Major League Baseball

Yankees' faker hoaxes radio show

Published Aug. 14, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

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Sam Gardner

August hasn’t been a good month for sports radio programs making PED accusations.

First there was Jack Clark, who was fired from a St. Louis radio station after reporting on air that Albert Pujols had been injected with PEDs by a former Dodgers conditioning coach. Pujols went on to threaten a lawsuit, as did Clark and his also-fired co-host. So basically, it’s a big ol’ mess.

Now, a radio station in New York has a mess of its own on its hands after a prankster posing as a former Yankee implied on air that Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera had used PEDs.

Shane Spencer played in 345 games for the Yankees during their late-90s heyday, hitting 43 home runs with the club and winning three World Series titles from 1998 to 2002. On Monday, ESPN Radio 104.5 in Albany believed Spencer had called into the program — and, boy, did they think they hit the jackpot when he started talking steroids.

First, the would-be Spencer admitted to “dabbling” in performance enhancing drugs during his career, which also took him to Cleveland, Texas and back to New York (with the Mets) before his final season in 2004. Then “Spencer” dropped a bombshell, confirming that Roger Clemens used PEDs, but also warning people to "be careful with the assumption" that Jeter and Rivera — the two faces of the Yankees franchise over the last couple decades — are clean.

The audio was taken off the 104.5 site, but Deadspin salvaged the clip, and you can hear the Jeter and Rivera accusations around the 10-minute mark below:

The problem, of course, is that the “Shane Spencer” you hear above isn’t actually Spencer, who is the hitting coach for the independent league Somerset Patriots. And after he heard about his controversial radio appearance, he called the station to clear his name.

"It’s unfortunate, you know, it’s embarrassing," the real Spencer said. "It really is embarrassing. Not only am I very upset that my name is out there because I am here working in New Jersey. I do a lot of stuff at Yankee Stadium, I work with kids, I’m a good role model and to see how this might affect me is very disappointing and I’m going to make sure that I clear my name out."

I know everyone is on a witch hunt to out PED users, but the last couple weeks have shown us that some stories really are too good to be true. There are almost certainly other ballplayers using steroids who haven’t been — and may never be — caught, and I don’t think it would surprise anyone if prominent players are among the unknown users.

But steroid accusations are a serious, potentially career-destroying business — so when dealing with such claims, it’s probably best to not always believe everything you hear.

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• If you’re gonna flip your ATV, might as well land on the wheels and keep on riding:

• Kevin Durant and Tyson Chandler were hanging with Justin Bieber, apparently:

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