Seriously, our letter pretty much wrote itself after that.

If you’ve been following the Clemens hearings, you may have caught a surreal moment yesterday when a Congressman asked Roger whether he was vegan or not. Honestly, I’d be happy if this were a mandatory question at all congressional hearings, but I have to admit that it was a little odd in context. Nonetheless, Roger’s response (essentially “Dude, WTF is a vegan?”) more or less mandated another letter from our corner, and this time we’re sending him a gift basket full of steroid-free vegan goodies to sweeten the deal. It’s an established fact that a letter from PETA goes down a lot easier with a couple of vegan cookies and some faux-beef jerky. Check it out.

P.S. Thanks to PETA Files reader Tamara for sending in a transcript of this exchange!

Earlier this morning, PETA sent a letter to Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens (the latest player to face scrutiny in the steroids scandal), urging him to prove that he is committed to being drug-free—by going vegetarian. I’ll leave it for the sports pundits to discuss whether or not Clemens ever deliberately took steroids to help with his pitching, but there's no question that the guy has been ingesting growth-promoting drugs for as long as he’s been a meat-eater. In order to make them grow fatter faster and to ward off the disease in the filthy conditions on today's factory farms, cows, pigs, and chickens are pumped full of growth-promoting hormones, and anyone who eats their flesh will be getting an unhealthy dose of the drugs themselves—no injections from trainers required.

As an aside, I should point out that this is by far the nicest letter that my friend and colleague Dan Shannon—who is an avid Red Sox fan—has ever written to a Yankee. You can check it out here.

There’s been so much going on this week that I never got a chance to mention it, but these pictures from the Barry Bonds hearing are just too good to pass up. PETA’s lovely lettuce ladies showed up to hand out faux-turkey sandwiches to bystanders and make the point that if we’re so concerned about hormones and growth-promoting drugs, we probably shouldn’t be eating animals who are pumped full of them in factory farms. I know it’s a wee bit of a stretch to try and connect this important point to baseball, but it’s a lot easier to make those mental leaps when the person making the point is friendly, scantily clad, and offering you lunch. I’m told that the demonstration went over very well, and the sandwiches were universally enjoyed—so nice work, girls. You can read more on the story in USA Today.