House clarifies comments on steroids
around the horn
Former major league pitcher Tom House said he misspoke when he estimated one-half dozen pitchers on every team experimented with steroids or human growth hormone in the 1960s and 1970s.
House said he meant to say those players used amphetamines.
“It was my fault. Maybe I wasn’t saying what I thought I was saying,” he told The Associated Press on Thursday, referring to the interview that appeared in Tuesday’s San Francisco Chronicle.
“The thing is I have to make it right. I don’t want anyone thinking that six or seven guys on my teams in those days, the Atlanta Braves, had anything to do with anabolic steroids or growth hormone,” he said.
House reiterated what he told the paper about himself: that he did use steroids and growth hormone, as well as amphetamines, during his career.
Thome expected back in two weeks
Jim Thome was diagnosed with a strained lower back, and the Philadelphia Phillies hope their first baseman will be able to play again in about two weeks.
“That’s good news,” manager Charlie Manuel said after the team’s 7-5 loss to the New York Mets.
Thome, hitting .203 with one homer and 12 RBIs, was put on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday, a move retroactive to Sunday, and can be activated May 16. He had an MRI exam Tuesday, and more tests Wednesday.
“Dr. Alex Vaccaro and I have also determined he has an inflammation of a previously documented pars defect,” Phillies director of medical services Dr. Michael Ciccotti said in a statement.
“A pars defect is an incomplete fusion of the bone in the lumbar region. It is common with a lot of people. Jim’s had this for a long time. Athletically active persons can aggravate the defect, causing an inflammation. The treatment for the strain and inflammation continues to be rest, medication and a progressive strengthening program.”
Rockies, Neagle reach settlement
Pitcher Denny Neagle reached a settlement over his grievance against the Colorado Rockies, who terminated his contract last winter after he was issued a citation for soliciting sex from a prostitute.
Terms of the settlement were not released by Major League Baseball and a staffer in the Rockies public relations office said the team was not releasing any information.
The Rockies terminated Neagle’s contract last Dec. 6, citing a provision in the uniform language of the contract stating the team can end a contract if the player shall “fail, refuse or neglect to conform his personal conduct to the standards of good citizenship and good sportsmanship.”
Neagle has not pitched in a game since July 2003 because of injuries.
Top prospect returns to mound
Part of Jeff Allison wanted to earn the win. Then again, just being back on the mound felt pretty good all by itself.
Allison, the Florida Marlins’ top draft pick two years ago, pitched in the minors for the first time since his near-fatal drug overdose last summer. The 20-year-old right-hander allowed three runs and seven hits in five innings for the Class-A Greensboro Grasshoppers, getting a no-decision in a 7-6 win over the visiting Delmarva Shorebirds.
After a shaky start, Allison showed flashes of the promise that made him a top pitching prospect before drug problems nearly destroyed his career and ended his life.
“Regardless of what happened or not tonight, the fact of the matter was I was playing again,” Allison said. “I wanted to do well – don’t get me wrong – but it was great just to pitch.”
It was Allison’s first appearance in organized baseball since pitching in three games for the Marlins’ Gulf Coast League rookie team two summers ago. His addiction to the powerful painkiller OxyContin, a failed drug test for marijuana and a heroin overdose all led to him missing the 2004 season.
Bonds’ surgeon has shady history
Barry Bonds’ three recent knee operations were performed by a prominent doctor with a history of troubles with state medical authorities.
Dr. Arthur J. Ting has been reprimanded twice by the Medical Board of California, and is on probation for unprofessional conduct, the Arizona Republic reported.
Ting, the team physician for the NHL’s San Jose Sharks who has treated many prominent Bay Area athletes, completed his first probation in 1998. According to the newspaper, Ting was placed on probation for five years on April 5, 2004, because of a second incident of unprofessional conduct.
A medical board spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a call from the AP.
Ting has performed three operations on Bonds’ troublesome left knee since January. On Monday, Ting performed an emergency surgery to clean out a bacterial infection in Bonds’ knee, according to the San Francisco Giants slugger’s Web site, where he releases the only available updates on his condition.
According to documents obtained by the Republic, a complaint to the medical board in May 2003 alleged that Ting employed an unlicensed technician who saw patients and wrote prescriptions. Many patients believed the technician was a doctor.
The complaint also accused Ting of prescribing “dangerous drugs and controlled substances to friends and acquaintances, particularly athletes, for whom he kept no medical records or for whom the medical records were fictitious, inadequate or inaccurate.”