Monday, December 24, 2007

CLEMENS REFUTES ALLEGATIONS

Seven-time Cy Young award-winner Roger Clemens Sunday reiterated his vehement denial of doping allegations against him, in a video posted on his website.

"Let me be clear: The answer is no, I did not use steroids, human growth hormone, and I've never done so," Clemens said in the video.

Clemens was responding to the Mitchell Report on doping in baseball, in which he was the most prominent among dozens of players alleged to have used performance enhancing drugs.

Former Senator Majority Leader George Mitchell, tabbed by Major League Baseball to conduct the inquiry under pressure from US lawmakers to clean up the game, wrote in his report that Clemens' former trainer, Brian McNamee, said he injected Clemens with steroids in 1998 while with the Toronto Blue Jays, and steroids and human growth hormone in 2000 and 2001 while the righthander was with the Yankees.

"I did not provide Brian McNamee with any drugs to inject into my body," Clemens said in his video. "Brian McNamee did not inject steroids or human growth hormones into my body either, when I played in Toronto for the Blue Jays, or the New York Yankees. This report is simply not true."

Clemens' name in the Mitchell Report created a sensation, and he drew criticism from some quarters when his initial reaction was merely to issue a denial through his agent.

On Thursday, Clemens' denial appeared to be supported when a sworn statement by confessed doper Jason Grimsley was unsealed and made public.

Clemens' name didn't appear in the affidavit, which Grimsley provided to the Internal Revenue Service in 2006 after a parcel containing Human Growth Hormone was traced to his house.

In October of 2006, the Los Angeles times had reported that Clemens' name was among those mentioned by Grimsby as players he believed to have used performance enhancing drugs.

When that report surfaced, Clemens denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs.

Clemens, one of the best power pitchers in baseball history, helped the Yankees win World Series titles in 1999 and 2000.

In 24 seasons with the Yankees, Blue Jays, Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox, he has built a career record of 354-194, with a 3.12 ERA and 4,672 strikeouts.

But his inclusion in the Mitchell Report, in which he is referenced 82 times, tarnishes Clemens' reputation and could affect his position as future Hall of Famer.

Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, a close friend of Clemens and another McNamee client, said after he was named in the report that he took HGH twice while rehabbing from injury in 2002.

Mitchell said McNamee told him he injected Pettitte with HGH two to four times that year.

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