ZION
12-13-2007, 01:24 PM
So as im seating here watching the news conference, it says there are players on all 30 teams in the league. This makes me wonder, any of your fav. players on this list? And are you shocked?...You shouldn't be.
Mitchell report: Baseball slow to react to steroids
ESPN.com news services
Updated: December 13, 2007, 2:19 PM ET
NEW YORK -- George Mitchell's 20-month report into steroid use in professional baseball blamed both players and management for the problem.
Mitchell addressed the media and released his report on Thursday. Among Mitchell's conclusions he gave in what he termed a "detailed statement":
• Mitchell and his staff interviewed former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski four times. He identified a number of former and current MLB players who he said he sold steroid and HGH to. Checks and money orders, mailing receipts or shipments, statements of other witnesses were used to back up Radomski's allegations. Much of this was found in Radomski's seized telephone records.
• Each player named was invited to meet with Mitchell if their name came up in his investigation. Mitchell said almost all current players refused to meet with him.
• Brian McNamee, a former New York Yankees trainer who worked with Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, was interviewed three times by Mitchell, with a personal lawyer and federal law enforcement officials in the room.
• Several former MLB players and strength and conditioning coaches were also interviewed.
• Response to the problem from both baseball and its players slow to develop. There is evidence the problem wasn't isolated to one club. Many players were involved. Each club has had a player involved.
• Mitchell investigation found that some players had a head-up to drug tests.
• Recommendations focused on three areas. The first was investigations without a failed drug test. Mitchell recommended a department of investigations, appointed by the commissioner. Secondly, he recommended improved educational programs. And third, Mitchell recommended that drug testing remains an important element to combat illegal drug use, but asks that it be an independent testing authority.
•In his report, Mitchell wrote he was against Selig disciplining players named in the report, or not, for past violations of baseball's rules against using performance-enhancing substances "except in those cases where he determines that the conduct is so serious that discipline is necessary to maintain the integrity of the game. I make this recommendation fully aware that there are valid arguments both for and against it."
• On page 121 of the report, under a heading "players requested to be interviewed," Jason Giambi is the only player in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative probe who participated in Mitchell's investigation. This portion of the report read:
"Concerning BALCO and Major League Baseball I requested interviews of all the major league players who had been publicly implicated in the BALCO case: Marvin Benard; Barry Bonds; Bobby Estalella; Jason Giambi; Jeremy Giambi; Armando Rios; Benito Santiago; Gary Sheffield; and Randy Velarde. Jason Giambi agreed to be interviewed, and Randy Velarde provided information through his attorney. All the other players implicated in the BALCO case refused my requests to be interviewed or did not respond to them. Gary Sheffield initially declined my request for an interview. Sheffield later said that he would agree to an interview, subject to the availability of his lawyer who was undergoing medical treatments."
Clemens, Miguel Tejada and Pettitte were named in the report, an All-Star roster linked to steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs that put a question mark -- if not an asterisk -- next to some of baseball's biggest moments.
On page 169 of the report, Clemens being injected with an anabolic steroid is detailed.
Barry Bonds, already under indictment on charges of lying to a federal grand jury about steroids, also showed up in baseball's most infamous lineup since the Black Sox scandal.
It was uncertain whether the report would result in any penalties or suspensions.
Several stars named in the report could pay the price in Cooperstown, much the way Mark McGwire was kept out of the Hall of Fame this year merely because of steroids suspicion.
"Former commissioner Fay Vincent told me that the problem of performance-enhancing substances may be the most serious challenge that baseball has faced since the 1919 Black Sox scandal,'' Mitchell said in the 409-page report.
"The illegal use of anabolic steroids and similar substances, in Vincent's view, is 'cheating of the worst sort.' He believes that it is imperative for Major League Baseball to 'capture the moral high ground' on the issue and, by words and deeds, make it clear that baseball will not tolerate the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs."
Eric Gagne and Paul Lo Duca were among other current players named in the report, both linked to Human Growth Hormone.
"We identify some of the players who were caught up in this drive to gain a competitive advantage,'' the report said. "Other investigations will no doubt turn up more names and fill in more details, but that is unlikely to significantly alter the description of baseball's 'steroids era' as set forth in this report."
Mitchell report: Baseball slow to react to steroids
ESPN.com news services
Updated: December 13, 2007, 2:19 PM ET
NEW YORK -- George Mitchell's 20-month report into steroid use in professional baseball blamed both players and management for the problem.
Mitchell addressed the media and released his report on Thursday. Among Mitchell's conclusions he gave in what he termed a "detailed statement":
• Mitchell and his staff interviewed former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski four times. He identified a number of former and current MLB players who he said he sold steroid and HGH to. Checks and money orders, mailing receipts or shipments, statements of other witnesses were used to back up Radomski's allegations. Much of this was found in Radomski's seized telephone records.
• Each player named was invited to meet with Mitchell if their name came up in his investigation. Mitchell said almost all current players refused to meet with him.
• Brian McNamee, a former New York Yankees trainer who worked with Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, was interviewed three times by Mitchell, with a personal lawyer and federal law enforcement officials in the room.
• Several former MLB players and strength and conditioning coaches were also interviewed.
• Response to the problem from both baseball and its players slow to develop. There is evidence the problem wasn't isolated to one club. Many players were involved. Each club has had a player involved.
• Mitchell investigation found that some players had a head-up to drug tests.
• Recommendations focused on three areas. The first was investigations without a failed drug test. Mitchell recommended a department of investigations, appointed by the commissioner. Secondly, he recommended improved educational programs. And third, Mitchell recommended that drug testing remains an important element to combat illegal drug use, but asks that it be an independent testing authority.
•In his report, Mitchell wrote he was against Selig disciplining players named in the report, or not, for past violations of baseball's rules against using performance-enhancing substances "except in those cases where he determines that the conduct is so serious that discipline is necessary to maintain the integrity of the game. I make this recommendation fully aware that there are valid arguments both for and against it."
• On page 121 of the report, under a heading "players requested to be interviewed," Jason Giambi is the only player in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative probe who participated in Mitchell's investigation. This portion of the report read:
"Concerning BALCO and Major League Baseball I requested interviews of all the major league players who had been publicly implicated in the BALCO case: Marvin Benard; Barry Bonds; Bobby Estalella; Jason Giambi; Jeremy Giambi; Armando Rios; Benito Santiago; Gary Sheffield; and Randy Velarde. Jason Giambi agreed to be interviewed, and Randy Velarde provided information through his attorney. All the other players implicated in the BALCO case refused my requests to be interviewed or did not respond to them. Gary Sheffield initially declined my request for an interview. Sheffield later said that he would agree to an interview, subject to the availability of his lawyer who was undergoing medical treatments."
Clemens, Miguel Tejada and Pettitte were named in the report, an All-Star roster linked to steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs that put a question mark -- if not an asterisk -- next to some of baseball's biggest moments.
On page 169 of the report, Clemens being injected with an anabolic steroid is detailed.
Barry Bonds, already under indictment on charges of lying to a federal grand jury about steroids, also showed up in baseball's most infamous lineup since the Black Sox scandal.
It was uncertain whether the report would result in any penalties or suspensions.
Several stars named in the report could pay the price in Cooperstown, much the way Mark McGwire was kept out of the Hall of Fame this year merely because of steroids suspicion.
"Former commissioner Fay Vincent told me that the problem of performance-enhancing substances may be the most serious challenge that baseball has faced since the 1919 Black Sox scandal,'' Mitchell said in the 409-page report.
"The illegal use of anabolic steroids and similar substances, in Vincent's view, is 'cheating of the worst sort.' He believes that it is imperative for Major League Baseball to 'capture the moral high ground' on the issue and, by words and deeds, make it clear that baseball will not tolerate the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs."
Eric Gagne and Paul Lo Duca were among other current players named in the report, both linked to Human Growth Hormone.
"We identify some of the players who were caught up in this drive to gain a competitive advantage,'' the report said. "Other investigations will no doubt turn up more names and fill in more details, but that is unlikely to significantly alter the description of baseball's 'steroids era' as set forth in this report."