Reports: MLB Officials Met With DA On Drug Investigation

Tuesday, September 11th 2007, 10:12 am

By: News On 6

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 gotten, 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 Web site Monday night.

The Daily News reported it was two Albany-area attorneys 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 center 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.