NEW YORK (AP) _ Major League Baseball representatives met Monday
with officials from the district attorney's office in Albany County,
N.Y., regarding the upstate investigation into performance-enhancing
drugs, according to published reports Tuesday.
Baseball officials hope to get the same type of help from
investigators that the NFL has received, the New York Times and
Daily News reported Tuesday.
Heather Orth, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office,
said members of the office talked to baseball officials about ``how
they could best assist us,'' the Times said in a story initially
posted on its website Monday night.
The Daily News reported it was two Albany-area lawyers hired by
baseball that met with the district attorney and his staff.
Orth did not return phone calls and an e-mail message Monday
night.
Baseball officials and the players' union were working on an
agreement to ban `post-cycle' drugs such as Clomid and Nolvadex that
are taken by steroids and HGH users after they complete cycles to
get their bodies to produce hormones naturally again, the Daily News
reported. On their own, Clomid and Nolvadex are not considered
performance-enhancing drugs.
A pharmacy based in Orlando, Fla., has been at the centre of an
investigation by the Albany district attorney's office. The NFL and
MLB have tried to get the names of players linked to the purchase of
performance-enhancing drugs.
This month, reports linked St. Louis outfielder Rick Ankiel,
Toronto third baseman Troy Glaus and Baltimore outfielder Jay
Gibbons to Signature Pharmacy. MLB has asked to meet with the three
players.
Unlike the NFL, however, baseball has needed to react after
stories were published.
The DA's office said it gave the NFL the names of a player, a
coach and a doctor associated with shipments sent from Signature.
The NFL recently suspended New England safety Rodney Harrison and
Dallas quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson. A doctor for the Pittsburgh
Steelers, Richard Rydze, was fired in June.