cronincal

Interest high in scope of Mitchell steroids report
By Larry Fine
Thu Dec 13, 12:13 AM ET

The keenly anticipated Mitchell Report on steroids usage in Major League Baseball will be issued on Thursday, fueling hope the record will be set straight on a suspected doping era in the sport.

Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, who launched an independent probe into use of performance-enhancing drugs at the behest of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig in March 2006, is expected to name at least 50 players who used banned drugs.

Interest is high in Mitchell's findings on how widespread doping has been, whether the report will expose any big-name players not previously implicated and if any culpability for the doping is assigned to baseball management.

Mitchell, 74, a former prosecutor and judge, is scheduled to make public his report at a news conference at a Manhattan hotel. Selig will then face the media to give his reaction.

While players may have used enhancers to get stronger and bounce back from the day-to-day grind, some believe Major League officials turned a blind eye to reap the benefits of a home run binge that lifted the sport's popularity starting in 1998.

Mitchell, who is on the Boston Red Sox board of directors, spoke to all 30 MLB teams but did not have subpoena power to require cooperation from players and possible witnesses.

The only active player known to have testified before the commission was New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi, whom Selig threatened with suspension if he failed to cooperate after giving an interview to the newspaper USA Today in which he tacitly acknowledged having used steroids.

Baseball began to reclaim its fan base in a big way in 1998 after a 1994 player strike led to the scuttling of post-season playoffs and the World Series.

The game's fortunes turned when St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire and the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa engaged in a 1998 chase for the single-season home run mark of 61 set in 1961 by Roger Maris of the Yankees.

McGwire smashed the 37-year-old record by belting 70 homers and Sosa slugged 66.

During McGwire's sensational long-ball campaign, a reporter spotted a jar of androstenedione in his locker. The steroids precursor was not barred in MLB at that time, and McGwire admitted to its use.

Three seasons later former San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds hit 73 homers to set the current record.

Bonds is now facing trial on federal charges he lied to a grand jury in denying that he had knowingly used steroids.

The strong Players Association spurned testing initiatives proposed by ownership but a series of congressional hearings turned an uncomfortably harsh light on the issue and led to a 2002 collective bargaining agreement on drug testing that has grown stricter since.

After lagging behind, MLB now has one of the toughest drug policies in U.S. team sports -- 50 games suspension for a first offense, 100 games for a second and a three strikes and you're out lifetime ban after a third positive test for a banned drug.

Despite questions about the accomplishments of sluggers such as Bonds, who last season overtook Hank Aaron as all-time career home run king, baseball's popularity has grown at the box office.

Baseball revenues increased last season from $5.2 billion to $6.08 billion with record attendance of over 78 million.

The Mitchell report is thought to be keyed to information from criminal probes that have implicated major leaguers and may also have been aided by the Albany, New York, District Attorney's office, which is conducting a national investigation into the illegal drug sales.

Editing by Chris Wilson

Copyright © 2007 Reuters

cronincal

Clemens, Pettitte named in Mitchell report
By RONALD BLUM, AP Baseball Writer 12 minutes ago

Seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens and Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte were the first names to emerge Thursday from the Mitchell report.

ESPN.com reported Brian McNamee, a former trainer for the Yankees and Clemens, told investigators he supplied Clemens and Pettitte with steroids and that information is in the report. The Web site cited an unidentified source close to the trainer.

"We will respond after the report," said Randy Hendricks, the agent for Clemens and Pettitte.

The Los Angeles Times reported in 2006 that Clemens and Pettitte were among the players former major league pitcher Jason Grimsley accused of using performance-enhancing drugs, according to a federal agent's affidavit. Clemens and Pettitte have denied the allegations. On Wednesday, Pettitte said "I've not heard a word from anyone" about former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell's investigation.

Citing two lawyers familiar with the investigation, The New York Times reported McNamee also provided information about retired first baseman David Segui. On Monday, Segui admitted he used steroids and purchased shipments from former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski.

Mitchell's report exposes a "serious drug culture within baseball, from top to bottom," fingers MVPs and All-Stars and calls for beefed-up testing by an outside agency to clean up the game.

The report by Mitchell will include names of 60 to 80 players linked to performance-enhancing substances and plenty more information that exposes "deep problems" afflicting the sport, one of two sources with knowledge of the findings told the AP. Both sources said the report would not address amphetamines.

The two sources were familiar with discussions that led to the final draft but did not want to be identified because it was confidential until its scheduled release. They said the full report, which they had not read, totaled 304 pages plus exhibits.

One person familiar with the final version would only speak anonymously but described it as "a very thorough treatment of the subject" and said some aspects were surprising. He said the report assigns blame to both the commissioner's office and the players' union.

MLB's "not going to love it, the union's not going to love it," he said.
In an e-mail sent to agents Thursday, the union said it would get a copy of the report at 1 p.m. "based on our pledge not to disclose its contents before 2 p.m."

"We suggest that, for today at least, you decline general comment on the report and respond only on behalf of a particular player named in the report," the union told the agents.

One source said that while the report will cite problems "top to bottom," it also will expose "deep problems, the number of players, high-level MVPs and All-Stars," as well as clubhouse personnel who allowed steroids and other banned substances in clubhouses or knew about it and didn't say anything.

The rest of the report, the sources said, focuses on recommendations that include enhanced year-round testing and hiring a drug-testing company that uses the highest standards of independence and transparency. Baseball's program currently is overseen by a joint management-union Health Policy Advisory Committee, with an independent administrator approved by both sides.

Mitchell, a Boston Red Sox director, planned to release his report at 2 p.m. Thursday during a news conference in New York City. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig was to hold his own news conference a few blocks away 2 1/2 hours later.

The report comes at the end of a year when San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds broke the career home run record, only to be indicted 100 days later on charges of lying to a federal grand jury about steroid use.

It also was expected to recommend that baseball develop a credible program to handle cases with evidence of athletes receiving or taking drugs but not testing positive for them.

Just last week, Kansas City's Jose Guillen and Baltimore's Jay Gibbons were suspended for the first 15 days of next season, and media reports said they had obtained human growth hormone in 2005, after baseball banned it.

Much of the first part of the report will be based on evidence obtained from Radomski, and from information gleaned from the Albany district attorney's investigation into illegal drug distribution that focused on Signature Pharmacy of Orlando, Fla., the sources said.

Radomski was required to cooperate with the investigation as a condition of his federal plea agreement last April. Radomski pleaded guilty to illegally distributing steroids, HGH, amphetamines and other drugs to players and is awaiting sentencing. Some professional athletes have been linked to the Signature probe, though none have been charged.

On Thursday morning at Radomski's Long Island, N.Y.-based business, Pro Touch Detail Center, a man who identified himself as Radomski told The Associated Press: "I have no comment. Talk to my lawyer. This is private property. Please leave."

Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president of labor relations, reviewed at least part of the report this week to ensure no confidential information from the drug-testing program was disclosed, a person with knowledge of the union's discussion with Mitchell said, also on condition of anonymity.

Despite repeated requests by the players' association to Mitchell's law firm, the union had not been allowed to review the report, that person said.

"I certainly hope after 21 months and getting zip by way of cooperation from the players' association that they'll come up with some recommendations for improvement," said World Anti-Doping Agency chairman Dick Pound. "If not, it's a complete waste of time."

But he said he's not sure baseball would follow any recommendations.

"My guess is that the management side probably would, but the players' association will dig in and continue its steel-town union approach to life," he said.

Agents have said they expect the report to be highly critical of players and the union for largely refusing to cooperate with Mitchell.

Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, sent an e-mail to owners and team presidents in advance of the report with instructions how to respond to media inquiries.

"We look forward to carefully reading the results of Sen. Mitchell's investigation," the recommended response said. "Protecting the integrity of our game is vital, and we intend to study his findings and recommendations, and will not comment until we have done so."

Baseball did not have an agreement to ban steroids until September 2002, did not have testing with penalties until 2004 and did not ban HGH until 2005, when it also instituted a suspension for a first positive test.

Mitchell was hired by Selig in March 2006 after the publication of "Game of Shadows," a book by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters about Bonds' alleged steroid use. The rise in power in the 1990s, which drew national attention when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chased Roger Maris' single-season record in the Great Home Run Race of 1998, was accompanied by a rise in suspicion.

Maris' record of 61 homers had stood since 1961, but McGwire hit 70 that year and Sosa had 66. During the chase, the AP reported McGwire had used androstenedione, a supplement then available over the counter that produced testosterone.

A bulked-up Bonds then shattered McGwire's record by hitting 73 homers in 2001.

AP Sports Writers Eddie Pells in Denver and John Nadel in Los Angeles, AP Sports Columnist Jim Litke in Chicago and Associated Press Writer Frank Eltman on Long Island contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press

Heavy_monkey2.0

Androstenedione was an over-the-counter supplement at the time. NOBODY gets that big by shopping at GNC alone. Though the Mcguire scandal had that shit flying off the shelf.

The_Heretic

The only way I'll accept any decision by congress on this [either in favor of steroids or against] is if they and baseball people themselves all admit that it's an industry not a sport. This because it's in industry that you regulate chemicals used.

__________________

John McCain: "He's in Iraq... with a few centuries to kill."

cronincal

the mitchell report. 409 pages.

http://files.mlb.com/mitchrpt.pdf

cronincal

Players linked to government's performance-enhancement probes
By Yahoo! Sports staff
December 12, 2007

The following is a list of active and retired Major League baseball players who have been implicated in government investigations into the illegal distribution of steroids, human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs. The investigations included here targeted BALCO, Signature Pharmacy of Orlando, Fla., Applied Pharmacy of Mobile, Ala., and so-called wellness clinics. The list does not include players whose only link to the use of performance-enhancing drugs is having tested positive under Major League Baseball's drug-testing policy.

Rick Ankiel Outfielder Cardinals Signature Pharmacy
David Bell Third baseman free agent Applied Pharmacy
Marvin Benard Outfielder inactive BALCO
Barry Bonds Outfielder free agent BALCO
Paul Byrd Pitcher Indians wellness clinic
Jose Canseco Outfielder retired Applied Pharmacy
Bobby Estalella Outfielder retired BALCO
Jason Giambi Designated hitter Yankees BALCO
Jay Gibbons Outfielder Orioles Signature Pharmacy
Troy Glaus Third baseman Blue Jays Signature Pharmacy
Jason Grimsley Pitcher retired BALCO-related
Jose Guillen Outfielder Royals wellness clinic
Jerry Hairston Jr. Infielder Rangers Applied Pharmacy
Darren Holmes Pitcher retired wellness clinic
Gary Matthews Jr. Outfielder Angels Applied Pharmacy
Armando Rios Outfielder free agent BALCO
John Rocker Pitcher retired Applied Pharmacy
Benito Santiago Catcher retired BALCO
Scott Schoeneweis Pitcher Mets Signature Pharmacy
David Segui First baseman retired BALCO-related
Gary Sheffield Designated hitter Tigers BALCO
Ismael Valdez Pitcher retired wellness clinic
Randy Velarde Second baseman retired BALCO
Matt Williams Third baseman retired wellness clinic

mudwhistle

Funny how this guy who works for the Red Sox named a bunch of Yankees and every other team. But miraculously his own team is clean.

cronincal

you're consistent, buttwhistle.



Mitchell steroid report spreads baseball guilt
Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Eric Gagne adjusts his cap while pitching against the Chicago White Sox during the ninth inning of the second game of their American League double header baseball game in Chicago, Illinois, August 24, 2007. (Frank Polich/Reuters)

Sean

Clemens couldn't have a dumber lawyer, did you see the dribble in his statement?

"I am at a total loss to understand how it is proper for federal prosecutorial authorities to use the threat of criminal prosecution to help in a private business investigation..."

Uhhh, because it's not a private business Beavis.

cronincal

it stands to reason. dumb player, dumb lawyer. here's the complete list:

Chad Allen
Manny Alexander
Rick Ankiel
Mike Bell
David Bell
Gary Bennett Jr.
Marvin Bernard
Larry Bigbie
Barry Bonds
Kevin Brown
Paul Byrd
Ken Caminiti
Jose Canseco
Mark Carreon
Jason Christiansen
Howie Clark
Roger Clemens
Jack Cust
Brendan Donnelly
Lenny Dykstra
Bobby Estalella
Matt Franco
Ryan Franklin
Eric Gagne
Jason Giambi
Jeremi Giambi
Jay Gibbons
Troy Glaus
Jason Grimsley
Jason Grimsley
Jose Guillen
Jerry Hairston Jr.
Jerry Hairston Jr.
Matt Herges
Phil Hiatt
Glenallen Hill
Darren Holmes
Todd Hundley
David Justice
Chuck Knoblauch
Tim Laker
Mike Lansing
Paul Lo Duca
Nook Logan
Josias Manzanillo
Gary Matthews Jr.
Cody McKay
Kent Mercker
Bart Miadich
Hal Morris
David Naulty
Denny Neagle
Jim Parque
Andy Pettitte
Adam Piatt
Todd Pratt
Stephen Randolph
Adam Riggs
Brian Roberts
John Rocker
F.P. Santangelo
Benito Santiago
Gary Scheffield
Scott Schoeneweis
David Segui
Mike Stanton
Miguel Tejada
Ismael Valdez
Mo Vaugn
Randy Velarde
Ron Villone
Fernando Vina
Rondell White
Todd Williams
Jeff Williams
Matt Williams
Steve Woodard
Kevin Young
Gregg Zaun