According to a story in the Los Angeles Times, Jason Grimsley – the major league pitcher who has been accused of dealing in the steroids and human growth hormone trade – has named Roger Clemens and others as being users of illegal performance enhancing drugs.
Monday night there was a story that the federal prosecutor who is overseeing the steroids in baseball issue said that there were “significant inaccuracies” in the LA Times report. The prosecutor did not elaborate as to what these inaccuracies were.
However, Dan Patrick on his Monday afternoon radio show said that he had seen the same unedited documents that the LA Times had access to, and said that he had seen Clemens’ name mentioned as a drug user. Patrick also mentioned that another high-profile player – whose name has yet to be mentioned in conjunction with this scandal – was included in the Grimsley statement.
This is not the first time that a major leaguer in the know about drug use has raised the prospect that Roger Clemens has used banned drugs, as Jose Canseco did so in 2005 in his book Juiced. Jose didn’t have any first-hand knowledge of any Clemens' drug use, but did relate a story in which Clemens joked that he took B-12 shots, which was supposedly code for steroids. Canseco also said that Clemens was frustrated by the fact that power hitters were using drugs and getting away with it, while making pitchers look bad.
Here’s a passage from Juiced:
''One of the benefits of steroids is that they're especially helpful in countering the effects of aging. So in Roger's case, around the time he was leaving the Boston Red Sox -- and Dan Duquette, the general manager there, was saying he was 'past his prime' -- Roger decided to make some changes. He started working out harder. And whatever else he may have been doing to get stronger, he saw results.''
At the time that Juiced was released, Clemens blew off the issue, saying that when guys are under house arrest they have a lot of time on their hands to make up stories and write books. And of course everyone laughed along with Roger in February of 2005 when Canseco’s book first came out, because nobody took his allegations seriously.
But now we know better.
In a very interesting coincidence, on the very same day – February 19, 2005 - when people were running with the allegations in Canseco’s book, the New York Times ran a story on the front page of their sports section telling us that Roger Clemens would no longer be able to use Vioxx to fight off the ravages of old age.
Article comments
1 - Donnie Marler
Jason Grimsley commented through his lawyer that he was the victim of a tremendous misunderstanding. Grimsley said there is 'no way' Roger Clemens would have, or did, take steroids.
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
Well, there is one way.
Needle in ass.
3 - sal m
actually the term that has been used in this latestly statement from grimsley's mouthpiece is "illegal performance enhancing drugs"...human growth hormone and certain other hormones like testosterone are NOT illegal to use or possess if a person has a valid prescription.
this is just lawyerly posturing.