Texas baseball coaches may yank Clemens speech

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Texas high school baseball coaches said on Monday they may drop Roger Clemens as a speaker at their annual convention after he was accused of using steroids in the blockbuster Mitchell report.

Clemens was set to speak about "My Vigorous Workout, How I Played So Long" on January 12. But Jim Long, president of The Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association, said a meeting would be held on Tuesday to decide whether the event should go on.

The withdrawal would be a big snub for Clemens, who grew up in Texas, and a measure of the fallout he may experience from the report by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell released on Thursday.

Clemens lives in Houston, was a star pitcher at the University of Texas and was hailed as a hero when he led the Houston Astros to their only World Series appearance in 2005.

"We're not going to slam Roger in any way, shape or form," Long said by phone. "But there's a cloud over his situation and we have to address it."

"We're 200 percent against steroids," he said.

Texas began mandatory tests of high school athletes for steroids in September, instituting the toughest program in the United States that covers nearly 25,000 teenagers during the school year.

New Jersey and Florida are the other two states who test teenagers for performance-enhancing drugs.

A former fitness trainer is cited in the Mitchell report as having given Clemens, 45, steroid injections beginning in 1998.

The seven-time Cy Young Award winner had been the subject of steroid rumors for several years because he retained his skills as a power pitcher well past age 40, when most players' skills have faded. But he always denied the rumors and attributed his longevity to intense off-season workouts.

Clemens has pitched in the big leagues since 1984, including last season with the New York Yankees.

Clemens has not spoken publicly since the Mitchell report, which named more than 80 players as having used performance-enhancing drugs, but his lawyer denied all allegations and accused the trainer of lying to avoid prosecution.

His friend and teammate Andy Pettitte was cited in the report as having used human growth hormone and admitted in a weekend statement that he used it briefly in 2002 to help recover from an injury.

In Monday's Houston Chronicle, former Astros teammate Lance Berkman said Pettitte's admission put more pressure on Clemens to speak out.

"I don't think it's good enough to make a blanket statement and say the guy's lying. Now that Andy's come out, that certainly puts a little more pressure to come out and make a more detailed statement," Berkman said about Clemens' response.

(Editing by Philip Barbara)