From the Bleachers: When will the bad news stop?

When will it stop? When will all the doping, drug, steroid and human growth hormone use cease? Why is it happening among our country’s most beloved athletes?

Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong has been accused of it. Home-run king Barry Bonds has been accused of it and is now under indictment on charges of lying to a federal grand jury about steroids. Recently, the International Olympic Committee stripped former-track star Marion Jones of the five medals she won at the Sydney games and erased her name from the record books.

What a mess!

Now, with the Mitchell Report released last week, it’s as if this problem will never go away. When I saw the names on the list, heard the news and acquired a copy of the report, I felt like my heart was broken.

It’s silly, I know, but this was all horrible news. Seeing the names of some of my favorite baseball players on the list of those connected to steroids was unbelievable.

“The Rocket” Roger Clemens and Andy Pettite? Two players synonymous with the Yankee team that I recently wrote about when Joe Torre left New York.

How was this possible? Why them? That’s all I could think about when I was watching the press conference.

I love Clemens, especially since he rejoined the Yankees and did all those funny commercials. I had a huge crush on Pettite in high school. I used to draw “I love Andy Pettite” on my shoes and books.

These were two of baseball’s greatest pitchers and now, I guess, we know why.

Chuck Knobloch. Gary Sheffield. Jason Giambi. I had their baseball cards!

Rick Ankiel and his comeback story was going to be turned into a movie until it was said that he had purchased HGH.

I repeat, this was horrible news. I suppose everyone was a little nervous about what would be in former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell’s report, but I’m not sure how many anticipated some of the players on the list.

Mitchell was hired by Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to investigate this “steroid era.” In his 20-month investigation, Mitchell and his team interviewed more than 700 witnesses in the United States, Canada and the Dominican Republic and have interviewed a good deal of current and former players.

I tried to imagine myself in Mitchell’s shoes. It must have been hard for him to have conducted a fair and unbiased investigation, as it would be hard for me to hear that players whom I’ve admired took or were linked to steroids. I think I would be in denial, as I am now.

I don’t want to believe that Clemens, who is arguably won of the best pitchers of all time and a player who could have just walked his way into the Hall of Fame, was juiced.

I don’t want to believe that my high school crush Pettite was juiced. Former Yankee strength and conditioning coach Brian McNamee said he personally injected the two. Talk about dropping the hammer.

In a kind-of-funny twist, former player Jose Canseco tried attending Mitchell’s press conference on Thursday but was denied entry. It was almost like he just wanted to be there to say: “I told you so.”

Clemens was the hardest hit in this, and it’s a shame really.

I’ve seen fan postings stating that Clemens should get the same treatment as Bonds now and that there should be an asterisk on Clemens’ records. Or maybe even strip the records entirely.

We all know that has been done because the IOC did that with Jones.

One fan posting from ESPN read that Clemens was facing hitters who were juiced so he had to take performance enhancing drugs to keep up with them.

I can understand that, but that still doesn’t make it right. At times I thought maybe taking the drugs could be justified because it’s a business.

The pitchers get paid to strike out hitters. Hitters get paid to hit RBIs and home runs. Therefore, I suppose taking the performance enhancers better helped them do their jobs.

But it’s still cheating, right? And that makes it wrong.

Many have said that it’s the youth who are the losers in this because they’re constantly being taught that drugs and cheating are bad, and yet all our favorite players are doing it. Steroids damages the integrity of the game, but more importantly, it’s not good for the body.

I don’t think this was a witch hunt, and Mitchell has said that he hopes this report will be used to move forward in trying to fix this problem, rather than punish those who have made mistakes.

This should stand as a warning that we all know who the juiced players are and that they should do everything they can to not take these enhancers again.

Mitchell offered reasonable recommendations such as an independent drug-testing program, a periodic listing of substances players test positive for and that the timing of the testing be more unpredictable.

I’m not angry about the Mitchell Report.

I’m more saddened and disappointed.

There’s no doubt that this problem will be around for a while.

• Lanaly Cabalo, sports editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or lcabalo@kauaipubco.com.