Grimsley

OK, so now Barry Bonds has some Hall of Fame company in the hot seat of public scrutiny - or, at least, he should. On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported that surefire Hall of Fame pitcher Roger Clemens is among the ex-teammates former major league pitcher Jason Grimsley accused of using performance-enhancing drugs in an affidavit filed with federal agents. Grimsley is the former reliever who has been out of baseball since June, when federal agents raided his home after he admitted using human growth hormone, steroids and amphetamines.

The U.S. Attorney's office in San Francisco issued a statement yesterday questioning the accuracy of a Los Angeles Times report published over the weekend. The story identified major league baseball players, including three Orioles, whose names had been blacked out of a steroid investigation affidavit filed earlier this year in federal court. The Times report described a search warrant affidavit signed by an IRS special agent investigating steroid use in professional baseball. The affidavit, based on statements to investigators allegedly made by pitcher Jason Grimsley, implicated a number of his former teammates as users of performance-enhancing drugs.

When Baltimore awakens to bold headlines screaming the worst about the Orioles' best and most popular players, as it did yesterday, the toll exacted by the franchise's nine straight losing seasons becomes especially clear.

ATLANTA -- Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte denied allegations that they had used performance-enhancing drugs, with Clemens saying he was angry and Pettitte saying he was embarrassed by a report that first appeared in the Los Angeles Times. "I'm not embarrassed at all," Clemens said in the Houston clubhouse yesterday before the Astros were eliminated from playoff contention during a 3-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field. "I'm angry about it. It just shouldn't happen." Clemens and Pettitte, his Astros teammate, were among six players named in a federal agent's affidavit connected to former teammate Jason Grimsley.

Three of the Orioles' most popular and highest-profile players were accused of being anabolic steroid users by former teammate Jason Grimsley in a federal affidavit earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times is reporting in today's editions. Grimsley said All-Star shortstop Miguel Tejada, second baseman Brian Roberts and designated hitter Jay Gibbons "took anabolic steroids," the Times reported. All three Orioles vehemently denied the report in interviews with The Sun after last night's 5-4 victory against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

The Cincinnati Reds are in prime position to get to the playoffs for the first time since 1995, when Davey Johnson was managing. But the Reds' most heralded player -- once widely considered the best in the game -- is having his most challenging season of a splendid career. Ken Griffey hit his 25th homer of the year Thursday, the 10th time he's hit 25 or more in a season since 1992. But he's batting about 50 points lower than his career average and about 70 points below his career on-base percentage.

One year after former Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro's failed drug test was announced, shaming the potential Hall of Famer and thrusting a national spotlight inside the Orioles' clubhouse, team officials said they would have done nothing differently in their handling of the club's drug-prevention policies. "We have felt for a long time that our educational programs and the information we get out to the players was second to none," said Orioles executive vice president Mike Flanagan.

The man whose finger-wagging image may forever be the lasting snapshot of baseball's so-called steroid era hasn't paid much attention to the sport's most recent drug scandal. Rafael Palmeiro spends his mornings working out, his days playing baseball with his two sons at his suburban Dallas home and his nights watching on TV as his former teammates throughout the majors play the game he still loves. He has seen the ESPN and newspaper reports that his former Orioles teammate, Jason Grimsley, allegedly said in a federal affidavit that Grimsley took human growth hormone and other illegal steroids.

Former Orioles Jim Traber and Mickey Tettleton had just picked up their sons from football camp when the details of Jason Grimsley's affidavit on drugs in baseball crackled over the car radio. As they listened to Grimsley's description of leaded (laced with amphetamines) and unleaded (regular) coffee in major league clubhouses, the old teammates laughed and laughed. "That was giving away a secret of the clubhouse," said Traber, who played parts of four seasons for the Orioles. "But yeah, I knew about it."