Fridae

Kazuhito Tadano, a Japanese minor-league player in the Cleveland Indians' organisation, apologised yesterday at a press conference held at the Cleveland clubhouse for his appearance in a gay porn video three years ago.

Calling it a one-time mistake, the 23-year-old Tadano said that he engaged in a homosexual act in the video after his sophomore year at Rikkyo University for the money.

All of us have made mistakes in our lives," he said, reading a statement in English. "Hopefully, you learn from them and move on."

"I did participate in a video, and I regret it very much.

"It was a one-time incident that showed bad judgment and will never be repeated. I was young, playing baseball and going to college, and my teammates and I needed money.

"Frankly, if I were more mature and had really thought about the implications of what I did, it never would have happened."

Tadano, who signed with the Indians last March, said through an interpreter: "I'm not gay. I'd like to clear that fact up right now."

The club had set up the press session to address the issue before spring training starts next month and to deal with the numerous media requests to clarify the issue.

Tadano was one of Japan's top college pitchers and expected to be a high first-round pick in 2002 was shunned by Japanese teams after a Japanese tabloid published photos of him in the video a month before the draft.

He tried out for several major league teams last spring in Arizona but did not get any offers as he was just recovering from an elbow injury. His agent, Alan Nero, however added that some teams were turned off by what he called "the scandal."

There are no openly gay players in the big leagues today nor in the National Football League, National Hockey League and National Basketball Association. In 2002, New York Mets star Mike Piazza held a press conference to declare that he is heterosexual after a newspaper gossip columnist suggested that he was gay.