MLB, NFL Set To Meet With Albany DA About Steroids Probe

Writer Feels Selig Must Act Quickly In Investigation Of Internet Steroid Sales

MLB attorneys will be in Albany, New York, tomorrow to meet with Albany County DA P. David Soares, whose staff is conducting an investigation into the sale of performance-enhancing drugs over the Internet, according to three baseball sources cited by Hal Bodley (USA TODAY, 3/6). Soares is also meeting with NFL execs this week, and in N.Y., Kenneth Lovett reports Soares “wasn’t sure he would share the names of the athletes he found as part of the investigation.” More than a “dozen additional professional athletes may have ordered illegal steroids or [HGH] from online companies as part of [the] widening multi-state investigation” (N.Y. POST, 3/6). Authorities said that “pro athletes and other customers” of Orlando-based Signature Pharmacy, the focus of the investigation, “could be called as witnesses” should the case go to trial. But Soares said that prosecuting users “is not as much a priority as going after the supply chains” (Albany TIMES UNION, 3/6).

MATTHEWS: USA TODAY’s Bodley notes Angels CF Gary Matthews Jr. “was named as a customer” in two separate reports. The “problem [MLB Commissioner Bud] Selig faces and obviously the stand the players union will take is that if Matthews used the illegal substances before 2005, when MLB banned HGH and tested for steroids with discipline, he didn’t violate MLB policy” (USA TODAY, 3/6). In L.A., Bill Shaikin reports lawyers advising the Angels “have indicated the team probably would not have grounds to void” Matthews’ contract “even if prosecutors can prove he received an illegal shipment of [HGH].” Two MLB sources said that “in the absence of a criminal conviction, the Angels probably could not void the contract, even if they would want to do so” (L.A. TIMES, 3/6). Angels Owner Arte Moreno said of Matthews Jr. not addressing fans about the allegations, “My expectations were that he would make a statement. I’m very disappointed” (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 3/6). ESPN.com’s Keith Law said of the Angels not publicly admonishing Matthews, Jr., “I think privately, they are very embarrassed, and they’re particularly embarrassed because they just signed this guy to such a huge deal, a deal that was widely criticized. Now there’s egg on their face before the guy’s even managed to play a regular season game” (ESPNews, 3/5).