After 624 days, hundreds of interviews and immense speculation, George Mitchell today will deliver his report, and we’ll see whether it is a bombshell or just a bomb.
With the baseball world anxiously awaiting his document, believed to be around 300 pages, this afternoon in midtown Manhattan the former senate majority leader will release his report that cost MLB at least $20 million.
The release will end months of speculation about who is on the list of juicers. Sources say the report contains 60 to 80 names of players who received performance-enhancing drugs, but it is not known how many are stars and how many are only known to fantasy baseball fanatics.
The Associated Press reported last night that the report will contain names of “MVPs and All-Stars.” That could mean players already implicated as steroid users such as Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Ken Caminiti. The AP also said Mitchell will recommend increasing testing by an outside agency. It is expected the report will place blame on the MLB and Players Association for allowing the steroid culture to grow.
As of last night, teams had not been notified which players on their rosters are included.
“We have got to see it and go from there,” Yankees Senior VP Hank Steinbrenner said. “We haven’t seen it.”
Mitchell will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. at the Grand Hyatt. Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig will conduct a separate news conference at 4:30 at the Waldorf-Astoria, and union head Donald Fehr will hold a conference at 6 p.m. at the Hotel Intercontinental.
Stymied by uncooperative players backed by the powerful Players Association, Mitchell relied on information from several government investigations to formulate the report, along with interviews with scores of baseball executives, former players, managers, coaches and trainers. The only active player known to have spoken with Mitchell’s probe is Giambi, the Yankee first baseman who faced disciplinary action from Selig. There were reports of an active player voluntarily talking to Mitchell, but it is not known if this actually happened.
The biggest sources for the report are believed to be Kirk Radomski, the former Mets clubhouse attendant turned steroid dealer, and the Albany District Attorney’s investigation into illegal steroid sales over the Internet. Radomski turned over dozens of names, as well as bank and phone records, as part of his plea agreement in federal court.
Mitchell has been handcuffed by his lack of subpoena power. The union made it clear to players that it was not in their best interest to cooperate with Mitchell, leaving the former Maine senator to find other sources.
The Post spoke with a GM yesterday who was interviewed by Mitchell’s team to get a picture of what the procedure was. This GM spoke with Mitchell in 2006 and asked not to be identified, citing confidentiality requests by MLB.
Mitchell’s lawyers presented this GM with a list of names implicated either in previous reports or during their investigation.
“I got the sense they had various sources,” he said.
The investigators asked if the GM had any knowledge of the players using steroids or if he ever suspected it. They asked if the team’s executives ever spoke about suspicions and if it affected player-personnel decisions.
“I got the sense that they wanted to hear the extent it was talked about within front offices,” he said. “Some of the questions were standard. They wanted to get a sense what teams and executives took it seriously and which brushed it under the carpet.”
The investigators also asked to look at certain members of the team’s computers to see if there were any records of discussions on steroids.
Some GMs are concerned Mitchell’s report could lay most of the blame on them. The players have been protected to some degree by their union, and the owners don’t seem to be the focus of the investigation.
“I do think that there’s a feeling among general managers that you’re going into this thing naked,” he said. “You had little choice whether to testify or not. They made you feel like you had to. You got an edict from the commissioner that it was highly recommended that you support it and be helpful.”
Many around baseball are interested to see how Mitchell deals with Selig’s role. If Selig is excused by his longtime friend, the report’s credibility will be damaged.
“It will be interesting if this absolves the commissioner of any wrongdoing,” the GM said. “There’s plenty of blame to go around. As early as late ’80s there were conversations with team doctors that this was a growing problem, and nothing was done for 15 years.”
Additional reporting by George King.