* The wages of sin?

Kirk Radomski, one of the leading figures in the Mitchell hearings on PED and baseball, will publish a book on his role in the whole mess.

Bases Loaded (Hudson Street Press, an imprint of Penguin Books) is due to hit the stores next week.

According to an article in yesterday’s New York Times:

The 256-page book does not appear to make any startling assertions about drug use in baseball. It spends a considerable amount of time describing how Radomski, a onetime Mets bat boy, became a key figure in baseball’s steroids era. In one of the more interesting passages, Radomski described how he first encountered the federal agent Jeff Novitzky. On an early morning in December 2005, Radomski opened the front door of his Long Island home while in his underwear and found Novitzky standing there, holding a search warrant.

And

In a portion of the book that is likely to attract attention, Radomski states that he was asked by [Sen. George] Mitchell about a handful of major leaguers who were not among his dozens of customers and who did not end up being named in the Mitchell report.

Of course, a book like this generates a lot of “he said/he said.”

Mitchell, through a spokesman, disputed Radomski’s claim that he was asked about specific players who were not named in the report. “At no time did we raise the names of specific players who had not previously been identified to us by Mr. Radomski,” John Clarke, a spokesman for Mitchell, said in an e-mail message.

Other selected passages from the Times‘ piece:

In the book, Radomski states that he believes that Brian McNamee, Clemens’s chief accuser, is telling the truth about Clemens’s links to drug use and calls McNamee a “close friend.”

***

The book, which was written with David Fisher, details how Radomski’s cooperation with federal authorities went beyond naming players for Mitchell. Radomski said that on behalf of the authorities, he sent shipments to some players and recorded telephone conversations with them. At the time, the authorities were looking for other users and distributors.

***

In“Bases Loaded, Radomski cites a similar assertion about Canseco involving another player but does not provide any firsthand knowledge to support the claim.

How do “writers” get away with this stuff, dropping casual accusations without any factual, corroborating evidence? I guess I don’t understand libel law.