Former Los Angeles Dodgers hitting coach Jack Clark accused Los Angeles Angels slugger Albert Pujols and Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander of using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Clark made his comments on a sports-radio show, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Clark is familiar with the MLB. He played in the league from 1975-1992, last with the Boston Red Sox. He was the Dodgers' hitting coach in the early 2000s. During that time, Clark said Pujols' personal trainer, Chris Mihlfeld, admitted to him that Pujols used steroids.
"(Mihlfeld) had told me what he was doing with (Pujols) - threw him batting practice, worked him out, shot him up, all that stuff," Clark said on the WGNU radio show last Friday, via the Post-Dispatch.
Clark, who worked with Mihlfeld when they were both with the Dodgers, expounded on his allegation during a phone interview on Thursday with the Post-Dispatch.
"I had asked him about conditioning and working me out, what he would do for me, and he asked me whether I had ever thought of taking some steroids," Clark said. "... He just told me that he wanted me to get started on steroids and he had some other guys that were doing it. He told me that's how he's conditioning this guy that he met out of high school and college (Pujols) and he looked like he was going to be a star, keep an eye on him.
"... He had told me he had done that with Pujols, steroids, and I really never thought too much about it because steroids were really not on my radar screen at the time."
Pujols would have been beginning his career with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Mihlfeld made headlines in 2006 when Jason Grimsley, a pitcher he trained, admitted using PEDs. Mihlfeld's name was reportedly blacked out in a federal affidavit about the PED use. When Pujols was questioned about PEDs because of his relationship with Mihlfeld, Pujols denied any use.
Clark also suggested Verlander used steroids.
"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 radio show. "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."
Neither player has yet responded to Clark's allegations.
