The Mitchell report (Steroids probe names top players)

[Elano]

A dark day for the game

Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Miguel Tejada and Barry Bonds were named in the 409-page report.

Mitchell names 86 players as users and spreads blame for 'steroid era'

NEW YORK -- -- In a blow to the reputations of baseball legends, journeymen players, team owners and union representatives, an investigative report on drug use in the major leagues released Thursday by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell blasted America's pastime for its slow and ineffective response to what it called "baseball's steroid era."

The 409-page report released here amid great fanfare and serial news conferences cited performance-enhancing drugs as a widespread problem that involved players from each of the 30 teams in both the National and American Leagues.

Mitchell named 86 current and former professional players as drug users, saying they ranged from those "whose major league careers were brief to potential members of the Baseball Hall of Fame." But it was that group of big names that turned Mitchell's report into an instant sensation and one of the biggest scandals in modern U.S. sports.

Among the report's disclosures were:

Seven-time Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Roger Clemens repeatedly used steroids and human growth hormone, injected by his conditioning coach. The same conditioning coach, Brian McNamee, also provided human growth hormone to Clemens' New York Yankees teammate Andy Pettitte, who wanted to speed recovery from an elbow injury.

Former Angels and Boston Red Sox slugger Mo Vaughn, a one-time American League Most Valuable Player, acquired human growth hormone when he was recuperating from a serious ankle injury. The report reproduced copies of checks for $3,200 and $2,200 written to a trainer who provided the hormones.

Former Dodgers relief pitching ace Eric Gagne had human growth hormone shipped directly to the clubhouse at Dodger Stadium. And former Dodgers catcher and fan favorite Paul Lo Duca thanked his drug supplier with a handwritten note on Dodger Stadium stationery.

Adding to the impact of Mitchell's report was his extensive use of canceled checks and other documents, among them internal correspondence from front offices in Los Angeles and Boston indicating that management knew about drug use and took it into consideration during trade talks.

"Everyone involved in baseball -- the commissioner, club officials, the players' association and the players -- shares responsibility," Mitchell said.

Mitchell urged baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to grant amnesty to players in the interest of moving forward, but Selig pointedly reserved the right to suspend any active players cited by Mitchell.

Selig, who appointed Mitchell to conduct the investigation, had hoped the report would satisfy congressional critics pressing for reform. However, within two hours of its release, Selig was summoned for hearings before two committees in the House of Representatives.

Critics sounded off from all sides.

Clemens' attorney Rusty Hardin issued a statement denying the pitcher used steroids and all but threatening a lawsuit. The Houston attorney said: "There has never been one shred of tangible evidence that he ever used these substances and yet he is being slandered today."

Hardin also complained that Clemens has "no meaningful way to combat what he strongly contends are totally false allegations. He has not been charged with anything, he will not be charged with anything and yet he is being tried in the court of public opinion with no recourse. That is totally wrong."

Jose Canseco, who fingered former teammates as steroid users in a book referenced in Mitchell's report, expressed disappointment in its contents. He called the report "a slap on the hand" and said some names of drug users were missing. He told Fox Business Channel that New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez should have been included.

"I could not believe that his name was not in the report," Canseco said. Scott Boras, Rodriguez's agent, did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Besides Clemens, Pettitte and Vaughn, other stars listed by Mitchell included former Dodger Kevin Brown, David Justice and Barry Bonds. Another former Most Valuable Player on the list, Miguel Tejada, was recently traded from the Baltimore Orioles to the Houston Astros.

"Other investigations will no doubt turn up more names," Mitchell said.

Selig said he commissioned this investigation against the wishes of his closest advisors. The probe is believed to have cost owners more than $20 million, but neither Mitchell nor Selig would provide a figure.

"If there were problems, I wanted them revealed," Selig said. "If there were individuals who engaged in wrongdoing, I wanted those facts to come to light. If there were recommendations that would improve our drug testing program, I wanted to improve them. His report is a call to action. And I will act."

Mitchell issued a series of recommendations, among them to let a third party independent of owners and players run the sport's drug testing, to increase random year-round tests, to establish an investigative unit to pursue allegations of drug use beyond testing and to record every package received by a player in a clubhouse.

Selig said he would implement all recommendations that do not require union consent and ask the players' association to discuss the rest "in the immediate future." Donald Fehr, executive director of the association, said the union would consider Mitchell's recommendations. Selig also said he would convene an "HGH summit" shortly.

Mitchell's report indicated human growth hormone has replaced steroids as the performance-enhancing substance of choice because baseball does not test for human growth hormone.

The owners have funded research for a urine test -- and Fehr said the players would agree to such a test if one can be developed -- but said current blood tests for human growth hormone are of "dubious or little practical value."

In his report, Mitchell cited a "widespread misconception" that baseball did not ban steroids and other performance-enhancing substances until 2002. Baseball expressly prohibited the illegal use of steroids as far back as 1991, according to the report, but did not test for them until 2003.

Although the union had consistently opposed testing without reasonable cause, thus "delaying the adoption of mandatory random drug testing in major league baseball for nearly 20 years," Mitchell also chided owners for not pushing for testing sooner "because they were much more concerned about the serious economic issues facing major league baseball."

Said Mitchell: "With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that baseball missed the early warning signs of a growing crisis."

In general, Mitchell said, his corroboratory evidence included other interviews, phone records, shipping documents, canceled checks and money orders.

"Many players are named, their reputations adversely affected forever," Fehr said, "even if it turns out down the road they should not have been."

Fehr said he welcomed Mitchell's suggestion that active players not be suspended but said the union would fight on behalf of any player who might be disciplined. Mitchell said Selig should grant amnesty to those players and look to the future.

Said Mitchell: "Spending more months, or even years, in contentious disciplinary proceedings will keep everyone mired in the past."

Yet Selig insisted he would consider suspensions "on a case-by-case basis" and act "swiftly" in doing so. "I think, frankly, that is a byproduct of this investigation that I need to address."

The Kansas City Royals signed outfielder Jose Guillen for $36 million last week, well aware he would be suspended for reportedly ordering steroids and human growth hormone. On the day Guillen signed, Selig suspended him for 15 days.

[Elano]

Players need to step to plate

Maybe the most disquieting image created by the 409-page Mitchell Report is Roger Clemens being injected in the buttocks with steroid-filled syringes wielded by Brian McNamee, a former strength and conditioning coach for the Toronto Blue Jays.

That alone is enough to cause nightmares.

Equally disturbing was the refusal of all but two active players -- Jason Giambi of the New York Yankees and Frank Thomas of the Blue Jays -- to cooperate with investigators amassing evidence about the use of steroids.

The silent players come off as the bad guys for their alleged misdeeds and their refusal to answer questions. In a sport filled with arrogant, bumbling owners and a commissioner who is several fathoms beyond his depth, ending up as the villain in this lack-of-morality play is a remarkable achievement.

Bill Veeck, the renegade promoter, owner and author, wrote in "The Hustler's Handbook" that, "It never ceases to amaze me how many of baseball's wounds are self-inflicted."

His book was published in 1965.

Veeck is long gone, but the truth of his assessment endures.

The Mitchell Report, while often sobering and sometimes persuasively detailed with copies of checks and money orders players allegedly wrote to their drug suppliers, has some flaws.

It contains gobs of hearsay, which can be admissible in court under some circumstances but sometimes not. A good lawyer could probably skewer passages such as the statement that "McNamee knew the substance was Winstrol because the vials Clemens gave him were so labeled." Labeling a vial as containing Winstrol or champagne doesn't make it so.

Some implications were second-hand and flimsy, such as Larry Bigbie fingering former teammate Brian Roberts as having admitted in 2004 that Roberts had injected himself with steroids.

The motives of McNamee and of Kirk Radomski, the former New York Mets clubhouse attendant who is the other prime source of information in the report, merit scrutiny too. The more information they turn over the lighter their punishments from federal prosecution may be, so they have incentive to fling a lot of mud and hope some of it sticks.

But eventually, it comes back to the players.

If the players sought by investigators hadn't used banned substances, why didn't they hire lawyers and state their innocence?

If they were guilty, why not confess and ask for the mercy the American public so often grants celebrities who show a dollop of contrition?

Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Assn., said he did not urge players "tacitly or explicitly not to cooperate" and urged them to seek their own counsel.

Maybe it was fear, not Fehr, that silenced them.

Because of the stubbornness of the union, baseball's drug testing policies, twice toughened in the last few years, still have little serious bite.

As documented in the Mitchell Report, Dodgers executives suspected that Eric Gagne didn't naturally come by his newfound arm strength and velocity. But they couldn't order him to take a test that would have determined if his fastball's oomph came from a syringe.

That's assuming they wanted to know. They didn't mind profiting off his saves and sales of T-shirts with his menacing likeness and trademark "Game Over" slogan.

As it now stands, players are tested a minimum of twice each year, once at the beginning of spring training and again during the season or playoffs. A maximum of 60 off-season tests are permitted, with additional tests allowed only after a show of reasonable cause in the case of an individual player.

Mitchell recommended mandatory, unannounced testing that would take place year-round, as is the case in the United States for athletes in Olympic sports. The players association is likely to rebuff attempts to beef up the current policy, citing infringement on privacy and civil rights.

Fehr said Thursday the union would agree to subject players to valid urine tests for human growth hormone, the use of which looms as the sport's next big problem. However, no reliable urine test is available now and it's unclear when a test will be devised and proven to the union's satisfaction.

The union will be under pressure to take a more vigorous role in combating drugs, and it should agree to allow testing more frequently. It's the right thing to do and would help end the so-called Steroid Era.

So far, fans have been incredibly forgiving. They grumble about asterisks and tainted records, but even though the Dodgers were heavily implicated in the Mitchell Report a club spokesman said Friday no fan had called to cancel season tickets or chastise management. Things were quiet at the Angels' office, too, a spokesman there said.

The Mitchell Report didn't kill baseball. The Dodgers will draw nearly 4 million people next season, the 50th anniversary of their migration from Brooklyn. The New York Yankees will again top 4 million in their final season at the House that Ruth Built. The Red Sox will sell out every pricey seat at Fenway Park.

"Baseball must be a great game to survive the fools who run it," Hall of Famer Bill Terry said a long time ago. That, too, still holds true.

[big mat]

fuckin cheaters. I was reading the newspaper this morning and there was that father who wrote something about not being able to explain to is crying son why his idol did that(eric gagne). Everybody that's playing baseball in quebec wants to be him he took a big loss

[Sanford - V. President of the Dangerous Crew Movement]

i dont get this shit.

even with this shit comin out and naming players, what difference is this gonna make?  what can anybody due to legitimize what happened in the past.

tell these old fools who keep dwellin on shit that can only be fixed with a time machine, to go play thier boccie ball at their local rec.

[MontrealCity's Most]

fuckin cheaters. I was reading the newspaper this morning and there was that father who wrote something about not being able to explain to is crying son why his idol did that(eric gagne). Everybody that's playing baseball in quebec wants to be him he took a big loss

thats kid is a bitch , i mean common crying cus he took stereoid , please.

[I Am The Anton]

fuckin cheaters. I was reading the newspaper this morning and there was that father who wrote something about not being able to explain to is crying son why his idol did that(eric gagne). Everybody that's playing baseball in quebec wants to be him he took a big loss

thats kid is a bitch , i mean common crying cus he took stereoid , please.

Hes a fucking kid. 

[herpes]

fuckin cheaters. I was reading the newspaper this morning and there was that father who wrote something about not being able to explain to is crying son why his idol did that(eric gagne). Everybody that's playing baseball in quebec wants to be him he took a big loss

thats kid is a bitch , i mean common crying cus he took stereoid , please.

and you probably cried when your favorite cartoon character died.  I love how people on the internet forget they were little kids at one point.  I love how they were born these hardcore thugs straight from the womb.

[MontrealCity's Most]

fuckin cheaters. I was reading the newspaper this morning and there was that father who wrote something about not being able to explain to is crying son why his idol did that(eric gagne). Everybody that's playing baseball in quebec wants to be him he took a big loss

thats kid is a bitch , i mean common crying cus he took stereoid , please.

and you probably cried when your favorite cartoon character died.  I love how people on the internet forget they were little kids at one point.  I love how they were born these hardcore thugs straight from the womb.

hahahah ya ok there im probably older then you, and no i dont think im a thug, its performance enhancing drugs, he dint rape or kill anyone or hasent done anything to personaly hurt that little boy. Erci Gagne is a grown man who took a desicion to take certain products.
Is it disapointing ? Absolutly,  this is where the parents responsability comes in to educate his son.

[big mat]

fuckin cheaters. I was reading the newspaper this morning and there was that father who wrote something about not being able to explain to is crying son why his idol did that(eric gagne). Everybody that's playing baseball in quebec wants to be him he took a big loss

thats kid is a bitch , i mean common crying cus he took stereoid , please.

calling a 5 years old kid a bitch because he discovered that santa claus doesn't exist is a bit harsh, is that how you were raised?

[MontrealCity's Most]

fuckin cheaters. I was reading the newspaper this morning and there was that father who wrote something about not being able to explain to is crying son why his idol did that(eric gagne). Everybody that's playing baseball in quebec wants to be him he took a big loss

thats kid is a bitch , i mean common crying cus he took stereoid , please.

calling a 5 years old kid a bitch because he discovered that santa claus doesn't exist is a bit harsh, is that how you were raised?

i explained my point in the previous post.