Selig says positive tests down

The number of positive tests for steroids in major league baseball dropped to between 1 to 2 percent last season, commissioner Bud Selig said Saturday, and he predicted the virtual elimination of the drug from the sport this year.

The new figures, based on just under 1,200 tests, compare with 5 to 7 percent positive results in 2003, the first season that major league players were tested.

Selig said the test results “startled me and a lot of other people.”

“I am very confident that we will effectively rid our sport of steroids in this coming season,” he said at a news conference.

The tests in 2003-04 were done under the 2002 collective bargaining agreement adhering to a program far less stringent than the one adopted by major league baseball and the players’ union this year. The new program implemented this week includes an unannounced test of every player, other random testing and tests in the off-season.

Selig also said the minor league testing program has dropped from 11 percent or tests being positive in 2001 to 1.7 percent last season.

Giambi continues image rehab

Jason Giambi took his image rehabilitation tour on the road for the first time this spring and was given a warm reception.

Giambi got his first hit of the year in the New York Yankees’ 9-8 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates in Lakeland, Fla.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Giambi said after going 1 for 4. “You never know, and that way you never set yourself up to be let down.”

Giambi repeated several times that he was “humbled” by the reception he’s been given following a winter of accusations about steroid use.

Beltran wows new home fans

Beltran hit a two-run homer in the first inning of his first home game with the Mets. Beltran also singled in three at-bats and helped New York beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4.

“When you go out, you don’t want to let the fans down,” said Beltran, who signed a seven-year, $119 million contract in January. “You want to make them proud of your team. That’s what we did today.”

Free-agent signee J.D. Drew got his first hit for Los Angeles, a two-run homer off Mets starter Steve Trachsel in the third inning.

Sosa ejected from outfield

Sammy Sosa, who hit his first homer with the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, did something even more memorable Saturday: He got ejected while playing the outfield during the second inning of the Orioles’ 9-6 loss to the Nationals at Fort Lauderdale, Fla. – the first time in 34 years that Baltimore and Washington met on a baseball diamond.

The sequence of events that led to Sosa’s ejection by second base umpire C.B. Bucknor began in the bottom of the first inning when he was called out by home plate umpire Joe West on a high third strike. Sosa briefly expressed his displeasure with the call before taking his place in right field.

After Baltimore starter Daniel Cabrera opened the second inning by going to a 2-0 count on leadoff hitter Brad Wilkerson, Sosa was ejected.

“I said, ‘That was a strike,’ ” Sosa said, “and then the second-base umpire was like, ‘Knock it off.’ I said something back to him, and that was everything. I was all the way in right field, but I guess he took it the wrong way and threw me out of the game.”

Reggie Jackson in crash

Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson was taken to the hospital with minor injuries after his sport utility vehicle was rear-ended by another SUV on Friday night.

Jackson’s vehicle was stopped Friday night when an SUV “traveling at a high rate of speed” hit him from behind, Tampa police spokesman Joe Durkin said Saturday. Both vehicles flipped.

Jackson, 58, was treated and released from the hospital, Durkin said.

The other driver was in critical condition when he was brought to the hospital, Durkin said. The hospital didn’t release information on him on Saturday.

Durkin said it wasn’t clear how fast the other vehicle was going or whether alcohol was involved. But he said Jackson didn’t appear to be at fault.