Baseball News

Drugs still present in Baseball - Mitchell

Author: Nigel Brown
Posted on: 27 November 2008 - 10:03 AM
Category: Baseball
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One year after George Mitchell opened the lid on drug use in Major League baseball, the former US Senator says the sport still hasn't recovered from its ills. MLB Commissioner Bud Selig asked Mitchell to investigate steroid use in 2007 and his 409-page report ruined the reputations of dozens of players, including Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens.Mitchell identified 85 players who had dabbled in drugs while part of MLB. These included the household names of Eric Gagne, Gary Sheffield and Clemens.

And one year on from his explosive report, Mitchell said: "The report had a significant impact of reducing usage, although that still remains very difficult to measure with any complete precision.

"I would be very doubtful that it is completely clean in the sense nobody is using. You don't know whether this is a temporary response because of the attention it's gotten."

Clemens was hit the hardest in the aftermath of the report - headed to the Hall of Fame with 354 wins before it was published, his Cooperstown prospects looked dead in the water when Mitchell alleged trainer Mike McNamee told him that the seven-time Cy Young Award winner had used human growth hormone before the drugs were banned. Clemens is still in the process of suing for defamation.

Mitchell's report outlined 20 recommendations, all of them adopted, and this year just three players, San Francisco catcher Eliezer Alfonzo, Colorado catcher Humberto Cota and Florida pitcher Henry Owens, were banned for 50 games after their misdemeanours were made public.

Mitchell added: "The most important thing is to create an attitude which reflects the awareness that this is a dynamic ongoing program. You can never reach the stage where you can say we solved it.

"There are a lot of people who are seeking to make some of that money by creating new illegal drugs."