Sunday, May 02, 2004
“Anonymous” Drug Test Results Seized
Posted by Larry MahnkenAccording to Newday's Jon Heyman, federal officials have seized the test results of every single major league baseball player. Apparently, the anonymous tests were never anonymous.
The immediate impact of this is that when the names of the nearly 100 players who tested positive are inevitably leaked, it will ruin their reputation and open up the whole asterisk debate again. The long-term impact is that it will probably signal the death-knell for stricter testing in baseball.
However, I think most people are overlooking the most serious thing to come out of this story, in the interest of "getting" cheaters. Federal agents sought the results of ten players who were connected to BALCO, they now have the results of nearly 1200 players who weren't.
Our Justice Department is proving that, once again, they don't care whose rights they trample on when they've set their sights on something. That's a very frightening thing.
Larry Mahnken is a staff writer for The Hardball Times, and co-editor of the Replacement Level Yankees Weblog. You can contact him with your comments, questions, romantic propositions and incoherent rantings at DLMahnken@hardballtimes.com.