Maybe those beloved Orioles are clean after all.
At least that?s the latest news rebuffing a story published Sunday in the Los Angeles Times.
Miguel Tejada, Brian Roberts and Jay Gibbons were originally identified as players linked to steroids as part of an investigation of former Oriole Jason Grimsley.
Now, the Orioles can breathe a temporary sigh of relief, one they knew would come in time.
“I think we felt that all along, and stood behind our guys and what they said,” Orioles executive vice president Mike Flanagan said Tuesday afternoon. “I think this is more along those lines, as far as how accurate this is.”
Sunday?s L.A. Times story reported that Grimsley, in an affidavit, named the three Orioles and Houston Astros pitchers Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte as performance-enhancing drug abusers.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for San Francisco U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan, a federal prosecutor overseeing an investigation of steroids in baseball, refuted those claims. He said the L.A. Times story contained “significant inaccuracies” and pointed specifically to the five players named as the main falsifications.
Ed Novak, Grimsley?s attorney, told The Arizona Republic that Grimsley did not name any of the stated players.
“As to all five players named, Jason did not attribute steroid use to any of them,” Novak told The Republic. “There was no mention of Roberts or Gibbons at all.”
He withheld such a clarifying statement about Tejada, who has been linked to performance-enhancers in the past.
When Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for steroids in 2005, he suggested that a supplement obtained from Tejada was the reason behind his guilty test.
The Orioles acquired Grimsley from Kansas City in June 2004 for minorleague prospect Denny Bautista.
He appeared in 63 games between 2004 and ?05, going 3-6 overall.
Grimsley?s home was raided in June after he admitted to using human growth hormone, steroids and amphetamines.
His accounts of steroid use in baseball were transcribed in a 20-page affidavit, which was the entire basis of the L.A. Times story.
He signed with Arizona in December and was released by the Diamondbacks shortly after the steroid news was made public.
Associated Press information was used in this story.
