ROGER Clemens denies having taken performance-enhancing drugs during his legendary Major League Baseball career, saying they are a “dangerous and destructive shortcut that no athlete should ever take”.
The accusations made by Clemens’s former trainer, Brian McNamee, against the seven-time Cy Young Award winner as the best pitcher in the major leagues were contained in the Mitchell Report.
Former US senator George Mitchell said that McNamee said he injected Clemens with steroids in 1998 while with Toronto Blue Jays, and steroids and human growth hormone in 2000 and 2001, while with New York Yankees.
"I want to state clearly and without qualification: I did not take steroids, human growth hormone or any other banned substances at any time in my baseball career or, in fact, my entire life," Clemens said in a statement issued through his agent, Randy Hendricks.
"Those substances represent a dangerous and destructive shortcut that no athlete should ever take.
"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."
Another McNamee client, Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, said last weekend that he took human growth hormone twice while rehabilitating from an injury in 2002.
Mitchell said that McNamee told him that he injected Pettitte with human growth hormone two to four times that year.
Another player named in the Mitchell Report, Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts, has meanwhile acknowledged having used steroids, but he insisted that he did so only once before realising he had made a "terrible decision".
Roberts said he tried steroids in 2003, "when I took one shot of steroids".
"I immediately realised that this was not what I stood for or anything that I wanted to continue doing.
"I never used steroids, human growth hormone or any other performance-enhancing drugs prior to or since that single incident.
"I can honestly say before God, myself, my family and all of my fans, that steroids or any performance-enhancing drugs have never had any effect on what I have worked so hard to accomplish in the game of baseball."
Roberts has twice been named to the American League All-Star team, including this season. He has a career batting average of .281. He has never failed a drug test and previously had denied vigorously ever using performance-enhancing drugs.
MLB players and owners didn’t have an agreement banning steroids until September 2002. They banned human growth hormone in January 2005.
Source: Clemens denies drug allegations
