Now MLB investigators need Canseco BASEBALL NOTES

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Apr 4, 2008

NEW YORK -- Jose Canseco was approached by two employees from Major League Baseball before a book signing appearance, and the lawyer for the former AL MVP said they asked for assistance in drug investigations.

"You could have knocked us over with a feather," Canseco's lawyer, Robert Saunooke, said Thursday. "Four years of denial and treating him as a pariah, and now they want his help."

Saunooke said he and Canseco spoke with the investigators, Eduardo Dominguez Jr. and Victor Burgos, for about 15 minutes Wednesday in the green room of a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Manhattan.

"We asked, 'Why didn't you come before?'" Saunooke said, "and they said, 'Those are good points. You're right, and now we want your help. Anything you can do to help us, we would be very interested in.'"

Hawk attack girls on Fenway tour

BOSTON -- A 13-year-old girl touring Fenway Park on a school trip was attacked by a resident red-tailed hawk that drew blood from her scalp.

She wasn't seriously hurt, but some observers saw an omen for a certain New York Yankees slugger in the attack at the home of the Boston Red Sox. The girl's name is Alexa Rodriguez.

Vice Jenetta, a teacher who chaperoned her class trip from Memorial Boulevard Middle School in Bristol, Conn., told The Boston Globe that Alexa is "a little shaken, but OK."

The hawk was perched on a railing in the upper deck behind home plate while the group toured the stadium. The hawk flew at the girl and swooped with its talons extended, scratching her scalp.

A single egg lay in the hawk's nearby nest in an overhang near the stadium's press booth.

The nest and egg were removed at the direction of state wildlife officials.

Cubs prospect suspended

NEW YORK -- Chicago Cubs pitcher Robert Hernandez was suspended for 50 games by the baseball commissioner's office after testing positive for the steroid stanozolol under the sport's minor league drug program.

The 19-year-old right-hander was 8-9 with a 4.34 ERA in 20 starts last season with Peoria of the Midwest League and currently is assigned to the same club.

The commissioner's office said that starting with Hernandez, it will identify the specific substances players test positive for under the minor league plan. It does not announce specific substances under the major league testing program, which is subject to collective bargaining with the players' association.