Report: Baseball Tolerated Drug Culture

Dec. 12, 2007 — -- Major League Baseball and the Players Association share the blame for tolerating a widespread culture of drug abuse, George Mitchell's report on doping in baseball says, according to two lawyers who said they are familiar with the report.

Both lawyers told ESPN that the report assigns blame for the rise of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball "from top to bottom," and recommends that MLB and the union agree to outsource their drug testing program to an independent agency.

The sources would not reveal the names of players included in the report, but confirmed that as many as 80 are listed. One lawyer expected several "very, very high-level names" to be exposed, although Mitchell is frank in the report about how difficult it was to get information regarding the extent of player use.

"He admits that he can only go back so far because of the lack of cooperation, but says it's more important to move ahead," one lawyer said.

Mitchell plans to release his report at 2 p.m. ET Thursday at a news conference in New York City.

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

While the report recognizes that Selig met fierce resistance from the union when he tried to implement tougher testing during recent years, the report says that all of baseball should have seen the warning signs that were evident years ago.

Baseball and its players reached an agreement in September 2002 to test for steroids. In 2005, a new, stricter policy was implemented. Baseball and the players agreed to ban HGH in 2005, although there is no reliable test to detect the drug.

Sources said yesterday that MLBPA officials were angered that Mitchell chose not to share the report with them, but that Mitchell felt he had no obligation to the union after they fought his efforts to interview players and obtain some medical records.

Mitchell's criticisms about the current testing procedures are similar to those baseball has dismissed from other critics in the past, such as calls for more frequent testing and greater transparency in the program.