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Who’s Leaking The Names on MLB’s “104″ List?
Published by MoonDog on June 17, 2009
Sammy Sosa was named on Tuesday as one of the 104 Major League Baseball players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during a 2003 test that was supposed to be kept confidential.
The New York Times reported the now retired Sosa was identified as having tested positive by unnamed attorneys with knowledge of the results.
The lawyers who were told of Sosa’s inclusion on the 2003 list didn’t know the substance for which he tested positive, the New York Times said.
Sosa is yet another big name Major League Baseball player who denied using steroids or other PED’s while testifying before a U.S. congressional committee in 2005.
Rafeal Palmiero denied past steroid use while under oath during the House Government Reform Committee hearing. Palmiero tested positive for steroids five months later and received a 10-game suspension.
Sosa joins Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez as players testing positive for PED’s use this year. Rodriguez, like Sosa, was identified as one of the 104 players caught after the 2003 test was administered.
Even more interesting is why the names of the 104 players testing positive in 2003 are being leaked to the media in what appears to be systematic fashion.
The results of the survey testing of 1198 players were meant to be anonymous under the agreement between the commissioner’s office and the players association.
Rodriguez’s testing information was found after federal agents seized the 2003 test results from Comprehensive Drug Testing Inc., one of two labs used by MLB in connection with that year’s survey testing.
The seizure took place in April 2004 as part of the government’s investigation into 10 major league players linked to the BALCO scandal, including Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi.
According to a Sports Illustrated report in February 2009, the Major League Baseball Players Association released a statement regarding Rodriguez’s name being mentioned among those testing positive in 2003.
The MLBPA statement said, “Information and documents relating to the results of the 2003 MLB testing program are both confidential and under seal by court orders.
We are prohibited from confirming or denying any allegation about the test results of any particular player[s] by the collective bargaining agreement and by court orders. Anyone with knowledge of such documents who discloses their contents may be in violation of those court orders.”
If the MLBPA statement is accurate, the unnamed attorney with knowledge of the test results leaking Sosa’s name has clearly violated the terms of the court order.
Untold numbers are aware of the remaining 102 names that have yet to be leaked to the media. Federal agents who seized computers and other documents from Comprehensive Drug Testing are certainly aware of the remaining players on the list.
Add the judge, clerks, prosecutors and defense attorneys involved in the BALCO case and more than likely certain officials with MLB and the MLBPA.
In other words, it’s not unreasonable to assume upwards of 50 people have access to the remaining names on the list. So which person or persons are responsible for leaking court ordered sealed documents to the media?
While all of the persons that are aware of the names can potentially surfer legal consequences, it would be difficult to locate the source(s) of the information leak.
It’s a safe bet Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa would like to know who was responsible for leaking their names to the media. As for the other 102 names on the list, they’re wondering the same thing.
Maybe it’s a matter of time when all of the names become public. For a list that was supposed to be destroyed but wasn’t, then seized by federal officials and ordered to be sealed but hasn’t, it doesn’t appear anything will prevent the information from being leaked.
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Around the Lot Links for Wednesday June 17 | UsTailgate on Wed, 17th Jun 2009 13:53
[...] Who’s Leaking The Names on MLB’s “104″ List? (Moondog Sports) [...]
Linked And Loaded - 6/17 | Paneech on Wed, 17th Jun 2009 21:49
[...] Sports poses the question… Who is leaking the names of the 104 baseball players who failed their drug tests in [...]
tophatal on Thu, 18th Jun 2009 12:53
Fred aka MoonDog ………
For all sense and purpose who gives a damn to begin with ? As the idiots within MLB and MLBPA had the chance to have the evidence destroyed once it allnce had been gathered. Instead they chose not to and it allowed the FEDS to corral it and then pursue Bonds and others at the taxpayers’ expense.
tophatal ……………
MoonDog on Thu, 18th Jun 2009 16:14
Tophat – I agree. Not to mention the court sealed the documents yet names are being released. Seems court orders and promises of confidentiality don’t mean much.
Not to dismiss the fact these players were dirty but it would appear all of them have grounds to sue if they were so inclined.
tophatal on Fri, 19th Jun 2009 09:23
Fred aka Moondog …….
I know that a lot of people contend that Selena Roberts may have overstepped her boundaries with regard to the Duke incident and her reporting there. But in the case of A-Rod there was definitely due diligence used.
As of now MLB and the MLPA can’t be trusted with the overall custodianship of the game. And the players themselves who refuse to try to force changes upon their own union are no less guilty than the players who’ve flouted the laws of the land much less the game’s own inherent rules. So I’ve no empathy for them at all. So all of this bs as to the rites of passage and the goodness of the game is just mere crap ! Less we forget the undue legacy of the game and many of the fould things that’ve gone on within the game prior to desegregation and thereon after.
Alan aka tophatal ……………….