Author: Dr. Steroids

Major League Baseball and the Player’s Association have once again agreed to amend MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. Most of the changes are derived from recommendations put forth by Senator George Mitchell in the Mitchell Report. The most glaring omission was the refusal to turn over testing to an independent outside agency. Instead the sides agreed that the “Independent Program Administrator” (a position created in November 2005) “will be given an initial three-year term and can be removed only if an arbitrator finds cause.” The IPA could be removed by either MLB of the union at any time…

Jose Canseco’s new book, Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball, was officially released on April 1, 2008. There were very few surprises after Joe Lavin acquired and wrote about the book on March 25. For the most part, the book chronicles Canseco’s life since Juiced was published in 2005. It describes the book tour (for Juiced, of course), the Mitchell Report, the 2005 Congressional Hearings and various anecdotes along the way. As far as players Canseco discussed, Alex Rodriguez, Magglio Ordonez, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro and Barry Bonds featured prominently (details for each player below).…

Jose Canseco’s second novel, Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and The Battle to Save Baseball, is set to be released April 1, 2008. In Juiced, Canseco claimed to have injected Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez with anabolic steroids among his stories about performance enhancing drugs in baseball. The details of Vindicated have slowly been coming out as the release date gets nearer. Firstly, on July 17, Canseco implied that he had information about Alex Rodriguez that would be in his next book during a radio interview on WEEI. “He will definitely be in the book. You’ll…

The New York Times is reporting that the United States attorney’s office for the Northern District of California is investigating whether or not Dr. Ramon Scruggs illegally prescribed performance-enhancing drugs to patients including some Major League Baseball players. Scruggs was implicated in the Albany based investigation into the distribution of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone over the internet. As detailed previously at this site and in the Mitchell Report, Scruggs is said to have prescribed anabolic steroids to Troy Glaus and Scott Schoeneweis in 2003 and 2004. Citing “three lawyers who have been briefed on the investigation,” the Times…

More and more prominent players are coming forward saying they support blood testing in Major League Baseball. Some were even in favor of giving samples to be frozen until a reliable human growth hormone test is available. Both MLB Commissioner, Bud Selig, and Players Association president, Don Fehr, have said they will consider such a test when one becomes available. There is currently no commercially available/reliable test for human growth hormone, but one appears on the way soon. The World Anti-Doping Agency recently said that an effective blood test for hGH would be in place for the Beijing Olympics. Athletes…

At a hearing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Judge Susan Illston ruled that the indictment put forth by the government was vague and needed to be redrafted. In the course of the hearing the judge also ordered that the full transcript of Bonds’ 2003 grand jury testimony be unsealed. Judge Illston ruled that the indictment need not contain multiple statements that the government believes are lies for each of the 5 counts of perjury and obstruction of justice against Bonds. The indictment cited 19 different occasions where Bonds is accused of lying divided among the five counts. The…

Congress has officially requested that the Department of Justice investigate whether or not Roger Clemens lied under oath during his deposition dated Feb. 5, 2008 and the Congressional hearings on February 13, 2008 when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Henry Waxman and ranking Republican Tom Davis sent a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, urging the investigation. Waxman also had committee Democrats compile an 18-page memo outlining reasons for the referral. The memo describes “seven sets of assertions made by Mr. Clemens in his testimony that appear to be contradicted by other evidence…

George Mitchell, Bud Selig and Donald Fehr testified before a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee reviewing Major League Baseball’s performance enhancing drug problem. The hearing was held to discuss the findings in the Mitchell Report and MLB’s progress in fighting performance enhancing drugs since the last congressional hearings in 2005. The most surprising moment came early on when Rep. Henry Waxman said that he and Tom Davis asked the Justice Department to look into whether Tejada lied to investigators during questioning in connection to Palmeiro’s perjury case in 2005 when Tejada denied using or knowing or even hearing a…

Roger Clemens has filed a defamation suit against former trainer, Brian McNamee. The suit was filed on the same night that Clemens’ 60 Minutes interview aired. Leading up the airing of the 60 Minutes interview, lawyers for both Clemens and McNamee had said that each might file a lawsuit against the other. It appears Clemens has beat McNamee to the punch. As expected the suit (view PDF) basically says that the information McNamee provided to federal investigators and then Mitchell investigators, specifically the he injected Clemens with anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, is completely untrue. The suit lists 15…

In an interview with ESPN’s Mike Fish, former Seattle Mariners outfielder, Shane Monahan, admitted using anabolic steroids during his time in the major leagues. Monahan, who played parts of two seasons with the Mariners (1998 and 1999), was the classic example of a fringe player trying to stick in the major leagues. “I’ve been in minor league and major league clubhouses… I know the pressures and what goes on. Like I told my dad, it is coming from the perspective of a guy who had to fight for everything I got in the big leagues.” “I saw what kind of…