Steroid interviews will start soon, Mitchell says

May 05, 2007

Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell said he expects interviews with active players to begin promptly as part of his investigation into steroids in baseball.

Mitchell sent a letter to the players' association in late March requesting the interviews, which the union confirmed April 3.

Lawyers for the union, commissioner's office and Mitchell's staff met later in April to discuss possible interviews, along with Mitchell's request for medical records.

``In the course of our work, we have gathered thousands of pages of documents and conducted hundreds of interviews of individuals with current or past connections to professional baseball, including many former players,'' Mitchell said Friday in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

``I have just recently requested that interviews of current players begin promptly, which is one of the final phases of our investigation. We expect to meet soon with the players whose interviews we have requested, but to the extent that we are not able to, we will deal with the issue at that time.''