five months pass...
Ok, apparently those 4 are the ones suspended under the Current Master Testing. I guess the 15 are the ones who've EVER been. Anyway:
Sosa and Palmeiro Cited in Steroid Investigation
By DUFF WILSON
Investigators of steroid use in baseball are seeking medical records from at least two of the game’s premier sluggers over the past dozen years, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro, along with records from dozens of other players suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs, a baseball official with direct knowledge of the request said.
The investigators in the inquiry, headed by the former Senator George J. Mitchell, have also asked the Baltimore Orioles to send medical files to Jason Grimsley, David Segui and Fernando Tatis, the official said. The players will then be asked to authorize their release to Mitchell, although they are believed to be unlikely to do so.
These are the first names to be definitively associated with the year-old Mitchell investigation. Grimsley’s lawyer and Sosa declined to comment; efforts to reach Palmeiro’s agent, Segui and Tatis late yesterday were unsuccessful.
Other players under Mitchell’s scrutiny have not been publicly identified, although people who have been briefed on the development said that the full list included players expected and unexpected, and that it excluded some players who might have been expected to be on the list of steroid suspects.
The Orioles, for instance, were not asked to release medical records to Miguel Tejada, Jay Gibbons and Brian Roberts, the official said. Those players had been implicated by news-media reports describing a statement by Grimsley and, in Tejada’s case, by Palmeiro, who said Tejada had given him an injection that might have contained steroids. The official, who was granted anonymity because baseball officials have been ordered not to talk about the Mitchell investigation, said their exclusion showed a lack of evidence against those three players, who are all on Baltimore’s active roster.
Investigators have looked deeply into the Orioles, among other organizations. Mitchell’s staff has interviewed at least nine members of the Orioles’ front office and training staff, and has searched at least six of their personal computers for evidence relating to performance-enhancing drugs, the official said.
The computer searches, which took place after the interviews with Orioles staff members last summer, were also described by Bill Stetka, media relations director of the Orioles, whose computer was among those searched. Stetka said the team cooperated fully and that all the computers were returned.
Mitchell released a statement yesterday saying, “While it is our practice not to comment on the investigation, any suggestion that the investigation is focused on any single team is incorrect.”
Stetka said that it could appear from a report focused on Baltimore that the Orioles were being held up as “the poster team” for steroids, but that they were being especially cooperative.
Mitchell was appointed by Bud Selig, commissioner of Major League Baseball, to conduct an independent investigation of steroids in baseball. He has heard questions about how tough his investigation can be in the face of player resistance, as well as how invasive his investigation will be into players’ medical files.
Mitchell is facing objections from teams, players and the players union over his requests for medical records, and some players are objecting to testifying. When teams declined to turn over the medical files, Mitchell’s staff asked players directly to authorize their release, which first requires the teams to show the records to the specified players, the official and people briefed on the case said. Mitchell’s letter to teams asking them to send medical files to specified players was sent within the past few weeks, they said.
Mitchell is trying to work around his lack of subpoena power, as well as a host of privacy issues raised by asking for medical records. He is believed to be following up leads and documentary evidence from a criminal investigation of steroids distribution involving a former equipment manager for the Mets who has said he provided drugs to dozens of players and has acted as a government informant since December 2005.
Last week, Mitchell told The New York Times that he expected to talk with specified players soon.
Although the Orioles are not being singled out in the investigation, the city of Baltimore has an important role. Two of the lawyers working with Mitchell are based there. Also, a United States Department of Justice press release on the New York steroids case singled out two United States attorneys’ offices — one on Long Island, the other in Baltimore — for “important assistance in the investigation.” The steroid dealer lived on Long Island and was arrested and searched at his home there; the Baltimore connection to the criminal case remains unexplained.
Two spokeswomen for the United States attorney’s office in Baltimore said Monday that they did not know of any involvement with the criminal investigation into steroid trafficking to athletes.
Federal criminal investigators and the Mitchell investigators are sharing information. The Times reported last week that Mitchell was looking at more than three dozen current and former major league players, many of them named by the steroid dealer, Kirk Radomski, who worked for the Mets from 1985 to 1995.
Radomski, 37, of Manorville, N.Y., pleaded guilty April 27 to federal charges of supplying steroids and other drugs to dozens of major leaguers from 1995 to 2005. It emerged that he had been a secret informant for federal agents since his home was searched in December 2005, and he is also cooperating with the Mitchell investigation.
Tatis, 32, had not previously been linked to steroids. A third baseman, he hit 34 home runs for St. Louis in 1999. His previous high was 11 and his later high was 18. He currently plays for the Mets’ Class AAA team, the New Orleans Zephyrs, but is not on the Mets’ 40-man roster. Efforts to reach him through the Mets and the Zephyrs yesterday were unsuccessful.
Sosa, 38 and playing for the Texas Rangers, is fifth on the career home run list. His 1998 slugging duel with Mark McGwire — Sosa ended up with 66, McGwire with 70, both passing the previous record of 61 — helped revive public interest in baseball after a bitter strike cut short the 1994 season. Sosa testified before a Congressional committee that he had never used steroids.
“I don’t want to talk about that thing,” Sosa said when asked about the Mitchell investigation before last night’s game against the Yankees. “No comment.”
Palmeiro, 42, ninth on the career home run list, jabbed a finger at the Congressional committee chairman in March 2005 and testified, “I have never used steroids, period.” Two months later, he tested positive for stanozolol, a powerful anabolic steroid. He said he took it accidentally, possibly from a vitamin injection from Tejada, although a test conducted by baseball showed no steroids in the substance.
The House committee investigated whether Palmeiro had committed perjury but could not prove whether he had taken steroids before his testimony. Palmeiro has not played since the 2005 season. His agent did not return a phone call yesterday.
Grimsley, 39, admitted using steroids throughout his career and human growth hormone after 2003, when baseball began to test for steroids, according to a 2006 federal affidavit after a search of his home. Grimsley, who was suspended for 50 games by Major League Baseball in 2006 for violating the game’s drug policy, named other players he said used steroids and amphetamines. Grimsley pitched for seven teams from 1989 through 2006, including the Yankees.
Segui, 40, has admitted using human growth hormone but said it was with a doctor’s prescription. He played for seven teams from 1990 through 2004, including the Mets, but mostly with the Orioles.
Mitchell investigators interviewed at least nine front-office and team officials with the Orioles last summer, including the vice presidents Jim Duquette and Mike Flanagan and Manager Sam Perlozzo.
It is not clear if any other teams have had so many people interviewed, or computers searched, or exactly what was sought on the computer files.
Terry Ryan, general manager of the Minnesota Twins, said Mitchell’s staff had talked with every team. “They get to the depths of the people who work for this organization and who have worked for this organization for years,” he said. “They’re doing their due diligence.”
Murray Chass, Michael S. Schmidt, Juliet Macur, Jack Curry and Ben Shpigel contributed reporting.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 13:33 (eighteen years ago)
three months pass...