Vaughn, Clemens, Gagne among former Sox named in Mitchell report

Mo Vaughn, Roger Clemens and Eric Gagne are among the former Red Sox players mentioned in the Mitchell report.

You can read the entire report here.

Here’s what I believe is the complete list of implicated former Sox players--let me know if I’ve missed any:

Roger Clemens
Mo Vaughn
Eric Gagne
Brendan Donnelly
Steve Woodard
Jose Canseco
Manny Alexander
Paxton Crawford
Jeremy Giambi
Josias Manzanillo
Chris Donnels
Mike Lansing
Kent Mercker
Mike Stanton

The portions of the report on Gagne, Clemens and Vaughn are particularly interesting to me. Here are some excerpts:

Mo Vaughn
“A former major league player has confirmed that Hill and Vaughn had a conversation in early 2001 in which Radomski’s name was mentioned. Radomski recalled that Vaughn had an ankle injury and called him for advice.Radomski told Vaughn that human growth hormone would help his ankle heal faster. Radomski said that thereafter he sold human growth hormone to Vaughn.

Radomski also provided Vaughn with a program for the use of the human growth hormone.

Radomski said that he delivered the substances to Vaughn personally. Radomski produced three checks deposited into Radomski’s accounts and drawn on Vaughn’s checking account: two checks for $3,200 each, and one check for $2,200.

Radomski said that the two checks in the amount of $3,200 were each for two kits of human growth hormone. He stated that the check in the amount of $2,200 might have been for one-and-a-half kits of human growth hormone. Radomski said that he did not sell Vaughn steroids because Vaughn was “afraid of the big needles."”

Eric Gagne
“Paul Lo Duca and Gagné were teammates with the Dodgers from 1999 to 2004. Although he is not sure when, Radomski recalled that Lo Duca called Radomski and told Radomski that Gagné was with him and wanted to buy human growth hormone. Gagné then came onto the phone and asked Radomski a question about how to get air out of a syringe. This is the only time Radomski spoke to Gagné. Radomski said that Lo Duca thereafter placed orders on Gagné’s behalf.”

“When the Boston Red Sox were considering acquiring Gagné, a Red Sox official made specific inquiries about Gagné’s possible use of steroids. In a November 1, 2006 email to a Red Sox scout, general manager Theo Epstein asked, “Have you done any digging on Gagne? I know the Dodgers think he was a steroid guy. Maybe so. What do you hear on his medical?” The scout, Mark Delpiano, responded,

“Some digging on Gagne and steroids IS the issue. Has had a checkered medical past throughout career including minor leagues. Lacks the poise and commitment to stay healthy, maintain body and re invent self. What made him a tenacious closer was the max effort plus stuff . . . Mentality without the plus weapons and without steroid help probably creates a large risk in bounce back durability and ability to throw average while allowing the changeup to play as it once did . . . Personally, durability (or lack of) will follow Gagne . . .”

Roger Clemens
“Toward the end of the road trip which included the Marlins series, or shortly after the Blue Jays returned home to Toronto, 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, which Clemens supplied. 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.”

“According to McNamee, from the time that McNamee injected Clemens with Winstrol through the end of the 1998 season, Clemens’s performance showed remarkable improvement. During this period of improved performance, Clemens told McNamee that the steroids “had a pretty good effect” on him. McNamee said that Clemens also was training harder and dieting better during this time. In 1999, Clemens was traded to the New York Yankees. McNamee remained under contract with the Blue Jays for the 1999 season. In 2000, the Yankees hired McNamee as the assistant strength and conditioning coach under Jeff Mangold. According to McNamee, the Yankees hired him because Clemens persuaded them to do so. In this capacity, McNamee worked with all of the Yankees players.”

To be clear, Mo Vaughn is accused of using while he was with the Mets, Gagne with the Dodgers, and Clemens with the Blue Jays and Yankees.

I haven’t read all of the reports yet, but so far I haven’t seen mention of juicing in Boston.

Selig speaks

A portion of Bud Selig’s press conference on the Mitchell report:

Mitchell speaks

Here’s some video from Mitchell’s press conference.

Mitchell report due Thursday

No sense ignoring it anymore:

The Mitchell report will be released on Thursday, following a 2 PM press conference. 60-80 players are expected to be named, and ESPN has confirmed that All-Stars will be among them.

Mitchell’s ties to the Red Sox have been well documented since he was first assigned to this role (he’s an investor and will resume his position as director once the investigation concludes). His role casts doubt over the integrity of his report, and many suspected that he was involved when the whistle was blown on Paul Byrd during the ALCS with Boston down two games.

At some point between now and the end of the 2004 World Series, I repressed the memories of the shady tactics surrounding the acquisition of the Red Sox by the Henry group. I probably hadn’t thought about it at all in the last year or so, but in his excellent story on the Mitchell investigation, Howard Bryant recaps the controversial purchase.

“The commissioner was accused of engineering the $660 million Red Sox transaction to the Henry group, while various other competitors to buy the Red Sox, such as HBO and CableVision founder Charles Dolan, believed the Henry group’s bid had not been the highest. Dolan reportedly believed he had outbid Henry by nearly $100 million, and a bid by Miles Prentice was said to be the highest, at $755 million. Selig denied any involvement in managing the sale of the team or that he favored Henry, who had owned the Florida Marlins, or Werner, who endured a turbulent experience as owner of the San Diego Padres during the early 1990s when baseball was embroiled in a rift between large- and small-market franchises. Selig, who was fond of Werner, watched the bitterly divided owners push Werner out of the game in 1993 and told him he would run a team again one day.”

As a Red Sox fan, it’s a difficult situation to rationalize.

On one hand, we have the best ownership group in baseball, and we should be glad to have an insider leading the investigation.

But on the other hand, do you really want to owe a favor to the devil? And as fans of the game, can we trust a report that is surrounded by such a huge conflict of interest?

The worst case scenario for Sox fans is that Mitchell may feel pressure to name Red Sox players. If Sox players are absent from his list, it would cast suspicion over the report and could hurt Mitchell’s career as a public servant.

Plus, Selig desperately wants this whole issue to go away, and having a well-received report drafted by a senator would certainly help. But the report can’t be well-received unless it appears to be unbiased, and what better way to make it look unbiased than to finger a Boston icon?

Maybe I’m being paranoid, but it makes me nervous that Mitchell has to call out some Red Sox just to qualify his report in the public arena. And you have to assume that he had more access to Red Sox staff through personal relationships than he had with any other club, so implicating information may have been more readily available.

The whole thing is absolutely terrifying to me.