Steroids report said to spread blame

New York -- Blame for steroid abuse among U.S. baseball players was spread around in the much-anticipated report on doping in baseball.

Lawyers familiar with the report told ESPN that George Mitchell's report, which Mitchell planned to release Thursday in New York, doles out blame to Major League Baseball and the Players Association for the rise of performance-enhancing drugs and recommended that MLB and the union agree to outsource the drug-testing program to an independent agency.

But the many are awaiting the release of the report is the promise of what one lawyer said was a list of "very, very high-level names" that would be named, ESPN reported.

Mitchell said in the report it is difficult to get information on the extent of players' use of steroids.

"He admits that he can only go back so far because of the lack of cooperation but says it's more important to move ahead," one lawyer said.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.