Union fights release of players’ names
Major League Baseball’s union is fighting to keep secret up to 23 players named as customers by an admitted steroids dealer, according to recent court filings.
A federal judge in Long Island, N.Y., ruled Tuesday that the MLB Players Association can formally join with the U.S. Department of Justice in opposing two newspapers’ demands that the players’ names be made public. The names appeared in a search warrant used by federal investigators to raid Kirk Radomski’s house in 2005.
Radomski, a former New York Mets clubhouse worker, pleaded guilty in April to two felony steroids distribution charges.
The Albany Times Union and San Francisco Chronicle, which are owned by the Hearst Corp., filed a motion in a Long Island federal court asking for the players’ names, which are redacted in public documents.
The newspapers last month argued that unsealing the names would serve the public interest by furthering the campaign to eradicate illegal performance-enhancing drug use in sports. The newspapers also argued that there’s no reason to keep the names secret in a document that is otherwise publicly available.
“Newspapers do not have any First Amendment right of access to search warrant materials, let alone to the names redacted from the search warrant,” union lawyer Harold McGuire Jr. wrote in court papers filed Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors argued Monday that disclosing the names would jeopardize the ongoing probe into performance-enhancing drug use among elite athletes.
Shag Crawford dead at 90
Longtime major league umpire Shag Crawford, patriarch of a family of prominent sports officials, died Wednesday. He was 90.
Jerry Crawford said his father died at an assisted living facility in suburban Philadelphia.
“For someone who was going to be 91 in August, he was in pretty good health for a long time,” Crawford said by telephone.
Jerry Crawford became a big league umpire in the mid-1970s, around the time his brother, Joey, became an NBA official.
“When we were young, my brothers and my sister would go watch my dad work,” Jerry Crawford said. “I’m sure that had something to do with what we did.”
Born Henry Charles Crawford, Shag called more than 3,000 games as a National League umpire from 1956-75. He worked the World Series three times, the N.L. championship series twice and handled three All-Star games.
Crawford, one of the founders of the umpires’ union, ended his active career in 1975 after getting into a dispute with baseball over the rotation of umpires in the World Series.
Around the majors
The Los Angeles Angels requested unconditional release waivers on right-hander Hector Carrasco. The club also announced that infielder-designated hitter Shea Hillenbrand was given his release after clearing waivers. … The Arizona Diamondbacks changed hitting coaches, promoting Rick Schu to replace Kevin Seitzer.