Not sure why this isn't a thread. Could be the biggest thing to happen to baseball since the 94 strike.

From espn.com:Major League Baseball and the Players Association share the blame for tolerating a widespread culture of drug abuse, George Mitchell's report on doping in baseball says, according to two lawyers who said they are familiar with the report.


Both lawyers told ESPN that the report assigns blame for the rise of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball "from top to bottom," and recommends that MLB and the union agree to outsource their drug testing program to an independent agency.

The sources would not reveal the names of players included in the report, but confirmed that as many as 80 are listed. One lawyer expected several "very, very high-level names" to be exposed, although Mitchell is frank in the report about how difficult it was to get information regarding the extent of player use.

"He admits that he can only go back so far because of the lack of cooperation, but says it's more important to move ahead," one lawyer said.


Mitchell plans to release his report at 2 p.m. ET Thursday at a news conference in New York City.



Baseball commissioner Bud Selig will hold his own news conference 2½ hours later.


While the report recognizes that Selig met fierce resistance from the union when he tried to implement tougher testing during recent years, the report says that all of baseball should have seen the warning signs that were evident years ago.

Baseball and its players reached an agreement in September 2002 to test for steroids. In 2005, a new, stricter policy was implemented. Baseball and the players agreed to ban HGH in 2005, although there is no reliable test to detect the drug.

Sources said yesterday that MLBPA officials were angered that Mitchell chose not to share the report with them, but that Mitchell felt he had no obligation to the union after they fought his efforts to interview players and obtain some medical records.

Mitchell's criticisms about the current testing procedures are similar to those baseball has dismissed from other critics in the past, such as calls for more frequent testing and greater transparency in the program.

"They aren't going to like it," one lawyer said.


When Selig announced Mitchell's investigation on March 30, 2006, he said Mitchell, the former Senate majority leader, was free to pursue his investigation wherever it led. He did not say, however, whether he would abide by all of the report's recommendations.


Besides either appointing an independent administrator or hiring an outside agency to run the program (MLB currently administers the program in conjunction with the Players Association), baseball should:

• Improve to "state-of-the-art" testing, including additional year-round tests with fewer opportunities for players to escape detection.

• Allow the testing administrator to actively investigate "non-analytical positives," meaning information that can show a player violated the doping policy in the absence of a positive urine test. Jay Gibbons and Jose Guillen, for example, were recently suspended after MLB received information from law enforcement sources documenting that the players had received banned drugs. Neither failed a drug test.

• Improve player education about performance-enhancing drugs.

• Allow greater transparency in the program, such as naming the drugs that players test positive for. Some players try to dodge responsibility for positive tests by saying they unwittingly took a tainted diet supplement. Certain drugs could not possibly have come from supplements, but because baseball doesn't name the substances it discovers, the press and public can't determine whether the player is telling the truth.

MLB officials did not return numerous calls seeking comment on Wednesday.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that 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, according to the AP.

"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.''

meh, we already know a bunch of people have been taking steroids i don't think anyone is going to freak out over this. we're pretty numb to all this steroid talk by now.

names that won't surprise me:
jason giambi
barry bonds
gary sheffield
miguel tejada
rafael palmeiro
sammy sosa
albert pujols
jose guillen
jay gibbons
jeff bagwell
luis gonzalez
josh hamilton
rick ankiel
aramis ramirez
alfonso soriano
mark texiera
hank blalock
david ortiz
manny ramirez
nomar garciaparra
jeff kent
kenny lofton
david justice
chipper jones
andruw jones
troy glaus
moises alou
mike sweeney

nobody is gonna freak out but it's gonna be interesting, that's for sure. I'malso pretty sure that a lot of big names aren't gonna make the list that should make it.

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

Much of the first part of the report will be based on evidence obtained from former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk 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 has been charged.


I read the report will name 60-80 players so there will have to be some surprises here...i'm actually really psyched to see the names but i'm a bit nervous about the mets

why? people from every team are going to be on it so it's not like anybody's gonna question anything that any team did.

because one of the main witnesses was a mets trainer so there's probably going to be a significant amount of NY players.

i dont get how people can be so "psyched" to see this thing. if you ask me this is one of the darkest days in baseball history, not a happy occasion.

its a happy occassion if you believe that baseball was created by the anti-christ

i am happy the scum are getting outed.... yes, i am happy about this.

i just like dirt

everything I've read about how this "investigation" was conducted leads me to believe this was a huge waste of time and money (about 60 million dollars).

Agreed. I have a bad feeling that after this list comes out im going to lose all hope and respect for baseball. What a mess

i'd be depressed to see pujols' name. also chipper. and soriano? really?

You can thank the Player's Association for that.

you still have hope and respect to lose?

i dont think this will be a big deal. it will be talked about all off season, but once spring training comes around everyone will be reporting on the sox and yanks again

I think Selig gets the blame here. This whole thing was a lame attempt to improve his legacy and get congress off his back IMO.

No doubt that Selig shares the blame but the Player's Association would not have anyone cooperate with the entire investigation. From what people are saying about the report both MLB and the MLBPA are going to share the blame on this.

But why should the players have cooperated? If I'm a player, how am I supposed to have confidence in an "independent" investigation that was conducted by a member of a teams' front office...at the behest of a former owner? And just how independent was it when Selig basically strong armed Giambi into talking to Mitchell?