MLB Said to be Investigating A-Rod

From Michael S. Schmidt:

Major League Baseball is investigating the accuracy of statements by Alex Rodriguez about his use of performance-enhancing drugs, according to people within baseball who were briefed on the matter.

Investigators have contacted several of Rodriguez’s associates to determine whether he used performance-enhancing drugs for a longer time than he has admitted, the people said.

The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation.

They said that the investigation began shortly after Rodriguez met with investigators March 1 in Tampa, Fla., because they had questions about his statements from that meeting.

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Questions about the truthfulness of Rodriguez’s statements were heightened among baseball officials last week after details of a new book about Rodriguez were reported by several news media outlets. The book, “A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez,” by Selena Roberts, asserts that Rodriguez used several different steroids under the supervision of Presinal and had human growth hormone in his possession when he played for the Yankees in 2004. In 2005, the book also says, Rodriguez was mocked by teammates who suspected that he was using drugs.

On Friday, an investigator asked Roberts if she would cooperate with baseball’s inquiry. Roberts said she would not.

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Commissioner Bud Selig can discipline a player if he feels the player was not forthcoming or truthful in a meeting with investigators. But pursuing whether Rodriguez told the truth will be difficult for the investigators; unlike law enforcement authorities, they have little power to compel a witness to speak with them.

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Investigators can try to meet with former and current players, team officials and even Rodriguez. M.L.B. has no power to compel former players to talk, and it is unclear whether current players would discuss the actions of another player.

“There is not a lot of precedence to this, and especially what Selig could do if current players refuse to cooperate,” Gabriel Feldman, the director of the sports law program at Tulane University Law School, said in a telephone interview. “There is no specific language that requires players to cooperate with an investigation, but Selig could try and discipline them, and the union would likely appeal it.”

Feldman said it would be easier to persuade team officials, coaches or employees to speak with the investigators because they were not protected by the union.

Another possibility would be for the investigators to try to meet with Rodriguez again to ask questions related to the book.

“A lot of this is Selig appearing like he has the situation under control,” Feldman said. “The last thing he wants is for someone else, like the federal government or Congress, to try and intercede and take this matter out of his hands.”

What's the point of this? MLB should stop wasting their time investigating Rodriguez and continue to try to figure out how to get PED's out of the game.

Now, if this is all just being done to get Congress of MLB's back, like Feldman suggests, then I understand Selig's motives. The last thing the sport needs is another congressional hearing.

Either way, it would be counter-productive to punish A-Rod or any other player that might decide he doesn't want to talk about the past to MLB investigators in any way. Forcing those players to meet with invetigators will also look terrible for MLB and Selig. Doing either of these things will bring even more attention to this, and it would make Selig and his cohorts look even worse. Most people blame them for this whole PED mess anyway.