Curt Schilling challenged Roger Clemens to come out from behind his prepared statement, calling on Clemens to surrender the final four Cy Young Awards he has won unless he obtains a retraction for his citation in the Mitchell Report as a user of steroids and human growth hormone.
In a scathing indictment of several of the biggest names in the game, the outspoken Boston Red Sox pitcher Wednesday urged baseball to strip Clemens of his statistics and records over the past decade unless he can refute the Mitchell Report, called the career of Jose Canseco a drug-aided "sham" and "hoax" and expressed concern for the sport that Clemens and Barry Bonds each has yet to clear himself amid evidence each used performance-enhancing substances.
"What does that say about this game, us as athletes and the future of the sport and our place in it?" Schilling wrote on his blog, 38pitches.com. "The greatest pitcher and greatest hitter of all time are currently both being implicated, one is being prosecuted, for events surrounding and involving the use of performance-enhancing drugs."
The Mitchell Report cites Clemens for using steroids and human growth hormone from 1998 to 2001, starting after he joined the Toronto Blue Jays in 1997. Clemens has won the Cy Young Award a record seven times, including in 1997, 1998, 2001 and 2004.
On Tuesday, Clemens issued a statement denying he had used performance-enhancing drugs "at any time in my baseball career or, in fact, my entire life." On Wednesday, Schilling said Clemens must back his denial by retaining lawyers to obtain a retraction and public apology so his name can be "completely cleared."
"If he doesn't do that," Schilling said, "then there aren't many options as a fan for me other than to believe his career 192 wins and three Cy Youngs he won prior to 1997 were the end. From that point on the numbers were attained through using [performance-enhancing drugs]. . . .
"The four Cy Youngs should go to the rightful winners and the numbers should go away if he cannot refute the accusations."
The Baseball Writers Assn. of America administers the Cy Young Award -- and baseball's other major awards -- and BBWAA President Bob Dutton said he was unaware of any such precedent.
"We didn't take anything away from [Pete] Rose when he was banned from baseball," Dutton said. "If Roger said he didn't want them, I don't know what we'd do."
