Did the Rocket get a boost? Devil is in details
I thought the George Mitchell report would be easy to dismiss. Too many conflicts of interest, not enough subpoena power. It looked like a cover-up and smelled like a cover-up, letting baseball cleanse its hands of this steroids mess in one giant brush stroke.
Instead, it opened up a lot more than originally thought, and posed even more questions. And Jose Canseco's goofy steroids book is looking more and more correct every day, as scary as that sounds.
The biggest accusation Thursday involved Roger Clemens, of course. According to the Mitchell report, a former Yankees trainer said he injected Clemens with steroids on several occasions and also injected Andy Pettitte with human growth hormone during a rehab stint. While Clemens' attorney cried slander, said the trainer is an unreliable witness and said it's unfair that there's no tangible evidence (all potentially valid points), it's the details that Brian McNamee recounted that will likely will hound the seven-time Cy Young Award winner, whether he's guilty or not. They'll certainly come up when he appears on the Hall of Fame ballot in five years or so.
McNamee recounted so much detail in the report that it's hard to dismiss. It will be hard for Clemens or his representatives to prove that this is some kind of a figment of a trainer's imagination. McNamee remembers specific instances with direct quotes on how the steroids worked for Clemens.
In other instances mentioned in the report, the canceled checks written by players such as Mo Vaughn, Fernando Vina and Rondell White to former Mets clubhouse employee Kirk Radomski offer more compelling evidence. It's all very hard to ignore.
In Clemens, Barry Bonds now has a running mate as the poster boys for the Steroid Era of baseball. And neither the home run champ nor the best pitcher of this generation are shoo-ins for Cooperstown anymore.
New to the site: A list of all players named in the Mitchell report, what they're accused of taking and other major leaguers who have been suspended since 2005 for violating the MLB drug policy.
Photo: Roger Clemens adjusts his hat while pitching for the Yankees on Aug. 2, 2007. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Comments
Selig must resign, Congress will have to force the Players’ Union to comply, and the records of the steroid users should be thrown out.
John Kruk and Alex Gammons are no longer broadcast journalists for ESPN. Instead they are apologists for those who cheat and lie.
Why? The information obtained comes almost exclusively from jail-house snitches, who will say anything in return for favors, either promised or anticipated. What happened to innocent until PROVEN guilty. The lynch mob mentality displayed in the previous comment is pathetic.
As for Barry Bonds, the only reason he is being singled out is the establishment views him as a (expletive deleted by editor)- (not my view, but the reality of perception.
Why? The validity of the accusations are highly questionable as most of them come from jail-house snitches. Such informants are not reliable. The such information is usually given for favors, either promised or anticipated.
What ever happened to the principle of innocent until PROVEN guilty? The lynch-mob mentality displayed in the previous comment is a sad note on trial by press, rather than fact.
More serious than baseball is the use of steroids in high school athletics. If congress wants to poke its nose into something, there is the larger problem. The whole baseball thing is publicity for congress, really none of their business. We have more pressing problems in this nation to deal with.