Red Sox ace Roger Clemens during spring training in 1987.

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The Providence Journal Files/Mary Murphy

The phenom had just finished pitching his first game for the Pawtucket Red Sox and was sitting in the cramped trainer’s room off the small clubhouse after that April game at McCoy Stadium in 1984.

He was a fresh-faced right-hander back then, a young and relatively skinny, raw-boned fireballer of unlimited potential as he iced his shoulder that night.

This was before he became known as The Rocket.

This was when Roger Clemens was just beginning his career. And it was only two years later that Clemens burst into prominence by striking out a major-league-record 20 Seattle Mariners on April 29, 1986, at Fenway Park.

The replay of the game is broadcast occasionally. Clemens threw hard back then. And his body type was lean.

Now it’s 2007. Clemens still threw hard enough to coax one more big contract out of the New York Yankees for half a season at the advanced baseball age of 45.

But Clemens no longer is lean. His body type has changed noticeably over the years. The Rocket came to look bloated. Age, no doubt, had something to do with his altered features.

There were questions swirling around Clemens’ productive longevity, though. Whispers.

How was this guy surviving the rigors of the sport and succeeding? Plain old-fashioned hard work? Great genes? Or, ahem, did he have a little chemical help? Whispers.

Yesterday, those whispered questions got a loud answer.

Roger Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award recipient and winner of 350 games in a major-league career that spanned 24 seasons, used steroids.

That, at least, is what it says in the Mitchell Report, delivered yesterday by Sen. George Mitchell.

Clemens is one of the poster boys for the majors’ Steroids Era, the biggest fish captured in the report’s net.

Maybe former Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette had it right, after all, when he said Clemens was in “the twilight of his career” and refused to offer The Rocket a new contract after the 1996 season, Clemens’ 13th with Boston.

Maybe Clemens might not have had the success that had made him a Hall of Fame lock had he not left Boston and gone to Toronto for the 1997 season.

For it was in Toronto where, according to the Mitchell Report, Clemens turned to steroids to give The Rocket a boost in 1998.

Clemens’ role in the Steroids Era takes up about nine pages of the 400-plus-page report. It is riveting stuff, a chronology of his involvement with chemicals as offered in testimony by Brian McNamee, a former strength and conditioning coach for the Blue Jays and Yankees.

The highlights of the Clemens portion of the report:

1998 — McNamee begins working for Toronto and lives in the Toronto SkyDome Hotel, which is attached to the ballpark. Clemens also lives in the hotel. The two become close professionally.

June 8-10, 1998 — McNamee attends a party at the Miami home of Jose Canseco, who also is playing for the Blue Jays. He sees Clemens meeting with Canseco and another person, whom he could not identify. Canseco tells the Mitchell staff the discussion centered around the benefits of steroids Deca-Durabolin and Winstrol and how to “cycle” and “stack” steroids.

June, 1998 — Clemens approaches McNamee and talks about steroids, asking for McNamee’s help in injecting him.

Summer, 1998 — Clemens asks McNamee to inject him with Winstrol, which Clemens supplies. McNamee says the vial is labeled Winstrol. McNamee injects Clemens about four times over a several-week period, with needles Clemens provides. The injections take place in Clemens’ SkyDome apartment.

Summer, 1998 — Clemens shows McNamee a bottle of Anadrol-50, a powerful steroid. Clemens isn’t using it but wants to know more about it. McNamee tells him not to use it.

Second half, 1998 — Clemens tells McNamee the steroids “had a pretty good effect” on him. McNamee says Clemens was training harder and dieting better at that time.

1999 — Clemens is traded to the Yankees.

2000 — The Yankees hire McNamee as assistant strength and conditioning coach. McNamee says New York hired him because Clemens convinced the Yanks to do so. McNamee works with all of the Yankees, but is paid by both New York and Clemens.

Midseason, 2000 — McNamee says Clemens makes it clear that he wants to use steroids again.

Latter part, 2000 season — McNamee injects Clemens in the buttocks four to six times with testosterone from a bottle labeled either Sustanon 250 or Deca-Durabolin. McNamee injects Clemens four to six times with human growth hormone, each time at Clemens’ apartment in New York.

August, 2001 — Clemens tells McNamee he’s again ready to use steroids. McNamee injects Clemens with Sustanon or Deca-Durabolin four or five times at Clemens’ apartment.

After 2001 season — McNamee is let go by the Yankees.

2001-06 — Clemens continues to train with McNamee, but McNamee says he has no knowledge of whether Clemens used performance-enhancing substances after 2001. McNamee says he is not asked to inject Clemens after the 2001 season. Clemens and business partners pay for Clemens’ training and expenses, but never give McNamee money specifically to buy performance-enhancing substances.

skrasner@projo.com