Former MLB pitcher David Wells tossed a few high hard ones at Alex Rodriguez and Roger Clemens this past weekend, saying that any player that cheats the game should be banned from baseball after the first offense.

Wells said the home runs that Rodriguez hit during the time he admitted he was on steroids shouldn’t count, including the three he jacked against Wells in 2003. He also questioned Roger Clemens’ veracity on his constant denials that he never juiced, and said all steroids cheats should be banned from baseball after the first offense and have no shot at getting into the Hall of Fame.

“I think that would be great. No 50-game suspension. Ban them right away,” Wells said. “That would stop it in a heartbeat, especially with the money they are giving out today. It would be incredible if they did that. You wouldn’t have to worry about steroids or HGH.”

Why do players abuse steroids? So they can post incredible numbers, assault records, extend their careers, sign big contracts.

“It (stinks) because of the fact that these guys are playing dirty and that’s not fair to the guys who busted their butt all those years to try and stay here and just didn’t have what it took,” Wells said.

If baseball truly wanted to stop player’s use of performance-enhancing drugs, they would take on Wells’ philosophy. No player in their right mind would risk taking steroids if they knew a positive test would result in a lifetime ban from the game. (Well, maybe I shouldn’t suggest that no player would risk using, because I’m sure some nitwit would do it anyway thinking he’d never be caught.)

One thing to note is that MLB wouldn’t be able to make this rule retroactive because if they didn’t think it was important to have a testing policy in place 10 years ago, then they shouldn’t be able to ban a player who admitted using during that time. So guys like A-Rod and Andy Pettitte would be given a free pass for now.

But a lifetime ban would put the responsibility back into the players’ hands – where everything starts anyway. If a player isn’t sure that a supplement or medication will get him banned, he needs to check with a team doctor and have it authorized. That way everyone knows what’s going into these players’ bodies and therefore there wouldn’t be any surprises. And this wouldn’t just help keep the game clean, but it would also show that MLB cares about the players’ long-term health, too. It seems to be a win-win for all parties involved.

- UNCOACHED combined Photoshop with some pictures of Roger Clemens and the end result was spectacular.

- SPORTSbyBROOKS.com has the disturbing story of Bills’ fullback Corey McIntyre, who decided to play the skin flute in front of a 59-year-old woman’s house during his morning bike ride.

- THE LOVE OF SPORTS compiles a list of the top 10 most unique pitching deliveries in baseball.

- DEADSPIN says that Malcolm Gladwell should stick to being wrong about dog trainers and Enron after wrapping up his three-part series with ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons.

- YARDBARKER ranks the NFL’s top 20 players and rationalizes why Cards’ wideout Larry Fitzgerald is the No. 1 player in the league.

In one of his recent articles, New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica hammered Roger Clemens about what the former pitcher said on the “Mike & Mike in the Morning Show� for ESPN Raido.

McNamee is making it up. And Andy Pettitte is still “misremembering” a conversation he and Clemens once had about HGH. And of course the four reporters from the Daily News who have written the book “American Icon” about Clemens – Teri Thompson, Mike O’Keeffe, Christian Red and Nate Vinton – must be making it up for 428 pages, plus footnotes.

Then, referring to “American Icon,” Clemens said, “I’ve seen excerpts from the book and they’re completely false.”

He didn’t say which false excerpts he’d read. But then once you get Clemens off his talking points, almost everything becomes a brain buster.

He even suggested Tuesday that “common sense” had to tell you he wouldn’t take steroids, because of a history of heart trouble in his family. One of the people he cited was a stepfather who died of a heart attack. As if somehow they weren’t just related by marriage, but by blood as well.

So Clemens does add a new wrinkle, that he was worried about what steroids might do to his heart. You wonder how they could ever do as much damage as Clemens has done to himself over the last year and a half. Somehow he still wants that to be everybody else’s fault. The media’s most of all.

He is a little bit like Barry Bonds now, though Bonds does a much better job of keeping his mouth shut, probably because he has much better lawyers than Clemens, starting with Rusty the Lawyer down there in Houston. Bonds is as good as retired. So is Clemens. Bonds can’t hit home runs to change the subject, Clemens can’t strike people out.

What’s absolutely ridiculous about what Clemens said about his family’s history of heart conditions (besides the idiot comment he made about having heart issues because of his stepfather), is that this is his first mention of anything like that. He has never said that it would be “suicidal� of him to use steroids because of his family history – that was the first time since the steroid allegations came out that he referred to any kind of family heart history. Did he actually think that the American public was going to buy that? That’s what he and his crisis coach came up with over the past year?

Lupica’s right – Clemens should take a page out of Bonds’ playbook and just stay out of the public. Clemens does more damage to himself when he opens his mouth.

While appearing on “Mike & Mike in the Morning� on ESPN Radio on Tuesday, Roger Clemens bashed the new book “American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Pastime,� written by four New York Daily News reporters, and once again denied being injected with HGH by former trainer Brian McNamee.

When asked about the physical evidence reportedly handed over by McNamee to federal investigators and whether it had his DNA on it, Clemens said “Impossible, because he’s never given me any [performance-enhancing drugs], it’s as simple as that. He’s never given me HGH or any kind of performance-enhancing drug, so it’s impossible.”

Later in the interview, he said McNamee “… never injected me with HGH or steroids.” Pointing out that his family has a history of heart conditions, Clemens said “It would be suicidal for me to even think about taking any of these dangerous drugs.”

Asked about Pettitte’s testimony that Clemens had told him he used HGH, Clemens repeated a line that he uttered during his congressional testimony: “Andy misremembers.” He said he’d only talked to Pettitte a few times since then because of the legal issues.

“I still consider Andy a friend,” Clemens said.

One of the biggest crocks in Clemens’ testimony is his claim that ‘Andy misremembered.’ I find it incredibly hard to believe that Andy Pettitte (or anyone for that matter) would have a conversation about HGH and not remember that one of his friends and teammates told him that he had taken the drug.

If I was having a beer with a buddy of mine and he confessed that he was taking HGH, had cheated on his girlfriend, had stabbed a panda, had stolen a car or whatever, I would remember the pertinent details. It’s not like that kind of information would go in one ear and out the other, you know?

Clemens is going to get his in the end, because McNamee has cooperated with investigators this entire time. Whether or not Clemens eventually gets busted for lying depends on the evidence, however.

When you put aside the notion that he cheated the game of baseball for his own personal gain, what most people are generally upset about in regards to Barry Bonds and steroids is that he broke Hank Aaron’s home run record. Not only was he allegedly juicing, but in doing so, he also broke one of the most sacred records in all of baseball and most are calling for his name to be scratched from the record books.

In the wake of Manny Ramirez’s 50-game suspension, there’s another topic that should be broached, similar to Bonds’ home run record. Considering Manny hit cleanup for the Red Sox’ two championship teams this decade and also won MVP of Boston’s World Series sweep of the Cardinals in 2004, should the BoSox’ titles be considered tainted if Ramirez was on steroids?

To get the semantics out of the way first, no, Manny didn’t test positive for steroids. He only tested positive for a women’s fertility drug that is often used by athletes and bodybuilders to restore testosterone levels after steroid cycles. To be fair, Ramirez has never tested positive for steroids and therefore anything linking him to PEDs should be considered speculation.

However, if we’re truly being fair, Bonds never tested positive for steroids either. Yet, because his head grew to the size of a small watermelon and his physique went from Bruce Banner to the Incredible Hulk over the course of only a couple of years, it’s safe to say that Bonds was on some kind of human growth hormone and therefore his accomplishments should be questioned and criticized.

And so should the Red Sox’s two World Series titles.

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Turns out, Roger Clemens might have been lying all along about not taking performance enhancing drugs. Who would have thought?

Federal authorities investigating Roger Clemens on perjury charges have found performance-enhancing substances on the drug paraphernalia that his former trainer said he used to inject Clemens, according to people briefed on the case.

The discovery of the substances could bolster the claims of the trainer, Brian McNamee, that he used the various items — including syringes, vials and gauze pads — to inject Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone.

If the federal prosecutors move to indict Clemens and seek to use the substances found on the drug paraphernalia as evidence, Clemens’s lawyers are expected to question their authenticity and the chain of custody. Clemens’s lead lawyer, Rusty Hardin, said Monday night that he was not surprised to learn that performance-enhancing substances had been found.

“Duh,� he said with exaggeration. “Do you really think McNamee was going to fabricate this stuff and not make sure there were substances on there? The fact is Roger never used steroids or H.G.H.�

Clemens has been an arrogant S.O.B. the moment his name was linked to banned substances so even though it’s painful to back a weasel like McNamee, I’m rooting for the evidence to prove the Rocket has been lying this entire time. They’re both liars, but Clemens has just been so smug this entire time that it would be nice to see him put in his place. By the looks of the comment above, Clemens’ lawyer is arrogant and smug, too.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Yankees’ third baseman Alex Rodriguez said in a prepared statement that from 2001 to 2003, he and a cousin used a substance available over the counter in the Dominican Republic and that it was known as “boli.�

“I didn’t think they were steroids,” he said. “That’s again part of being young and stupid. It was over the counter. It was pretty simple.”

“All these years I never thought I did anything wrong.”

He said he wasn’t sure how the drug use helped him, but admitted he had more energy.
Rodriguez said he has not used human growth hormone or any other banned drug since then. He refused to identify his cousin.

The three-time AL MVP and baseball’s highest-paid player spoke at the Yankees’ spring training camp 10 days after Sports Illustrated reported that he tested positive in 2003 for a pair of steroids during baseball’s anonymous survey in 2003. Two days after the story broke, Major League Baseball’s highest-paid player acknowledged that fact in an interview with ESPN.

For years, Rodriguez denied using performance-enhancing drugs. But SI reported he was on a list of 104 players who tested positive during baseball’s 2003 survey. SI identified the drugs causing the positive test as Primobolan and testosterone.

“We consulted no one and had no good reason to base that decision,” he said. “It was pretty evident that we didn’t know what we’re doing.”

Hey, A-Rod’s human – he makes mistakes just like everyone else. But I have a hard time fathoming that he injected something into his body that he believed was just an energy booster.

Let’s take a moment and reflect on this Alex Rodriguez-steroid situation for a moment, shall we? Let’s take a step back and really examine what has transpired over the past couple days.

On Saturday, SI.com ran a report that A-Rod tested positive for steroids when he was a member of the Rangers in 2003. The only response Rodriguez gave to the report was, “You’ll have to talk to the union� and “I’m not saying anything.�

That was smart – he might as well give himself some time to plan his next move before he started digging a deeper hole for himself.

So on Monday, A-Rod phones ESPN.com’s Peter Gammons and admit he did in fact use steroids and that SI.com’s report is true. (By the way, I find it kind of humorous that instead of going to SI.com, he went to ESPN since the former was the one that had a hand in outing him.)

“When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure, felt all the weight of the world on top of me to perform, and perform at a high level every day,” Rodriguez told ESPN’s Peter Gammons in an interview in Miami Beach, Fla. “Back then, [baseball] was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young, I was stupid, I was naïve. I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time.

“I did take a banned substance. For that, I am very sorry and deeply regretful.”

“To be quite honest, I don’t know exactly what substance I was guilty of using,” Rodriguez said.

“Overall, I felt a tremendous pressure to play, and play really well” in Texas, the New York Yankees third baseman said. “I had just signed this enormous contract I felt like I needed something, a push, without over-investigating what I was taking, to get me to the next level.”

“It’s been a rough 15 months here for me,” Rodriguez said. “I was stupid for three years. I was very, very stupid.”

He also said: “The more honest we can all be, the quicker we can get baseball [back] to where it needs to be.”

There are a couple of things we can take from A-Rod’s discussion with Gammons and ESPN. One, regardless of what you think of him, Rodriguez has more balls than Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and every other player that knowingly took steroids and either denied it or tap danced around the subject in order to save face. He got caught red-handed and decided to fess up. If nothing else, I give him credit for stepping up and being a man about being caught.

But his argument that he didn’t know what substance he was guilty of using is complete bull.

In the wake of this weekend’s SI.com report that claimed he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, Yankees’ third baseman Alex Rodriguez admitted to ESPN.com’s Peter Gammons that the report is in fact true.

His voice shaking at times, Alex Rodriguez met head-on allegations that he tested positive for steroids six years ago, telling ESPN on Monday that he did take performance-enhancing drugs while playing for the Texas Rangers during a three-year period beginning in 2001.

“When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day,” Rodriguez told ESPN’s Peter Gammons in an interview in Miami Beach, Fla. “Back then, [baseball] was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young, I was stupid, I was naïve. I wanted to prove to everyone I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time.

“I did take a banned substance. For that, I’m very sorry and deeply regretful.”

Sources who know about the testing results told SI that Rodriguez tested positive for testosterone and Primobolan, an anabolic steroid. In his ESPN interview, Rodriguez said he did not know exactly which substance or substances he had taken. In 2003, there were no penalties for a positive result.
“I am sorry for my Texas years,” the New York Yankees third baseman said. “I apologize to the fans of Texas.”

“The more honest we can all be, the quicker we can get baseball [back] to where it needs to be,” he said.

Rodriguez said he stopped taking substances after injuring himself at spring training in 2003 with the Rangers.

“It wasn’t a real dramatic day. I started experimenting with things that, today, are not legal,” he said, “that today are not accepted … ever since that incident happened, I realized that I don’t need any of it.”

Whether you like him or not, you have to admit Alex Rodriguez has more balls than Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and all of the other players that took performance-enhancing drugs and lied about it or danced around the topic. He got caught and fessed up and at the very least, we should be satisfied that he didn’t drag this situation out. Any player that knowingly took steroids and were caught should follow A-Rod’s lead because if there is one thing we’re know for in America, it’s forgiving and moving on.

That said, A-Rod better be telling the truth that his Yankee years have be clean. There’s nothing worse than admitting your mistake only to lie again. And one can’t help but wonder if he’s just using the “I was naive” excuse to dodge more bullets. He was 26 in 2001, it’s not like he was a 20-year-old kid who was pressured into taking steroids.

National sports writers rejoice to hammer A-Rod in the wake of SI.com’s report that he tested positive for steroids in 2003:

Jayson Stark says that Rodriguez has destroyed the game’s history. (ESPN.com)

Bruce Jenkins writes that even tarnished stars like A-Rod will shine in the Hall of Fame. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Bill Madden says the Yankees should cut Rodriguez loose no matter the cost. (New York Daily News)

Tom Verducci breaks down how the steroid report will affect A-Rod, the Yankees and Major League Baseball. (Sports Illustrated.com)

Todd Jones plays devil’s advocate in this situation and tells fans to think about some things before condemning Rodriguez into steroid/baseball hell. (Sporting News)

So much for Rodriguez legitimizing the home run record writes Tim Cowlishaw. (Dallas Morning News)

Bob Klapisch writes that Derek Jeter better not fail us, too. (The Record)

Drew Sharp goes as far as to say that we can’t even call baseball a sport anymore. (Detroit Free Press)

Tim Marchman notes that nobody like A-Rod before the report and nobody likes him now. (Slate)