Court: Feds may use drug testing data from 2003

This could have a major impact if these results are made public. 100 samples with many surprises!

Just as a recap for 2003, here was your HR leaders in 2003:

Thome-PHI 47 Bonds-SFG 45 Sexson-MIL 45 Lopez-ATL 43 Pujols-STL 43
Sosa-CHIC 40

Rodriguez-TEX 47 Delgado-TOR 42 Thomas-CHW 42 Giambi-NYY 41 Palmeiro-TEX 38


Court: Feds may use drug testing data from 2003

Associated Press



SAN FRANCISCO -- The names and urine samples of about 100 Major League Baseball players who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs three years ago can be used by government investigators in their probe of steroids in sports, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The government's perjury case against Barry Bonds could be bolstered if the slugger's name is among those who tested positive. The San Francisco Giants slugger has been the target of a perjury investigation since he testified before a grand jury that he didn't knowingly ingest performance enhancing drugs.

Investigators seized computer files containing the test results in 2004 during raids on labs involved in the Major League Baseball testing program the previous year.

The samples had been collected by the league in 2003 as part of a survey to gauge the prevalence of steroid use. Baseball players were told the results would be confidential, and each player was assigned a code number to be matched with his name.

Quest Diagnostics of Teterboro, N.J., one of the largest drug-testing firms in the nation, analyzed more than 1,400 urine samples from players that season. Comprehensive Drug Testing, of Long Beach, coordinated the collection of specimens and compiled the data.

The testing was part of baseball's effort to determine whether a stricter drug-testing policy was needed. When more than 5 percent of tests for steroids came back positive, the league adopted a stricter plan the following season.

Subpoenas were issued to both companies in late 2003, a day before the test results were to be destroyed, and in April 2004 Internal Revenue Service agents seized the test results and samples. It's unclear whether the data seized includes test results or specimens from Bonds.

Bonds has always maintained he never tested positive for illegal drug use, but federal investigators demanded to see the 2003 test results for Bonds and nine other players. When they raided the testing labs for those 10 results, investigators also seized computer files containing the test results of nearly 100 other players not named in the governments subpoena and warrants.

The Major League Baseball Players Union protested the seizure as a violation of the players' constitutional rights.

Michael Weiner, general counsel for the Major League Baseball Players Union, declined to immediately comment, wanting first to review the decision.

The government's investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a now-defunct Burlingame supplements lab at the center of the steroid scandal, has also already netted guilty pleas from BALCO president Victor Conte, Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson, BALCO vice president James Valente, chemist Patrick Arnold and track coach Remi Korchemny.
Anderson is currently in prison for refusing to testify in the perjury probe of Bonds. He was previously convicted of steroids distribution.
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press

MLB has yet to have a huge star test positive for roids. Have they protected their interests? This will shed some light on the subject. If it comes out that Pujols tested positive for roids do you think it will turn a lot of people off baseball as many people were touting him as the first player that was not helped from roids that had a shot of breaking the single season homerun record?

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Originally Posted by richpick

MLB has yet to have a huge star test positive for roids. Have they protected their interests? This will shed some light on the subject. If it comes out that Pujols tested positive for roids do you think it will turn a lot of people off baseball as many people were touting him as the first player that was not helped from roids that had a shot of breaking the single season homerun record?

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You forgot about a guy named Rafael Palmeiro who had a positive test for performance enhancers. I believe he is a member of the 500HR 3000 hit club!

I know that I did not take into account Palmeiro but in my mind he was at the end of his career. I believe if a major star in the prime of his career tested positive it would be a lot more damaging to MLB. On a personal note it saddens me that the GAME has become about money and cheating. Steroids has clouded all the positive that athletes are accomplishing today and for myself it is a dissappointment. When I grew up it seemed only hard work and your god given genetics were at work on someone becoming an athlete.