Derrek Lee already has as many homers in the first month of this season as he did in the entire first half a year ago.

Lee’s early surge continued Wednesday night as he and Carlos Zambrano carried the Cubs to a 12-3 victory over slumping Cincinnati—the Reds’ fifth straight loss under former Chicago manager Dusty Baker.

Lee homered among his three hits and Zambrano also went 3-for-4 while pitching seven strong innings. The Cubs jumped out early with 10 runs by the third inning and made it easy for their ace.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella knows how much Zambrano enjoys hitting—he’s been used as a pinch-hitter occasionally—and had teased the big right-hander about his slow start, telling him he was a batting practice hitter.

“Lou was telling me, `When are you going to get a hit this year?”’ said Zambrano, who was 0-for-8 entering Wednesday’s game after batting .247 last season.

“I said, `I don’t know.’ I was hitting .000 before the game and now I’m hitting .250.”

Lee raised his average to .393 and after hitting only 22 homers last season, he’s already connected for six—the same number he had before the All-Star break a year ago.

“We got contributions throughout the lineup, especially our third hitter. He’s really in a nice groove,” Piniella said. “He’s zoned in. The ball just jumps off his bat.”

The Cubs scored four runs in the first and six in the third to give Zambrano an early cushion on another blustery night at Wrigley Field with the wind gusting out at 20 mph.

Zambrano (2-1) allowed eight hits and two runs. Chicago, meanwhile, hit Josh Fogg (1-2) hard. He gave up seven hits and was charged with nine runs in two-plus innings.

“When you give Big Z a 10-run lead by the third, you might catch up but your odds aren’t real good,” Baker said. “We didn’t get to use that wind out there. They hit us around the ballpark pretty good.”

Fogg said the wind was difficult but that’s not necessarily why he pitched so poorly.

“It’s a factor. For me today it wasn’t a very big factor because I didn’t pitch very well, so it didn’t matter,” he said. “Zambrano did a pretty good job pitching in it, so it’s not like it was impossible. You just have to make quality pitches and I wasn’t able to do that.”

Adam Dunn did homer for the Reds, off reliever Kevin Hart in the eighth. That’s when fans at Wrigley Field not only threw one ball back—as is a tradition after an opponent’s homer—they littered the field with 15 baseballs, momentarily halting play.

“I was surprised. I didn’t know that many people hit a home run today,” Cubs right fielder Kosuke Fukudome said through a translator.

Chicago didn’t miss leadoff hitter Alfonso Soriano, who went on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday with a strained right calf, an injury he sustained in the first inning of Tuesday night’s 9-5 win when he caught a fly ball.

Bases-loaded doubles by Fukudome in the first and Geovany Soto in the third were key hits Wednesday night. Zambrano had the third three-hit game of his career—two singles and a double—and an RBI.

Lee’s solo shot started the six-run third.

Fogg then loaded the bases for the second time in three innings as the Cubs had two walks and a single before Soto delivered a two-run double for a 7-1 lead. Reed Johnson greeted reliever Mike Lincoln with a sacrifice fly, Zambrano had an RBI single and a sixth run scored on a wild pitch.

In the first, Fogg gave up a double to Ryan Theriot and a single to Lee before hitting Aramis Ramirez with a pitch to load the bases. Fukudome doubled past first for a 2-0 lead and Mark DeRosa followed with another two-run double.

The Reds had a big inning working in the top of the second when Dunn walked with one out and Edwin Encarnacion blooped a single to left. Joey Votto then hit a high, wind-blown fly to left that DeRosa—playing in place of Soriano— misjudged. The ball hit the warning track and went for a ground-rule RBI double.

But with runners at second and third, Zambrano grabbed Javier Valentin’s hard comebacker and was able to catch Encarnacion off third. He was tagged out in a rundown. Cubs shortstop Theriot then saved another run by going behind second on a high bouncer by Fogg to throw him out and end the inning.

Jeff Keppinger doubled in a run in the seventh for the Reds.

The Tigers have the worst record in the major leagues, and Detroit manager Jim Leyland couldn’t contain himself anymore.

Following Sunday’s 11-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox, Leyland was heard screaming in the clubhouse before reporters were allowed inside. He wouldn’t comment on the rant, but the manager said it wasn’t just about the loss.

“There was one thing that sticks out to me right now that’s going on, and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Leyland said, without revealing the issue.

Joe Crede and Paul Konerko hit grand slams to back Javier Vazquez’s strong start. Konerko’s homer came in the third off Kenny Rogers and Crede’s grand slam, his second this season, came in the fifth against Zach Miner as the White Sox won for the fifth time in six games over Detroit, the preseason favorite to win the AL Central.

“We got Detroit at the right time,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “Those guys are going to wake up sooner or later. They have unbelievable talent.”

Chicago has a 5 1/2 -game lead in the division over the Tigers. The White Sox have outscored Detroit 46-12 this season, despite the Tigers adding slugging third baseman Miguel Cabrera to an already powerful lineup.

“Where we’re at makes sense because that’s the way we’ve played,” Leyland said. “It’s not surprising that we’re 2-10. We’ve been shut out four times. … I didn’t think we’d get shut out four times all year, to be honest with you.”

Detroit has been shutout out twice as many time as any other major league team—one more time than they were blanked all of last year.

“We’re just in a funk,” Leyland said. “Can I get them out of the funk? No, I don’t think so. They have to get themselves out of it.”

It was the third time the White Sox have hit two grand slams in one game. The previous time Chicago did it was May 19, 1996, when Darren Lewis and Robin Ventura homered at Detroit. The first time was Sept. 4, 1995, when Ventura hit two grand slams in a game at Texas.

“It was kind of wild,” Konerko said. “You don’t see many grand slams, and especially with the weather. The weather was kind of brutal out there.”

On a cold and windy day, Rogers (0-3) gave up seven runs, seven hits and four walks in four-plus innings. He once again pitched with no run support; the Tigers haven’t scored a run in his three starts this season. Not that he helped much.

“We’re not a very good team right now,” Rogers said. “We’re as bad a team as there is right now in every facet, myself as much as anyone. I’m supposed to be consistent and I was very uncomfortable out there and inconsistent.”

Chicago has started to erase the bad taste from last season with its strong start, and Crede is part of the reason why. The third baseman is hitting .341 with four homers and 15 RBIs, with most of his production coming in the last week. He had to work himself into shape in spring training after missing much of last season with back surgery.

“He’s Joe,” Guillen said. “We’re lucky enough to have Joe back. Last year we missed him a lot. We missed his bat and his glove. You see his RBIs, but he also had RBIs in the field, saving runs with his defense.”

Vazquez (2-1) won his second straight start, scattering five hits in seven innings while striking out nine without a walk.

Trailing 1-0 in the third, Rogers walked Nick Swisher and Orlando Cabrera reached on an infield single. Jim Thome walked and Konerko took an 0-1 fastball to center for a 405-foot homer, his first grand slam since Aug. 3, 2004, and the seventh of his career.

“It’s a credit to the guys in front of us that were getting on base,” Konerko said. “In my case, Orlando hustled down the line, drawing a bad throw to get on base and then Jimmy has a heck of an at-bat and draws a walk. It’s all those little things where it didn’t look like it was going anywhere and then, bang, grand slam.”

Rogers didn’t make it out of the fifth, getting pulled for Miner after Cabrera’s double and Thome’s bloop single. Konerko struck out, Jermaine Dye hit an RBI double and A.J. Pierzynski was intentionally walked. Thome scored on a wild pitch and Miner walked Carlos Quentin to set up Crede’s sixth grand slam, a 393-foot shot to left.

Crede had hit two grand slams in a season once before.

“High school, senior year,” he said of his days at Fatima High School in Westphalia, Mo. “I can’t recall a time since A-ball that I’ve started out feeling this good, this early.”

Not so for the Tigers. On Thome’s single in the fifth, Cabrera tripped on the third base umpire’s foot and missed a chance for an easy catch.

“That tells you how bad it’s been going for us,” Leyland said. “He stepped on the umpire’s foot and slipped.”

After needing the equivalent of three games merely to win twice in Pittsburgh, what a relief this regulation game was to the Chicago Cubs. Almost as big as the relief Jon Lieber gave them.

Geovany Soto and Mike Fontenot hit two-run homers in Chicago’s five-run sixth inning and the Cubs finished off a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh, winning 7-3 Thursday night to run their winning streak to five games.

Soto had three extra-base hits, including two doubles, among his second career four-hit game, and Derrek Lee also drove in two runs despite not getting a hit as the Cubs won their sixth in a row over the Pirates dating to last season.

Lieber (2-1) got the decision by pitching 4 1-3 scoreless relief innings after starter Rich Hill needed 72 pitches to get through three innings, allowing three runs and three hits and walking four. Lieber pitched 7 1-3 scoreless relief innings in the series, three of them during a 10-8, 12-inning win Monday in the Pirates’ home opener.

“Without Lieber, we really would have had problems,” manager Lou Piniella said. “We were looking for innings. … (Hill) was all over the place. There was no use keeping him in there. It wasn’t going to get any better.”

The Cubs certainly didn’t need to look for innings earlier in the series.

After going 12 and 15 innings to win the first two games—the first time in 81 years they’ve needed that many innings to win consecutive road games—the Cubs won this with one big inning against the pitching-thin Pirates, who dropped their fifth in six games.

“I’m glad it didn’t go (extra innings),” said Soto, who went 8-of-17 while catching all 36 innings in the series—apparently with no effect on his offense.

The Cubs withstood two Pirates homer-driven comebacks to win 6-4 in 15 innings on Wednesday night.

“I think any situation like that, if anybody can go in there and do that, it’s definitely huge,” Lieber, a converted starter, said of propping up the bullpen. “You want to give those guys a break down there, especially after last night’s ballgame.”

Soto had a chance to hit for the cycle, but he didn’t think of trying to stretch a double into a triple in the seventh. He grounded out in the ninth.

“I already hit my one (triple) for the year. I’ll take them if they come, but I don’t want to get greedy,” Soto said. “I’m not a triple-type guy.”

After emptying their bullpen in consecutive games, the Pirates needed a lot of innings from starter Matt Morris (0-1), who lasted seven but gave up 11 hits and seven runs, four earned.

“I tried to avoid thinking about that all day—the obvious thing is (to think), ‘I’ve got to go 8, I’ve got to go 9, I’ve got to go 7, whatever it is,’ and as soon as you start thinking like that, you can barely get out of the first,” Morris said.

Morris led 3-2 going into the sixth, but quickly fell behind when Kosuke Fukudome walked and Soto followed with a drive into the center field shrubbery for his second homer.

“I had the game in front of me but, all of a sudden, the home run just changed everything and it snowballed,” Morris said.

Morris might have gotten out of the inning with only two runs scoring, but Ryan Theriot, who had singled, was safe at third on a steal attempt when third baseman Jose Bautista dropped Ronny Paulino’s throw that arrived well ahead of the runner.

Theriot scored on Reed Johnson’s single, and Fontenot made it 7-3 with a two-run, two-out drive into the right field seats, the third homer off Morris in two starts.

Prior to Wednesday’s game with the Twins, Ozzie Guillen was asked about umpire Phil Cuzzi and the fact that he’s been responsible for Guillen’s last two ejections. As usual, the White Sox manager pulled no punches.

“I don’t like that guy behind the plate,” Guillen said. “And I’m going to let him know. I don’t like him. He don’t like me, I don’t like him. It’s one reason is, if you don’t like me as a man and what I do, I respect that. But if you don’t like me, and all of a sudden you’re going to take it out on my players, you’re wrong. That’s unprofessional.

“And I just let him know I don’t like him the first day I see him, and I think he feels the same way about me. And we have to move on. Every time he’s behind the plate, we might have a problem. We might. We have. I think the last couple times behind the plate, we have a problem. And he tried to be smart with me, and I do what I have to do, and he does what he has to do. But I don’t like him, and he don’t like me. And I got a good sleep last night. I will spend all my money for him. I don’t care. But obviously, we don’t like each other.”

Kosuke Fukudome did everything he could in his first major league game—except bring the Chicago Cubs a victory.

Instead, the start of the Cubs’ 100th season since winning the World Series ended in familiar fashion. Tony Gwynn hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat Chicago 4-3 on a wet Monday at Wrigley Field.

Fukudome, the team’s main offseason acquisition, went 3-for-3, hitting a tying, three-run homer in the ninth off Eric Gagne (1-0).

But it wasn’t enough for the Cubs, who haven’t even reached the World Series since 1945.

“It was a pretty good day for me, but we lost the game,” Fukudome said through a translator.

Fukudome excited the crowd of 41,089 when he doubled on his first major league pitch from Ben Sheets, then singled, walked and homered. He got ovations throughout the game, including one when he first went to right field. He tipped his cap and bowed at the beginning of what would be an auspicious start.

Gagne gave up a leadoff single to Derrek Lee in the ninth and walked Aramis Ramirez before Fukudome’s drive into the right-center field bleachers. Fukudome then came out for a curtain call.

“He had a great day today. We don’t really have a game plan for him yet. We’ll see how we adjust to him,” said Sheets, who gave up only two hits in 6 1-3 innings, both by Fukudome. “I know he’s a good player.”

Pinch-hitter Craig Counsell opened the 10th with a double off Bob Howry (0-1) and moved up on a sacrifice. And after Rickie Weeks was hit by a pitch for the second straight inning, Gwynn delivered the go-ahead fly. David Riske pitched the bottom of the 10th for the save.

Sheets and Chicago’s Carlos Zambrano pitched shutout ball, the Cubs ace forced out in the seventh because of a forearm cramp.

But closers Kerry Wood and Eric Gagne both had rough outings.

“Gagne sputtered a little bit today but things like that happen,” Milwaukee manager Ned Yost said. “Their stopper sputtered, too. It was funny, the starters went out and pitched great and the stoppers struggled.”

The Brewers went ahead in the ninth off Wood. After the Cubs chose to intentionally walk Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun hit an RBI single before falling down coming out of the batter’s box, and Corey Hart’s two-run double made it 3-0.

The Cubs overcame Milwaukee’s 8 1/2 -game lead in late June to win the NL Central last season, but the Brewers believe they’ve learned from the experience.

“I think last year we would have lost a game like this a lot of times,” Braun said. “It was disappointing when they came back like that, but everybody stayed together, stayed tough. We were confident that we were going to come out with a win and we did.”

Zambrano allowed three hits in 6 2-3 innings. He had problems with cramping last season, as well.

“I have to take care of myself,” he said. He had just picked Bill Hall off second base when he grabbed his arm in the seventh. Earlier in the inning, he’d been knocked to the ground by Derrek Lee as they chased a pop, but he said that had nothing to do with the cramping.

Because of the 100th anniversary, even more attention has been focused on the Cubs’ travails. Manager Lou Piniella has already told his team not to worry about he past and forge its own reputation.

“How do I view it? … It’s not something I came up with, believe me,” Piniella said before the game. “It seems rather improbable. I mean a long time.”

The Cubs have another streak Piniella would like to end first.

“I read the same things that everybody else does,” he said. “Not only have the Cubs not won in 100 years, but they haven’t been in the postseason two years in a row in that span.”

The Cubs honored one of their greats, Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, whose brilliant career also lacked a World Series appearance.

The team unveiled a statue of him in front of Wrigley Field on a wet afternoon. The game was delayed by 41 minutes at the start and another 49 minutes in the bottom of the third.

As the inning unfolded, C.C. Sabathia felt as if he was watching a favorite movie, one with a dialogue he knows by heart and predictable ending.

“Not to sound cocky,” the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner said. “But I think everybody knew what was coming.”

Say this for the Cleveland Indians, they can do drama.

The defending AL Central champions won in familiar fashion at Progressive Field—their ballpark previously known as Jacobs Field—as Casey Blake hit a three-run double in the eighth inning Monday for a 10-8 opening win over the Chicago White Sox.

Blake’s shot off the wall against Octavio Dotel capped a 3-hour, 21-minute opener that featured five homers, controversial calls and unseasonably pleasant weather in a city finally thawed out from the snowiest March on record.

After blowing a 7-2 lead, the Indians loaded the bases in the eighth on two singles and a two-out walk before Blake’s clutch hit.

“It was not that big of a surprise,” said Sabathia, who made his fifth and potentially final opening day start for the Indians. “Nobody in this clubhouse was ever in doubt. We always have faith that somebody would come through and it was Casey—once again.”

They may not play in the Jake anymore, but everything else seemed in place for the Indians, who won 23 times in their final at-bat last season.

With the score 7-7, Kelly Shoppach and Jhonny Peralta opened the eighth with singles off Dotel (0-1), who bounced back and got two quick outs. Franklin Gutierrez, who hit a three-run homer in Cleveland’s seven-run second off Mark Buehrle, walked to load the bases.

Blake fell behind 1-2 in the count before lifting a shot high off the 19-foot-high wall in left, barely missing a grand slam but starting a new chapter of memories for Indians fans, who have resisted the ballpark’s new corporate moniker.

“I was begging for a homer,” said Blake, who batted just .190 with runners in scoring position last year.

Chicago’s Jim Thome hit a pair of two-run homers off Sabathia, who couldn’t protect a 7-2 lead but wound up with a no-decision. The lefty struck out seven in 5 1-3 innings.

The White Sox threatened in the ninth as Jermaine Dye homered off Joe Borowski, last year’s AL saves leader who once again had pulses racing before retiring Joe Crede on a foul pop to get the save for winner Rafael Betancourt.

The comeback didn’t comfort losing’s sting.

“There’s no such thing as a moral victory,” catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. “To come back from 7-2 against C.C. is huge, but give them credit. They got the hits when they needed them and we didn’t.”

Consecutive, debatable went against the White Sox in the eighth, preventing them from going ahead.

Crede led off with a double but was held at third when he had to check up on Juan Uribe’s hard-hit double to left-center off Betancourt. After an intentional walk, Orlando Cabrera bounced to shortstop Jhonny Peralta, whose high throw home for a force pulled catcher Kelly Shoppach off the plate. Shoppach, though, managed to tag Crede as he slid by.

At least that’s the way Gerry Davis saw it.

“Nobody tagged me,” Crede said. “I didn’t feel anything. I went in and looked at the TV replay and he didn’t tag me.”

Thome then shattered his bat on a grounder to second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera, who flipped to Peralta. After stepping on the bag for one out, Peralta was making his throw to first when he was grabbed on the left leg by a sliding Orlando Cabrera, who was called out for interference.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen sprinted out of his dugout for the second time in minutes to protest another call that didn’t go Chicago’s way.

“The umpire was right,” Guillen said. “I went down and saw the replay.”

Gutierrez and Grady Sizemore homered off Mark Buehrle, who didn’t get out of the second and was disappointed with his first outing of ‘08.

“It doesn’t get much more embarrassing for a starting pitcher than that,” the left-hander said.

On their way to building a 7-2 lead, the Indians lost All-Star catcher Victor Martinez to a hamstring injury. Martinez, hurt in last year’s home opener, came up limping while running to second in Cleveland’s big inning, which he started with a base hit and ended with an RBI single.

Martinez was taken for an MRI exam following the game, and the Indians were hoping their best hitter wouldn’t miss much time.

While Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella pronounced the deal to acquire Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts dead, the Boston Globe reports there are still rumors of a potentional blockbuster trade between the Orioles and Cubs.

The Cubs are apparently listening to talk about a deal that would send Baltimore ace Erik Bedard and second baseman Brian Roberts to Chicago for a truckload of younger players/prospects. The Cubs are also entertaining the thought of dealing former Sox farmhand Matt Murton to San Diego.

Octavio Dotel knows he’s joining a team that struggled last season. He also sees an opportunity to play in the World Series.

Dotel and the Chicago White Sox agreed Tuesday to an $11 million, two-year contract, bolstering a bullpen that ranked among the majors’ worst last season.

“I think they’ve got good starting pitchers, and they’ve got a great bullpen,” he said. “The chance to be in the World Series is the reason I signed with the White Sox.”

The 34-year-old right-hander spent last season with the Kansas City Royals and Atlanta Braves, but a shoulder injury limited him to 33 appearances and 30 2-3 innings. He went 2-1 with a 4.11 ERA and was dealt from Kansas City to Atlanta at the July 31 trade deadline.

Dotel had reconstructive elbow surgery in 2005 while with Oakland and pitched for the New York Yankees the following year. He has 82 career saves in nine major league seasons.

White Sox general manager Ken Williams said Dotel probably came back too quickly from the elbow surgery and added he passed an MRI and physical exams “with flying colors.”

Dotel added he’s 100 percent and feeling “better than before.”

“If you can assess that he’s going to be healthy and return back to his normal production level, then the money is secondary at that point and we focus on getting the team to be the best we can possibly be,” Williams said.

Dotel said Cleveland, San Francisco, both New York teams, Baltimore and Pittsburgh were interested in him. He’s joining a team that won 72 games, thanks in part to a bullpen that blew 23 save chances, had a 19-25 record and a 5.49 ERA. He’ll slot in behind closer Bobby Jenks along with Scott Linebrink.

“Kenny was the one who showed more interest in me,” Dotel said. “That’s the reason. He thinks I’m a great key for the bullpen in 2008, even though we have Linebrink and Jenks as the closer. I see help for me, too. When I come into the game, I know I’m going to have help.”

Upgrading the bullpen was a major goal for Williams, who signed Linebrink to a $19 million, four-year contract in November. Now, the White Sox have several right-handed setup men for Jenks, who had 41 and 40 saves, respectively, in the past two seasons.

“I’ll be OK to set up for Jenks,” said Dotel, who gets $5 million this year and $6 million in 2009. “He’s a great closer, one of the best in the league. It’ll be good for me. There are going to be some days he won’t be available, and I’ll be there.”

But his main job will be to set up Jenks.

“What we needed to do was make sure we had a bridge to get the ball to Bobby,” Williams said. “Now, I believe we’ve got multiple options — not just with Dotel but obviously Linebrink. I expect Matt Thornton to rebound and Mike MacDougal to rebound from disappointing years. We feel good about the quality. We feel good about the depth of our bullpen. We also feel good about the ability to not tax Bobby Jenks to the point where we wear him out.”

Dotel can earn an additional $500,000 in performance bonuses: $50,000 for finishing 40 games; $75,000 for finishing 45; $100,000 for finishing 50; $125,000 for finishing 55; and $150,000 for finishing 60.

Any bonuses earned this year would be added to his base salary in 2009.

Chicago also agreed to a $4.75 million, four-year contract with Cuban slugger Alexei Ramirez and designated pitcher David Aardsma for assignment.

The deal with Ramirez, who batted .335 with 20 homers and 68 RBIs last season in Cuba, had been in place for a month. An infielder and outfielder, he will receive a $500,000 signing bonus and be paid $950,000 this year and $1.1 million annually from 2009 to 2011.

Ramirez left Cuba in early September to join his wife and children in the Dominican Republic.

Aardsma, a right-hander, was 2-1 with a 6.40 ERA in 25 relief appearances with the White Sox last season

Page after page, Roger Clemens‘ name was all over the Mitchell Report.

Count them, 82 times.

Barry Bonds showed up more often. So did Jose Canseco. Andy Pettitte, Eric Gagne and Miguel Tejada also became part of baseball’s most infamous lineup since the 1919 Black Sox scandal.

But they didn’t get the worst of it Thursday. That infamy belonged to Clemens, the greatest pitcher of his era.

The Steroids Era.

“Those who have illegally used these substances range from players whose major league careers were brief to potential members of the Baseball Hall of Fame,” former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell wrote in his much-anticipated report on performance-enhancing drugs.

“They include both pitchers and position players, and their backgrounds are as diverse as those of all major league players.”

Seven MVPs, two Cy Young Award winners and 31 All-Stars — one for every position. In all, the 409-page report identified 85 names to differing degrees, putting question marks if not asterisks in the record book and threatening the integrity of the game itself.

“If there are problems, I wanted them revealed,” commissioner Bud Selig said. “His report is a call to action, and I will act.”

Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Troy Glaus, Gary Matthews Jr., Paul Byrd, Jose Guillen, Brian Roberts, Paul Lo Duca and Rick Ankiel were among other current players cited. Some were linked to Human Growth Hormone, others to steroids. Mitchell did not delve into stimulants in his 20-month investigation.

While he vehemently denied it through his lawyer, Clemens was the symbol.

Considered a lock for the Hall of Fame earlier this week, Clemens’ path to Cooperstown was thrown in doubt after he was singled out on nearly nine pages.

Seven-time Cy Young Award winner, eighth on the career list with 354 victories, an MVP and All-Star himself, Clemens suddenly had more to worry about than simply whether to play next season.

“It is very unfair to include Roger’s name in this report,” said Clemens’ lawyer, Rusty Hardin. “He is left with no meaningful way to combat what he strongly contends are totally false allegations. He has not been charged with anything, he will not be charged with anything and yet he is being tried in the court of public opinion with no recourse. That is totally wrong.”

Much of the information about Clemens came from former New York Yankees major league strength and conditioning coach Brian McNamee.

According to the report, McNamee also told investigators that “during the middle of the 2000 season, Clemens made it clear that he was ready to use steroids again. During the latter part of the regular season, McNamee injected Clemens in the buttocks four to six times with testosterone from a bottle labeled either Sustanon 250 or Deca-Durabolin.”

The report was unlikely to trigger a wave of discipline. While a few players, such as Bonds, are subjects of ongoing legal proceedings, many of the instances cited by Mitchell were before drug testing began in 2003.

Mitchell said punishment was inappropriate in all but the most egregious cases, and Selig said decisions on any action would come “swiftly” on a case-by-case basis.

Mitchell said the problems didn’t develop overnight and there was plenty of blame to go around.

“Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades — commissioners, club officials, the players’ association and players — shares to some extent the responsibility for the Steroids Era,” Mitchell said. “There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on.”

Mitchell recommended that the drug-testing program be made independent, that a list of the substances players test positive for be issued periodically and that the timing of testing be more unpredictable.

“The illegal use of performance-enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the integrity of the game,” the report said. “Widespread use by players of such substances unfairly disadvantages the honest athletes who refuse to use them and raises questions about the validity of baseball records.”

Canseco, whose book “Juiced” was cited throughout, was mentioned the most often — 105 times. Bonds, already under indictment on charges of lying to a federal grand jury about steroids, was next at 103.

A total of 20 Yankees, past and present, were identified. Players were linked to doping in various ways — some were identified as users, some as buyers and some by media reports and other investigations.

Former Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski also provided information as part of his plea agreement in a federal steroids case.

Rafael Palmeiro, who tested positive for steroids, was among the former players named. So were Kevin Brown, Benito Santiago, Lenny Dykstra, Chuck Knoblauch, David Justice, Mo Vaughn, Wally Joyner and Todd Hundley.

Mike Stanton, Scott Schoeneweis, Ron Villone and Jerry Hairston Jr. were among the other current players identified.

“Other investigations will no doubt turn up more names and fill in more details, but that is unlikely to significantly alter the description of baseball’s `steroids era’ as set forth in this report.”

Mitchell is a director of the Boston Red Sox, and some questioned whether that created a conflict, especially because none of their prime players were in the report.

“Judge me by my work,” Mitchell said. “You will not find any evidence of bias, special treatment, for the Red Sox or anyone else. That had no effect on this investigation or this report, none whatsoever.”

Giambi, under threat of discipline from Selig, and Frank Thomas were the only current players known to have cooperated with the Mitchell investigation.

“The players’ union was largely uncooperative for reasons that I thought were largely understandable,” Mitchell said.

Union head Donald Fehr made “no apologies” for the way they represented players.

“Many players are named. Their reputations have been adversely affected, probably forever,” he said. “Even if it turns out down the road that they should not have been.”

Certainly a lot of people read the names. The report was downloaded 1.8 million times off MLB.com in the first three hours after it was posted.

About two hours after the report was released, two congressmen at the forefront of Capitol Hill’s involvement in the steroids issue asked Mitchell, Selig and Fehr to testify at a House committee hearing Tuesday.

California Democrat Henry Waxman and Virginia Republican Tom Davis — the leaders of the panel that held the March 17, 2005, hearing at which Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Palmeiro testified — want to know “whether the Mitchell Report’s recommendations will be adopted and whether additional measures are needed,” they said.

Also, a Congressional subcommittee will hold a hearing on Jan. 23 relating to steroid use in professional sports.

Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome and the Chicago Cubs reached a preliminary agreement Tuesday on a $48 million, four-year contract.

The deal is subject to a physical, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made. The agreement could be finalized as early as Wednesday.

Fukudome was considered one of the best outfielders in Japanese baseball. The 30-year-old slugger was a key member of the Japan team that won the inaugural World Baseball Classic in March 2006.

He had surgery on his right elbow in August and sat out the Japan Series, but has 192 homers and a .305 batting average over nine seasons with the Chunichi Dragons, who won their first championship in 53 years on Nov. 2.

After becoming a free agent, Fukudome drew interest from the Cubs, San Diego Padres and White Sox.

He is expected to play right field for the Cubs, who traded outfielder Jacque Jones to Detroit this offseason and declined their contract option on veteran Cliff Floyd.

All-Star slugger Alfonso Soriano returns in left and speedy prospect Felix Pie is expected to take over in center after shuttling between the majors and minors this season. The Cubs hope Fukudome will provide the consistent left-handed bat they seek to go with righties Soriano, Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee.

Chicago won the NL Central title last season before being swept by Arizona in the first round of the playoffs.

Fukudome was the 2006 Central League MVP, batting .351 with 31 homers and 104 RBIs. He recently told the Dragons he wouldn’t return next season, saying he wanted to move to the major leagues.