Jason Grimsley raid/HGH

[jlb1705]

This could be the biggest thing yet in the whole performance enhancement crisis. He's apparently named some names, and commentators are saying this is gonna blow up big time.

I'm not gonna pretend baseball is any more or less innocent than any of the other major sports. I don't believe for one second that NFL players are any cleaner than MLB players. Baseball has a huge perception problem though - in part because this problem is taking place in the midst of an assault on the record books that just isn't taking place in other sports.

I hope they get this sorted out eventually, and that the league and the union commit to doing something meaningful about this problem.

D-Backs release Grimsley a day after feds searched his home
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td width="10"> </td> <td> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr valign="top"> <td nowrap="nowrap"> June 7, 2006
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] PHOENIX -- Pitcher Jason Grimsley was released by the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday, a day after his home was searched by federal agents following his admission he used human growth hormone, steroids and amphetamines.

[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] The raid -- and Grimsley's implication of other major league ballplayers -- was the latest sign that widespread investigations into drug use by athletes are still active, even in the era of tougher testing.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Grimsley's agent told the Associated Press he thought this would mark the end of the 38-year-old reliever's career.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] "My guess is Jason's done playing," Joe Bick said in a telephone interview. "I couldn't anticipate that he would play again, but that's his call.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] "He didn't want to be a distraction to the team." [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Diamondbacks general manager Josh Byrnes said Grimsley asked for his unconditional release in meetings with team officials Tuesday and Wednesday.[/FONT]
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</td> <td width="15"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="175"> Jason Grimsley was 1-2 with a 4.88 ERA in 19 games as a long reliever this season, his first with Arizona. (AP) </td> <td width="15"> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] "We accepted his request," Byrnes said. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Thirteen federal agents searched Grimsley's home in Scottsdale, Ariz., for six hours Tuesday, but they would not reveal what they found. Investigators who cracked the BALCO steroid scandal in San Francisco said Grimsley initially cooperated in the probe but withdrew his assistance in April, prompting Tuesday's search.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] According to court documents released Tuesday, authorities tracked a package containing two "kits" of human growth hormone -- about a season's supply -- that was delivered at Grimsley's house on April 19.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Moments later, agents armed with a warrant offered him an option: Cooperate with their investigation into athletes using performance-enhancing drugs, or submit to an immediate search. Grimsley agreed to be interviewed.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] He proceeded to detail his "receipt and use of anabolic steroids, amphetamines and human growth hormone over the last several years," but said he went exclusively with HGH when baseball's testing program began.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Grimsley also identified several other players who he said had used or supplied the drugs, though their names were blacked out from court documents. They included a handful of former teammates and one player he identified as one of his "better friends in baseball," adding that it was common knowledge that "Latin players" were a major source for amphetamines in the sport.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] He also identified a personal fitness trainer to several major league ballplayers who once referred him to an amphetamine source that later supplied him with an array of drugs. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] The investigation is being run by prosecutors and authorities in San Francisco, where five Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative defendants pleaded guilty to distributing or developing steroids.

[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan of San Francisco said the government's continuing investigation will "diligently follow the evidence."[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] "Clearly," he added, "we're not done."[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] A federal grand jury in San Francisco is also investigating whether San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds lied under oath about using the performance-enhancing drug known as "the clear" during his grand jury testimony that led to the indictment of four people connected to BALCO.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Grimsley's locker was empty when the clubhouse was opened to the media before the afternoon game against Philadelphia at Chase Field.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] As for the remainder of Grimsley's $825,000 salary, "there was no negotiation," Bick said. "Released players get paid."[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Grimsley was 1-2 with a 4.88 ERA in 19 games as a long reliever this season, his first with Arizona.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Diamondbacks pitcher Terry Mulholland said Grimsley addressed his NL West-leading teammates after Tuesday's loss to the Phillies.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] "He expressed to us that he had too much respect for us to allow this to bring us down," Mulholland said. "He's that kind of guy."[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Former Kansas City teammate Jeremy Affeldt said he talked to Grimsley earlier in the day.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] "He's down. It's an embarrassing thing when you get caught. It was a judgment call on his part. I think he knows it was wrong. I don't think he would deny that," Affeldt said. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Grimsley began his big league career with Philadelphia in 1989 and pitched for Cleveland, California, the New York Yankees, Kansas City, Baltimore and Arizona. He has a career record of 42-58 with a 4.77 ERA.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] According to court documents, Grimsley failed a baseball drug test in 2003. Authorities said when he was cooperating, he admitted to using human growth hormone, amphetamines and steroids.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Commissioner Bud Selig had no comment on the specifics of Grimsley's case. Major League Baseball executive vice president Rob Manfred said HGH "is a problem for all sports because there is no universally accepted and validated test."[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] "No governing body in any sport has ever been able to discipline an athlete for the use of HGH," he said.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Grimsley has spent much of his career as a journeyman, but he made headlines in 1999 when he confessed to his role in the infamous Albert Belle corked bat caper.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Grimsley, who had been Belle's teammate with Cleveland, admitted he worked his way through a crawl space at Comiskey Park in 1994 and dropped through the ceiling in the umpires' room to replace the illegal bat. Five years later, he came clean and solved one of baseball's ongoing mysteries.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] "I went sky diving once, and I can compare it to that," Grimsley said at the time. "The adrenaline rush I got from that caper was just like jumping out of an airplane. It was being in a place you're not supposed to be."[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Grimsley spent only a few months with the Diamondbacks but was liked by teammates, who seemed stunned by Wednesday's news.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] "He was a good teammate to have here while he was here," Diamondbacks catcher Johnny Estrada said. "It's not my business what happens off the field. Obviously, he had some issues." [/FONT]

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

ABJ

6/8/06

Baseball, players left curious about names on Grimsley's list

BY T.J. QUINN

New York Daily News

<!-- begin body-content -->NEW YORK - A disgraced Jason Grimsley asked for his release from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday, as baseball found itself facing a human growth hormone controversy it never expected.
A day after the pitcher's Arizona home was raided by IRS agents seeking evidence of HGH, amphetamine and anabolic steroid use, the calls began for baseball to find a way to close the gaps in its testing program.
"MLB and the Players Association must take immediate action or face Congressional interference yet again," U.S. Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY) said in a statement, raising the same threat that forced baseball into toughening its steroid policy.
At the same time, the world of Major League Baseball was abuzz regarding the mystery of which players Grimsley named to federal agents investigating the case, and whose names were covered in black ink in the search warrant affidavit. Grimsley has not been charged.
Anti-doping experts said the raid on Grimsley's home and the potential fallout for other players was a clear sign to baseball that "the steroid era" was far from over, and that players are actively seeking other ways to beat drug testing.
"It's very significant and it's good that the authorities are following up on it," said Dick Pound, the firebrand chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a frequent critic of MLB. "We may be in the early stages of this. Baseball is in such a stage of institutional denial - they say it's only steroids and clearly it's not."
Another troubling sidebar from the Grimsley raid is his claim to agents that he was told in 2003 he had tested positive during baseball's "survey" testing program. Testing that year was supposed to be anonymous, and MLB and the union assured players' test results would not be connected to names. However, when federal agents raided a lab where the samples were held and another lab holding a list of names, the two lists were united, making it possible for MLB, the Players Association and law enforcement to connect names and results.
Sources told the Daily News at the time that MLB and union officials could have ordered the tests destroyed but did not for unexplained reasons. Other sources said that had the union agreed to turn over the samples connected to the 10 players involved in the BALCO scandal, rather than seek to quash those subpoenas, the Feds would not have executed a search warrant to seize samples from all players.
Grimsley was not one of the BALCO players.
MLB and union officials declined to comment Wednesday, but Grimsley's agent, Joe Bick, told the New York Daily News that he and his client had no official reaction to the raid. Grimsley left the Diamondbacks, he said, because "anybody that knows anything about Jason knows he's a very good teammate and he told all the players, `I don't want to be a distraction now.' "
Bick said he wasn't sure what Grimsley, who will still be paid because he was released by the team, will do next.
"Obviously there's some issues to be cleared up first," Bick said. "I don't anticipate that it includes any plans to play."
Even without a positive test, Grimsley could face a 50-game suspension for possessing performance-enhancing drugs based on the information collected by agents. And because the affidavit sought phone and bank records that could connect Grimsley to other players, he could face an 80-to-100 game suspension for distributing.
MSNBC host Keith Olbermann said Wednesday night that Grimsley once told him that he was an investor in his brother-in-law's nutritional supplement company.
Experts have long claimed that motivated cheats will avoid being caught, even under strenuous drug-testing programs. HGH, which is produced naturally by the body, is banned but not tested for, and players can easily take mild steroids in amounts that will not trigger a positive test, yet still enhance performance, or take difficult to detect hormonal agents. They can also hide from testers during the offseason.
MLB officials released a statement from commissioner Bud Selig on Wednesday saying he will not comment on Grimsley's case but urged players to cooperate with law enforcement and former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell's investigation into baseball's history of performance-enhancing drugs.
The statement also quoted MLB's senior VP for business and labor, Rob Manfred, saying, "No governing body in any sport has even been able to discipline an athlete for the use of HGH."
The only testing methods available to detect HGH require blood, and those are considered unreliable by much of the scientific community.
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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

ABJ

6/8/06

Grimsley's allegations test the game again

BY STEVE KELLEY

The Seattle Times

<!-- begin body-content -->SEATTLE - Even as Jason Grimsley dressed for Tuesday night's game with the Philadelphia Phillies, 13 federal investigators were completing a six-hour search of his house, looking for evidence in their on-going probe into illegal drug use in major -league baseball.
Even in the first inning, as he warmed up in the Arizona bullpen in what probably would be the final night of his big-league career, agents were sifting through data and preparing another haymaker to the game's integrity.
Arizona manager Bob Melvin didn't get word of the investigation until the second inning and decided not to use his long reliever in the blowout loss.
Maybe it will be a journeyman pitcher who delivers the most telling blow to baseball.
It won't be Barry Bonds' grand-jury testimony. It won't be Jose Canseco's book. It won't be Rafael Palmeiro's failed drug test or the suspicions that followed Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa into retirement.
Maybe it will be the cooperation of a reliever named Jason Grimsley, a guy who has pitched for seven clubs in a mediocre career that began in 1989, that accelerates the investigation and shakes the game to its foundation.
According to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix, Grimsley, who asked for and got his release from the Diamondbacks before Wednesday afternoon's game, was caught receiving two kits of human growth hormone (HGH), apparently a season's supply, by federal agents on April 19.
HGH is on baseball's list of banned substances, but there are no reliable tests for its usage, and it is believed it has become the substitute-of-choice for other performance-enhancing drugs that can be detected in urine samples.
The affidavit, which first appeared Tuesday night on the Arizona Republic's Web site, said Grimsley had cooperated in the ongoing federal investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO). He named names, then stopped cooperating sometime in April.
Grimsley, who court documents say failed a league drug test in 2003, allegedly told investigators that "boatloads" of players use HGH. He also said that amphetamine use was prevalent and that the drugs were hidden in coffee makers marked "leaded" and "unleaded."
He said Latino players were major sources of the amphetamines, and said players from California teams were sources for speed because it was easy for them to take quick trips to Mexico to buy the drugs.
Allegedly Grimsley even talked about a player who had used steroids and had the worst case of back acne he'd ever seen.
Now an investigation that, at least publicly, seemed to stall after the BALCO defendants had plea bargained and served their short jail sentences could pick up more momentum than a 10-game winning streak.
And players, who are sick of the questions and the suspicions that have followed them through the first third of this season, will be peppered with more questions and shadowed by more accusations.
Members of Congress looking for an issue with more substance than the gay-marriage amendment might go back on the attack against baseball and open up more investigations and call for more hearings.
More important, this is the kind of news that will force baseball to, once again, take a hard look at itself and come up with even more stringent tests.
It is one thing for Palmeiro to wag his finger at congressmen and lie that he never used steroids. It's one thing for McGwire to indignantly refuse to answer the hard questions or for Canseco to make allegations in a book.
This is quite another thing.
This is a big-league pitcher who has been around the game for almost two decades, caught in the act and giving up the names of other players he says are doing exactly what he is doing.
This is the kind of thing that should scare every dirty big-leaguer to death. Grimsley's confessions could be the start of a flood of information that brings down dozens of other players.
But it should also give new impetus to the league and to the Players' Association to clean up a mess that had been maybe 30 years in the making.
The way it is now, every time Albert Pujols hits a home run, he's under suspicion. Every time the Jason Giambi of 2006 resembles the thunderous Jason Giambi of 2002, he raises eyebrows.
The perfect storm is swirling around baseball again.
Jason Grimsley had a long big-league career. But until this week, we had no idea of the extent of his legacy.
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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

ABJ

6/8/06

Diamondbacks' players thankful Grimsley chose to leave team

BY JACK MAGRUDER

East Valley Tribune (Mesa, Ariz.)

<!-- begin body-content -->PHOENIX - The Arizona Diamondbacks wish the best for Jason Grimsley, but most appear glad that he chose to walk away from the clubhouse in the wake of his involvement in a federal investigation into illegal drugs in baseball.
"If he was here, it might be a media circus like Barry (Bonds),'' catcher Johnny Estrada said on Wednesday.
"Now that he is gone, I don't know what hoopla is going to be all about. We have to go on and play and try to stay on top of this division.''
The D-Backs still lead the NL West despite losing three straight games, the last two after news of Grimsley's involvement in an Internal Revenue Service probe was made public.
"I think we'll get past it,'' general manager Josh Byrnes said.
"I think this team is very resilient. It's a team that nobody expected to do much and has played well. It's a team that has come back. It's a great bunch of guys that has surpassed expectations so far and will continue to do so.
"We have to do our part to be sensitive to Jason, to what the federal government wants and to what Major League Baseball wants. To Jason's credit, he didn't want to be a distraction to the team, and that was his decision to make.''
Grimsley, in his first season with the D-Backs, was 1-2 with a 4.88 ERA but had made several valuable appearances as a long reliever when D-Backs' starters faltered early in the season.
"I don't think we've had adversity. This isn't adversity,'' Craig Counsell said. "We had an unfortunate situation with a teammate. He's not a teammate any more. We have to move on.''
Terry Mulholland: "We have to keep playing, regardless of how the roster changes, whether it is due to injury or trade or disciplinary action or whatever. You are still a part of a group of guys.
"We feel for our teammate, obviously, but you don't let that affect you when you cross the lines. It is all about playing the game. Anybody's personal life, if you don't leave that outside the clubhouse and the ballpark, you are not doing your job.''
Grimsley told IRS agents, according to court documents, that he used anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and amphetamines, all of which are on MLB's list of banned substances.
Major League Baseball does not test for human growth hormone, which managing partner Ken Kendrick sees as a loophole that must be closed.
"We are very focused on that already, and there is work being done right now with UCLA to develop a urine test that hopefully would be successful and would be definitive,'' Kendrick said.
"There is no test right now, blood or urine, that is definitive. The only time that blood testing was used was in the Olympics, and that was not conclusive. The results were never released publicly, and our medical experts say those tests were not conclusive enough for us to put them in the protocol for our program.
"So we need a reliable test, and we are going to get one. It's obviously an important matter, and there is work going on as we speak.''
Kendrick said management has talked to the team about moving forward.
"The team wants to get focused on playing,'' he said.
"We think we can put this behind us and go out and continue what we think is a very good season.''
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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

ABJ

6/8/06

A grisly outlook for baseball, thanks to Grimsley

BY PHIL ROGERS

Chicago Tribune

<!-- begin body-content -->CHICAGO - You want to scream, don't you?
Jason Grimsley, a guy whose 15-year career proves only that some mediocre right-handers can survive as long as mediocre lefties, is popped in a federal investigation with two "kits" of human growth hormone, and you wonder why you still care about baseball or professional sports in general. What about the pitchers who throw really hard? If a mope like this is using, who isn't?
I share your frustration, but probably not the naivete that caused you to be so surprised about sports' latest scandal involving performance-enhancing substances. The reality is, no matter how much we long for days when the foreign substances were on the baseballs, science is here to stay. Welcome to the rest of your life as a sports fan or, heaven help you, a competitor.
For Commissioner Bud Selig and his labor/testing bulldog, Rob Manfred, the revelations that an Arizona Diamondbacks reliever confessed to using HGH shipped to his house qualifies as dog biting man. That's probably also true across Manhattan at the offices of the players union, although there the lawyers' tendency is almost always to protect the users, not those who don't use.
Since Major League Baseball finally cracked down on steroid use, everyone involved knew the next firestorm would be over HGH, which has the advantage of still being undetectable. It is banned, of course, but can be detected only through blood tests (and not reliably enough then), and the union won't consider allowing collectors to draw blood.
Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick hopes the Grimsley situation will cause the union at least to re-examine its position.
"We just hope the union will look at it as we do," Kendrick said. "We have to do the very best that is possible to rid ourselves of any and all drugs in our game."
That's wishful thinking. The headlines ahead won't be good ones.
In Grimsley, the HGH version of the steroid story_call it Beyond BALCO_is here. It even stars some of the same cast as the Bay Area probe that has tainted Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi, among others, with the most notable holdover being federal investigator Jeff Novitzky.
Before lawyering up, Grimsley told Novitzky he had used the steroid Deca-Durabolin in 1999 and 2000, before there was testing, but had used only HGH since the union_with a strong arm from Congress and a large number of principled players_reluctantly signed off on testing.
Grimsley also named names. They were blacked out in the search warrant the Arizona Republic obtained, but it's fair to say that at least six to 10 unnamed big-leaguers soon will be getting a call from Novitzky, if they haven't already.
If some of them name other names, this could spread wider than BALCO. And while all of the BALCO athletes were granted immunity before they testified before that grand jury, there's no guarantee the HGH guys will be treated as kindly.
The tactics Novitzky applied to Grimsley were very similar to the way he handled BALCO founder Victor Conte and Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, but there's no knowledge of any of their homes being raided. The feds did that to Grimsley after he stopped cooperating.
Many thought the volume would be turned down with MLB running its own investigation of the steroid era, but they were wrong. If anything, Novitzky and former Sen. George Mitchell, who heads the MLB investigation, might be getting ready to turn up the volume.
In one of the biggest surprises ever, Grimsley decided Wednesday to walk away from the spotlight. He asked for his release, and Arizona was thrilled to give him the rest of his $825,000 salary early.
"He didn't want to be a distraction to the team," agent Joe Bick said.
I know what you're thinking: Hey, the White Sox need relievers, don't they?
Just kidding there. At 38, Grimsley (yes, he's the guy who claims to have crawled through the suspended ceiling at the former Comiskey Park to retrieve Albert Belle's allegedly corked bat from the umpire's room in 1994) probably is finished as a player.
But you can bet this isn't going to end with one rank-and-file reliever. Before this investigation runs its course, a lot of garbage is going to be combed through, and some of it almost certainly will be All-Star garbage.
Players and their general managers alike are less comfortable today than they were before the feds barged into 10792 East Fanfol Lane in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Imagine if it's August when the hammer drops again, and this time it strikes a key player or two from contenders. Could Novitzky or Mitchell decide a playoff race or two with their allegations or findings?
You bet they could. But that's just the world we're all going to have to live in for, oh, the rest of ours lives.
The science isn't going away. Once there's a test for HGH, there's going to be something else athletes will take that is undetectable.
It might be different if parents taught their children that cheating is always wrong. But who is being naive now?
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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

ABJ

6/8/06

Expect explosive revelations in the wake of Grimsley probe

BY MARK PURDY

San Jose Mercury News

<!-- begin body-content -->SAN FRANCISCO - For the past year, Barry Bonds has been the scapegoat. That is what his defenders say. Some are his fellow major leaguers. Others are people who describe themselves as baseball fans.
Why, these people ask, are so many fingers pointing at Bonds, as if he were the only guy involved with muscle juice? Why don't the feds go after other players? Why don't the media focus on anyone else?
Those people should have been careful what they wished for, because after the events of this week in suburban Phoenix, baseball could be in for a long, horrible and scandalous summer - with Bonds serving as a mere minor character in the morality play.
Because here is what happened Tuesday: Federal agents visited the home of Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Jason Grimsley with a search warrant.
For six hours, investigators searched the house for evidence related to Grimsley's alleged use and illegal purchase of human growth hormone, a powerful performance-enhancing substance banned from baseball.
Giants shortstop Omar Vizquel was a teammate of Grimsley's with the Cleveland Indians in 1994-95. Vizquel heard news of the raid Wednesday at AT&T Park before the Giants' 8-1 loss to Florida.
After the game, asked for his reaction, Vizquel initially uttered just one word.
"Weird," Vizquel said.
Weird? How so?
"There were guys searching his house," Vizquel said. "Even if you hear of a guy who used something, you don't see them searching a house."
Bingo. In a few seconds a couple of sentences, Vizquel had grasped and elucidated the significance of the Grimsley situation: Namely, that the federal investigation into baseball's substance-abuse problem has taken a huge new step. And if you happen to be a major league player, it could be a rather scary one.
Here in the Bay Area, we know that Jeff Novitzky, the lead investigator in the BALCO case, has searched a laboratory and the homes of its owners, as well as that of Bonds' personal trainer. But not until Tuesday had Novitzky's people knocked on a major league player's door and sent cops inside to obtain...what?
Drug paraphernalia?
Phone records and address books, with the names of Grimsley's many baseball acquaintances?
Checkbooks and bank statements, to see how payments were made to the company that sent growth hormone by mail to Grimsley's house?
The answer is, all of the above. It's spelled out in the search affidavit, along with this interesting twist: Agents knew exactly what to look for, because they had met with Grimsley two months ago. On April 19, they were tipped off that he would be receiving a shipment of growth hormone. They watched the delivery, busted Grimsley and gave him two options: speak with them or have his house searched.
Grimsley, 38, said he would speak. He then spent two hours giving up the names of as many as eight teammates or former teammates who had been involved with him in steroid, growth hormone and amphetamine use and/or trafficking. But a week later, he retained a lawyer and stopped cooperating. Which led to Tuesday's search warrant.
Of course, the feds already had plenty of information. In the affidavit describing his conversation in April, Grimsley is quoted as saying that he knew "boatloads" of players who used the same source for amphetamines and growth hormone.
Boatloads? Yes, boatloads. The names of those fingered were blacked out from the publicly released search affidavit. But there will be a lot of speculation.
Grimsley, released by the Diamondbacks at his request Wednesday, was a textbook baseball journeyman. Arizona was his seventh Major League stop. He's probably occupied a home locker room with 200 or more players.
The Giants alone have three players who are Grimsley's former teammates - Vizquel and pitchers Jamey Wright and Steve Kline.
Vizquel said Wednesday that during his Cleveland seasons with Grimsley, there was no real steroid talk about him. But that's not surprising, Vizquel said. Steroid users, unless they are Jose Canseco trying to sell a book, don't usually shoot up and tell.
You get the feeling, though, that the situation might change. If Grimsley is forced to sing, we could be in for some explosive revelations. Before this, growth hormone was baseball's stealth, no-consequences drug. It is banned, but the only accurate test involves drawing blood, and baseball's drug policy, agreed upon by owners and the union, calls only for urine tests.
In other words, the only way to find baseball's growth hormone cheaters is to catch them with the stuff - which is what happened to Grimsley. But how did the feds know when he was receiving his shipment?
It suggests that someone else might be cooperating. It suggests that this investigation may already be larger than we think. It suggests that those "boatloads" of players might eventually be hearing knocks on their doors.
For baseball, trying desperately to put the steroid issue in the rear view mirror, that's a pure nightmare.
Not to overblow anything, but by the time this is over, we may look back on the scenes of this spring - with Bonds being vilified and booed as the sole steroid bad guy - and call them the good old days.
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[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Dispatch

6/8/06

Grimsley implicates others in steroid probe
Pitcher initially cooperated with authorities
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Jack Curry
THE NEW YORK TIMES
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Jason Grimsley, a journeyman pitcher with the Arizona Diamondbacks, took only two hours to disclose what he surely hoped would remain a secret, and what other major leaguers also wanted to keep private. About two months ago, according to federal investigators, Grimsley revealed that he had used performance-enhancing substances for several years and that other players did, too.
When three investigators arrived on Grimsley’s doorstep April 19 with the suspicion that he had just received a shipment of human growth hormone, it did not take long before he admitted that he had used anabolic steroids, amphetamines and human growth hormone, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court of Arizona.
Thirteen federal agents searched Grimsley’s home in Scottsdale, Ariz., for six hours Tuesday. Mark Lessler, an agent with the Internal Revenue Service, would not divulge what was uncovered. The agents are investigating Grimsley for illegal possession of drugs, illegal distribution of drugs and money laundering of the profits.
During Grimsley’s interview with agents, he admitted to receiving and using performance enhancing substances 10 to 12 times, according to the court papers. Grimsley also named other players who were users, but those names were blacked out in the documents.
Because Major League Baseball has urine tests to detect steroids and amphetamines, Grimsley kept using only human growth hormone, according to the documents. The day that Grimsley had two kits of growth hormone delivered to his home in April at a cost of $3,200, federal investigators rang his bell and eventually interviewed him at another location.
Grimsley’s disclosures seemed to validate the speculation that major leaguers have continued to use performance-enhancing substances even with harsher drug testing in place this season. Grimsley, a 38-year-old who was in his 15 th major-league season, asked for his release from the Diamondbacks yesterday, and they obliged him.
"I guess I wouldn’t have been as shocked if he wasn’t on our team for a period of time, because it’s somebody you know," New York Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "It’s too bad. I guess with these enhancing drugs, they continued to find things out. Getting to the bottom of it is the most important thing."
Joe Bick, who has represented Grimsley for 20 years, said he expected Grimsley would retire.
"I would be surprised if he played again," Bick said. "Obviously, it’s been very difficult for Jason and his family."
In an affidavit for a search warrant, Jeff Novitzky, an IRS agent, told Edward C. Voss, a federal judge, that he wanted to search Grimsley’s house for "any and all records showing contact or relationship with any and all amateur or professional athletes, athletic coaches or athletic trainers" regarding the use or purchase of illicit drugs.
Before Novitzky sought the warrant, he wrote that Grimsley had initially cooperated with investigators. Novitzky described how he and two investigators told Grimsley they knew he had just received growth hormone in the mail and offered him the chance to retrieve it and go to another location for questioning. Grimsley, who had guests and was given the chance to avoid the awkwardness of a full-scale search, agreed.
The affidavit details what Grimsley told investigators about drug use in clubhouses, including his description of coffee pots labeled "leaded" and "unleaded" to indicate which ones were laced with amphetamines. He also said amphetamines were called "greenies" or "beans" and were widely used because "they work." According to the document, he said, "Everybody had greenies. That’s like aspirin."
Grimsley told investigators that "Latin players" had boxes of drugs and were major sources of amphetamines. He also said players from teams based in California could easily buy drugs in Mexico and sell them to players from other cities. Grimsley added that he failed a drug test in 2003, before baseball had punishments in place.
But about one week after being interviewed, Grimsley retained a lawyer and said he would no longer cooperate. Bick, Grimsley’s agent, refused to talk about the affidavit and would answer only baseball-related questions.
Novitzky was also the lead agent in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative case, which involved the illegal distribution of steroids and human growth hormone to dozens of elite athletes. Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants and the Yankees’ Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield were among those who testified in the case.

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

uh oh
http://www.deadspin.com/sports/baseball/so-weve-got-some-affidavit-names-179400.php

So ... We've Got Some Affidavit Names

Everyone’s guessing about who the blacked-out names in the Jason Grimsley report are, and it has been a fun parlor game so far. But we all knew eventually the names would get out. And we’ve been digging around … and some sources have given us some names.
How reliable are these names? We feel pretty confident in them, but we can’t go 100 percent, since the information is secondhand. We’ll say this: If Bud Selig issuing a press release naming the names is a 10, and picking a player at random out of the Baseball Encyclopedia is a 1, we’re at an 8.
So. Let’s do it then. Remember: Betting lines are for entertainment purposes only.
First: The person who told Grimsley about the positive test in 2003. That’s former Royals general manager Allard Baird.
As many people have guessed, one of the “former players” who were sold out by Grimsley: Sammy Sosa. Our source(s) couldn’t confirm if the other was Rafael Palmeiro.
Nothing new or exciting about that name. Then it starts to get interesting. We’ve heard amphetamine rumors of Miguel Tejada, but we can’t confirm that. What we can confirm? The doozy.
Grimsley says that a former employee of [redacted] and personal fitness trainer to several Major League Baseball players once referred him to an amphetamine source.. Later, this source provided him with “amphetamines, anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.” This trainer? His name is Chris Mihlfeld, a Kansas City-based “strength and conditioning guru.” (And former Strength And Conditioning Coordinator for the Royals.)
Does Mihlfeld’s name sound familiar? If it doesn’t, he — and we assure you, this gives us no pleasure to write this — has been Albert Pujols’ personal trainer since before Pujols was drafted by the Cardinals in the 13th round of the 1999 draft. We have no confirmation that Pujols’ name is in the affidavit … but Mihlfeld’s is.
Yeah. Sigh. We just report what we’re told, folks. Ever hope your source is wrong? This is one of those times.

 

[OH10]

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to find out Bud Selig is the head of an international steroid and performance-enhancing drug ring based out of the 2nd-story bathroom in his home. That's how low my expectations are of how this scandal is going to come out.

 

[jwinslow]

Grimsley says that a former employee of [redacted] and personal fitness trainer to several Major League Baseball players once referred him to an amphetamine source.. Later, this source provided him with “amphetamines, anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.” This trainer? His name is Chris Mihlfeld, a Kansas City-based “strength and conditioning guru.” (And former Strength And Conditioning Coordinator for the Royals.
Does Mihlfeld’s name sound familiar? If it doesn’t, he — and we assure you, this gives us no pleasure to write this — has been Albert Pujols’ personal trainer since before Pujols was drafted by the Cardinals in the 13th round of the 1999 draft. We have no confirmation that Pujols’ name is in the affidavit … but Mihlfeld’s is.
Yeah. Sigh. We just report what we’re told, folks. Ever hope your source is wrong? This is one of those times.

ironic, given the mlb front page that went up yesterday on cbs.sportsline.com...

Life after Albert

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The roto world isn't the same without Pujols in it. (Getty Images)
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He's living in a post-Pujols world and he ain't happy. Larry Dobrow fends off depression to share such Fantasy wisdom as: Sell Jacque Jones, hold 'Tek and savor the fruit of Donnie Baseball's loins -- <content_ref category="COLUMN" idref="9484767"> eventually</content_ref>. Full story

 

[BB73]

13 agents searching his house for 6 hours? Sounds thorough.

I wonder how long it will take for MLB to get the union to agree to blood samples, which are needed for HGH testing.

 

[sandgk]

13 agents searching his house for 6 hours? Sounds thorough.

I wonder how long it will take for MLB to get the union to agree to blood samples, which are needed for HGH testing.

BB73 - My guess is that the union will (effectively) tell them to piss up a rope.

 

[jlb1705]

BB73 - My guess is that the union will (effectively) tell them to piss up a rope.

They can do that - until it affects the integrity of the game to the extent that it damages the popularity of the game, revenues, and then player salaries.

 

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

ABJ

6/9/06

Column: Performance-enhancing team bigger

JIM LITKE

AP Sports Columnist

<!-- begin body-content -->Picking baseball's All-Performance-Enhancing team just got a whole lot easier. Because now, just about everybody who dropped in or out of the game in the last decade is in play.
Up until the feds threw a net around ex-Diamondbacks pitcher Jason Grimsley and dumped some of the evidence on the deck, it was easy to focus on the deep end of the talent pool - where high-profile, broken-down sluggers collected like lint around a filter.
So we knew, for instance, that Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Jose Canseco had locked up the outfield spots. That Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Jason Giambi would rotate between first base and DH. And that the late Ken Caminiti would have gotten the nod at third.
With that many juiced bats in the lineup, you could have dipped into the low minors, pulled a pitcher at random off the drug-suspension list, and still beat just about anybody.
Now, take your pick of pitchers, middle infielders - any player at any position, really. What Grimsley reminded us is that everybody, pitchers as well as hitters, small fish and big ones alike, is worthy of suspicion.
In a 15-year career, he played for seven different teams and a handful of organizations. That's a lot of teammates. He wasn't trying to win the Cy Young, just hang on. So were nearly all of his teammates. He was willing to take steroids, amphetamines and human growth hormone to do it, clinging to HGH even after a drug test was in place because he knew baseball wouldn't catch him.
How many of his teammates were willing to do the same?
Pick a number.
When former MVPs Canseco and Caminiti said half the players in the major leagues or more were juiced, everybody from commissioner Bud Selig to union chief Don Fehr to self-appointed-guardian-of-the-game Curt Schilling said: "Consider the source."
When Congress took them up on it, Sosa was struck mute and McGwire's memory locked up. But Palmeiro had the chutzpah to poke a finger in the lawmakers' faces and emphasize the word "never."
A few months later, after testing positive for stanozolol - a powerful steroid with a long history of abuse - he amended the phrase to "never knowingly."
Right.
So far, most of the buzz emanating from the Grimsley story has been about naming names: who he ratted out; whether he should have given anyone up; and which players the feds were already trailing. All those will come out soon enough.
But less important than who used performance-enhancers is how many, because it's the only way to begin gauging how much of the offensive barrage we just witnessed was simply better hitting through chemistry. Individual players have been cheating since baseball began.
But Grimsley's case suggests not only that doping is still widespread; but that the number of players who took part in baseball's "Supersized Era" might actually be close to the one Canseco and Caminiti seemingly pulled out of thin air.
Bonds and the rest of the inflatable sluggers so dominated the screen that nobody thought to look at the players in the background. We should have known better. Last August, a day after Palmeiro got busted to great fanfare, baseball announced that Ryan Franklin, a 32-year-old right-hander who relied more on savvy and changing speeds than power, had tested positive.
Like Grimsley, Franklin was a journeyman just trying to keep a roster spot job. He was the eighth player nailed last year, but he completed a trophy set. MLB already had busted hard-throwing pitchers, infielders, outfielders, Latins, blacks and whites, nobodies and used-to-be-first-ballot Hall of Famers.
Franklin, though, was the first soft-tosser to make the list, someone whose performance - even juiced - didn't seem enhanced enough to warrant suspicion.
So it was for most of Grimsley's career, but here are the most revealing moments from a timeline Sports Illustrated put together: In 1998, Grimsley was 31, stuck in Buffalo playing Class AAA ball, and had made a total of $1 million playing the game. Two years later, according to court documents, Grimsley used steroids to recover from shoulder surgery, and never stopped reaching into the medicine chest for pick-me-ups again. He went on to earn $9 million in the big leagues.
"He wasn't a star," the magazine noted, "but Grimsley was good enough to get regular work for the first time in his life."
---
Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at [email protected]
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[OSUsushichic]

Baseball suspends Grimsley 50 games

By Ben Walker, AP Baseball Writer | June 12, 2006

NEW YORK --Embattled pitcher Jason Grimsley was suspended 50 games by Major League Baseball on Monday, less than a week after federal agents raided his home during an investigation into performance-enhancing drugs.

Grimsley was suspended for violating baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, based on his statements to authorities regarding human growth hormone.

The Arizona Diamondbacks released the reliever last Wednesday and his agent said he did not expect Grimsley to play again.

If he returns, the penalty would take effect when he's placed on a 40-man roster.

Last Tuesday, 13 agents searched his Arizona home following his admission he had used HGH, steroids and amphetamines.

According to court documents, authorities tracked a package containing two "kits" of HGH -- about a season's worth -- that was delivered at Grimsley's house on April 19. He failed a baseball drug test in 2003, documents showed.

Acting on those documents, MLB suspended him for his alleged possession, admitted use and intended use of HGH. Baseball toughened its drug program and penalties this season, but there is no test for HGH.

The 38-year-old Grimsley was 1-2 with a 4.88 ERA in 19 games as a long reliever this season, his first with Arizona.

Grimsley and the Diamondbacks are currently in a dispute over payment of the remainder of his $825,000 salary.

Grimsley asked for his release last week and Arizona granted it; at the time, his agent, Joe Bick, said there had no negotiation about money and added, "Released players get paid."

But the team later said it did not intend to pay him the rest, and filed a notice of termination Monday.

"This guy did no less than steal from us," Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick said Saturday night.

Bick responded by saying Grimsley would contest the Diamondbacks' decision, and the players' union was expected to file a grievance.