About that alleged Friday night phone call, what appears incredibly strange to me is that they talked for A WHOLE HOUR! If I was Clemens (or McNamee for that matter), whether I was innocent or guilty, I would never speak for an hour with my accuser. You could be squeaky clean and something could still be misinterpreted and used against you out of a transcript of a one-hour conversation, unless Clemens is a programmed robot or reading strictly from a script fed by his lawyer.

This brings up a tremendous question. If Sandy Koufax had Vioxx available, do you think he would have used it?
Does that make him, Roger, or any athlete, a “cheater”? If Vioxx, ibuprofen, aspirin, hydrocortisone injections into an inflamed joint (How many did Big Papi take this past season for his knee?) all take away pain, allowing the athlete to perform better…Aren’t these all “performance enhancing drugs”? What about a cup of coffee for a day game after a day-night DH in September? Of a game after a red-eye in from the coast?

To go further, what about Gaylord Perry and his performance enhacing spit, Vaseline, or whatever he admitted to (after retiring, of course)? Should he be kicked out of the HOF?

Just because something has been deemed legal or illegal, does that make it less of an issue? I don’t mean that we should ignore the use of illegal prescription drugs, but there is a larger issue here. Big pharma is a part of that.

Thanks for the informative post. A couple of comments.

My wife was trying to lose weight a few years ago and was taking a supplement that I later found out had ephedra in it. I started taking it and liked the energy kick it gave me. One day I was out playing golf, riding a cart mind you when all of a sudden I got dizzy and my eyes began swinging uncontrollably back and forth faster than a speed reader.
I sat down on a bench for a few minutes and felt better but I never took ephedra again and convinced my wife to do the same. Mind you I am an active athletic person and never before or since experienced anyhting like that. Subsequently I found out that some of the supplement companies had problems with dosage control. At least that was one of the excuses the Feds used in banning it.

Re Vioxx, no dsipute with the tragedies that occurred but I know several people who were on that and it gave them back their lives. Debilitating Arthritis had robbed them of mobility and wracked them with pain. Vioxx to them was a Godsend.

Also, good post by randy l shortly before this one
Sad that it comes back to (big) money in the end :/