Darrell Evans back in baseball

Former Major Leaguer Darrell Evans is headed to independent ball as a manager and director of player personnel in the Golden Baseball League. He had an illustrious pro career with the Braves, Giants and Tigers.

Evans retired with 414 career major-league home runs and as the first player to hit more than 40 homers in both the American and National leagues and one of only two players, along with Reggie Jackson, to hit more than 100 homers for three different teams.

Oh, and that World Series ring on his finger from the 1984 Detroit Tigers is pretty darn impressive, too.

Evans chuckled that is ancient history to the batch of pro prospects he will be guiding in Victoria.

"I've seen pretty much everything . . . but the only way some of these guys would recognize me is from a Nintendo '87 video game," he quipped.

I remember watching Evans play, but somehow I thought he had a brief stint with the Red Sox. My mistake.

Just a quick note: The Golden Baseball League uses Olympic Drug Testing policy. Hello, MLB.

Street closed for Mets

According to the NY Post, the Mets could have acquired Huston Street from the Rockies for a pair of relievers. Interesting that they wanted Street for a setup role, however, and would still be out there trying to grab a top-notch closer.

A-Rod immaterial

Add this to the A-Rod-Madonna rumor mill. Although these aren't rumors anymore, are they? It's still not much of a story.

Tazawa to Boston

Junichi Tazawa will end up in Boston. There's no secret as to why he's headed for Beantown.

Boston already has veteran Japanese pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima on its roster, and Tazawa reportedly has expressed a desire to be a teammate of Matsuzaka. The two attended different high schools in Yokohama.

Boston's staff will be very interesting to follow this spring. They have a number of talented arms either fighting for the starting staff or looking for setup role jobs in the bullpen.

Mitchell: drugs are down

Former Senate Majority Leader, George Mitchell says he believes drugs are down in baseball, but doesn't believe they're necessarily down and out.

"I would be very doubtful that it is completely clean in the sense nobody is using," he said. "You don't know whether this is a temporary response because of the attention it's gotten and whether over time it will begin to resume an increase. I think that's unlikely given the aggressive nature of the response, but it's something you have to be continuously concerned about."

Mitchell's report, while fairly detailed, left a lot to be desired. He is correct not to assume anything. Drugs may be down for a period of time, but the next designer steroids are out or will be out, and if players tried them in the past with general success, they'll be looking to them again in the future.