Jason Grimsley
Encyclopedia
Jason Alan Grimsley is a former Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 relief pitcher
Relief pitcher
A relief pitcher or reliever is a baseball or softball pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed due to injury, ineffectiveness, fatigue, ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as being substituted by a pinch hitter...

. He made his debut on September 8, , and pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...

, Cleveland Indians
Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since , they have played in Progressive Field. The team's spring training facility is in Goodyear, Arizona...

, Anaheim Angels
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are a professional baseball team based in Anaheim, California, United States. The Angels are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The "Angels" name originates from the city in which the team started, Los Angeles...

, New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...

, Kansas City Royals
Kansas City Royals
The Kansas City Royals are a Major League Baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals are a member of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From 1973 to the present, the Royals have played in Kauffman Stadium...

, Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...

, and most recently, the Arizona Diamondbacks
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Arizona Diamondbacks are a professional baseball team based in Phoenix. They play in the West Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From 1998 to the present, they have played in Chase Field...

.

Major league career

Like many relief pitchers, Grimsley began his career as a starting pitcher
Starting pitcher
In baseball or softball, a starting pitcher is the pitcher who delivers the first pitch to the first batter of a game. A pitcher who enters the game after the first pitch of the game is a relief pitcher....

, but he became a full-time reliever while a member of the Yankees. As a Yankee he was a member of the team that won the 1999
1999 World Series
The 1999 World Series, the 95th edition of Major League Baseball's championship series, featured a rematch between the defending champions New York Yankees against the Atlanta Braves during the month of October, with the Yankees sweeping the Series in four games for their second title in a row,...

 and 2000 World Series
2000 World Series
-Game 1:Saturday, October 21, 2000 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New YorkThe opener fell on two anniversaries. Twenty-five years prior, Boston Red Sox's catcher Carlton Fisk ended Game 6 of the 1975 World Series with his famous home run off the left field foul pole in Fenway Park in Boston to beat...

.

Grimsley is also infamous for his leading role in the 1994 Bat Burglary
1994 Bat Burglary
The 1994 Cleveland Indians corked bat incident took place on July 15, 1994 at Comiskey Park in Chicago during a major league baseball game. In the first inning of the game between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox, White Sox manager Gene Lamont was tipped off that Indians batter...

 involving Albert Belle
Albert Belle
Albert Jojuan Belle is a former American Major League Baseball outfielder for the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, and Baltimore Orioles...

 and an allegedly corked bat
Corked bat
In baseball, a corked bat is a specially modified baseball bat that has been filled with cork or other lighter, less dense substances to make the bat lighter without losing much power. A lighter bat gives a hitter a quicker swing and may improve the hitter's timing...

 that was taken away by umpires for examination by the league. Grimsley was the player who crawled through a Comiskey Park
Comiskey Park
Comiskey Park was the ballpark in which the Chicago White Sox played from 1910 to 1990. It was built by Charles Comiskey after a design by Zachary Taylor Davis, and was the site of four World Series and more than 6,000 major league games...

 air conditioning
Air conditioning
An air conditioner is a home appliance, system, or mechanism designed to dehumidify and extract heat from an area. The cooling is done using a simple refrigeration cycle...

 duct to reach the room where the confiscated bat had been secured. He took the corked bat and replaced it with a clean bat. The incident made ESPN.com's "Biggest Cheaters in Baseball" list at number 4 and Foxsports.com list of the biggest cheaters in baseball history at #5.

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
Growth hormone treatment
Growth hormone treatment refers to the use of growth hormone in medical treatment. Growth hormone is a peptide hormone secreted by the pituitary gland that stimulates growth and cell reproduction. In the past, growth hormone was extracted from human pituitary glands. GH is now produced by...

 (HGH) and other performance-enhancing drugs.

The Arizona Diamondbacks released him at his request shortly after it became public in June 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$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

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 signs a contract with a major league team and is placed on a 40-man roster. He is 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 ; he subsequently confessed to the use of human growth hormones, amphetamines and steroids.

His drug use began in while in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

. 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
Nandrolone
Nandrolone is an anabolic steroid that may be present naturally in the human body, albeit in minute quantities of less than 0.4 ng/ml. Nandrolone is most commonly sold commercially as its decanoate ester and less commonly as a phenylpropionate ester...

, amphetamines, human growth hormone and Clenbuterol
Clenbuterol
Clenbuterol is a sympathomimetic amine used by sufferers of breathing disorders as a decongestant and bronchodilator. People with chronic breathing disorders such as asthma use this as a bronchodilator to make breathing easier...

. Prior to the use of performance enhancing drugs he had earned a total of $1 million; subsequently he earned $9 million. His ERA
Earned run average
In baseball statistics, earned run average is the mean of earned runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings pitched. It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number of innings pitched and multiplying by nine...

 dropped by a run.

On September 30, 2006, without any substantiation, the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

reported that Grimsley told federal agents investigating steroids in baseball that Houston Astros
Houston Astros
The Houston Astros are a Major League Baseball team located in Houston, Texas. They are a member of the National League Central division. The Astros are expected to join the American League West division in 2013. Since , they have played their home games at Minute Maid Park, known as Enron Field...

 pitchers Roger Clemens
Roger Clemens
William Roger Clemens , nicknamed "Rocket", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who broke into the league with the Boston Red Sox, whose pitching staff he would help anchor for 12 years. Clemens won seven Cy Young Awards, more than any other pitcher. He played for four different teams over...

 and Andy Pettitte
Andy Pettitte
Andrew Eugene Pettitte is a retired American left-handed Major League Baseball starting pitcher.In his major league career, he played for the New York Yankees from 1995–2003. He then signed with the Houston Astros, and played for them from 2004 through 2006. In 2007, Pettitte rejoined the Yankees...

 were users of performance enhancing drugs and that Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league...

's Miguel Tejada
Miguel Tejada
Miguel Odalis Tejada was a Major League Baseball infielder who has played for the San Francisco Giants, the San Diego Padres, the Houston Astros, the Baltimore Orioles and the Oakland Athletics...

, Jay Gibbons
Jay Gibbons
Jay Jonathan Gibbons is an American professional baseball outfielder in Major League Baseball. Gibbons was a graduate of Mayfair High School in Lakewood, California...

, and Brian Roberts
Brian Roberts
Brian Michael Roberts is an American Major League Baseball All Star second baseman, nicknamed B-Rob.He made his Major League debut in and has spent his entire professional career with the Baltimore Orioles organization, located in Baltimore, Maryland.-Early life, education and college-baseball...

 were users of "anabolic steroids". The Times wrongly reported that they were the names that were blacked out in an affidavit filed in federal court. Clemens and Pettite both denied the statement.

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." Orioles outfielder Jay 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, , he was cited in the Mitchell Report
Mitchell Report (baseball)
The Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball, informally known as the "Mitchell Report", is the result of former Democratic United States Senator from Maine...

, an investigation into the use of anabolic steroids and HGH in Major League Baseball.

On December 20, 2007, the report was unsealed by a US magistrate, who harshly criticized the LA 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 LA 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
Brian McNamee
Brian Gerard McNamee is a former New York City police officer, personal trainer, and strength and conditioning coach in Major League Baseball who is most notable for testifying against former New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens at a 2008 United States Congressional hearing that concerned the...

. 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.

Personal life

The Tarkington Independent School District
Tarkington Independent School District
Tarkington Independent School District is a public school district in north central Liberty County, Texas . All 4 campuses are located on the same plot of land, with the High School facing County Road 2268, and the other three campus are along Farm to Market Road 163...

 named the high school baseball field in his honor, being the school he graduated from.

On January 21, 2005, a small plane crashed into the back of Grimsley's house in Overland Park, Kansas
Overland Park, Kansas
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 149,080 people, 59,703 households, and 39,702 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,627.0 people per square mile . There were 62,586 housing units at an average density of 1,102.9 per square mile...

. Grimsley was not home at the time, but his wife, daughter, and nanny were; they escaped unharmed. The pilot and four passengers were killed.

External links

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