Man fingered in Roger Clemens steroids book sues for defamation

By Eriq Gardner

A former Houston gym owner has filed a defamation lawsuit against Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group over the release of "American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America's Pastime."

In the complaint filed Monday in Texas district court, Kelly Blair says the publisher and the four journalists from The New York Daily News who wrote the book published false statements that he was a drug pusher running an underground steroids network. Among the allegations in the book that Blair disputes is that he provided steroids to retired major league pitcher Roger Clemens and current New York Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of a Washington D.C. grand jury investigating whether Clemens committed perjury in Congressional testimony about steroids. The complaint also requests a discovery process that could potentially offer interesting clues about allegations of steroids in baseball.