Baseball Notebook | Bonds' trainer released because of "legal snafu"

SAN FRANCISCO — Barry Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson walked out of prison Thursday, hours after a federal judge ordered him released because of a "legal snafu."

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said Anderson must be freed because a federal appeals court hadn't affirmed the contempt order within the required 30 days after Anderson was jailed.

Anderson, 40, could be returned to prison if the appeals court affirms the Aug. 28 contempt citation.

The trainer has been imprisoned twice for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating whether the Giants slugger committed perjury when he said he never knowingly used steroids.

Bonds told a 2003 grand jury investigating BALCO that Anderson gave him what he believed to be flaxseed oil and arthritic balm. Anderson later pleaded guilty to distributing steroids and money laundering, serving three months in prison and three months' home detention.

Anderson's latest jail stint lasted 37 days. He also served 15 days in July and was released when the previous grand jury expired.

He has appealed his contempt jailing on several fronts. Anderson's main contention is that a secret, illegally-recorded tape of him discussing Bonds' steroid use is the basis for the grand jury questions he refuses to answer.

Prosecutors, however, say the tape is legal and was made in a face-to-face meeting with Anderson.

Charge dropped against Myers

BOSTON — An abuse charge against Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Brett Myers was dismissed after his wife said she did not want her husband prosecuted for hitting her in the face during an argument near Fenway Park.

Judge Raymond Dougan acknowledged that Myers struck his wife June 23, yet dismissed the charge over the objection of prosecutors because Kim Myers agreed to an affidavit showing she did not want the charge pursued.

"There's no violence in our family. That night in Boston we had both been drinking," Kim Myers told the judge. "I was not hurt. I was not injured."

District Attorney Daniel Conley said the judge "sent a message that abusers can use a statute intended for minor altercations to avoid being held responsible for serious domestic violence charges."

Notes

• The Mariners' Eduardo Perez will join ESPN's baseball playoffs coverage, along with recently fired Cubs manager Dusty Baker, as a studio analyst when the League Championship Series begin.

• Astros utility player Chris Burke underwent surgery on his dislocated left shoulder and is expected to recover fully by spring training. Burke hurt his shoulder crashing into the wall at Denver's Coors Field in May.

• Felipe Alou isn't sure whom the Giants will select to replace him, but the former manager is throwing his support behind bench coach Ron Wotus. "Oh, yeah, he's got my endorsement," said Alou. "He knows the organization inside and out."

Wotus, who interviewed for managerial openings with the Dodgers in 2005 and the Pirates in 2000, is the only confirmed name in what is expected to be a short list of candidates.

• Don Sutton won't return as an Braves announcer next season, a Turner Broadcast System official said.