Grimsley

Don't know about you, but I was feeling a little bit left out while Barry Bonds bore down on Babe Ruth the past couple of months. How could you help but pine for those halcyon days when Baltimore was -- for a couple of months -- the center of the steroid universe. Now, you don't have to. Former Orioles pitcher Jason Grimsley, with his tawdry admissions and redacted deposition, has re-established Charm City as the East Coast capital of baseball's still-mushrooming performance-enhancing drug scandal, and I have only one thing to say: Baltimore: Get In On It!

WASHINGTON -- Months before former Oriole Jason Grimsley said he and other players were using human growth hormone, Congress was quietly pressuring baseball to save players' urine specimens so they could be analyzed when a test for the performance-boosting drug becomes available. The idea was to make certain a deterrent existed so that players could not use the growth hormone with impunity while a screening procedure was still in development. But Major League Baseball balked at the request, according to interviews with baseball officials and congressional staff.

Nearly a year after the Rafael Palmeiro steroid scandal and months removed from the federal government's inquiries into Miguel Tejada's vitamin B-12 usage, the Orioles are again intertwined in an investigation involving drugs and baseball. Former Orioles reliever Jason Grimsley told Internal Revenue Service investigators that he purchased human growth hormone between 10 and 12 times in the past several years and also admitted he paid for a double shipment while with the Orioles, according to a federal affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona.

Orioles pitching coach Ray Miller will undergo surgery Oct. 12 to treat an aneurysm below his heart, and his recovery could determine whether he remains in baseball or retires to his home in New Athens, Ohio. "That will dictate everything," he said. The procedure will take place at Johns Hopkins Hospital, with an estimated recovery time of eight weeks. Miller left the team during an August trip to Oakland and was given four medical options. "None of them were good," he said. He declined to have surgery over the winter, but was urged to get it done by October.

They had been waiting for weeks for Javy Lopez to come back, feeling that he was the missing piece to an Orioles" offense that had fallen on hard times. Lopez came back on Monday night after two months of inactivity because of a broken hand, but he waited until this steamy night in Baltimore, when the Orioles seemed destined for another frustrating loss, to make his presence felt. He drove a bases-empty homer with two outs in the eighth inning off former Oriole James Baldwin to break a tie and the Orioles outlasted the Texas Rangers, 5-4, last night, at Camden Yards.

The scar creeps down Jason Grimsley's right arm, like a baseball's seams gone straight. Seven inches of stitches tell the tale of an elbow surgically raised from the dead. Grimsley waggled his money arm, albeit gingerly, as if worried the wing would fall off and he would wake from a dream that has left the Orioles' reliever to pitch pain-free for the first time in seven years. He knows he is an anomaly: Grimsley's may be the quickest comeback ever to the majors for a pitcher after elbow ligament reconstruction, commonly known as Tommy John surgery.

SEATTLE - The Orioles conceded one failure in their free-agent shopping over the winter, designating reliever Steve Reed for assignment yesterday and activating Jason Grimsley from the 60-day disabled list. Reed, 40, was 1-2 with a 6.61 ERA in 30 games. He allowed 41 hits in 32 2/3 innings. The Orioles informed Reed of the roster move before yesterday's 2 p.m. workout. He left the clubhouse before reporters were allowed inside. "We had a good chat," Orioles manager Lee Mazzilli said.

The Orioles continued a makeover of their bullpen today, recalling right-hander Jason Grimsley from his rehab assignment and designating veteran Steve Reed for assignment. Grimsley went 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA and four strikeouts in eight rehab appearances totaling eight innings at Double-A Bowie. He is recovering from ulnar collateral ligament surgery - commonly referred to as Tommy John surgery - performed last October and was on the 60-day disabled list. Grimsley was acquired by the Orioles from Kansas City last season and went 2-4 with a 4.21 ERA in 41 games.

TORONTO -- Able to throw all of his pitches with no traces of pain in his surgically repaired right elbow, Orioles reliever Jason Grimsley will report to Double-A Bowie on Sunday as part of his injury rehabilitation assignment. Pitching coach Ray Miller estimated that Grimsley, who underwent ligament-reconstructive surgery on Oct. 12, will stay with the Baysox for 10 to 12 days before possibly rejoining the Orioles. Miller wants him to throw a minimum of five innings over five games. "He doesn't need to throw more than an inning in five appearances," Miller said.

TORONTO - Orioles reliever Jason Grimsley could go on an injury rehabilitation assignment next week if his surgically repaired right elbow holds up under the strain of consecutive bullpen sessions. Grimsley threw yesterday before the Orioles' game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. He's expected to take the mound again today. "Now we just have to see if he can handle back-to-back sidelines," said Mike Flanagan, vice president of baseball operations. "We'll keep giving him more and more, and as long as he can handle it, I think next week is a possibility."