While MLB’s pledge to seal the test results protects each athlete’s legal rights, the public has a right to know the results for the purpose of preserving the integrity of baseball history and its statistics.

No we don’t. I’d say the first part of your sentence trumps the rest. I know we went over this with A-Rod’s leak, and that’s still my opinion. Why should the Player’s Union ever trust anything MLB approaches them about again? It will stunt further progression.

MLB’s vow to seal test results has nothing to do with preventing athletes from going to jail. MLB promised to seal the results in order to persuade the players union to agree to more aggressive results in stopping steroid use.

Also…why does the public have the right to this information?

Whether the players ever trust MLB ownership again is inconsequential. Players should be reminded that the business of baseball is for the benefit of the fans, the paying public. The players are merely highly paid guests of their adoring fans. Any athlete who doesn’t care to participate, can elect to follow some other aspiration. If this forces their union to assume a confrontational posture toward ownership, the union will need to be weakened. MLB is a monopoly whose owners and players share in the rewards of that monopoly.

The public has the right to know any information that affects their confidence in the product they buy. It’s always in the best interest of MLB owners and, therefore, their empoyees, when the customers sense that they are getting what they paid for. Baseball has created a standard, maybe an impossible standard, of how baseball stands for American values. Right or wrong, the success of baseball will depend on how well the product is marketed.

Look I don’t want to know anymore. I just want it to stop from here on out. I don’t need to know the other people on the lise and I don’t want to.

You look pretty mad to me. Put down the broken bottle, please. This is a family establishment.

haha. I just remembered some strongly worded views on this subject in the past. So, maybe, “modestly irritate?”

Public disclosure of private facts isn’t even a valid cause of action in many states, including New York. And these are public figures and this is (legally, if not actually) a matter of public concern, which means First Amendment concerns protect the leaker and the publishers.

The Constitutional right to privacy only protects the rights to contraceptives, abortion, and matters of sexual intimacy between consenting adults. Don’t fool yourself into thinking anyone has an actual right to privacy.

Whatever you may think of what this guy is doing, it’s far from a violation of civil rights.

I’m wondering if the real legal case to be made is on the guy that put a name on the samples. I wonder if there’s specific wording in whatever agreements were made before testing was to begin regarding this.

I don’t like steroids, but I can’t get over the fact that NO ONE was ever supposed to know who was testing positive. You can’t have leaks without names matched to samples.

That was when Vic and Cliff got in a fight, and then Cliff went to the minors after that

I know next to nothing about HIPAA, so I’ll bow out on the effect it might have on this discussion. As far as being a matter of public concern, I really don’t think it’s close. You have celebrated athletes breaking the law, there’s already a media frenzy, Congress has been involved… I don’t see how any judge would find it anything but a matter of public concern. Again, I mean as a legal term of art. Whether you or Steel Nick or Jeff Bagwell think it’s really a matter of public concern is really irrelevant.

Look, there are probably a number of ways this could be found unlawful—HIPAA, the original agreement not to attach names to samples, some sort of privilege, etc. California does recognize a public disclosure of private facts tort. My only point was not to get all righteously indignant about a civil right that doesn’t exist.

No. It was really bad, one of the things that made me surprised at the column

We could make it a dead topic, but we have so many lawyers that I think it wouldn’t fly

I’m a lawyer. Doing what you suggest is genetically difficult, barring some Clockwork Orange-style reprogramming.

Baseball is ultra-competitive, only a tiny tiny fraction of the best top baseball players actually make a career out of it. Baseball had a culture which did not in any way penalize, or in some cases codify the ban of, steroids and other related supplements. It is as if there was a crowded sidewalk, no enforcement of jay-walking laws, but a high incentive to get across the street first. And also there is a crowd of people cheering on those people who cross the street first. And a lot of $ involved. Would you jay walk, or walk to the corner and wait for the walk signal?