Clemens implicated in steroid scandal by trainer

Roger Clemens's legacy as one of baseball's greatest pitchers was severely challenged yesterday by allegations contained in the Mitchell Report that a strength and conditioning coach injected him with anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (HGH) over a three-year period beginning in 1998.

Brian McNamee, a former New York City police officer who was with Clemens when the pitcher played for both the Blue Jays and the Yankees, and as recently as last December was described by Clemens as being "at the top of the list" of trainers he has worked with, laid out a disturbing portrait of steroid use by Clemens. McNamee said he injected Clemens with steroids in 1998, steroids and HGH in 2000, and steroids again in 2001.

The allegations, called "totally false" by Clemens's lawyer, thrust the seven-time Cy Young Award winner into the company of Barry Bonds as superstars whose spectacular achievements of the last decade are now clouded by suspicions they were attained through the use of illegal performance-enhancing substances.

Clemens, who has dodged steroid rumors in the past, was the biggest new name to surface in the report issued by George Mitchell, the former US senator charged by Major League Baseball to prepare a report chronicling baseball's steroid era. Clemens declined to meet with Mitchell, the report said.

McNamee, who was mentioned in a sworn affidavit in connection with a steroid investigation involving former pitcher Jason Grimsley and is linked to the steroids case involving former Mets clubhouse man Kirk Radomski, also said he injected pitcher Andy Pettitte, a longtime friend and teammate of Clemens, with HGH in 2002, when Pettitte was recovering from an elbow injury.

"It is very unfair to include Roger's name in this report," Clemens's lawyer, Rusty Hardin, told the Associated Press. "He is left with no meaningful way to combat what he strongly contends are totally false allegations. He has not been charged with anything, he will not be charged with anything, and yet he is being tried in the court of public opinion with no recourse. That is totally wrong.

"There has never been one shred of tangible evidence that he ever used these substances and yet he is being slandered today," added Hardin, who called McNamee a "troubled man."

McNamee, who was Toronto's strength and conditioning coach when he first met Clemens in 1998, later went to the Yankees in an assistant's capacity in 2000 - hired, he said, because Clemens recommended him. He was dismissed by the team after the 2001 season - he was questioned in connection with an alleged sexual assault at a team hotel that season, in which the alleged victim said she was given a date-rape drug - but continued to work for both Clemens and Pettitte as a personal trainer into 2007. Clemens's workout routines were legendary in baseball circles.

"I never ever gave Clemens or Pettitte steroids," McNamee told the New York Daily News last December in an article that was referenced in the Mitchell Report. "They never asked me for steroids. The only thing they asked me for were vitamins."

He told a different story to Mitchell and his investigative team in three interviews, all conducted in the presence of federal prosecutors, agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service, and McNamee's personal attorney as part of an agreement he made with the US Attorney's office. McNamee was told that any truthful statements would not be used against him, but was warned that felony charges might be brought against him if he lied.

McNamee said Clemens approached him about using steroids after discussing the subject with teammate Jose Canseco at a lunch party Canseco gave at his home in Miami in June 1998, when the Blue Jays were in town to play the Florida Marlins.

Shortly thereafter, the report states, "Clemens approached McNamee and, for the first time, brought up the subject of using steroids. Clemens said that he was not able to inject himself, and he asked for McNamee's help. Later that summer, Clemens asked McNamee to inject him with Winstrol. McNamee knew the substance was Winstrol because the vials Clemens gave him were so labeled. McNamee injected Clemens approximately four times in the buttocks over a several-week period with needles that Clemens provided. Each incident took place in Clemens's apartment at the SkyDome. McNamee never asked Clemens where he obtained the steroids."

McNamee, according to the report, said Clemens told him the steroids "had a pretty good effect" on him, and that he was training harder and dieting better during that time.

In 1999, Clemens was traded to the Yankees by the Blue Jays. A year later, McNamee followed Clemens to New York, was hired by the Yankees, and was paid by Clemens as a personal trainer. McNamee told investigators that Clemens "made it clear" in midseason 2000 that he was ready to use steroids again, and McNamee said he injected Clemens in the buttocks four to six times with testosterone from a bottle labeled either Sustanon 250 or Deca-Durabolin that McNamee had obtained from Radomski, whom he'd met through former Blue Jay David Segui.

In that same period, McNamee told investigators, he also injected Clemens four to six times with HGH he received from Radomski "after explaining to Clemens the potential benefits and risks of use." On each occasion, McNamee said, he administered the injections at Clemens's apartment in New York City.

McNamee said he injected Clemens with steroids again in August 2001 - with Sustanon or Deca-Durabolin obtained, McNamee said, from Radomski - on "four or five occasions" at Clemens's apartment. McNamee said to his knowledge, Clemens did not use HGH in 2001; he said the pitcher told him he didn't like the "belly-button shot." McNamee said that after that season, Clemens never asked him again to inject him with performance-enhancing substances, and they never discussed them again. McNamee, the report said, "has no knowledge" whether Clemens used performance-enhancing substances after 2001.

Clemens won 192 games for the Red Sox, tying him with Cy Young for the club record, before leaving as a free agent after the 1996 season and a desultory four-year stretch in which he went 40-39, inspiring then-general manager Dan Duquette to say Clemens was entering the "twilight of his career." He won 20 or more games in both of his seasons with the Blue Jays, and won his fourth and fifth Cy Young Awards in Toronto. He went 20-3 for the Yankees in 2001, winning his sixth Cy Young, and in 2004, his first season pitching for his hometown Houston Astros, went 18-4 and won his seventh Cy Young.

He returned to the Yankees this past season at age 44 but was slowed by injuries and finished with a 6-6 record and announced he was retiring. After leaving the Red Sox, he was 162-73 with a 3.21 ERA, striking out 2,082 batters. Only Nolan Ryan and Phil Niekro struck out more batters after the age of 40 than Clemens, whose 2.99 ERA was the best of any 40-something pitcher since the expansion era began in 1961.

Canseco had implicated Clemens for steroid use in his 2005 book, "Juiced," saying his performance at an advanced age showed all the "classic signs" of one who used performance-enhancing substances. Gary Sheffield also called out Clemens in 2004, saying, "I'm not accusing him of anything, but I betcha he's not just drinking soda water."

More seriously, Clemens's name was linked to reports regarding the sworn affidavit filed by special IRS agent Jeff Novitzky in which he said former pitcher Grimsley had identified a number of major league players as having used performance-enhancing substances. The names were blacked out on the affidavit, and the report was never substantiated at the time. Clemens reacted angrily at the time, saying, "I don't understand how people can do that and get away with it. I really don't."

But in a 2005 interview with the Houston Chronicle, Clemens, while denying the suspicions raised by the Canseco book, said: "I'm going to find anything I can that'll make me stronger and allow me to keep up with the 20-year-olds, but I'm going to depend on physicians to tell me what's OK."

Gordon Edes can be reached at edes@globe.com.