SPORTS
By Jeff Zrebiec and Jeff Zrebiec,SUN REPORTER | March 31, 2008
Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail laid it out to owner Peter Angelos in a phone conversation about outfielder Jay Gibbons within the past couple of days. "I gave him the ramifications and what my thinking was," MacPhail said. "I hadn't really reached any conclusions myself. I was wrestling with this one. I was really, to be honest with you, looking for some advice. His advice was, `You gotta do what you gotta do.' Those were the last words that he left me with, and I took the position of, `Well, this is what we have to do.' " Needing to set their Opening Day roster by yesterday afternoon, the Orioles released Gibbons, the second-longest-tenured member of the club, and will absorb the $11.9 million left on his contract over the next two years.
SPORTS
March 29, 2008
Major League Baseball didn't do the Orioles any favor by postponing the 15-day suspension of outfielder-designated hitter Jay Gibbons, because the 10-day reprieve only complicates the club's uncertain roster situation during the final weekend of spring training. Whether the suspension is eventually revoked entirely has become irrelevant, because the Orioles have to decide before Opening Day to keep Gibbons or give that spot on the 25-man roster to utility player Scott Moore. That might be simple enough - based on their spring performances - if there wasn't an added layer of labor/management politics to muddy up the issue.
SPORTS
By PETER SCHMUCK | March 27, 2008
Here is all you really need to know about the Jay Gibbons situation: There has been speculation he might get a reprieve from his 15-day suspension for admitted use of human growth hormone, and that's actually bad news for the Orioles. It might be bad news for Gibbons, too, even though negotiations between Major League Baseball and the players union could result in a revised drug policy that would allow him to avoid the suspension and the loss of almost $500,000 in salary. The suspension, if it sticks, might actually be more of a reprieve than the possible reprieve.
SPORTS
By JEFF ZREBIEC | March 5, 2008
NOT GREAT BUT BETTER Orioles starter Adam Loewen believed he pitched much better than the results indicated. Whether it was true or not, there was no disputing that the young left-hander was far sharper than he was in his first exhibition start last week. Loewen allowed an unearned run on four hits and one walk while striking out two over two innings. The Orioles had hoped Loewen could get through three innings, but his pitch count was at 44 after two innings and the Orioles took no chances with the pitcher, who is trying to make a comeback from elbow surgery.
SPORTS
By Jeff Barker and Jeff Barker,Sun Reporter | December 31, 2007
WASHINGTON -- A congressional subcommittee might summon major league baseball players - who have been reluctant to appear in the past - to testify at its upcoming hearing on the sport's problems with performance-enhancing drugs, the panel's chairman says. "There is a possibility we would invite some ballplayers," Illinois Rep. Bobby L. Rush, chairman of an Energy and Commerce subcommittee, said in an interview. "Of course, that's a sensitive subject." In March 2005, another House committee investigating steroids used its subpoena power to compel the testimony of Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa and several other current and former stars - most of whom had resisted appearing.
SPORTS
By Jeff Zrebiec and Dan Connolly and Jeff Zrebiec and Dan Connolly,Sun reporters | December 7, 2007
Major League Baseball yesterday suspended Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons and Kansas City Royals outfielder Jose Guillen 15 days each for violating the league's toughened substance-abuse prevention program, though neither failed a league-initiated drug test. Gibbons, who admitted yesterday that he had used human growth hormone, had previously avoided allegations that he received shipments of steroids and hGH from a federally raided Florida pharmacy between 2003 and 2005. "I am deeply sorry for the mistakes that I have made," Gibbons said in a statement first released to The Sun yesterday afternoon.