Canseco makes a pitch

Jose Canseco is willing to tell all before a congressional committee looking into steroids in baseball, but first he wants assurances he won't get in trouble for talking.

Canseco yesterday asked for immunity if he's to testify fully, but a spokesman for the lawmaker who will chair the proceeding offered no promises. Canseco is among seven players summoned to appear at the March 17 hearing of the House Government Reform Committee.

Another House panel yesterday held the first of what it said could be a series of hearings on the subject, with several congressmen chastising baseball for what Representative Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican, called its "extremely weak" drug-testing program. The subcommittee chairman said all major US sports leagues should work toward uniform steroid penalties.

Canseco, the 1988 AL MVP, has admitted using performance-enhancing drugs and his best-selling book accuses several stars of steroid use.

"We've asked for immunity," said Canseco's lawyer, Robert Saunooke. "We hope they give it to us. We're still going to show up even if we have no immunity and offer whatever testimony we can that does not expose Jose to legal liability."

If immunity were granted, any prosecutor who wanted to charge Canseco would have to prove statements before Congress were not used as evidence. David Marin, a spokesman for committee chairman Tom Davis a Virginia Republican, said: "At this point, there are no plans to offer immunity to any witness."

The committee has issued subpoenas to the seven players and four other people. Baseball has said it will fight the subpoenas.

Whether they are granted immunity will be determined by Davis's committee and the Justice Department.

Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Jason Giambi, Curt Schilling, Rafael Palmeiro, and Frank Thomas are the other players subpoenaed. Some were in the process of hiring lawyers and deciding whether to act jointly or individually.

"If I'm going to talk about anything, I'm going to talk about myself," Giambi said in Tampa. "I'm not going to speak for anybody else or talk about anybody else."

McGwire's spokesman, Marc Altieri, said his client hasn't decided whether to appear. Thomas, at spring training in Arizona, said: "If it happens, I'll go. It's not a problem."

Also summoned were union head Donald Fehr, baseball executive vice presidents Rob Manfred and Sandy Alderson, and San Diego general manager Kevin Towers. Fehr and Manfred will appear; Towers said yesterday he wasn't sure.

Wood ailing
Chicago Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood returned to Chicago to have his right shoulder examined. Wood felt tightness in the shoulder Wednesday and left a spring training game. He had an MRI before heading to Chicago. Wood missed two months last season because of tendinitis in his right triceps . . . The Orioles' Sidney Ponson obtained a US work visa that will allow him to appear in spring training games as he works through visa problems associated with his court case in Aruba . . . Yankees closer Mariano Rivera spent the day squashing rumors he'd been involved in a fatal car accident. Rivera said he believes the rumor started because Reggie Jackson was involved in a accident recently with a man identified only as M. Rivera . . . Ex-Red Sox GM Dan Duquette is bringing baseball back to Wahconah Park. Duquette said the Pittsfield Dukes of the New England Collegiate Baseball League have signed a one-year license agreement to play in the 113-year-old ballpark. The NECBL plays from June through August.