Players respond to Grimsley accusations
Roger Clemens calls the report “dangerous and malicious and reckless.” Andy Pettitte insists he never took banned drugs. Miguel Tejada says he is being smeared again by scandal.
Some of baseball’s biggest stars responded with denials and denunciations Sunday following a Los Angeles Times report in which former pitcher Jason Grimsley accused five players of using performance-enhancing drugs, according to a federal agent’s affidavit. The other players cited were Baltimore teammates Brian Roberts and Jay Gibbons.
Grimsley once played with Clemens and Pettitte on the New York Yankees and is now out of baseball. The reliever has admitted using a variety of banned substances and was suspended for 50 games by Major League Baseball.
Clemens and Pettitte, now teammates on the Houston Astros, denied the allegations Sunday.
“I just think it’s incredibly dangerous to sit out there and just throw names out there,” Clemens said Sunday before the Astros played in Atlanta on the final day of the regular season. “I haven’t seen (the report), nor do I need to see it.”
“For the people involved it is very dangerous and malicious and reckless on the part of somebody … to put something out there with somebody else’s writing on it,” he added.
Clemens said he has been tested “plenty of times” and passed every test.
Pettitte was “stunned” by the report.
“I played with Grimsley for a couple of years in New York and had a great relationship with him,” the pitcher said before the Astros’ game.
“I’ve never used any drugs to enhance my performance … I don’t know what else to say … it’s embarrassing my name would be out there.”
In June, federal agents searched Grimsley’s home in Arizona after the pitcher admitted using human growth hormone, steroids and amphetamines. Grimsley later was released by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The affidavit also alleged Grimsley told federal agents that Roberts, Gibbons and Tejada, all with the Orioles, “took anabolic steroids.”
Big Unit plans to pitch
Randy Johnson was optimistic after a bullpen session that he will start Game 3 of the playoffs Friday night.
Johnson threw 41 pitches under the watchful eye of manager Joe Torre, pitching coach Ron Guidry and bullpen coach Joe Kerrigan in New York.
Cubs CEO resigns
An emotional Andy MacPhail resigned as president and CEO of the Chicago Cubs after the team without a World Series title since 1908 finished the season with the worst record in the N.L.
MacPhail joined the Cubs in 1994 after spending nine years with the Minnesota Twins and guiding them to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991.