Apologetic Cousins receiving death threats

Florida Marlins rookie Scott Cousins has been receiving death threats despite repeatedly apologizing for a collision with San Francisco Giants star Buster Posey. The collision at home plate on May 25 left Posey with a broken bone in his lower left leg and three torn ligaments in his ankle. He's had surgery and is done for the season.

Giants general manager Brian Sabean criticized Cousins on his weekly radio show on KNBR this week, calling the play malicious and unnecessary. Sabean also said "if I never hear from Cousins again, or he doesn't play another day in the big leagues, I think we'll all be happy."

"He chose to be a hero, in my mind," Sabean said. "If that's his flash of fame, that's as good as it's going to get, pal. We'll have a long memory."

Those comments got the attention of Major League Baseball, and executive vice president of baseball operations Joe Torre spoke with Sabean yesterday. The Giants also issued a statement saying Sabean's comments were made out of frustration, and the GM was trying to reach Cousins.

"We intend to move beyond conversations about last week's incident and focus our attention on Buster's full recovery and on defending our World Series title," the team said in the statement.

Cousins also issued a statement yesterday and apologized again for the collision.

"I hope and believe that Mr. Sabean's comments were made in the heat of the moment and are based more on his fondness for Buster Posey than on any animosity towards me," Cousins said in the statement. "This situation is still an open wound for many, including myself. As I have stated previously, nobody outside of Buster feels worse about his injury than I do."

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