Sosa Tested Positive in '03

Baseball's 'nicest guy' joins select club

(NEWSER) - With two home runs last night against the Detroit Tigers, Minnesota Twin Jim Thome became the eighth ballplayer ever to hit 600 out of the park. Perhaps most remarkable about this feat is that he achieved it without steroids—unlike many of the other top sluggers of his era, writes Tom Verducci in Sports Illustrated . Indeed, “Gentleman Jim” has “so mastered humility that he has lasted all these years through the thorniest era in baseball history with nary a whiff of controversy or negativity.” More»

Sosa says he's not purposely bleaching his skin

(NEWSER) - Sammy Sosa attributes his newly lightened skin to three things: facial cream, all those baseball games he played out in the sun, and, of course, those pesky camera flashes, which “made my skin look lighter” at an event last week, he tells Univision. He wouldn’t divulge the name of the cream, but says he is in talks to market it, the New York Daily News reports. More»

Despite lightened skin, 'he's not trying to be Michael Jackson'

(NEWSER) - Retired slugger Sammy Sosa comes off as a bit vain, but he isn't bleaching his skin or "trying to be Michael Jackson," a friend says of the photos that took the sports blogosphere by storm last week. "He can't believe it is such a big deal." The friend, like Sosa a former Cubs employee, tells the Chicago Tribune he's just "going through a rejuvenation process for his skin. Women have it all of the time." More»

(NEWSER) - David Ortiz says he has never used steroids, despite his inclusion on baseball's infamous list of juicers from 2003, the Globe reports. “I used a lot of supplements and vitamins" back then, the Red Sox slugger said at a press conference today. He acknowledged being a "bit careless" in those days but stated definitively that never used or bought steroids. More»

(NEWSER) - The Baseball Writers’ Association of America—which decides the annual Hall of Fame class—has voted down an attempt to make new guidelines for players implicated in steroid use, the AP reports. Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander had suggested a committee be formed to create new rules that acknowledged the effect of recent doping scandals; the motion was voted down, 30-25. More»