http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...2-08_curt_schilling_i_want_all_the_names.html
<!-- ARTICLE CONTENT START -->There were 104 names on the supersecret list of major league baseball players who tested positive for steroids in 2003, but only one in the bombshell report that outed A-Rod.
So, who's the snitch - or snitches?
That question hovered over baseball Sunday after Sports Illustrated revealed that Alex Rodriguez allegedly juiced.
Four independent sources told SI that Rodriguez tested positive for two kinds of steroids, raising questions not only about A-Rod's place in baseball history but about who had knowledge of a confidential test under seal in a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case.
The roster of candidates who knew that the game's biggest superstar was on the list and were willing to violate a gag order imposed by the court is short: a scorned player or teammate, a rogue union official, a vengeful prosecutor or federal agent or even somebody close to the player himself. The A-Rod 'roid story could only have come from a handful of organizations and people who had knowledge of the 2003 drug testing results.
Here are the candidates:
THE PLAYERS ASSOCIATION
Union officials knew the identities of the 104 players who tested positive, but it's highly unlikely they intentionally leaked the news, according to sources. Union leaders Donald Fehr and Gene Orza had long resisted efforts to introduce mandatory drug testing. A report that the Players Association's biggest star had tested positive for steroids would only increase calls from lawmakers and fans to beef up baseball's drug program.
But union officials may have inadvertently spread the news. After the results of the 2003 survey tests became available in September of that year, Orza and other union officials approached players in clubhouses to inform them of their positive tests. It soon became obvious that union officials were informing players of their test results and players began talking to each other about the implications.
PLAYERS AND TEAMMATES
A-Rod may have shared the news of his positive test with friends, family, business associates, teammates or other players who later talked to SI reporters. He may have had enemies in baseball who wanted to see him embarrassed or felt he needed to be outed as a steroid cheat. Jose Canseco, for instance, all but called Rodriguez a juicer in his 2008 book "Vindicated."
"Hell, if you ask me, I did everything but inject the guy myself," Canseco wrote.
A likely candidate might be a player who is no longer in the game, no longer in contact with the union, no longer making big money, who had knowledge of who was on the list.
According to a source on an opposing team, "Guys talked about that and you wonder, especially after Canseco brought it up. When Canseco threw down the gauntlet, he didn't really respond. People definitely suspected A-Rod."
Unlike the union or government officials who are bound by confidentiality orders because of the impending court case, players might not be bound by the gag order.
"You have a problem with confidential orders: They don't cover everybody," said one lawyer not connected to the case. "If somehow another player knew, I'm not sure that would be violating a confidential order."
ALEX RODRIGUEZ
A-Rod obviously didn't rat on himself, but he may have shared the news of his positive test with people he trusted or had relationships with, including friends and family, even his agents or trainers. Given the ups and downs of his personal life, there are any number of candidates who could have shared the information.
THE GOVERNMENT
Other sources speculate the leak came from federal officials, perhaps frustrated BALCO prosecutors or investigators who have spent millions of tax dollars on a steroid investigation and have little to show for it.
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston, who has presided over most of the BALCO-related cases, has dished out relatively lenient sentences: Track coach Trevor Graham and cyclist Tammy Thomas, for example, were sentenced to house arrest for lying to investigators. BALCO mastermind Victor Conte's plea bargain agreement required him to serve four months in prison.
The government got more bad news last week, when Illston indicated at a hearing that she won't let the prosecutors introduce some drug tests, documents and other evidence when Barry Bonds goes to trial on perjury charges next month.
The government, the sources add, is also angry that the appeals court appears poised to rule in favor of the Players Association. The 11-judge panel seemed skeptical of the government's arguments during a December hearing on the case.
There are also very good reasons government officials would not snitch.
Prosecutors and agents would face professional discipline if they were found out. Perhaps even more significant, federal agent Jeff Novitzky and prosecutors Matthew Parrella and Jeff Nedrow know what it's like to be accused of leaking confidential material to the press.
Troy Ellerman, the lawyer who represented BALCO vice president James Valente, blamed the government for leaking secret grand jury testimony to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Illston asked the Justice Department to look into the leaks, and Novitzky and the prosecutors were the targets of an extensive investigation. The source of the leaks turned out to be Ellerman, who was sentenced in 2007 to 2-1/2 years in prison.
As the Ellerman case suggests, sometimes the best candidate for a leak is the most obvious.
"It's a personal vendetta," said one source close to the players. "And his rights don't matter."
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<!-- ARTICLE CONTENT START -->There were 104 names on the supersecret list of major league baseball players who tested positive for steroids in 2003, but only one in the bombshell report that outed A-Rod.
So, who's the snitch - or snitches?
That question hovered over baseball Sunday after Sports Illustrated revealed that Alex Rodriguez allegedly juiced.
Four independent sources told SI that Rodriguez tested positive for two kinds of steroids, raising questions not only about A-Rod's place in baseball history but about who had knowledge of a confidential test under seal in a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case.
The roster of candidates who knew that the game's biggest superstar was on the list and were willing to violate a gag order imposed by the court is short: a scorned player or teammate, a rogue union official, a vengeful prosecutor or federal agent or even somebody close to the player himself. The A-Rod 'roid story could only have come from a handful of organizations and people who had knowledge of the 2003 drug testing results.
Here are the candidates:
THE PLAYERS ASSOCIATION
Union officials knew the identities of the 104 players who tested positive, but it's highly unlikely they intentionally leaked the news, according to sources. Union leaders Donald Fehr and Gene Orza had long resisted efforts to introduce mandatory drug testing. A report that the Players Association's biggest star had tested positive for steroids would only increase calls from lawmakers and fans to beef up baseball's drug program.
But union officials may have inadvertently spread the news. After the results of the 2003 survey tests became available in September of that year, Orza and other union officials approached players in clubhouses to inform them of their positive tests. It soon became obvious that union officials were informing players of their test results and players began talking to each other about the implications.
PLAYERS AND TEAMMATES
A-Rod may have shared the news of his positive test with friends, family, business associates, teammates or other players who later talked to SI reporters. He may have had enemies in baseball who wanted to see him embarrassed or felt he needed to be outed as a steroid cheat. Jose Canseco, for instance, all but called Rodriguez a juicer in his 2008 book "Vindicated."
"Hell, if you ask me, I did everything but inject the guy myself," Canseco wrote.
A likely candidate might be a player who is no longer in the game, no longer in contact with the union, no longer making big money, who had knowledge of who was on the list.
According to a source on an opposing team, "Guys talked about that and you wonder, especially after Canseco brought it up. When Canseco threw down the gauntlet, he didn't really respond. People definitely suspected A-Rod."
Unlike the union or government officials who are bound by confidentiality orders because of the impending court case, players might not be bound by the gag order.
"You have a problem with confidential orders: They don't cover everybody," said one lawyer not connected to the case. "If somehow another player knew, I'm not sure that would be violating a confidential order."
ALEX RODRIGUEZ
A-Rod obviously didn't rat on himself, but he may have shared the news of his positive test with people he trusted or had relationships with, including friends and family, even his agents or trainers. Given the ups and downs of his personal life, there are any number of candidates who could have shared the information.
THE GOVERNMENT
Other sources speculate the leak came from federal officials, perhaps frustrated BALCO prosecutors or investigators who have spent millions of tax dollars on a steroid investigation and have little to show for it.
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston, who has presided over most of the BALCO-related cases, has dished out relatively lenient sentences: Track coach Trevor Graham and cyclist Tammy Thomas, for example, were sentenced to house arrest for lying to investigators. BALCO mastermind Victor Conte's plea bargain agreement required him to serve four months in prison.
The government got more bad news last week, when Illston indicated at a hearing that she won't let the prosecutors introduce some drug tests, documents and other evidence when Barry Bonds goes to trial on perjury charges next month.
The government, the sources add, is also angry that the appeals court appears poised to rule in favor of the Players Association. The 11-judge panel seemed skeptical of the government's arguments during a December hearing on the case.
There are also very good reasons government officials would not snitch.
Prosecutors and agents would face professional discipline if they were found out. Perhaps even more significant, federal agent Jeff Novitzky and prosecutors Matthew Parrella and Jeff Nedrow know what it's like to be accused of leaking confidential material to the press.
Troy Ellerman, the lawyer who represented BALCO vice president James Valente, blamed the government for leaking secret grand jury testimony to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Illston asked the Justice Department to look into the leaks, and Novitzky and the prosecutors were the targets of an extensive investigation. The source of the leaks turned out to be Ellerman, who was sentenced in 2007 to 2-1/2 years in prison.
As the Ellerman case suggests, sometimes the best candidate for a leak is the most obvious.
"It's a personal vendetta," said one source close to the players. "And his rights don't matter."
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