Sweeney undergoes surgery on right knee

Kansas City, Mo. – The Royals’ Mike Sweeney underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Thursday, but no timetable was given for his return.

Before the surgery, the team said he could be out from two to six weeks.

The oft-injured Sweeney, who is in the final year of a five-year, $55 million contract, has not experienced any of the back problems that put him on the disabled list in years past. Instead, he went on the DL retroactive to June 18 with right knee inflammation.

Sweeney, who had hoped to return to the lineup this week, will meet today with team physician Dr. Steve Joyce, who performed the surgery.

Bonds plans to skip home run contest

Cincinnati – Barry Bonds will sit out of the Home Run Derby on Monday night, opting to rest his tired body before Tuesday night’s All-Star game.

“Nope,” Bonds said Thursday when asked about the Derby. “Especially when you’re 42. It’s not that you don’t want to, it’s that you just can’t anymore. You can’t. It’s too long. Too much waiting. Too much sitting around. You can’t do that.”

Bonds, who turns 43 on July 24, was set to start in Thursday night’s series finale, after playing in 74 of the team’s first 82 games. He sat out Wednesday afternoon to allow his sore legs to recover and said he “felt better” Thursday.

Bonds is slated to start in left field for the National League in the All-Star game July 10 in San Francisco. He made up more than 119,000 votes in the final days – getting 1,111,968 additional votes – to finish with 2,325,391 and ahead of Cubs star Alfonso Soriano.

Young starts suspension, earns All-Star spot

San Diego – What a day it was for Chris Young, who began a five-game suspension for his part in a brawl, then found out about three hours later that he was an All-Star.

The San Diego Padres’ right-hander beat out four other pitchers for the last spot on the NL All-Star team on Thursday in the online Final Vote, which started Sunday night. The 6-foot-10 Young will join teammates Jake Peavy and Trevor Hoffman at Tuesday night’s game in San Francisco.

Young had been appealing his suspension for his part in a bench-clearing brawl at Chicago on June 16, which started when Young hit the Cubs’ Derrek Lee with a pitch.

President attends Cubs-Nationals game

Washington – First fan George W. Bush turned out Thursday night to catch the last-place Washington Nationals play the Chicago Cubs. It was an early birthday outing for Bush, who turns 61 on Friday. He arrived at RFK Stadium in the bottom of the first inning and left after the seventh-inning stretch with the Cubs leading 4-2. As it happened, that was the final score.

Most fans probably did not know Bush was present. There was no advance word of his visit and no announcement over the stadium’s public-address system.

Cards reliever Franklin signs two-year extension

St. Louis – St. Louis Cardinals reliever Ryan Franklin, who has been successful as their setup man, signed a two-year contract extension on Thursday that includes a team option for 2010. The 34-year-old right-hander is 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA in 37 appearances. He got the decision in a come-from-behind 5-4 victory over Arizona on Wednesday night.