Mitchell Report's Bias Against William Llewellyn and Anabolics 2007

The highly anticipated Mitchell Report on the “illegal use of steroids and other performance enhancing substances by players in major league baseball” was publicly released today. Dozens of writers will offer their commentary on the 400+ page report (including appendices). I am fairly certain my commentary in the next few days will be a departure from the norm.

The first thing that I want to bring attention to is the extent of bias against author William Llewellyn and his exhaustive anabolic steroid reference manual, Anabolics 2007. His 1000+ page reference is the most exhaustive treatise of performance enhancing substances used in competitive sports.

Bill Llewellyn is unfairly and inaccurately identified as an “advocate[s] of illicit steroid use by athletes.” Furthermore, his book is relegated to being a reference “targeted at steroid abusers” (italics added).

Senator George Mitchell seemingly characterizes Llewellyn’s description of Deca Durabolin as the view of a “steroid abuser” (according to the report there is no such thing as a steroid user – only abusers – and apparently this categorization applies even to those who write about steroid use in sports):

In the view of steroid abusers, “[t]he major drawback [of Deca-Durabolin] for competitive purposes is that in many cases it will be detectable for up to a year or more after use.” William Llewellyn, Anabolics 2006 122 (5th ed. 2006).

Anabolics 2007 is cited four times by the Mitchell Report in this context.