Baseball Notes: Yankees deny stealing pitch signs

General manager Brian Cashman confirmed that the Yankees received a call Saturday from the commissioner's office inquiring about a club employee relaying information to players after each pitch on opening day.

The Daily News reported Saturday that broadcaster Keith Olbermann, a New York season-ticket holder, put a photo on Twitter of Brett Weber, a Yankees baseball operations coaching assistant, holding up four fingers toward the field during Thursday's game against Detroit.

Weber was sitting behind home plate and wearing a headset. Major League Baseball rules prohibit club staff from using hand signals to communicate pitch types or speeds to players.

Cashman said there was a simple explanation: The Yankee Stadium scoreboard was on the fritz, so Weber was just providing the sort of post-pitch details that normally appear for all to see, such as "93 m.p.h. fastball."

A savage beating by two men outside Dodger Stadium has left a San Francisco Giants fan in a medically-induced coma as police on Saturday urged any witnesses to help identify the attackers.

The beating after Thursday's season opener between the Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers left the victim in critical but stable condition.

His name wasn't released, but KGO radio in San Francisco and the Santa Cruz Sentinel identified him as Bryan Stow, a 42-year-old paramedic from Santa Cruz. His brother-in-law, David Collins, told KGO that Stow, a married father of two, has severe head injuries.

Sue Cooney, 64, will require extensive surgery to repair damage to her cheekbone and eye socket, said Mike Sterrett, who shares a home with her in Leawood, Kan., a suburb of Kansas City.

The woman was struck by the shattered bat of Anaheim outfielder Torii Hunter during the Angels-Royals opener on Thursday.

When asked by The New York Times to assess Bud Selig since he became full-time commissioner in 1998, former National League president Bill White responded with 10 seconds of silence.

"Well," he said, "we haven't had any strikes."

Boston's David Ortiz set the major-league record for RBIs by a designated hitter when he drove in a run with a groundout in the fourth inning against Texas. That gave him 1,004 career RBIs as a DH and broke the mark that had been held by Edgar Martinez. Ortiz hit a two-run homer in the second, inning, matching Martinez with 1,003 RBIs. . . . Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler has become the first player ever to hit leadoff homers in each of his team's first two games.