Steroid probe: No cooperation from players
WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell said Tuesday he received little cooperation from Major League Baseball players in his investigation of steroid use.
Mitchell, testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said he offered to show any current players willing to talk to him any evidence against them in return for their testimony. However, he said, none accepted the offer.
Mitchell said some 700 witnesses were interviewed, many of them employees of Major League Baseball, and he found much of their testimony non-credible in that they denied knowing anything about steroid and human growth hormone use.
Baseball officials commissioned an investigation headed by Mitchell, D-Maine, to look into allegations of use of performance-enhancing substances. Mitchell's report, released last month, alleged widespread use of steroids and human growth hormone by baseball and named some 90 players as having used the substances.
Federer rolls in Australian Open opener
MELBOURNE, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- World No. 1 Roger Federer rolled through his first-round match Tuesday in his attempt to win a third consecutive Australian Open.
Federer piled up seven service breaks in a 6-0, 6-3, 6-0 rout of Diego Hartfield. Federer needed just 74 minutes to complete the victory, his 15th consecutive at the Australian Open.
He next goes against Fabrice Santoro, the 36th-ranked player in the world. Santoro was also a straight-set winner Tuesday, stopping John Isner 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.
Quick matches were the order of the day for the higher-seeded players with third-seeded Novak Djokovic defeating Benjamin Becker 6-0, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5); fifth-seeded David Ferrer stopping Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-2, 6-2, 6-1; No. 7-seeded Fernando Gonzalez topping Konstantinos Economidis 6-4, 7-6 (7-2), 6-1; and 10th-seeded David Nalbandian taking out Robert Smeets 6-1, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3).
Former Cubs pitcher Cardwell dies
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Pitcher Don Cardwell, famed for pitching a no-hitter in his first start with the Chicago Cubs, died Monday in North Carolina at 72.
Cardwell was the first Major League Baseball pitcher to throw a no-hitter in his first start with a new team. The shut out occurred against the St. Louis Cardinals on May 15, 1960, two days after he was traded to the Cubs by the Phillies. The Chicago Tribune said the event became part of television history because of Moose Moryn's catch of a sinking liner in left field for the final out as announcer Jack Brickhouse screamed, "C'mon Moose ..."
Cardwell recalled the event years later to WGN.
"Then all you-know-what broke loose with people coming on the field," he said. "The ushers tried to hold people back, but there was just no way. I was trying to get off the field, because there was just so many people right on top of you. For years, I've told people I just didn't want to spike anybody."
He was traded to the Cardinals in 1962 and played for the Pirates, the Mets and the Braves before retiring at the end of the 1970 season.
Mitchell: Look at bigger steroid picture
WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell told a Washington hearing on doping in baseball it is time "to bring the era of steroids and human growth hormone to an end."
Mitchell appeared Tuesday before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The session opened with congressional leaders saying they were calling for a U.S. Justice Department investigation of one of the men named in Mitchell's report on doping in baseball.
Baseball officials commissioned an investigation headed by Mitchell, D-Maine, to look into allegations of use of performance-enhancing substances. Mitchell's report, released last month, alleged widespread use of steroids and human growth hormone by baseball and named some 90 players as having used the substances.
Mitchell said the public should shift focus from individual players and look at the larger implications, such as the "hundreds of thousands" of high school-age people using such substances.
"It is now time to look to the future. I urge everyone involved in Major League Baseball to join in a well-planned and well-executed and sustained effort to bring the era of steroids and human growth hormone to an end," Mitchell said.
Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said Mitchell's report was "damning" and that "everyone in baseball is responsible -- the owners, the commissioner, the (players') union, and the players."
Kuznetsova sails into Australian 2nd round
MELBOURNE, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- No. 2-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova topped a series of highly seeded players collecting straight-set wins Tuesday in the first round of Australian Open.
Kuznetsova swept past Nathalie Dechy 6-3, 6-1 in one of the most lop-sided women's matches of the second day of the year's first Grand Slam event.
But fourth-seeded Ana Ivanovic beat Sorana Cirstea 7-5, 6-3; eighth-seeded Venus Williams defeated Zi Yan 6-2, 7-5 and ninth-seeded Daniela Hantuchova handled Vania King 6-3, 7-5 in other straight-set decisions.
Sofia Arvidsson delivered the tournament's first Top-10 upset, knocking out 10th-ranked Marion Bartoli 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-3. Other upset victims were 16th-seeded Dinara Safina, who dropped a 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-2 match to Sabine Lisicki; 20th-seeded Agnes Szavay, who lost 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 to Ekaterina Makarova; and 22nd-seeded Lucie Safarova, who was ousted 6-1, 6-4 by Catalina Castano.
No. 6 Anna Chakvetadze advanced when Andrea Petkovic withdrew with a right knee injury only a couple of points into their match.
