We’ve learned a few things from the Congressional hearings on Roger Clemens and anabolic steroids. Roger Clemens is not very smart. And his attorney Rusty Hardin is an idiot. From the very beginning, I thought that Hardin should be fired.
Hardin allows Clemens to wait several days before responding to allegations of steroid and growth hormone use in the Mitchell Report. Hardin prepped Clemens for his terrible performance on 60 Minutes where he: (1) admitted the hypocritical use of various other performance-enhancing drugs that enabled him to continue playing while masking pain of his injuries; (2) offered idiotic explanations as proof that he never used steroids; and (3) admitted to allowing a non-medical professional inject him with B-12 and lidocaine. Hardin compared Clemens’ drug use to a high performance racehorse (apparently oblivious to the problem of steroids in horse racing). Hardin apparently preps Clemens to secretly record a phone conversation with Brian McNamee and hold a press conference to share it with the media even though it proved nothing. Hardin stands by as Clemens releases statistical report that supposedly proves he didn’t use steroids but fails to accomplish its goal. And lastly, Representative Henry Waxman apologizes for holding the disastrous Roger Clemens steroid hearings, explaining that the only reason he did it was because Clemens’ attorneys insisted upon it. Read the rest of this entry
Several commentators noted the partisan debate at the Roger Clemens versus Brian McNamee Congressional steroid hearings. Republicans supported Clemens; Democrats supported McNamee. After reading the transcripts, I agree.
Committee members from the Republican side of the aisle at times fawned over the seven-time Cy Young Award winner and tore into the credibility of Brian McNamee, who claims to have injected Clemens with anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, calling Clemens’ former trainer everything from a lying ex-cop to a drug dealer with a phony doctorate.
The debate over the performance-enhancing effects in baseball of growth hormone continues without a clear answer. Does growth hormone help recovery and healing from injury? Does growth hormone improve baseball performance? Various people have made the case that GH does not help baseball players; others claim the drug helps improve performance dramatically.
But the key here is to acknowledge that the only honest way to answer the question of the performance-enhancing effects of human growth hormone is to say, “We just don’t know.”
New York Yankees baseball player Andy Pettitte allegedly obtainedhuman growth hormone from his father who obtained it from Kelly Blair who may have obtained it from pro bodybuilder Craig Titus. It has yet to be determined where Craig Titus obtained the growth hormone.
According to the Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan Investigation website:
The Daily News reports some of the drugs came from steroid-user Craig Titus, a champion bodybuilder who is facing a murder trial in Nevada for the slaying of his former live-in assistant.
The Daily News reports pictures of several professional athletes, including Pettitte were displayed on the wall of Blair’s gym. The newspaper said eight other major leaguers, several pro golfers and an NFL quarterback were also pictured.
Also, Blair was reportedly seen working with Koby Clemens, the son of seven- time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, who was involved in a heated congressional hearing this past week. However, the Daily News reports that Koby Clemens, who is now playing baseball in the minors, hasn’t been linked to any illicit activity at the gym.
The DailyKos chastised Representative Henry Waxman for wasting time (and taxpayer money) investigating anabolic steroids in baseball. Since Congress is having a difficult time determining our nation’s priorities, Kos offered a list of “100 things Congress could do that matter more than steroids in baseball.” This could have have just as easily been a list of 1000 things as there is no shortage of more important issues facing the United States.
Slate has a neat interactive steroid social network of baseball players in the MLB who have used anabolic steroids, growth hormone and/or other performance enhancing drugs and how the players they are connected with each other.
Sen. George Mitchell’s 409-page report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball describes a thriving underground market for steroids and human growth hormone. What began with just a few players and trainers expanded into a network of dozens, if not hundreds, of professional athletes. That network grew year by year as the players referred their friends and teammates.
Below, we present the findings of the Mitchell report as a social network.
Kirk Radomski, steroid dealer to professional baseball players, avoided jail time when he received 5 years probation. He pleaded guilty to distributing anabolic steroids and money laundering charges in a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. He cooperated closely with federal prosecutors, particularly with investigators involved with the Mitchell Report, in naming almost 30 current and former MLB baseball players to whom he sold performancing-enhancing drugs including anabolic steroids and growth hormone.
The customary practice for federal prosecutors is to prosecute dealers rather than users. In a reversal of this practice, Radomski was given leniency in exchange for his testimony against his clients (individual steroid users who happened to be professional athletes). Read the rest of this entry
Brian McNamee has turned over steroid syringes, vials and gauze pads to federal investigators that allegedly contain physical evidence supporting McNamee’s claim that he injected baseball player Roger Clemens with anabolic steroids and growth hormone. I didn’t see that coming.
It is simply bizarre that McNamee would have saved such items for seven years; I am sure there will be considerable speculation as to his motives. But the evidence could increase McNamee’s credibility if the physical evidence is consistent with his allegations of steroid use and growth hormone by Clemens. Steroid Nation explains how the physical evidence would support the allegations: Read the rest of this entry
The State of Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) produced a steroid education video entitled “The Making of a Champion.” The steroid education video was released in conjunction with the introduction of steroid testing in public high school sports in Texas.
The video features lengthy segments featuring high school teenage athletes who used steroids and suffered. The video implies that anabolic steroids caused stroke and paralysis in one case; it implies that steroids caused suicide in the other case (Taylor Hooton). This type of “scare tactic” approach is common in state produced steroid education and anti-drug productions. Read the rest of this entry
Agents for Roger Clemens at Hendricks Sports Management released a detailed statistical analysis of Roger Clemens’ performance over the course of his career. In summary, the report lists various factors occurring later in his career that contributed to the maintenance of a high quality of pitching by Roger Clemens. These factors include adaptions in “style of pitching” including “mastery of the split-finger fastball,” reduced pitch count, contractually shortened seasons, and a reduction in travel.
The report also uses statistics to show that Clemens’ performance had unpredictable “ups and downs” or “peaks and valleys” over the course of his career. The report asserts that “straight trend lines in performance” simply do no exist in Major League Baseball. Read the rest of this entry
