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Selig To Try To Follow Bonds Chase

Published: Jul 25, 2007

NEW YORK - Baseball commissioner Bud Selig will attempt to attend the game when Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron's career home-run record, saying the San Francisco Giants star was "innocent until proven guilty."

"Throughout this season, I have watched Barry Bonds' pursuit of the home-run record. Now that he is on the verge of tying the record, the time has come to announce that I will make every attempt to attend the record-setting moment," Selig said in a statement Tuesday.

"Out of respect for the tradition of this game, the magnitude of the record, and the fact that all citizens in this country are innocent until proven guilty, I will attend Barry Bonds' next games to observe his potential tying and breaking of the home-run record, subject to my commitments to the Hall of Fame this weekend."

Selig will be in Cooperstown, N.Y., for Sunday's Hall of Fame induction ceremony of Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr.

Biggio To Retire At End Of Season

HOUSTON - Houston Astros infielder Craig Biggio plans to retire at the end of the season after a 20-year career in which he joined the elite 3,000-hit club.

"I get to go out on top. The 3,000th-hit night was the best. I'll never forget that," Biggio, 41, said at a news conference Tuesday. "I'm in a good place. I think I've done everything I could on a baseball field."

Biggio got his 3,000th hit on June 28.

"I just can't believe it's over. It's gone by fast," he said. "I have no regrets. I played the game the right way."

Biggio is batting .247 with 24 doubles, five homers and 31 RBIs. He began Tuesday with 3,014 hits, six shy of tying Rafael Palmeiro for 23rd place.

Biggio has played his entire major-league career with the Astros, becoming the longest-tenured player in franchise history.

Along with teammate and friend Jeff Bagwell, who retired before the start of this season, Biggio led the Astros to four division titles and the team's first NL pennant - and a trip to the World Series - in 2005.

Biggio is the only player in major-league history with 600 doubles, 250 homers, 3,000 hits and 400 steals. Biggio is a career .282 hitter. He already has been inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.

DIAMONDBACKS: Randy Johnson pitched to batters for the first time in his latest comeback from a back injury, then acknowledged the possibility that he might not return this season - or maybe ever.

"I think everybody in this clubhouse, maybe not the players but the coaching staff and front office, would like to know, and I would like to know, whether I'm going to be able to pitch and help this organization," he said. "If not, I think that I need to take care of things and they would need to take care of things."

ANGELS: Los Angeles placed Bartolo Colon on the 15-day disabled list with a sore right elbow.

Colon, the 2005 AL Cy Young winner, left Monday night's game after pitching one inning against Oakland.

BREWERS: Catching prospect Angel Salome was suspended for 50 games after testing positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance under baseball's minor-league drug program.

CARDINALS: Pitcher Chris Carpenter had reconstructive elbow surgery, an operation likely to sideline him for at least a year.

METS: Moises Alou's expected return from the disabled list was pushed back to the end of the week after an exam showed tendinitis in his right shoulder.