MLB’s Mitchell Report
Some of you may not care about baseball, but it is one of our country’s cultural and historical touchstones. Former Senator George Mitchell’s report (PDF)on the use of steroids and human-growth hormone in Major League baseball contains several names of players implicated in the use of either or both. And though Sen. Mitchell attempted to focus on the future, we can’t escape the past, especially in the case of baseball, which lives and breathes its history perhaps more than any other sport. I don’t know if this will be as notorious as the 1919 Black Sox scandal, but it could. Then again, Bud Selig ain’t exactly Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
Below is the list of players mentioned in the report. Some have previously been identified as users of performance-enhancing drugs, many are being identified for the first time. I’ve put recognizable names (to both Red Sox and casual MLB fans) in bold and kept them in the main post (for the rest, see the extended entry).
The big “new” revelations are probably Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite and Miguel Tejada.
“Big Names”
Miguel Tejada
Andy Pettite
Chuck Knoblauch
Lenny Dykstra
Kevin Brown
Barry Bonds
Rafael Palmeiro
Sammy Sosa
Gary Sheffield
Jason Giambi
Juan Gonzalez
The Red Sox players mostly were with the club in the late 1990’s era (when Canseco was on the team) or were with other teams when they used.
Jose Canseco
Roger Clemens
Manny Alexander
Paxton Crawford
Josias Manzanillo
Mo Vaughn
Mike Lansing
Kent Mercker
Mike Stanton
Eric Gagné
Brendan Donnelly
Here are the JAGs on the list…..
Ricky Bones
Alex Cabrera
Ken Caminiti
Jeremy Giambi
Bobby Estalella
Armando Rios
Benito Santiago
Marvin Benard
Randy Velarde
David Segui
Larry Bigbie
Brian Roberts
Jack Cust
Tim Laker
Todd Hundley
Mark Carreon
Hal Morris
Matt Franco
Rondell White
Jason Grimsley
Gregg Zaun
David Justice
F.P. Santangelo
Glenallen Hill
Denny Neagle
Ron Villone
Ryan Franklin
Chris Donnels
Todd Williams
Phil Hiatt
Todd Pratt
Kevin Young
Cody McKay
Adam Piatt
Jason Christiansen
Stephen Randolph
Jerry Hairston, Jr.
Paul Lo Duca
Adam Riggs
Bart Miadich
Fernando Vina
Mike Bell
Matt Herges
Gary Bennett, Jr.
Jim Parque
Chad Allen
Jeff Williams
Howie Clark
Exavier “Nook” Logan
Mike Judd
Ricky Stone
Daniel Naulty
Mo was juicing?! Consider me SHOCKED about that. Who would have thought that the gigantic biceps on a man who spent all of his free time in strip clubs instead of gyms would be from artificial means?!
Baseball has proven that it’s incapable of policing itself. Get an outside contractor. Test ’em all randomly but no less than monthly during the season. Throw out anybody that tests positive twice. Period. You’re fired and you get nothing. Goodbye.
Honestly, I can’t care less that these guys do this. The problem is that it forces the high school kids looking for a scholarship to do it too just to get the attention of the scouts.
Haven’t there been jokes in recent years about the size of Roger Clemens’ head? Now maybe there’s an explanation.
It does help explain why Clemens was pitching at an age when most players were collecting Social Security.
Gagne should have requested a refund for whatever he paid. Makes you wonder if his lack of performace with the Sox was because he was no longer juicing?
16 Yankee or former Yankees players were named in the scandal along with the Yankees former strength and conditioning coach.
I’d be upset if I were a Yankees fan. They pay the players multiples more than any other team, the players cheat and the Yankees still don’t win the World Series!
If Selig and Fehr care one iota about this game, they know today can be either a new beginning or the beginning of the end.