Mitchell takes on baseball's Troubles

Former US Senator and Special Envoy to Northern Ireland George Mitchell has outed some of the biggest names in baseball in his long awaited report on steroid usage in Major League Baseball.

His far-reaching investigation on performance-enhancing drugs named legendary pitcher Roger Clemens among a virtual Hall of Fame of some of the sport's biggest names of recent years.

Other notable names include: Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield, Eric Gagne, Miguel Tejada, David Justice, Chuck Knoblauch and Andy Pettitte.

Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young award winner, later issued an angry denial to allegations that filled nine pages of Mitchell's report.

It spreads the blame for the proliferation of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs among the players, club officials and past baseball commissioners.

The sharply worded, 311-page report called for unannounced year-round steroids tests to help end a drug culture of pervasive steroid use at all 30 Major League teams.

'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,' Mr Mitchell said at a news conference in New York.

So pervasive was the use of the substances, Mr Mitchell warned that 'hundreds of thousands of children' were also using steroids to get ahead in the sport.

The independent probe into the use of performance-enhancing drugs was begun at the behest of MLB Commissioner Bud Selig in March 2006.

Of particular interest are claims that MLB officials turned a blind eye to steroid use to reap the benefits of a home run binge that lifted the sport's popularity in the late 90s.

Mr Mitchell, who is on the Boston Red Sox board of directors, spoke to all 30 MLB teams but did not have subpoena power to require cooperation from players and possible witnesses.

The assignment was seen as a major challenge to the 74-year-old, who previously played a key role in negotiating the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and led a commission appointed by former US President Bill Clinton to find ways to halt the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The only active player known to have testified before the commission was New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi, whom Mr Selig threatened with suspension if he failed to cooperate after giving an interview in which he tacitly acknowledged having used steroids.

Baseball began to reclaim its fan base in a big way in 1998 after a slump in attendance prompted by a 1994 player strike and the cancellation of the World Series.

The game's fortunes turned when St Louis Cardinals' Mark McGwire (right) and the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa engaged in a 1998 chase for the single-season home run mark of 61 set in 1961 by Roger Maris of the Yankees.

The record that had stood for 37 years was smashed when McGwire struck 70 homers, while Sosa hit 66.

During McGwire's sensational campaign, a reporter spotted a jar of androstenedione in his locker. That steroids precursor was not barred in MLB at that time, and McGwire admitted to its use.

Just three seasons later San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds hit 73 homers to set the current record. Photographs show former Bonds bloating from a trim 185 pounds (84kg) in 1991 to 228 (103kg) in 2001, when he hit the 73 home runs.

Bonds is now facing trial on federal charges that he lied to a grand jury when denying that he had knowingly used steroids.

The powerful players union initially spurned testing initiatives proposed by ownership but a series of congressional hearings turned an uncomfortably harsh light on the issue and led to a 2002 collective bargaining agreement on drug testing that has grown stricter since.

After lagging behind, MLB now has one of the toughest drug policies in US sports - 50 games suspension for a first offence, 100 games for a second and a lifetime ban after a third positive test for a banned drug.

Despite questions about the accomplishments of sluggers such as Bonds, who last season overtook Hank Aaron as all-time career home run king, baseball's popularity has grown at the box office.

Baseball revenues increased last season to $6.08 billion with record attendance of over 78 million.

The Mitchell report was compiled from information sourced from criminal probes that have implicated major leaguers and also aided by a national investigation into the sale of such illegal drugs.