Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Sports News

Report urges independent drug program

|
|
 
  
Published: Dec. 13, 2007 at 3:40 PM

NEW YORK, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Dozens of baseball players, including seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, were implicated Thursday in a doping report released in New York.

The 20-month investigation led by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, also called for Major League Baseball to establish an independent drug-testing program and an investigation division in the baseball commissioner's office.

The more than 400-page report spread blame for the use of performance-enhancing substances across the broad -- starting with the Commissioner's Office and the players' union but including team officials and the players themselves.

"The use of steroids in major league baseball was widespread," Mitchell said. "The response by baseball was slow to develop and initially ineffective."

While the minority of players who used illegal substances were responsible for their actions, "they did not act in a vacuum. Everyone involved in baseball over the past two decades ... shares in the responsibility."

Mitchell recommended Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig not punish players named in the report unless their actions were so egregious that disciplinary action was necessary to maintain the game's integrity.

A former New York Yankees trainer told Mitchell he injected Clemens with a substance and the pitcher's performance improved.

Current players named in the report include Andy Pettitte, Miguel Tejeda, Paul Lo Duca and Eric Gagne. Some were alleged to have used human growth hormone and others steroids.

Topics: Andy Pettitte, Bud Selig, Cy Young, Eric Gagne, George Mitchell, Paul Lo Duca, Roger Clemens
Recommended Stories
© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Linsanity The Daytona 500 Cheerleaders of 2012
Additional Sports News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
The 21 absolute worst things in the world (not a slideshow). Bonus: #21
Egg-ception
How bad are things in Detroit? Even the fish are being murdered
Nineteen things that will drive your OCD self insane
Who were you in high school? Band geek? Emo chick? Math nerd? Deep-in-the-closet homophobe? Captain...
Today's mass mall shooting brought to you by Toronto, ON