Yankees trainer says team did not OK vitamin B-12 injections for Clemens

WASHINGTON — The longtime head athletic trainer of the New York Yankees on Wednesday challenged claims by pitching star Roger Clemens that he had received locker-room injections of liquid vitamin B-12 from strength coach Brian McNamee.

Gene Monahan told jurors in Clemens’ congressional perjury trial that McNamee had no access to, and no authority to give, injections of vitamin B-12 or any other substance to Yankees players.

Monahan’s testimony was important because Clemens has insisted that McNamee’s injections were either vitamin B-12 or the pain killer lidocaine, and not the performance-enhancing drugs that McNamee claims he injected on multiple occasions over a three-year period.

Clemens is accused of lying to Congress in sworn testimony in 2008 when he denied receiving injections of anabolic steroids or human growth hormone from McNamee between 1998 and 2001.

Monahan had been called to the stand to describe medical procedures used by the Yankees when Clemens was a pitcher for the team from 1999 to 2003, and again in 2007.

Vitamin B-12 was kept in a pharmacy cabinet "under lock and key" in the clubhouse along with a variety of prescription drugs used to combat pain, inflammation and injuries, Monahan said.

Players received liquid vitamin B-12 shots "on occasion" but procedures required players to get clearance from the team physician and go through the athletic training staff, not the strength and conditioning staff, Monahan said.

"Most times we would accommodate (a player’s request)," said Monahan, who retired last year after serving as head trainer since 1973. "But we would scrutinize it. It wasn’t open season on B-12 shots."

Under close questioning by prosecutor Steve Durham, Monahan emphasized that he had never seen McNamee give Clemens or any other player an injection of any kind.

"That wasn’t his domain," Monahan said. "It wasn’t what he did."

However, Monahan acknowledged the 12 to 15 vitamin B-12 shots given players in an average season often went unrecorded in players’ medical records.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman testified earlier that he learned that Yankees trainers had given unrecorded vitamin B-12 injections to players only after the beginning of the investigation into doping in major league baseball.

Houston defense lawyer Rusty Hardin seized on Monahan’s testimony during cross-examination.

"The fact that it was against Yankees’ policy doesn’t mean somebody didn’t do it," Hardin said.

Hardin also used his questioning of Monahan to showcase the legendary fitness regimen that Clemens relied upon without any need for the performance-enhancing drugs that prosecutors claim he used to combat injuries or advancing age.

Clemens' workouts were "intense to the point where he had colleagues inquire about it and mimic (it)," Monahan testified. "He was a mother duck and there were other ducklings and they learned from (his) interesting and effective ways of training."

But trainers were so concerned that younger pitchers might injure themselves following Clemens' fitness training that "we had to watch to make sure they weren't going overboard on their workouts," Monahan said.

stewart.powell@chron.com