Strong reactions to Mitchell Report

What some are saying about the Mitchell Report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball:

"When the steroid chapter is viewed by history decades from now, I hope Mitchell is seen for what he is: a man who held up a giant can of pesticide and fumigated baseball's dark corners. Now, the roaches are on the run."

- Mike Freeman, CBSsports.com columnist

"The players' association has behaved outrageously in refusing to cooperate. I don't understand how [union members] have allowed their leadership to do this. Every baseball player walking down the street has people looking at him and thinking, 'He's a user.' "

- Dick Pound, World Anti-Doping Agency Chairman, to ESPN.com

"As a fan and former player this is the saddest day in my life for baseball. ... Senator Mitchell hit the nail on the head when he said there is plenty of blame to share. The Commissioner's office, owners, player's union, and the players themselves all share responsibility for bringing a black eye to a game Americans cherish."

- Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Bunning, now a U.S. Senator, to the Associated Press

The Mitchell investigation was doomed from the beginning. The report itself is 409 pages of cotton candy -- wisps of truth teased into a Don King hairdo full of air, hearsay and perhaps wishful thinking. Blow softly on it and it bends and rips apart.

- Gene Wojciechowski, ESPN.com columnist

"As disappointing as these findings are, this report could signal a turning point for professional baseball. This report could represent the beginning of a new era, an era during which the credibility and values of the sport are fully restored.”

- USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth, former baseball commissioner, in a statement, to the Associated Press

"There will be no shortage of media opinions, castigating, berating and blaming all the names involved. Just remember that this will be coming from the very same people who, like many, turned a blind eye to what many of us believed when we were smack dab in the middle of all the things the Mitchell Report will say. ... I can say with a very clear conscience, to this day I still have never seen anyone inject or ingest HGH, or steroids. Do I think I know former teammates that may have been? Sure I do. Can I tell you with no uncertainty who that was? No."

- Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, on his blog

"George Mitchell is wrong not to urge annulling past baseball drug offenders' records and results. All Olympic sports have a stronger anti-drug program than what Mitchell proposes for documented offenders, past and present. Baseball's drug policy is a sham and will remain weak under Mitchell's proposals."

- Bob Weiner, ex-White House drug spokesman who assisted in the creation of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), to the Associated Press

"It seems that this report is an attempt to sweep a massive problem that has existed for decades under the rug with a single sweep of the broom. It is simply outrageous. In short, the report favors those who control the money in baseball."

- Victor Conte, founder and president of Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), to the Associated Press

"It's time now for the players union to step forward and say, 'OK, we'll save the game and the reputation of the game and cooperate with meaningful, tough punishments, and testing procedures so that we can prevent this from ever happening again."

- Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, to the Associated Press

Photo: Former Senator George J. Mitchell points to a reporter while speaking about his report on Thursday, Dec. 13 in New York. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)