OT- Clemens/McNamee Testify

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Posted By: Paul

Is anybody else watching? I'm not a big fan of Clemens, but McNamee's credibility sure looks suspect.

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Posted By: PC

I completely disagree. MacNamee is coming across as credible. On the other hand, Clemens is coming across as a stumbling, evasive, lying idiot.

MacNamee was grilled by some Indiana congressman, who disagreed with the hearing in the first instance, and was basically grandstanding by reading from old press reports (prior to MacNamee's involvement with federal investigators)where MacNamee denied any involvement with steroids.

Other than that, the hearing has disclosed that Pettite, Pettite's wife, Chuck Knobloch and Mike Stanton all substantiated MacNamee's testimony to the investigators and the Mitchell commission.

There's also an MRI report that a congressman produced regarding an "abscess" that Clemens developed from one of MacNamee's steroid injections -- Clemens claimed it was from a vitamin B-12 injection, but the medical experts interviewed concluded it was probably due to a steroid injection, and that they had never seen an abscess caused by a vitamin injection.

Clemens is toast.

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Posted By: Fred C

It will be sad if they have CONCLUSIVE evidence against Clemens.

What about BARRY?

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Posted By: Alan U

If Clemens had not been so vocal about his innocence, it would be sad to see conclusive evidence against him, but now it would be comical.

The only thing better would be if he said "I never had steroid relations with that man".

More seriously, Andy Petitte seems to be the only one you can trust in this whole thing and being Clemen's good friend, I don't think he would have lied about Roger telling him he used HGH and for that matter misunderstood what Clemens said.

-Alan

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Posted By: peter ullman

Clemens is lying...is guilty..and will do jail time. I see John Rocker says that selig knew he was on the juice...and while with Texas...he, Ivan and A-Rod, and Rafael Palmeiro were counceled on how to safely use steroids.

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Posted By: Jason L

We have a US Congressman holding up MRI images of Roger Clemens' arse!?!?!
This does not sound like a good use of taxpayer dollars. not even close.

An MRI report or MRI images?
I assume the body part is the bottom?
I make alot of assumptions, many of which can be false.

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Posted By: Anthony S.

Clemens just stated that he ran home from school (2 miles) everyday as a kid. No mention of "in the snow."

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Posted By: peter ullman

did he have shoes with holes in them...like my dads?

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Posted By: PC

Yes, he ran uphill each way (in the snow, barefoot).


Jason -- no MRI pictures, just the written results/doctor's report.

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Posted By: Neal

My opinion....Think Clemen is toast! Going down hill fast!

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Posted By: Rob

Hopefully he goes into the Hall with a "B" on his hat!

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Posted By: Chuck Tapia

"B" for big fat LIAR.

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Posted By: Bob

I guess I should have foreseen this happening but you would like to think it wouldn't.

From SI.com's Jon Heyman: "The party-line division picked up after the break as Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) opened the second half by tossing some softball questions at Clemens and questioning the validity of McNamee's doctorate, but Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.) told Clemens that he thought his investigators were 'fishing for evidence'' that McNamee might have kept when they secretly recorded their conversation with McNamee. The Republicans and Democrats are pretty consistently disagreeing, with Democrats favoring McNamee and Republicans favoring Clemens."

I'll let you draw your own conclusions why a rich white good old boy is being coddled by the same guys who castigated Bonds...

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Posted By: george "bulldog" adams

mcnamee is a bucket of scum and known liar pettite can`t be trusted because he is a bible thumper clemens walks away smelling like roses and goes into the hall as the greatest pitcher ever. bulldog

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Posted By: Anthony S.

If Clemens ever faces Henry Waxman in a charity baseball game, I want tickets.

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Posted By: CN

Watching this garbage is like watching Frankie Pantangelo testify in the Godfather. CN

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Posted By: Bob

Bulldog- I hope you're kidding.

Pettitte, who was excused from testifying, said in a statement to the committee that Clemens admitted to him as long as 10 years ago that he used HGH. Waxman read from affidavits by Pettitte and Pettitte's wife, Laura, supporting the accusations.

"Andy Pettitte is my friend. He was my friend before this. He will be my friend after this and again. I think Andy has misheard," Clemens said. "I think he misremembers."

Pettitte is lying, Mrs. Pettitte is lying, Knoblach is lying, MacNamee is lying, everyone is lying but good old Rog'.

Now Clemens suddenly admits that he was at Canseco's party, "but just for a little while," after his bikini clad nanny was going to testify he was there. He is so full of sh#$, how could anyone believe him?

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Posted By: PC

I don't think the committee broke out along party lines, with Republicans favoring Clemens and Democrats favoring MacNamee. There were two congressman who really went after MacNamee, and I beleive they were both Republicans, but their grandstanding was actually a little embarassing. Mark Souder (Republican) was really harsh on Clemens and on baseball, generally, and pretty soft on MacNamee. I think, on the whole, both sides appeared to lean towards MacNamee's version of the facts.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Dan Burton of Indiana should just flat out be embarrassed for making such a jackass out of himself. Not nearly as embarrassing as Christopher Shays questioning Bud Selig, but still pretty bad.

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Posted By: Brian

This may just be me, but who cares if he did or didn't. I think the interesting point that seems to be passed over is that HGH and the other steroids are not like a can of spinach to Popeye. All of these ball players have a level of skill that when coupled with hard work, takes them to the professional level. That being said, sure the steroids and HGH give an advantage, but is it really that big of a deal? It's illegal, sure, but worthy of a house oversight committee hearing? I would think that tax-payers money would be better served in other arenas. Is Clemens a cheater, probably by those standards, is it worthy the keg barrel reaction, I don't think so.

Last time I checked, there are bigger things going on in the country than whether or not an over the hill pitcher shot up with some happy juice to get a few more years on the bump. It makes you wonder what the Black Sox scandal would have been like in modern society.

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Posted By: PC

Brian -- in one sense you're absolutely correct -- we have bigger fish to fry, and Congress has bigger problems (few of which they appear able or willing to solve).

On the other hand, because of the preferred position that major league baseball enjoys, and the fact that steroid use is illegal and growing among student athletes, maybe some government attention to the problem is warranted. This might actually be a hearing from which some good will come.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

President Bush made steroid use in sports a priority in his state of the union address in his first few years in office. There are a lot of members of congress and they work on all kinds of things...nothing is getting ignored because they are spending some time grilling Clemens and McNamee. And because some of the congressmen/women asking questions seem to be ill informed I would say that some of them aren't spending any time on the issue. I somewhat agree that they have better things to do, but it took congressional hearings to get baseball to clean itself up. Without them they would still be looking the other way while a good portion of their workforce is shooting up controlled substances.

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Posted By: Jason Duncan

Bulldog........you are a moron.

Clemens will not go to jail because there is NO PROOF. There is not enough physical evidence as of right now. I have not made my own conclusion yet, but what has this country come to? Guilty until proven innocent. He will not be indicted based on what lack of evidence was given today. It is "he said, he said." The problem with this country is we have too many liberals in office as well as the media running this country into the dirt. We need to take due process and prove his guilt BEYOND a REASONABLE DOUBT. They cannot do that based on evidence so far. I think there is inconsistancy in both sides, but media and idiots like the chairman today really throw our justice system under the bus. Complete morons........bottom line:

If Clemens can be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of illegal activity then punish him. If not then let him live in peace. I really do not think any performance inhancing drugs would havehad an effect on his career.

Greg-

Here now I contributed. Happy?


Have a great week!

Jason

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Posted By: Matthew

Lucky guy to inject mrs clemens with the juice. slammin body she has.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Jason, there is more than enough evidence to indict Clemens for perjury -- Pettite and his wife alone are enough. Physical evidence is not necessary -- in fact I'm in the middle of a trial now in which my client is being accused of all sorts of bad things coming solely from the mouths of admitted liars and criminals. In America people are indicted and convicted with the sort of evidence facing Clemens now.

As expected -- and predicted -- Clemens would not take the Fifth, CLemens would lie badly, and Clemens would make an ass out of himself. Probably time to hire an extra lawyer for the team.

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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

Steroid use sure is a big deal to me, one that does warrant Congressional oversight. Professional atheletes serve as role models to our youth. How would you feel if you had a son whose justification for taking the stuff was that all these star ballplayers are on it and they look to be in perfect health. Then after you insist he go off it you find a few weeks later he committed suicide because of the sudden drop in hormonal level? Or suppose instead of killing himself, he drops dead of a heart attack when he's 35, an attack nobody can say wasn't brought on by his earlier steriod use? Or suppose instead of a heart attack he develops cancer? That picture paints the tragedy of what PEDs have brought on. And to me this is one area of drug abuse where the users (professional athletes) are as bad as the pushers because it is the USERS who are inducing our youth to use it. So all these arguments that we are wasting Congress's time going after the ballplayers-users I believe are wrong. We should go after them and nail them to the cross if found guilty, not because of tainting hollowed baseball records, but because of causing young Americans to die.

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Posted By: Peter Thomas

Somehow I can't accept that these folks trying to deal with this sorry mess is anywhere close to a reasonable use of our tax dollars or I guess I should say hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Corey, I agree with you totally. However, it is a bit disconcerting to watch the grandstanding by the politicians today. Such political BS was nauseating.

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Posted By: Pennsylvania Ted

And, I'll add....that having "criminals" (politicians) hold hearings on BB "criminals" is very disconcerting.

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Posted By: dennis

a lot of lawyers would have loved to have had the chance of asking roger clemens a few questions today?

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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

"However, it is a bit disconcerting to watch the grandstanding by the politicians today. Such political BS was nauseating."

And on that one I completely agree with you. To many politicians determining the truth takes a distant second to political objectives. Exhibit A would be the Clarence Thomas hearings. I too felt outraged at some of the questioning that was asked today.

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Posted By: Cy

I have a feeling that Clemens has an ace up his sleeve. When it comes to push or shove, Clemens will respond,

"Steroids in my rear? Oh, I'm sorry! I though you said hemorroids in my rear!

Cy

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Posted By: Ed Ivey

I wonder how many mulligans Roger takes on an 18 hole round.

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Posted By: Patrick McHugh

Did I as a tax payer pay for Clemens flight to Washington D.C. as well as his hotel and room service?

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Posted By: Mark Evans

I spent much of my career in legislation, representing the interests of the Department of Justice, and later the federal judiciary, before the Congress. In that capacity, I worked with both members and staff and attended a boatload of congressional hearings.

While this hearing may have some salutary effect in discouraging steroid use, in my view it was at best tenuously related to Congress's constitutional authorities to enact legislation and oversee executive branch agencies.

I think the abuse of banned substances by ballplayers can be adequately redressed by MLB and, to the extent laws have been broken, by appropriate law enforcement authorities. Mark

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Posted By: davidcycleback

It is obvious to me that MLB can't, or wouldn't, handle its drug problems by its lonesome. In fact, it was the 2005 Congressional hearings that lead to the current, though meager drug tests and punishments. I'm confident the Players Union would not have agreed to any testing or punishment if it hadn't been for the Congressional intervention.

I thought a writer put it well when he said Fehr should spend less time protecting the drug users and more time protecting the players who don't use drugs. The more he protects drug users and drug use, the harder he makes it for players who don't want to use drugs. Blocking HGH testing doesn't help players who don't use HGH. It helps those who use. In fact, it punishes the non-users, as as it allows (some would say promotes) more competitors to cheat and put the non-users at even more of a disadvantage.

I remember a couple of years ago when someone wrote that the problem with Fehr is he thinks he's a civil rights lawyer, when he's supposed to be an entertainment lawyer. Sometimes I think the writer hit is on the head-- such as when Fehr is willing to ruin the public reputations of all his innocent clients to protect a cheat. For an entertainment lawyer representing a movie star or singer or athlete, protecting reputation and pubic persona is a big part of the job. The entertainment lawyer isn't doing his job if he lays waste to the reputations of his clients.

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Posted By: Brett

that was pretty funny watching lie through his teeth. That hole he dug is getting deeper... lol

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Posted By: Mark Evans

You may be right, David. Perhaps naive of me to think that MLB has the authority and incentive to meet the problem; I honestly don't know.

However, at least some the allegations surrounding steroids involve unlawful activity -- abuse of prescription drugs, obstruction of justice (Bonds). If Congress is concerned that current law may be inadequate to meet the problem of steroid use in society, then it should proceed by taking testimony from all interested parties -- DOJ, FDA, other federal agencies with jurisdiction, academics, private sector experts, etc. The fact that the Committee called Clemens and his accuser instead makes for high drama and ratings but, for me at least, at the expense of good government. Mark

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Posted By: george "bulldog" adams

jason what`s your problem kid. bulldog