Shaughnessy is too good to have to invent anything. He neither invented anything in this instance nor accused Ortiz of using steroids and their cousins. What he did was take his skepticism and his curiosity, good traits for a newspaperman to have, and ask Ortiz about steroids. Ortiz’s responses did not indicate anger of being accused of wrong doing.

I would compare the Ortiz column to the columns I have written about Mike Piazza and my suspicions about his possible use of steroids. I ...

On Tuesday night against Atlanta, Royals second baseman Chris Getz did this for the first time since 2009, for the first time in 954 at-bats ...

That would be third home run of his career, which to date spans 1,350 plate appearances.

Getz’s rare clout calls to mind current notable homerless streaks—a list from which Getz has, of course, just removed himself. Here’s the rundown from FoxSports Kansas City’s Joel Goldberg:

Ben Revere it is! Revere, it should be noted, has no ...

The New York Times reported online Thursday that Major League Baseball had purchased documents from a former employee at the clinic, which operated under the name Biogenesis of America and is now closed, in an effort to uncover evidence that would link the clinic to the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs. The article also stated that one major league player had also purchased clinic documents from a former clinic employee so that they could be destroyed. That player was not identified ...

Suspensions? Steve Phillips? Brooke Hundley applauds this.

Former general manager Steve Phillips said he thinks Major League Baseball is poised to suspend players linked to the Biogenesis clinic in Miami, including Brewers leftfielder Ryan Braun.

Now with SiriusXM Radio, Phillips made his remarks about the potential suspensions during an interview with the Journal Sentinel on Friday about the upcoming baseball season.

“If I had a player named in the Biogenesis story, I’d be very concerned ...

“Milwaukee Melodrama” now playing at the Biograph Theater!

Bob Nightengale reports in USA Today about Major League Baseball’s efforts to investigate players named in the Biogenesis documents. Of somewhat surprising note: Nightengale says some 90 players appear in the records. Of less surprising note: it’s the big fish that MLB is clearly focusing on: Alex Rodriguez and, even more so, Ryan Braun:

  There might be plenty of minor leaguers to go down before this is over, maybe a few major ...

The Detroit Tigers say minor league right-hander Cesar Carrillo has been suspended 100 games for violating baseball’s minor league drug prevention and treatment program.

The team posted a release on its website Friday, saying the commissioner’s office announced the suspension.

Carrillo’s suspension is effective at the start of the season. He is currently on the roster of Erie, which is Detroit’s Double-A affiliate.

Carrillo’s name was included in a Miami New Times report earlier ...

Ostlercization from the baseball community isn’t shame enough?!

Among the things that ain’t what they used to be: the shame and disgrace of being busted for steroids.

Exhibits C and C: Bartolo Colon and Melky Cabrera.

They’re both back in baseball - although Colon has five games left on his suspension - and will be earning nice paychecks, without having to go the Hester Prynne route (look it up, you lazy kids!) where you wear your sins forever.

When baseball had work stoppages, minor-league ...

  Anonymous Source: Cano, Granderson, A-Rod and Braun will all be suspended for failing PED test this season.

  — Joe Bisceglie (@joebisceglie) March 4, 2013

You’d be inclined to be skeptical, and for fair reason — Bisceglie doesn’t name his source. This kind of story is explosive, and deserves tender care before people start going on witch hunts and throwing names out there with no rationale. But consider this: Bisceglie correctly prognosticated that Melky Cabrera would be ...

Take his HOF plaque down! The red-winged Goose strikes again!

KD: Do you feel the same way about guys who used greenies?

GG: Oh, You’re not even talking about the same. …I used greenies. I’ve done them. I didn’t have to get up unless I drank a case of beer and stayed up all night. I might take a greenie just to stay awake in the bullpen. But it wasn’t a performance-enhancing drug.

KD: It was illegal, though, right?

GG: Yeah. Does the crime fit the punishment? Are you saying that ...

But Andrés Galarraga’s 1996 splits are okey-dokey.

“The sport keeps getting black eyes. You get through one storm and you get punched in the other eye with another one,” Cuddyer told The Denver Post after a weather-shortened practice. “It gets old.”

...Cuddyer wants a one-year suspension for the first positive test and a lifetime ban for the second.

“I think 100 percent guys would be for it. I can’t speak for everybody, but listening to certain guys’ comments and talking to certain guys, I ...

So, this is definitely a thing.

Curt Schilling’s claim in 2008 that a member of the team’s medical staff raised the possibility of treating his injured shoulder with a performance-enhancing drug was “completely baseless,” investigations conducted by both the Boston Red Sox and Major League Baseball concluded, according to two baseball sources with direct knowledge of the investigations.

...

The investigations were thorough, the sources said, and the players’ union was informed, and both probes ...

NOT FAIR THAT THE NEW YORK TIMES GOT THE MIKE PIAZZA BOOK BEFORE BLOGGERS, MR. PRESIDENT

Generally, however, the Daily News has done a far more impressive and aggressive job than The New York Times, whose sports section these days seems more interested in snowboarding and dog-sledding than legitimate news. For much of the run of the Bosch stories, the Times has quoted another publication or Web site.

In fact, the Miami New Times has appeared so frequently – 9 days in a 12-day span before ...

The controversy surrounding the apparent client list of a Miami clinic that includes Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, and others continues to be a major story after more than a week after the Miami New Times released it. While the specifics are still under investigation and names leak out from various outlets, the heart of the matter is still poorly understood. What are these drugs that are listed near the names (or code names) of professional athletes?

This article will provide some answers. ...

I guess there wasn’t enough room in the headline to use NY Daily News twice.

Alex Rodriguez is taking his wildest swing yet in his fight against steroid allegations: The Yankees and MLB are conspiring to push him out of the game.

Sources say the embattled Yankee star is “scared” that bigger forces are at work to try to discredit him and sink his career. Holed up in Miami, Rodriguez has been huddling with an army of lawyers and PR people as the performance-enhancing drug scandal enveloping ...

We are OK with Kirk Gibson hitting one of the most famous home runs ever on one steroid (cortisone), but we slam the Hall of Fame door on the face of everybody else who might have used the anabolic kind. Granted, cortisone is not a banned performance enhancer, but it certainly enhanced Gibson’s performance, which wouldn’t have been possible without it. Lost in the shouting of “Cheater!” and “Fraud!” from a pill-popping America is how often athletes have to go through the pharmacy ...

RUBEN RIVERA NO MAN OF HONOR, MR. KING FAYSAL.

Fay Vincent, the former commissioner, was skeptical of the denials.

“Who’s going to believe the players after Rose and Armstrong?” he asked, referring to Pete Rose, in whose banishment from baseball he was involved, and Lance Armstrong. “Some of them are telling the truth, but it’s difficult to believe them after everything.”

Vincent favors a drug-testing rule similar to baseball’s rule prohibiting betting on baseball. Violate the ...

In recent months, the [MLB] investigators have uncovered evidence that an employee for the player agents Sam and Seth Levinson was one of those intermediaries. Last summer, investigators discovered that the employee, Juan Carlos Nunez, had helped Cabrera hatch a cover-up scheme to avoid being suspended for testing positive for elevated testosterone. Cabrera received a 50-game suspension.

Baseball officials believe that the Levinsons knew about the plot, although the players union has cleared ...

If I’m Nolan Ryan, if I’m Jon Daniels, then I’m privately moving ahead by immediately subtracting Nelson Cruz from the Rangers’ 2013 opening-season plans.

Nellie is going down. Going down for 50 games.

Holliday: Descension Day.

Steve Melewski: In this interview from MLB Network Radio, Matt Holliday of the St. Louis Cardinals calls for a player to miss an entire 162-game season for a first-time offense and be suspended for life with the possibility to apply for reinstatement with a second offense. I like how he thinks and perhaps it’s time to move in that direction.

Major League Baseball now has more stringent testing. Now the time has come for more stringent penalties for cheaters.

Hardin: Nature and Man’s HOF Fate.

“What we did with Roger didn’t work. He denied it from every rooftop he could. What we discovered with Roger was that his denial just brought more scorn. After awhile, we just shut up. There was nothing more we could offer from the dialogue.

“But I will say that if a person didn’t do it, they shouldn’t cave in and say they did it, just to make it go away.’‘

Hardin realized even after being victorious in trial that the public perception of Clemens wouldn’t ...

The latest Mitchell Report: Electrolytes to Chuckolytes.

Mitchell, whose report helped lead to new rules regarding drug testing, said the problem isn’t going away. “Every society has laws against robbery and murder, yet everyone knows that robbery and murder are not going to end. It’s managing an ongoing human problem. That’s the case with performance-enhancing drugs,” Mitchell told Chuck Todd on The Daily Rundown. “It’s a problem of…keeping pace, reducing the incentives to use ...

Major League Baseball has suffered its share of indignities because of the Steroid Era: reacting slowly to a growing problem, issuing the heavily criticized Mitchell Report (which was maligned for being incomplete and seemingly ineffectual) and watching as cherished milestones were reached and records set by players later linked to PEDs. Just three weeks ago, a Hall of Fame ballot brimming with statistically deserving players failed to produce a single inductee.
But perhaps it’s time that ...

Indeed, Rodriguez’s career never has been in more doubt than it is today. His health and reputation are in tatters. He turns 38 in July. The incentives the Yankees included in his contract for “milestone” home runs now stand as even more awkward reminders that his achievements are fraudulent.

What will become of him? The Yankees would wish he never puts on their uniform again, writing him and his contract off to the insurance companies or, if they have the stomach for it, to try to ...

Giogenesis

Update II: Gio Gonzalez has issued a statement via Twitter denying any wrongdoing in regards to the usage of performance-enhancing drugs.

Here is that statement:

“I’ve never used performance enhancing drugs of any kind and I never will ,I’ve never met or spoken with tony Bosch or used any substance Provided by him.anything said to the contrary is a lie.”

Update: The Nationals have yet to comment on Gonzalez’s link to Biogenesis, and Gio Gonzalez has not responded to a voice mail, ...

The mega Biogenesis (eat your heart out Jim Shooter!) story.

Then check out the main column, where their real names flash like an all-star roster of professional athletes with Miami ties: San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera, Oakland A’s hurler Bartolo Colón, pro tennis player Wayne Odesnik, budding Cuban superstar boxer Yuriorkis Gamboa, and Texas Rangers slugger Nelson Cruz. There’s even the New York Yankees’ $275 million man himself, Alex Rodriguez, who has sworn he stopped ...