Jason Grimsley - Illicit Drug Use

Illicit Drug Use

On June 6, 2006, it was reported that Federal officials had raided Grimsley's home looking for evidence that he was a distributor of human growth hormone (HGH) and other performance-enhancing drugs.

The Arizona Diamondbacks released him at his request, shortly after it became public in June 2006 that he had admitted to using performance enhancing drugs. The Diamondbacks announced they would not pay the rest of his 2006 salary, an estimated US$875,000. Grimsley's agent Joe Bick stated that Grimsley would contest the decision. Michael Weiner, general counsel to the players union stated that the union would file a grievance on his behalf.

On June 12, 2006, Grimsley was suspended for 50 games for violating Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. This penalty would take effect if Grimsley ever signed a contract with a major league team and was placed on a 40-man roster. He was the fourteenth Major League Baseball player to be suspended for use of performance-enhancing drugs.

ESPN reported that court documents showed that Grimsley had failed an MLB-administered drug test in 2003; he subsequently confessed to the use of human growth hormones, amphetamines and steroids.

His drug use began in 1998 while in Buffalo, New York. After a nine-year MLB career, he was in the minors trying to get back to the majors after a shoulder injury. Among the drugs he has used are Deca-Durabolin, amphetamines, human growth hormone and Clenbuterol. Prior to the use of performance enhancing drugs he had earned a total of $1 million; subsequently he earned $9 million. His ERA dropped by a run.

On September 30, 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that Grimsley told federal agents investigating steroids in baseball that Houston Astros pitchers Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte were users of performance enhancing drugs and that Baltimore Orioles's Miguel Tejada, Jay Gibbons, and Brian Roberts were users of "anabolic steroids".

On October 3, 2006, the Washington Post reported that San Francisco United States attorney Kevin Ryan said that the Los Angeles Times report contained "significant inaccuracies." All five players named (Clemens, Pettitte, Tejada, Gibbons, and Roberts) denounced the story, with Clemens calling it "dangerous and malicious and reckless." Gibbons was later implicated in the steroid scandal by Sports Illustrated, who uncovered receipts issued by a Florida steroid mail order company in his name.

On December 13, 2007, he was cited in the Mitchell Report, an investigation into the use of anabolic steroids and HGH in Major League Baseball.

On December 20, 2007, the report was unsealed by a U.S. magistrate, who harshly criticized the L.A. Times for what he called "irresponsible reporting"...or "manufacturing of facts." Neither, Roberts, Clemens nor Pettitte's names were mentioned by Grimsley in any context whatsoever. The Times announced that it would publish a correction and apology for their misrepresentation of the facts. Grimsley had told investigators that he got amphetamines, anabolic steroids and human growth hormone from someone recommended to him by former Yankees trainer Brian McNamee. The fact that McNamee was a personal strength coach for Clemens and Pettitte apparently prompted the Times to leap to the erroneous conclusion that Grimsley had implicated them in his statement.