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Posted

Here's some more. Not 100% verified.

*********************************8

Brady Anderson

Manny Alexander

Rick Ankiel,

Jeff Bagwell,

Barry Bonds,

Aaron Boone,

Rafael Betancourt,

Bret Boone,

Milton Bradley,

David Bell,

Dante Bichette,

Albert Belle,

Paul Byrd,

Wil Cordero,

Ken Caminiti,

Mike Cameron,

Ramon Castro,

Jose Canseco,

Ozzie Canseco,

Roger Clemens,

Paxton Crawford,

Wilson Delgado,

Lenny Dykstra,

Johnny Damon...

Carl Everett,

Kyle Farnsworth,

Ryan Franklin,

Troy Glaus,

Rich Garces,

Jason Grimsley,

Eric Gagne,

Nomar Garciaparra,

Jason Giambi,

Jeremy Giambi,

Jose Guillen,

Jay Gibbons,

Juan Gonzalez,

Clay Hensley,

Jerry Hairston,

Felix Heredia, Jr.,

Darren Holmes,

Wally Joyner,

Darryl Kile,

Matt Lawton,

Raul Mondesi,

Mark McGwire,

Guillermo Mota,

Robert Machado,

Damian Moss,

Abraham Nunez...

Trot Nixon,

Jose Offerman,

Andy Pettitte,

Mark Prior,

Neifi Perez,

Rafael Palmiero,

Albert Pujols,

Brian Roberts,

Juan Rincon,

John Rocker,

Pudge Rodriguez,

Sammy Sosa,

Scott Schoenweiss,

David Segui,

Alex Sanchez,

Gary Sheffield,

Miguel Tejada,

Julian Tavarez,

Fernando Tatis,

Maurice Vaughn,

Jason Varitek,

Ismael Valdez,

Matt Williams,

Kerry Wood.

Posted

Hmmm. Surprised to see a handful of those guys on the list, but most of those guys had body part failure more than the norm. Most of the accused make sense.

Seems like an odd time to take a shot at Kile...

  • Downvote 1
Posted (edited)

Mitchell's best source was a towel boy

Mitchell's best source was a towel boy : By Jon Littman

December 13, 2007

The towel boy squawked.

About 85 players were named in the Mitchell Report – the bulk of them as a result of information supplied by one locker room attendant, Kirk Radomski.

The guys in the suits – the money, as Victor Conte so aptly put it – got a get-out-of-jail pass. Mitchell, arguing contrary to the evidence of his 400-plus page report, wrote: "With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that baseball missed the early warning signs of a growing crisis."

That line won't sell. If there's one thing this multi-million dollar whitewash demonstrates overwhelmingly, it's that Major League Baseball – commissioner, owners, managers and coaches – knew they were creating a steroid-friendly league many, many years ago.

Mitchell concedes he let commissioner Bud Selig review the report two days in advance and assures us: "No material changes were made as a result of that review."

Translated, that means that some changes were made, not to mention the awful self-censorship that comes naturally when you let someone you're writing about read your every word before publication.

Mitchell deserves credit for being the first to name dozens of current and retired offending players – even if perhaps hundreds more offenders, by the luck of the towel boy, were spared the humiliation of having their names in print.

Mitchell also handed the Barry Bonds defense an early Christmas present. Remind me again why Bonds is on trial? For lying about what Mitchell tells us was a league-wide plague.

Why then was Roger Clemens, the best pitcher in the game, protected for so long by Major League Baseball while Bonds has been vilified?

Can anyone spell scapegoat?

But let's put this in perspective. Millions of dollars and nearly two years later, what's the scorecard?

Did Mitchell produce an investigative coup? Radomski pleaded guilty in April to distributing steroids to dozens of players, and as part of his deal he agreed to cooperate with Mitchell's investigation.

That is Mitchell's A-No. 1 source – a towel boy handed to him on a silver platter. That's it? One towel boy, one strength and conditioning coach, and existing government investigations out of Albany, N.Y., and BALCO.

Not exactly Sherlock Holmes. Or Sam Spade.

Which leads to the $20-million question. What if 10 towel boys had squawked? Or 20? Another 10 strength and conditioning coaches? Would Mitchell's All-Steroids list number in the hundreds instead of the dozens?

Mitchell's report comes up short. But the federal government deserves a heap of blame. By focusing on trying to ensnare Bonds, the government, wittingly or not, managed to delay exposing baseball's steroids scandal – and long-needed remedies – for many years.

"Throughout this investigation, a federal criminal investigation related to BALCO was ongoing," wrote Mitchell. "The ongoing criminal investigation, and the resulting unwillingness of many participants to cooperate with me, limited my ability to gather information that was not already in the public record about the involvement of major league players with BALCO."

Let's forget the huge section of Mitchell's report devoted to history for a moment. Who actually agreed to talk to Mitchell about today's problems?

What about the five current players who had previously spoken out about steroids? Four declined, with only Frank Thomas of the Toronto Blue Jays agreeing to talk. That is one player out of 750.

Who else shut out Mitchell?

• The Players' Association rejected all requests for relevant documents.

• The Players' Association refused a request to interview the director of MLB's drug-testing lab.

• The Players' Association rejected a request to interview its chief operating officer, Gene Orza.

• The players alleged to be illegally using performance-enhancing drugs? "Almost without exception, they declined to meet or talk with me," Mitchell said.

• Mitchell admits the report failed as an investigatory body because of a pervasive code of silence. "A number of witnesses, for example, claimed that they knew nothing about steroids, never saw anything involving steroids, and had never even heard the word 'steroids' used in a major league clubhouse."

So, how did Mitchell get the names published in this report? By having the feds threaten Radomski with a stiff prison sentence. The 37-year-old has had his sentencing hearing delayed three times.

"During each of the interviews, the law enforcement officials warned Radomski that if he made any false statements he would forfeit their commitment to recommend a more lenient sentence and he would face further criminal jeopardy."

Similar story with Brian McNamee, the strength and conditioning coach who ratted on Clemens: "Federal law enforcement officials and members of my staff participated with me in all of the interviews," Mitchell wrote.

Does anybody else find it odd that the feds seemed to be sitting in on all the key interviews of this supposedly independent commission?

Mitchell notes that MLB officials weren't included in the interviews. They didn't need to be. Remember that advance copy of the report?

Mitchell does, however, appear to expose some of the hypocrisy.

He says in the report that St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa claimed that he had "exaggerated" in a CBS interview where he strongly suggested outfielder Jose Canseco was taking illegal drugs, "and that La Russa now told him that he 'had never confronted Canseco about his use of steroids'."

What about former commissioner Fay Vincent? Mitchell: "He told me that he failed to notice the emergence of steroids because he was focused on cleaning up the problem of cocaine use by major league players."

Oh, that's right. Remember what a great job Major League Baseball did cleaning up that scandal?

In the mid-1980s, a team mascot in a Parrot costume who was the middle man in drug deals revealed that the Pittsburgh Pirates were snorting coke like crazy. Funny how we choose to forget history. Outfielder Tim Raines revealed that he slid headfirst so he wouldn't break the vial of coke in his back pocket. Raines, Keith Hernandez and numerous other players were called before a Pittsburgh grand jury.

There was no perjury trap.

The ballplayers were granted immunity for their testimony instead of being charged with felonies for cocaine use. The dealers went to jail. Commissioner Peter Ueberroth suspended 11 players, seven for a full season.

The Players' Association intervened. Not a single coke-snorting ballplayer missed a game.

I can't wait to see how this one turns out.

Edited by NT03
Posted

yowsers... but appreciated

As an Astros fan, Im really excited to see Miguel Tejada's name on the list after trading the farm to bring him here. </sarcasmo>

What does this mean for the Astros now ? As a CUBs fan I could really care less, speakin of which there were an awful lot of former Cubbies on that list . Selig is going to "act swiftly " could this be a 60 game , 1 year suspension for current players ??

You have to wonder if Baltimore got word of this , then traded him... afterall he's been seeking a trade for about 3 years

Posted

What does this mean for the Astros now ? As a CUBs fan I could really care less, speakin of which there were an awful lot of former Cubbies on that list . Selig is going to "act swiftly " could this be a 60 game , 1 year suspension for current players ??

You have to wonder if Baltimore got word of this , then traded him... afterall he's been seeking a trade for about 3 years

I cant imagine a scenario where the Astro's didnt know he could possibly/probably be on that list today, so I assume they knew about it and figured it wouldn't be an issue. Who knows. Pretty uncharacteristic of this team, but maybe thats what you get with a new manager/GM. Im excited about the aggressive moves, just dont like to give up all the pitching prospects.

Posted (edited)

Pretty uncharacteristic of this team, but maybe thats what you get with a new manager/GM.

Really? I'm an Astros fan also, but Bagwell, Clemens, Pettite and Caminiti are all guilty. You can't tell me that not one person in the Astros front office didn't know about this.

Edited by UNTLifer
Posted (edited)

Really? I'm an Astros fan also, but Bagwell, Clemens, Pettite and Caminiti are all guilty. You can't tell me that not one person in the Astros front office didn't know about this.

The last few years they've taken a lot of "good" guys, that's been the thing about the team that's annoyed me. They even made it their stupid marketing campaign (which kills me). I wouldn't be surprised if nobody in the org knew about Clemens and Pettite. They were untouchable when they were here. Clemens pretty much did whatever the hell he wanted because he was Roger Clemens.

And I dont even understand why you are arguing with me. All I said was I was surprised they'd go after a guy that's been in the center of controversy the past few years. Clemens, Pettite, and Caminiti didn't have the stink on them Tejada did. I'd be just as surprised if ANY club gave up that many prospects for Tejada the day before this all came out.

Im just glad Biggio wasn't on there. That guy is baseball, would've really disappointed a lot of 'Stros fans.

Edited by Eagle1855
Posted

Not arguing, but I think it is naive to think not one person in any team's front office, including the Astros, didn't know about their players that were using. I grew up a Rangers fan, and wasn't even surprised to see Juan Gonzales, Pudge and Sosa on the list. Rueben Sierra is another. They just blew up over an off-season. I remember when Sosa came up, attended the game. He was just a lanky teenager with one heck of a throwing arm, then a couple years later he looks like the Michelin man.

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