The Roger Clemens Hearings

In his opening statement at today's Congressional Hearings, Roger Clemens once again denied using HGH and performance enhancing drugs. His former personal trainer, Brian McNamee continues to insist that he did.

Anyone following this story will be quick to add that McNamee has proved to be a liar in the past. That much we know is true and it was brought up quite a few times in today's hearings. But in watching the hearings, one gets the distinct feeling that perhaps McNamee is telling the truth, or better yet, is the most truthful of the two witnesses, based on today's hearings.

McNamee came across as a calm, confident witness today. He accepted the blame for his actions of injecting baseball players, was sorry he took part in these illegal actions and hopes that something good can come out of this, specifically that children, parents and coaches can become educated on the use of steroids.

McNamee answered most questions with simple yes or no answers and gave basic explanations when pressed for more information. He acknowledged that he has not been honest in the past and held firm to telling the truth in the steroid matters. Backing up some of McNamee's original statements in the Mitchell Report was the testimony of former teammates, Chuck Knoblauch and Clemens' close friend Andy Pettitte. Both Pettitte and Knoblauch admitted to being injected my Brian McNamee in the time frames that McNamee has stated. Pettitte has also testified under oath that Roger Clemens stated he took HGH in the years previous to 2002. Clemens continues to deny this and claims that Pettitte misunderstood the conversation, claiming it was Clemens wife who took the HGH.

In today's hearings, Clemens continued to claim to never taking performance enhancing drugs. During the hearings, Clemens seemingly danced around answering questions, instead choosing to read a message from his wife explaining her involvement or telling stories about how he prepared himself to play for the USA baseball team in the Olympics.

It seemed that Clemens was well-coached to delay questions and use up much of the time that each particular Congressman or Congresswoman with stories, messages or the usual, Clemens rhetoric about never using these drugs. The way Team-Clemens handled these hearings seemed to scream that he
1- had something to hide or
2- was concerned about perjuring himself in front of the members.

Overall, today's hearings did little to improve Clemens credibility. He didn't come across as forthright, didn't completely answer questions and only seemed concerned about building his reputation as a likable guy and a great baseball player.

When the Mitchell Report was released, Clemens was slow to deny the facts in the report concerning himself. His first press conference was nearly 4 weeks after the report's release and Clemens walked off during the conference. Perhaps his law team erred in this instance, but one would think a man like Clemens would have been holding a press conference the very next day, denying his involvement. Was this a case of damage control or bad advice?

Clemens initially claimed no one injected him with anything. Then in his 60 Minutes interview admitted to being injected with vitamin B-12 and a pain-killer. Clemens claims these were the shots that McNamee injected him with. Was this an excuse to cover his earlier statement or to cover the fact that McNamee could have proof of some kind.

Unfortunately, for Roger Clemens, everything else that Brian McNamee claimed on the Mitchell Report has been confirmed by those players. One of which also testified that he spoke with Clemens about HGH use. This adds credibility to a witness that has credibility issues.

In closing, today's hearing did little to sway me from my belief that Roger Clemens could have used performance enhancing drugs during his career and I believe there are quite a few Congressmen/women who also question Clemens. The only problem is, this is only the tip of the iceberg on the subject of illegal performance enhancing drugs in baseball. And nothing has been settled to this point.