Players Union Accuses 'NYT' Of Criminal Action in Steroid Reporting

By: Joe Strupp The Major League Baseball Players Association is accusing The New York Times of committing a crime in its attempt to identify players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

In a statement late Thursday, Players Association President Donald Fehr claims Times reporter Michael S. Schmidt broke the law when he sought to interview people with knowledge of a controversial 2003 list of some 100 players who tested positive. That list has been the subject of litigation and has been under court seal.

Fehr responded to Schmidt's Thursday story revealing that Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were on the list. Last month, he previously had disclosed that former player Sammy Sosa was on the list.

"Today The New York Times, once again, reports what it asserts to be
information contained in documents under court seal. And precisely for
that reason, the Players Association will not, indeed cannot, comment
on whether the information is accurate," the statement says. "But there should be no mistake. The leaking of information under a court seal is a crime. The active pursuit of information that may not lawfully be disclosed because it is under court seal is a crime. That its informants, according to the Times, are lawyers is both shocking and sad. That the Times is pursuing and publishing what it openly declares to be information which may not be legally disclosed is equally sad. We intend to take the appropriate legal steps to see that the court orders are enforced."

Schmidt told E&P on Thursday that he had sought to interview anyone who might have knowledge of the list after Sports Illustrated reported in February that Alex Rodriguez had been among the 2003 players to test positive. "Lawyers, clerks, assistants," he said. "Anyone from baseball to the players union to the federal government. Anyone who would have seen it."

Schmidt declined to comment on the union statement today, referring questions to Times officials. Times corporate communications did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a related matter, the Daily News of New York reported today that
the players union had "asked all the courts involved in the five-year-old case - which could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court - to determine how the information is being obtained and if it is coming from any person covered by a court order sealing information about the case."