Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins still slowed by strained right calf

PHILADELPHIA -- Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins still feels tightness in his strained right calf and says it could be the end of the month before he returns to the lineup.

“

I've pulled a muscle, I've strained my groin a little, but not something like this where you feel like somebody shot you.

”-- Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins

Rollins has been on the disabled list since April 14 with the injury occurring during warmups before Philadelphia's home opener. Rollins said before Sunday's game against the Mets he'd like to be back in two weeks.

"I've pulled a muscle, I've strained my groin a little, but not something like this where you feel like somebody shot you. That's different," Rollins said.

"I've never been in that situation. They said two to four weeks and they weren't talking about being healthy; they were talking about determining what the next step would be. It's probably pretty accurate, unfortunately."

The three-time All-Star says he still feels tightness when he moves to his left fielding groundballs. Rollins also feels the calf acting up when he shuffles side-to-side.

The 31-year-old leadoff hitter was off to a hot start, hitting .391 and scoring eight runs in seven games. Rollins was also showing more patience at the plate, drawing seven walks.

He doesn't know when he'll try and run.

"Once we get past jogging, we'll progress," he said. "Until then, I don't have a set date."

The Phillies also said that Joe Blanton will make his first start of the season against St. Louis on Monday. Blanton has been on the disabled list while recovering from an oblique strain suffered in spring training.

The Phillies will have to make a move before Monday's game to make room for Blanton on the roster. Kyle Kendrick will get the start on Wednesday against the Cardinals.

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Former major leaguer Dave Roberts has lymphoma

Dave Roberts, whose stolen base for Boston in the 2004 playoffs sparked the Red Sox to an elusive World Series championship, is being treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Roberts

Roberts was diagnosed in mid-March and he says the cancer was detected early. He says the prognosis is "good." He has undergone two rounds of chemotherapy so far.

The 37-year-old Roberts is working for the San Diego Padres as a special assistant. He was scheduled to talk about his health later Monday.

Roberts played 10 seasons in the majors for Cleveland, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston, San Diego and San Francisco. The speedy outfielder retired after the 2008 season with the Giants, then worked in television last year for the Red Sox.

Roberts was a career .266 hitter with 243 steals. His biggest highlight came in Game 4 of the 2004 AL championship series, where Boston was three outs away from getting swept by the New York Yankees.

With the Red Sox down 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth at Fenway Park, Roberts entered as a pinch-runner after Kevin Millar drew a leadoff walk from Mariano Rivera. Roberts stole second on the first pitch and later scored the tying run on a single by Bill Mueller.

The Red Sox went on to win 6-4 in 12 innings, then became the first team in major league history to overcome a 3-0 deficit and win a postseason series. Roberts was on the World Series roster, but did not play as Boston swept St. Louis for its first championship since 1918.

In fact, Roberts did not get to bat at all in the 2004 postseason. Yet his steal was credited as spurring the Red Sox toward their title.

Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield was among Roberts' teammates that year.

"It's saddening to hear that a guy which has such great character as Dave Roberts was stricken with the illness. I'm optimistic that it's going to be treated and he'll live a long and healthy life," Wakefield said before Boston's home game against the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night.

"We prayed for him in chapel yesterday. Hopefully, a lot of prayers go his way," he said.

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Brian Roberts of Baltimore Orioles (back) says he's not close to return

BALTIMORE -- The Baltimore Orioles could be forced to go several months without second baseman Brian Roberts, who conceded Sunday that the timetable for his return from the disabled list is very much uncertain.

Roberts was placed on the 15-day DL on April 12 with a strained abdominal muscle and to receive further treatment on a herniated disk in his back. His stomach is no longer an issue, but he's still not ready to test his ailing back.

Roberts

At this point, there's no telling when he will be cleared to begin baseball activities.

"I don't know if it's three weeks or three months," Roberts said. "I don't think it will be three months. That's not a scenario we talked about. But I don't have any answers at this point, so I can't rule that out."

The two-time All-Star missed much of spring training after receiving an epidural shot for his back. He played his first exhibition game on March 26, then participated in the first four games of the regular season before hurting himself while stealing second base in a game against Toronto on April 9.

He received another epidural shot soon after that, and remains in a holding pattern.

"This time we're being more cautious, taking it a little slower," he said. "There are things we're still waiting to see. We're waiting for improvement in certain areas."

He won't accompany the team to New York and Minnesota for a road trip that begins Monday, but he's been with the Orioles during their current homestand. Watching Baltimore get off to a 6-18 start has left him feeling helpless.

"It's been difficult for sure, watching the team struggle," he said.

Adam Jones has been batting leadoff for Roberts and Ty Wigginton has been manning second base. It could be that way for a while.

"As soon it as was announced to me it was going to be weeks ... we just had to prepare ourselves accordingly," manager Dave Trembley said. "That's why I put Jones in the leadoff spot and I'm not going to tinker with it. Because I couldn't tell you when Brian is going to come back."

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Cleveland Indians' Kerry Wood to make first rehab start Monday

Wood

CLEVELAND -- Indians closer Kerry Wood is going to the minor leagues on an injury rehab assignment.

Wood has not pitched this season due to a strained muscle in his upper right back. The Indians announced Sunday that the right-hander is scheduled to work Monday night at Double-A Akron.

He threw two scoreless innings early in spring training before going on the disabled list for the 13th time in 12 seasons.

The 32-year-old right-hander signed a two-year, $20.5 million deal with Cleveland as a free agent in December 2008. In 58 games in 2009, he went 3-3 with a 4.25 ERA and 20 saves, striking out 63 in 55 innings.

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Houston Astros first baseman Lance Berkman held out with groin injury

ATLANTA -- Houston first baseman Lance Berkman has a minor groin injury and is not starting Friday night's game against the Atlanta Braves.

Berkman

The Braves are missing shortstop Yunel Escobar, who is day to day with a strained left adductor.

Houston manager Brad Mills says Berkman tweaked his left groin running to first base in his last at-bat against Cincinnati on Thursday night. Geoff Blum is the fill-in starter at first base.

Berkman missed the first 12 games of the season following arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on March 13.

Omar Infante is filling in for Escobar, who suffered his injury Thursday at St. Louis.

Also, Braves manager Bobby Cox plans to push back right-hander Jair Jurrjens' next start to May 8. Jurrjens suffered a strained left hamstring in Thursday's start.

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Major League Baseball players' union opposed to Arizona immigration law

NEW YORK -- Given a chance to take part in the 2011 All-Star game at Arizona, Ozzie Guillen insists he won't go.

"I wouldn't do it," the Chicago White Sox manager said Friday. "As a Latin American, it's natural that I have to support our own."

Guillen joined a growing chorus of opposition to Arizona's new law that empowers police to determine a person's immigration status. The state is home to all four major team sports, hosts half the clubs in spring training and holds top events in NASCAR, golf and tennis.

“

Now they're going to go after everybody, not just the people behind the wall. Now they're going to come out on the street. What if you're walking on the street with your family and kids? They're going to go after you.

”-- Baltimore shortstop Cesar Izturis, on Arizona's immigration law

The Major League Baseball players' union issued a statement condemning the law. A congressman whose district includes Yankee Stadium wrote a letter to baseball commissioner Bud Selig urging him to pull the All-Star game from Phoenix. The World Boxing Council took a step to limit fights in Arizona.

"It's a bad thing," said Baltimore shortstop Cesar Izturis, born in Venezuela. "Now they're going to go after everybody, not just the people behind the wall. Now they're going to come out on the street. What if you're walking on the street with your family and kids? They're going to go after you."

With more than one-quarter of big leaguers on opening-day rosters were born outside the 50 states, most of them from Hispanic descent.

"These international players are very much a part of our national pastime," MLB union head Michael Weiner said. "Each of them must be ready to prove, at any time, his identity and the legality of his being in Arizona to any state or local official with suspicion of his immigration status."

Weiner said that if the law is not repealed or modified, the union would consider "additional steps."

A day earlier, WBC president Jose Sulaiman said its sanctioning body unanimously agreed it will not authorize Mexican boxers to fight in Arizona.

"Great figures of boxing have fought in Arizona, boxers such as Julio Cesar Chavez, Salvador Sanchez, Konstantin Tszyu, 'Coloradito' Lopez and many, many others," said Sulaiman, who is based in Mexico City. "The WBC will not allow that in boxing, athletes are exposed to suffer that degrading act, humiliating and inhumane, as racial discrimination is."

MLB, the NFL and the NBA declined comment on the law.

The BCS national championship game will be played next January in Glendale, Ariz., shortly after the city hosts the Fiesta Bowl.

"The recent Arizona immigration legislation is obviously a matter of great public concern," the Fiesta Bowl said in a statement Friday. "While this matter may ultimately be resolved in a court of law or in the court of public opinion, we are certain that it will not be resolved on the fields of college football."

Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., sent a letter Thursday night to Selig, asking him to take next year's All-Star game out of Arizona.

Calling the law "extremist" and "discriminatory," the congressman wrote: The All-Star game is now not just a display of baseball's best talent, but is also a display of the global reach of the game. It is at odds with the reality of the modern game to hold such a prestigious event in a state that would not welcome those same players if they did not play our national pastime."

Arizona Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick said "this whole situation is sad and disappointing."

"We believe the federal government should act swiftly to address the immigration issue once and for all," he said in a statement.

Said Cleveland Indians coach Sandy Alomar Jr., whose team trains in Goodyear, Ariz.: "Certainly I am against profiling any race and having sterotypes, but at the same time my feeling is what does baseball have to do with politics? Let the politicians stay in politics and the baseball players play baseball."

Guillen, from Venezuela, became an American citizen in 2006. He said players should consider boycotting baseball in Arizona, adding, "I plead sportsmen to join on this."

The White Sox hold spring training in suburban Phoenix. Guillen said he hoped MLB would take a strong stance on the immigration law.

"They have to. They have a team in Arizona," he said. "There is a concern for baseball players to go out there, of course, and we've got to support those people."

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Study: Percentage of black players drops again

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Major League Baseball equaled its best grades for racial and gender diversity hiring, even as the percentage of black players dropped again last year.

MLB received an A for race and a B for gender hiring in the annual study released Thursday by the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports. Baseball received the same grades in last year's report.

Among major leaguers, though, the number of black players dropped from 10.2 percent to 9 percent last season. The sport had made a small stride since reaching a low of 8.2 percent in 2007, but the latest data indicates a steady rise among black players might be years away.

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Information in the report is based on the 2009 work force data provided by MLB.

"I think it's a reflection now of the long-standing fact that African-American youths are playing basketball and football more than baseball," Institute director Richard Lapchick said. "It's ironic only because the role of people of color running baseball is dramatically increasing."

A dwindling number of black players has been a concern of baseball and those in the black community for years. Last year's report was the first time since 1995 that the majors had an increase among black players.

In an effort to curb the numbers, MLB has established its Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program and urban youth academies. But Lapchick said it will likely take many years before it's known if those efforts are paying off.

"I think it's going to take a generation of young kids to change that," he said.

MLB said in a statement that it was proud of the high marks for its diversity in hiring.

"Major League Baseball is pleased that the 2010 Lapchick study reflects our institutional commitment, led by Commissioner Selig, to sound hiring practices and diverse participation at all levels of our game," spokesman Pat Courtney said.

Twenty-seven percent of the players in the majors were Latino and 2.3 percent were Asian, the report showed. MLB had four black, four Latino and one Asian manager last season. That's one fewer black manager than a year ago.

MLB's central offices received an A-plus for race and an A for gender. About 31 percent of employees at baseball's central offices were nonwhite, and women made up 39 percent of the total work force, the report showed.

Baseball received a B-plus for general managers and senior team professionals. There has never been a female general manager, and there are relatively few high-ranking women in baseball operations. Assistant general managers Kim Ng of the Dodgers and Jean Afterman of the Yankees have been the exceptions.

Lapchick has long suggested that MLB institute a rule that a woman be considered for all senior job openings, similar to the rule that minority candidates must be interviewed.

"But baseball is clearly ahead of most major men's professional leagues in diversity, with the exception of the NBA," Lapchick said. "And baseball is light years ahead of when I started doing the reports in 1987."

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