High & Inside: NL Notes

In preparation for his return from a 50-game suspension, Manny Ramirez is expected to resume game action Tuesday with the Dodgers' triple-A squad in Albuquerque, N.M., according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. It first was reported that he would begin playing for single-A Inland Empire.

Ramirez, suspended for violating the league's drug policy, is permitted to play up to 10 minor-league games before his scheduled July 3 return against San Diego.

According to the report, Ramirez will join Albuquerque for a four-game series and then go to Inland Empire for a three-game series starting June 27.

Dodgers manager Joe Torre earned his 2,195th victory with Thursday night's 3-2 triumph over Oakland.

Torre, who began his managerial career with the Mets in 1977, passed Sparky Anderson on the all-time win list and moved into fifth place behind Connie Mack (3,731), John McGraw (2,763), Tony La Russa (2,497) and Bobby Cox (2,357).

"If you told me a dozen years ago I'd be in this rarefied air, I'd say you're full of baloney," Torre told the Associated Press. "I started out way under .500 when I took over the Yankees in 1996. I thank George Steinbrenner for putting me in this position. I've admired Sparky for years. I'm proud to be in that company."

Hall of Fame slugger Hank Aaron called on Major League Baseball yesterday to do more to increase participation by blacks in the game.

Aaron attended a panel discussion at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Ohio with former athletes, civil-rights scholars and activists as part of baseball's Civil Rights Game weekend.

Aaron said progress has been made, but he'd like to see MLB do more to promote black involvement and opportunities in the game.

"That's a concern of mine; I would just like to see more American blacks play professional baseball," Aaron said. "There's something that needs to be done."

Events leading up to tonight's first regular-season Civil Rights Game in Cincinnati are intended to support that effort.

Richard Lapchick, director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, took part in the panel discussion. He has been assessing MLB's progress, and his latest report found that 10.2 percent of major-leaguers last year were African American, the most since 1995.

Former Braves southpaw Tom Glavine is open to the possibility of pitching again, but it won't be this season, according to MLB.com. He sent this text yesterday: "I'm going to lay low for the rest of this year."

Glavine, whose 305 wins rank him fourth among lefthanders in league history, stopped short of announcing his retirement.

He said he had decided against filing a grievance against the Braves. The 43-year-old would have received a $1 million bonus had he been placed on the 25-man roster after a rehabilitation start with single-A Rome, but the club released him on June 3.

The Mets sent struggling outfielder Fernando Martinez (.194 average, no home runs, five RBIs) down to triple-A Buffalo. Nick Evans was called up from double-A Binghamton. . . . The Arizona Diamondbacks told Tucson and Pima County officials that they will move their spring-training base out of Tucson Electric Park after 2010. They are searching for a site in the Phoenix area. The move came after the Colorado Rockies notified the city and county that they would move from Hi Corbett Field, leaving the D'backs as the only major-league team in Tucson.