the game and to ensure that cheaters have no place in professional baseball,” Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) said in the letter.

Stearns’ House Energy and Commerce subcommittee held hearings last year about steroid use and he introduced the Drug Free Sports Act, one of several bills that would have made sports leagues give players lifetime bans for a second or third steroid offense.

Under pressure from Congress, baseball’s players association agreed to toughen drug testing rules and penalties for 2005 and again this season.

“The Congress remains very concerned about the use of illegal, performance-enhancing drugs in sports at all levels and the effect that unpunished professional athletes who use such drugs will have on future generations,” Stearns wrote to Selig.

Specifically, the Florida Republican asked Selig for information about a 2004 meeting with Bonds, baseball’s policy for addressing alleged steroid use if a player doesn’t fail a drug test, and what Selig’s authority is to investigate alleged steroid use.

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Pedro Martinez faced live hitters for the first time this spring, throwing 61 pitches to two New York Met minor leaguers and showing no ill effects from a toe problem.

The ace has been limited this spring by damaged cartilage in his right big toe. The Mets still hope he’ll be able to start on opening day, April 3 at home against Washington.

“I felt good, I felt a little stiff, but that was expected. After I threw a few pitches and I let it go, everything went back to normal,” he said.

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San Francisco closer Armando Benitez had a cortisone injection in his swollen left knee and won’t be able to throw off a mound for a few days.

“It’s not a big deal,” Manager Felipe Alou said. “He’ll be OK. Armando will be OK. It will just take him a little bit to get back to full strength.”

Benitez missed nearly four months last season with a hamstring injury.

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Minor league baseball defended its offer to umpires, likening their jobs to an educational program rather than a lifetime career.

The minor league umpires voted this month to authorize a strike and are boycotting spring training.

A strike decision hasn’t been announced.

“Every umpire hired into the major leagues came from the minors. It’s like being paid to go to school for the diploma and training you need for the chance at a very well-paid job,” George Yund, a lawyer for the Professional Baseball Umpire Corp., said.

Management made what it called its “last, best and final offer” on Jan. 31, and umpires responded last Friday.

The Assn. of Minor League Umpires, which represents about 220 umpires in 16 leagues, said the average salary for minor league umpires has remained unchanged for a decade -- it is about $15,000 at triple-A, $12,000 at double-A, $10,000 in full-season A-ball and $5,500 in rookie leagues.