Report cites ‘serious’ drug culture within baseball

NEW YORK – The Mitchell Report exposes a “serious drug culture within baseball, from top to bottom,” fingers MVPs and All-Stars and calls for beefed-up testing by an outside agency to clean up the game, the Associated Press learned Wednesday.

The report by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell will include names of 60 to 80 players linked to performance-enhancing substances and plenty more information that exposes “deep problems” afflicting the sport, one of two sources with knowledge of the findings told the AP. Both sources said the report would not address amphetamines.

The two sources were familiar with discussions that led to the final draft but did not want to be identified because it was confidential until its scheduled release today. They said the full report, which they had not read, totaled 304 pages plus exhibits.

One person familiar with the final version would only speak anonymously but described it as “a very thorough treatment of the subject” and said some aspects were surprising. He said the report assigns blame to both the commissioner’s office and the players’ union. MLB’s “not going to love it, the union’s not going to love it,” he said.

The report comes at the end of a year when San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds broke the career home run record, only to be indicted three months later on charges of lying to a federal grand jury about steroid use.

One source said that while the report will cite problems “top to bottom,” it also will expose “deep problems, the number of players, high-level MVPs and All-Stars,” as well as clubhouse personnel who allowed steroids and other banned substances in clubhouses or knew about it and didn’t say anything.

No player names have leaked out.

The rest of the report, the sources said, will focus on recommendations that include enhanced year-round testing and hiring a drug-testing company that uses the highest standards of independence and transparency.