Clemens calls book allegations 'false'

BRISTOL, Conn., May 12 (UPI) -- Pitching great Roger Clemens in an interview in ESPN Radio Tuesday again denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, agreed to the interview after more than a year of refusing to make comments on drug-use allegations.

He was responding to charges made in a recently released book, "American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America's Pastime," which was written by four investigative reporters from the New York Daily News.

"I've seen excerpts of the book. They're completely false," Clemens told ESPN's "Mike and Mike in the Morning" radio program.

"American Icon" alleges Clemens was involved with performance enhancing drugs and may have perjured himself in congressional testimony.

Clemens has consistently denied he used performance enhancing drugs but he has been linked to the substances by several sources, including being named 82 times in the Mitchell Report, baseball's study into players' drug use that was released in December 2007. One of his biggest detractors is his former trainer Brian McNamee, who claims to have given federal investigators syringes he used to inject Clemens.

Clemens told ESPN Radio he'd given a DNA sample to investigators and it is "impossible" McNamee's syringes would tie him to drug use.