Investigators to get 2003 steroid names

[AbeFroman]

As an attorney, I have a real problem with way the union handled this "confidential testing agreement". The attorney's representing the union players should have known that these test results couldn't be kept confidential from the government. They never should have advised their clients to agree to these provisions.

 

If I give another my employer incriminating evidence that I committed a crime (tax evasion, laundering, drug use, etc) under a confidentiality agreement, the government can probably get those records provided they will reasonably produce evidence of crime. Attorneys for the players union should have realized that their clients were likely to be under suspicion for violations of federal law.

 

As a baseball fan, i find this very amusing. The union, which had enough balls to make testing a bargaining chip, f***ed up. They NEVER should have entered this secrecy agreement in the first place. Now, making testing contingent on a % of the league testing positive will come back to bite them in the ass. If Donald Fehr and the union received any legal counsel prior to this agreement, then it was very questionable... at best. The best thing to have done was to use their bargaining position to phase in testing over the year. Instead, now hundreds of their own union members are endangered both legally and public relations-wise because of some grade C lawyering.

 

Lastly, I'd also like to know who tested positive because it would enhance my understanding of whether pitchers or batters really benefited more from roid use.

[Balta1701]

You know, that's a really interesting point Abe...the Union could really have set themselves up for the fall here.

 

Yes, they did everything they could to try to cover for their steroid-abusing members in 2003. They tried to set the system up so that the system itself would fail...they gave people plenty of warning, everyone knew that the tests would be happening during spring training of 03, everyone knew there would be exactly 1 test and then you'd be done, so everyone in baseball with 1/88 of a brain should have been able to figure out that they should stop using them in December or January, let the body flush out, and then start again after the test was administered.

 

But the Union also made sure that the results of that first test were supposed to be secret. No penalties, no suspensions, no one knows the results. In other words, they removed the best incentive for people to actually get off of the stuff...the penalty. Even with the warning, because the people being tested thought they were safe, a large chunk continued using them all the way through the tests. And that's entirely because the Union did such a good job of protecting the people involved from penalties.

 

I wonder if there's any chance that George Mitchell's failing whitewash investigation might be able to get their hands on this data now that the Feds have it.

Edited December 29, 2006 by Balta1701

[AbeFroman]

You know, that's a really interesting point Abe...the Union could really have set themselves up for the fall here.

 

Yes, they did everything they could to try to cover for their steroid-abusing members in 2003. They tried to set the system up so that the system itself would fail...they gave people plenty of warning, everyone knew that the tests would be happening during spring training of 03, everyone knew there would be exactly 1 test and then you'd be done, so everyone in baseball with 1/88 of a brain should have been able to figure out that they should stop using them in December or January, let the body flush out, and then start again after the test was administered.

 

But the Union also made sure that the results of that first test were supposed to be secret. No penalties, no suspensions, no one knows the results. In other words, they removed the best incentive for people to actually get off of the stuff...the penalty. Even with the warning, because the people being tested thought they were safe, a large chunk continued using them all the way through the tests. And that's entirely because the Union did such a good job of protecting the people involved from penalties.

 

I wonder if there's any chance that George Mitchell's failing whitewash investigation might be able to get their hands on this data now that the Feds have it.

 

Every player in baseball definitely should have been cleaned up before the test. They had plenty of opportunity. But by agreeing to secret testing, its real possible that many players just wouldn't care. As a result, they have no incentive to stop until the following year... when testing might be random (if it happened at all).

 

So, consequently, we have a good understanding of who was using the juice. Its just waiting for the government to go out there and get a court order requiring it to be released to the feds....

 

Now, to be honest, it doesn't change the Bonds case much. If his story is "I didn't know what I was taking" then the results are not actually indicative of his guilt of the crime of perjury. But the league has put its players in the position where 1) players believed the results would be secret; and 2) some players would have been relatively indifferent to the outcome; and 3) the test results actually weren't secret provided the results could have some bearing in a criminal case (which since the conduct itself was inherently illegal seems obvious).

 

In a way, by overbargaining the steroid issue, the player have possibly more exposure than they would have had if they had just agreed to penalties and random testing... provided they could delay the testing for 4 months (which would have been easy) so their guys could get clean.

Edited December 29, 2006 by AbeFroman

[Balta1701]

Not with the test MLB was using...

But it appears that MLB also still has the actual samples somewhere, and at least according to this ESPN piece, the Feds want the actual samples also. Which means that a THG test either was or will be administered on all of them.