Ethics Newsline®

“It’s clear that some of the information Major League Baseball and the players union gave the committee in 2005 was inaccurate. It isn’t clear whether this was intentional or just reflects confusion over the testing program for 2003 and 2004. In any case, the misinformation is unacceptable.”

– Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), head of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, in a written statement last week addressing new concerns over the accuracy and honesty of Major League Baseball’s steroids testing program. Waxman’s committee, which investigated doping in baseball in 2005, last week learned that baseball officials failed to disclose during their testimony that “the 2004 testing, with its significantly lower positive test results, had been partly shut down for much of that season,” reports the New York Times. “As a result, players who apparently tested positive in 2003 were not retested in 2004 until the final weeks of the season, and might have been notified beforehand, perhaps skewing the overall test numbers for that year.”

Source: New York Times, June 9.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, May 27 — Related Newsline story, Feb. 18 — Related Newsline story, Dec. 17, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Nov. 19, 2007.