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My 28, 2002

Ken Caminiti admits to using steroids during his playing career in a Sports Illustrated article, written by Tom Verducci

Sept. 3, 2003

Investigators, including Internal Revenue Service agents, raid BALCO Laboratories in Burlingame and take financial and medical records.

Sept. 5, 2003

Investigators search the home of Greg Anderson, the personal trainer of Barry Bonds. Investigators seize documents they said show Bonds was using banned drugs.

Oct. 23, 2003

The grand jury investigation into BALCO begins.

Feb. 12, 2004

Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson; track coach Remi Korchemny; BALCO president Victor Conte; and BALCO vice president James Valente charged in 42-count federal indictment with running a steroid-distribution ring that provided performance-enhancing drugs to dozens of athletes.

Jan. 13, 2005

MLB players and owners reach a new drug-testing agreement calling for more banned substances and a 10-day penalty for first-time offenders.

March 3, 2005

MLB begins testing players for steroids. The Florida Marlins are the first team to undergo testing.

April 3, 2005

Tampa Bay outfielder Alex Sanchez becomes the first player suspended for steroids under the league's new policy.

April 25, 2005

Selig asks players to agree to a 50-game suspension for first-time steroid offenders, a 10-game ban for second offenders and a lifetime ban for a third violation. He asks that amphetamines be tested for, that there be more frequent testing and that administration of drug testing be shifted to an independent person from the management-union committee.

Aug. 1, 2005

Rafael Palmeiro is suspended for 10 days for testing positive for stanozolol, becoming the most prominent player to be penalized for steroids. Palmeiro, one of 12 players to be suspended in 2005, recently reached 3,000 career hits.

Sept. 28, 2005

Career home run leader Hank Aaron and four other baseball Hall of Famers accompany commissioner Bud Selig to a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, where Sen. John McCain criticizes players association head Donald Fehr for inaction.

Nov. 15, 2005

Players and owners agree, subject to ratification, to Selig's 50-game, 100-game, lifetime structure for penalties, to test for amphetamines and to shift administration of testing to an independent person.

March 7, 2006

"Game of Shadows," a book by San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, said Barry Bonds used a vast array of performance-enhancing drugs, including steroids and human growth hormone, for at least five seasons beginning in 1998.

March 30, 2006

Major League Baseball announces George Mitchell, the former Senate majority leader from Maine who also serves as a director for the Boston Red Sox and a chairman of The Walt Disney Company, will head a panel that will investigate past steroid use by major league players. The investigation will focus on 2002 or later, but Mitchell can investigate anything or any time that was relevant to understanding the problem of steroids in baseball.

June 9, 2006

Attorney Martin Garbus says FBI agents had asked Barry Bonds's ex-girlfriend, Kimberly Bell, to not cooperate with the Mitchell investigation. The attorney says if she were to talk to Mitchell's group, Bonds would be entitled to learn what she said and if that information conflicts with what she told federal authorities about his alleged steroid use, Bonds could use it to undermine her credibility in court.

June 20, 2006

The San Francisco Chronicle reports the Mitchell investigation is expected to interview personnel from all 30 MLB teams, including coaching staffs, trainers and front-office personnel.

June 21-22, 2006

Mitchell investigators interview members of the Baltimore Orioles' front office. Mike Flanagan (at the time executive vice president), Jim Duquette (at the time VP), then-manager Sam Perlozzo, pitching coach Leo Mazzone and minor league director David Stockstill all speak to members of Mitchell's staff. The New York Times reports that Mitchell's staff searched the computers of at least six members of the Orioles' front office and training staff looking for evidence to performance-enhancing drugs. Bill Stetka, Baltimore's media relations director, confirms searches were made and says the club cooperated and the computers were returned (Stetka's computer was among those searched).

July 11, 2006

Jose Canseco meets with investigators, giving up more names and making an offer to work for them. In addition to players, Canseco was said to have told the investigators of front-office people who may have had knowledge of steroid use in the game.

July 18, 2006

Mitchell investigators interview Baltimore Orioles hitting coach Terry Crowley and strength and conditioning coach Tim Bishop. The two were scheduled to meet with investigators in June, but schedule conflicts prevented it.

Aug. 5, 2006

The New York Daily News reports Mark McGwire has refused to cooperate with the Mitchell investigation.

Aug. 10, 2006

Dusty Baker, then manager of the Chicago Cubs, says he will testify in the Mitchell investigation and assumed he was called because of his relationship with Bonds and Sammy Sosa, players he previously managed in the majors. Baker also says he was scheduled to testify Aug. 2, but the meeting was postponed because of a dispute over whether Baker could bring his own attorney.

Aug. 14, 2006

Mitchell investigation lawyers begin meeting with members of the Oakland A's coaching staff for three days.

Jan. 18, 2007

Mitchell warns baseball owners a lack of cooperation with his investigation into steroids will increase the chances of government involvement.

Feb. 1, 2007

Mitchell sends letters to Bonds, Gary Sheffield and other players involved in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative [BALCO] investigation to submit to interviews and turn over their medical records. The letters include a medical waiver form that, if signed, would allow baseball investigators access to a player's past, current and future medical records.

Feb. 26, 2007

Sheffield tells USA Today he was advised by the MLB Players Association not to assist in Mitchell's probe. "The (players) association told us this is just a witch hunt," Sheffield says. "They don't want us to talk to them. This is all about getting (Bonds). If this was legitimate and they did it the right way, it would be different. But this a witch hunt. They're just trying to collect a lot of stuff that doesn't make any sense and throw the s--- against the wall."

Feb. 26, 2007

Players' union chief Donald Fehr, in his first stop in his annual tour of all spring training camps, tells the Arizona Diamondbacks that it is up the players whether to cooperate with the steroids investigation. Fehr says the investigation raises significant issues of privacy rights for players. He gives the same report to players on all MLB teams.

March 1, 2007

Mitchell denies the investigation is focused on Bonds and remains confident his report will be all-inclusive despite the lack of player cooperation.

April 27, 2007

Kirk Radomski, a former New York Mets clubhouse attendant, pleads guilty to distributing performance-enhancing drugs to dozens of major league players from 1995 to 2005.

May 8, 2007

The Mitchell investigation asks the Baltimore Orioles to send medical records of former team members David Segui, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Jason Grimsley and Fernando Tatis. Those players would then be asked to authorize the release of the records to the Mitchell team. The Orioles also are asked to provide medical records of current players Miguel Tejada, Jay Gibbons and Brian Roberts.

May 9, 2007

The New York Daily News reports MLB and the players union have told players it's up to each individual whether Mitchell investigators can have access to their medical records. Players are reminded of the numerous leaks in the investigation, and it's reiterated that it would be illogical for players to think their testimony would remain secret, according to the Daily News.

June 6, 2007

The San Francisco Chronicle and Albany Times Union file legal papers saying the names of 23 players Radomski told the government and the Mitchell investigation that he supplied steroids to should be made public, citing the public interest in knowing which players cheated.

July 9, 2007

The MLBPA files a motion to keep secret the names of those 23 players.

July 13, 2007

New York Yankees' first baseman Jason Giambi, who admitted in grand jury testimony in 2004 that he took steroids, meets with Mitchell to talk about his steroids past. Giambi reportedly does not discuss steroids use by his teammates or other players. Giambi agrees to the meeting after threats of disciplinary action by commissioner Bud Selig when Giambi admitted in a published report May 18 to have used steroids.

August 2007

Ramonski meets with Mitchell to provide names of players he provided steroids to while serving as a clubhouse attendant for the Mets.

September 13, 2007

Lawyers representing Mitchell meet with officials from the district attorney's office in Albany, N.Y. The Albany DA is investigating a pharmacy for illegally distributing performance-enhancing drugs. The goal of the meeting is to see how the Mitchell investigation could help the DA's findings.

Sept. 14, 2007

A federal judge in New York denies the Chronicle's request to learn the names of the 23 players identified by Radomski. U.S. District Judge Thomas C. Platt refuses to order federal prosecutors to unseal court records.

Oct. 12, 2007

Mitchell says in a statement that he asked to meet with players to provide them with evidence about allegations of their drug use and to give them a chance to respond. He also says players had been told they were implicated in doping and were given the years of their alleged drug use.

Oct. 12, 2007

A conference call with all 30 MLB teams is held to help prepare teams for planning purposes for when the Mitchell report is finally released. Teams are told that the number of players who will be named will be more than a handful.

Oct. 15, 2007

The Associated Press reports Mitchell received an extensive paper trail from Radomski documenting performance-enhancing drugs sent to players by Radom. Among the documents reportedly received were invoices detailing the substances sent to players.

Oct. 16, 2007

A lawyer for the MLBPA says Mitchell never told the union before the previous week and in a letter Oct. 12 that he was willing to show players evidence of doping allegations against them. The lawyer, Michael Weiner, says all Mitchell has provided players is a general notice they have been accused, giving them the year of the alleged conduct and the team they were playing for at the time, but not the name of the substance they are accused of using.

Oct. 21, 2007

The New York Times reports drug testers contracted by MLB routinely alert team officials a day or more before their arrival at ballparks for what is supposed to be random, unannounced testing of players. Rob Manfred, baseball's VP for labor relations, says in most cases, the GM is contacted to help arrange for tester access and for space to be set aside in locker rooms for the tests, but says they are not told which players will be tested.

Oct. 21, 2007

The San Francisco Chronicle reports Cleveland Indians pitcher Paul Byrd spent nearly $25,000 on more than 1,000 vials of human growth hormone between 2002 and 2005. Mitchell denies his office leaked the news prior to Game 7 of the ALCS between Cleveland and the Boston Red Sox. Byrd acknowledges the shipments at news conference.

Nov. 6, 2007

SI.com reports an unnamed active player has volunteered to speak with Mitchell in the coming weeks, becoming the first active MLB player to do so. (Giambi spoke only after being threatened with discipline if he refused.)

Nov. 7, 2007

No more than 11 players from this year's free-agent class are asked to speak with Mitchell. Weiner, the union's general counsel, makes the statement to agents at a meeting in New York, but intended for his remarks to remain private.

Nov. 21, 2007

Radomski's sentencing is delayed until Feb. 8, 2008, at 11 a.m. before U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco.