Two area athletes implicated

GLENDALE — Two Major League Baseball players with local ties were named Thursday by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell in his investigation into steroid use in the league.

Included among the more than 70 current or former Major League Baseball players implicated for allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs during the past two decades were Crescenta Valley High School graduate Jim Parque and St. Francis graduate Gregg Zaun.

At a press conference Thursday in New York, Mitchell, a former Senate majority leader, released his report after a 20-month investigation into steroid use in baseball. Among the others on the list are All-Stars Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Miguel Tejada.

“The illegal use of performance-enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the integrity of the game,” the report stated. “Widespread use by players of such substances unfairly disadvantages the honest athletes who refuse to use them and raises questions about the validity of baseball records.”

Some of the players on the list were linked to human growth hormone, others to steroids.

Zaun and Parque appeared on pages 179 and 223, respectively.

Parque, 31, who graduated from Crescenta Valley in 1994, pitched for the Chicago White Sox and Tampa Bay Devil Rays from 1998-2003. He played in the minors in 2004 before announcing his retirement because of shoulder injuries. He spent last season playing for the Seattle Mariners’ triple-A affiliate.

The 36-year-old Zaun, who graduated from St. Francis in 1989, is a starting catcher for the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Glendale native, who is a member of the St. Francis Athletic Hall of Fame, had previously played for the Baltimore Orioles, Florida Marlins, Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals, Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies before joining the Blue Jays in 2004.

Mitchell asked Zaun and Parque to meet with him to respond to the allegations, according to the report. Zaun declined, and Parque did not respond.