June 15, 2009 8:22 AM
- Text
Steroids A Mainstay In Baseball's Lineup
(CBS/AP)
The long-awaited report slammed home what many had long suspected: illegal drugs were part of the lineup of every team in Major League Baseball beginning in the mid-1990s.
"Those who have illegally used these substances range from players whose major league careers were brief to potential members of the Baseball Hall of Fame," former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell wrote in his much-anticipated report on performance-enhancing drugs.
"They include both pitchers and position players, and their backgrounds are as diverse as those of all major league players."
Seven MVPs, two Cy Young Award winners and 31 All-Stars - one for every position. In all, the 409-page report identified 85 names to differing degrees, putting question marks if not asterisks in the record book and threatening the integrity of the game itself.
"I didn't learn everything there is to learn about performance enhancing drugs in baseball. There are many other suppliers, many other dealers, no doubt many other users," Mitchell said Friday on CBS News' The Early Show.
According to CBS News' chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian, the extent of drug use revealed in the report calls for what may prove to be a daunting task: finding some way to detect the new drug of choice in sport - not steroids, but Human Growth Hormone, or HGH, craved by athletes driven to enhance performance and avoid positive drug tests.
"The use of human growth hormone has risen because, unlike steroids, it is not detectible through urine testing," Mitchell said.
HGH is a protein produced by the pituitary gland to stimulate cell development. The synthetic form is prescribed by doctors to treat dwarfism and other serious illnesses.
But in recent years HGH has become widely-available over the Internet or though anti-aging clinics. In Hollywood, it's seen as a fountain of youth for reducing fat and wrinkles. In sports, it's used to build muscles, speed recovery, and extend careers, despite serious side effects.
Nearly half of the 86 athletes implicated in Mitchell's investigation were tied to HGH through documents and testimony, including Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and 16 other All-Stars, sparking this reaction from Commissioner Bud Selig:
"We will announce shortly an HGH summit whose mission will be to fight and detect this undetectable substance."
If so, baseball will join forces with the NFL, which recently gave a half-million dollars to former Olympic drug chief Dr. Donald Catlin to discover a foolproof urine test to end the advantage that is HGH..
"we've got to get to place where we are finding things and people aren't slipping through. We have a net with too many holes in it," Dr. Donald Catlin told Keteyian.
But it will likely be years before that net is completely closed, when a reliable test for HGH is found. Until then, it's open season.
Reaction To The Naming Of Names
President Bush Friday cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the individuals named.
"My hope is that this report is a part of putting the steroid era of baseball behind us," he said, surrounded by Cabinet members in the Rose Garden.
Mr. Bush, who once co-owned the Texas Rangers, said, "I've been troubled by the steroid allegations."
The Mitchell Report, he said, means that "we can jump to this conclusion: that steroids have sullied the game."
"The players and the owners must take the Mitchell Report seriously," the president said. "I'm convinced they will."
Page after page, Roger Clemens' name was all over the Mitchell Report.
Count them, 82 times.
Barry Bonds showed up more often. So did Jose Canseco. Andy Pettitte, Eric Gagne and Miguel Tejada also became part of baseball's most infamous lineup since the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
But they didn't get the worst of it Thursday. That infamy belonged to Clemens, the greatest pitcher of his era.
The Steroids Era.
"If there are problems, I wanted them revealed," commissioner Bud Selig said. "His report is a call to action, and I will act."
Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Troy Glaus, Gary Matthews Jr., Paul Byrd, Jose Guillen, Brian Roberts, Paul Lo Duca and Rick Ankiel were among other current players cited. Some were linked to Human Growth Hormone, others to steroids. Mitchell did not delve into stimulants in his 20-month investigation.
While he vehemently denied it through his lawyer, Clemens was the symbol.
"Roger has been repeatedly tested for these substances and he has never tested positive," Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, said in a statement. "There has never been one shred of tangible evidence that he ever used these substances and yet he is being slandered today."
Considered a lock for the Hall of Fame earlier this week, Clemens' path to Cooperstown was thrown in doubt after he was singled out on nearly nine pages.
Seven-time Cy Young Award winner, eighth on the career list with 354 victories, an MVP and All-Star himself, Clemens suddenly had more to worry about than simply whether to play next season.
"It is very unfair to include Roger's name in this report," said Hardin. "He is left with 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."
"I have a problem with relying in this situation on what somebody says now all of a sudden while being threatened by criminal prosecution," Hardin told reporters.
The report was unlikely to trigger a wave of discipline. While a few players, such as Bonds, are subjects of ongoing legal proceedings, many of the instances cited by Mitchell were before drug testing began in 2003.
Mitchell said punishment was inappropriate in all but the most egregious cases, and Selig said decisions on any action would come "swiftly" on a case-by-case basis.
"The most alarming thing that I learned was that hundreds of thousands of American teenagers are using steroids. That's not just involved with baseball, youngsters look up to all great athletes, and they emulate them," Mitchell told Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.
"Those who have illegally used these substances range from players whose major league careers were brief to potential members of the Baseball Hall of Fame," former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell wrote in his much-anticipated report on performance-enhancing drugs.
"They include both pitchers and position players, and their backgrounds are as diverse as those of all major league players."
Seven MVPs, two Cy Young Award winners and 31 All-Stars - one for every position. In all, the 409-page report identified 85 names to differing degrees, putting question marks if not asterisks in the record book and threatening the integrity of the game itself.
"I didn't learn everything there is to learn about performance enhancing drugs in baseball. There are many other suppliers, many other dealers, no doubt many other users," Mitchell said Friday on CBS News' The Early Show.
According to CBS News' chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian, the extent of drug use revealed in the report calls for what may prove to be a daunting task: finding some way to detect the new drug of choice in sport - not steroids, but Human Growth Hormone, or HGH, craved by athletes driven to enhance performance and avoid positive drug tests.
"The use of human growth hormone has risen because, unlike steroids, it is not detectible through urine testing," Mitchell said.
HGH is a protein produced by the pituitary gland to stimulate cell development. The synthetic form is prescribed by doctors to treat dwarfism and other serious illnesses.
But in recent years HGH has become widely-available over the Internet or though anti-aging clinics. In Hollywood, it's seen as a fountain of youth for reducing fat and wrinkles. In sports, it's used to build muscles, speed recovery, and extend careers, despite serious side effects.
Nearly half of the 86 athletes implicated in Mitchell's investigation were tied to HGH through documents and testimony, including Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and 16 other All-Stars, sparking this reaction from Commissioner Bud Selig:
"We will announce shortly an HGH summit whose mission will be to fight and detect this undetectable substance."
If so, baseball will join forces with the NFL, which recently gave a half-million dollars to former Olympic drug chief Dr. Donald Catlin to discover a foolproof urine test to end the advantage that is HGH..
"we've got to get to place where we are finding things and people aren't slipping through. We have a net with too many holes in it," Dr. Donald Catlin told Keteyian.
But it will likely be years before that net is completely closed, when a reliable test for HGH is found. Until then, it's open season.
Reaction To The Naming Of Names
President Bush Friday cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the individuals named.
"My hope is that this report is a part of putting the steroid era of baseball behind us," he said, surrounded by Cabinet members in the Rose Garden.
Mr. Bush, who once co-owned the Texas Rangers, said, "I've been troubled by the steroid allegations."
The Mitchell Report, he said, means that "we can jump to this conclusion: that steroids have sullied the game."
"The players and the owners must take the Mitchell Report seriously," the president said. "I'm convinced they will."
Page after page, Roger Clemens' name was all over the Mitchell Report.
Count them, 82 times.
Barry Bonds showed up more often. So did Jose Canseco. Andy Pettitte, Eric Gagne and Miguel Tejada also became part of baseball's most infamous lineup since the 1919 Black Sox scandal.
But they didn't get the worst of it Thursday. That infamy belonged to Clemens, the greatest pitcher of his era.
The Steroids Era.
"If there are problems, I wanted them revealed," commissioner Bud Selig said. "His report is a call to action, and I will act."
Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Troy Glaus, Gary Matthews Jr., Paul Byrd, Jose Guillen, Brian Roberts, Paul Lo Duca and Rick Ankiel were among other current players cited. Some were linked to Human Growth Hormone, others to steroids. Mitchell did not delve into stimulants in his 20-month investigation.
While he vehemently denied it through his lawyer, Clemens was the symbol.
"Roger has been repeatedly tested for these substances and he has never tested positive," Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, said in a statement. "There has never been one shred of tangible evidence that he ever used these substances and yet he is being slandered today."
Considered a lock for the Hall of Fame earlier this week, Clemens' path to Cooperstown was thrown in doubt after he was singled out on nearly nine pages.
Seven-time Cy Young Award winner, eighth on the career list with 354 victories, an MVP and All-Star himself, Clemens suddenly had more to worry about than simply whether to play next season.
"It is very unfair to include Roger's name in this report," said Hardin. "He is left with 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."
Much of the information about Clemens came from former New York Yankees major league strength and conditioning coach Brian McNamee.
Read the full Mitchell Report here.
"I have a problem with relying in this situation on what somebody says now all of a sudden while being threatened by criminal prosecution," Hardin told reporters.
According to the report, McNamee also told investigators that "during the middle of the 2000 season, Clemens made it clear that he was ready to use steroids again. During the latter part of the regular season, McNamee injected Clemens in the buttocks four to six times with testosterone from a bottle labeled either Sustanon 250 or Deca-Durabolin."
The report was unlikely to trigger a wave of discipline. While a few players, such as Bonds, are subjects of ongoing legal proceedings, many of the instances cited by Mitchell were before drug testing began in 2003.
Mitchell said punishment was inappropriate in all but the most egregious cases, and Selig said decisions on any action would come "swiftly" on a case-by-case basis.
"The most alarming thing that I learned was that hundreds of thousands of American teenagers are using steroids. That's not just involved with baseball, youngsters look up to all great athletes, and they emulate them," Mitchell told Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.
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