Major League Baseball has taken some steps forward earlier this week and then backpedaled a few days later.

MLB announced early part of this week that they would be releasing the names of athletes who tested positive for amphetamines for the first time to the public on its report on its drug-testing program. But a few days later, the organization said it would not.

According to league’s VP Rob Manfred during his telephone interview with the New York Times the commissioner’s office and the players union would withhold the details of positive amphetamine tests since “under our program, first-time positive tests for amphetamines are treated as confidential, and because of that, those numbers will be kept private.”

“The report will detail the number of tests conducted this year, the number of positives for steroids, the names of the substances players tested positive for and the number of therapeutic-use exemptions but will not include the total number of amphetamine positives,” Manfred said.

MLB officials say it’s a case of internal misunderstanding; there are some people, however, who have this suspicion that elite sluggers could have tested for the banned compound, thus the cop-out.

They asked why release the names of those who tested for anabolic steroids and not for amphetamines? They’re both prohibited compounds, so why the bias for cases involving amphetamines now?

From the New York Times:

Baseball has tested for amphetamines since 2006. A player is not publicly identified or suspended the first time he tests positive, so few failed tests have been reported. Only two players — Neifi Pérez and Mike Cameron — have been suspended for testing positive, and two others — Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds — have been linked to first-time positive tests in published reports.

In January, baseball’s drug-testing administrator, Dr. Bryan W. Smith, is scheduled to release a report on the status of the program, including some testing data.

The decision to release some information came in response to a recommendation from George J. Mitchell, who had conducted an internal investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. In his report, which was released last December, Mitchell said the testing program needed more transparency, including the aggregate data on testing results. In April, the commissioner’s office and the players union amended the drug-testing program in response to Mitchell’s recommendation and, as part of the new policy, said the program’s administrator would include aggregate drug-testing data in his report.

However, both sides agreed not to reveal the number of first-time positive amphetamine tests

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One Times Online article labeled International Olympic president Jacques Rogge as a “deluded individual” when Rogge expressed his displeasure of Usain Bolt’s celebration of his victory at Beijing. Usain earned Rogge’s rebuke when the Jamaican sprinter failed to shake hands with his co-competitors after his impressive win at the 100 meters.

However, Rogge’s recent interview with the BBC’s Inside Sport, as related by AFP, portrayed a very pragmatic man. The IOC president said those who aspire for a 100 percent drug-free Olympics were out of touch with reality. He added cheating will always be part of human nature.

“I think one has to be realistic,” Rogge said.

“Drug-free sport in general is Utopia. It will be naive to believe that no-one will take drugs.

“There are about 400 million people practicing sport on this globe, there are not 400 million saints on earth.

“Cheating is embedded in human nature and doping is to sport what criminality is to society.

“You will always need cops and judges and prisons and jails and rules and regulations.”

IOC is planning to catch more users of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancers as it’s currently implementing re-testing of the samples taken at the Beijing Olympics. The IOC head “expects further positive doping cases to emerge from these” up to 2016 Games.

Rogge said all the samples they obtained from Beijing – more than 5,000 screenings, including nearly 1,000 blood samples – will be available for retroactive testing. The blood samples will be screened for new generation performance-enhancing drugs CERA and insulin. And if new testing techniques will emerge between now and 2016, the same samples will go through re-testing.

“We are keeping the samples for eight years and we are going to re-test them,” said Rogge.

“And ultimately the judgment on the Beijing Games will be given in eight years’ time, because each time a new scientific test is coming up we are going to re-test.”

Rogge assumed the IOC position on July 2001, replacing Juan Antonio Samaranch. Rogge has his share of criticisms and the most recent of these were his disapproval of Bolt’s behavior (mentioned above) and his statement regarding Greek athletes. He allegedly stated that “Greece won the gold medal in doping” because of a spate of failed dope tests of Greek athletes.

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This year’s Tour de France best climber Bernhard Kohl receives a two-year suspension from the Austrian anti-doping agency (NADA).

Kohl, who also finished third overall in this year’s race, had tested positive for the blood booster CERA, the latest version of exogenous erythropoietin aka EPO.

The 26-year-old rider met with NADA on Nov. 24 and his suspension was announced after the closed door meeting. Contrary to earlier speculation that he will fully cooperate with authorities and reveal his drug source, Kohl did not reveal his drug source.

“Bernhard is willing to cooperate and he will tell about how he got the substance and how and where he used it,” Kohl’s manager Stefan Matschiner stated prior to the meeting with NADA.

The chairman of NADA’s disciplinary committee, Gernot Schaar, said Kohl did not divulge any details on how he got the CERA, a new variant of erythropoietin aka EPO.

“He did not name any names of the men behind his doping use,” Schaar said. “That means there could be no doubt about the penalty.”

Kohl’s could have gotten a lesser penalty had he fully cooperated with authorities.

“I’ve made my statement and I’ve been honest,” Kohl said. “If it’s appreciated (by NADA), it will be a good sign for the sport.”

Kohl was disappointed that he still got the maximum penalty despite coming out clean with his admission.

“It’s a shame that I got the same penalty as someone who denies everything. This is the wrong way. I definitely made clear how I got it and what my reasons behind it were.”

Matschiner, who did not attend the meeting, also expressed his disappointment with the verdict.

“I really hoped his cooperative attitude would have lowered the penalty,” Matschiner was quoted as saying in an interview with Austrian media after the announcement of the ban.

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Cristina Perez is a woman scorned by the Spanish authorities and she threatens to retaliate.

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” says the character (incidentally named Perez) of a William Congreve’s play, and Perez plans to get back at her husband’s defamers by revealing Spanish athletes’ usage of steroids and other prohibited compounds.

Perez’s husband, Dr.  Eufemianio Fuentes, was arrested in 2006 in Operation Puerto for his alleged role in the country’s biggest blood doping ring.

“To call a doctor dedicated to sports science who has killed no one a criminal mastermind seems shameful to me,” Perez said.

“I know what happened at Barcelona ‘92 and I’m a Pandora’s Box that, if opened one day, could bring down sport,” Perez she told a Spanish newspaper. “But out of respect for my companions, the people who sacrificed so much, I’m staying quiet. Although I could speak out and ruin all those caught up in this little world.”

Perez, who also ran on Spain’s 1,600-meter relay team at the 1992 Olympics, was referring to  Spain’s medal haul in Barcelona ‘92 wherein the host country won 13 gold, seven silver and two bronze medals. Four years earlier at Seoul Olympics, Spain was able to grab one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals only. The improvement in the medal tally, according to Perez, was largely due to the doctor’s work.

Operation Puerto has implicated more than 50 professional riders, including Francesco Mancebo, Alejandro Valverde, Oscar Sevilla, Jose Gutierrez, and Alberto Contador. Contador was the 2007 Tour de France champion.

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