Players ask court to revisit its ruling on disclosures

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Major League Baseball Players Association asked a federal appeals court late Monday to revisit its December decision to allow investigators probing steroids in sports to use the names and urine samples of more than 100 players who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.

The 2-1 decision in December by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned three lower court decisions and could help authorities pinpoint the source of steroids in baseball.

Investigators seized computer files containing the test results in 2004 during raids of labs involved in MLB's testing program. The samples were collected at baseball's direction the previous year as part of a survey to gauge the prevalence of steroid use. Players and owners agreed in their labor contract that the results would be confidential, and each player was assigned a code number to be matched with his name.

Quest Diagnostics of Teterboro, N.J., one of the largest drug-testing firms in the nation, analyzed more than 1,400 urine samples from players that season. Comprehensive Drug Testing of Long Beach, Calif., coordinated the collection of specimens and compiled the data. Comprehensive joined the players in their petition to the appeals court to rehear the case with 15 judges.