Clemens has given feds plenty to work with
Depending on how all this shakes out, some lucky warden might have one helluva prison baseball team. Barry Bonds at DH. Miguel Tejada at shortstop. Roger Clemens on the mound. Knowing Bonds, he'd insist on solitary confinement and never warm up with the rest of the cons, but what else is new? Anyway, this is what happens when the feds think you've lied to them. They go Terminator on you and don't stop until you're getting deloused in a holding cell.
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| Roger Clemens as he faced a congressional committee on Feb. 13. |
(Memo to Rusty: You can pretty much forget about that Texas Bar Journal cover shoot.) The truth hiding began in early January. Clemens told CBS' Mike Wallace that if he had known Brian McNamee had accused him of performance-enhancing drug use, he would have met with Mitchell report reps "in a heartbeat." Not true. Clemens' agents knew about McNamee's allegations eight days before the report's Dec. 13 release. Clemens testified he knew about the claims by at least Dec. 9. That's four full days of heartbeats during which he could have contacted former Sen. George Mitchell. When Wallace suggested it was impossible for a middle-aged pitcher to have Clemens' kind of success, Clemens said, "Not impossible. You do it with hard work. Ask any of my teammates." So the feds did. They asked close friend, teammate and workout partner Andy Pettitte. Pettitte distinctly recalled a 1999 or 2000 conversation in which Clemens said he used human growth hormone. "I think he misremembers," Clemens told a congressional committee on Feb. 13. Really? He just sort of "misremembers" his close buddy telling him he took HGH?
According to Pettitte, Clemens later said he was referring to his wife's HGH use. Congressional investigators asked Clemens several times during his deposition if he had ever discussed HGH or steroids with McNamee. Each time Clemens said no. Not true. Clemens later testified in the congressional hearing that he and McNamee had a heated exchange after Debbie Clemens suffered an adverse reaction to an HGH injection. During Clemens' Feb. 5 deposition, Team Clemens lawyers Hardin and Lanny Breuer blasted the Mitchell report for its supposedly sloppy investigative work. They were especially upset about McNamee's claim that Clemens attended a June 1998 party at then-teammate Jose Canseco's house. The party was the alleged birthplace of Clemens' involvement with PEDs. "We will be able to establish categorically, without question, that our client wasn't there," said Breuer that day. Clemens chimed in too. "And second of all, I never was at the party." "You weren't at this party?" said a congressional attorney. "That's correct," said Clemens. Categorically and without question, huh? Then what about the alleged photo of Clemens and a Canseco neighbor posing together at the party? What about the Clemens nanny telling congressional investigators that Clemens was at Canseco's house that day? Clemens, with a considerable assist from committee member Rep. Tom Davis, tried to undermine the former nanny's credibility by suggesting she could barely put a noun and verb together. "And her English, as I understand it, is not that good," said the helpful Davis. "It is not that good," confirmed Clemens.
Not true. A spokesperson for a congressional attorney who took part in a recent telephone interview with the nanny, told The New York Times that she spoke with an accent, but was otherwise completely literate. In his opening statement at the congressional hearing, Clemens said, "I have tried to model my baseball career, and indeed my entire life, on the premise that 'your body is your temple.'" Not true. By Clemens' own admission, the temple has ingested painkilling Vioxx pills "like they were Skittles," (by the way, Clemens said he had no idea who prescribed them) and been injected with assorted painkilling shots. And those injections were administered by everyone but a stadium hot dog vendor. During his deposition, Clemens scoffed at McNamee's impact on his legendary workout sessions and suggested the personal trainer was a clubhouse mole. If true, then why did Clemens continue to employ him? Clemens told Wallace, "If [McNamee is] putting that stuff up in my body … I should have a third ear out of my forehead." Or an abscess from an improperly administered steroid injection by McNamee. "I'm going to Congress and I'm going to tell the truth," said Clemens in his Jan. 7 news conference in Houston. Pettitte and McNamee would disagree. So might the Justice Department, which now has the matter in its hands. But other than throw him into prison for perjury, is there anything the feds can do to Clemens that he hasn't already done to himself? Pettitte, an admitted HGH user, said recently, "The truth will set you free." But first you have to quit hiding it. That's a lesson apparently lost on Clemens.
Gene Wojciechowski is the senior national columnist for ESPN.com. You can contact him at gene.wojciechowski@espn3.com.
Marty's Response:
Sir:
While I am quicker than most to criticize foolish, stupid and otherwise generally ignorant opinions, of which we suffer a surfeit in today's informationally over laden world, I think it only fair to commend the opposite, i.e., your 'Clemens' article.
I have read more than my share of Clemens' articles, news items, etc and, of course, have my own opinions borne of a love for the game..not the players..stadia, owners, history, records and stats, though they have their place and are important..my interest lies purely in that I loved playing baseball more than anything I could have done at the time, and more than anything I should have done at the time. Much of the nuances of the game are based on one form or another of cheating, it goes with the lease, so to say. Taking an extra foot of lead off a base for a possible 'steal', playing short and suckering a confirmed left field hitter by playing inordinately close to second..then anticipating a liner by moving back on the pitch, reading catcher calls from center, fouling 3 or 4 wide of 3rd then punching one down the RF line, decrypting signals, pitch outs, shifts, balks, pick offs, ...the whole game is based on getting an edge and winning...but this applies to everyone.
Where I was raised, where we played with balls kept reasonably serviceable with electrician's tape, bats, scarred by fungoing with rocks, swiped from the Park District and gloves, smelling of Neatsfoot oil, handed down from older brothers who had moved on to hot rods, beer and girls that wore cashmere sweaters, bobby sox and goofy poodle embroidery on their skirts. In this wonderful world occasionally amplified by a Lefty, Shorty, Mumbles, Vicious Vic, Zoots or someone showing up with a new, jesus christ, a new ball..had anyone been found to be shooting their asses with a potion enabling them to throw harder, hit harder, run faster...than what God had given them...he would have had mumbly-peg played on his head, if he was lucky. Chances are, he would have gotten a compound fracture of his throwing arm. In time, I progressed to HS starter (real, matching uniforms!) American Legion, college varsity, and softball leagues of slow pitch, fast pitch, overhand fast pitch (great game), lots of years, lots of games, lots of venues, lots of beer, but the tacit rules of the game never changed.
Gene, you wrote a terrific article...in content, in style, and most importantly, in honesty. I commend you.
M. A. Scanlan
Arcadia, CA
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