Major League Baseball to require screening of fans

Entering a big league ballpark will be a bit like going through an airport by 2015.

Major League Baseball has told its 30 teams they must implement security screening for fans by then, either with hand-held metal detection or walk-through magnetometers.

“This procedure, which results from MLB’s continuing work with the Department of Homeland Security to standardize security practices across the game, will be in addition to bag checks that are now uniform throughout MLB,” baseball spokesman Michael Teevan said Tuesday.

The Seattle Mariners announced Tuesday that fans entering Safeco Field will have to walk through metal detectors starting with this year’s opener.

Boston, the New York Mets, Oakland, Pittsburgh and San Francisco were among the teams that experimented with screening at times last year.

Some MLB players want Alex Rodriguez kicked out of union

Several angry major league players wanted Alex Rodriguez kicked out of their union after he sued it last week, but staff lawyers told them expulsion was not allowed.

The players spoke Jan. 13 during a Major League Baseball Players Assn. conference call after Rodriguez sued the union and Major League Baseball to overturn an arbitrator’s decision suspending him for the 2014 season and postseason.

Details were first reported Tuesday by Yahoo Sports and later confirmed to the Associated Press by a person familiar with the call. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because no statements were authorized.

The union and Rodriguez spokesman Ron Berkowitz declined to comment.

All players in the major leagues are members of the union and pay $65 daily in dues, or $11,895 if a player is in the big leagues for a full season. Baseball’s labor contract specifies the union is “the sole and exclusive bargaining agent for all major league players.”

The union will incur costs of defending the lawsuit by the New York Yankees third baseman, who claimed in the suit it “breached its duty of fair representation to Mr. Rodriguez.” The union retained Michael Rubin and Barbara J. Chisholm of the San Francisco firm Altshuler Berzon to defend it, according to a court filing Tuesday.

Bobby Abreu signs minor league deal

Outfielder Bobby Abreu has signed a minor league contract with the Philadelphia Phillies and will be invited to spring training. Abreu, 39, was a two-time All-Star with the Phillies in 2004 and ’05. He later played on the Angels and the Dodgers.