Results tagged “mitchellreport”

A day after Alex Rodriguez's uneven admissions of the "specifics" of his steroid usage during a half hour of answering questions, today he is being held to task by media outlets everywhere. None seem too satisfied with the version of events they got yesterday. Reporters don't seem particularly interested in figuring out the identity of A-Rod's unnamed cousin who allegedly provided and injected him with steroids, possibly because as one major leaguer put it, "I wonder if his cousin even existed. That was my first thought. Is his cousin made up? I don't know."

Alex Rodriguez is probably wishing right now that having a "Single White Female-like obsession" was the worst verbal jab that was thrown at him this off-season. Instead reports of his positive steroid results turned today into "Christmas for Yankee haters" as they found a new nickname for him across the covers of local papers: A-Roid.

If you're one of those people that think the FBI has better things to do than investigate Roger Clemens, you have an ally in Washington DC. Congressman Anthony Weiner voiced his opinion on the investigation into Clemens. Weiner sent a letter to the Attorney General questioning the benefit of continuing the investigation into Clemens’ testimony to Congress, saying "Whether or not Roger Clemens may have committed perjury should not compete with real national security threats for the FBI’s time, attention and resources.”

The news just gets worse and worse for Roger Clemens. A day after Congress asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Clemens lied about performance enhancing drugs in testimony, the FBI announced that it is leading the inquiry. Clemens is about to learn that you can’t intimidate the FBI with a 95-mph fastball. They won’t back down if you throw a piece of a broken bat at them. Glare at them all you want, it won’t deter them from their job.

Roger Clemens asked for a chance to testify in Congress and now he had better be prepared to face the consequences of that choice. Congressmen Henry Waxman and Tom Davis have sent a letter to the Attorney General asking him to investigate if Clemens committed perjury or made false statements in his testimony to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

It looks like Roger Clemens didn’t convince any Democrats with his testimony in front of Congress February 13th. According to anonymous sources, a letter to the Justice Department has been drafted asking the it to investigate whether Clemens, and not McNamee, committed perjury during hearings in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Keith Ausbrook, Republican chief counsel for the committee, told reporters that he was unaware of the letter, indicating that at least for now, this is not a bipartisan act.

One of the key factors in Roger Clemens condemnation of the Mitchell Report and the testimony of his former trainer Brian McNamee is the pitcher's assertion that he never attended a birthday at Jose Canseco's Florida home ten years ago. A photo may exist, however, that shows Clemens at that very party posing with an 11-year-old fan.

With some of his current Yankees teammates on hand, Andy Pettitte addressed the media in Florida this afternoon. Pettitte, who previously admitted using Human Growth Hormone in 2002 and again in 2004, apologized to the Yankees, Astros, and his fans for the "embarrassment" he caused. Pettitte said, "I want to apologize to the New York Yankees and Houston Astros organizations, their fans, my teammates and all baseball fans for the embarrassment I have caused them. I also want to tell anyone who is an Andy Pettitte fan that I am sorry."

And now Roger Clemens’ fate hangs in the balance. Not just his baseball fate, but also his entire future. Because there is only one thing we can definitively conclude from yesterday’s hearing in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform - somebody lied. Brian McNamee and Roger Clemens told two completely different versions of the same story yesterday and if Congress decides to investigate, chances are one of them will face perjury charges.

After a morning of denials and denouncements at a hearing in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform one thing is clear, Brian McNamee and Roger Clemens deserve each other. As Chairman, Henry Waxman, made clear at the start of the proceedings this morning one of them is lying and based on the testimony so far it seems like Clemens is.

Andy Pettitte has always wanted the ball in his hand with the game on the line...until now. Faced with the prospect of having to publicly contradict his friend, Roger Clemens, Pettitte asked to be excused from tomorrow’s hearing in Congress. Representative Tom Davis told Newsday last night that the Pettitte deposition matched McNamee’s in “most details” but Roger Clemens’ deposition says Pettitte is mistaken. As a result, Pettitte has been excused, along with Chuck Knoblauch and Kurt Radomski setting up a one-on-one showdown between Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee.

It's the Smoking Garbage! Lawyers for Brian McNamee, the trainer who alleges his former client Roger Clemens did inject himself with steroids, showed off photographs of alleged injection detritus. The Smoking Gun posted to photos last night and noted, among the "syringes, blood-specked gauze pads, and drug vials, "it is unclear what the significance is of the Miller Lite can seen." (ESPN reports that the can - from Clemens' 2001 NYC trash - contained drug needles!)

Roger Clemens went to Congress and spoke with congressional lawyers for five hours on Tuesday. While the meeting was private, Clemens did speak to reporters afterwards and reiterated his innocence saying, "It was great to be able to tell them what I've been saying all along -- that I've never used steroids or growth hormone." One of Clemens’ lawyers, Lanny Breuer added that Clemens "answered every question that was posed to him today.”

Could this be it? Is our long nightmare about to end? It sounds like it might because there are strong indications out of Minnesota that the Twins are finally going to trade Johan Santana and the front-runners right now are the New York Mets!

Former Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, who became most famous for errant throws to first base -- one even hit Keith Olberman's mother -- found himself in the news in December when his name popped up in the Mitchell Report. Unlike Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens, Knoblauch remained silent until Thursday. He said he wasn't upset with the report but didn't deny using human growth hormone, a substance Pettitte has admitted taking but Clemens has denied. All three players were linked to Brian McNamee, Clemens' personal trainer.

It’s a good thing there weren’t any broken bats in the room because Roger Clemens might have thrown one. Clemens was aggressive and sometimes bullying towards the assembled media at his press conference on Monday, repeating his vehement denials of illegally using steroids and HGH.

Roger Clemens took to the airwaves last night defending himself on 60 Minutes. But the strongest action he took was off the air, filing a lawsuit against Brian McNamee for defamation and claiming that McNamee has “ruined Roger's reputation with a large percentage of the public."

And now Congress is getting in the act. They have “invited” current/former Yankees, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch to testify January 16th. In addition, Brian McNamee and Kurt Radomski have also been invited.

Take three weeks, hire some lawyers and private investigators and this is the best you can do? While the full details won’t be available until Sunday night on 60 Minutes, Roger Clemens has admitted to being injected by Brian McNamee, but only with Lidocaine and B-12. In other words, Clemens is using the same line of defense Barry Bonds used when he claimed it was only flaxseed oil he was taking and not steroids or HGH.

A Historic Collapse: The Mets held a seven-game lead with 17 to play and were caught looking ahead to the playoffs. What followed was among the worst collapses in history and one that revealed the weaknesses of the players, the manager and the general manager. Jose Reyes and his questionable -- and downright poor -- play summed up the the performance on the field. Manager Willie Randolph's mismanagement of the bullpen came to light more down the stretch. So did Omar Minaya's complete neglect of the roster's periphery. The Mets trotted out inexperienced and ineffective pitchers down the stretch, and the bullpen that Randolph had to deal with wasn't that good to begin with thanks to some questionable trades. What this means for the 2008 season remains to be seen, but it cost the Mets fans Lastings Milledge, another symbol of the collapse. He was dumped dealt to the Nationals for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider.

As if baseball didn’t have enough problems Curt Schilling has decided to weigh in on the Mitchell Report. Schiling, the never-shy pitcher for the Red Sox opined that Roger Clemens should either clear his name or give up his four Cy Young awards won after 1997.

"If he doesn't do that then there aren't many options as a fan for me other than to believe his career 192 wins and three Cy Youngs he won prior to 1997 were the end. From that point on the numbers were attained through using [performance-enhancing drugs]. Just like I stated about Jose [Canseco], if that is the case with Roger, the four Cy Youngs should go to the rightful winners, and the numbers should go away if he cannot refute the accusations."

Roger Clemens is certainly good at issuing statements. Last week it was a vehement denial of the Mitchell Report findings, this week it is a denial and a lecture. Clemens’ agent released a statement yesterday that included the following:

"I am disappointed that my 25 years in public life have apparently not earned me the benefit of the doubt, but I understand that Senator Mitchell's report has raised many serious questions. I plan to publicly answer all of those questions at the appropriate time in the appropriate way. I only ask that in the meantime people not rush to judgment."

Alex Rodriguez went on 60 Minutes last night and firmly denied that he used steroids. When asked if he had ever used steroids, HGH or any other performance-enhancing drug A-Rod firmly stated “no” and then explained, "I've never felt overmatched on the baseball field. I've always been a very strong, dominant position. And I felt that if I did my work as I've done since I was, you know, a rookie back in Seattle, I didn't have a problem competing at any level. So, no.”

Andy Pettitte is a cheater. He confirmed this yesterday when he apologized for and admitted to using HGH. In a statement issued yesterday, Pettitte said that he used human growth hormone on two occasions, both to recover from a 2002 elbow injury and not for performance enhancement reasons.

"In 2002 I was injured. I had heard that human growth hormone could promote faster healing for my elbow. I felt an obligation to get back to my team as soon as possible. For this reason, and only this reason, for two days I tried human growth hormone. Though it was not against baseball rules, I was not comfortable with what I was doing, so I stopped. This is it - two days out of my life; two days out of my entire career, when I was injured and on the disabled list.

Continue reading "Pettitte Admits to Using HGH"

Oops! WNBC's Mistake Causes Problems for St. Louis TV Station

We've heard all the names from baseball's Mitchell Report, now let's look at some facts. Roger Clemens, who vehemently denies the accusations against him, is the biggest name revealed in the report. His lawyer says, "Roger has been repeatedly tested for these substances and he has never tested positive. There has never been one shred of tangible evidence that he ever used these substances and yet he is being slandered today."

The morning started with rumors of names mentioned in Senator George Mitchell's report to Major League Baseball, but not until this afternoon were any rumors substantiated. Stating in his report that “there is much about the illegal use of performance enhancing substances in baseball that I did not learn,” Mitchell proceeded to lay waste to the careers of many notable players, perhaps none more so than Roger Clemens. In the report Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens’...

He’s made his list, he’s checked it twice and now we are going to find out who has been naughty and not nice. Former Senator George Mitchell's report on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball comes out at 2pm today. And besides providing us with the most complete look at the use of performance-enhancing drugs to date, the Mitchell Report will also name names. While it is just speculation at this point,...