Tigers' Rogers: Mitchell Report missed hundreds of players

Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Tigers' Rogers: Mitchell Report missed hundreds of players
Rogers is disturbed to think his entire generation of players will be tarnished by its association with steroids
Tom Gage / The Detroit News

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Kenny Rogers believes that major league baseball's Mitchell Report, while damaging to the game's reputation, touched only the tip of the iceberg.

"The report was great in a lot of ways, but it missed a lot of guys, easily hundreds, maybe more," the Tigers left-hander said of the official investigation into the use of steroids and human growth hormone (HGH).

"There's no way it covered everybody. No way."

Rogers -- whose locker contains nothing more than a bottle of Joint Ease, "because I'm 43-ish," and some vitamins his mother-in-law sent him off with this spring -- isn't naming names. Nor is he blowing the whistle on individuals he's known either as teammates or opponents as he now heads into his 20th major league season.

In effect, though, as he watched the congressional proceedings on Wednesday involving Roger Clemens and trainer Brian McNamee, Rogers blew the whistle on game itself.

"This is probably what happens when you sweep it under the carpet for so long," said Rogers, one of several Tigers gathered around a clubhouse television Wednesday. "It just gets bigger and bigger. That's what has been done for the last 15-20 years, maybe more."

Rogers is disturbed to think his entire generation of players will be tarnished by its association with steroids.

"Obviously, it affects the game in a negative way," he said. "This is probably as bad as anything that's ever happened in the game. I can't think of anything worse."

When asked if he put it on a par with the Black Sox scandal of 1919, Rogers said, "Would that be wrong? Tell me if it is, but (the scandal) determined how the results were dictated. Same thing here.

"Anybody who says that stuff doesn't benefit you greatly is absolutely wrong. It's obvious to anybody, even to those who haven't done it. You can do things better than you ever have before and for a longer period of time. You're fixing the results, and they aren't natural results.

"It's not the natural way the game is supposed to be played. It's not the natural way your body is supposed to react."

When asked his opinion of what was found by the Mitchell Report to be widespread use, Rogers said, "It's extremely disappointing. But knowing it was going on for this many years, it's not like any player has the ability to change it.

"Players mentioned it. They said it to the Players Association and I'm sure the owners heard it a long time ago that this was a problem that had to be addressed. It just never got to the forefront. Now it is.

"And it's bigger than it would have been if it had been addressed earlier."

Added Rogers, "I'm tainted with everyone else. What I've done and what I've accomplished could be judged with some residual effect of what's going on with other people.

"But I can't control that. I just know, along those lines, I've never embarrassed myself or my family. I feel good about that, and that's all you can control.

"I've never done anything with that stuff, but because I'm playing longer, I'm sure someone will think I have. That's why I'm tainted, too. But I can look in the mirror every day and know I didn't do anything like that."

Speaking of the effect steroids could have had on those trying in vain at a younger age to reach the major league level, Rogers said, "You want everyone to make it because they deserve to make it.

"For instance, John Rocker would never have been in the big leagues in his whole life without it. Never. He was the most unathletic guy I've ever seen throw a baseball."

Rocker recently has been embroiled in a controversy over steroids. He said in a radio interview Monday that doctors for "the league" and "the Players Association" once advised him "how to use steroids," but retracted that statement Tuesday.

Rogers admitted he once thought "what if" he had turned to such substances.

"We all saw it and went, 'Wow.' We all want to do things better, harder, faster, and reach a level you didn't think you could reach -- because the mindset of being the best you can be got you here.

"But that mindset also can get you going down the wrong road. We've all been tempted. We all thought that way to a point, then your conscience takes over and you say, 'That's not for me.'

"There obviously are plenty of shortcuts out there that people are willing to take, but I'm not willing to take. I'm not willing to do that stuff. I want to live a little longer. I'm pretty scared of what can happen to you afterward."

When asked if it was essential for baseball to get to the bottom of the investigation, Rogers said, "They'll never get to the bottom of it. But I think it's essential to try to get it out as much as you can."

Teammate Justin Verlander, who called Rogers "as straight-forward a guy as you can meet," concurred: "They don't know how to get to the bottom of it, no one really does, but I like seeing baseball and Congress working hard to."

Though clearly interested in the hearing, Rogers stopped watching long before it ended.

"I have to go run and get in shape," he said. "I don't have the extra benefits."

Kenny has forgotten that whole "pine tar" thing, hasn't he?

Let's start planning his retirement party....

tigersaint wrote:

Kenny has forgotten that whole "pine tar" thing, hasn't he?