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ABJ

6/8/06

Diamondbacks' players thankful Grimsley chose to leave team

BY JACK MAGRUDER

East Valley Tribune (Mesa, Ariz.)

<!-- begin body-content -->PHOENIX - The Arizona Diamondbacks wish the best for Jason Grimsley, but most appear glad that he chose to walk away from the clubhouse in the wake of his involvement in a federal investigation into illegal drugs in baseball.
"If he was here, it might be a media circus like Barry (Bonds),'' catcher Johnny Estrada said on Wednesday.
"Now that he is gone, I don't know what hoopla is going to be all about. We have to go on and play and try to stay on top of this division.''
The D-Backs still lead the NL West despite losing three straight games, the last two after news of Grimsley's involvement in an Internal Revenue Service probe was made public.
"I think we'll get past it,'' general manager Josh Byrnes said.
"I think this team is very resilient. It's a team that nobody expected to do much and has played well. It's a team that has come back. It's a great bunch of guys that has surpassed expectations so far and will continue to do so.
"We have to do our part to be sensitive to Jason, to what the federal government wants and to what Major League Baseball wants. To Jason's credit, he didn't want to be a distraction to the team, and that was his decision to make.''
Grimsley, in his first season with the D-Backs, was 1-2 with a 4.88 ERA but had made several valuable appearances as a long reliever when D-Backs' starters faltered early in the season.
"I don't think we've had adversity. This isn't adversity,'' Craig Counsell said. "We had an unfortunate situation with a teammate. He's not a teammate any more. We have to move on.''
Terry Mulholland: "We have to keep playing, regardless of how the roster changes, whether it is due to injury or trade or disciplinary action or whatever. You are still a part of a group of guys.
"We feel for our teammate, obviously, but you don't let that affect you when you cross the lines. It is all about playing the game. Anybody's personal life, if you don't leave that outside the clubhouse and the ballpark, you are not doing your job.''
Grimsley told IRS agents, according to court documents, that he used anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and amphetamines, all of which are on MLB's list of banned substances.
Major League Baseball does not test for human growth hormone, which managing partner Ken Kendrick sees as a loophole that must be closed.
"We are very focused on that already, and there is work being done right now with UCLA to develop a urine test that hopefully would be successful and would be definitive,'' Kendrick said.
"There is no test right now, blood or urine, that is definitive. The only time that blood testing was used was in the Olympics, and that was not conclusive. The results were never released publicly, and our medical experts say those tests were not conclusive enough for us to put them in the protocol for our program.
"So we need a reliable test, and we are going to get one. It's obviously an important matter, and there is work going on as we speak.''
Kendrick said management has talked to the team about moving forward.
"The team wants to get focused on playing,'' he said.
"We think we can put this behind us and go out and continue what we think is a very good season.''
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