Roger Clemens's recent campaign has done nothing to clear his name. In fact, the cleverly orchestrated act makes Clemens look even more guilty to me.
The McNamee Tape
There was nothing in this tape that makes Clemens look good. Yes, McNamee didn't confront Clemens and say "I did tell the truth" but it was clear to me that McNamee was sorry that he had to rat Clemens out to save his own ass.
McNamee said "what do you want me to do?" about 100 times during the conversation and never once did Clemens (who knew he was recording the conversation to play it at the press conference) say "just admit you lied about me."
You know why? Because McNamee would have laughed in his face.
The 60 Minutes Interview
I thought Mike Wallace did a decent job asking Clemens some tough questions but he didn't really hammer him as he allowed Clemens to ask a bunch of rhetorical questions that shouldn't have remained rhetorical.
"If this stuff is so good why didn't I keep taking it?" Clemens answered this one later by saying steroids are just a quick fix.
"Why didn't my tendons turn to dust?" Just be patient Roger.
Clemens also suggested that he never underwent a drastic physical change. And Wallace didn't show him a picture of himself from 1985, that's inexcusable softball journalism.
The best part was when Clemens was asked if he would take a lie detector test and he said "I don't know whether they're good or bad." His lawyers advised him not to take one, they say because they're not reliable, I'd say it's because he would fail.
The Mitchell Report
Using information told him by McNamee, before which McNamee was warned that any false statements would result in criminal charges, Mitchell constructs the picture of McNamee's relationship with Clemens. They met in Toronto when McNamme was hired by the Blue Jays as the strength and conditioning coach in 1998. Clemens who had joined the team the year before was living in the hotel in the Skydome, as was McNamee.
In early June of 1998, the Blue Jays went to Florida to play the Marlins. McNamee and Clemens went to a lunch party at Jose Canseco's house in Florida, Canseco was on the Blue Jays at the time.
Canseco told Mitchell's investigators that he had conversations with Clemens about steroids, and cycling.
It was after this meeting that McNamee says Clemens brought up the topic of steroids, and asked McNamee to inject him.
McNamee claims to have injected Clemens with steroids several times during 1998 and then in later years when McNamee was hired by the Yankees.
At that point in the 1998 season Clemens was 6-6. He went 14-0 the rest of the season. Granted he won the 1997 Cy Young Award after 4 mediocre years with the Red Sox, but this seems to be the beginning of Clemens's resurgence.
Circumstantial Evidence
Clemens had a famous roid rage incident on the mound during the 2000 World Series.
Clemens not only continued pitching at a high level at an age when most pitchers retire, he surpassed his best performances from early in his career at an advanced age.
His head grew.
Several seasons after he retired, he came back but waited until midseason, perhaps so he could cycle back on the roids.
There is zero chance that Clemens did not use steroids and his histrionics lately make him seem even more guilty.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
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3 comments:
I agree. Sorry to piggy back- but
http://whatsucksblog.com/
has a take with a couple of Mike Wallace jokes to boot.
McNamee allegedly asked "Tell me what do you want me to do" over and over as an orchestrated attempt to catch Clemens witness tampering. There are now reports that his lawyers were present for the call as well, and this is all grandstanding on both sides.
This may come down to Andy Pettite. It'll be interesting to see what he has to say to Congress. He doesn't strike me as the type that has the stones to lie under oath and also seems like a relatively ethical person.
Given the scope of their friendship and the fact that Andy has already come clean, I find it impossible for Andy to not be privy to Roger's use. If asked point blank if Roger was on steroids I don't think he can lie. It'll also be obvious if he tries to pull some sort of Mark McGwire stating "I'm here to talk about me" or something to that effect.
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