http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/12/12/mitchell.report.ap/index.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- George Mitchell's report on drugs in baseball will finger MVPs and All-Stars and call for beefed-up testing by an outside agency to clean up the game, The Associated Press learned Wednesday.

The report will not address amphetamines, which long have been recognized as part of the baseball drug culture, two sources with knowledge of the findings told the AP. But it will include names of 60 to 80 players linked to performance-enhancing substances and plenty more information that exposes "deep problems" in a drug culture that plagues the sport, one of the sources said.

The two sources were familiar with discussions that led to the final draft but did not want to be identified because it was confidential until its scheduled release on Thursday. They said the full report, which they had not read, totaled 304 pages plus exhibits.

One person familiar with the final version would only speak anonymously but described it as "a very thorough treatment of the subject" and said some aspects were surprising. He said the report assigns blame to both the commissioner's office and the players' union.

MLB's "not going to love it, the union's not going to love it," he said.

The report comes at the end of a year when San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds broke the career home run record, only to be indicted on charges of lying to a federal grand jury about steroid use.

The first part of the report, the sources said, will identify players and offer information about clubhouse personnel who allowed steroids and other banned substances in clubhouses or knew about it and didn't say anything.

None of the player names had leaked out Wednesday night.

The rest of the report, the sources said, will focus on recommendations that include enhanced year-round testing and hiring a drug-testing company that uses the highest standards of independence and transparency. Baseball's program currently is overseen by a joint management-union Health Policy Advisory Committee, with an independent administrator approved by both sides.

The report also is expected to recommend that baseball develop a credible program to handle cases with evidence of athletes receiving or taking drugs but not testing positive for them.

Just last week, Kansas City's Jose Guillen and Baltimore's Jay Gibbons were suspended for the first 15 days of next season, and media reports said they had obtained human growth hormone in 2005, after baseball banned it.

Mitchell, a Boston Red Sox director who is a former Senate majority leader, planned to release his report at 2 p.m. Thursday at a news conference in New York City.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig will hold his own news conference 2½ hours later.

Much of the first part of the report will be based on evidence obtained from former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski, and from information gleaned from the Albany district attorney's investigation into illegal drug distribution that focused on Signature Pharmacy of Orlando, Fla., the sources said.

Radomski was required to cooperate with the investigation as a condition of his federal plea agreement last April. Radomski pleaded guilty to illegally distributing steroids, HGH, amphetamines and other drugs to players and is awaiting sentencing. Some professional athletes have been linked to the Signature probe, though none has been charged.

Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president of labor relations, reviewed at least part of the report this week to ensure no confidential information from the drug-testing program was disclosed, a person with knowledge of the union's discussion with Mitchell said, also on condition of anonymity.

Despite repeated requests by the players' association to Mitchell's law firm, the union had not been allowed to review the report, that person said.

"I certainly hope after 21 months and getting zip by way of cooperation from the players' association that they'll come up with some recommendations for improvement," said World Anti-Doping Agency chairman Dick Pound. "If not, it's a complete waste of time."

But he said he's not sure baseball would follow any recommendations.

"My guess is that the management side probably would, but the players' association will dig in and continue its steel-town union approach to life," he said.

Agents have said they expect the report to be highly critical of players and the union for largely refusing to cooperate with Mitchell.

Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, sent an e-mail to owners and team presidents in advance of the report with instructions how to respond to media inquiries.

"We look forward to carefully reading the results of Sen. Mitchell's investigation," the recommended response said. "Protecting the integrity of our game is vital, and we intend to study his findings and recommendations, and will not comment until we have done so."

Baseball did not have an agreement to ban steroids until September 2002, did not have testing with penalties until 2004 and did not ban HGH until 2005, when it also instituted a suspension for a first positive test.

Mitchell was hired by Selig in March 2006 after the publication of "Game of Shadows," a book by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters about Bonds' alleged steroid use. The rise in power in the 1990s, which drew national attention when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa chased Roger Maris' single-season record in the Great Home Run Race of 1998, was accompanied by a rise in suspicion.

Maris' record of 61 homers had stood since 1961, but McGwire hit 70 that year and Sosa had 66. During the chase, the AP reported McGwire had used androstenedione, a supplement then available over the counter that produced testosterone.

A bulked-up Bonds then shattered McGwire's record by hitting 73 homers in 2001.

i have some serious questions here... was he active as a Red Sox director at the time he released this report? that's a key consideration... because if he was then certainly some inpropriety concerns are legitimized & it renders this report suspect because he has a vested interest in the players he may or may not have reported on from the Red Sox organization... if he wasn't yet working for the Red Sox organization at the time he released the report, then those concerns are minimalized.

i wonder though, how the Red Sox players & organization will feel about him if the report should happen to name several of it's former & present players... that's gonna be interesting headline fodder.

i hope not too many Yankees are gonna be implicated here, but i have my definite suspicions about guys like Kyle Farnsworth, Scott Proctor, Tanyon Sturtze, Ron Villone, etc... hopefully none of the main guys are named in this report.

the report has already implicated a Mets' staff member as distributing roids to their players as well... i have a feeling several Met & Yankee players are gonna be implicated here... the local tabloids are gonna have a field day over this whole mess.

TJ Quinn of ESPN reports that "people who are waiting for some big names to be mentioned will not be disappointed"

As I supsected- looks like Clemens is in the report and possibly Andy:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3153129

Source says Clemens will be named in Mitchell report
ESPN.com news services

A former New York Yankee strength trainer says information he supplied to the George Mitchell investigation regarding supplying Roger Clemens with steroids is included in the Mitchell report scheduled to be released later today, a source close to the trainer told ESPN The Magazine's Shaun Assael.

Brian McNamee, who worked for the Yankees and as a personal trainer for Clemens and Yankee teammates Andy Pettitte, also told investigators that on at least one occasion, Clemens was in possession of steroids from another supplier, the source said.

The source said McNamee told investigators he supplied Clemens with steroids while Clemens was witih the Yankees, and prior to Clemens joining the team.

Also, The Bergen (N.J.) Record, citing a baseball industry official, says "several" prominent Yankees will be named in the Mitchell report. The paper said the source spoke to a third party who had seen the final report.

"It's going to be a rough day in the Bronx," the paper quoted the source as saying.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig told the Chicago Tribune that he hadn't seen the report, but he was proud it is coming out.

"People can say Bud was just trying to cover his butt or take care of his legacy or whatever," Selig said, according to the Tribune. "I say [bleep] it. This needed to be done, and now we've done it. I'm just happy it will be out there and we can move on. I'm proud of it."

The whole unofficial list:

Brady Anderson, Manny Alexander, Rick Ankiel, Jeff Bagwell, Bar ry Bonds, Aaron Boone, Rafaeil Bettancourt, Bret Boone, Milton B radley, David Bell, Dante Bichette, Albert Belle, Paul Byrd, Wil Cordero, Ken Caminiti, Mike Cameron, Ramon Castro, Jose and Ozz ie Canseco, Roger Clemens, Paxton Crawford, Wilson Delgado, Lenn y Dykstra, Johnny Damon, Carl Everett, Kyle Farnsoworth, Ryan Fr anklin, Troy Glaus, Rich Garces, Jason Grimsley, Troy Glaus, Jua n Gonzalez, Eric Gagne, Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Giambi, Jeremy Giambi, jackkindregan (9:54:45 AM) : Jose Guillen, Jay Gibbons, Juan Gon zalez, Clay Hensley, Jerry Hairston, Felix Heredia, Jr., Darren Holmes, Wally Joyner, Darryl Kile, Matt Lawton, Raul Mondesi, Ma rk McGwire, Guillermo Mota, Robert Machado, Damian Moss, Abraham Nunez, Trot Nixon, Jose Offerman, Andy Pettitte, Mark Prior, Neifi Perez, Rafael Palmiero, Albert Pujols, Brian Roberts, Juan Rincon, John Rocker, Pudge Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Scott S c hoenweiis, David Segui, Alex Sanchez, Gary Sheffield, Miguel Te j ada, Julian Tavarez,Fernando Tatis, Maurice Vaughn, Jason Varitek, Ismael Valdez, Matt Williams and Kerry Wood

No Manny or Ortiz is somewhat surprising- that might be the bias right there.

Albert Pujols is not surprising, but I thought a star in his prime like that would be "protected."

No Ortiz? Give me a freaking break. And only a single current Red Sox player.

Wow.. thats a hell of a list... PUJOLS?!

I really wanted to see Schilling on the list.

you've gotta be kidding me right? the mets clubhouse attendant was THE steroid dealer for like 5 years, gimme a break.

Posted by nyk4ever:

Wow.. thats a hell of a list... PUJOLS?!

holy crap is right... in typical ESPN fashion they're focusing completely on the 2 big Yankees implicated & not even 1 mention of names like Pujols, Varitek or Pudge.

ah, thanks for clearing that up... how did all those other names get leaked then if they're not in the report?