Thursday
December 13, 2007: Former Sen. George Mitchell said in a repot
released today that illegal performance enhancing steroids have
been in widespread use in Major League Baseball (MLB) for more than a decade.
Mitchell said between five and seven percent of players who
participated in a 2003 survey tested positive for performance enhancing
drugs.
The 86 Major League Baseball players and personnel who appeared in the Mitchell Report.
"Those who have illegally used these
substances range from players whose major league careers were brief to
potential members of the Baseball Hall of Fame."
"The commissioner should give the players and everyone else the chance
to make a fresh start....That's what baseball needs."
"I urge the Commissioner to forego imposing discipline on players for past violations
of baseball’s rules on performance enhancing substances, including the
players named in this report, except in those cases where he determines
that the conduct is so serious that discipline is necessary to maintain
the integrity of the game. I make this recommendation fully aware that
there are valid arguments both for and against it; but I believe that
those in favor are compelling."