Angels ax employee for allegedly giving visitors ball-doctoring substances

Another cheating scandal may have been nipped in the bud.

The Los Angeles Angels fired visiting clubhouse manager Brian Harkins on Thursday for allegedly providing illegal ball-doctoring substances to their opponents, ESPN's Alden Gonzalez reports.

Los Angeles began an internal investigation after Major League Baseball alerted the club last week, and it was allegedly learned that Harkins distributed the substances to visiting pitchers at Angel Stadium, sources told Gonzalez. The substances in question were sticky and helped pitchers grip the baseball.

There's no indication of the specific substances or how long Harkins is believed to have been procuring them.

Harkins told Gonzalez that he lost his job but did not specify why. The team also confirmed the firing but didn't provide reasons for Harkins' termination.

"He is no longer working for the Angels," team president John Carpino told Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times. "I cannot get into any more details than that."

Harkins had been a clubhouse attendant with the Angels since 1986, and he'd worked in the visitors' clubhouse since 1990. He first served the Angels as a batboy for three seasons beginning in 1981.

MLB announced in February that it plans to step up its enforcement of rules preventing pitchers from using foreign substances to doctor baseballs.