Baseball notebook: Peavy picks Padres
Jake Peavy is staying with the San Diego Padres.
The ace pitcher turned down a trade to the Chicago White Sox, choosing Thursday to remain with his longtime team.
The Padres and White Sox had reached an agreement, but needed the 2007 National League Cy Young Award winner to waive his no-trade clause.
“As of right now, this is the best place for us to be. We made that decision for the time being,” Peavy said before Thursday night’s game against San Francisco.
“It’s been a crazy 24 hours,” he said. “I don’t want to be any kind of distraction to the team. We’re playing as well as we possibly can, winning five in a row and I’ve got a big game (tonight).”
Drug policy working
The 50-game suspension of Manny Ramirez proves that baseball’s drug policy is working, Commissioner Bud Selig said.
“No one is above the law,” Selig said at a news conference after the owners’ meetings in New York.
Selig, commenting on the issue for the first time since Ramirez was suspended two weeks ago, said baseball had administered more than 1,000 drug tests this season.
“We’ve had one positive,” he said. “What the Manny Ramirez situation proved is that no one can miss.
Padres get Gwynn
When Tony Gwynn Jr. got the call that he was coming home to San Diego, it came from Mr. Padre himself.
Tony Gwynn, who spent his entire 20-year Hall of Fame career in San Diego, broke the news to his son that the Padres were acquiring him in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers.
“Dad’s thrilled,” the senior Gwynn told the Associated Press by phone from Fort Worth, Texas, where he’s coaching the San Diego State Aztecs in the Mountain West Conference baseball tournament.
“This is like a bolt out of the sky. You just didn’t expect that. I’m thrilled, just happy he’s going to get an opportunity and I think he feels the same way.”
Gwynn Jr., an outfielder, was obtained for outfielder Jody Gerut.
Reds’ Volquez on DL
Right-hander Edinson Volquez went on the 15-day disabled list with a sore back, the first time that Cincinnati has lost a starting pitcher to injury this season.