Mitchell did get to announce some of those names for the first time, but they would have come out eventually when the Kirk Radomski, Brian McNamee and Jason Grimsley investigations reached their logical conclusions.
The former Senate majority leader tried to downplay the naming of names a little bit - tsk-tsking those interested just for the gossip value - but even he knows that's all he had to sell yesterday. The rest of the report was just a detailed recitation of everything that has been on the public record regarding steroids and other drugs for the last decade. Mitchell and his law firm dressed it up and put a nice bow on it, but this is just a book report turned in by the brightest kid in the room.
Mitchell didn't lay a fresh glove on Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa, the biggest and easiest targets from the so-called Steroids Era in baseball. He didn't because his investigation lacked subpoena power, lacked disciplinary power, lacked any real power at all. The players didn't have to talk to him. The team executives talked, but they mostly shrugged and said it was all a surprise to them. Even people who knew things, and said they knew things, didn't have to share their knowledge.
Former Phillies trainer Jeff Cooper, an honorable guy, was interviewed by the Mitchell commission about Lenny Dykstra, who had been a client of Radomski's. Cooper told the commission about another Phillies player of that era whose steroid use was "obvious."
From the report: "Cooper would not divulge the player's identity to us. He told us that he approached the general manager [apparently Lee Thomas] to report his concerns, and the general manager advised Cooper that he should raise the subject with the player directly. Cooper then did raise the issue with the player, who said it was none of Cooper's business. The matter went no further."
