Steroid Nation

ESPN writer Howard Bryant calls out 2002 Angels - Giants World Series as apex of steroid juiced MLB

ESPN writer Howard Bryant (Juicing the Game) calls out the players and management of both teams in the 2002 World Series between the Anaheim Angles (Troy Glaus) and the San Francisco Giants (Barry Bonds).   Bryant doesn't spare the doctors, also popping unethical California physician Ramon Scruggs who supplied steroids to the Angels' players.

The cornering of Alex Rodriguez and his subsequent admission that he used performance-enhancing drugs represented, for all intents and purposes, the nadir of the steroid era with few, if any, remaining ambiguities: The A-list, Hall of Fame's best used drugs; and so did the mediocre; and so did the worst. The general managers demurred, the leaders shrank and the men who signed the checks, like everyone else, made a fortune. The shock is gone. Little else can surprise our calloused sensibilities.

That said, the intricate details of just how this confidence game was carried out still carry immense value, for they cement a discredited time with facts instead of speculation. Understanding the foundations of the steroid era also reveals that this industrywide failure stretched far beyond the players connected to Brian McNamee, Kirk Radomski or the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. It provides even more evidence that so much of what we've seen on the field during the past decade and a half needs to be recast.

Recently, The New York Times obtained transcripts of interviews by federal agents with four major league players conducted as part of the ongoing criminal investigation of Ramon Scruggs, a physician under indictment for illegally distributing steroids to big leaguers, police officers and corporate executives, among others.

As we have said, dirty trainers, doctors, and health professionals often stand behind the doping curtain:

Meanwhile, dirty doctors such as Scruggs have applied the same cheap excuses for their behavior that we've heard for years from the players. Glaus told investigators he used steroids to recover from a shoulder injury that was not healing. According to the Times, Schoeneweis told federal agents he felt run-down. Greene said he was fearful of losing his spot on a major league roster and so would not be able to support his family. Valdez said shoulder and knee injuries were not healing. Suggs mailed him steroids and syringes.

Each player used an old rationalization -- I wasn't trying to cheat; I was trying to stay on the field -- to soften the appearance of his actions, but the domino effect remains the same. At this late date, the excuses grow thin, the lies nothing more than a self-created noose.

And that 2002 Series pitting Glaus and the 'Angels' v. Bonds and the 'Gaints'.  We will not point out the delicate irony behind those monikors (we just did):

The 2002 Angels, for example, are the legitimate champions of an illegitimate time, just as Bonds is the legitimate home run champion of a discredited era. Despite Angels manager Mike Scioscia's adamant public stand against drugs, people around the game point privately to that club as one of the premier steroid-fueled teams thanks in part to a bullpen rife with career minor leaguers who suddenly began throwing in the mid-90s after their 30th birthdays.

Glaus was the MVP of that 2002 World Series, which is looking more and more like the definitive Steroid Series. Glaus, Brendan Donnelly and Schoeneweis, all of whom have been implicated, played for the Angels that season. On the Giants, there were Bonds, Benito Santiago, Marvin Benard, David Bell and Rich Aurilia. And that doesn't include the players who were suspect.

Bryant's exleeent writing is very dense reading, packed full of fact and logic.  Excellent piece.

Jocks breaking rocks: Athletes (boosters, trainers) behind bars

Reasononline carries a very nicely researched piece on athletes, boosters, and trainer who walk the line in a prison.  The athletes end up in jail for drug-related offenses, which recently included illegal steroids and PEDs.

 The article sets the stage with the conviction of Logan Young, the 'Bama Booster who bought players for the Crimson Tide:

Before his untimely death in 2006, Logan Young faced six months in federal prison for “conspiracy to commit racketeering” and “crossing state lines to commit racketeering,” both felonies. While those charges made Young sound like a mafioso, his real offense was violating the recruiting rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)...The conviction of Logan Young as “the first college sports booster sentenced to prison essentially for busting NCAA rules” (in the words of ESPN.com’s Mike Fish) is just one example of a disturbing trend: the federal criminalization of private rule breaking in the world of sports.

The authors look at athletes who did time for crimes which include steroid offenses:

Marion Jones:

Former Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones served six months in federal prison last year for making false statements to two grand juries about her personal use of performance-enhancing steroids. As part of a highly unusual plea agreement, unrelated check fraud charges against Jones were dropped in return for her publicly admitting her past steroid use and retiring from the sport...

Barry Bonds:

All-time Major League Baseball (MLB) home run leader Barry Bonds was scheduled to begin trial in March on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, based on his grand jury testimony in a steroid distribution case that closed in 2005 after producing just four minor convictions that netted seven months prison time combined (half as long as Bonds’ personal trainer served behind bars for criminal contempt after refusing to testify about his boss). At press time, yet another federal grand jury was hearing testimony about whether former MLB pitching great Roger Clemens committed perjury when he denied using steroids after being hauled in front of Congress in February 2008.

There are also 'derivative crimes'; as a 'derivative' in finance refers to an instrument that derives value from the underlying entity so do 'derivative crimes.  For instance money laundering, obstruction of justice, racketeering and so on.  Same with jock crimes.

In 1990 Congress added performance-enhancing steroids to its list of banned substances, largely in response to a scandal involving Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who was stripped of his 1988 Olympic gold medal after testing positive for anabolic steroids. Capitalizing on the public outcry, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) held hearings on doping in sports. McCain threatened to introduce legislation that would take away the autonomy of the U.S. Olympic Committee unless it adopted aggressive anti-doping policies.

The article continues with a lengthy discussion of the BALCO derivative crimes, found after the jump..

Tejada receives one year probation for lying to Congress about steroids

So if you lie to Congress during hearings -- repeatedly -- you receive a one year probation where you promise not to lie to Congress again for one year?  The Houston Chron goes into this:

Drayton McLane loves it when his players do community work, so he has to be thrilled Miguel Tejada has agreed to do an extra 100 hours this summer.

Nice going, Miggy. Way to represent The Good Guys.

Incidentally, who decided a $5,000 fine was any way to punish a guy making $13 million? Couldn’t the feds have ordered Tejada to pay whatever the government spent proving he’s a liar?

Anyway, about eight seconds after Tejada’s plea-bargain agreement was announced, the Astros issued a statement saying how happy they were to have this whole thing behind them.

In other words, let’s all forget that this guy is a cheat and that we got fleeced on this trade.

As for Tejada, he hasn’t exactly been forthright. He has confessed to what he got caught doing and nothing more. And there appears to be more there.

He played the contrite card when he showed up at spring training until someone asked about his use of steroids and HGH.

He bristled and said he wasn’t going to talk about it. Now that’s coming clean.

He doesn’t have to admit anything. The Mitchell Report does it for him. It’s right there on page 201 along with photo copies of checks to ex-teammate Adam Piatt for $3,100 and $3,200.

Piatt said he provided Tejada with steroids and human growth hormone, but he has no way of knowing if Tejada actually used the stuff.

We don't want a witch hunt do we?  Lying and cheating professionals should never be hunted down to answer for their peccadilloes.  The Astros don't think so:

....the Astros have handled this thing from start to finish (with) Ethics be damned.

First, they said they had no idea Tejada would be included in the Mitchell Report. This spring, McLane changed his story, admitting the team had discussed the issue and made the trade anyway.

Translation: We don’t care if a guy is a cheat as long as he helps us win games. There’s a good message for the youngsters in there somewhere.

That’s how baseball operated during the steroid era. If the ballparks were full and the home runs long, if everyone made a lot of money, then why bother with the annoying details?

Miguel Tajeda to receive sentence for steroid perjury today

The Houston Astros' Miguel Tejada will appear in federal court today to learn what his sentence will be for lying to a Congressional investigation into steroid use in major league baseball.  It sounds like justice will go easy on Tejada because he said he was sorry for lying about steroids.

Six weeks after pleading guilty to misleading Congressional investigators about performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, Miguel Tejada is scheduled to receive his sentencing in Washington, D.C.

Tejada traveled to the nation's capital on Thursday and is expected to receive probation, as recommended by prosecutors. U.S. attorney Jeffrey Taylor wrote in a memo last week to Federal Magistrate Judge Alan Kay that Tejada should get a reduced sentence because he has publicly apologized for his actions and has no criminal history.

Tejada, a five-time All-Star and the 2002 American League Most Valuable Player, was accused of giving false statements about his conversations with another player, former Athletics teammate Adam Piatt, about steroids and human growth hormone. Tejada also admitted he didn't reveal information to House committee investigators in August 2005 about whether or not his ex-teammate Rafael Palmeiro took steroids.

Tejada lied about is age for years; it would appear he is generally hopeless in matters of veracity.  However, he does have a fat contract.

Anti-Steroid, anti-doping crusader and IRS agent Jeff Novitzky under the spotlight

ABC News posts a story on the journey of IRS agent Jeff Novitzky, who once tried out for Lute Olson at Arizona basketball, as he crusades against steroids and  doping and some say too zealously Barry Bonds.

The story starts in a California courtroom where Novitzky participated in the BALCO trial of Victor Conte.  And it will continue in the same courtroom:

Sometime in the next few months, Jeff Novitzky will walk back into the same 10th floor courtroom, raise his right hand and swear to tell the truth in the case of the United States v. Barry Lamar Bonds. He will say that Bonds lied in that same courthouse five years ago when he told the grand jury he never knowingly took steroids. And then he'll wait for the jury to decide if baseball's home run king was telling the truth.

But no matter what the jury decides -- and face it, most of us have already made up our minds about Bonds -- it is clear that the detective and his gun has replaced the scientist and his test tube. What isn't clear is whether Jeff Novitzky is part of the solution -- or if he's now the bigger part of the problem. 

Novitzky's early life was highlighted by the Olson connection:

There is nothing about Novitzky's life before Balco that suggests a man destined to direct the biggest investigation in sports history. Or one who would crave or abuse power. He grew up the son of a Bay Area hoops coach, a basketball and track star who still owns the San Mateo County high jump record of 7 feet. Coming out of high school in 1985, he tried out for Lute Olson's Arizona University basketball team. When he fell short, Novitzky returned home to play backup forward and teammate to his big brother at San Jose State.

His athletic career over, Novitzky got a degree in accounting and took a job in San Jose with the IRS's criminal division, a select group of agents who use tax laws and their guns to bust up all sorts of criminal operations.

After the jump we examine more of the extended story on Novitzky...

Miguel Tejada to admit to lying: Tejada tatakes taguilty taplea about telying to teCongress

When Miguel Tajada told Congress he didn't know a thing about steroids and PEDs last year, he was as truthful as he appears to be about his age: Not.  This could jeopardize Tejada's 13 million dollar Baltimore Oriole payroll scheduled for 2009.

Today Tejada will plead guilty to lying in front of Congress, which is not generally considered a hit.  To the Baltimore Sun:

Former Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada is expected to plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Washington this morning to a charge that he lied to congressional investigators about illegal performance-enhancing drugs -- telling them he knew nothing though he had discussed steroids with an Oakland Athletics

According to a criminal information document filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia yesterday, Tejada provided "misrepresentations" to staffers from the congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Aug. 26, 2005. It was part of the perjury investigation of former Oriole Rafael Palmeiro.

The document in the misdemeanor charge can be filed only with the consent of the defendant, meaning Tejada likely has reached an agreement with prosecutors and subsequently is expected to enter a guilty plea before U.S. Magistrate Alan Kay at 11 a.m. today.

The document filing came one day after Major League Baseball was rocked with another steroid scandal when New York Yankees superstar third baseman Alex Rodriguez admitted to ESPN that he took illegal performance enhancers for three years while with the Texas Rangers.

TaStory continues after Tajump...

A-Rod -- Alex Rodriguez -- admits to A-Roiding

Baseball slugging icon Alex Rodriguez, aka A-Rod, admitted today he gained some of his extraordinary power from A-Roiding.  A-Rod's admissions add one more piece of evidence to the baseball power era known as The Steroid Era, when sluggers went 'roid wild, toppling gravity with immense feats of power hitting.  It will also be known as an era when the top MLB talent simply cheated the game, the fans, and in the end themselves.

Some say events occur in threes; A-Rods confession coincides with Barry Bonds's BALCO/steroid legal battles firing up again this year, and Mark McGwire's brother pulling open the curtain on his juiced slugging career. The vintage sluggers of just 5-15 years ago now appear to have cheated past sluggers like the Babe with a ptoent mix of anabolic PEDs like testosterone, nandrolone, HGH, and other more exotic drugs.

A-Rod admitted in an interview with Peter Gammons (was this staged?) to roiding (blast magazine):

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs from 2001 to 2003.

ESPN is reporting that Rodriguez, in an exclusive interview with Peter Gammons, has admitted to allegations that surfaced in a recent Sports Illustrated report online.

“I felt an enormous amount of pressure,” Rodriguez told Gammons. “Back then it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid. I was naive. I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth, you know, being one of the greatest players of all time, and I did take a banned substance.”

Rodriguez did appear apologetic in talking to Gammons.

Reports indicated A-Rod tested positive for testosterone and primobolan.  His 3 year run from 2001 to 2003 included 52, 57, and 47 home runs.  And who says anabolic steroids don't benefit sluggers?

The drug Rodriguez allegedly tested positive for, Primobolan, is less detectable than many other steroids because its markers stay in the body for less time than other drugs. It is also expensive, costing about $500 per week, SI reported.

Rodriguez called the time a “loosey goosy” era, saying he didn’t “know exactly what substance” he “was guilty of using.”

Rodriguez hit 47 home runs in 2003, good enough for his third consecutive home run title.

A-Rod A-Bomb! Slugger Alex Rodriguez tested positive for anabolic steroids in 2003

Baseball nuclear Armageddon exploded at Sports Illustrated today when the magazine/web site dropped an A-Bomb on R-Rod.  The website reports that Yankee slugger Alex Rodriquez tested positive in 2003 for two steroids: testosterone and primobolan (not legal in the US).

As background, A-Rod delivered fantastic 2001-2-3 seasons for the Texas Rangers.  The steroid slugging era was chugging on full-steam with accusations flying everywhere.  The MLB Players Association agreed to PED testing with the MLB;  if a certain percent of players tested positive, then a full blow elaborate PED testing system would be set up for MLB players.  As we all know now, the minimum criteria (5%) of positive tests was met which meant steroid testing for steroid sluggers.

Steroid testing started in spring training 2003, and apparently continued throughout the year.  Wonder when A-Rod dropped his positive urine?  Wonder how long Rodriguez juiced?

In 2001 for the Ranger A-Rod put up monstrous numbers: 52, 135, .318.  A-Rod's 2002 was even better:  57, 142, .300.  Slugging was .622 and .623 respectively. 

In 2003, A-Rod launched a 47, 118, .298 year, which was good for the MVP, even though the numbers were down from previous years.  Considering A-Rod's positive tests, one wonders why production decreased in 2003.  To Sports Illustrated:

In 2003, when he won the American League home run title and the AL Most Valuable Player award as a shortstop for the Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for two anabolic steroids, four sources have independently told Sports Illustrated.

Rodriguez's name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball's '03 survey testing, SI's sources say. As part of a joint agreement with the MLB Players Association, the testing was conducted to determine if it was necessary to impose mandatory random drug testing across the major leagues in 2004.

When approached by an SI reporter on Thursday at a gym in Miami, Rodriguez declined to discuss his 2003 test results. "You'll have to talk to the union," said Rodriguez, the Yankees' third baseman since his trade to New York in February 2004. When asked if there was an explanation for his positive test, he said, "I'm not saying anything."

Test results were obtained when federal agents raided CDT labs as part of the BALCO investigation.

Though MLB's drug policy has expressly prohibited the use of steroids without a valid prescription since 1991, there were no penalties for a positive test in 2003. The results of that year's survey testing of 1,198 players were meant to be anonymous under the agreement between the commissioner's office and the players association. Rodriguez's testing information was found, however, after federal agents, armed with search warrants, seized the '03 test results from Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., of Long Beach, Calif., one of two labs used by MLB in connection with that year's survey testing. The seizure took place in April 2004 as part of the government's investigation into 10 major league players linked to the BALCO scandal -- though Rodriguez himself has never been connected to BALCO.

The testing procedure itself appears to be corrupt:

Because more than 5% of big leaguers had tested positive in 2003, baseball instituted a mandatory random-testing program, with penalties, in '04. According to the 2007 Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball, in September 2004, Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the players' union, violated an agreement with MLB by tipping off a player (not named in the report) about an upcoming, supposedly unannounced drug test. Three major league players who spoke to SI said that Rodriguez was also tipped by Orza in early September 2004 that he would be tested later that month. Rodriguez declined to respond on Thursday when asked about the warning Orza provided him.

An incredibly embarrassing situation exists in baseball now as corruption dogs the top sluggers and record holders.

Baseball's career and single season home run record holder, Barry Bonds, will be on trial soon for lying about his steroid use. The man pegged as having the best chance to overtake Bonds was A-Rod, who now appears to be a big time juicer.  Mark McGwire, who broke Roger Maris's single season HR record was exposed last month as a huge 'roider.

Baseball, like track, needs to dump the records of the lost steroids and PEDs decades.  Most performance records from the steroid decades appear to be tainted.

New developments in the Bonds perjury case: The Feds ramp up for the trial

The ramp up to the Barry Bonds BALCO perjury trial took off this week.  Yesterday Federal Judge Susan Illston released court documents (found here for the adventurous).

The AP complied the positive urine tests Bonds dropped over the years.  The first three will be contested  because the tests were taken while Bonds was allegedly doped up by BALCO, and thus did not have positive chain of custody.   Bonds shows himself to be an accomplished doper: steroids, amphetamines, and (if Game of Shadows be believed), HGH, insulin, and clomid.  The LA Times also counts 3 positive tests for anabolic steroids.

The court documents unsealed by a federal judge Wednesday in the government's criminal case against Barry Bonds included the results of 26 blood and urine tests. Prosecutors contend five are positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Three of the results were seized from BALCO and did not include Bonds' name; the government said it determined they belonged to Bonds through a Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative log. The other two were taken by Major League Baseball. One later was retested by the government, which is when it came up positive.

_ Nov. 28, 2000: BALCO urine test positive for methenolone and nandrolone

_ Feb. 5, 2001: BALCO urine test positive for methenolone

_ Feb. 19, 2001: BALCO urine test positive for methenolone and nandrolone

_ June 4, 2003: MLB urine test positive for THG, clomiphene, exogenous testosterone

_ July 7, 2006: MLB urine test positive for D-amphetamine

The Smoking Gun posted images of Bonds's alleged doping calender...or someone who was a BALCO client with initials BB.  Perhaps that would be Bruce Banner, The Hulk.

Gwen Knapp, of the San Francisco Examiner, argues that the various dirty urines produced by Bonds should not be introduced in court as evidence.  She cites confidentiality and personal rights as reasons why. We are not quite sure of the legal grounds of that argument. 

It's alarming that Major League Baseball drug tests on Barry Bonds from 2003 and 2006 could be used as evidence in his federal perjury and obstruction of justice trial. Results of both were released Wednesday, and Judge Susan Illston will rule Thursday on their admissibility.

If she allows them, the validity of all sports drug testing should be called into question. Players' unions and agents should call for the immediate suspension of all drug screening, and Olympic athletes should consider their own rebellion.

The very act of urinating into a cup to satisfy terms of employment straddles the line between an ugly necessity and a civil-liberties violation. But in sports, the benefits of drug testing - creating a disincentive for athletes to pump hormones, speed and blood thickeners into their bodies - outweigh the detriments.

The US Government does not sign confidentiality reciprocal agreements with Major League Baseball.  The Govt in pursuit of evidence in the commission of a crime also can obtain other records, including your bank and phone records.  Medical confidentiality is given but not in the case of a crime investigation (unless the records are psychiatric).  Therefore Knapp's argument appears to be a canard.

As we have argued, the responsibility for protection of confidentiality lies with the lab and with the MLB.  If those organizations want complete confidentiality they would have had either a weaver signed with the Govt, or blinded the test results.

Sports Illustrated claims that Greg Anderson, Bonds's ex-trainer will be key to the prosecution.  Anderson is an unwilling witness, however is deep into this mess.  An Anderson conversation goes like this:

The most important document may be the transcript of a recorded conversation between Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, and Bonds' former business partner and longtime friend, Steve Hoskins. Assuming the transcript reflects an accurately recorded conversation -- which Bonds' counsel will question, given that Hoskins, rather than a recording specialist, taped it -- Anderson tells Hoskins that he injected Bonds with substances that sound very much like steroids. Here is a particularly telling excerpt from that conversation:

Anderson: [E]verything I've been doing at this point is undetectable.

Hoskins: Right.

Anderson: See, the stuff that I have . . . we created it. And you can't, you can't buy it anywhere. You can't get it anywhere else. But, you can take it the day of and pee.

Hoskins: Uh-huh.

Anderson: And it comes up with nothing.

Hoskins: Isn't that the same [expletive] that Marion Jones and them were using?

Anderson: Yeah same stuff, the same stuff that worked at the Olympics.

Interesting.  Anderson's conversation implicate Bonds in this widespread sports fraud conspiracy.  Whatever a person's attitude toward the use of PEDs in sports, the subversion of the normal rules and workings of the sports leagues and Olympics should give pause.

Suspicious double helix found on Roger Clemens's syringe

The Wapo reports that investigators discovered DNA at the end of a Roger Clemens syringe -- as claimed by Brian McNamee.

Federal investigators are looking into the possibility (!) that the ex-multiple Cy Young award winning pitcher used anabolic steroids and HGH, then lied to Congress about PED use last year.  The investigation -- part of the never-ending Clemens saga -- sounds serious:

Scientific tests have linked Roger Clemens's DNA to blood in syringes that a personal trainer says he used to inject the former star pitcher with performance-enhancing drugs, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The DNA results, which are preliminary and subject to verification tests, could prove critical if prosecutors seek an indictment of Clemens on charges that he lied about the use of steroids, according to the sources.

Clemens told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last year that he has never taken performance-enhancing drugs. Testifying at the same hearing, the pitcher's former personal trainer, Brian McNamee, said he injected Clemens nearly 40 times with steroids and human growth hormone from 1998 to 2001.

McNamee's attorneys have said their client gave federal investigators syringes, gauze pads and other items that he claimed he used to inject Clemens. He stored the items in a FedEx box in his basement.

Are the syringes actually Clemens's paraphernalia?  Were they used for injecting steroids (could be tested).  And was the DNA, glutteal DNA, or perhaps Clemens was flossing his teeth with the needles.

The chain of custody will be critical if DNA procured from bloody steroid syringes holds up for legal proceedings.  Is this a breakfast read or not?

Clemens and his defense team have long challenged McNamee's credibility, saying the former trainer has lied about the pitcher's alleged drug use. They also have said that McNamee may have cooked up the evidence.

Yesterday, Rusty Hardin, Clemens's Houston-based defense attorney, said the DNA tests "won't matter at all."

"It will still be evidence fabricated by McNamee," Hardin said. "I would be dumbfounded if any responsible person ever found this to be reliable or credible evidence in any way."

We would expect Clemens's defense attorney to claim that the syringes would not be admitted as evidence.  Clearly bloody syringes and gauss pads collected by a trainer would be suspect evidence.  Nonetheless, not a situation that lends itself to peaceful sleep at night for the Rocket.

Juiced Jose Canseco reduced to fighting Partridge Dany Bonaduce

Ex-slugger Jose Canseco, prophet of the Juiced, has seen his career drip away.  He lost his fortune, his testosterone level, and now his self-respect.  Looking for a shot in the butt, Canseco fought 'ex-actor' Danny Bonaduce in an exhibit match last night.  Both lost. To the New York Daily News:

Jose Canseco may have whistled, "Come on, get happy" as he left the Iceworks skating complex Saturday night.

The former big leaguer and admitted steroid user fought to a draw with "Partridge Family" star Danny Bonaduce in a celebrity boxing match.

Although Canseco may be bigger, there is controversy over who is smarter:

That Bonaduce was still standing after three one-minute rounds was a victory in itself - Canseco outweighs Bonaduce by 80 pounds and is about a foot taller.

When the bell rang, it looked like Andre the Giant boxing Verne Troyer. Canseco's strategy seemed to be float like an elephant and sting like a concrete pillar, while Bonaduce had to practically leap just to reach Canseco's head. In the third round, the 6-4 Canseco, who weighed in at 259 pounds, rocked Bonaduce with a right jab, but the former child TV star stayed on his feet.

Canseco also proved that he is recession-proof. The economy can't be that bad when a capacity crowd of 2,000 curiosity seekers pays $50 ringside and $30 for the cheap seats to watch two D-listers pummel each other. The fight was also available on Pay-Per-View.

Canseco remains as popular with fans as he is successful in the ring:

Canseco entered to mostly boos and the jeering intensified throughout the fight, although there was one fan who wore an A's jersey.

Canseco wasn't as lucky his first time in the ring. In July, former NFL player Vai Sikahema leveled Canseco in the first round of an Atlantic City bout. Canseco fell to the mat in one minute, 37 seconds and was jeered off the premises with chants of "Ster-oid!"

 Obviously Canseco needs the money, and alot more.  And the rest of the filler:

It's been nearly a year since Canseco penned "Vindicated," his sequel to the 2005 steroid tell-all "Juiced." Following the book's release, in which Canseco implied Alex Rodriguez may have used steroids early in his career, Canseco was interviewed by the FBI in connection with Roger Clemens' perjury investigation. It is unclear if Canseco has been summoned to Washington, where a grand jury is hearing evidence against Clemens.

Last October, Canseco was busted at the border for trying to smuggle in the fertility drug human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) from Mexico. Later that month, A&E aired a documentary that showed a broke, contrite Canseco. He said writing "Juiced" was a mistake and said he was scared for his health after years of juicing. He pleaded guilty to misbranding of a drug in November and was sentenced to 12 months' unsupervised probation.

Canseco was paid $35,000 for the July fight. Saturday night, both Canseco and Bonaduce received $2 for every Pay-Per-View customer.

A night to embarrass all involved.

Ex-fiance backs up Jay McGwire's steroid reports on brother Mark McGwire's brother --

Once again Deadspin breaks the hot story.  The sports blog found a former fiance of Jay McGwire to back up his recollection of Ex-slugger Mark McGwire's voracious appetite for steroids and HGH.  She also recalls 'roid rage' exhibited by the two, which eventually cooled her relationship to Jay McGwire and apparently the inflammatory relationship between the McGwire brothers.

Lauren Brown was engaged to Jay McGwire in 1996, the same time he was consistently supplying the former home run king with steroids. She's relieved the truth about Mark's steroid use is finally out...

Lauren Brown contacted us exclusively to share some of the incidents she'd witnessed first hand while she was dating Mark's younger brother. She called off her engagement to Jay in 1996 due to his steroid use — specifically "roid rage" incidents. But, even though she has bad memories of their engagement and the person Jay was at that time, she claims he is absolutely telling the truth.

"I know the truth. It needs to be told. And why shouldn't Jay tell the story instead of some random media person? He knows the truth," she told me on the phone. "Why shouldn't he be the one telling this story? What's being said about him, that he's a bad person, is awful. People don't want to believe that a superstar is fallen. That Mark lied. Mark made his own choices. So did Jay, but he's owned up to them. I tip my hat off to him for that."

Did McGwire stock up on the juice?

Brown says that she accompanied Jay to the 1996 Contra Costa Body Building Championship and, on the way there, they had to stop at Mark's house. "I remember asking why we didn't fly there — and why we had to drive." Now she assumes it was so Jay could transport the steroids. She says that while she was at Mark's house, she claims she saw steroids in Mark's refrigerator or actually "Several tubes of an injectible substance."

And the real 'bash brothers':

But she also said that their relationship was combustible. That the arguments between the two of them over the phone were extremely violent and were, she claims, total roid rage arguments. "I could hear Mark yelling at Jay over the phone from about 20 yards away."

Brown says she is glad teh 'truth' is out there, which is an interesting reflectino.  Imagine all the peopl out there who know what stars juiced to become drug-cheat recrod holders.  Imagine all the moral indignation they swallow every night knowing the deceptions.  Now there is one less...

"I'm just happy that Jay has gotten his life together and the truth about Mark will finally get out there. It's been too long."

Ex-President Bush exits without a Clemens Clemency

Ending speculation that departing President Bush would pardon Roger Clemens, even before he was indicted and convicted, the 43rd president left Barack Obama in charge without a Rocket 'Get Out of Jail Free' card for his various PED imbroglios.  To the New York Daily News:

There was no last-minute pardon for Roger Clemens before President Bush left the White House Tuesday, and the federal grand jury that has been examining evidence that the former Yankee star committed perjury will continue its work.

Brian McNamee's attorney Richard Emery raised the possibility of a Bush pardon after Clemens testified at the Feb. 13, 2008, congressional hearing on the Mitchell Report.

"We're glad neither Clemens nor Bush stooped to conquer," Emery said. "We hope by raising the issue we inoculated it and helped avoid it."

Emery said he raised the pardon issue because Republican members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform seemed eager to protect Clemens and attack McNamee during last year's hearing.

Clemens also brought up his friendship with former President George H.W. Bush during the hearing. Clemens testified that he was never contacted by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell or his investigators, but Bush Sr. tracked him down on a duck hunt to wish him well after the release of the explosive report on steroids and baseball.

So even all the good old boy network didn't come through with a curve ball from Bush to let Clemens off the hook.  There were reasons why a Bush pardon wasn't considered to be coming out of the presidential dugout:

Clemens' attorney Rusty Hardin has said he would not seek a pardon on behalf of the seven-time Cy Young Award winner. Hardin has steadfastly denied his client ever used performance-enhancing drugs, and has said innocent people don't ask for pardons.

"Richard Emery just has to quit smoking his own dope," Hardin said after Emery first raised the pardon issue.

Despite Clemens' ties to the Bush family, Washington insiders said in recent weeks that a pardon was unlikely.

One reason revolved around race. Barry Bonds' perjury trial is scheduled to begin in March in San Francisco. Olympic track star Marion Jones, who served a six-month prison sentence for lying to federal investigators and check fraud, unsuccessfully sought a pardon. Bush would have ignited angry protests if he intervened for Clemens but not for two prominent African-American athletes.

Bush made headlines when he commuted Scooter Libby's 30-month prison sentence in 2007, but the 43rd President was apparently not a fan of pardons. Bush may still be smarting from his Dec. 23 pardon of Isaac Toussie, who pleaded guilty in 2001 to lying to the feds to obtain mortgages for unqualified home buyers. Bush later revoked the pardon after the Daily News reported that Toussie's father had donated $28,500 to the Republican National Committee.

If Bush did get involved in the Clemens investigation, he would have raised questions about his own, albeit indirect, role in Major League Baseball's steroid scandal. Bush was the the managing general partner of the Texas Rangers when Jose Canseco claims he taught his teammates about performance-enhancing drugs.

Bush raised the steroid issue in his 2004 State of the Union address, when he called on sports leagues to crack down on drugs.

"The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football and other sports is dangerous, and it sends the wrong message - that there are shortcuts to accomplishment and that performance is more important than character," Bush said.

Of course we have to see how new Attorney General Eric Holder treats PED offenses.  The new AG was an NFL lawyer who downplayed steroids-related issues.

Should Mark McGwire come clean about steroids?

The San Francisco Examiner's Gwen Knapp addresses the Mark McGwire problem in a column.

  McGwire, by all accounts a good guy, seems stranded in purgatory due to his alleged PED and steroid use.  Forget the mild Andro, but consider the stronger juice, as alleged in Jose Canseco's book "Juiced".  Despite opinions that McGwire only did Andro, those whispers (or shouts) about the juice appear to doom the big sluggers HOF aspirations.  He percent of the vote fell this year to ~21%.

Now, after Hall of Fame vote #3, McGwire is neither gaining or losing ground; he appears to be hopelessly stranded in some nether world of steroid penance.  But Gwen Knapp, of the SF Chronicle details a McGwire confession:

In about a month, when the Super Bowl is over and spring training is about to open, Mark McGwire should start talking about his past. He can tell us the things he wouldn’t say in front of Congress, answering all the questions he ducked back in 2005.

The timing would be perfect. It’s a dead zone in the sports schedule. He wouldn’t be distracting from anyone else’s glory, except perhaps the models in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue...

Above all, seven years have passed since McGwire retired from baseball. Regardless of what he might have ingested to enhance his career, he can’t be prosecuted for it now.

Every applicable statute of limitations has expired.

Might there be legal issues?

f he used steroids or growth hormone, he has nothing to fear from speaking up. His reputation can’t suffer. As it stands now, his baseball legacy is not 583 career home runs or 70 homers in that magical 1998 season, when Roger Maris’ sons embraced him as the heir to their father’s record. It’s: “I’m not here to talk about the past.”

His evasions at the Congressional hearings on performance-enhancing drugs deserved every bit of the ridicule they received, but under the right circumstances, they could easily be forgiven.

Juicers should come clean, to attain the public -- and press -- good graces; and McGwire could use some polish on that tarnished reputation to make a run at the Hall of Fame:

Jason Giambi, McGwire’s protege a dozen years ago in Oakland, is proof that people will get over a player’s doping if he reaches even the vicinity of truth and contrition. They don’t even demand a full accounting. They just want a vague mea culpa and an apology. It’s certainly not a game of inches.

Still, McGwire seems likely to cling to silence forever. In his opening statement on Capitol Hill, he said players couldn’t win either way. If they said they didn’t use, no one would believe them.

If they said they doped, they’d risk “public scorn and endless government investigation.”

At this point, though, the public scorn can’t get any worse. He can’t alienate people who believe he was clean, because they don’t exist. McGwire’s biggest defenders are, at best, apologists.

The issues are tricky here, legal or banned; McGwire does seem above some of the other flotsam with juicers of the 90s and 00s:

They’ll say that there’s no absolute proof and that the stuff wasn’t banned in baseball when he played anyway. (Steroid use without prescription was, however, illegal in the real world.)

But the best defense for McGwire has nothing to do with the slippery ethics of doping. It’s the fact that he didn’t commit perjury. Whatever grandiose vision he might have about himself, he didn’t have the gall to lie under oath, thinking that people would just believe him because of who he is.

Contrast that with Roger Clemens, whose Congressional appearance included the following:

A. A defense about growth hormone used at his home that shifted the blame to his wife, who apparently wanted to look hotter than usual while posing for the SI swimsuit issue, B. Discussion of a supportive call he received from the elder President Bush on a duck-hunting trip, and C. Borderline hysteria over Andy Pettitte’s incriminating statements.

In fact, Clemens’ “he mis-remembered” line has more staying power than McGwire’s aversion to talking about the past, because it can’t be erased and because some wag Photoshopped a picture of Pettitte, adding a beauty-queen tiara and a sash that said “Miss Remembered.”

Add Barry Bonds’ upcoming trial on perjury charges, Marion Jones’ crocodile tears and six months behind bars for lying to investigators, Tyler Hamilton’s contention that a vanishing twin might have led to a positive blood-doping test and Floyd Landis’ Jack Daniel’s defense. Pretty soon, McGwire starts looking like a model of integrity.

Strange, isn’t it, how steroids inflate muscles and statistics, yet shrink the definition of decency?

As as Knapp says, McGwire could come clean, put it all in perspective, and regain a proportion of the glory of 10 years ago.

McGwire could vault the bar easily if he just explained himself. At the hearings, he seemed horribly conflicted and somewhat ashamed. He didn’t like being questioned, but he also turned squeamish when he avoided answering. He can fix all of that. A month from now seems like the perfect time.

He may have reasons to wait longer, perhaps out of fear that the government will demand other people’s names — suppliers, ex-teammates. If so, another February, when everyone else’s statute of limitations has expired, would do. It probably won’t be enough to put McGwire in the Hall of Fame, but it would win a lot of respect and a special place in baseball history. He’d be that rare batter who took a swing years late and still made contact.

There is a good argument to be made for McGwire's contrition.  He put up good numbers as a skinny rookie with over 40 home runs.  His physique exploded later, and especially in that '98 season, however he was a major talent as a home run hitter at his height. 

If McGwire doens't become contrite, he risks becoming one more footnote to the steroids era.  If he comes clean, there is a chance that contriteness will cast his career in a different light.  Wouldn't a chance at redemption be better than a vague steroid purgatory forever?

The Rocket near explosion status: Clemens target of grand jury probe

A federal grand jury will examine Roger Clemens's truthfulness under oath last year in the Congressional steroid hearings.  Regardless of anyone's opinion about the worth of the Congressional hearings, it should be agreed that lying under oath is not a good thing, even if you're a Hall of Fame caliber pitcher.  To the Washington Post:

A federal grand jury is investigating whether former pitcher Roger Clemens lied under oath to Congress last year when he denied taking performance-enhancing drugs, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The sources said the grand jury was convened several months ago in response to a referral in February by Congress asking the Justice Department to investigate Clemens's sworn statements in a deposition and his testimony during a hearing Feb. 13.

However, the grand jury probe was described by the sources as a routine part of such an investigation and that no indictment or other public action was imminent

The evidence that Clemens lied under oath appears over-whelming to laymen; however that doesn't mean an indictment if forthcoming:

Clemens told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform during the Feb. 13 hearing that he had "never taken steroids or HGH [human growth hormone]" but that he had received injections of vitamin B12 and the painkiller lidocaine from team personnel over the years.

But his statements contradicted the testimony and assertions of other witnesses, including Brian McNamee, a former personal trainer who has been cooperating with federal authorities and who told the House committee he had personally injected Clemens with steroids and HGH at least 38 times between 1998 and 2001, at Clemens's request.

Two weeks after the hearing, the committee, headed by chairman  Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and then-ranking minority member Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), formally asked the Justice Department to investigate Clemens. Through a spokesman, Waxman declined to comment yesterday.

There is speculation that Clemens and McNamee may have another chance to set the record right:

An attorney for Clemens, Lanny Breuer, did not respond to a phone message seeking comment. Clemens has filed a defamation suit against McNamee. Another attorney for Clemens, Rusty Hardin, was unavailable to comment because he is in trial, according to a receptionist at his Houston law firm.

Richard Emery, a lawyer for McNamee, said yesterday his client has not been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury, but welcomed the opportunity to do so. "Obviously, Brian has been a federal witness in this case and will continue to cooperate fully," Emery said.

Many players, trainers, and drug dealers could have something to say about Clemens's history, and it doesn't look good:

Multiple news organizations reported that the grand jury has subpoenaed Kirk Radomski, the former New York Mets clubhouse attendant who supplied McNamee with the drugs he allegedly administered to Clemens.

It is also possible pitcher Andy Pettitte, a longtime Clemens teammate and friend, could be called to testify. Pettitte, a free agent who spent last season with the New York Yankees, gave a sworn affidavit to the congressional committee in which he claimed Clemens confessed his HGH use to him 10 years ago. Pressed by committee members during the hearing about Pettitte's claim, Clemens said his friend "misremembered."

Prosecuting hearing isn't easy; Raffy Palmeiro received a pass despite his obvious inaccuracies about his steroid abuse years ago.  However the Post ends it's report with this important observation:

In the past year, baseball has seen the best hitter and best pitcher of the past quarter-century under federal investigation for lying about steroid use. Seven-time most valuable player Barry Bonds was indicted last year for perjury and obstruction of justice, stemming from 2003 grand jury testimony, and his trial is scheduled to begin next month in San Francisco.

Baseball doesn't pay attention to stimulant use, or does it?

The new MLB report on doping -- Performance enhancing drugs -- use in baseball reveals the number of Therapeutic Use Exemptions rose last year.  That increase concerns some experts, but not this blog.  If you know athletes you know that many exhibit symptoms of ADHD.  In fact an entire (yes entire) theory suggests that modern ADHD might be the "hunter-gatherers" who develop more physical skills but who flounder somewhat at pencil and paper task in a society where sitting on the arse at the desk takes up copious time.  To the LA Times:

The number of players approved to take attention deficit disorder medications under baseball's drug policy rose last season, even after the sport tightened its rules in response to criticism from Congress.

According to a report issued today, 106 therapeutic use exemptions for ADD drugs were issued last year, up from the 103 exemptions reported to Congress in 2007.

That 8% of players would require ADD medications dismayed Dr. Gary Wadler, a New York physician and adviser to the World Anti-Doping Agency. Wadler said the disorder is diagnosed in 3-5% of children and a smaller percentage of adults.

"There's nothing unique that would cause an epidemic of ADD in baseball," he said.

If we make up these rules on TUEs, then we can;t go around and criticize the players when they play by the rules.  As a physician who prescribes hundreds of drugs of ADHD, it doesn't surprise me int he least MLB player show ADHD.  Those players have every right to submit to medical treatments.  We agree with Manfred:

Rob Manfred, baseball's executive vice president of labor relations, said he was unaware of any study that indicated the prevalence of ADD among athletes and said baseball might fund one.

He said it made little sense to compare the diagnoses of ADD among the general population to those among young male professional athletes with access to high-quality medical care.

"That's just stupid," Manfred said.

The report continues on:

Of 3,486 tests administered last year, 19 resulted in a positive test, including five for performance-enhancing substances and 14 for stimulants, according to the report. The tests covered 1,348 players.

The issue of ADD drugs arose during a Congressional hearing last year, when it was revealed that the number of exemptions granted for those drugs had risen from 28 in 2006 to 103 in 2007, sparking concern that some players might be trying to circumvent a new amphetamine ban by using ADD medications.

In response, baseball tightened the rules covering exemptions, restricted team doctors from writing prescriptions for ADD drugs and refused to allow players to pursue an exemption after a positive test, even with a prior prescription.

Manfred said he was "encouraged" that the number of new exemptions -- as opposed to renewals -- dropped from 72 in 2007 to 56 last year.

"I think the changes we made have had some effect," he said. "We will look hard at the process again this offseason."

Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.), who challenged baseball officials on the issue during last year's hearing, was not available for comment Friday, his office said.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), whose committee called for that hearing, applauded the public release of test results.

"I remain concerned about the large number of therapeutic-use exemptions given to players and hope that MLB will look carefully at the process for providing these exemptions," Waxman said in a statement.

"But overall, I am pleased with the steps taken by MLB and the players' union to strengthen their drug testing program and eliminate the use of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs."

We generally agree with those stances.  Make the rules, and play by the results.  Or what was it we said, we didn't pay attention...

Ken Burns returns to PBS: HIstoric records blown away by steroids; Is this America?

Filmmaker Ken Burns last documented baseball in 1994, with a series of documentaries, 9 in fact, looking at the game and looking at America.  Burns returns to PBS with an extra-innings special in 2009.  His thesis: Hallowed records blown away by steroids-fattened players. Jere Hester writes on NBC:

Sometimes adding a new chapter to a classic film series after a decade or more layoff produces results that don't quite live up to everyone's expectations (see Jones, Indiana; and Wars, Star).

But documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, ever the boyishly enthusiastic storyteller, is gamely heading back to the plate, adding to his nine-part 1994 PBS series, "Baseball." The new film, to be called "The 10th Inning," will cover the National Pastime from 1993 to 2008, and air on PBS next year.

"So much has transpired in baseball since we last examined the game and all of its many nuances," Burns said in a statement -- or rather, an understatement.

Cal Ripken earned away Lou Gehrig's Iron Man title in 1995. Mike Piazza's dramatic home run in the first game played after 9/11 gave the country something to cheer about, if only for a fleeting moment. The Red Sox finally reversed the Curse of the Bambino in 2004.

Baseball is idyllic right?  Well...

But real story of baseball over the last 15 years is steroids: records smashed by impossibly big sluggers who looked like little men testifying before Congress; and the ongoing saga of an all-time home run king who is a walking, under indictment, asterisk.

Baseball is America, and America is baseball, unless you live in Kansas City...

Burns will do well to stick to his simple, possibly overblown -- and very probably true -- thesis that the story of baseball is the story of America. The last 15 years have given us tales of perseverance, resilience -- and illusion-shattering cheating.

Baseball, like life, is unpredictable, with narratives that can't always be neatly tied up with a bow  -- as the late George Carlin noted in his classic routine about the differences between baseball and football: "Baseball has no time limit: we don't know when it's gonna end - might have extra innings!"

So Burns' challenge is different than those of filmmakers who revive movie fantasy characters or aged action heroes. It's more akin to the "Seven Up" documentary series where British youngsters, first interviewed at age 7, are revisited every seven years (they're up to 49). The return of "Baseball" is a welcome visit from an old friend with new stories to tell.

Meanwhile, Burns' and Lynn Novick's original Emmy-winning series -- with new commentary by Burns -- is being rerun on the new MLB Network. Not a bad way to wile away the winter, waiting for another Opening Day.

Congress presses pro wrestling (WWE) on steroids and doping issues; Vince McMahon says he doesn't pee for anyone

Congress released a report on drug testing in the pro wrestling world -- which means Vince McMahon's WWE.  The results show those pro wrestlers like to get high, and sometimes juice and speed.  McMahon -- who obviously looks too good for his age -- doesn't submit to dope testing.

The Congressional report his here, and a story in the New York Daily News here.

The results look somewhat suspicious because the numbers don't add up, perhaps because of extenuating circumstances.  It looks like there were 479 tests, with 58 positives.  (That amounts to 4.2 tests per wrester).  However most positives contained marijuana.  There appear to be 9 positives for anabolic steroids (2 nandrolone, 5 testosterone, and 2 Winstrol), yest only 6 suspensions.  There were 3 other suspensions, 2 for coke, and one for a narcotic.

A bit ludicrous that only a few positive tests dribbled out considered the way the WWE wrestlers look pumped and primed, including the sleazy CEO.

Obviously the WWE did not test for HGH, insulin, EPO, and several other anabolic drugs.  And California Representative Henry Waxman continues to be interested in WWE doping issues.

Henry Waxman fired one more anti-steroid salvo as outgoing chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, shifting his focus from baseball to professional wrestling, a sport with a long history of alleged steroid and drug abuse.

In Friday's letter addressed to the director of the government's Office of National Drug Control Policy, Waxman (D-Calif.) requested that ONDCP chief John Walters "examine steroid use in professional wrestling and take appropriate steps to address this problem."

The Oversight Committee began its own investigation into pro wrestling's doping problem a year ago, interviewing sport officials and examining drug testing policies for World Wrestling Entertainment and its competitor, Total Nonstop Action.

In 2005, the Oversight Committee lambasted baseball during a congressional hearing, prompting MLB to enact stricter drug testing policies and more severe punishments for offenders. But Waxman suggested in his letter Friday that pro wrestling has a long way to go toward eradicating its doping culture, starting with the woefully inadequate drug testing programs in place.

"In the first year of WWE's testing program, which began in March 2006, 40% of wrestlers tested positive for steroids and other drugs, even after being warned in advance that they were going to be tested," wrote Waxman.

Waxman continue on his rant:

Waxman also detailed how wrestlers who test positive for performance enhancers receive light punishment and can often participate in wrestling events even after steroid violations. The committee investigation also uncovered how easily wrestlers can secure therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) - permission to take banned substances for medical reasons - so they can continue performing while using steroids. When Waxman's staff interviewed Dr. Tracy Ray, a physician contracted by WWE, Ray claimed there was "shadiness in almost every (TUE) case that I've reviewed."

Interesting how the physician for the WWE indicates corruption.  Also note the obvious dodge by Vince McMahon who run the a very corrupt operation.

"(Ray) stated that he does not examine wrestlers, discuss their medical conditions with their doctors, or conduct detailed reviews of their medical conditions before granting (TUEs)," wrote Waxman.

WWE chairman Vince McMahon comes off even less flattering in his interview. McMahon told the committee he is "not subject to the WWE substance abuse policy," even though he still performs in WWE events.

"When asked whether steroids could cause impairment and risks to wrestlers and others in the ring, Mr. McMahon indicated that he had never considered the question," Waxman wrote.

Waxman will become chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee this month. Walters could not be reached for comment. Calls left with WWE were not returned.

 

Houston hospital jettisons the Rocket's -- Roger Clemens -- name on sports institute

For 3 years Roger Clemens's name emblazoned the sport medicine division of a Houston area hospital -- the Roger Clemens Institute for Sports Medicine at Memorial Hermann Medical Center.   Now, considering the Rocket's own sports medicine prescriptions - anabolic steroids, HGH, and Viagra -- the hospital is changing the sports service's name.  To the New York Daily News:

Houston's Memorial Hermann Medical Center announced Saturday that it is removing Clemens' name from the Roger Clemens Institute for Sports Medicine, a facility that opened three years ago.

A statement released by Memorial Hermann said, "To better reflect its commitment to all sports and athletes, the facility will transition to become known as the Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine Institute, effective Jan. 1, 2009. The move reflects a desire to promote the broad range of sports medicine services and programs offered by Memorial Hermann across the greater Houston area."

According to reports, Clemens donated $3 million to Memorial Hermann for a pediatric wing at Memorial Hermann's Children's Hospital.

Rusty Hardin, Clemens' attorney, declined comment.

Quite a few hits for the sputtering Rocket over the past year: Mitchell report inclusion, dis-invited to coaching talks, name removed from golfing tournaments, girlfriends attempting suicide.  Tough year.

It is the latest headache for Clemens, who saw his reputation and legacy hammered this year following the release of baseball's Mitchell Report on Dec. 13, 2007, in which Clemens' former trainer Brian McNamee claimed he injected the pitcher with steroids and human growth hormone several times between 1998 and 2001.

Last month, the Daily News reported that Clemens had been asked to end his involvement with the Giff Nielsen Day of Golf for Kids charity tournament he had hosted the previous four years with Nielsen, the Houston broadcaster and former Oilers quarterback.

MLB.com reveals why the wing took the Clemen's name...looks like 3 million gets you only 2 years of your name on the walls.  The Sports Institute features a 'human performance lab'...OK no smart comments about Clemens's performance enhancement.

Clemens, who once donated $3 million to Memorial Hermann's pediatric wing, has denied using performance-enhancing drugs and filed a defamation lawsuit against McNamee.

When times go bad, they really go sour...

"He is dealing with some tough issues," Nielsen told The News then. "He is dealing with something that is very challenging. The accusations against him are serious. It just made sense to say go take care of these issues and we will revisit the relationship later, when it makes sense. He was very receptive. He was very understanding."

Clemens is still under investigation by the Justice Department and FBI for perjury after he testified before Congress in February that he never used performance-enhancing drugs. He has continued to deny McNamee's claims. Clemens filed a defamation suit against McNamee on Jan. 6 in the Southern District of Texas. Several months later, the News exposed his lengthy extramarital relationship with country singer Mindy McCready as well as affairs he had with several other women.

As the negative headlines continued, Clemens went into relative seclusion, occasionally making appearances at his oldest son Koby's minor-league baseball games. The Rocket was not included in the Yankees' video tribute during the final game at the old Yankee Stadium.  Last Tuesday, McNamee filed a claim in a Queens court against Clemens for defamation.

Clemens last pitched in the majors in 2007 when he signed a pro-rated, $28 million deal to play a second stint with the Yankees.

Much of that money now in lawyer's pockets...

Eric Holder -- Barack Obama's Attorney General nominee -- not a big hit with doping agencies

President elect Barack Obama nominated long time Washington lawyer Eric Holder as his cabinet's Attorney General (AG).  Holder's nomination prompted some critique of his time in the Clinton White House.  However the countries anti-doping enforcement agencies also hold opinions about the AG-in waiting.  They are not pleased.  Maybe Holder will treat steroid offenders the way he treated Clinton-era sleazeball Marc Rich.

Seems Holder wanted all the information top steroid-enforcement government agencies could gather, but didn't want to reciprocate.  Guess that's called 'diplomacy'...or 'stubborn self-interest''. Lester Munson writes a fascinating article at ESPN on the subject.

When the NFL grew tired of embarrassing disclosures and congressional hearings about performance-enhancing drugs and wanted to establish a voice in the federal government's investigations, league officials turned to Eric Holder, the man who is now President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general.

Holder quickly gathered senior executives from the other three leagues and their player unions and led them into a series of meetings in 2007 with top officials of, among others, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the FBI, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the agency that presides over the nation's "war on drugs." The sessions began with a measure of fanfare.

Holder was a natural choice to lead the effort. He served as deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration and then became a partner in Covington & Burling, a powerful Washington law firm that has long represented the NFL. For seven years, Holder helped the NFL through a number of difficulties, including an investigation of the dog-fighting charges against Michael Vick, the implementation of the Rooney Rule that requires owners to interview minority candidates for head coach vacancies, and the league's personal conduct crackdown.  

Meetings began with all concerned hoping to develop a cooperative environment.

At the outset, hopes were high. After the first meeting in March of 2007, Scott Burns, the deputy director of the ONDCP and a participant in the sessions, said, "This is the first step in changing the way we look at the problem in the U.S. I hear more about human growth hormone and steroids and athletes than I do about crack cocaine. This is important to America."

Darryl Seibel, an official of the U.S. Olympic Committee, which also participated in the meetings, was equally hopeful. "You have, for the first time, a collaboration on an entirely new level on a national issue that requires a response such as this," he said.

But the efforts at cooperation ended badly when, led by Holder, the leagues and the unions refused to consider serious reforms in the way in which users of steroids were investigated and prosecuted and insisted on maintaining their own drug enforcement procedures under their respective collective bargaining agreements. The collaboration between law enforcement and sports organizations quietly fell apart.

"There was no substance to it," said one law enforcement official who participated in the meetings. "It was all for show."

Apparently some organizations, and their representatives, cannot play well with others:

"Holder and the professional leagues wanted us to share information with them," a top official of a law enforcement agency who participated in Holder's meetings told ESPN.com. "They wanted to know what players were involved. They wanted an end to leaks from our investigations. But when we asked for their information about players who used or where players bought their drugs, they didn't want to give us anything."

Might Holder's cooperating and stances with top Federal law enforcement agencies filter into the AG confirmation hearings?  Interesting questions, and ESPN responds after the jump.

Ex-trainer Brian McNamee names Roger Clemens in $10 million defamation suit

Not a great year for the Rocket, Roger Clemens.  The Hall of Fame pitcher saw his name flashed in the Mitchell Report about one year ago.  The date is significant, because ex-Trainer Brian McNamee, hauled through the muck by Clemens, filed a defamation suit less then one year from the date of the Mitchell Report.

McNamee, leaned on by the Feds, gave the Rocket up to investigators.  That apparently led to Mitchell's information, and to a Congressional hearing on the issue of Clemens's steroid use.  In the process, McNamee produced bloody syringes from the Rocket's bottom, and testimony against Yankee pitchers, and McNamee clients Andy Pettitte and Clemens.  Clemens, meanwhile, was exposed for a number of philandering affairs, PED use, and his choice of a cowboy lawyer Rusty Hardin.  Clemens also threw his wife under the HGH bus (summary here).

We forgot, Clemens also labeled his ex-trainer McNamee a lier.  That is when McNamee and his legal team took exception.  To the New York Daily News:

Almost a year to the day after the Mitchell Report was released, Roger Clemens’ former trainer Brian McNamee filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit against the pitcher.

To avoid a statute of limitations issue, McNamee’s lawyers Earl Ward and Richard Emery quietly filed a summons and complaint for defamation Dec. 12 in Queens Supreme Court, one day before the one-year statute would have expired.

According to Ward, Clemens has not yet been served and is not aware of the suit.

Surprise Roger.  Not only is the FBI investigating you, and Congress is a bit miffed, and the women you hung out with slitting wrists, and your bloody syringes getting checked for DNA, but surprise, you're sued again.  Good thing he has all those Red Sox and Yankee bucks in the bank.

Honestly, this is a mess.

McNamee is defending a separate defamation suit Clemens filed in January against him in the Southern District of Texas and awaits a ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison on McNamee’s motion to dismiss. Last week, Ellison received affidavits from federal prosecutors saying that comments McNamee made to former Sen. George Mitchell in Mitchell’s report on drug use in baseball were part of a proffer agreement McNamee made with the government to avoid prosecution.

Clemens sued McNamee in January for telling Mitchell that McNamee had injected the seven –time Cy Young Award winner with steroids and human growth hormone over several years.

Clemens immediately attacked McNamee after the Mitchell Report’s release, calling him a “troubled man” and a liar. Clemens told Mike Wallace on "60 Minutes" Jan. 6 that he never used performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens made similar comments before Congress in February at a congressional hearing on the Mitchell Report. Congress then referred Clemens’ case to the Justice Department for investigation of perjury. That investigation is still ongoing.

McNamee has been unable to resume his career as a trainer in the wake of the report.

Looks like the Daily News has made the4 case for defamation, especially if someone somewhere finds that Clemens indeed used PEDs.  Dig deeper Rocket, dig deeper.

George Mitchell: One year Mitchell Report anniversary interview; Did the report change the world?

The New York Daily News carries an interview with ex-Senator George Mitchell, marking the one year anniversary of the now famous Mitchell Report, documenting the use of anabolic steroids, and human growth hormone in major league baseball.

In the interview Mitchell discusses the formation of an independent Doping division in MLB, which probably sits as the most important recommendation of his report.  That office is up and budgeted.

Other interesting comments occur about the MLB PA, which refused to cooperate with the investigation (frankly an error because the players have much to gain from doping control) and the accusations that Mitchell, as a co-owner of the Boston Red Sox, paid more attention to the hated Yankee juicers.

It's been nearly a year since that cold and rainy day when former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell released his long-anticipated report on steroids and Major League Baseball during a standing-room only news conference at the Grand Hyatt New York, and the impact of the 409-page document continues to ripple through baseball. Seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, identified by his former trainer Brian McNamee as a steroid user, was the biggest star named in the report, and his claims that he was falsely accused at February's congressional hearing on the Mitchell Report resulted in a perjury investigation that could land the greatest pitcher of his generation in prison.

Mitchell would not talk about Clemens or Barry Bonds, who has been indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, because he did not want to comment on pending criminal cases. But he was happy to talk about another ramification of the Mitchell Report that has gotten less attention but may be more important: Major League Baseball and its Players Association, he says, have taken serious steps to strengthen the game's drug policy and turn back baseball's worst scandal since the 1919 Black Sox. Mitchell did several interviews last week in anticipation of his report's anniversary.

Here is what he said to the Daily News:

DN: What are your thoughts regarding your report nearly a year after its release?

GM: I think Commissioner (Bud) Selig deserves credit for calling for an independent investigation, for promising me independence and for keeping his promise.

I think Major League Baseball and the Players Association have responded affirmatively to the report and the many recommendations I made, and they have taken significant steps to improve the approach to the problem. Among the most significant actions was a decision to provide for an annual review. In the report we stressed that one of the real issues is that it is a dynamic problem, changing all the time, with new drugs being developed. Under their prior approach, they were required to bargain only in connection with the collective bargaining agreement, which was every five or six years. They didn't adopt everything I recommended 100% but moved very strongly in that direction. I would say I'm pleased with the result.

We include the more important components of the Mitchell INterview after the jump.

Does the double helix (DNA) lead to double trouble for Roger Clemens...Genetic perjury?

The New York Times reports federal investigators are snooping around in Roger Clemens's ex-cell nuclei...looking at the DNA hanging on the bloody syringes that ex-Clemens trainer Brian McNamee claims came from the Rocket's rear-end after steroid injections.

Is this creepy?  Investigators taking old bloody syringes for DNA evidence that the needles went into the butt of a multiple Cy Young award winner?  Is this exercise preparing a perjury penalty against the Rocket?

Brian McNamee has submitted samples of his DNA to federal investigators, who are seeking to determine whether Roger Clemens committed perjury when he told Congress that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs, according to two people familiar with the matter.

McNamee, who is Clemens’s former trainer, has said that he used needles, syringes and gauze pads to inject Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone in 2000 and 2001 and that he kept the materials in his basement for years because he was afraid that Clemens might someday betray him.

In January, McNamee gave the materials to federal authorities, who need to determine whose DNA is on the material if it is going to be a factor in the investigation.

It is not clear whether the authorities also have Clemens’s DNA. His lead lawyer, Rusty Hardin, declined on Monday to say whether DNA samples from Clemens had been turned over...

The request for McNamee’s DNA sample suggests that readable DNA has been found on the items that McNamee submitted. Experts in criminal investigations said it was highly unlikely that authorities would request DNA samples without having something with which they could be compared.

It appears the Feds are making a case that in Congressional hearings -- where McNamee and Clemens presented diametrically opposed testimony -- Clemens fibbed about not using steroids and HGH.  Investigators must be looking for Clemens's DNA and fingerprints, as well as McNamee's on the syringes that contain PEDs.  Thus, evidence for perjury.

Authorities are also trying to determine whether there are fingerprints on the materials McNamee handed over. Emery said in February that in addition to the syringes, needles and gauze pads, McNamee provided authorities with steroid vials that Clemens had given him at the end of the 2002 season.

According to forensic experts, it is fairly easy to plant a person’s DNA on an object they have not touched. The argument that DNA evidence has been tampered with is often made at trials. However, it is much more difficult to get someone’s fingerprint on something without them being aware of the circumstances.

What does perjury in a doping/steroids case get you theses days?  A few months house arrest, apparently.

In other news charities don't want none of Roger Clemens's DNA anymore.

Congressional steroid siren Philip Schiliro named to top Obama post

The top aid to Representative Henry Waxman has been named as one of President-Elect Barack Obama's top staff members.  Philip Schiliro, known as the brains behind Congressional steroids inquires, assumes the role of Presidential liaison to Congress. To the AP:

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen a veteran Capitol Hill aide as his top White House representative to Congress, the Democrat's transition team announced Saturday as he works to fill out the senior ranks of his team.

Philip Schiliro has worked in Congress for more than 25 years, many of which were spent as a top aide to longtime Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and the House Oversight Committee. His official title will be assistant to the president for legislative affairs when the new administration takes over Jan. 20.

The move signals a continuing effort by Obama to ensure he has a smooth relationship with the Democratic-controlled House and Senate. Others on his team also have long ties to Capitol Hill, including Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the next White House chief of staff...

Currently, Schiliro is the director of congressional relations for Obama's transition team, and was a senior adviser on the presidential campaign.

Like several other top Obama advisers, Schiliro has ties to Tom Daschle; he served as policy director when the former South Dakota senator was the Senate Democratic leader. He also was the staff director of the Senate Democratic Leadership Committee. In the 1990s, he twice unsuccessfully ran for a congressional seat from New York's Long Island.

Much of Schiliro's career has been spent investigating allegations of wrongdoing under Waxman and the House Oversight Committee.

He has been credited with bringing the issue of steroids in Major League Baseball to Waxman's attention in 2005 after reading Jose Canseco's book, "Juiced," which said he and other players had used performance-enhancing drugs. Congress investigated the allegations and subpoenaed baseball stars, including retired slugger Mark McGwire.

Will Schiliro use his influence and his interest in steroids to affect national PED policies?  For instance there may need to be changes in PED laws more in accord with further criminalizing doping to please the IOC if the United States wishes to host future Olympic Games (although this is in question)

Ex-MLB All-Star Jose Canseco is a bashed-up low-testosterone steroid mess

Financially ruined, physically drained, and psychologically dulled, Jose Canseco lived the pumped up life too long.  The New York Daily News carries a piece on A&E's one hour special featuring a broken and discouraged Canseco.  Among other sins, Canseco expresses his regret about steroid use, and about writing his best selling tell-all-steroids-in-baseball book "Juiced".

In an interesting detour Canseco visits a California physician who treats his testosterone deficiency.  However, according to this piece, the treatment isn't working.  This may explain why Canseco, desperate for treatment, tried to smuggle in HCG from Mexico to the USA;  HCG can supply testosterone support to steroid users.

Jose Canseco, admitted steroid user and Major League Baseball's black sheep, says that he is sorry he penned his 2005 steroid tell-all "Juiced" and that he is scared for his health after 23 years of hard-core performance-enhancing drug use, a steroid addiction he claims he kicked only this year...

What viewers will see is a much more vulnerable Canseco than the man who wrote "I hate your (expletive) guts" in "Vindicated" when addressing A-Rod, or the confident Canseco at the boxing weigh-in when he described his "incredible knockout power."

"The biggest mistake I made was, I should have not written ("Juiced")," Canseco says in the A&E special. "The more I think about it, the more I regret mentioning these players in my book."

Canseco reiterates his claim that baseball forced him out of the game, angering him to the point that he "wanted revenge." The book "Juiced" was his haymaker, he said, and he named names "to show I was telling the truth" about the steroid culture.

Now Canseco, perhaps broke, expresses contrition about exposing MLB teammates such as Mark McGwure:

But while the hearing led to a stricter drug-testing program, Canseco now says he wants to apologize for those he outed.

"If I could meet with Mark McGwire and these players, I definitely would apologize to them," says Canseco. "They were my friends. I admired them. I respected them."

The special follows Canseco through the medical visits for low testosterone.  It is interesting how the older anabolic steroid users who once pumped themselves up artificially, now suffer from androgen deflation...like the economy these days.

The show also follows Canseco through a series of medical appointments with Santa Monica physician Dr. Brent Michael. Canseco tells Michael he wants to wean himself off steroids for good and restore his testosterone levels, since quitting cold turkey isn't working.

"I have no sex drive whatsoever. Zero," says Canseco, who is filmed in one sequence meeting Michael with current girlfriend Heidi Northcott present. Canseco admits to bouts of depression and wanting to be left alone.

Michael prescribes a gel supplement that is "not a performance-enhancing steroid," but after using the gel for a month, Canseco discovers his natural testosterone levels are still well below normal.

"My body forgot how to make testosterone," says Canseco, which may explain his recent trip to Mexico. According to anti-doping expert Dr. Gary Wadler, HCG is used by males who have abused steroids and want to help stimulate testosterone and sperm production. It is a Schedule III controlled substance in California and is not available in the U.S. without a prescription. Canseco did not have a prescription when he was stopped by border patrol agents.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama disses anti-doping and steroid efforts in Congress

Democratic presidential candidate Barrack Obama took a huge swipe at anti-steroid activists today, perhaps tossing out some baby with the John McCain bathwater. From the WaPo:

...Obama suggested this morning there were more important things on which the government should focus.

"Kids are watching sports. They're modeling themselves on athletes," Obama said. "It's a serious problem, but it's one that you want to see the leagues themselves handle in a more appropriate way. We've got nuclear weapons and a financial meltdown to worry about. We shouldn't be worrying about steroids as much as I think sometimes we do."

However the candidate apparently wants government time spent on the NCAA D-1 football playoffs:

Although he says government should be more hands-off on steroids, Obama did suggest other sports areas in which his administration might meddle.

"I would have my attorney general investigate the possibility of instituting a college football playoff system through executive order. I'm tired of this nonsense at the end of every college football season," Obama said.

There is a fine use of government time.  Where do these candidates come up with their ideas (that had to be said tongue in cheek)?  Or perhaps this is all about taking a swipe at opponent Republican John McCain.

Let's remind the candidate about steroids and doping involved in the Mitchell Report, the Roger Clemens case, the San Diego Tribune NFL steroid scandal sheet, the on-going saga of Lance Armstrong, and the Olympic scandals.  Let's remind the candidate that often not much happens to combat doping and steroid use in the professional leagues (NFL, MLB) until the Congress becomes interested.  Let's remind the candidate that the US derives so much from Olympic involvement (generally the most benefit from the Olympics goes to NBC TV or whomever is broadcasting the event) that the country needs to get with the program in meeting IOC and WADA anti-doping standards.  Baseball will likely be eliminated because the leagues cannot meet WADA doping standards.

In most progressive European countries there are national anti-doping ministers at a governmental level.  Not the United State.  Most European countries also have passed sports fraud laws.  We sure don't hope that under an Obama administration doping and steroid awareness returns to the good old days of benign neglect or active ignorance.

Appearing on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike in the Morning" program, Obama did not mention the Arizonan by name. But the Democratic presidential nominee did make clear that he would steer a different course than McCain has in the past when he was asked "how much government should be involved with sports and performance-enhancing drugs."

"I gotta admit that seeing a lot of congressional hearings around steroid use is not probably the best use of congressional time," Obama said.

McCain has long been closely identified with efforts on the Hill to expose steroid use in baseball. In 2004, when McCain was chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, his panel held a high-profile hearing on the subject, and McCain's scrutiny helped force Major League Baseball owners to implement a new drug-testing policy.  McCain said the following year that the league "can't be trusted" to handle the issue on its own, and threatened to write legislation cracking down on performance-enhancing drugs. A House committee also held highly publicized hearings on steroids in baseball in 2007.

It does sound like Obama agrees with the opinion that Congressional time is better spent on 700 Billion dollar bailouts, which occur every day.  In fact that sounds like the more potent steroids are getting injected right into Wall Street corporate America.

Wish Senator Obama would read here about why Congress should be involved in steroid and doping issues.

Met batboy Radomski finds evidence of Rocket fuel delivered to Roger Clemens's Houston pad

The New York Daily News reported that Metboy Kirk Radomski found receipts for packages of HGH shipped to the Rocket's Houston launching pad.  The new evidence further complicated Clemens's steroid/HGH defense. (Update:  ESPN reports Metboy Radomski found the Clemens receipt under a broken TV:  "My TV broke and I said, 'Damn, I got to get it off the dresser,'" Radomski said Wednesday. "And it was right there.")

Confessed drug supplier Kirk Radomski has provided documentary evidence to the government showing that he shipped drugs to the Texas home of Roger Clemens, who is under investigation for perjury after telling Congress he never used steroids or human growth hormone.

According to sources with close knowledge of the investigation, Radomski has discovered shipping receipts for a package of two kits of human growth hormone that he sent in late 2002 or 2003 to Clemens at the pitcher's palatial mansion in Houston. Radomski is believed to have also provided the government with new information and receipts for drug shipments to other players.

However, the beneficiary of the HGH might not have been the Rocket, but rather Debbie Rocket, Clemens's admitted HGH using wife.

Radomski, who received a five-year probation sentence in February after cooperating with government investigators, recently informed the feds about the materials. The Justice Department is continuing its investigation in New York as well as in Texas and Florida.

The Clemens package was addressed to William Roger Clemens, in care of Brian McNamee, according to the sources, who said that McNamee did not sign for the package.

According to the sources, the timing of the shipment to Clemens' home coincides roughly with the dates when Clemens' wife, Debbie, used human growth hormone in preparation for her participation in a pictorial in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. They also expect the evidence to corroborate McNamee's claims that Clemens was behind his wife's use and was present when McNamee injected her just after the drugs arrived at the couple's home.

Clemens denied use of PEDs including anabolic steroids and HGH, however admitted wife Debbie used HGH to prepare for a Sports Illustrated expose' photoshoot with the Rocket.

Clemens has denied under oath using human growth hormone, or having any prior knowledge that his wife was going to use HGH. The Daily News was the first to report in February that Debbie Clemens received at least one injection of the drug from McNamee.

Reached Tuesday by The News, Clemens' lawyer, Rusty Hardin, said he wasn't aware the government had been informed of new shipping receipts .

As Hardin says the Rocket can deny almost anything because he never tested positive for a PED under baseballs anemic PED testing back in his day.  However the receipts do suggest that McNamee was truthful when he testified that Clemens was pumping his wife up, and was aware the ex-trainer injected the female Rocket with some extra juice.

Jockeys and horsemen come down on horse steroids

An ad hoc group of horse racing jockeys and others called for several reforms in the racing community yesterday.  Formed after the Kentucky Derby dramatic death of eight Belles, the group called for the banning of anabolic steroids as well as several other measures.  To the WaPo:

A committee organized by the Jockey Club last month after the death of filly Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby issued its first recommendations yesterday, including the elimination of anabolic steroids in the training and racing of thoroughbreds.

The seven-member committee, which included prominent breeder Stuart Janney III as well as leading veterinarian Larry Bramlage, also pressed for the ban of shoes called "toe grabs" -- which are believed to cause extra pressure on a horse's front legs -- and reforms for the design and use of whips.

While the recommendations are not binding, committee members said they have broad support from industry groups that could enact the changes, which are targeted for implementation by Dec. 31.

The announcement of the recommendations came two days before a House subcommittee on commerce, trade, and consumer protection is scheduled to hold a hearing examining breeding, drugs and breakdowns in racing.

Much heat coming down on the horse racing industy.  Interesting that Big Brown, the Kentucky Derby winner, will be back on the juice.

Balk? Did MLB officials -- Fehr and Selig -- fib before Congress

ESPN reports that California House member Henry Waxman is none too pleased with Bud Selig and Don Fehr's 2005 testimony before his committee investigating steroid use in baseball.]

Henry Waxman, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, is disputing the validity of testimony given by MLB commissioner Bud Selig and union chief Donald Fehr regarding drug testing during a March 2005 hearing, The New York Times has reported.

Waxman has grown skeptical of statistics provided by Selig and Fehr that showed a significant downward trend of positive tests results from 2003 to 2004, the report said.

"It's clear that some of the information Major League Baseball and the players union gave the committee in 2005 was inaccurate," Waxman said in a written statement. "It isn't clear whether this was intentional or just reflects confusion over the testing program for 2003 and 2004. In any case, the misinformation is unacceptable."

Sometimes one wonders whether these guys intentionally cover up doping issues, or whether they are simply uninformed or inept.  Further --

The issue centers on the fact MLB had suspended drug testing for much of the 2004 season in response to the federal government's investigation of BALCO, The Times said. Selig and Fehr failed to disclose this in their testimony, which did reveal the number of failed drug tests processed in 2003 was about 100 but was reduced to about 12 the next year.

"In 2004, each player was tested on an unannounced, identified basis for the unlawful use of steroids," Fehr said in written testimony to the committee, according to The Times. "No player knew when he was going to be tested."

The information from 2003-04 came to light in former Sen. George Mitchell's report of December 2007 in a section titled "Allegations of Advance Notice of Tests," nearly 300 pages into the 409-page report.

The Mitchell report disclosed that the anonymity of the drug-testing program required by MLB's collective bargaining agreement had fallen into doubt after federal agents raided two companies involved in BALCO survey testing, resulting in the temporary shutdown of baseball's testing.

"In the course of these searches, the agents seized data from which they believed they could determine the identities of the major league players who had tested positive during the anonymous survey testing," the Mitchell report states on Page 281.

Further, it says: "Ultimately, the Commissioner's Office and the Players Association agreed to a moratorium on 2004 drug testing. While the exact date and length of this moratorium is uncertain, and the relevant 2004 testing records have been destroyed, [Deputy commissioner Rob] Manfred stated that the moratorium commenced very early in the season, prior to the testing of any significant number of players."

The suspension of the program "lasted for a short period," according to Manfred, the Mitchell report says.

Waxman's concerns come less than three weeks after the MLB and its players implemented a new, more regimented drug-testing program and nearly four months after his committee held hearings in which Roger Clemens and his former personal trainer Brian McNamee testified about performance-enhancing drugs and allegations by McNamee of their use by Clemens.

Interesting, a little deception to the congressman.  Will Waxman call a steroid balk?

 

"Bigger Stronger Faster": Documentary on steroids opens in theaters

We see more reviews on "Bigger Stronger Faster" hitting the 'net.  The LA Times looked very favorably on the film:

Sylvester Stallone, Hulk Hogan, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The 1980s saw an explosion of butt-kicking in America, observes Christopher Bell in the raucously funny and surprisingly insightful prologue to his debut documentary, "Bigger, Stronger, Faster*." And as a 12-year-old kid from a loving but undeniably short and doughy family in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Bell and his brothers were particularly susceptible to the message. As he reminds us, the don't-mess-with-the-U.S. Reagan years were an overheated response to '70s downers such as the Iran hostage crisis. But for the Bell boys, it was simply a call to ripped, bulging arms.

What began simply as a documentary about steroid use in America, "Bigger, Stronger, Faster*" (The asterisk refers to the movie's subtitle: "The Side-Effects of Being American") turns out to be a surprisingly comprehensive and insightful look at a culture predicated on might and obsessed with achieving success at any cost. This, more than rampant steroid use among professional athletes, is what makes Bell's documentary so timely and ultimately so sobering. What Bell and co-writers and producers Alex Buono (who also shot the movie) and Tamsin Rawady discover -- through countless hours of interviews, news, movie and cartoon footage as well as home video of the Bell family -- is a country in which it's literally impossible to win if one plays by the rules, because winners almost always cheat...

"Bigger, Stronger, Faster*" works so assiduously to prove that the level playing field is a myth that at times the sheer number of examples threatens to overwhelm it; it would have worked at half the size. (Like the nation, it's a documentary on steroids.) Overall, though, it's a fascinating and unexpectedly profound and melancholy meditation on what we have become as a country and on the misguided obsessions that made us this way.

The Morning Call asks if steroids are as American as apple pie?

In Christopher Bell's new documentary ''Bigger, Stronger, Faster,'' there's a fascinating clip of U.S. Sen. Joe Biden denouncing steroid use during a packed congressional hearing on performance-enhancing drugs. Juicing your way to success, he thunders, is ''simply un-American.''

Bell has a different story to tell. In the doc, which opened Friday in Philadelphia, the filmmaker wonders if steroid use isn't quintessentially American. We are a nation, Bell points out, that's obsessed not only with body-image but with being the best at everything.

Pervasive cheating: American or simply human>

Now out: Official web site with theater locations.

 

Will his women pump up Roger Clemens's steroid levels? The Feds want to know

Women, wine, and Winstrol...sounds like fun.  Roger Clemens's fun might be stopping soon as women may lead to Winstrol as reported by the New York Times.

...significant than the defamation suit is the federal investigation into whether Clemens committed perjury in denying to Congress that he had used performance-enhancing drugs. And the several women who were linked to Clemens in articles that appeared in The Daily News last week could have an impact on that investigation.

Investigators will pursue the woman named in the New Daily News series to see if Clemens leaked any PED/steroid information to them.  One of the key witnesses against Barry Bonds should be his ex-mistress Kimberly Bell.  We may well hear one of Clemens's women testify against him someday too.

According to lawyers familiar with the matter, federal authorities will probably try to question the women to see if they can link Clemens to the use of steroids and human growth hormone.

The lawyers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to comment publicly about a continuing investigation, said it was unclear if authorities would seek to question the women immediately.

One of Clemens's harem apparently snooped into his suitcases:

One of the women, Mindy McCready, a country singer, confirmed last week that she had had a longstanding relationship with Clemens. In a telephone interview Wednesday, her mother, Gayle Inge, said McCready’s lawyers had informed her that federal investigators would probably contact her.

Inge said she had asked her daughter whether she believed the allegations linking Clemens to performance-enhancing drugs. Her daughter replied that she did not.

“She said she’s looked in his suitcase and everything,” Inge said of her daughter, “and she’s never seen anything like that.”

The FBI and the FDA already began tracking down informants on Clemens's PED use, in the investigation into possible perjury.  Sounds like they smell blood:

Two F.B.I. agents — one from Washington and the other from California — spent last week in Houston, where Clemens lives. While there, they questioned Shaun Kelley, a weight-loss center owner, about Clemens. Kelley said last week that the agents administered a lie-detector test and that he was certain that he had passed.

He has publicly denied knowing Clemens or providing him with drugs.

And two weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration agent Jeff Novitzky and two other federal agents questioned José Canseco about his knowledge of Clemens’s activities.

In other Clemens news, the coach of USA Baseball says Clemens will not be considered for the roster.  Their loss, Clemens could bring some fine women along to the games...

Daily Steroid Briefing

1.  The Boston Globe says Roger Clemens could have avoided this Rocket explosion.  (Boston.com)

2.  Old report, but the curse of the Mitchell Report hits Gagne and Giambi.  (Sporting News)

3.  Studs on steroids: horses juice up. (Courier-Journal)

4.  MLB's drug unit probing ID theft as well as drug use  (AP)

5.  HGH testing to be introduced in Australia (The Australian)

6.  Boxes of HGH missing from a juvenile detention center in New Jersey.  (Wall Police Blotter)

7.  Someone doesn't like it that Roger Clemens dated a 15 yar-old girl. (Boston Herald)

The Rocket -- Roger Clemens -- appears to be in frequent launch mode

Due startling revelations the past few days, Roger Clemens's reputation lies shattered on the launchpad.  Singer Mindy McCready admitted yesterday to an intimate relationship with the Rocket.  However, several other 'intimates' came forward over the past few hours, reports the New York Daily News.

Roger Clemens hung out with several attractive women in his baseball career, including beauties in California and Boston and a former Manhattan bartender named Angela Moyer.

Clemens, 45, flew the women around the country on his private jet and bought expensive jewelry for at least one of them, a source told the Daily News Tuesday.

As the Daily News first reported Sunday, the Rocket carried on a decade-long affair with country singer Mindy McCready, who confirmed the romantic relationship Monday.

Moyer, a 30-year-old Realtor who lives in the Harrisburg, Pa., area, worked as a bartender from 2000 to 2004 at Sutton Place, a yuppie East Side watering hole. That's roughly the same time the pitching legend played for the Yankees.

A woman in every space-port, eh? Rocket?  Could it be all that nandrolone?  But at age 15?  The speculation centers on how all this plays out for Clemens in his current fights against ex-trainer Brain McNamee who says Clemens partook in steroids and HGH.

Singer Mindy McCready played poker, while her mother admitted the Rocket orbited around her daughter:

"I've been playing poker and I invented a new game called 'I win,'" McCready said with a laugh, still nervous from her time under the media microscope this week.

Her mother, Gayle Inge, later told The News, "I know Roger was infatuated with Mindy."

Ever Jose Canseco, long known for his veracity, appeared 'stunned' at the accusations bombarding his firend Clemens.  In his book Canseco claimed Clemens was a virgin (wink wink).

Former slugger Jose Canseco said he was stunned to learn his former teammate had an affair with McCready.

"I found out about it Tuesday and it took me completely by surprise," said Canseco, who wrote in his first book, "Juiced," that the legendary pitcher never strayed from his wife.

"I saw none of it. If it is true, he kept it secret."

Right, Jose.  Looks like Canseco's thin credibility becomes even thinner.

 

Late Daily Steroid Briefing

1.  The San Francisco Giants take stock of loss of Bonds  (NY Times)

2. Interview with ex-Senator George Mitchell, of the infamous Mitchell Report.  He delayed treatment for prostrate cancer until after the MLB steroid report was published (Trading Markets)

3. New Jersey pumps up steroid testing for kids (1010 WINS)

4. A Utah station says high school use of steroids is epidemic (CDC disagrees) (ABC 4)

5.  Duke newspaper says good riddance to old athletic director Joe Alleva, who resigned to take the position at LSU.  Sites failure to be honest about steroid abuse on Duke baseball team.  (Duke Chronicle)

6.  Ibuprofen and Tylenol as PEDs?  Study says yes. (Physorg)

Photographic memory: more info on the Canseco/Clemens party photos

More information concerning the Canseco Party in 1998 where Roger Clemens talked steroids (and may have used some) emerged today.  This story takes on legendary status as the weeks go on.

The controversy seems trivial: so what if Clemens attended some goofy Party at Canseco's house?  Two important points:

• The fact of Clemens attending the Canseco party starts the true/false controversy.  This represents the beginning of the Clemens steroid story in the gospel according to trainer McNamee.  One person is not truthful about the fact.  Both testified under oath on his side of the truth.
• At the party, McNamee says The Rocket learned about steroid use, although others say he was already an knowledgeable juice consumer.
• Now reports says Clemens may have juiced at the party.

The New York Daily News contends that IRS/BALCO investigator Jeff Novitzky possesses photographs of both Canseco and Clemens putting them at th party seen with a teenage fan.

Two photographs that may link Roger Clemens to having attended the infamous 1998 party at Jose Canseco's Florida home are in the hands of IRS special agent Jeff Novitzky.

Novitzky, the lead investigator in the BALCO steroids scandal who is investigating whether Clemens perjured himself before Congress, wants to meet with Canseco to discuss the photos, according to Canseco's attorney Robert Saunooke.

The Daily News first reported the existence of the photographs in February. Brian McNamee, Clemens' former trainer turned accuser, claimed in the Mitchell Report that the Rocket was introduced to steroids at the party. McNamee also said in a Dec. 12 taped conversation with two investigators that Clemens may have even used performance enhancers at the party.

McNamee's attorney, Richard Emery, told The News on Feb. 21 that he'd been made aware of the photos. An 11-year-old boy who apparently attended the same party had photos taken of himself with Clemens and with Canseco. Saunooke said Saturday night that he had no idea how the photos would place Clemens at the party since Canseco and Clemens are not photographed together. The two players were Blue Jays teammates during the '98 season.

"Jeff called me. He apparently has two photographs, one of a boy with Roger Clemens in a pool and one of the boy with Jose. He wants to meet with Jose, so we're going to try and work something out in the next 30 days," Saunooke told The News last night by phone. Canseco is currently on tour promoting his book "Vindicated."

Clemens's grandstanding lawyer, Rusty Hardin, backed off statements Clemens was not in attendance.  Someone's veracity will be suspect when this is all over.

 

Quite a night at the ballpark for President Bush: Snubs Lo Duca, calls for players to 'fix it' on steroids, and throws out the first pitch in Nats new palace

President George Bush, once the owner of the steroid-riddled Texas Rangers, snubbed Nationals catcher Paul Lo Duca last night when he threw out the first ball at the Nats new stadium.  Perhaps Bush became concerned that Lo Duca -- apparently a lifelong juicer -- would chuck that ball back at his head, or throw a Clemens-esque bat his way.

The VIllage Voice says thus:

Oh, they're so happy over on ESPN because of the Washington Nationals' new baseball stadium, which opened last night when George W. Bush threw up the first pitch.

The doofus POTUS was wild with his throw to Nats' manager Manny Acta. Strange, isn't it, that Bush's battery mate was Acta instead of the Nats' catcher, Paul Lo Duca. But the ex-Met is ensnared in the steroids scandal, so his PR quotient is below the Mendoza Line.

When asked by the ESPN team about the steroid scandals, Bush fumbled his way through the issue, and responded to the Mitchell Report (which we bet he didn't read) in an oblique way:

Funnier still was during the game itself, when Bush showed up in the broadcast booth to say of the steroids scandal, "I hope the players fix it." He didn't say "the commissioner" or "the owners." Only "the players."

We would agree about the hilarity here.  Why hold the leadership responsible for events going on?  Didn't the troops send themselves over to Iraq?  Doesn't he know about baseball's power structure?  According to the Voice, Bush wasn't a real owner:

The broadcast crew noted that Bush is a former baseball owner. But that's only technically true. Before he was even Texas governor, Bush was trotted out before the public as the "owner" of the Texas Rangers. But Tom Hicks was the real owner; Bush put up a minuscule amount of money but was only the front man for Hicks and the rest of the real ownership group so they could get a stadium and other parts of a sweet deal with Arlington, the home of the team. When the Rangers were later sold, Bush cashed in for a lot of dough.

Years later, Bush became Dick Cheney's front man, where he's been even more dangerous.

And, about last night..that new stadium in the midst of DC poverty:

Too bad D.C. isn't making out as well as Bush. The new stadium was a point of contention when D.C. didn't even have a team and its luxury boxes were only a dream in the minds of politicians and lobbyists...

Since 2000, the gap between rich and poor has widened throughout the country. But D.C. was in terrible shape even during the Clinton years.

So there we have it.  Nice new baseball park in the midst of poverty and infrastructure meltdowns.  However, everyone thinks it is important to feel good when watching the national pastime...escape to a nice space in the city, even though the players like Lo Duca could be shooting juice in the johns...

Steroid importer arrested on drug charges: British Dragon goes down

During the Congressional steroids hearings, strident voices spoke out against 'wasting congressional time' investigating steroid and PED use in sports.  Must be better things for the US Congress to do, rather than investigate a bunch of baseball players juicing up.

Where does the juice get squeezed?  The mob distributes illegal steroids and PEDs.  Illicit pharmaceutical manufacturers import the juice into the country.  Corrupt police and law enforcement officers often become involved in illegal steroid distribution.

Should Congress concern itself with narcotics laws violations?  Organized crime?  Police corruption?  Money laundering and tax evasion?  Illicit drug manufacturing?  Fraud?  Or are these topics simply as waste of time and resources.

This story describes a huge steroids bust of a major importer of illicit drugs.  Later, bloggers noted that one of the accused (Crawley) founded British Dragon -- a huge importer of illegal steroids. (thanks to Sal for the link; Anthony Roberts gets credit for the original discovery))

100 Drug Enforcement Administration (D.E.A.) officers, equipped with arrest warrants, in co-operation with Thai police, today arrested a British gang selling steroids illegally in Soi Chaiyapreuk, Pattaya and seized assets worth over Bt 20 million...

The police and D.E.A. officers, acting on arrest warrant no. 98/255, searched a two-storey house in Pattaya New City Village, Soi Chaiyapreuk , Jomtien Beach Road. The police later arrested Mr.Edwin Richard Crawley (44) a British national who lives in the house, which he had used as the centre of operations for his business. According to the police report, Mr. Edwin Richard Crawley originally opened a company called" Nutri Med. Co. Ltd." registered as an import-export company. However, police did not find any illegal items or incriminating evidence, only documents relating to the import and export of goods.

Interesting that the drug importer, was a member of 'high society'.  The founder of 'Dragon' -- Crawley.

...police later arrested Mr.Ashley Vincent Livingston (45) British, and Mrs. Jirawan Livingston(38) , his wife, living at a house in Moo. 10, Soi Kow Noi, Pattaya Hill 1. According to the information police had received, they all belonged to the same gang, whose big boss was Edwin Richard Crawley...Thai police were originally notified by the D.E.A. that they had intercepted steroids, which had been delivered to America in plain envelopes and on investigation, discovered that the biggest operation was in Pattaya . Mr. Edwin (the big boss) had been importing steroids from China through the Internet and then forwarding them to USA and Europe. On receipt, customers would send money to his account in Thailand. Some of the goods were sent to Pattaya and repacked in dolls or fruit, to be sent to Europe by parcel or in plain envelopes. Mr. Ashley had been worked with Mr. Edwin as his assistant, finding customers for him. This operation had been running since 1999. It made him a millionaire, being able to afford to buy property in Pattaya worth Bt 20 million. Mr. Edwin was also a volunteer, helping charities in Pattaya, so he was well known among the high-society set. He is also the coach of a disabled weight lifting team, which has won many trophies.

Interesting that the bust sounds like  "American Gansgster" (in the Orient), "The French Connection", "Traffic" and a million other movies about sleazy drug smugglers.  Here is an bust of 1.3 tons of steroids and illicit drugs.

Since the 60s and 70s illicit steroid and PED smuggling parallels illicit narcotics and cocaine smuggling.  Should Congress be concerned with the new smugglers blues?  Of course.  (more after the jump)

Train wreck Clemens case turns into car wreck for trainer

We can empathize.  Brian McNamee, the trainer involved in the Roger Clemens steroid controversy, fainted while driving his care today, crashing into a bus.  (SI.com)

Brian McNamee, the personal trainer who has said he injected former Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone, fainted while driving and crashed his car head-on into a city bus, a newspaper reported.

Brian McNamee told police he blacked out because of an ongoing medical problem and regained consciousness only as his Lexus hurtled into the bus Thursday in Queens, the Daily News reported Friday.

(from CBC) McNamee's Lexus, another car and the bus were involved in the crash around 12:30 p.m. Thursday on Central Avenue in Queens' Far Rockaway neighbourhood, according to the newspapers.

McNamee must be continuously be under incredible stress from the Clemens episode.  His 'taped' phone call to Clemens in December indicated as much.

McNamee was in legal trouble for steroid distribution, when connected to Radomski, & the the Mitchell Report.  He then gave up Clemens and other MLP players as a result of legal leverage.  Further, he was part of the national spectacle during the Clemens-McNamee Congressional Hearings.  All this apparently built up.

Here's hoping things get better for McNamee.  No one deserves all this pressure -- unless there is deception involved.