Bonds is balking at request

Barry Bonds finishes hitting yesterday; he's not ready to start talking to MLB. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Barry Bonds and other players under suspicion of using performance enhancing drugs have been asked by Major League Baseball's lead steroids investigator to turn over medical records and submit to interviews.

A letter urging the cooperation of Bonds and other players tied to the BALCO scandal was sent Feb. 1 by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, who is leading baseball's steroids inquiry. The letter, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Sunday on its website, was accompanied by medical waiver forms that, if signed, would allow investigators to view Bonds's and other players' medical records.

Bonds's lawyer, Michael Rains, told the Chronicle that the Giants star cannot cooperate as long as he remains the focus of a possible perjury indictment.

Rains said Bonds wanted to help but could not do so while facing possible indictment on perjury charges related to his testimony before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the Northern California lab that allegedly provided performance-enhancing drugs to the athletes.

Members of Congress have told Mitchell they might intervene if baseball's own investigation is hampered by lack of player cooperation.

Yankees right fielder Bobby Abreu is expected to miss at least two weeks after straining his right oblique during batting practice yesterday, an injury general manager Brian Cashman and manager Joe Torre said won't cause the team to make a new push for Bernie Williams to report.

"It's not an option we're looking at," Cashman said. "Bobby is coming back. The question is when." The team is hopeful Abreu will be ready for Opening Day on April 2.

"He had a significant oblique strain," Cashman said. "I'll probably say three weeks, but we'll see. Worst case, it's one of those lengthy ones that gives him too short a period of time to get ready. But it's really premature to be guessing."

Williams rejected the Yankees' offer of a minor league contract and spring training invite, but Torre said Abreu's injury wouldn't make the Yankees reconsider their plans.

Also, New York's Johnny Damon returned to Legends Field yesterday, saying his mind was clearer following a two-day leave of absence to attend to unspecified personal matters.

Bartolo Colon's rehabilitation from a rotator-cuff tear is on schedule, but he likely won't pitch in a major league game until May. Manager Mike Scioscia said Colon was unlikely to pitch in a Cactus League game this spring. Colon, 33, went 1-5 with a 5.11 ERA in 10 starts in 2006 after going 21-8 with a 3.48 ERA the season before . . . Randy Johnson felt a little sore after throwing off the mound at Diamondbacks camp in Tucson but said that was to be expected. It was Johnson's second session off a mound in his comeback from back surgery. He said the soreness was "the residual effects from the first time out." Said Johnson, "As I do more, my back will get stronger." . . . To the surprise of no one, Braves manager Bobby Cox aligned his spring training rotation to ensure that John Smoltz would be ready to pitch the April 2 opener at Philadelphia.

St. Louis manager Tony La Russa and third baseman Scott Rolen are talking again, and both agree the rift that began during the 2006 postseason is over. The two shook hands last week outside La Russa's office at the Cardinals' spring training complex. They had not spoken since the disagreement began . . . Ken Holtzman, Ron Blomberg, and Art Shamsky are among the former major leaguers who will manage teams in the new Israel Baseball League. Tel Aviv, Bet Shemish, Modi'in, Ra'anana, Netanya, and Petach Tikva were announced yesterday as the six clubs to play this summer in the inaugural season of the league. Former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette is the director of baseball operations for the league.