'No Manny-Boras investigation' item is buried

Even the LA Times article which was the basis for saying there is no investigation and the matter is "closed" buried the story. At least what appears on their website does so,

• within an article titled,

"Bud Selig Questions Dodgers' Manny Ramirez Trade," 8/9/08 by Bill Shaikin. (The key to the original report involved a Boras telephone call to the Red Sox. The link to the Boston Globe story by Dan Shaughnessy doesn't work at the moment, so I'm substituting a summary by FoxSports.com). You have to get past the first 2 paragraphs to find a confusing and contradictory statement, ie there is nothing "ongoing" and the matter is "closed." Followed by a statement that his (Pat Courtney's) comments were "premature." Not sure which comments he meant. The article begins:

• "The Dodgers are in no jeopardy of losing Manny Ramirez, but the baseball commissioner's office is reviewing issues surrounding the trade that brought him to Los Angeles.

• Commissioner Bud Selig has asked Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president for labor relations, to determine

• the facts behind Ramirez's departure from Boston, a baseball source said today, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter had not been resolved.

Baseball spokesman Pat Courtney told The Times earlier today that Selig had asked for clarification on several issues but said no action was planned against any party in the deal.

• "There were some follow-up calls," Courtney said.

• "It's closed. It's not ongoing."

Courtney later said his comments were premature and deferred further questions on the matter to

• Rich Levin, another baseball spokesman.

• Levin said this afternoon he had no comment.

The Boston Globe reported in today's editions that Selig had ordered an investigation into

• "the circumstances of Manny's final hours with the Red Sox.""...

Headlines in countless sources touted an MLB investigation implicating Scott Boras in particular in a telephone call with the Red Sox. From the Boston Globe (if the link isn't working a summary is at FoxSports.com) :

• "After the trade, the (Boston) Globe reported that
• Boras called the Sox and said
• Manny would stay and play hard for the rest of this year if
• the club merely dropped the options."(summary at FoxSports.com)

As of this posting (now many hours after the news), MLB hasn't issued a statement refuting the original report. The one source that does refute the report, the LA Times, buries it in an article with a misleading headline.

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