Roger Clemens’ perjury trial was expected to run for several weeks. However, the trial came to an abrupt end Thursday when Judge Reggie Walton declared a mistrial as a result of the prosecution’s use of inadmissible evidence. Shira Springer covered the trial for The Boston Globe. Bill Littlefield talks with Springer about the details of Judge Walton’s decision and the future of this controversial trial.
Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are having their days in court, but statistics from the first half of this season show Major League Baseball may have reached the end of its Steroids Era. Doug Tribou says comments by Home Run Derby champ Robinson Cano sum up baseball’s current crossroads.
The Tour de France begins on Saturday, and defending champion Alberto Contador is looking to repeat. However, his victory might be taken away from the courts, as he is defending himself against a positive doping test from last year’s tour. Charlie Pierce talks to Bill Littlefield about Contador’s predicament, along with another drug related issue involving golfer Robert Garrigus. In addition, Charlie gives his input on the two sport lockouts, and rails against the MLB’s plans to seize the Dodgers.
Lance Armstrong is currently under investigation by a grand jury and his former teammates have accused the seven time Tour de France winner of using performance enhancing drugs. Bill Littlefield and Karen Given stage a doggerel that presents two views of Armstrong’s legacy.
Retired American cyclist Tyler Hamilton has accused former teammate Lance Armstrong of injecting himself with the blood booster EPO during Armstrong’s first Tour De France win in 1999 and while training for the event in 2000 and 2001. Armstrong denies Hamilton’s claims, and hopes his perfect drug test record will speak for itself.
By BILL LITTLEFIELD This week spectators at the perjury trial of Barry Bonds in San Francisco were told by experts that steroids can alter the user’s appearance. They heard the defendant repeat that he’d been told that “the clear,” a steroid which he has acknowledged that he used unknowingly, was just flaxseed oil. According to [...]
Cyclist Lance Armstrong is facing a federal investigation examining allegations that he organized blood doping on the US Postal Service team between 1999 and 2004. Armstrong has vehemently denied ever using performance enhancers. In their article, “The Case Against Lance Armstrong” in the current issue of Sports Illustrated, reporters David Epstein and Selena Roberts examine [...]
Roger Clemens is the latest in a long line of professional athletes whose off-field antics have made it harder for fans to enjoy a true escape when they’re following sports. In his new commentary, Bill Littlefield weighs the beauty of athletes’ on-field excellence against the ugliness of incidents outside the games they play.
This week on Only A Game, we’ll have the latest on Roger Clemens’ indictment for making false statements to Congress and author Michael Weinreb will explain how “Bo Knows” and the Boz created the modern athlete. Plus, Bill will speak with Jeff Benedict on why domestic violence is a more serious issue in sports than you may expect.
Steroids, muscles, orgies, more muscles, and a heart attack at the age of 22 are just a few of the elements in Paul Solotaroff’s memoir, The Body Shop. The book is subtitled “Parties, Pills, and Pumping Iron – or, My Life in the Age of Muscle.” In his review, Bill Littlefield notes that Solotaroff weaves between amusing anecdotes and cautionary tales.
