Roger Clemens Fights Back

When Roger Clemens name appeared on the now infamous Mitchell Report, which listed some of baseball’s most famous players for alleged steroid use, he fought back immediately. As part of his defense he called his former trainer Brian McNamee and recorded the conversation. That call lasted all of 17 minutes, but unfortunately proved nothing except that McNamee was still willing to help Clemens, Clemens showed real concern for McNamee’s son and McNamee seemed to authentically remorseful that what he had said had hurt Clemens.

McNamee claims that he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone (HGH) in 1998, 2000 and 2001. There is not any actual proof that Clemens took drugs other than the word of McNamee. Is the word of a tainted trainer enough to ruin a career of a respected pitcher? Did Senator Mitchell check his facts before coming up with this so called Mitchell report? Should a report based on hearsay be enough to ruin careers? One would think that a Senator would get proof before putting out a report that could hurt so many people.

Steroid use is dangerous and young people need to see that even the professional players that they are trying to copy cannot get away with using them. Steroid use has killed many amateur and professional athletes.

Almost all of America was waiting for the name of Barry Bond’s on the Mitchell Report and got it, but he was only listed as a suspected user. Senator Mitchell should have taken his time and gotten real evidence before releasing his report. He named people without bringing anything other than hearsay, which in most cases cannot be used in a court of law. The Mitchell Report is not worth the paper it is written on. Without real proof, his report is just words and means nothing.