Clemens, Bonds, Tejada among names in steroid probe - Los Angeles Times
THE MITCHELL REPORT
Clemens, Bonds, Tejada among names in steroid probe
By Dylan Hernandez
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
1:45 PM PST, December 13, 2007
Seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens and former American League most valuable player Miguel Tejada were among the players identified as users of performance-enhancing drugs in former Sen. George Mitchell's 409-page report on drug use in baseball released this morning.
Other notable players named in the report were Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch, Lenny Dykstra, David Justice, Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco and Rick Ankiel. Former Dodgers Kevin Brown, Eric Gagne and Paul Lo Duca, and former Angels Troy Glaus and Mo Vaughn, were also listed.
"For more than a decade, there has been widespread and illegal use of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing substances by players in Major League Baseball in violation of federal law and baseball policy," Mitchell said at a news conference this morning in Manhattan.
The report culminated a 21-month investigation by Mitchell, hired by baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to examine the steroids era.
"Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades -- commissioners, club officials, the players association and players -- shares to some extent the responsibility for the steroids era," Mitchell said. "There was a collective failure to recognize the problem as it emerged and to deal with it early on."
Only two active players are known to have cooperated with Mitchell: Jason Giambi and Frank Thomas.
Many of the names in the report were provided to Mitchell by former Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski, who had to cooperate with the investigation as part of his guilty plea for illegal steroid distribution.
Radomski sold performance-enhancing drugs to former Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees strength coach Brian McNamee, according to the report. McNamee, in turn, allegedly provided drugs to Clemens, Pettitte and Knoblauch. McNamee also cooperated with Mitchell's investigation.
Mitchell urged baseball to improve its testing program, adding, "This is a serious problem that cannot be solved by anything less than a well-placed and well-executed plan by everyone involved in baseball."
Mitchell urged Selig to hold off on punishing players in the report "except in those cases where he determines that the conduct is so serious that discipline is necessary to maintain the integrity of the game."
Several stars named in the report could pay the price in Cooperstown, much the way Mark McGwire was kept out of the Hall of Fame this year merely because of steroids suspicion.
"Former Commissioner Fay Vincent told me that the problem of performance-enhancing substances may be the most serious challenge that baseball has faced since the 1919 Black Sox scandal," Mitchell said in the report.
"The illegal use of anabolic steroids and similar substances, in Vincent's view, is 'cheating of the worst sort.' He believes that it is imperative for Major League Baseball to 'capture the moral high ground' on the issue and, by words and deeds, make it clear that baseball will not tolerate the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs."
The players union sent an e-mail to agents this morning and suggested that they "decline general comment on the report and respond only on behalf of a particular player named in the report."
Mitchell Report: seems like every athlete will have an * by their name
