Major League Baseball has acted on some of the recommendations from the Mitchell Report with the implementation of an anonymous hotline to uncover users of performance enhancing drugs in the sport (”Baseball uses anonymous hotline to nab steroid cheats,” April 10).
The hotline, recommended by Sen. George Mitchell in his report on baseball and steroids and implemented by commissioner Bud Selig in January, is one of the tools the investigative unit is using to catch drug cheats, along with information from outside investigators.
Everybody is baseball is said to have access to the anonymous hotline which hopes to break the so-called “code of silence” of steroid use in baseball.
The first casualty of the hotline is said to be Jordan Schafer, a top minor league player, according to an anonymous MLB source contacted by the New York Daily News. Schafer was suspended for growth hormone use due to evidence of a “non-analytical positive.” This was obviously not the result of a drug test nor evidence in a governmental steroid-related investigation (”Braves prospect unable to clarify HGH charge,” April 9).
Jordan Schafer, 21, already has a Nike contract and a projected center-field spot with the Braves in 2009.
However, this is a bad incident at the beginning of his career. Schafer was playing for Class AA Mississippi after a breakthrough 2007 season in Class A that lifted him to the organization’s No. 1 prospect.
There are questions, but even team officials have not been able to get complete answers. Schafer was advised not to discuss matters with anyone..
The anonymous hotline is being used to investigate suspected steroid use (and other performance enhancing drugs) in both the minor and major leagues.
