Rollins’ streak comes to end at 38
Jimmy Rollins embraced the spotlight, welcomed the challenge and oozed confidence.
Every year – except this one – since his rookie season in 2001, Rollins told his younger brother, Antwon, he was going to break Joe DiMaggio’s major league record 56-game hitting streak.
Well, 38 down, 57 to go.
Rollins’ pursuit of DiMaggio’s 65-year-old record ended Thursday when he went 0 for 4 in Philadelphia’s 4-2 home loss to St. Louis, snapping a 38-game hitting streak that stretched over two seasons and caused some debate.
“I had a chance to do it and I came up short,” Rollins said, flashing his trademark smile. “I still have another chance. I have a lot of games left.”
Trouble for Sheffield
As much as Gary Sheffield wants to separate himself from Barry Bonds and the BALCO mess, more damaging evidence emerged, and it potentially could be used against him in baseball’s steroids investigation, according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.
A federal judge from Idaho sent a letter last month to Commissioner Bud Selig detailing a random conversation with Greg Anderson, then Barry Bonds’ trainer, in an airport in 2002.
The letter says Anderson told the judge he had been sent from California to Minnesota by Bonds to “help” Sheffield, who had been “struggling.”
A Major League Baseball spokesman confirmed that Selig received the letter last month and gave it to George Mitchell, the former senator recently named to head MLB’s investigation into steroids.
Sheffield’s attorney, Rufus Williams, declined to comment. Bonds also refused to comment after the Giants’ home opener.
The chance meeting between Anderson and Larry M. Boyle, Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge in Boise, occurred on a shuttle to the baggage claim area at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in June 2002.
Clearing the bases
Los Angeles Dodgers closer Eric Gagne will have surgery today to remove a nerve from his pitching elbow, his second arm operation in less than a year. A team spokesman said there was no timetable for Gagne’s return.… Shortstop Julio Lugo was placed on the 15-day disabled list by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays with an abdominal strain. … . Giants left-hander Noah Lowery was forced to leave his start against Atlanta in the second inning with a strained muscle in his lower back. The severity of the injury wasn’t immediately known.