Former Yankee Jason Grimsley Rats Out His Friends
"I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart."
Michael to Fredo in the Godfather 2
As a major league baseball player Jason Grimsley has been just good enough to be in the bullpen of seven different teams in nearly twenty years of professional baseball. Drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies when he was 18 years old out of Tarkington High in Cleveland Texas, Grimsley has never been more than mediocre. But nevertheless he’s enjoyed a long career in baseball and more success than most draft picks ever dare dream. Grimsley signed a one year deal worth about $850,000 to play for the Arizona Diamondbacks in December of 2005. On April 19, 2006 at his Scottsdale, Arizona home Jason Grimsley was caught receiving an illegal shipment of Human Growth Hormone by an undercover postal inspector. For a week following his “discovery” Grimsley cooperated with a team of government investigators which included Internal Revenue Service agent Jeff Novitzky. Novitzky was the lead agent during the Balco, Barry Bonds and Greg Anderson investigations. During this conversation Grimsley shared stories about the buying, ordering, sharing and use of illegal steroids, amphetamines and Human Growth Hormone by himself and several others. After a week, at the urging of his lawyer, Grimsley stopped talking. Unfortunately, in an attempt to save his ass, that week may have been enough to give the government a case against quite a few major league players and employees.
I wonder if its mere coincidence that Barry Bonds was in Arizona with the Giants the week this went down. At the same moment Barry Bonds had a tube of sports gel thrown at him by a fan wearing a syringe around his neck, the government was probably preparing its strategy to catch a player in the act of receiving illegal performance enhancers. The story is just breaking now because of the June 6th raid of Jason Grimsley’s home. TheSmokingGun.com has a copy of the search warrant affidavit submitted by agent Novitzky. The names given up by Grimsley have been redacted from the document but we can definitely narrow down the field of possible suspects by knowing the rosters of the teams Grimsley was with each season.
If you’ve read my articles and posts on the Barry Bonds/ Jason Giambi/ BALCO situations you know that I don’t believe steroids and performance enhancers have damaged the game nearly as much as the current witch hunts. Now, I certainly understand the need to arrest and charge those who traffic in illegal drugs but massive investigations to out the users of them not only irks me but also has me rooting for steroid users to get away with it. I’m also pretty bothered by the double standard being applied to Barry Bonds. Barry Bonds hasn’t admitted to taking steroids. Bonds has not tested positive for any illegal drugs. Until he’s actually proven guilty of something I prefer they leave the man alone. You should too. How would you feel if based on rumors and weak circumstantial evidence you and your family were hounded day after day after day? And yet, Bonds has been hounded by the press constantly since the Balco Grand Jury Hearings which proved absolutely nothing as far as Barry Bonds was concerned. Two writers for a newspaper that supported the theft and illegal use of Grand Jury testimony wrote a book using evidence that would never be accepted in court to further slam Bonds. And for what? What is gained by making Barry Bonds the target of every loser who believes he could’ve played in the majors “if only”? A lot of newspapers, books and magazines get sold. Some losers have something to rant about online. And Barry Bonds is a little less respected everyday.
The last thing I want to see is more players dragged through the mud of this stupid scandal especially if it’s the result of a mediocre player trying to stay out of jail. A dirty rat mediocre player.
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