Baseball notebook: Guillen rants about race

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen thinks Asian players are given privileges in the United States that Latinos are not afforded.

In his latest rant, the outspoken Guillen also said he’s the “only one” in baseball teaching young players from Latin America to stay away from performance-enhancing drugs and that Major League Baseball doesn’t care about that.

He said MLB only cares about how often he argues with umpires and what he says to the media.

Guillen said it’s unfair that Japanese players are assigned translators when they come to the U.S. to play pro ball, but Latinos are not.

“Very bad. I say, why do we have Japanese interpreters and we don’t have a Spanish one. I always say that. Why do they have that privilege and we don’t?” Guillen said Sunday before Chicago played the Oakland Athletics. “Don’t take this wrong, but they take advantage of us. We bring a Japanese player and they are very good and they bring all these privileges to them. We bring a Dominican kid … go to the minor leagues, good luck. Good luck. And it’s always going to be like that. It’s never going to change. But that’s the way it is.”

Major League Baseball spokesman Rich Levin disagreed with Guillen’s assertion.

“We spend more time and effort educating our Latin players about PED use than we do our domestic players in the United States. We test extensively in the Dominican and Venezuelan leagues, and we’ve increased the testing every year,” Levin told The Associated Press. “We also have Sandy Alderson down in the Dominican Republic on a full-time basis and he’s dealing with a lot of these issues as well.”

Mets induct four

Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry joined former manager Davey Johnson and longtime general manager Frank Cashen in the New York Mets’ Hall of Fame.

The four were honored at Citi Field before the Mets played the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Gooden was the ace of the 1986 team that won a franchise-record 108 games and the Mets’ second World Series title. Strawberry provided the power, while Johnson called the shots.

Cashen was the architect of the team, serving as general manger of the Mets from 1980-91.

Clearing the bases

Royals right-hander Gil Meche has decided to try coming back as a reliever instead of opting for season-ending shoulder surgery. Meche was expected to have shoulder surgery this week but he was advised if he underwent surgery in August he also would miss all of next season. … Steven Strasburg threw for the first time since he was placed on the 15-day disabled list on July 29, and everything went well. Manager Jim Riggleman said he hopes that Strasburg will be able to pitch on Washington’s next homestand, which begins on Aug. 10. … The Houston Astros signed starting pitcher Brett Myers to a two-year contract extension with a club option for a third year. The guaranteed value of the two-year deal, including a buyout on the third season, is $21 million. … Right-hander Carlos Silva left the Chicago Cubs’ game against the Colorado Rockies in the first inning with an abnormal heart rate. The Cubs said he will remain in a Denver hospital overnight for observation.