A day after former Major Leaguer Jack Clark made some stunning accusations of PED usage towards Angels first baseman Albert Pujols, the LA slugger has responded with the threat of legal action towards Clark.
“I know people are tired of athletes saying they are innocent, asking for the public to believe in them, only to have their sins exposed later down the road. But I am not one of those athletes, and I will not stand to have my name and my family’s name, dragged through the mud.”
Clark’s comments on Pujols’ alleged PED usage were first muttered on his WGNU radio show with co-host Kevin Slaten. (via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Clark has brought Pujols’ situation up at least twice already on the air. The first time, after Slaten said last Friday that he long has believed that Pujols “has been a juicer,” Clark jumped in before Slaten finished his thought and said, “I know for a fact he was. The trainer that worked with him, threw him batting practice from Kansas City, that worked him out every day, basically told me that’s what he did.”
These claims stem from a conversation that Clark had with Pujols’ trainer, Chris Mihlfeld when he (Clark) was the hitting coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2000 and Mihlfeld was the team’s conditioning coach. Mihlfeld (who who was also Pujols’ coach in junior college) apparently said according to Clark that he “…shot him (Pujols) up, all that stuff.”
Mihlfeld, like Pujols has denied all allegations from Clark.
“I haven’t even talked to Jack Clark in close to 10 years,” Mihlfeld told ESPN.com. “His statements are simply not true. I have known Albert Pujols since he was 18 years old, and he would never use illegal drugs in any way. I would bet my life on it and probably drop dead on the spot if I found out he has. As before, once again both Albert and myself have been accused of doing something we didn’t do.”
“These guys that fake you out it’s very disappointing, especially when they are breaking records. Here I am in LA as the hitting coach and Shawn Green is breaking Duke Snider’s record (for home runs in a season while) cheating on steroids. It’s just disappointing to me.
“That’s one reason why I don’t want to coach, I can’t stand it,” he added. “I can’t stand to coach the guys that are cheating and faking, (are) phonies and frauds, for a game that I love when guys played it the right way and guys like (former Braves standout) Dale Murphy can’t get into the Hall of Fame, a quality guy and a great player and an MVP.
“He has to take a back seat to these creeps and lowlifes like (Mark) McGwire. It just makes me sick and I just can’t be a part of that anymore.”
“[Justin] Verlander was like Nolan Ryan, he threw 97, 98, 100 miles an hour from the first inning to the ninth inning,” Clark said on the air. “He got that big contract, now he can barely reach 92, 93. What happened to it? He has no arm problems, nothing’s wrong. It’s just the signs are there.”
“The greed … they juice up, they grab the money and it’s just a free pass to steal, is the way I look at it.”
Since he made the comments, Clark and sidekick Kevin Slaten were fired from WGNU radio and probably for good reason considering his claims are for the most part somewhat baseless. Plus it can’t be good for a radio station’s credibility to throw out accusations that could potentially damage a players career and reputation. And even though Clark sounds like a bitter old man I wouldn’t be so quick to totally lambast him considering the same thing was done to Jose Canseco when he released “Juiced” which in the end helped bring the MLB steroid issue to the forefront.
Aside from the heat placed on Clark (which is deserved), all the blame can’t totally be placed on him. The ongoing issue regarding PEDs in baseball can in large part be placed on those players still being busted for using and keeping that cloud of suspicion on the game itself.