No more than 11 players from this year's free-agent class were asked to speak with George Mitchell as part of his investigation into performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, a union official told agents this week. Michael Weiner, the union's general counsel, made the statement Wednesday to agents attending a meeting in New York, two people with knowledge of the session said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the remarks were intended to remain private.

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Alex Rodriguez is prepared to meet and greet. Agent Scott Boras used this week's general managers' meetings to give teams his sales pitch for A-Rod and was pleased with how it went. "With regard to Alex, we got some very clear direction from clubs as to where their interest is," Boras said Thursday after the four-day session ended. Given that Rodriguez terminated a record $252 million, 10-year contract to seek even greater riches, this won't be a deal signed off on at the GM level.

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The baseball players' union is worried commissioner Bud Selig is trying to hold down the price of Alex Rodriguez's next contract and that teams might be sharing information about their free-agent plans. General managers, in an innovation, each spoke at their annual meeting Tuesday about their offseason goals, and many mentioned what players they were making available.

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Joe Torre, named last week as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers after ending a 12-year reign with the New York Yankees, is working on a memoir. The book, currently untitled, will be co-authored by Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci and will include Torre's memories of the Yankees, with whom he won four World Series championships, and general thoughts on the game. Doubleday, an imprint of Random House Inc., will publish the book in the spring of 2009.

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The Tampa Bay Devil Rays are gone. Trying to reinvent itself, the perennial last-place team officially shortened its nickname to simply "Rays" during a celebration that brought a crowd of about 7,000 to a downtown park Thursday night. New team colors and uniforms also were unveiled during a fashion show featuring current players, as well as manager Joe Maddon, senior advisor Don Zimmer and former Tampa Bay stars Wade Boggs and Fred McGriff as models.

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Roger Clemens is ready to join the Houston Astros - as a consultant. In a sign that Clemens' pitching career could be over, his agent told the Astros on Wednesday that the seven-time Cy Young winner is set to start his personal-services contract with the team. "He's moving toward retirement and leaving open the possibility of playing," agent Randy Hendricks said. "As Roger has stated several times, he's failed at retirement repeatedly."

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