While former US Senator George Mitchell moves on to a new project in the Middle East, issues about his disagreement with certain passages in Kirk Radomski’s book, “Bases Loaded”, are still being examined. Radomski wrote that the senator himself asked him if he knew anything about the illegal steroid use of certain athletes such as Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez. Not all that were asked were identified in the Mitchell Report though and according to the anabolic steroids dealer, this was because Mitchell couldn’t get any second hand information about them. The senator’s deputy, John Clarke, denied any allegations. The problem is, however, it isn’t only Radomski who pointed out this tactic. Past interviews with other baseball personalities revealed the Mitchell’s office tried to fish for names and information.

From Newsday.com

Former Yankees outfielder Chad Curtis, in an interview with Newsday that ran May 13, 2007, said his session with Mitchell’s investigators featured a fishing expedition involving Curtis’ former teammates.

“They tried to dig and prod,” Curtis said. “They at least tried to head down that road.”

In a report for ESPN.com on Dec. 11, 2007, Howard Bryant wrote that team strength coaches and trainers believed that the Mitchell team “explicitly pressured them to ‘guess’ about steroid use by specific players.”

Radomski is an important witness to the Clemens case and the Mitchell Report. It would look back if people start having the notion that the senator only wants positive news about his office and would rather hide the dirt on how the report was created. Although the Mitchell report had done a lot of good in naming athletes who had used steroids, the methods by which this information was taken would be scrutinized by the public.

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Tags: Bases Loaded, George Mitchell, Kirk Radomski, Major League Baseball, Mitchell Report, Performance enhancing drugs, steroids

Posted in Steroids and Anabolic Steroids, Steroids in Baseball, steroid nation