[Pat Lalama, Guest:] Breaking news tonight, bombshell. A former senator brings down the hammer, exposing the rampant use of steroids in baseball, the Mitchell report naming dozens of players, including a high- profile roster of MVPs, All-Stars and potential Hall of Famers. The stunning 400-page report blames major league baseball and the players union for allowing a serious drug culture to go unchecked, from the clubhouses to the baseball diamond. But tonight, will this explosive report make enough of an impact on baseball and possibly other sports to actually stop the use of performance-enhancing substances?
[Unidentified Female:] The secrets of baseball`s steroids era blown wide open today as many of the game`s biggest stars were named in former senator George Mitchell`s comprehensive report on steroid use in baseball. MVPs like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, plus dozens of current and former stars, all part of baseball`s extensive steroid culture. Just moments ago, we heard from baseball commissioner Bud Selig, who says those caught cheating would face some pretty swift punishment.
[Lalama:] And tonight, the search goes on for one young mom of two Stacy Peterson, vanishing in the Chicago suburbs. Former police sergeant and suspect Drew Peterson speaks out about a gunfire incident inside their home before Stacy Peterson goes missing. He says a gun did go off, but it was an accident, and his young wife was the one who fired the shot. He claims Stacy Peterson was fascinated with guns and even bought her a Glock as a Valentine`s Day gift. And since a minister came forward with stunning information about the death of Drew Peterson`s third wife, Drew Peterson just can`t seem to stop talking about the relationship between that minister and his missing wife, Stacy Peterson.
[Unidentified Female:] We have an update in the Stacy Peterson disappearance case, Drew Peterson, her husband, responding to a claim that he fired a gun at his wife. He told "The Chicago Tribune" that it was his wife, Stacy, who actually pulled the trigger. He said she had a fascination for handguns and that he bought her one for Valentine`s Day, telling the paper, quote, "Nothing says I love you like a Glock. That was our joke." But his
[Lalama:] Good evening. I`m Pat Lalama, in for Nancy Grace. Breaking news tonight, the bombshell Mitchell report now rocking major league baseball, dozens of star players allegedly linked to performance-enhancing substances.
[Unidentified Female:] All-Stars, at least two MVPs, the all-time home run king and a seven-time Cy Young Award winner they`re among the baseball players linked somehow to steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs today. Former Senate majority leader George Mitchell released his long-awaited report, hundreds of pages. The report contains the names of dozens of present and former players. He also said every team every team in baseball has had players involved with steroids or performance- enhancing drugs.
[George Mitchell, Former Senate Majority Leader:] The evidence we uncovered indicates that this has not been an isolated problem involving just a few players or a few clubs. Many players were involved. Each of the 30 clubs has had players who have been involved with such substances at some time in their careers.
[Lalama:] I`m Pat Lalama, in for Nancy Grace. A great panel for you tonight to discuss this. We`re going to go right to Luis Llosa, Senior, investigative reporter, "Sports Illustrated" and SI.com. Bring it home for us. What does this mean to we, the fans?
[Luis Fernando Llosa, "sports Illustrated":] Well, this is, I guess, the last straw here. I mean, if you`re a fan and you thought that these guys were not enhancing to perform, what do you have left? You have Roger Clemens, possibly, you have Andy Pettitte, you have Miguel Tejada, you have Eric Gagne, all these superstars involved in this now. It`s been a rough ride for baseball today, and going forward, you can`t just, you know, put this in a box and say this was a steroid era because there are other investigations ongoing and more names may come out of those investigations. And also, there are ways to beat tests, so even if a better testing system is implemented, will designer steroids become more marketable and more widely used by baseball players to circumvent those tests? I mean, this is an ongoing problem for baseball.
[Lalama:] Where there`s a will, there`s a way, I guess. This includes Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Lenny Dykstra, Troy Glaus. I mean, the list goes on and on. So Chris Dimino, sports anchor 790 "The Zone," you know, in a way, when I first heard George the former senator`s report, I thought, Well, I don`t know. He`s saying, Let`s forego any kind of prosecution and let`s have a new start. It sounded like the beginning of the war on drugs. I mean, how serious do we take this?
[Chris Dimino, Sports Anchor 790 "the Zone":] Well, here`s what I know. It took 20 months and millions upon millions of dollars to come up with, in my opinion, not much. You know, it seems funny. George Mitchell and Bud Selig both said the same thing today. They said this report was put forward this investigation was put forward to get the answer how and why did this happen? Well, I could have saved them a whole lot of time and a whole lot of money if they would have called me. Here`s how it happened. It was easily accessible, and there wasn`t a hint that there would be any problem with purchasing, using, even distributing. Why did it happen? Well, that`s simple, as well. That`s economics 101. It was a business decision. They pay more to be in the majors than do the minor leagues. They pay more for home runs than doubles. Plain and simple, the how and why of it didn`t take very long, 30 seconds, and that was free on top of everything else.
[Lalama:] Well, let`s go Peter Killeen, former Port Authority of New York police officer trauma expert. You know, one of the things Senator Mitchell brought up very early on was the impact on young people. We cannot forget this is your child who`s looking up to these people. How accessible are steroids for young people?
[Peter Killeen, Trauma Expert, Former Ny Port Authority Police Officer:] I think the steroids are very accessible today. And going back to the issue of whether it is a money issue or whatever, I think it`s a message that`s being given out to the students and the kids today that it`s OK if these athletes are, you know, making all this money, then you know what, I`m going to spy for that, and taking those enhancing drugs is going to potentiate them to be better athletes. And so guess what? They`re going to do it.
[Lalama:] Anne Bremner, defense attorney, the fact of the matter is that baseball`s had its greatest years. I mean...
[Anne Bremner, Trial Attorney:] Right.
[Lalama:] ... the seats are filled up. Everyone loves the sport more than ever. Does that say to you the fans don`t really care if these guys are pumping up?
[Bremner:] Well, yes. And I exactly, Pat. And I was also thinking, Well, maybe they should all be on steroids or nobody be on steroids, so then it`s fair. I mean, we have a 409-page report from Mitchell about all of this that`s based on hearsay and anecdotal evidence. Most people don`t care.
[Lalama:] Richard Herman, defense attorney, you know, what Senator Mitchell is saying, Oh, you know, let`s just move forward, let`s not prosecute. However, Bud Selig took a little bit of a different tack. He said, I`m going to go on a case-by-case basis. And then the players union, we all know what kind of stonewalling they`ll probably do. How realistic is it to think that anybody`s going to get punished for this?
[Richard Herman, Defense Attorney:] Well, they may get punished, Pat, but like Anne just said, you know, this report was commissioned by major league baseball to get an end result that they wanted. So you know, internally, if they want to punish these guys, they can try to. I mean, it`s hearsay. It`s when a drug law didn`t exist prior to `03 in major league baseball. There`s a lot of problems with this report. There`s a lot of problems with the hearsay findings. And you know, they may just want to move forward. But you know, when a guy like Roger Clemens`s fastball is faster in his 40s than it was when he was in 20s, and Barry Bonds`s shoe size grows three inches, I mean, it doesn`t take a rocket scientist to know that, you know, there`s steroids going on in baseball.
[Lalama:] Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, what kind of psychological impact will this have on, let`s start with the players and then the fans.
[Bethany Marshall, Psychoanalyst:] Well, I mean, the players are probably shaking in their boots, at this point. But I think the biggest impact has been on the youth of our culture. I mean, they look up to these guys. Their parents encourage them to get scholarships, athletic scholarships to go to college. And so the use of performance-enhancing drugs amongst our youth has run rampant, at this point. And if you`re a parent, tonight is the night to have a dialogue with your children, to have a dialogue that being a good athlete means that you follow the rules of the game.
[Lalama:] Well, that takes us to Dr. Marty Makary, physician and professor of public health at Johns Hopkins. This stuff is dangerous, dangerous stuff. What in the world can we do to keep the next generation from getting involved?
[Dr. Marty Makary, Physician, Prof. Of Public Health, Johns Hopkins:] Well, what we`re witnessing right now is a massive collision between an Internet era and a time when competition to perform well in sports is at the utmost importance. So we`re seeing a lot of these drugs that have really very small and few short-term consequences getting really popular.
[Lalama:] Luis Llosa from "Sports Illustrated," my understanding is Senator Mitchell had, A, no subpoena power, and no access to any previous test results. What`s the point of the commission?
[Llosa:] Well, exactly. I mean, that`s he was under tough constraints, to begin with. And here`s what you do, you take Kirk Radomski, the Mets the Mets clubhouse attendant. You take him away and the stuff that Mitchell learned because the Balco guys forced under a plea agreement for Radomski to release these names and the checks that were signed and all this evidence you take away the other 10 or 15 players from the Albany investigation that came up, through Internet pharmacies and wellness centers, who`s left? Eight or ten guys, who include John Rocker and Jose Canseco. I mean, if it weren`t for those two investigations, the law enforcement ones, we wouldn`t have much in this report anyway, except GMs and different people within baseball talking about a culture that we already knew was had you know, was endemically problematic, in terms of performance enhancing. So you know...
[Lalama:] Yes.
[Llosa:] So that`s that`s a big question here. But to be fair, other investigations are ongoing. There`s more to come from the Albany investigation. There`s more to come from the DA`s "raw deal" investigation, which traces powders coming from China...
[Lalama:] Whoa!
[Llosa:] ... and right into your right into your you know, your neighbor might be a dealer and be using his garage or his basement to mix up these steroids with converter kits.
[Lalama:] And you don`t even know.
[Llosa:] And you don`t even know about it.
[Lalama:] Chris Dimino, sports anchor 790 "The Zone," you know, one of the things I think that Bud Selig did immediately was he said, All right, no more 24-hour warning. I mean, was that just sort of, you know, a good faith, I`m going to show you I really take this seriously? And can we really expect more changes?
[Dimino:] Well, here`s the problem that I have with the report overall. Bud Selig should have been the first one interrogated not questioned, not asked, interrogated. And he should have been the last one, interrogated again. If George Mitchell didn`t sit down with Bud Selig for a longer amount of time than anybody else and ask him things as simple as this Hey, it seems to me that the baseball perhaps was played with some more runs were scored. Why can I not assume that baseball was turning a blind eye on purpose during all of this? I find it amazing that Bud Selig seems to be the guy who gets a chance to talk the way he does without ever being put on the hot seat. He should have been first guy. He should have been asked in the middle of all of this, Here`s what we have, what do you say? And at the very end, he should have had the last word. His feet need to be put to the fire, and until that happens here`s what I know. Bud Selig is going to be known as the commissioner during the steroid era. I don`t think anything`s going to be resolved, at the end of the day, because I don`t think Bud Selig has the wherewithal to be the guy who can lead baseball through this.
[Lalama:] Well, let`s talk about the possibilities. You know, I guess you could argue, if there isn`t going to be an actual prosecution, you could strike the records that exist. You could put an asterisk next to the name. You could keep people from the Hall of Fame. Luis, you know, is any of that going to happen?
[Llosa:] Tough to say. I mean, the best example is Marion Jones, who it was known that she was using steroids from `99 on, and the IOC has wiped the slate clean. Every record, every award she won from then until today is now gone, doesn`t exist, it`s taken out of the record books. Frankly, I think that the same thing should be done in some of these cases where it`s clear-cut because you can`t prosecute these guys for taking steroids when it wasn`t illegal in baseball, but you can take away those awards that they got, if they didn`t do them fairly they didn`t win them fairly.
[Lalama:] Chris Dimino, who paid for this investigation?
[Dimino:] Pat, that`s the greatest point. Nobody`s willing to give a number. To me, what I`ve heard is tens of millions of dollars. I have a question. Were they burning cash in between phone calls during this investigation? Because there`d be no way possible, based upon at least what I read today, that they could have spent the money they did. Nobody seemed it was a baseball-commissioned report. Baseball is footing the bill. Bud Selig was asked today. He didn`t want to give a number, and rightfully so. He should be embarrassed by the amount of money and time that was put into, in my opinion, at the end of the day, basically adds up to things that we all knew. And quite honestly, at the end of the day, if nobody`s going to be prosecuted bud Selig said he`s going to go case to case. I didn`t realize he`d turned into Barnaby Jones all of a sudden. He doesn`t have the wherewithal to actually get the minor things in baseball done right most of the time. Why would I think that his case
[Lalama:] That brings me to the lawyers, Anne Bremner and Richard Herman. I mean, the fact of the matter is, if you look at the evidence, it`s a lot of people who kind of ratted out people in order to save their own you-know-what.
[Bremner:] Right.
[Lalama:] That makes things a little sketchy. They didn`t look at any real tests. What`s the evidence? I mean, would this really hold up anywhere, Anne?
[Bremner:] No. And you know, what`s all American as baseball and apple pie? How about all American as due process and the Constitution? This George Mitchell is from the largest law firm in the world. And none of this would be admissible in court. It hearsay, it`s anecdotal, et cetera. And so what does where does it get us? We`re not going to prosecute. No subpoena power, et cetera. At the end of the day, you have people that are maligned with no resource.
[Lalama:] And Richard, want to weigh in?
[Herman:] Oh, she`s absolutely right, it`s not admissible. It`s commissioned by baseball to get an end result that they wanted. It`s not admissible. The feds aren`t going to prosecute on it. The state`s not going to prosecute on it. It`s going nowhere, really, Pat.
[Lalama:] OK. Brennan, caller, Virginia. Hi, Brennan. What`s the question?
[Unidentified Male:] Hi. I live in northern Virginia, and I`m 12 and I`d like to comment on the...
[Lalama:] You`re 12?
[Unidentified Male:] Yes.
[Lalama:] All right!
[Unidentified Male:] I`d like to comment on the this impact on young people.
[Lalama:] Go ahead.
[Unidentified Male:] You know, what`s happening is we don`t look up to these guys. We`ve known Barry Bonds is...
[Lalama:] Good for you.
[Unidentified Male:] We`ve known Pettitte. You know, we`ve suspected Pettitte and Clemens. You know, there have been rumors. And we do not look up to these guys. I mean, they`re already good players, and then they just take these and make them better? We don`t young people don`t like that. We do not think it`s OK to cheat. We want to play with what we have.
[Lalama:] Oh, wow!
[Unidentified Male:] You know...
[Lalama:] There`s hope for America, ladies and gentlemen! You`re a good kid, Brennan. I am so thrilled to get this call. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, how about that?
[Marshall:] Well, he just taught me something. We have a very smart 12-year-old, probably great parents...
[Lalama:] Yes.
[Marshall:] ... and great teachers and good community support.
[Lalama:] Right. Absolutely. And Peter Killeen, you want to weigh in on that very quickly, a few seconds, as a member of law enforcement? I mean, it really starts with the parenting. It doesn`t matter what they see on TV or on the field, right?
[Killeen:] ... and what that young person just said, you know, they don`t look up to these people as heroes anymore. But we need heroes to identify with, and these kids nowadays in high school and grammar school, they need those heroes that they`re going to be able to look up to. And something will come out of this, I think, something positive, but it`s just the beginning. It`s going to transfer over to any other sport, as well.
[Lalama:] Well, Brennan`s my hero as of right now. To tonight`s "Case Alert." Las Vegas police make an arrest in a school bus stop shooting leaving six young students injured, 18-year-old Nicco Tatum now in custody in Denver after a tip he was heading to Chicago on a bus, Tatum facing six counts of attempted murder and six counts of battery with a deadly weapon. A second suspect is still on the run. Police say the after-school shooting may be linked to a previous fight at a high school over a girl. And on a much lighter note, it`s a brand-new message from Nancy about the twins. You can check this out at CNN.comnancygrace. And coming soon, video of Nancy with the twins will make its debut on the baby blog. And remember, Nancy returns to Headline News January 7 at 8:00 PM Eastern in this very chair where I`m sitting. Mark it down on your calendars. When we come back, the search for young mom Stacy Peterson. Her former police sergeant husband, a suspect, tells his side about a gunfire incident before Stacy Peterson goes missing.