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The baseball commissioner's office will wait until after a government investigation to examine whether there has been a relationship between New York Mets reliever John Franco and alleged mobsters.
Franco has given people associated with the Bonanno crime family free tickets for Mets games and passes to visit him in the clubhouse, ganglandnews.com reported Thursday. Prosecutors may ask Franco to testify in the trial of Vito Rizzuto, the Web site reported, adding that Franco arranged in 1993 for alleged mobsters to get tickets for a Mets game in Montreal.
"When law enforcement is conducting an investigation of this type, we stand aside until the process is completed and then review the whole record of what took place," Kevin Hallinan, senior vice president for security in the commissioner's office, said Friday.
Franco wouldn't comment on the specifics of the report.
"However, I will say I am proud to be an Italian American and have lived my life in a respectable fashion," he said in a statement issued by his agent, Dan Horwits. "Over the 20 years I have spent in the major leagues, I am extremely proud of the charitable contributions I have made and the work I have done within the community. My friends, family and teammates, can vouch for my character, as opposed to a journalist who does not know me or the type of person that I am."
Source: AP
Franco has given people associated with the Bonanno crime family free tickets for Mets games and passes to visit him in the clubhouse, ganglandnews.com reported Thursday. Prosecutors may ask Franco to testify in the trial of Vito Rizzuto, the Web site reported, adding that Franco arranged in 1993 for alleged mobsters to get tickets for a Mets game in Montreal.
"When law enforcement is conducting an investigation of this type, we stand aside until the process is completed and then review the whole record of what took place," Kevin Hallinan, senior vice president for security in the commissioner's office, said Friday.
Franco wouldn't comment on the specifics of the report.
"However, I will say I am proud to be an Italian American and have lived my life in a respectable fashion," he said in a statement issued by his agent, Dan Horwits. "Over the 20 years I have spent in the major leagues, I am extremely proud of the charitable contributions I have made and the work I have done within the community. My friends, family and teammates, can vouch for my character, as opposed to a journalist who does not know me or the type of person that I am."
Source: AP
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