Baseball Stars in Steroid Scandal Crosshairs?

Oct. 13, 2007 — -- Since former Sen. George Mitchell launched his investigation into baseball's steroid past 18 months ago, the big questions have been whether the final report would name names, and how many names would be named, and how important the names would be.

Some officials came away from a 30-team Major League Baseball conference call held mid-day Friday with the understanding that the forthcoming Mitchell report would include many names; names which have so far not been disclosed publicly; and the names of well-known players.

According to those familiar with the conference call, Tom Carlucci, a lawyer for MLB, told the team representatives on the conference call that the report is going to be "salacious."

Said one source familiar with what was said on the conference call, "This is going to be enormous ... it's going to be a huge story when these names come out."

Carlucci, part of the San Francisco-based firm of Foley and Lardner, indicated on the call, according to sources, that the report would come down sometime between the conclusion of the World Series and the beginning of the new year.

MLB vice president Rob Manfred downplayed the significance of what was said on the call, saying that Carlucci is not even in a position to know specifically what has been generated by the Mitchell investigation. What Carlucci told the clubs, Manfred said, was that for their planning purposes, they should assume that the number of players who will be named will be "more than a handful."

"No one except Sen. Mitchell's people know for sure whether there's going to be names named and how many names are involved and who those names are," Manfred said.

Mitchell issued a statement that did not go into specifics.

"The investigation has not been completed, and no decisions have been made about any aspect of the report," he said.

There were questions from club officials about whether individual teams would be given an opportunity to review the report for accuracy, according to sources, and the response was that teams will probably not be allowed to respond to the Mitchell report before its release.