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NEW YORK: Dozens of stars from Barry Bonds to Roger Clemens were named yesterday in the long-awaited Mitchell Report on steroids use, which US Major League Baseball hopes will help clean its tarnished image.
The sharply worded report by former US Senator George Mitchell called for unannounced year-round testing by an independent body to help to end a pervasive culture of performance-enhancing-drug use among all 30 big-league teams.
It blasted baseball ownership for overlooking the problem and the Players' Association for resisting drug testing in the past.
Players named for using steroids included a virtual Hall of Fame of some of the sport's biggest stars of recent years: Clemens, home-run king Bonds, Andy Pettitte, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Eric Gagne, Miguel Tejada and David Justice.
Clemens denied the allegations.
Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, who ordered the report, said he would act on the recommendations.
Mitchell said: "For more than a decade there has been widespread illegal use of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing substances by players in Major League Baseball in violation of federal law and baseball policy."
The report drew heavily on testimony from a former New York Mets clubhouse attendant who co-operated as part of a plea deal after his arrest for distributing drugs.
The biggest shock in the report involved accounts by Clemens' personal trainer, Brian McNamee, of steroid use by the pitcher.
A lawyer for Clemens issued a statement saying he was outraged his name was included in the report.
"Roger has been repeatedly tested for these substances and he has never tested positive.
"There has never been one shred of tangible evidence that he ever used these substances and yet he is being slandered today," lawyer Rusty Hardin said.
Mitchell said that so pervasive was the use of steroids - which help to build muscles and endurance quickly - that "hundreds of thousands of children" were also using them in sports.
"Every American, not just baseball fans, ought to be shocked by that disturbing truth."
Mitchell said steroid use fell after the adoption of a mandatory random drug-testing programme in 2002, but club officials routinely discussed substance use when evaluating players.
But since the start of steroids testing, the use of Human Growth Hormone had risen because, unlike steroids, it was not detectable through urine testing, Mitchell said.
The investigation linked more than 50 players to performance-enhancing drugs who had not been previously associated with doping and italso named 24 others who hadbeen previously cited in pressreports and by the Balco probe.
Reaction was swift.
"By and large, the conduct of the players' association was a disgrace and an outrage," said Dick Pound, chief of the World Anti-Doping Agency. "Very few players came forward, they had to be dragged screaming."
The head of the US Anti-Doping Agency, Travis Tygart, said: "It is a sad, sad day for the national pastime and all who love America. All involved should be ashamed."
- Reuters
