For years, Chuck Knoblauch has been the answer to this trivia question:
“What Yankee second baseman hit Keith Olbermann’s mom with a wild throw?”
But now, Knoblauch, 39, has become the answer to another trivia question. On baseball blogs, people are asking, in one way or another:
“What baseball player’s performance wasn’t enhanced by performance-enhancing drugs?”
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Knoblauch was one of nearly 90 baseball players named as illegal users of steroids or human growth hormones by Sen. George J. Mitchell in a report for Major League Baseball released in December. In the report, Knoblauch was said to have received injections of human growth hormone in 2001.
Knoblauch was then subpoenaed by a congressional committee to testify about drug use. (The retired player had so drifted into obscurity that it took it took days for him to be found so the subpoena could be served.)
On Friday, Knoblauch appeared before congressional investigators in a closed-door meeting. He most likely will return to Washington later in the month for an appearance before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Knoblauch brought his 3-year-old son, Jake, with him on Friday. He told reporters he wanted the boy to “learn a very valuable lesson, that if you do something in life, be prepared to talk about it open and honestly.”
However, according to The New York Times, Knoblauch did not make clear exactly what it was that he had done. And he did not confirm or deny that he had used human growth hormone.
Knoblauch reportedly received the hormone injections from Brian McNamee, a personal trainer and former Yankees strength coach.
McNamee has also said he injected Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens with human growth hormone and supplied him with steroids. Clemens has denied these allegations.
Knoblauch is being represented by Diana E. Marshall, a Houston attorney who also represented the late Anna Nicole Smith in her battle for her husband’s estate. Clemens’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, was on the other side of that case.
McNamee also said he injected Andy Pettitte, another pitcher for the Yankees, with the hormone. Pettitte has confirmed the allegations, saying he received the hormones in the hope they would help him recover quickly from an injury.
Knoblauch began his Major League career in 1991 as a second baseman for the Minnesota Twins and was named American League Rookie of the Year.
He was a four-time All-Star for the Twins, known for his batting and for his base stealing. He played for the Twins until he was traded to the New York Yankees after the 1997 season. He did not do as well in New York as he had done in Minnesota, but the Yankees did win the World Series three times while he was with them.
In 1998, Knoblauch, normally a good fielder, began to have inexplicable problems throwing the ball accurately to first base.
In June 2000, he achieved lasting infamy when one of his errant throws hit Marie Olbermann. She was sitting behind the first base dugout and was not seriously hurt.
As his thowing problems got worse, Knoblauch switched to left field or appeared as a designated hitter.
In 2001, the year he allegedly received the hormone injections, Knoblauch batted .250 for the Yankees, his worst performance in the majors up to that point. He finished out his career in 2002, playing for the Kansas City Royals.
Learning last month that Knoblauch had been subpoened to testify before Congress, Keith Olbermann, now on MSNBC, nominated him as that day’s “Worst Person in the World.” However, Knoblauch did not win, as the honor once again went to Olbermann foe Bill O’Reilly.
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