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From The Associated Press

Giambi agrees to meet with Mitchell
NEW YORK—Jason Giambi agreed Thursday to meet with baseball steroids investigator George Mitchell and apologized for his actions, becoming the first active player known to cooperate with the former Senate majority leader.

“I alone am responsible for my actions and I apologize to the commissioner, the owners and the players for any suggestion that they were responsible for my behavior,” the New York Yankees star said in a statement.

The decision by Giambi came after baseball commissioner Bud Selig requested the meeting and followed long negotiations between lawyers for the players’ union and Major League Baseball.

Giambi was quoted in USA Today last month as seeming to admit to steroids use several years ago—during a period when baseball did not penalize most first-time drug offenders. Selig threatened to discipline Giambi and said he would factor cooperation with Mitchell into his decision

“A direct conversation the commissioner impressed upon me the idea that the game of baseball would be best served by such a meeting,” Giambi said. “I will continue to do what I think is right and be candid about my past history regarding steroids. I have never blamed anyone nor intended to deflect blame for my conduct.”

Girardi declines chance to manage Orioles
BALTIMORE—Joe Girardi turned down an offer to manage the Baltimore Orioles, a decision Thursday that ended the team’s spirited effort to secure its top choice for the job.

The Orioles began negotiating with Girardi soon after firing Sam Perlozzo on Monday. The sides appeared headed toward an agreement on Wednesday, but Girardi ultimately decided against getting back in the dugout.

Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail said Girardi withdrew his name from consideration because “he wasn’t ready to leave his family.”

Dusty Baker and former Orioles Davey Johnson, Rick Dempsey and Don Baylor have been bandied around as possible candidates for an interview. According to MacPhail, the main qualification is enthusiasm for the position as manager of the Orioles, a team in trying to avoid its 10th consecutive losing season.

“I need somebody excited about the job, someone bullish on the future of the franchise,” MacPhail said.

Asked if a former Oriole would have an edge, MacPhail replied, “At the end of the day, I want to get a guy I think will get us in the postseason.”

Lawyers: ‘Pacman’ Jones will fight Las Vegas charges
LAS VEGAS—Suspended NFL player Adam “Pacman” Jones will surrender to authorities in Nevada and fight felony charges in a strip club melee that preceded a triple shooting.

Lawyers for the Tennessee Titans cornerback disclosed their client’s plans Thursday. Attorneys Manny Arora and Robert Langford, however, said they had no information about a deadline of noon Friday set by police.

Arora said he was working with Clark County District Attorney David Roger’s office on arrangements for Jones to surrender Friday or Monday in Las Vegas. Roger declined comment and said police were handling negotiations.

Las Vegas police Capt. James Dillon confirmed that authorities gave Jones, Sadia Morrison and Robert Reid until midday Friday to turn themselves in or face arrest in the melee at the Minxx strip club that took place during the NBA All-Star Game weekend.

Police have described Reid as Jones’ bodyguard, and Morrison as a member of an entourage of about six people who arrived with Jones before the pre-dawn Feb. 19 fracas at the club, several blocks off the Las Vegas Strip.

The charges in Las Vegas have cast more doubt on Jones’ playing status with the Titans. Since he was drafted in April 2005, he has been arrested five times—although he has not been convicted of any crimes. Jones has been involved in at least 11 separate police investigations, authorities say, and is currently sought by Atlanta-area police for questioning in a shooting early Monday after a fight at a strip club there.

Finally with 600 homers, Sosa looking for more
ARLINGTON, Texas—Sitting home in the Dominican Republic last summer without a place to play, Sammy Sosa knew he was too close to an elite mark not to come back.

Still, since being given that chance by his original team, Sosa has insisted he wanted more than the dozen home runs he needed to reach 600. He even mentioned 700 after rejoining the Texas Rangers this spring.

Now that Sosa is the fifth member of the 600-homer club after finally reaching the milestone Wednesday night against the Chicago Cubs, how many more can he hit?

“Definitely, I think it’s going to be more easy (now). I don’t have to go out there and try to hit two home runs in one at-bat,” Sosa said, without giving a specific goal.

No. 600 was only the second homer in 22 games for Sosa, who wasn’t in the lineup for the series finale against the Cubs on Thursday afternoon—the 18th anniversary of his first career homer for the Rangers off Roger Clemens at Fenway Park in Boston.

At 38 years, 220 days, Sosa was older than Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays when they hit their 600th homers. But only Ruth’s 2,044 games to reach the mark were fewer than Sosa’s 2,302.

Sosa’s induction into the 600-homer club took considerably longer than most would have thought when he was playing his last game for the Cubs in 2004 and was only 26 homers shy.

But there was that miserable year with the Orioles, when he testified before Congress about possible steroid use in baseball during spring training then hit .221 with 14 homers.

Rockies stop Clemens’ bid for 350
DENVER—Roger Clemens couldn’t hold on for his 350th win and the Colorado Rockies completed a three-game sweep of the New York Yankees with a 4-3 victory Thursday.

Matt Holliday’s RBI single with one out in the fifth broke a 2-2 tie and chased the Rocket, who failed to hold a 2-0 lead and allowed four earned runs and seven hits with one walk and six strikeouts.

Rodrigo Lopez (4-0) survived Hideki Matsui’s 428-foot, two-run home run into the rock pile in center field and lasted 5 2-3 innings against the Yankees, who managed to score just five runs in three games at Coors Field in falling 10 1/2 games behind Boston in the AL East.

he Rockies, a major league-best 20-7 since May 22, cooled off the surging Yankees, who had won 14 of 17 coming into Coors Field. They outscored New York 13-5 in the series, compared to their 41-29 deficit in the 2002 set.