The investigation is on now. Roger is 6 feet away from Clemens at the table. McNamee is in a nervous position.
Roger says he never took any drugs. McNamee says he dosed 3 players ,one of which is Clemens. The other 2 Pettite and Knobloch have admitted using. How does Roger win this? Can he be penalyzed?
“Time of first perjury was 10:40 a.m. on this cloudy day for a Congressional hearing.”
If Clemens had the kind of evidence he needed to prove his innocence - solid evidence that McNamee isn’t telling the truth and maybe lied under duress from government agents - he’d have produced it long ago. That might be the most telling thing for me, even beyond the taped phone call where McNamee didn’t recant a word, and these other things. They’ve quibbled with a few minor details of the trainer’s testimony, which shows they want to attack its credibility, but all they’ve done is nitpick minor stuff like “Roger Clemens wasn’t at this party with Canseco.” Granted, it’d be almost impossible to prove you didn’t take a drug close to a decade ago. But they haven’t got much of anything and they know it, so they’re trying to bluster through it. Every indication I’ve seen is that it’s a really bad strategy.
If he’s found to have deliberately lied to the panel, Clemens can be charged with perjury. Since he’s challenging the testimony of a state’s witness in a federal investigation, that’s likely to happen. When Clemens started loudly protesting his innocence, I heard some ESPN analyst offer a comment to the effect of “Roger Clemens’ lawyer is letting his client talk himself into jail. He should shut him up.” They went the opposite route, even though they’ve seen other athletes go to jail for lying to the government in these steroids probes, and he’s looking at the same thing.
It is becoming he said they said. Pettites written testimony says Clemens told him about using HGH. Pettites wife also gave written testimony saying they had discussed it everytime Roger and he discussed it. Corroberation. from two others.
That’s how this has been since the start. But there’s some corroboration against Clemens for the first time, and that does matter. (That was the one difference between him and Bonds, in my opinion - I thought he did use steroids and HGH, but in a case of one person’s word against another’s, I can see a little room for doubt.) But if it’s McNamee and the Pettittes, that’s more convincing.
And if they test those needles McNamee turned over, it won’t be he said/they said.
Now they got him on inconsistent testimony. He does not say he does not remember he says flatly one thing then when faced with changing testimony he looks worse. Doe not look good for him at all.
He claims he has no knowledge of HGH or steroids. Every serious athlete I met can tell you chapter and verse about vitamins, steroids and any other drug. Their bodies are their tools and they learn.
Now they got him on inconsistent testimony. He does not say he does not remember he says flatly one thing then when faced with changing testimony he looks worse. Doe not look good for him at all.
He claims he has no knowledge of HGH or steroids. Every serious athlete I met can tell you chapter and verse about vitamins, steroids and any other drug. Their bodies are their tools and they learn.
McNamee says he turned needles and pads over to the investigators. They are both Knobloch and Clemens pads. Roger is getting in deeper.
Clemens should fire his lawyer, who apparently gave him the worst advice in the history of legal advice. If Clemens had pulled a Pettite and done a mea culpa when the Mitchell Report came out, his reputation would have taken a hit but he could have rehabilitated it - everybody loves a reformed sinner, right?
But the way Hardin and Clemens have gone about this, whether or not he goes to jail, his reputation is trash. He’ll be remembered as a liar who tried to ruin lives and ultimately hid behind his wife, of all things, when faced with the consequences of his own actions. And he still might go to jail.
Terrible, terrible advice Clemens was given.
McNamee’s turn on the coals.
Slowly roasting.
That kind of brings a new light to that dropped cell phone commerical with Roger and his wife about him playing one more season…
Roger had a mass on his buttox. An MRI indicated that he could not have gotten it from vitamin b12 shots. The doctor says it is consistent with steroid abuse. Roger is losing big time.
I’m reading the blog updates from SI’s Richard Deitsch, and other than some noise from an Indiana representative, it sounds like Clemens is taking a beating.
Absolutely. He’d have gone in the Hall as a first-balloter, I’d go so far as to say. Heck, I think that if Mark McGwire went on 60 Minutes this weekend and spilled, he’d be in the HOF within a few years (maybe a few more heel-cooling punishment years would have to go by).
The “deny, deny, deny” strategy is dead.
Could be that Roger ignored good advice, convinced that he’s Roger Clemens, dammit! and that he could make it all go away by insisting he’s innocent. Wouldn’t be the first time a bullheaded client destroys himself that way.
I only caught Waxman’s opening statement, but listening to that summary of the evidence I thought, oh boy, Clemens is in big trouble.
Definitely should have done a Giambi. The bullshit about disgruntled former employee was crap anyway as they were training together up until right before the Mitchell report, but now what excuse are they going to give for Pettitte’s testimony- what is Andy disgruntled about? Did asshole really think Andy was going to risk jail time for him? Is he that pompous? Did he really think schmozzing the Congressman would work? Claiming he knows nothing about steriods and HGH is the stupidest thing ever, and will be his downfall if nothing else.
ha! Clemens nanny testified he was at the Canseco party. And Rog recently contacted her, seven years after their last contact, “to help the committee”! Bye Bye HOF.
Goldang, this sux.
Such a thrill to watch that man throw a baseball.
Might take to cussin’.
Yeh, I’m very sorry to see Roger Clemens destroying himself like this. I never disliked the guy, and he did amazing things on the mound. Sucks indeed.
He’s a jerk, but I admired his sustained excellence, and hey, if none of the athletes were jerks, there would be no personal drama in watching sports.
By the way, SI says Clemens just admitted he might’ve swung by Canseco’s party after all.
Oh God…I can’t believe they dragged Clinton into this, even jokingly.
My fear is that they are going to use McNamee’s unrelated lies to go easy on Rog, even though everything he said about Rog has been corroborated by others. And Rog is apprently the most unaware lunkhead on Earth- “…ever ridden in a car Roger? I don’t even know what a car is…”