Roger Clemens admits to injections

Pitching legend claims it was lidocaine and B-12

This Sunday, the American news proram "60 Minutes" will air its 28 December interview with Roger "The Rocket" Clemens. Since being named in the Mitchell Report in early December Clemens has posted a Youtube video professing his innocence, as is the norm for stars who suddenly find themselves in the glare of the anti-doping spotlight.

But in a recent admission that also sounds all too similar to Barry Bonds' claim that Greg Anderson injected him with flaxseed oil, Clemens has now admitted that trainer Brian McNamee did indeed inject him---but with lidocaine and vitamin B-12, and not with steroids or growth hormone.

The use of vitamin B-12 would likely serve only a placebo effect as deficiencies of this vitamin are rare. However, the placebo effect is a real effect, and if Clemens really thought it would make him better, then technically it is not an illegal supplement.

However the use of lidocaine puzzles us. It is a local anesthetic available via prescription only in its injectable form, but many might know it better in its topical application form in creams such as Lanacane and other products. We use it in Exercise Physiology when administering muscle biopsies as it numbs the local area where we make the incision to take the small piece of muscle. Therefore McNamee would have had to inject the lidocaine into very specific sites and tissues such as joints, and it seems a strange choice for performance enhancement.

The same old excuse - "I might have used drugs, but it wasn't me"

As with most doping cases, it is up to us as fans to choose a side. Who do we believe? The athlete, Clemens in this case, plays the likely and predictable role, vehemently professing innocence and denying he ever took anything. But Clemens' attorney should have given him better advice, because this type of response only throws The Rocket in with all the other athletes who also at first denied, denied, denied, only to have it shown with other evidence that they were doping all along. The club is large and its most recent members are Justin Gatlin, banned for 4 years, and Marion Jones, who admitted to taking drugs prior to the 2000 Sydney Olympics although never testing positive.

McNamee: Why lie about Clemens and not Pettitte?

Most witnesses in these cases are less than credible, but Clemens' former trainer Brian McNamee poses an interesting situation. McNamee claims also to have injected Yankees' pitcher Andy Pettitte with growth hormone, and Pettitte confirmed this claim in the report and readily admitted that he took the hormone, thus bolstering McNamee's credibility.

And that makes it interesting---what does McNamee gain by telling the truth about Pettitte but then lying about Clemens? Does he hate Clemens so much that he would risk further punishment by making up the story about Clemens? Indeed, McNamee has recounted extremely detailed info about his time with Clemens, recalling specific instances and direct quotes, and that makes it hard to ignore entirely.


We suspect that Clemens is playing the predictable strategy, which would be to continue to deny everything until any tangible and hard evidence surfaces. As it stands right now, neither Major League Baseball nor the Mitchell Report can prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt, and as such Clemens can potentially walk away without any repercussions other than the bad press he has received. When charged with such allegations of drug use, the athlete has exactly one opportunity to come clean and tell the truth once and for all. Clemens missed his chance, and now as fans we can only watch and speculate as the saga drags out or until some hard evidence refutes Clemens' (and others') claims.

The Mitchell Report at a glance

Fishing for guppies and landing a whopper

Former Senate majority leader George Mitchell's report on drug use in baseball was released on Friday afternoon, and sent the pundits and talking heads venting over the airwaves this past weekend. It is a behemoth of a report at 409 pages, and for all of those with some spare time this holiday season, you can download it here, while those with admittedly less time can view the executive summary here.

In the beginning many thought this was a fishing expedition of epic proportions, and was destined to return empty handed, or with only a few small time offenders. However in the end they landed a legend of baseball, the seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens. Many other names were included in the report, and a history of drug use in baseball over the past 15 years is an important addition.

Also, on Sunday night Alex Rodriguez appeared in an interview on 60 Minutes, denying any drug use and also stating that he never once saw any illicit activity, although mentioning that there was always talk about it here and there.

Besides the players who were named in the report, the biggest loser is probably the Players Association. Mitchell states plainly that the association was "uncooperative" in many ways:

1. Rejecting requests for relevant documents
2. Granting only one interview with the executive director Donald Fehr
3. Rejecting an interview request with the chief operating officer Gene Orza
4. Denying a request to interview the director of a Montreal laboratory that analyzes samples
5. Actively discouraged players from cooperating with Mitchell's investigation

This is a real pity for the players as cooperation with Mitchell could only have benefited them in the long term, and therefore the lack of cooperation by the Players Association to us represents an extremely short-sighted view intended to try to protect themselves from harm. A more mature decision would have been full and transparent cooperation that would help legitimize the players and strengthen their credibility.

"The problem is serious"

Ok, so tell us something we do not know! As obvious as Mitchell's statement sounds, it is an important step in this process. Yes, the pundits and bloggers would all agree, and have all been saying for a long time, that indeed the problem is serious. However we lacked the hard evidence and inside information to back this up. Mitchell's report now goes on the official record and we hope this leads to future steps in the right direction for baseball (and perhaps other sports). Namely, admission by the players and teams that indeed there is a problem is what must occur before the sport takes a serious turn towards cleaning up.

Cycling and baseball both miss the boat in the 1990's

Mitchell identifies the turning point as sometime after the 1988 Summer Olympics when Ben Johnson tested positive. In fact there were many news reports during the 1990's about steroid use in baseball, and as early as 1988 many fans were already jeering Jose Canseco about his alleged steroid (ab)use. So the interesting thing is that as players' power increased and rumours began to make the rounds, baseball found itself in a similar position to pro cycling.

In the peloton during the 1990's the same thing was happening---average speeds were increasing, rumours were lurking, and the media suspected something was up. Admittedly, hindsight is 20/20, yet it is interesting that neither sport moved on these signs and "symptoms." Cycling introduced the 50% Hematocrit rule, which was pretty weak and easily manipulated, and baseball just ignored the problem for as long as it could.

And now the two sports find themselves in equally sticky situations. Wide scale and official reports (Mitchell's report in baseball, and The Operacion Puerto report in cycling) have torn open each sport and exposed its biggest stars.


And now. . .?

The fallout from the Mitchell report is still heavy and sinking in as more and more people read it and analyze its contents. At 409 pages, the full report is a handful, but the executive summary is an excellent place to start and anyone interested should definitely read it (it is only 40 pages). In the weeks and days to come still more bloggers and writers will weigh in on what all of this means, but one thing for certain is that Commissioner Bud Selig and MLB now go in to bat. This is their call to action, and we can only hope they choose to be courageous and think about the long term health of the sport.

As we said, at 409 pages this one is a handful, but join us this week as we try to pick it apart and look at the greater implications not just for baseball, but what something like this means for all of sports. Also, don't forget about the impending IAAF report on Oscar Pistorius, which we wil analyze in full and is due out any day now. Finally, we will run a short series on exercise in the cold, as the northern hemisphere winter is in full swing.

Stay with us for a busy couple of busy weeks ahead!