Former MLB manager Davey Johnson is known as a man that will give you an honest answer.. Even when he shouldn’t. Johnson granted the Daily News an interview and talked openly about Dwight Gooden, the death of his daughter, and performance enhancing drugs in baseball. Davey’s thoughts on steroids and users came after a seemingly harmless question about Roger Clemens pitching for the Olympic team.

DN: There has been much speculation that Roger Clemens might pitch for Team USA in the Olympics. Do you see that happening?

DJ: No. No possibility. He’s probably good enough to go out and throw BP and get people out, but for me, you’ve got to be competing. I want guys who are playing their best right now, in a league. I don’t want some guy who has been off for three months.

DN: Did you watch the Clemens-McNamee congressional hearing? Who did you believe?

DJ: You know who I believed. Roger Clemens was a great pitcher. He pitched by intimidating. Try to get an edge, look at you. He’d hit his grandmother if he thought it would help him win a game. You’ve got to admire what he’s done. But he’s in that group where you’ve got to believe that anything he would do to make himself better, he’s going to do. I just think the deal in those hearings – that’s just his personality. He’s going to try to intimidate: “I’m coming through here and you’re not going to get in my way.”

Davey doesn’t sound like he’s to big on The Rocket, but he says one thing that’s true of people, not just Roger Clemens or ballplayers. People are gonna do whatever they can to get to the top. If that means taking roids, cheating on tests, stealing, whatever, human nature is to do that shit.. But if you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, own up to it. It worked out for Jason Giambi.

DJ drops gems all over this interview, and another classic came when he was asked if he was aware of performance enhancing drug use when he was a MLB manager. He says Brady Anderson was a workout fiend, and Rafael Palmiero had a soft body, so he never suspected either of using roids. He apparently didn’t think Jim Leyritz was on anything either even after this incident:

When I was managing the Dodgers, we picked up Jim Leyritz and he was making this concoction in the clubhouse kitchen. I said, “What are you doing?” He said, “I’m making a little something to pep the club up.” He had all these powders and cans and stuff. He gave me a shot of it. My heart started jumping out of my damn chest, and I didn’t have but a thimbleful. I was taking medicine for arrhythmia. I asked him what it was, he said mostly Red Bull with some other kickers in there.

Red Bull and kickers? I think Red Bull and amphetamines is the appropriate term. Leyritz must not have put enough ‘kickers’ in the mix because the team’s uninspired play led to Davey Johnson being fired after two seasons.. Weird bit of foreshadowing with Leyritz nearly killing Davey Johnson with a drink.

Davey Johnson tells of Mets days, steroids, and Olympic dreams. Courtesy of the Daily News

Davey Johnson, MLB, Roger Clemens, steroids

Jose Canseco isn’t the most credible man in the world but, love him or hate him you have to admit he’s a necessary evil of the steroid era. He might not have done it with the right intentions in mind but Jose’s book “Juiced” helped get the anti-steroid ball rolling. Canseco’s new book, Vindicated, spills more dirt although the information seems less reliable this time around.

Jose writes about people that he unsuccessfully tried to blackmail, and reminisces about the good ole days of being a washed up 38-year-old ballplayer that’s trying to catch on with the Los Angeles Dodgers.. At an open tryout. Jose remembers the day well..

“I was so desperate to get back in the game, in fact, that I did an open tryout for the L.A. Dodgers, a team that was in miserable shape back then. I ran well, I threw well, and I hit well, but they still didn’t want me.”

Newspaper reports from that fateful day paint a different picture.From the L.A. Daily News:

We retrieved the Daily News account of what happened that day at Vero Beach, Fla. Staff writer Rich Hammond wrote that Canseco “flubbed groundballs and flailed at offspeed pitches.” He documented that “in a timed sprint at the start of the workout, Canseco started a half-second early, then refused a request to run again. As his colleagues lined up to field grounders at shortstop, Canseco walked to the dugout and didn’t participate in the drill. In 18 batting-practice swings, Canseco hit one home run and four balls to the warning track, then went 2 for 5 with two singles, a walk and two strikeouts in a game among the tryout participants. He played an awkward first base during the game.”

I don’t know what it is but for some reason the newspaper’s account seems more like what happened.. Could it be because it’s the truth? Do PEDs affect the memory? That would explain Jose mistaking the play described above for hitting, running, and throwing well. It would also explain why Andy Pettitte misremembers details about Roger Clemens.

WALL: Canseco squeezing out more juice. Courtesy of the Daily News

Tags: Jose Canseco, baseball, steroids, book

Ok, so Roger’s denying everything.. Of course he is.. I like how he and his team are hiding behind the mistake made by the Los Angeles Times. You may remember the L.A. Times reported that Roger Clemens’ name was mentioned in the Jason Grimsley affadavit. As it turns out, he wasn’t and now Team Clemens is saying see, we told you… Here’s my thing.. The informant for the Times had good information, he was only wrong about the source of the info. Guys up and down the Mitchell Report have come clean about their steroid/performance enhancing drug use. Roger Clemens’ ace boon coon Andy Pettitte admitted to using HGH, but Roger’s the one clean guy? Uh, no.. Roger should’ve paid more attention to how poorly Barry Bonds handled the allegations against him. America will forgive you if you come clean, but all of the hemmin and hawin, and videotaped denials are only making the hole deeper.

Tags: Roger Clemens, Mitchell Report, Sports, Baseball, utube, youtube

George Mitchell’s steroid investigation findings are the other shoe waiting to drop. Everybody knows it’s coming, but nobody knows when. Names are supposedly gonna be revealed, so MLB’s gonna have to figure out a way to sweep the report under a rug before next season. Hopefully Bud Selig has been taking notes from David Stern on how to handle a potentially league crippling scandal.

During the course of the investigation George Mitchell has tried to talk to anyone he felt could give some insight into performance enhancing drug usage in Major League Baseball. The only player he has spoken with is Jason Giambi, and that’ only because pressure was applied to Giambi. With the lack of available people to question, the Mitchell investigators turned to people formerly associated with the game.

Larry Starr was the head trainer for the Cincinnati Reds from 1972 to 1992 and for the Florida Marlins from 1993 to 2002. He has been interviewed by lawyers involved in the investigation 4 times over the past year and a half, but has stated numerous times that he will not reveal the names of any players he knows to have used PEDs. That hasn’t stopped the lawyers from asking.

He said throughout their conversations — which included a face-to-face meeting in the summer of 2006 in which Gordon and another lawyer traveled to Florida — Gordon would throw out the names of players and ask if they had used drugs.

Starr said Gordon asked about “the obvious ones,” including Barry Bonds, and about other players as well.

“I think Sheffield’s name probably came up, and to be honest, I said while he was with me there was nothing I saw,” said Starr in reference to Gary Sheffield, who played for the Marlins from 1993 to 1998.

I’m not surprised that they asked about Barry, he’s been the trophy the whole time, but this caught me off guard:

“They asked me if Rose used drugs,” Starr said. “His name did come up; I am not sure why, other than I had him as a player. Anyone that knows Pete knows he didn’t use steroids.”

The Mitchell investigation wants to know if Pete Rose used steroids? I guess Pete Rose, the all time hit king, being banned from the game isn’t enough. They need to let Charlie Hustle breathe. And how far back did the investigation go? I don’t need the Mitchell report to tell me Jackie Robinson and Stan Musial never used the cream and the clear.

Former Trainer Provides Insight Into the Mitchell Steroid Investigation. Courtesy of The New York Times

Tags: Steroids, Performance Enhancing Drugs, Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, New York Times