Mitchell Report raises fresh questions

By Larry Fine

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The report exposing widespread use of steroids in Major League Baseball raised more questions about the depth of the problem in America's pastime and aroused concerns on Friday about the credibility of its evidence.

The Mitchell Report released on Thursday cited the use of steroids and Human Growth Hormone among all 30 major league teams. But some noted the evidence hinged mainly on two sources whose testimony was given in return for plea bargains in federal investigations.

The report, which named more than 80 players as using performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, stirred emotions from the White House to the man on the street. 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.

The biggest splash was the naming of pitching great Roger Clemens, who occupied nine pages of the report. A lawyer for the seven-time winner of the Cy Young Award as his league's best pitcher issued an angry denial on his behalf and said the report slandered his client.

Duke University law professor Paul Haagen described the report as a "peculiar investigation."

"This is wildly under-inclusive," Haagen said, noting "the incredibly limited number of sources" used by former Sen. George Mitchell, who headed the probe for baseball Commissioner Bud Selig.

Federal probes into the defunct San Francisco-based BALCO lab and an illegal drug distribution ring that snared former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski and former major league trainer Brian McNamee provided most of Mitchell's material through a plea-deal agreement.

"It seems extraordinarily unlikely that there weren't other networks they didn't get into," Haagen, who teaches sports law, said about the probe that had no subpoena power and struggled with a lack of cooperation from active major league players.