Sheffield to follow union's advice in MLB drug probe

	Gary Sheffield had called George Mitchell's investigation a witch hunt. Chuck Solomon/SI

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Gary Sheffield, the often controversial and well-traveled slugger, said Tuesday that he's willing to talk to baseball's steroids investigators if the Major League Baseball Players Association gives its blessing.

"I didn't say I wouldn't talk to them," Sheffield told SI.com in the Tigers' spring training clubhouse here at Joker Marchant Stadium. "I'll let the Players Association make the call whether I should."

The union's executive director, Don Fehr, has said the association's role is to offer counsel to players who may be asked to aid the league's steroid investigation, headed by former Sen. George Mitchell. But the union can't prevent players from talking to the Mitchell investigators or compel them to cooperate. The union is leaving the final choice up to the players.

Sheffield, traded from the Yankees to the Tigers in the offseason, said he'd consider talking to Mitchell's team of lawyers, though he said he wasn't confident that the investigation will do any good. He told SI.com that the Mitchell investigation is a "witch hunt" bent on finding something on Giants slugger Barry Bonds, a former friend of Sheffield's. The USA Today reported on Tuesday that Sheffield did not plan on cooperating with the probe and had been advised by the union not to assist Mitchell.

Bonds, citing a possible conflict with an ongoing federal probe into possible perjury charges against him, has said through his lawyer that he won't cooperate with the Mitchell investigation.

Mitchell told baseball owners in January that if he didn't get the cooperation that he needed to complete his investigation, now nearly a year old, that he may have to ask Congress to intervene.

"I've always been more than willing [to talk]," said Sheffield, lounging in a chair in front of his locker moments after his first semi-official appearance in a game for Detroit, an exhibition against Florida Southern College. "I'm not saying they're going to get much out of me, 'cause I don't know nothing."