Wainwright: Names of players who tested positive shouldn't be released

ST. LOUIS -- Pitcher Adam Wainwright, the St. Louis Cardinals' player representative, on Wednesday applauded a San Francisco appeals court that ruled federal agents were wrong to seize the list of 104 major-leaguers who allegedly tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.

Several of the names, which were supposed to be protected, have subsequently been leaked to the public. Among them were Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Sammy Sosa and Alex Rodriguez.

"People are obviously breaking the law acquiring those names," Wainwright said. "It's not the agreement the federal government had with Major League Baseball.

"Any of these names that are leaking the names need to come out. Those are the names that need to come out --the leakers."

Some players, including several Cardinals, have expressed a desire to see all the names on the list released so baseball can move forward.

Wainwright said that's not the solution.

"Those names aren't supposed to be out, so it's not fair to those individual players whose names haven't been released," Wainwright said. "To be fair to the people who might be on that list, you can't do that. Not if you're part of a union, you can't do that. We're here to protect the other guys.

"Guys that are on that list, if they know they're on the list, they don't want their names leaked. Their families don't want to be put through that unless they have to be."

Wainwright said the stricter testing policies adopted in baseball in recent years are working and should be allowed to continue to work.

"Our testing policy is the best in professional sports --period," Wainwright said. "There's no tougher testing policy, so I don't know what the public wants to hear. If they still think everyone's dirty, they're wrong.

"Everybody's playing under the same rules. There's no possible way that anybody in their right mind would take anything. They'll get caught. The policy is working. No doubt about it."

Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin agreed with Wainwright.

"We've got a good system now. Run with that," he said.