Strong reaction to report on baseball drug use

NEW YORK (Reuters) - From the U.S. president to the average fan, Americans reacted with anger, shock and disappointment on Friday to a report that found some of Major League Baseball's best players used performance-enhancing drugs.

The 20-month independent investigation led by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell portrayed a pervasive drug culture in the sport and cited more than 80 current and former players, including 10 Most Valuable Player winners and 31 All Stars.

President George W. Bush, a former part owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, said the use of steroids in baseball had "sullied" the game.

"My hope is that this report is a part of putting the steroid era of baseball behind us," Bush said.

The report was front-page news in U.S. newspapers and the subject of editorials and numerous sports columns.

"We were robbed of an entire era of baseball," wrote Chicago Tribune columnist Rick Morrissey. "It matters not that it was done at syringe-point instead of gunpoint. We wuz robbed."

Mitchell said steroids use dated back to the 1980s, intensifying about 10 years ago with the home run binges of Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds.

"Yesterday's report from the former Senator George Mitchell makes it inescapably clear that major league baseball is permeated with a win-at-all-costs drug culture that has spread far beyond a handful of all-star performers," the New York Times said in an editorial.

Fans surveyed in a New York City park expressed disappointment.

Atlanta Braves fan Michael Sullivan, 44, said he was surprised baseball had not done something sooner about steroids.

"It's going to affect my view of a lot of the players that were listed," said Sullivan, a lobbyist from Alabama.

Actor Lucas Beck, 25, said the report confirmed the worst. "You hear about one person or another person. And then it's like, whole baseball teams ... Is nothing sacred?"

Visiting Californian Janice Callister doubted it would affect fan interest. "Cynical side of me said: bottom line, nobody cares," Callister said. "They're going to go see baseball. They want to see home runs."

'DISGRACE'

Roger Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young winner as best pitcher in his league, was the biggest name added to a Hall of Shame list of high-profile players linked to steroids -- although the 354-game winner vehemently denied allegations in the report.

The Daily News front page read "Cheaters" and ran a picture of Clemens and former New York Yankee teammate Andy Pettitte, who was also named in the report. The New York Post declared "Disgrace."

Sharing in disappointment over Clemens was U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, instrumental in turning congressional attention on the problem of steroids in baseball.

"I'm disappointed, but not astonished," McCain told ESPN Radio on Friday about his reaction, although he admitted being particularly shook up about the naming of Clemens, who played in Boston, Toronto, New York and Houston during his career.

"Even in my advanced old age I still have heroes. Clemens will go down in history as one of the great pitchers in history and that raises the question, why did he have to do that?"

Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy wrote, "here in Boston and across Baseball America, we know the biggest loser of December 13, 2007, was Roger Clemens."

Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, who had several former San Diego Padres teammates named in the report, told the San Diego Union-Tribune he was "stunned but not surprised."

"I didn't want to hear some of those names," Gwynn said. "But we all felt something was going on and most of us felt there was nothing we could do. This is more of a confirmation of what we believed and feared."

(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta and Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Eric Beech)