Rockies president is found dead

Colorado Rockies President Keli McGregor was found dead in his hotel room in Salt Lake City on Tuesday.

Detective Rick Wall said two of McGregor’s associates couldn’t get in touch with him and that someone entered his room at the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City and found the 48-year-old McGregor unconscious.

“There are no signs of foul play. … Based on the initial investigation [police and fire officials] did not see anything suspicious,” Wall said. “There is nothing suspicious. At this point it would look like it was some sort of a natural cause or something along those lines.”

Wall said the investigation has been turned over to the medical examiner’s office, which will determine the cause and time of death.

The Rockies said McGregor was on a business trip with team chairman and CEO Charlie Monfort and executive vice president Greg Feasel.

“Words cannot describe the level of shock and disbelief that we all are feeling this morning at the loss of Keli,” Monfort said in a statement.

Commissioner Bud Selig called McGregor “one of our game’s rising young stars.”

McGregor is survived by his wife, Lori, three daughters and a son.

Lee suspension dropped

Major League Baseball has dropped its five-game suspension of Seattle Mariners pitcher Cliff Lee.

MLB vice president of administration John McHale made the decision after Lee’s appeal hearing last week. Lee and the Mariners’ trainer said in a conference call with the league then that the pitcher’s injuries caused an errant pitch in a spring-training game.

MLB disciplined the 2008 AL Cy Young Award winner after he was ejected from a March 15 spring training game in Tucson against the Arizona Diamondbacks for throwing over the head of Chris Snyder.

Volquez suspended

Former All-Star pitcher Edinson Volquez was suspended 50 games following a positive test for a banned fertility substance, a punishment that will cost him money but won’t hurt the Cincinnati Reds’ rotation.

The 26-year-old right-hander is recovering from reconstructive elbow surgery and isn’t expected to rejoin the Reds until late July at the earliest. He can serve the suspension while continuing his rehabilitation at the team’s spring training complex in Goodyear, Ariz.

Volquez became the first player suspended under the major league drug program since the Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez was penalized 50 games last May

Etc.

Major League Baseball has reversed its ban on Joe Maddon’s hoodies. The Tampa Bay Rays manager says he got a call from baseball on Tuesday telling him it was OK to resume putting on his favorite pullover. …

Major League Baseball is disappointed the proposed sale of the Texas Rangers from Tom Hicks to Chuck Greenberg’s group had been stalled by a dispute involving the lenders to the team’s owner. The sides announced an agreement on Jan. 23, but creditors of the Hicks Sports Group, which owns the Rangers and the NHL’s Dallas Stars, have not approved it. … The slumping Boston Red Sox put outfielders Mike Cameron and Jacoby Ellsbury on the 15-day disabled list. Cameron is out because of a lower abdominal strain. Ellsbury has a bruised chest after colliding with third baseman Adrian Beltre on April 11.